WVPR 89.5 Work Is Almost Complete

Work continues this week on our WVPR 89.5 transmitter on Mt. Ascutney. The antenna sustained some significant damage earlier this year due to falling ice. In order to repair it, we needed to have the entire antenna assembly removed from the tower and sent back to the manufacturer (in Maine) to be repaired.

Today and tomorrow, weather-permitting, engineers will be climbing the tower to take down the backup antenna we've been broadcasting on and installing the repaired (and structurally reinforced) antenna. As a result, WVPR 89.5 and WNCH 88.1 will be off the air or at low power during the work to ensure the safety of our engineers.

Once the antenna is installed, reception should return to normal without further interruptions. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we address these complicated and unexpected technical challenges, and we will keep you posted if anything changes.

Working In The Wind - 300 Feet Up

Thanks for your patience today while 89.5 WVPR and 88.1 WNCH were off the air. We've had equipment problems on Mount Ascutney that are complicated and time consuming to fix. (See previous VPR Blog posts from April 28 and April 21.)

Today, engineers removed antennae parts that had been broken by snow and ice. In the photo to the left, you can see the eight foot wide antenna bay being lowered down the 300 foot tower. VPR's Director of Engineering, Rich Parker, reported that it was extremely windy today and work was very slow. In the picture below, you can see the back-up antenna being threaded through the guy wires back up the tower. Engineers had to wait for breaks in the wind gusts in order to make sure it didn't get stuck or tangled.

As of this writing, we hope to have WVPR and WNCH back on at full power by nightfall. There is more work to be done in the coming weeks. We will keep disruptions to a minimum while still protecting the safety of our engineers and the integrity of the sensitive equipment.


Again, thanks for your patience during this period.

WVPR 89.5 and WNCH 88.1 At Low Power Friday

As you know, VPR has been experiencing some challenges with its WVPR 89.5 transmitter on Mount Ascutney. Engineers were on the mountain last week to troubleshoot two problems - a leak in the transmission line, and a faulty combiner. Thanks to assistance from Nassau Broadcasting (with whom we share a master antenna on the tower), we are at full power for the time being. We've determined that falling ice from the top of the tower is the culprit for the leak in the transmission line as well as some damage to our antennas.

Work has been scheduled for tomorrow (Friday 4/30) to remove the damaged antennas and to do preliminary installation work for the new combiner. As a result, 89.5 and 88.1 (and potentially translators in Manchester, Newbury, Woodstock, Brattleboro and Kendall at Hanover) will be operating at low power most of the day and will be off the air for approximately two hours in the afternoon. Once that work is complete, full power will be restored until crews can get up there to install the repaired antennas later in May.



This work is weather-dependent, so if anything changes with the schedule, we will let you know. Thank you again for your patience! We hope you can listen online if you are unable to hear VPR on the radio during this time.