Here are some views from September of 2005 from the Wiliwilinui tower site on O'ahu.
Wiliwilinui is the transmitter site for KHPR Honolulu, KRTR Kailua, KPHW Kaneohe,
and KPXO-TV Kaneohe on the island of O'ahu, Hawai'i.
The tower facility at Wiliwilinui
The Wiliwilinui tower site is located on the southeast side of Oahu, about 750 meters ( 2460 feet) above sea level. The tower supports a combined Dielectric FM antenna, a Jampro UHF panel array, and numerous other communications antennas. It is a tough place to get to. You can hike for two hours up the steep and slippery trail from the ridge above Wailupe, or catch a ride up in a helicopter. Since we have tools and other heavy stuff, we choose the easy way. We depart from the Honolulu airport at 9:00 AM, and return to the airport at 12:30 PM. All aboard!
The access point for the trail on
Okoa Place on lower Wiliwilinui ridge.
It is a two hour hike from this area up to the tower.
Heading up to the ridge. Swirling headwinds off the top usually make it a bumpy ride.
Final approach to Wiliwilinui. This requires a 180 degree turn at the top, and a skilled landing on the very narrow ridge.
Making the turn to landing..
We made it!. The helicopter has other things to do for a while. We will see him again in a few hours.
Cracking open the door and getting to work.
Crater 96 on the left, Power 104 on the right, both BE 35 kilowatt transmitters.
It might not be obvious from these pictures, but the building is tightly packed.
Hardly enough room to sneeze!
The rack of STL gear atop the transmitters. There is no extra floor space for them.
Access to the three station combiner is below the porch. A tight squeeze.
The main combiner cavities under the deck. A very tight squeeze.
Some of the combiner switchgear
Backup transmitters. BE 3KW solid-state for each station.
Three phase power and the backup antennas
The tower base plate. Drain holes are installed, but clog up quickly.
The two towers. On the left, the backup antennas, and the right,
the main tower antennas
OK, time to go, we are out of there.
On the way back to the airport, Diamond Head to the south of us.
Waikiki and the H-1 Freeway to the left of our route.
Approaching downtown Honolulu with the airport straight ahead.
The State government buildings below and downtown coming up
Looking down at some of downtown Honolulu passing by.....
The Aloha tower and Ala Moana Blvd.
One of the lifelines of the Islands, a departing Matson Inter-Island ship transport.
One of the mainland Matson container ships, loading up.
Our pilot making the approach to Honolulu International airport over the lagoon surrounding the main runway (to the left).
The lagoon.
Final turn into the airport.
Back to the BESBD Services Page
© 2005 Broadcast Engineering Services of Bonny Doon