Mount Wilson

I took off yesterday, because it is the last week that my son has off. I had asked him about a month ago if he would like me to drive us up to the top of Mount Wilson, where Los Angeles stations have their TV and Radio transmitters and his immediate answer was, "I would die to go there!" So I set it up with my transmitter guy and amazingly, the weather cooperated. There was snow, but it was almost just for show. Everything up there was covered with a small amount, maybe 2 inches or so. The roads, thankfully, were clear. We headed out around 10AM, to give any ice on the road, time to thaw out. We reached the base of the Angeles Crest Highway around 11AM and began our climb into the "Chains Only" area of the Southland. I didn't have chains and hoped that no one would stop me and they, thankfully, didn't. The ride was a one lane, mountain road, with lots of curves, but not too bad. The view was incredible and when we finally reached the turn off for Mount Wilson, the mountains around us became almost total rocks. How they drive new antenna's up this 5 miles of mountain road, totally escapes me. It is constant turns and very steep. Finally, we arrive and drive around the front of the towers and reach our destination for the afternoon. We knock on the door and immediately our host for the day, opens it and greets us.

He gives us a detailed tour, showing off our analog equipment on the lower floor and then we walk upstairs for a tour of the digital equipment. I have been up there one time, just before we installed the digital equipment and the place has changed so much. There are several stations in our building and each one of them has 2 sets of transmitters going. Trust me folks, there are incredible amounts of money being spent, every day, keeping America's duel system on the air. In our case, we have back up to our analog and our digital transmitters, so that's 4 of them. Imagine the electric bill!
He goes on to tell us that we will be receiving new equipment to finish off the digital conversion, so that on February 17, 2009, we will be ready to flip the switch and broadcast our digital signal on our main frequency. Remember that it is currently on a different frequency, since our analog signal is on our main frequency. Once we flip the switch, we are then going to finally, finally, finally get to retire our old equipment. The original transmitter is a vacuum tube one from the 60's and our "New" one is from the 70's. They are old and so ready to be retired.
Then he takes us outside and we get pictures. It is just beautiful up there, the cloud cover over the L.A. Basin doesn't reach the top of the mountain and so we see the clouds down below and our day is sunny and beautiful. He says that we could see to Catalina on a clear day, but I liked it just the way it was.

We then let him get back to work and we go off to this picnic area at the very end of the antenna farm, where there is a place to eat, with a commanding view of the entire park. We enjoy our lunch, look around a little more and then head back down the hill. What a nice, unforgettable day.
Special thanks to our transmitter guy, who is so incredibly knowledgeable and so very nice.

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Photo Credits:

First Photo: the guys on top
of the world, with the
clouds down below.
Second Photo: The Klystron,
a piece of transmitter equipment.
Third Photo: Several of the
antenna's, as seen from the
picnic pavilion.