Californian station loses ground!

For the second time in two years copper thieves have kicked the Butte Broadcasting Company's KKXX AM transmitter site in California.

According to the Oroville Mercury Register, this time the thieves made of with about 22,000 feet of Number 10 wire from the ground system, which was apparently bundled into lengths of 10 to 20 feet and then carted away.

The Station manager said the transmitter was able to remain on the air. Thieves left just enough wire for the ground system to allow the station to continue to broadcast.

After the first wire theft in 2008, copper grounding wires were replaced and a concrete footing was poured about every 10 to 15 feet along the length of the wire in hopes of discouraging future thefts. However this time, thieves cut and removed the wires between the concrete.

According to a scrap copper website, with the worlds economy still not very stable, that kind of wire is only is fetching between $1.00 and $3.00 a pound.

So the thieves went to a lot of work and risked their lives to get very little in return.

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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