I have decided after several months of contemplating, that I am ending the word-press portion of the website.
The majority of new traffic for updates comes via my social media pages. Starting in 2019, NECRAT.US will point directly to the Wiki Page/Index of NECRAT. This page will remain as an archive link.
So it’s been a while since I have updated this page! (Sorry!). While the updates here have been slow, I have been adding photos all over the website.
In late August, NECRAT took a return trip to Rochester, NY to see our close friend Scott Fybush of Fybush Media. First time in a few years, and for the first time, we got into sites in Rochester itself. See usually, when going there, we spend time in other cities. So I present to you a new Rochester update.
A return trip to the WRSB 1590 transmitter site, and the co-located original 105.5 FM antenna.
From there we visited two new translators, the 107.9 Mars Hill Network translator way north-east of the city. The next day we visited the new 107.5 translator for WXXI 1370
The a return trip to Pinnacle Hill. While many things hadn’t changed since our last visit, we did see a few new items. Like the post transition transmitter for WHAM-TV.
The “new” ERI antenna for WXXI-TV…
And transmitter for WXXI-TV.
And for WXXI (AM)
And WXXI-FM up on Pinnacle
Plus on Pinnacle, we got to see the new transmitter for the 94.7 translator and the original 106.7 transmitter as well.
The following day, we traveled to Ithaca, but stopped on Baker Hill to get some fresh, good weather pictures of the tower farm up there.
From there it was to Ithaca to see the WEOS site, which has since changed to 89.5 since our last move, and went non directional.
1470 AM site along with it’s 8 translators.
Plus the 1470 Am transmitter
From there a scenic ride around Cayuga Lake to visit the WITH and WSQG transmitter site and get inside the building.
From there, we headed through Ithaca traffic and raced to the WDKX studios, were we got a nice chance to see the rooftop FM of the highly rated, and highly acclaimed urban radio station.
Plus the translators of 97.5 and 105.5 also on the roof.
So on the last day, after replacing Scott’s doorbell, we took a trip out to see the inside of WHAM 1180, long overdue.
The day wound down with a quick stop in Syracuse to see the new WJPZ antenna upgrade on Day Hall (Mt. Olympus) at Syracuse University.
And some nice weather shots of the TV towers south of town.
This is my grandfather, Paul Moore, taken about 25 years ago. And this is about as quintessential of a picture of him as I have. You see he loved to garden. It was probably his most favorite activity and he was good at it. But alongside that he loved working with his hands and his tools. When I was a little kid, I’d come over to his house for a week’s vacation, and he’d let me play with his tools. But not just to play, he’d actually show me how to use them and what to do with them. And often times, after he was done, he’d let me keep one. It was fun, and a lot of what I know today about using them is because of him. I remember when he had his rambler in the garage, and let me come out to work with him on it. Mostly I sat in the front seat and pretended I was driving a fire truck, but the rest of the time, he’d let me help. (Or keep company as best as a little kid could do). When we weren’t doing that, we’d go over to the power plant, so he could work on his garden there. Of course being who I am, he also made sure I got in to see the plant, which was fascinating to a kid like me. (Heck it’s still fascinating!). We grew a pretty close bond that not only was he my grandfather, he was one of my best friends. Everyone in the family knows this. We’ve sat next to each other at the Thanksgiving table for decades now. He in the big chair, me in the one to the right. This was also worked in our favor, because we were the only two who liked the whole cranberry sauce versus that nasty jelly stuff. Yeah, he wasn’t your typical cuddly TV grandfather, he was a very much shoot from the hip kind of guy, but I know he loved all of us dearly. As time gone on, he let me stay with him for several years when I went to college in Springfield. While sure we butted heads a few times, I appreciated him and his generosity more than anything. You see, that was one of his key things, was his generosity. From fixing up bikes in his “younger” days for kids, to selling candy bars for kids in his older days, he constantly put others before himself. Later on, in his days as a Freemason, he would sell candy bars to raise money for dentistry for kids with special needs and poor financial situations. He raised so much money, they he was coined “Dr. of Smiles” and won awards. You have to see, he sold these candy bars in front of Big Y, Stop & Shop, etc, year ‘round. January or July. He was out there. While most people retire to a golf course or to a calmer setting, he worked harder after retirement! Boy he let you know about it, too, but that was his personality. And then, all of a sudden, the toughest guy I knew growing up, started slowing down. He got sick. More specifically he got congestive heart failure. And he fought it hard. He had a laundry list of medical issues, but somehow, kept on going, for the last ten years. But as time gone on, the fight got harder, and harder. And this morning, around 4:30, the fight came to an end. God called to bring him up to the pearly gates, where he would no longer have to fight anymore. A guy with a huge heart, must be in the biggest garden in heaven, back doing what he loved so much down here. They say it’s never really “goodbye” but just “see you later”. Well Grandpa, I’ll see you later.
Thank you to the Doctors and Nurses at Mercy Medical Center for all their hard work over the years. The hospital is nothing short of amazing, and a real gem in the city of Springfield. Also to all my family, but especially my Aunt Evelyn, Uncle Ed, Conor and Eliza, for all they did. The whole family sees all the time you spent to take him to his doctor’s and whatnot, which was constant, and knows that if you want to see what the family with the biggest hearts look like, you go visit Westbrook Drive.
Is there a better way to celebrate (besides good beer) than a whole bunch of new pictures? We don’t think so!
This is a update that consists of several months of travel. Instead of doing a bunch of small updates, I felt it was better to save and do everything in one big update. So here it is.
This update trip started out in March, with some local “shots”.
Starting with the new WBUR-FM antenna on the Cedar St tower in Needham.
(If you subscribe to Fybush’s North East Radio Watch, and why don’t you already?, you would’ve seen this shot before this update). We also stopped at the new site for 98.9, a translator relaying 1110 out of Salem, NH, the WGFP AM site in Webster, and the new Franklin LPFM on 102.9
The next month was my annual trip to Allentown, PA for the fire-matic show. I had planned on doing a bunch of brewery tours and decided to hit up a few towers “along the way”. The weather was cold, cloudy, and in some instances, rainy. So the pictures aren’t ideal, but they came out good. I did a loop that took me from Pottsville to Reading via the Ephrata site of 105.1.
Way up on the perch above Reading is the big tower of 102.5 flanked with a couple of smaller translators as well.
Before leaving Allentown for another year, I stopped up to the WAEB-FM to see the new antenna install up there. And finally drove up to the antenna. What a view!
A few weeks earlier, I had gone to Hartford for other reasons, and updated several of the new AM on FM translators, and updated the 97.1 translator, which hasn’t been updated in 2003. I also got two of the newer Hartford LPFMs as well, one up on Box Mountain, and the other in the middle of a neighborhood!
This past weekend allowed for me to complete another important update, to visit the New London area in Connecticut. I got the updated tower of WBMW, along with three other translators owned by Fuller (one of which is technically in Hopkinton RI). I also got the ellusive WWBW-LP, which I had searched for in the past, but with the relicensing to 97.1, and relocation, I was able to find it.
And finally, I ended in the Worcester-Boston “Metrowest” area to get pictures of the new 106.1 translator for WORC, another 102.9 LPFM in Southboro, and the new 94.9 translator for 890, that allowed for a beautiful picture of the 890 array!