WHRB Buys New Equipment, Improves Spotty Transmission

Last Sunday after ten years of planning and fundraising, WHRB, Harvard's student radio station, installed a new antenna and more powerful transmitter on Holyoke Center giving people throughout the Boston area stronger and clearer reception of the station.

The new equipment, which became operational Monday afternoon, includes a vertical polarization antenna and cost about $30,000. It will reach areas where reception has previously been spotty and improve reception by car and inexpensive table radios.

"People in some of the houses couldn't even get us." Beth A. Kopley '81, president and found drive chairman for the station, said. "An elevator shaft in Holyoke Center got in the way of our signals. With our added power we'll be able to get through that," she added.

Although federal guidelines limit the area to which WHRB may transmit, the new equipment will permit saturation coverage within the metropolitan area.

Jumping Dogs

"We've heard from people in Weston and suburbs as far away as Manchester, N.H.," Matthew H. Rubin '62-4, the station's technical director, said. "They used to have to tune us in very carefully and the reception was scratchy. Now it's strong and clear," he added.

However, Rubin said, the most significant impact of the additions lay elsewhere. "It has produced a real uplifting of station morale," he said.