Posts Tagged → Oklahoma
KOKC (Formerly KOMA) 1520
These three towers are an amazing source for a powerful 50,000 watt signal. The towers may reside at 35.333450° -97.505217°, 35.333276° -97.504729° and 35.333092° -97.504224° respectively but their signal can be heard well over 1,000 miles away. My dad use to work at this station back in the 1960’s when it was KOMA AM.
I remember on a freakish couple of days in 1996 when I was in Fairbanks, Alaska, or more specifically at the Moose Creek Apartments located… 64.715154° -147.166405° when I received KOMA. Me and my family were stationed at Eielson Air Force Base (AFB) at the time. It was dark as it usually is during the winter and I was sitting int he car scanning across the band when I jokingly tuned across 1520 KHz and heard some 1950’s music. I was intrigued and left it on there. To my surprise I heard them discussing a Sock Hop program on Oklahoma City’s 1520…K-O-M-A.
I was so excited that I ran into the house and got my wife to come out to the car. How unbelievable to think I was receiving a radio station more than 3,000 miles away AND it was a hometown station at that. I thought about contacting them and telling them that I was hearing them in Alaska but I did not think they would believe me. I have told many people about it and they nodded their heads in agreement but I am skeptical they believed me either.
The amazing thing about it is that not only was this more than 3,000 miles away but there is another 50,000 watt station in Portland, Oregon (KGDD). I use to live in Tucson, and Phoenix, Arizona when I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, and Luke AFB respectively, and was able to receive KOMA/KOKC at night 365 days a year. Their signal was very strong and very dependable. KOKC is now a 24 hour news station and can heard nearly to the Canadian Border to the North and to the Pacific Coast to the West. They broadcast on the center tower during the day and then go on all three at night to produce their directional signal. As a designated clear channel station they are protected from other stations impeding on their signal. Just as their is a station in the Buffalo, New York station called WWKB on the same frequency that is protected from KOKC. This is why they require the directional signal at night.
The powerful signal is attenuated during the day by an invisible "D" layer of the ionosphere that is energized when the sun shines. This layer absorbs most signals below 10 MHz preventing them from reaching the "F" layer that causes famous radio "skip". The term skip means that radio signals are refracted or bent as they hit the "F" layer of the ionosphere causing the signal to be bent back to the earth and the signal is received at great distances. The 50,000 watt signal can easily reach this much desired "F" layer during the evening when the lower level "D" layer virtually disappears with the absence of the sun.
This is a phenomenon that ham radio operators enjoy on high frequency (HF) operation. Since the HF band is in the 2 MHz to 30 MHz shortwave spectrum it is ideal for this skip. These three towers are very prominent if you approach Oklahoma City from the South on Interstate 35 (I-35). The towers are actually in the city limits of Moore, Oklahoma but when they were built many years ago this area was rural. Now the towers are in a densely populated area with houses all around them. The above photo was taken from a cemetery on the East side as the sun was rising behind me.
The station’s studios are in North Oklahoma City and their audio is transmitted to these towers and transmitter via a studio to transmission link (STL) using microwave.
Longing for Spring
JohnathonandLane2005.jpg, originally uploaded by Richard Renaldi.
After I began to think about it, I had to agree with at least part of his comments because we usually have some brown winters that are not very attractive. We are just warm enough that we usually do not have a lot of snow but cold enough that most of the vegetation dies resulting is a very unattractive brown appearance. This really is a nice place to live but the gloominess of winter is not the most attractive thing to behold. Spring makes this a very pretty place around here as things green up and flowers bloom
We have some of the most beautiful sunsets after a storm that you will ever see. The skies can be so many different colors, just about ever color in the rainbow. The original photo above is of Wynnewood and though it does not look very attractive, it is a very nice place in the spring, summer and fall. Springtime is my favorite time of year as the trees begin to turn green, the flowers bloom and the place seems to come to life.
I have lived in Oklahoma in all but ten years of my life and I know the good and the bad of living here. One thing that has always brought me home is the prevailing attitude of treating one’s neighbor as themselves as spoken of in the Bible. One thing that I have learned over the years is that no matter how attractive someone is, their attitude can make them look very ugly. Many times I have seen someone that appeared very attractive and then they opened their mouth and the profanity and attitude changed my entire perception of them. I have lived in many states, cities, and countries and many of those places had a very attractive appearance. Most of them were even very friendly though there was one thing that was missing from all of those places that is common place here. I noticed as I traveled in the Air Force that many people would never look at you in the eye in public places. When I would go to the grocery store to buy something many of them were not likely to start up a conversation with you as they would here in Oklahoma.
