"David" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 21:02:51 GMT, "David Eduardo"
They lost the licensed tower in an aircraft collision late last year. They
are running an existing
auxiliary tower in a nonconforming operation at half-power until such time
as the
half-waver can be rebuilt at the current site or a new site found. The
auxiliary tower, which was put into use within a couple of hours of the
aircraft tragedy, can not handle full power as it is very short.

Getting permits to rebuild the tower may take many more months. During
this
time, KFI is running 25 kw. It is not necessary to re-license a station
for
a bona fide emergency operation.

The tower can not immediately be rebuilt as it qualifies as a totally new
structure, subject to today's codes and regulations, not those in effect
when the old tower was built in 1947.

KTAR does really well with a 440' tower. KFI may have to make do with
something similar.

They could do the 50 kw into the 1/8th wave tower, but it was built as an
auxiliary tower and the ATU will not take 50 kw. Since the metro coverage is
satisfactory with 25 kw, and metro coverage is all they care about, it is
unlikely they will "fix" the small tower until they get the 1/2 wave tower
back in operation. In fact, they had their best book ever after the tower
fell and they were on lower power on a less efficient tower.