Tour of Sutro Tower Transmitters, San Francisco

Reservations & tickets (free) are required for this meeting! -- don't leave home without them!

Tour Guides:
  • Date & time: SATURDAY, 22 June 2002
    • Your Choice of one of Three Tours --
    Meeting organizer: Gary Youngs
     
  • Program:

    • We've been offered this rare opportunity to tour one of the greatest "sticks" in the United States, the broadcasting transmitters on Mount Sutro in San Francisco. With the addition of the digital transmission plants to this facility, this is an outstanding time for us to pay a visit. We'll be talking about this meeting for a long time to come, as we have about our last Sutro visit some years ago, led by the late Don Lincoln.

    Gene Zastrow, the general manager of Sutro Tower Inc. and our longtime SMPTE stalwart and officer, along with RF veteran and SMPTE member Bob Hofert of KTVU, will lead us on tours of station transmitter "shacks". We'll see, firsthand, some of the new DTV installations serving the Bay Area market and learn about the engineering challenges of getting these all-new systems on the air -- and keeping them there!

    Sutro Tower is a 977-foot tall, self-supporting steel transmission structure shared by ten television stations, four FM radio stations, and various wireless communications services. Sutro Tower Inc. (STI), an independent corporation founded in 1968, is equally owned by KTVU, KRON, KPIX, and KGO. STI owns the tower and the service building, but not the broadcast equipment installed there. The building at the base of the tower is a story in its own right, built to withstand the collapse of the entire superstructure directly on its roof! That's unlikely, however, as the tower itself was designed with a center of gravity that will keep it standing in most conceivable earthquake scenarios.

    Access to this facility is very limited and security is naturally a high priority. Therefore, all of us will be required to obtain tickets via the SMPTEsf website. Sorry, but if your name is not on the list by 23:59 on Thursday, 20 June, they will not let you in on Saturday morning, so please sign up via the link on this website as soon as you are sure you will be able to attend.

    There will be three tours -- 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, and 11:00 AM -- all strictly limited in size. Tours will run about 45 minutes, with two tours going simultaneously to allow time for questions and for the next group to arrive.

    Parking is limited to those on any given tour. Please do not arrive more then 10 minutes early for your tour time, because there will not be a place for you to park in Sutro's tiny lot. Car pool if possible.

    For an interesting backgrounder on the tower and its history, along with some still photos, go to http://www.jimprice.com/sutro/.
    and http://www.bayinsider.com/partners/ktvu/aboutus/digital_sutro.html

    Welcome:

    SMPTEsf  welcomes members and friends to attend without charge. Reservations are required for this meeting!

    Location:

    Sutro Tower, San Francisco -- Directions will be provided with your confirmed reservations and tickets.
    The Sutro guards will check your name against the reservation list and the emailed ticket(s). Be prepared with a picture ID as you approach the entry gate. Do not bring anyone in your vehicle who is not registered and does not have an emailed ticket. No substitutions.
     

    Reservations are now closed


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