KKDV Tower Temporarily Toppled

The great John Higdon notes in the ba.broadcast Usenet group that the KKDV (92.1 FM) transmitter tower -- essentially an old-timey wooden telephone pole -- was deliberately chopped down by the station's engineering staff, and soon will be replaced by a new tower of more metallic origin.

The untreated wooden "tower," which was estimated to be more than thirty years old, had been braced with a second, shorter wooden pole; both were victims of extensive rot.

The KKDV transmitting site is situated on the hillside near the junction of Highways 680 and 24, west of 680 on the north side of 24. The antenna, for those of you who are wondering (and you know who you are), was a Jampro three-bay antenna.

In his ba.broadcast post, entitled "The End of a Pole," Mr. Higdon noted:

Within a week, a large hole will be drilled at the [exact] location of the pole, a caisson will be poured and a genuine steel self-supporting tower will be erected in its place. We expect the new tower and its modern antennas will provide a noticeable improvement to KKDV's signal in the Diablo Valley area.

The station is transmitting with a "makeshift temporary antenna" in the interim.

Photos of the tower toppling, courtesy of Mr. Higdon, are on display at:

http://homepage.mac.com/johnhigdon/timber