New Station - 670 kHz

["W.A. Merriman" <merriman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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In the next few weeks WVNS, a new station licensed to Claremont, VA,
670 kHz, 20000 watts days, 5000 watts critical hours, directional
antenna will be hitting the air.  Initial operation will be daytime
only but at some point in the future they will probably go fulltime,
running 1000 watts at night from a different transmitter site.
Claremont is a small town on the south bank of the James River 
roughly halfway between Richmond and Norfolk.

The stations studios, which are located in Norfolk, VA are under
construction.  At the transmitter site in Claremont the 4 tower
directional array is up and construction of the stations State of
the Art transmitter building - a large, metal, overseas packing
container on a concrete slab - is complete.  Installation of the
transmitter, antenna phasing equipment, etc. is scheduled to start
within the next week or so.  It is expected that testing will begin
within 3 to 6 weeks.  Some of the equipment for the station,
including the towers and antenna phasing network came from the now
deleted CJSB-540 in Ottawa, Ontario.

Unfortunately the stations antenna pattern, which must protect
several existing stations including WFAN-660, WMAQ/WIEZ-670 and
WCBM/WPTF-680 will not favor reception in either Europe or Down
Under.  The main lobe is SE from the site in Claremont over the
Tidewater/Norfolk, VA area.  There is also a very minor lobe off
the back to the NW.  Off the sides of the pattern to the NE and 
SW there are deep nulls.  The directionals given are approximate.

There will be some testing done from the station before they go
on regular schedule with a non-directional antenna pattern.  It
is expected that testing will be done both during the day and
during the Experimental Period of 0000-0600 EST/0500-1100z.  It 
is also very possible that a DX Program, at least part of which
will be non-directional, will be run during the initial testing
phase but nothing definite is scheduled yet.

When the station begins regular scheduled programming they will be
running a All News format.  Reception reports may be sent to:

                Mr. Pat Murphy
                Operations Manager
                W V N S Radio
                410 Briar Hill RD
                Norfolk  VA  23502
                U S A

Return postage will be required with all reports.

This information is directly from Pat and Dave Schmidt, who in
addition to being the Musings editor for the National Radio Club is
a Contract Engineer and is involved in building the new station.
I will be visiting the transmitter site when they are a bit further
along with equipment installation and will do my best to keep 
everyone informed of what is happening and when it will happen.

On another note, Pat Murphy is also the Operations Manager for WVNZ
in Richmond, VA.  This station, which operates on 990 kHz and was
off the air for several years recently returned.  They are currently
running 1000 watts day, 10 watts night, non-directional.  They are
licensed for 10000 watts day, 5000 watts night, directional day and
night with different patterns and a new transmitter site is under
construction.  The format of WVNZ is also All News.

If you log them, reception reports can be sent to:

                Mr. Pat Murphy
                Operations Manager
                W V N Z Radio
                306 W Broad ST
                Richmond  VA  23230
                U S A

Again, return postage is required with all reports.  The company Pat
works for has also purchased the station on 1600 kHz in Chesapeake,
VA and some changes are planned there but I will cover that later.

73/DX

Al - K4GLU