The upper section of the new TV Antenna was lifted and secured this morning (Tuesday). 

The TV transmission line was delivered last week, and pulled up inside the tower frame or structure. They have gone with a "Flex" line over using the traditional rigid line sections. The Flex line has a diameter of 5".  I suppose there are advantages with both types.  The biggest advantage would be cost, with Flex being less expensive than rigid (overall). As well, Flex can be installed faster than Rigid, so this offers additional time and labour savings.

I'll try and get some pics later this week...  no time today with the traffic chaos on the area highways...


 

Here are some pics of the new tower from this afternoon.  Tower riggers were up on the tower working on the antenna today.

This first shot is from the Christian school parking area off of Millgrove Side Rd. (looking west)




and this shot is from the position which I have used for the majority of the progress shots... the white spire at the top is the UHF TV antenna structure... 



This is a similar shot below, but from a slightly different position. I've enlarged this image so that  the yellow work hoist/bucket on the north side of the upper sections of the antenna structure can be visible.



The crew were installing the final antenna elements after the two sections were raised and secured to the tower. While the majority of the antenna assembly occurred earlier (and on the ground/indoors), the lower section had to have the final four (4) elements and covers at the top of this section installed when it was placed and secured on the tower. Similarly, the final four (4) elements and covers at the bottom of the upper or top section of the antenna also had to be installed once this section was raised and secure to the lower antenna half.   The internal coax cables for these final elements were previously installed during the ground assembly.  The just had to be connected to the remaining antenna elements.





 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 20, 2023 6:23 pm)

Installation work continued on the UHF TV antenna last week.  After the upper antenna ass'y. was lifted into place and secured, work could focus on connecting the transmission Flexline on both the antenna ass'y. and in the transmitter building.

Power dividers were installed in the antenna cavity, there is one for each UHF transmission line. One Flexline is for the upper antenna and the other is for the lower antenna. Each of the two Flexlines were fitted with a power divider.



The crew also installed lightning arrest rods which were fitted to the top of the upper antenna.



Inside the transmitter building, the other end of each UHF Flexline was fitted with transition adapters to rigid copper "plumbing"...  The ERI unit is a directional coupler, and the Bird RF module is attached which will monitor and report the FWD Power and Reflected power readings back to the remote monitoring system.





Wider view...




For radio, Corus took delivery of the Dielectric Antenna system for CING FM as well as the reel of transmission  Flexline. Lots of unboxing and then ground assembly ahead for the antenna bays, but the tower crew should be able to start on the radio antenna lift this week.


 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 30, 2023 8:28 pm)

The tower crew were able to complete installation of six of the FM antenna elements for the CING array by the end of day on Friday. The crew was back in on Saturday and were able to install an additional four antenna elements.  They should be able to complete the assembly and lift of the remaining elements by end of day on Monday (afaik, the CING array is a 14 element array).  The transmission Flexline for CING FM was installed earlier this week.

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 30, 2023 8:42 pm)

Will the 3 CING HD’s get to Toronto as well after the move??

Following this thread from beginning to now, its crazy how fast the facility was being built and already somewhat operation.   A 12 bay for one FM station or for two?  Thats massive.

CITS is now permanent from Flamborough tower or testing? 

markow202 wrote:

Following this thread from beginning to now, its crazy how fast the facility was being built and already somewhat operation.   A 12 bay for one FM station or for two?  Thats massive.

CITS is now permanent from Flamborough tower or testing? 

The Corus 12 bay antenna array is for the one station CING 95.3 FM...

Yes, CITS is now permanent on the new Flamborough tower...  single transmitter currently, running on reduced power...   to accomodate the crew still working on the tower for the FM antenna install and approaching the UHF TV antenna...   Safety Safety Safety .   Also the mask filter protects both CITS 14 and CHCH 15 as they are immediate adjacents to each other.  Currently without the mask. both  stations are on slightly reduced power from the two sites to afford some level of protection to each other.

Once their main transmitter is in place with the LARGE channel 14 / channel 15 mask filter, and CHCH fires up, both stations will return to normal power levels.


 

Here are some shots of the FM antenna install for Corus' CING FM on the new CHCH Tower.

Antennas with radome covers unboxed, and ready for move outside...



and moved outside ready for lift and install...



3 crew on the tower, 1 crew member in the yellow lift



Closer view of install...   notice that all the crew installers on the tower are wearing 2 safety devices...  the shorter tie off, and the slightly longer safety line to the body harness. This level of safety regulation has been in place for at least the past 35 years...  



