Longmont, CO KRCN is a split-site or 2-site facility. During the day it transmits from a self-supporting, grounded base, unipole loaded as a folded unipole incorporating 6 skirt wires. At night it transmits from a grounded base cell phone tower using a slant-wire (delta) feed. The two locations are 12 miles apart.

This is the 50 kw day site located in a very rural area on Weld County Road 13 northeast of Longmont. The farm land surrounding this site is used as a turf farm. It is very flat and heavily irrigated. The tower is 75.6° in electrical height at 1060 kHz (approximately 195 feet).

This is a closeup of the top of the day tower showing the support arms for the 6 skirt wires in the folded unipole feed system.

This is a closeup of the bottom of the day tower showing the insulators for the skirt wires and the heavy copper tubing interconnecting the skirt wires and the feed wire from the antenna tuning unit (ATU).

This is the KRCN night tower. It is 85.3° (approximately 219 feet) in height. It's primary use is that of a cell phone tower. It is grounded at the base and has numerous cell phone coax cables and antennas attached to it. It is located inside of the Longmont city limits in the northwest sector of the city. The licensed night power is 111 watts. So the night transmitter site needed to be located closer to the city of license than the day time site in order to provide coverage there with such a low power level.

This sign warns other users of the tower not to climb it without permission since it may be in use as a "hot" AM tower. I am not sure why it says 5,000 watts since this is the 111 watt night site. Perhaps this site can be used with higher power as a backup to the primary day site.

This is the point where the feed line for the AM signal exits the transmitter building and connects to the slant wire feed line going to the tower. Note the insulator at the bottom of the slant wire. The feed wire must attach above the insulator.

This is an over view showing the slant wire feed as it starts up to the connecting point on the tower.

©2005, 2006, 2008 Patrick Griffith