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Does anyone know what are the big towers with flickering red lights on radio ave of Secaucus? secaucus transmission tower - Google Maps
Or are they aviation signals? I'm looking for an apt around that location, is radiation a concern to live there?
Thanks!
I believe there Communication Towers used for Railroad and Airport Traffic Communication , the Radiation that comes off these towers are very minimal. Otherwise people wouldn't be living there....you'll be safe.
Most of the AM radio stations for NYC are located around the Meadowlands. The 4 towers on Radio Ave are for WWRL at 1600 kHz AM. Nearby on the Southern side of Rt 3 you have WOR, WINS, WSNR, WLIB, WMCA, WNYC and so on. AM radio being lower in frequency uses bigger waves, so the entire tower is typically about 1/4 to 5/8 of an individual wave. Also in the ground are wires which help reflect the signals. When you have more than one tower for a station, its because the station uses a directional pattern, which most all stations in the area use in order to fit more stations in the geographical area.
Radiation is not much of any concern as it is way below the FCC or EPA guidelines.The stations are made to prove this when they get licensed.
Practically all the NYC area AM stations are in NJ, only exceptions I can think of are WCBS and WFAN which share a tower on High Island near the bRonx and WQEW in Queens.
FM and TV use smaller waves so the antennas are about the size of your arms in a circle and mounted on tall towers or skyscrapers. Most of the NYC TV and FM's are atop Empire or 4 Times Square.
In the "old" days until sometime in the 1970's, the FCC made the stations have a broadcast engineer onsite and take a set of meter readings every 30 minutes. That later got relaxed to every 3 hours, then eventually relaxed again to permit most anything that works. Most stations run the transmitters by remote control these days.
I'm one of those people whose cell phone goes off if any of about 9 radio stations has an electronic problem.
Are you sure , i thought they were used by Amtrak / NJT and NS / CSX for Railway radio communication & Teteboro Airport?
They have nothing to do with those areas. All of those agencies are on much higher frequencies and wouldn't need the towers. I lived there and knew the engineer for many years. So yes, I'm very sure.
AM 1600 WWRL (http://www.wwrl1600.com/history.asp - broken link)
Other stations broadcast from Secaucus a few years back although the actual transmitted was not located in town. Scott Shannon and the Morning Zoo on WHIZ (Z100) was located in a building on Meadowland and Seaview for years until they moved. WWOR and Channel 47 were located in town but only one is left. The NBA and MLB has studios in town but they are strictly cable.
In any case, the towers are no issue and never have been except for the one guy who keeps calling everything a bulb is out and isn't replaced within ten minutes. Guess he thinks a 747 might hit it. (it won't as the towers are a little over 300 feet high, well below any air traffic)
I worked for several of those stations during the years.
If you want to check for yourself, go to radio-locator.com and type in the call letters. You can then click on transmitter location and also day and night patterns. many directional AM stations switch patterns and power levels at local sunset according to terms of their license.
if you click on Transmitter Location (on the coords) you'll get a Noogle map of where the station transmits from.
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AM Radio Towers