Wider view. The crew would lift two antenna bays with the rigid transmission line section at one time, so six lifts in total.




 

Last edited by Glen Warren (October 3, 2023 9:58 pm)

Glen Warren wrote:

Here are some shots of the FM antenna install for Corus' CING FM on the new CHCH Tower.

Antennas with radome covers unboxed, and ready for move outside...



and moved outside ready for lift and install...



3 crew on the tower, 1 crew member in the yellow lift



Closer view of install...   notice that all the crew installers on the tower are wearing 2 safety devices...  the shorter tie off, and the slightly longer safety line to the body harness. This level of safety regulation has been in place for at least the past 35 years...  



Wider view. The crew would lift two antenna bays with the rigid transmission line section at one time, so six lifts in total.




 

Wow nice shots!  Drone camera I assume.   

There is still a lot of work to be done inside the new Transmitter building for CHCH, but ready or not, CHCH switched over to the new tower and antenna in Flamborough this morning shortly after 10:30 am.

CITS is still running at very reduced power on their standby transmitter moved over from the Stoney Creek site. CITS is awaiting completion of the UHF combiner. 

Corus is still on the Stoney Creek tower as far as I know...   lots of work ongoing at Flamborough for running Rigid line from the Corus transmitter switch to the dummy loads and filters.   Corus has moved over the Nautel standby transmitter for CING FM from Stoney Creek to Flamborough. 


 

Pictures look great. Very cool. When will 95.3 brodcast from the new tower?

Dave The OTA guy wrote:

I'm in St. Catharines using a directional UHF/VHF/FM antenna for two TV's and a newer 4 bay UHF on another. Both sit atop a 30' tower. Yesterday (the 5th) and today I've noticed some tiling (the picture breaking up) and then it pauses for a couple of seconds. While watching the news it probably happened here and there over the course of an hour about a dozen times. After some troubleshooting, I've concluded this 'glitch' is coming from CHCH. Has anyone else noticed this as well? And are they still making adjustments?

Yes, I saw the same "glitchiness"  throughout parts of the afternoon on Thursday...   CHCH  encountered a problem with their signal delivery system to Flamborough, and they had to abandon the new equipment, while a b/u decoder was brought over from Stoney Creek for temporary use.  Should be more stable/reliable now.

Dave The OTA Guy - which part of St. Catharines are you receiving CHCH from?  Glenridge? Merritton? Port Dalhousie? The Flamborough tower is now roughly an additional 20 km from you than Stoney Creek was. Is the signal strong otherwise? Did you have to adjust or re aim any of your antennas? 

Like I've mentioned earlier, here in North Burlington, I have not been able to receive a reliable signal...   I think at this point, I'm looking at re pointing one of my existing antennas or even buying an additional one...   but I'm giving it till the end of this week when CITS should be returning to full power and things return to the "new normal".


 

Last edited by Glen Warren (October 8, 2023 8:35 am)

I'm in Merritton and didn't have to re-aim my stationary 4 bay (pulling in 45 channels), the rotary antenna is 32 years old and pulls in 53 channels (its able to get WBBZ from Buffalo) I wouldn't have noticed any change if it wasn't for the signal cutting out here and there.  Thanks to this forum that's where I learned CHCH was about to make the switch to their new tower.

Some here may be interested in some of the background details of the CHCH tower project...

The General Project Consultant and Principal equipment supplier to CHCH for the new transmitter site design and build has been  GSBTS from Mississauga.  GSBTS is one of Canada's  premiere Broadcast Technical and Engineering Service and supply companies.

The tower construction/erection contractor has been Grundy Telecom from Burlington. Again, Grundy is an
industry leader in telecom tower construction and RF systems installation.

The actual tower itself at the new CHCH site was manufactured by WesTower Communications

The common UHF TV antenna is a high power SIRA manufactured slotted UHF model. Sira is part of Kathrien from Germany.

The CING FM antenna is manufactured by Dielectric.

Remote technical and site monitoring systems are by Davicom from Quebec.  They are using the new Cortex 360 models with the MEXM panels.


 

I tried to DVR something off of CH on Friday night. For the first time since the transition to digital, it wasn't coming in OTA at my location, so I missed the show. Yet it was there earlier in the day. 

Thanks to this thread, I knew what happened. Probably a combination of a weather change and their reduced power. But I wonder if I'd turned my rotor closer to Hamilton if it would have come in. CITS is almost non-existent here in northern North York, whereas it used to come in very well. Hope they're both back to full power soon.