Montreal, QC June 26, 2004

 

Welcome to Mt Royal (or PARC DU MONT ROYAL) This is a very prominent park located right in the center of Montreal, QC., with breath-taking views of the city and the beautiful Canadian terrain around the park. The park is a high point and very popular tourist destination and local destination as well. (Many bike and foot trails). This is also home to Montreal's main broadcast facility, the CBC tower. This tower is one of the more  famous broadcast towers with several antennas and  tenants on it. Unfortunatley  information on Canadian broadcasting is , oh how do I put it, not the best... So using several records, information from  Garrett Wollman's Bostonradio.org site, here is my best attempt to identify who is who on it... (note: missing from here is the two bay CFGL 105.7 antenna which is located on a short tower in the rear).

 

The tower located high above Parc Du Mont Royal in the heart of Montreal, QC.

The entire tower. There are actually four broadcast "levels" on here. Below is a close up of each level, and who we  assume is using it.

Antenna A: is most likely CKOO 98.5, 41,000 watts. (Dielectric 8 Bay) Antenna B: is most likely CJPX 99.5, 9,000 watts (Dielectric 4 Bay) Antenna C: is a TV antenna is a VHF Multi Station antenna supporting  (More likely CBFT (2), CBMT (6) or (Less likely) CFTM (10), CFCF (12) (Dielectric)   Antenna D: is most likely a backup, it is a low power Dielectric model. Antenna E: UHF Panel multi station antenna, supporting CIVM (17), CFJP (35), CKMI-TV1 (46)

Judging from the size and the style of these panel elements, this is a horizontally polarized TV antenna. This antenna is either (most likely) CFTM (10), CFCF (12) or (less likely) CBFT (2), CBMT (6).

Here is a unique item, a horizontally polarized master FM antenna. Here is my best guess at who is using it, CFQR 92.5, CHOM 97.7, CKMF 94.3, CJFM 95.9, CITE 107.3 Now according to FCC records, CKMF is circularly polarized, however FCC records are only what Canada must report for coordination purposes

Now things get even more complicated. This six bay antenna (either made by Dielectric or Shively {it has the trademark Shively 'brown' radomes}) most likely supports, CBME 88.5, CISM 89.3,  CKUT 90.3, CIRA 91.3, CBM 93.5, CBF 95.1, CBFX 100.7. Now what is complicated is the extreme difference in power levels, CKUT operates at 6kW, while CBFX operates at 100kW. It is unusual to have such high power level differences on one master antenna panel. But with such high gain, it is possible.

Looking at the skyline of downtown Montreal from Parc Du Mont Royal, and if you look to the right, you will see a tall building that comes to a point, to the right of that is a square building which has a very tall mast on it. That mast is...

The 16 bay CKOI FM antenna, radiating a super 310,000 watts! Because the station is such a high power and needs so much antenna gain, plus downward reduction, a large antenna is installed. The big problem with such a large antenna is you get a "waffling" outward pattern with a lot of downard nulls and lobes, this causing very poor reception as you get closer to the antenna! Yes , the antenna works better the FARTHER you are from it. In fact on Auto route 15 heading towards 10 & 20, you have a very tough time with reception off of this monster.