We were on a car rally today that took us up Sydenham Road, across highway 5 and up Millgrove Sideroad.  The tower was immediately on our left side.

This pic shows the pad that the ground mounted receive antenna was sitting on. The RF wave guide was run underground from the ground mounted antenna into the CHCH transmitter building...

The Bell Microwave feed was later replaced by trunked coax, then analog fibre optic, and finally by ASI.

The construction for the new CHCH tower is almost complete. The remaining specialized materials have arrived at the site.  While the main tower sections were already delivered, there were some custom fabricated components which were delivered late last week. The remaining guy cables were delivered Monday.

The guy lines are custom wound / manufactured to the engineers specification (tower height, and wind loading, overall weight). The guy lines are also of varying diameter depending on which position they are attached to the tower. Guy lines 1 to 4 are attached to the inner concrete ground anchors, while guy lines 5 to 7 are attached to the outer concrete ground anchors.  The guy lines and the tower sections are galvanized steel. The tower will not be painted red/white or aircraft orange/white.

The UHF TV antenna for CHCH and CTS has had final site assembly completed and is now ready for the lift planned for September,  The antenna was delivered in four sections which have been aligned on an assembly rig and bolted together.  The antenna will be top mounted on the tower head. It has four faces and each face has four antenna elements with protective fibreglass radomes over each element. The internal antenna structure contains the RF cable connections to each element as well as the rigid line and adapters. The internal cavity also contains a climbing latter

The antenna will have an overall height of 70'. The tower will be approx. 930' when complete, So the overall height is 1000' when completed.

Here is a pic from Monday evening. The majority of the tower construction may very well be complete by the end of this week or by middle of next week.  Pretty good planning when uncertain weather conditions and some material delays are factored in!



 

markow202 wrote:

its coming up quick!  Any news when the old one will be taken down?  ...

Not until later in the fall. Both TV signals as well as Corus FM have to be stable and then fully transitioned to the new TX site.  There are also one or two cellular services on the existing Stoney Creek tower, so they also have to shut down. Not sure where they will relocate to, or if they have to... The cell companies might have existing sites nearby which can be upgraded/utilized ?  There is an existing cell mono tower on Centennial Pkwy. at Ridge Rd. so maybe this site could be be utilized.

The pic below shows progress at the new site and was taken last evening (I even managed to snap this with the strobe lights on!).  Looks like the sixth level guy cable lines have been installed to the outer set of concrete ground anchors and they have been tensioned. There will be one more set of guy cables which will be attached near the top of the tower, just below the TV antenna.

A lot of testing/performance proving on load... and most likely a shut down the old and power up the new during an overnight (my guess). 

CHCH has bought a new transmitter for the new site (CH currently has an R&S at Stoney Creek). CITS is moving their existing transmitters to the new site. They will run with one unit at the current Stoney Creek site, while the second unit is moved (They are both R&S units, and matched power). R&S transmitters are very stable/reliable, so the short duration with only the one unit operating at Stoney Creek should not pose a problem.

Both CHCH and CITS are staying on their current frequencies, and the power levels should remain similar.

Corus has two Nautel FM transmitters at Stoney Creek, running as a main and standby set-up. Not sure what their plan is for the move.  I've heard two versions, first being that they are moving the Nautel's, and the second yarn is that they are buying new transmitter equipment for the Flamborough site. 
 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 1, 2023 10:21 am)

The new CHCH Tower build had the last of the forty-eight tower sections lifted into position and secured on Tuesday morning (yesterday). This will bring the tower itself to a height of 930 feet approximately.

The final set of three guy lines will be installed on the guy support arms and pulled/tensioned to the outer set of the concrete ground anchors. The tensioning of the guy lines is an art in itself!

Also, once the last set of guys is secured, the level 3 or top tier strobes can be installed and activated.

The antenna to tower mount can now be raised and installed. This is a custom engineered structure which will adapt the triangular form of the tower to the rectangular form of the antenna housing.

Each of the tower sections has two ladders installed inside the tower lattice, and they both have a "fall arrest" system for tower workers who may have to work on the tower for future service, or inspections etc.
The ladders come shipped separately from the tower sections, and are assembled on the ground before being raised or lifted vertically with the gin pole and the ground winch.

Transmission line sections will also be installed inside the tower structure and secured to the third face.

Near the tower base, there is a secured structure around the three tower faces and the bottom which prevents unauthorized access. This type of safety structure is commonly referred to as an "anti climb".

The pic below shows the installation of tower section 48. If you look closely on the top left side of the tower section, you can see the three tower installers securing the last section, and working on the seventh and last set of guy lines.

