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Tag Archives | Timothy Cochran

June ’87: Fixes at the transmitter site

June 8, 1987

Chief engineer Timothy Cochran and general manager Tom Busch extend the 120 ground wires at the AM transmitter site to 320 feet, 1/4 wavelength at KNOM’s frequency. Because of a shipping error back in 1971, the ground wires had been a hundred feet short for 16 years, but the money is finally in place to correct that.

In addition, Tom and Timothy add 240 new radials to improve transmission.

Meanwhile, Nome receives a visit from Gaithersburg, Maryland consulting engineer John Mullaney, who serves KNOM at no charge. John works with tower climber Rod Ewing to adjust KNOM’s folded unipole antenna for maximum signal strength.

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December 1986: Under a coat of ice, the tower is near collapse

December 3, 1986

A storm this week deposits ice the thickness of cucumbers on the KNOM tower and its guy wires, which sag dangerously. The tower is in imminent danger of collapsing.

Tower expert Rod Ewing immediately flies in from Wasilla, Alaska to supervise Timothy Cochran and Tom Busch as they strain to keep the structure standing by carefully tightening the stretched guys, one by one. “It was close,” Timothy relates.

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