I know it is not accurate to paint with such a broad brush because there are good and bad in every place. I can say though with my own experiences that here in Oklahoma I have noticed that people are more likely to be friendly here than in those other places. I purposely did not mention the names of those places that I have been because the point of this message is not to put people down but to illustrate my experiences with the friendliness of people here. There have been exceptions to this rul as you would imagine but for the most part I have had good experiences.
With the arrival of spring we not only have the friendly people but we also have the colorful views that we so long for during the dull dreary winters. Our weather can climb warm as high as 80 degrees in January but it can also plunge below zero. One day you can be playing sports in shorts and the next day you can be wearing a heavy coat with temperatures in the 20’s with a powerful north wind. By the time March arrives it can become very nice again. This is another thing that I do love about being here is the variety of weather. I do remember living in Arizona when the sun shines “ALL THE TIME”. There would be days that I would pay money just to see some rain or have some cool clouds pass over. I did love Arizona but when it is sunny for three straight months with no rain it gets tiresome to me. When I was there I found many people that lived there loved this very part of their weather. It was interesting to see how people can like such a vastly different climate. I guess it is nice to know there are different types of people that like different types of things.
I cannot imagine life without thunderstorms. Well yes I can… I lived in Arizona for a long time and their imaginary thunderstorms were nothing like ours. Their so called Monsoon season was like our driest time of the year. Before I moved to Arizona I had never seen lightning without rain but they are proof that it can be done. Other than the lack of rain and unbearable heat, I really loved it there. It was a fun place to be for the most part. Our spring time is our storm season and I just love it when we get some severe thunderstorms. I do not like to see anyone get hurt or get their property damaged but it is very entertaining to watch the power of a thunderstorm.
Probably the one thing that I do like about living here the most is the fact that it is one of the last places where right is still seen as right and wrong is still seen as wrong. I read the national media on the left and right coasts and their portrayal of the center of the country as “flyover country”, or backward thinking. They never stop for a moment to see that their group think mentality is the one that is backward. Unfortunately their influence is moving in and before long there will be no difference. The Bible predicted these days would arrive and so it should be no surprise to anyone. I will enjoy it while it lasts. I will not spend too much time on the specifics of what I am talking about but I am sure you can imagine. The passing of December moves us deeper into the colorless winter but soon it will bring us back into the warm springtime. The best time of year is only two months away. I think we can wait that long for some warmer, colorful days.
Christmas at the Brite’s
This morning we rose early to go to Checotah, Oklahoma to visit my father in law. We had a pretty good time there except that I was a little under the weather. Early this morning our warm weather came to an end as a cold front came crashing through. At 4:00 AM a line of severe thunderstorms came through bringing hail and high winds. We lost power three or four times. Shortly after that, the cold front came through and dropped the temperature more than 20 degrees but the sun was shining. We left at 8:00 AM to go to Checotah and eventually caught up with the storms. By the time we arrived, it was raining. Around 2:00 PM, the clouds cleared away and it was not too bad. We all enjoyed ourselves though I have had a sore throat, stopped up head, and now my ribs are hurting. I hope this clears up before I have to go back to work on Monday. In the above picture, we have Sunday and I standing in front of the house on the lower level kitchen.
We opened our Christmas presents and visited together for a while. We had a wonderful meal to eat. I was asked to help set up a home wifi system and was actually looking forward to it. My wife, looking out for me told them that I did not feel good and could not do it. Later I asked if they were ready to work on it and she told me no and we could do it another time since I was not feeling well. I did not know that my wife had spoken to her until after we started home. She is always looking out for me and helping me out. I sat in the car sending Twitter messages on my phone all the way home while Sunday drove home. As always it was a good time. We enjoyed seeing family and visiting. Unlike the portrayal in the movie Four Christmases, we actually look forward to seeing the family. Sunday has a great dad and step mom.
Last night our dog had two siezures and it really scared us. She is 15 years old and was out of control for a few minutes. That was pretty scary though she is back to normal now. Now we are home and the house is very cold since we had the heat turned off the whole time we were gone. I thought I would share how our day went and hope yours went just as well as ours did.
Dead Tree
This tree is finally dead after I have cut roots, cut the bark, and poisoned it. After the terrible ice storm we had back in December we lost power for a week. These fences were covered by trees all the way around. I have poisoned them and cut them down over the last few months and this was the last hold out. This tree is on the other side of the fence and has been a vacant rent house. As you can see in this photo, this was growing right into the power lines with a transformer on it. After the ice storm, OG&E installed a new pole but left over half the old pole so now we have two of them. As you can see they are very unattractive.
We have had two major ice storms in the last five years that have not only knocked out the power for a long time but has had damage to my house and power box on the back of the house.