 


 

markow202 wrote:

Should be on the air very soon!  Question, back when stations had to replace antennas for HD for example, CKVR had to replace the old analog batwings for a new HD antenna did they also have to replace the whole feedline?  That would seem so complex 

Not necessarily if the coax impedance was the same.
I know when they first went HD, the new antenna was side mounted. I am not sure if they are on top now or not.

I looked at the technical brief.  CHCH and CITS feed into a combiner.  They use a common feedline which is 325 metres in length.  The antenna is 16 bays - 4 per panel.  The drawing in the tech brief suggests that the UHF antenna is mounted at the top of the tower.   I did not see transmitter buildings in the photos, so it may take some time - weeks? To construct the building(s), on-site power generation, etc, and install all of the equipment. Then once the FM antenna(s) are installed, there would be significant testing.  I would assume testing into a dummy load, for all transmitters at the new site, but at some point, there will be an on-site visit from ISED.  Coordination for over-the-air testing could be a bit complicated, because the TV and FM owners would shut down the Stoney Creek stations and test the new facilities.  It is assumed that this would happen late at night - probably overnight, because of revenue implications.  ISED technicians generally require days or weeks of advance notice.  So, even though the construction may end, it may take some additional days or weeks before all of the stations go through on-site ISED inspections/testing.  I would not anticipate any long off-air periods.  Usually there is a “flash” switch over where one site is shut down, and the other goes into operation.  One other assumption.  I would think that given the use of the combiner, common heliax and common antenna, CHCH and CITS will switch over to the “new” site at the same time.  There is no reason that the FMs would have to be tied to the TV timetable.

tvguy wrote:

...... at some point, there will be an on-site visit from ISED

Typically, ISED no longer does site visits.  They rely on the broadcaster (their consultant really) to submit data to confirm the installation meets technical requirements.

There is an "on air" testing period where notices are posted (on air and/or publicly) asking anyone to contact the station is any interference is found.
 

Some more pics...

Internal cavity of the TV antenna structure, w/ internal "ladder".  Exterior ladder is attached on the opposite side.



 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 10, 2023 10:32 pm)

Nice pics Glen!  Very good info.

First pic of inside antenna I almost thought it was CN Tower.  Similar. 

Now that CING's move has been approved [in the nick of time], this *should* mean that the people putting the tower up can now haul up the FM antenna once the top mounted TV antenna is in place.

Same situation with CFPL. That that tower is getting up there in years too.

RadioActive wrote:

With this new stick turned on soon, I'm guessing this CRTC announcement is just part of the process.

"The Commission approves the application by Corus Radio Inc. (Corus) to change the authorized contours of the English-language commercial radio programming undertaking CING-FM Hamilton, Ontario, by decreasing the effective height of the antenna above average terrain (EHAAT) from 305.0 to 287.0 metres and by amending the coordinates of the transmitter site...

"The land where the tower is currently located has been sold, and because the existing transmitter tower will be dismantled in November 2023, making it impossible for the station to continue operations. Therefore, Corus intends to relocate its transmission site for CING-FM from Stoney Creek, Ontario, to its new tower, which is being constructed in the Flamborough district of Hamilton, approximately 19 kilometres away."

CRTC Decision

I'm not sure of what is going on with Corus re this move...  The CRTC decision noted above is in reference to the May 2023 application, but I'm pretty sure that Corus knew quite some time before that CHCH intended to sell their exisiting site and move their tower to another site. (both Corus and CITS are tenants on the existing CHCH Stoney Creek tower). This did not just come to light in April of this year.

At one point, Corus noted in a previous submission to the CRTC that moving the CING transmitter to the CJXY in Burlington was not feasible.   So they did consider it... so they knew about the planned moved... This now just seems all very last minute, down to the wire...

What was not feasible?  The distance from the Stoney Creek tower to the CJXY site in Burlington is about 22 km, and this is only an increase of 4 km from the CHCH site in Flamborough... negligible.

The height of The CJXY tower is 400' so the height would have to have been increased to accommodate CING at the CJXY site to maintain the existing ERP level (100 kw) and the current classification (C1). I assume that Corus would want to maintain these parameters if they moved to the CJXY Burlington tower.

The CJXY tower is about 23 years old, so relatively new and should be in good condition. Could it not support the additional weight of an extension, additional antennas, and more transmission lines?  Maybe the existing tower base and footing could not support additional height weight? I'm not positive but I think that the CJXY tower may have been one of the last few broadcast radio tower projects of the now defunct L&R... so maybe current manufacturers could not or would not build onto an existing structure of a former manufacturer???




 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 14, 2023 8:36 am)

I have to drive to Brantford soon this week from Etobicoke so im sure I will see the tower going up or down the mountain on 403.