On 11/29/04 I visited KAPS in Mount Vernon, WA to view their unusual PARAN style AM antenna array. To my knowledge this is one of only two AM broadcast antennas of this type in use in the US. The other is (or was) in Hawaii.

At first view the KAPS antenna looks like a rather typical AM array utilizing four vertical towers arranged in a close-spaced square.

But closer inspection reveals the unusual double row of wires arranged in two squares using the towers as corners. The wires are insulated from the towers but all of the wires are connected together. There is also an additional pair of single wires that runs across the array diagonally to the tower on the opposite corner. One of those can be seen going to the left in this photo. These wires form an "X" in the center of the array when viewed from above or below. Additionally, there is an extra 'guy wire' running down at an angle away from the top of each tower that is insulated from the tower and from the ground and appears to be part of the antenna array. It can also be seen descending down and to the right in this photo.

This view shows the "X" where the diagonal wires cross in the center of the array. The wires appear to be bonded together at the point where they cross.

Unlike most AM broadcast stations, the towers themselves appear to only support the PARAN antenna and are not actually a part of the array. A 5th tower on the site (visible as the center tower in the photo above) is of the conventional series-fed design and rests on a base insulator. It is located on the north side of the Paran array. The FCC database lists KAPS as a 4-tower directional array with different constants day and night (DA-2). However, the FCC field strength plots show it to be omni-directional. I suspect that the DA-2 designation may be an anomoly caused by the fact that there are 4 towers in the array. I did receive information from an outside source stating that the 5th tower was part of a former 1470 array at this site and was left in place to act as a parisitic element for the Paran array. However, this is not mentioned in the FCC data and I don't know if it is accurate. The signage on the studio building indicates that KBRC/1430 is co-located in this facility. But I believe their antenna is located about 1 mile south of this site.

The KAPS studios are co-located with the transmitter site. Unfortunately, during my visit there were no personnel present with a technical knowledge of the array. One of the air staff said that he was aware that this was a very unusual antenna system but didn't know any more than that.

©2004 Patrick Griffith