In the picture above you can see this same tree with all the ice on it. The picture below shows it from a wider view with all the other trees that we have already removed. As you can see, this was a nightmare. It was like a forest in the power lines and we were constantly losing our power. It was nice having the coverage but not at the expense of the never ending damage.
This last storm was the final straw as all these houses around us are rent houses and the neighbors just let them grow wild into the power lines while we lose our electricity when storms come in. This tree took multiple high dosages of woody brush killler into about 13 1 inch holes drilled into the trunk. I also cut the bark all the way around it. This should be a little more peace this winter knowing there are no trees to fall on my house. Not surprising the neighbor’s have been glad to see them go but could not afford to cut them down themselves. One of the trees that you cannot see in this picture cost me $1,500.00 to cut down. I was not brave enough to cut it myself as it was very large and was growing into the high voltage lines on the top so we hired someone that was licensed and bonded.
As you can see, the tree above colapsed on the fence after a storm in 2005. I really hate to kill trees because I love the way they look. Unfortunately in my small yard with a 70 foot tower and a power pole with a large transformer on it, trees are just not an option. I realize that my actions will not likely prevent the next power outage because this naighborhood is filled with situations just like mine. The one thing that I will not have to worry about is an insurance claim for damages done to the house. The first storm was so bad because at the time the only heat we had was our central heat and air that requires electricity. That night the temperature dropped to 19 degrees. I had to borrow a portable propane heater from a friend to keep the pipes from bursting. Unfortunately it put off fumes where we could not stay in the house. I plan to cut this tree down now that it is dead. This way it will be out of the way. Everyone involved is happy to see all these trees gone from the lines. One time, I had to make a claim because the power line was intermittent and blew out one of my computer monitors and my neighbor’s television.
It looks as though the nightmare is almost over and maybe we do not have to sweat the next time an ice storm is forecast. The last storm we bought a power generator so we can still live in the house. I hope this is the end of all the repairs. As much as I like trees, this is not the right environment.
Del City Shooting
My wife and I went to run some errands this afternoon and enjoy the wonderful rains of hurricane Ike when we stopped at a 7-11 store. We saw many cars lined up on both sides of the road that to me indicated a funeral. When we went into the store, there was a Del City police officer in there and the store clerk told us that a woman had been shot across the street. I really hate to hear sad news like this particularly when it is walking distance from my house. I grew up in this neighborhood, then left for the Air Force, just to return again. This neighborhood may have its share of crime but so do many other parts of town. We need to keep this family in our prayers and hope the victim survived and doing well. In the image above you can see the yellow police tape, a police car, and the remote broadcast van for KWTV, channel 9 in Oklahoma City. For those not familiar with Del City, it is a small community of about 25,000 totally surrounded by Oklahoma City, Midwest City, and Tinker AFB. Del City is a town that was founded in the 1940’s as a result of Tinker AFB being established. If you would like to see the rest of the photos that I took of this event, just click on the photo and it will take you to Flickr, where this set is hosted.
UPDATE
I was mis-informed on this story. According to KFOR this morning, the mother has not been seen since Friday and the Ex-husband was arrested on Saturday in the victim’s car with her kids. They were searching an empty field near their home near SE 15th Street and Bryant Avenue.
Del City Development
If you have driven down I-40 at the Sooner Road exit you may have noticed the area on the South West of the intersection being cleared. There is a new commercial development being built there that will have several stores, restaurants, and at least one hotel. This is very good news from Del City as we have never been able to build there because of the save Tinker AFB crowd. As an employee at Tinker I can appreciate the desire to protect the largest single site employer in the state. This development however is no where close to being in the flight path without taking out other developments first. As you can see in the image below taken from the RCL website, the new development will be on the South side of I-40 and on the West side of Sooner Road.
This rendering came from RLC Development in Oklahoma City. To see larger images, just click on the link and visit their site. The city has been moving dirt for some time trying to re-route the creek that goes through the area so flooding will not be an issue. This development is way over due as far as I am concerned.
There have been concerns for a long time that this undeveloped piece of prime real estate could never be developed because it was too close to Tinker AFB’s runway. As you can see, this picture taken from Google Earth shows this is untrue. I drew a line straight off the end of the runway and you can see that it crosses right over the Tinker Industrial and Business Park long before it gets to the area being developed. This development is more than 8,000 feet off the end of the North West runway anyway. If you would like to see a bigger image of this map, click on it and it will take you to Flickr where you can click “All Sizes” and view the larger image.
