OCR Text |
Show Is there life on Quarry Mountain? Park City News Thursday, December 30, 1982 Page A7 by Nan Chalat Down on Main Street KP-CW's KP-CW's Assistant Engineer Al Cook is checking electrical grounds, fussing over Edna, the ancient transmitter, holding off radio announcers who want to know whether the new transmitter is on line, and waiting for his next instructions from Chief Engineer Bill McDonald. "Um, Main Street to Mars are you there, Bill?" Cook stands by the intercom waiting for the reply from Quarry Mountain where McDonald and assistant Bob Lewis are trying to track down the bugs at the station's new transmitting station. Silence. "Is there life on Quarry Mountain?" Actually, there has been an unusual abundance of life on Quarry Mountain lately. Engineering crews from three radio stations and a new TV channel have been hauling sophisticated communications com-munications equipment up to the 7,418-foot-high summit above Ridgeview subdivision. sub-division. Though the equipment is sophisticated, the means available for transporting it are not what you would call state of the art. In fact, McDonald Mc-Donald and Lewis have spent a significent part of their spare time during the last three weekends skiing up to the station with backpacks back-packs full of electronic paraphernalia. "Unfortunately, they have also had to carry a lot of it back down again. First there was a kink in an expensive section of cable which had to be replaced. Now there are problems with the phone lines which will carry KPCW's signal from the Main Street studio to Quarry Mountain to be transmitted tran-smitted throughout the county. coun-ty. According to Station Manager Blair Feulner, "The telephone company, in my estimation, has cost us two months because of their inability to provide high enough quality circuits." It was a combination of those phone lines and discretion: which was keeping McDonald off the intercom. in-tercom. It wouldn't have been printable anyway. McDonald, Mc-Donald, a professional electronics elec-tronics engineer is a supervisor super-visor of interactive graphics systems and has worked on the simulations for "Star Trek" and "Tron." But he had run into a major glitch which would further delay hooking up Beatrice, the shiny new 250-watt FM transmitter, tran-smitter, and her accompanying accom-panying exciter. Lewis had to pack the exciter back down the mountain to Main Street where it has been on line helping Edna. KPCW now hopes to have Beatrice on line by the second week in January. The phone company, Feulner J - 7 I If Iff - t if - V .. Nt ' Bod Lewis plays with Beatrice. pholo by Nan Chala' FOR THE SHOW! " h . Perhaps the "greatest show" in Park City, these elegant 4 bedroom hillside condominium homes sport spectacular million dollar views of nearly the entire Park City resort community. Sumptuously Sump-tuously appointed, these contemporary condos will delight even the most discriminating buyer. Additionally, the ACTIVE SOLAR design means TAX CREDIT for you. Priced from $265,000 with excellent bank financing. Visit our model. We'll be there daily from 1 -5 p.m. RIDGEVIEW CONDOMINIUMS MANSELL REALTORS 592 Main St., Park City, 649-1602 says, claims to have found two acceptable circuits which McDonald will check this weekend. If the circuits work, Beatrice will need to pass an FCC proof of performance per-formance before taking over for Edna. There may be a shut down of no more than one hour during which time listeners will hear a series of weird tones. Once the new transmitter is working, Feulner says, KPCW's signal will be "clearer and stronger. It will be solid in areas where it was spotty before." The greatest improvements will be heard in Snyderville, Summit Park and sections of Park Meadows. Salt Lake public radio station KUER is also running run-ning into problems on Quarry Mountain, but hopes to have its translator on line next week. KUER is part of the National Public Radio broadcasting system. It has begun expanding to offer statewide coverage and began broadcasting from Lewis Peak IV2 weeks ago. Its signal can be picked up at 88.5 FM from Lewis Peak and, if all goes well, at 89.5 FM from Quarry Mountain. KALL Radio is also taking advantage of what appears to be the ideal broadcasting spot for Park City. Its Quarry Mountain translator is already in place. Park City's first local TV station, Park City Home Theater, hopes to begin sending sen-ding its signal from Quarry Mountain to subscribers Jan. 1. Phone excise tax to go up January 1 Effective Jan. 1, 1983, the federal excise tax on telephone tele-phone service will increase from 1 percent to 3 percent. Carol Dunlap, public relations rela-tions staff manager for Mountain Bell in Utah, said the increase results from a tax package adopted by the U.S. Congress last August a tax package that boosts taxes by $98.9 billion over a three-year period. "Under the August plan, the telephone excise tax will be 3 percent through 1983, 1984 and 1985," Dunlap said. "After that, the tax will be abolished until Congress acts again in the meantime." Dunlap said the two percent per-cent increase will apply to any telephone service provided pro-vided after Nov. 1, 1982, but billed for the first time in January of 1983. Estimates indicate the two percentage point increase will add an estimated $1.3 billion to the excise taxes paid by telephone users in the United States. The estimates esti-mates do not reflect the impact of customer premises pre-mises equipment to be purchased during the coming com-ing year, since it will no longer be subject to the telephone service excise tax. Dunlap said the federal excise tax was first imposed by Congress during World War I as a "temporary measure." It was repealed briefly after the war, but was re-instituted during the depression, de-pression, and climbed as high as 25 percent on long-distance calls and 15 percent on local service. "Several years ago, Congress Con-gress voted to gradually eliminate the tax, which had stood at 10 percent for almost 20 years," Dunlap said. "In recent years, it dropped 1 percent each year, and was scheduled to be 1 percent in 1981 and eliminated elimin-ated at the end of 1982. "Legislation enacted in 1980, however, continued the tax at 2 percent through 1981, while a law passed in 1981 lowered it to 1 percent for 1982." Jimvyjlnl if liLLlLlU' I! ATIF Silver King State Bank's Insured Money Market Account. Compare with Brokerage Fund Rates. Insured Safety Full Service Banking 2 Convenient Locations No Early Withdrawal Penalties Personalized Professional Service We want to be Park City's bank STATE BANK Convenient, Professional, Full Service Banking 614 Main 1650 Park Avenue Each Depositor Insured to $100,000 by FDIC Member Utah Bancorporation Financial Family Even the smallest ads are read! |