The Kansas public radio antenna on the tower outside Allen County’s Crisis Response Center, 410 N. State St., will be removed.
The antenna is used to extend the broadcast range of KRPS, a non-commercial public radio station based in Pittsburg, to the Iola area.
Angie Murphy, 911 dispatch director, told county commissioners Tuesday exhaustive efforts to determine why there was interference when transmissions occurred on two or more dispatch channels led to the public radio antenna’s presence. When public radio transmissions were silenced, the interference went away, she said.
“The public radio antenna is the highest on the tower and transmits at 250 watts 24 hours a day,” Murphy said. “We had them back it off to 100 watts and still had interference.”
She said problems mainly occurred with transmissions to officers in outlying areas of the county. Her recommendation, accepted by commissioners, was to remove the public radio antenna from the tower.
“Our overriding concern has to be for safety of the officers,” Commissioner Dick Works said.
County Counselor Alan Weber will contact KRPS and give it 10 days to remove the antenna, a provision of the station’s contract to use the tower.
Broadcasts in Iola are at FM 91.3. The station otherwise broadcasts out of Weir, south of Pittsburg, on 89.9 FM, KRPS Director of Engineering Jeffrey Han told The Register. Iola is on the very edge of that broadcast area, and reception here will vary with the weather once Iola’s antenna is removed, he said.
Han noted that the station was seeking a new tower location to serve the Iola area. “Anything that gets you above the buildings will do,” Han said. “Of course, the higher it goes, the better coverage you’ll get.”
KRPS antenna will come down