Del City has long suffered from not being able to grow because they are surrounded by Oklahoma City, Tinker AFB, and Midwest City. The limited land they do have has been off limits for a number of years because everyone worried that putting things next to the base would make them vulnerable to being closed down. I believe these worries are completely unfounded as former General Burpee, now sits on the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce uses the unprecedented Base Realignment and closure (BRAC) closures to scare people. It seems that every since he has been associated with the OKC chamber, there is a new initiative or bond issue going before the voters to take more Oklahoma City area land and make it off limits all in the name of “Saving Tinker AFB” from impending doom. I am not saying he is maliciously trying to take over the world but sometimes I do think he overstates the dangers. The BRAC has never happened before and when it did, it was done to a point where there were too many cuts. Many of the bases that were closed, such as McClellan AFB, and Kelly AFB, actually moved their work load to Tinker. This workload did not simply go away. The closest thing that I can think of that compares to the save Tinker hysteria would be the never ending mantra “We have the lowest paid teachers in America” from those wanting more money for the University of Oklahoma. They advocate raising taxes over and over and over again to help the low paid teachers but somehow the money never makes it to them. I have come to the point that I will vote no on any initiative that is earmarked for education without being more specific because the money continues to go to OU.
Back to the Del City development…
I think this new development is critical to the survival of Del City because many of the homes there are old rent houses without much potential for tax dollars. The large F-5 tornado in 1999 though terrible at the time actually improved Del City in the long run. When all the rebuilding began, the city had some opportunities to clear out some old homes and businesses and build new ones. The Mid-Del area is no different than the rest of the Oklahoma City metro area in that growth has been exceding expectations. In Del City specifically this growth has been slow because they are surrounded with no place to build. The only places that are vacant are in flood prone areas near the Oklahoma River betwee N.E. 10th and N. E. 23rd Street. This development is right across the freeway from the new Wal-Mart store and the hotels across Sooner Road in Midwest City. Lets hope we hear of more of these developments in the area.
We Have a New Noisy Neighbor
In recent days we have begun to hear a steady engine running 24 hours a day. Occasionally we hear some banging and scraping sounds. I can hear this noise in my own bedroom at night so it is a good thing that I sleep with a fan for noise. I am not opposed to drilling for oil in fact it is part of our local economy. I do wish that these oil wells would equate to some reasonable prices though. This picture was taken from the end of my street here in Del City, Oklahoma. If you are unfamiliar with Del City, it is actually part of the Oklahoma City metro area on the Southeast side. This is only 1 and a half miles West of Tinker Air Force Base (AFB). Recently signs had appeared over there signifying new businesses coming and I noticed a bull dozer moving dirt. Then I noticed a concrete slab going in that eventually had large green tanks on them. I drove over there to see what was going on and was met with a security guard telling me that it was private property and that I would have to leave.
Then one day I came home from work and saw this huge 100+ foot tall oil drilling derrick. If you look behind, you can see the power poles only come up to the bottom of the platform and those power lines are in the Hartsdel neighborhood. This is one of three new oil wells that have sprung up in our neighborhood over the last year. I guess oil is still King in Oklahoma. I will admit though that it creates a different atmosphere in our neighborhood now with that engine running all the time. The last oil well that he had drilled stayed there for a couple years.
Del City is sort of a military town of about 25,000 that was constructed in the 1940’s and 1950’s to support Tinker (AFB). It has become run down at places over the years and it is my hope that some of these oil wells may bring some money to the city to help with some repairs. In 1999 there was an F-5 tornado that came through Del City and the Eastern metro destroying thousands of homes. In a sense, this tornado has actually created growth in this area with all sorts of new development. Del City is completely surrounded by Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City, and MIdwest City leaving no room for growth. With the destruction of the tornado, a lot of the older businesses were destroyed and new businesses and hotels have replaced them. I am not at all sure if our city will receive a dime from these oil wells but we can only hope. This oil well will not likely result is a decrease of oil prices by even a penny but hopefully the added noise will help in other areas possibly some tax dollars to the city.
NBA Comes to OKC
The ongoing drama of the NBA arriving or not to Oklahoma City has been a roller coaster but has finally happened. On Friday, April 18th the NBA’s board of governors voted 28 – 2 to allow the Seattle Supersonics to relocate to Oklahoma City. Our city has longed to have a team ever since the New Orleans Hornets were here after they came for two years after the big hurricane. A lot of what drives Oklahoma City people to support getting a team is that we have have received so much negative attention with tornadoes and bombings. This really is a nice place to live and locals just want to get some national attention that is not negative.
