Several years ago, WJMJ approached me about taking the station HD for improved outreach to the Hispanic community. By moving the transmitter site from Burlington to Farmington, CT with an antenna 950 ft up the “Channel 61″ television tower, we were able to upgrade from a Class B1 to a full Class B and, the best part, the HD signal could be operated at -10dBc. Win-win!
Tower management had an available 4-1/16” transmission line that was pressurized and spec’d out, so we needed a transmitter that would produce the required 2.14 kW Transmitter Power Output while allowing us to produce an HD signal at -10dBc. We chose a Nautel GV5 which had plenty of headroom and the latest Gen 4 HD MultiCast+ Importer/Exporter.
“Nautel is first class in my book.”
Tom Ray, WJMJ’s Contract Engineer, with the GV5 transmitter and HD MultiCast+ Importer/Exporter
I have installed many AM/FM transmitters over the years, and this while complex, was one of the easiest. In addition to running Hispanic Catholic programming on the HD2 signal, WJMJ also runs EWTN Catholic programming on HD3. Setting up and partitioning the HD signal on the MultiCast+ Importer/Exporter was relatively easy, and both HD sub channels sound outstanding. The station also runs programming for the visually impaired using the GV transmitter’s built-in 67 kHz subcarrier generation and built-in RDS generator.
The GV5’s compact size and weight was perfect and gave no concern to the building’s mechanical engineers. The electrical demand, and load on emergency generator, was considerably less than the five full power HD television stations and other Class B FM located in the building.
Would I recommend Nautel? I am impressed with both Nautel’s transmitter quality and staff I had the pleasure of interacting with. But what impresses me most is that I can get someone on the phone to help service a 25-year-old Nautel Ampfet transmitter, plus still get parts for it! That’s customer service for you! Nautel is first class in my book.
Tom Ray, Contract Engineer/Consultant
WJMJ – ORTV, Inc – The Archdiocese of Hartford
Hartford, CT, United States
