This is good considering CITS was running at very low power at this point last Friday. They anticipate returning to full power by the end of this week or early next.

While the new tower is not as tall as the former Stoney Creek tower, I've been told that the ground elevation is slightly higher at the Flamborough site than it was at Stoney Creek on the escarpment.

Also keep in mind that the the new antenna is top mounted on the tower, where as the retired antenna at Stoney Creek was side mounted (it was at the top of the tower structure, just below the VHF CH 11 antenna, which was manufactured by RCA).

Evuguy -  which model of spectrum analyzer are you using for your test/measurement above?  just curious...
 

Yes, both CHCH and CITS are now full time on the new tower.  A colleague at CITS told me today that they think Yes TV (CITS) has resumed transmission at full power level, but they were not 100% sure of this...  so...

 

Thank-you....  looking forward to seeing it.

DM message sent to your inbox when you have a moment to check...


 

Last edited by Glen Warren (October 12, 2023 10:07 am)

CITS very much improved and very stable the last few days at Davenport Road & Christie St. Toronto.
 

If WBNF is on air you will likely have more trouble with CHCH now.

No I never had trouble with WBNF. I am far enough north of Grand Island that I don't receive it plus the WBNF  signal is very directional away from Canada. I am right on the border plus I am using an antenna pointed towards Toronto-Hamilton. The only Toronto area channel I don't get is CFTO.
 

So seeing a big improvement in signal strength on CITS-DT. CHCH-DT looks to have some distortion at my location.  Can't rule out frequency specific multipath from nearby buildings or a frequency response issue with my antenna.

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And how an HD Home Run tuner decodes the signals:

Still glitchy here in St. Catharines.   The signal breaks up, pauses for a couple of seconds every few minutes or so, about a dozen times an hour.  I never had any problems like this before last Friday. 

I've sent CHCH an email about it.

Earlier this past week, the tower crew prepared the Gin Pole for removal from the new tower structure. The Gin Pole came down on Tuesday.
Then the crew were able to install the final Torsion Arm section on the tower.  This was not possible before with the Gin Pole on this face of the tower.

The Gin Pole is really a large section of rigid box truss which holds tower and antenna sections in place while they are being lifted and secured in place as the tower structure rises. The real muscle comes from the diesel powered ground winch. It has a series of steel cables which run out from the winch and up and through the Gin Pole to a top mounted pulley. The cable then comes back down and is attached to the structure section to be raised.




 

Kinda half and half...

UHF TV is fully transitioned to the new tower in Flamborough, no TV transmission from Stoney Creek.

FM Radio is still full power from the Stoney Creek tower... Corus is not transmitting (yet) from Flamborough.

Cellular services are also currently originating from Stoney Creek as well...  There is no plan for cellular to be on the new tower at Flamborough,


 

Yes, I can confirm seeing this as well...  during Mad about You, and their 6pm newscast...   The problem appears to be isolated to CHCH only. Whatever the issue, it was not apparent on CITS / YES TV.

 

It appears that the situation *could* be fixed:  there were no issues tonight during the news, but let's wait and see what happens tomorrow...

markow202 wrote:

Any other updates on this and the dismantle of old tower?

Yes, the tower contractor has moved onto the Stoney Creek site, and is setting up to start removal of both the recently retired UHF TV side mount antenna, and the FM radio antenna structure below the UHF (it was also side mounted)

The original analog VHF radome cover will also be removed from the top of the tower...  

As well, the original Bell Microwave "H" tower and the fence compound around it, has already been cleared from the site.

No idea for the timeline, but I had heard earlier that one of the cellular tenants was staying operational on the tower until early next spring.....

Wow!!!  The contractor moves quick!...  The Gin Pole was assembled and laying on the ground on Friday afternoon...  I assumed they were done for the day and would pick up on Monday. Looks like they were working on Saturday to raise the Gin Pole.

Yes, the major components that you have labelled in your third picture are correct.  The retired analog RCA VHF Hi antenna / radome is the structure on the top of the tower mount and has the lightening rod assembly on the top. 

CHCH had previously removed the VHF antenna elements inside the radome after they transitioned to full time ATSC transmission on the side mounted UHF antenna. The main purpose of this was to reduce unnecessary weight on the tower.

Also, in your second pic, the tower rigger and the yellow work bucket are at the area of the AM/FM Radio STL dishes...  the work bucket is at the Ice Guard just above the two stacked open grid dishes. The dishes don't look too big, but they are actually about 8 ft. in diameter, and the open grid element design allows allows air/wind to pass through the dish, This reduces wind loading on the dish, mount and tower.

A former Chief Engineer with CHML/CKDS told me of the origin of using the CHCH Tower as the relay for first 900 CHML and later CKDS FM.  At the time the CHML AM TX site was east of Stoney Creek at Vine Mount  Like most radio stations at the time, the studio Prgm feed was delivered to the transmitter by balanced 5Kohm or 8Kohm Telco pairs...  This was a scheduled tariff cost from Bell Tel, and rates were approved by the CRTC...  In the early 80s when spectrum was being reallocated for use by  broadcasters for ENG, and STL uses, CHML had the feed terminate at the CHCH tower, and then they did a STL shot to the Vine Mount CHML transmitter site.  They save a bit of coin by reducing the distance of the telco circuits. 

When CKDS re-launched on 95.3 in 1967, the FM transmitter and antenna was at the CHCH Stoney Creek site.  Ken Soble's estate held controlling interest in both operations.

Then later in the mid 80s when CHML/CKDS moved to the new studio centre on Main St. W., they added a dual STL link from the new radio studios to the CHCH tower site. This eliminated the monthly circuit costs for both stations CKDS FM, and 900 CHML. Later when the new CHML transmitter site was constructed near Westover, the CHML signal was still relayed off of the CHCH tower, but the signal was shot on a new link from Stoney Creek to Westover. 
 

Very good info! Will be cool to follow the dismantle of the legendary landmark.   But, why remove these parts if the tower will just come down anyways?