When the SuperSonics was purchased by a group of investors from Oklahoma City, they gave the city of Seattle a deadline of one year from the date of the finalizing of the sale to come up with an arena or they would move the team. The NBA has been pressuring the city of Seattle to get a new arena long before the team was sold to the OKC investors. In fact that is the reason former owner Howard Shultz sold the team. The new owners proposed a $500 million arena for Seattle to build and the legislature refused to even vote on it. It could be argued the new owners did not negotiate in good faith as the original agreement said they should. This argument was exacerbated by the recent release of emails where the owners have spoken favorably about a move to Oklahoma City.
Where this argument fails to hold water, is that this arena argument has been going on long before the new owners were even part of the picture. Even now that the deadline has passed by five months, there still is no serious proposals by Seattle to counter the admittedly over priced $500 million arena. By making this argument, I in no way feel the Seattle fans had anything to do with this. They are the victims in this whole situation and I truly feel for them. I have this in the back of my mind to temper my excitement over getting a team.
I as most here that I have spoken to agree they would rather it happened another way. Our desire to get a team of our own ideally would have been to get a new team with our own name and history. Hardly anyone wanted to take a team from another city, especially one that has faithfully supported their team for 41 years like Seattle has. It is this reason that the Supersonics name, history, records, and colors will stay in Seattle so when they get another team assigned to them when their arena issue is dealt with, they will keep the name.
Unfortunately for the fans, it seems to be a cut throat business that who ever spends millions of dollars at tax payer expense are the ones that win. As I enjoy the thrill of getting a team, I am also aware that we could be in the same situation as the Seattle fans at a later date. It is with this knowledge I have to say it is worth it as a citizen of Oklahoma City. I am painfully aware that you need name recognition on a national scale if your city is to ever compete for jobs and quality of life. Although there are many that complain that money is spent on sports franchises instead of roads and schools, it is very important to grow the economy. The economy grows when new jobs are created. More employer will relocate here if they perceive a higher quality of life. With a greater local economy, there are more tax dollars to pay for these projects. Having a professional sports team with national coverage helps to improve that perceived image.
When looking at the big picture, I have many mixed feelings. I feel sympathy, happiness, excitement, tempered with the recognition that what happened to Seattle could and will happen to us if we ever fail to see the positive impact of professional sports on a city. Do I think it is worth the enormous expense? Yes I do because I see large cities waiting in line for a top tier team for the same reason we do. It is more than just basketball and sports. It is an engine to put your city’s name in the minds of those all over this nation. It is an advertising campaign that billions of dollars could not buy. With that I offer my condolences to the city of Seattle with the request to understand my excitement. With a city as wonderful as Seattle, I am certain they will be back in the NBA very soon.
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Tags: NBA, Supersonics, sonics, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Seattle, National Basketball Association
Captain D’s Burned but Hiring
I was talking to my dad on the cell phone and he told me about this site so I drove over to check it out. Forgive the quality of this picture but the sun was going down. This is the Captain D’s restaurant in Midwest City, Oklahoma just East of Sooner Road on Reno. The store burned down a few days ago but the sign says they are hiring. I usually hate to see anyone’s property burn and this is very sad but the sign is a bit humorous. I am not a big sea food fan but my dad really likes eating here.
Technorati Tags: Captain D’s,Midwest City,Oklahoma
Update December 30th, 2007
Hello everyone,
It has been an amazing year that is likely to get better next year. Yesterday we went to Checotah, Oklahoma near Lake Eufaula to visit with my father in-law and do our Christmas thing. We always do it the Saturday after Christmas so everyone can be there. We had a good time and got to see many people that I had not seen in a while. I spent a good portion of the day putting up a new television antenna on the house. I enjoy that sort of thing so it was fun. I took more that 100 pictures while I was there as well. Tomorrow is New Year’s eve and I have to go to work for one day before New Years Day off. I really do not want to take off anymore because I have really used a lot of vacation days this year with sicknesses and problems with kids and schools.
I looked at my pay statement this weekend and saw that I had taken off work for 42 days this year. Man, that is unbelievable. Next year must be better than that. This morning I went out to find some new shoes and could not find any that were comfortable. I have painful feet because I stand so much at work.
After that I went to a couple of places to find some anchors for my tower guy wires. As shown in the above picture, there is a very large tree branch that landed on my tower support wires. Those wires seen are 1/4″ thick and rated at 7,000 pounds. This pulled up one of the anchors on the opposite side about 10″ out of the ground. Right now the tower has no support and needs new anchors before our thunderstorm season arrives. The tower is 70 feet tall and if it falls in any direction, it will cause damage. I was not able to find any anchors so far. I am hopeful that I will have better luck later. I guess that is about it for now. I will post more as things happen.
Paul
Technorati Tags: New Years Day,Checotah,Oklahoma,tower