Technical Information on WMRL

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WMRL is a "repeater", using a very good antenna and receiver, and a carefully selected site, we can receive the 90.7 mHz signal from Harrisonburg. It is then retransmitted on 89.9 mHz. The entire station is controlled from our Harrisonburg studio. See excerpt from our program guide:

In 1995 we finished a project dubbed "Lexington Squared." WMRL, as most of you know, is a "repeater" station. This means that it receives WMRA on 90.7 mHz and retransmits the signal on 89.9 mHz. Since WMRL began operation, it has been plagued with signal interference problems. The equipment that received 90.7 was too close to the equipment that transmitted 89.9 and the result was raspy noise on top of the signal and worse. We have worked diligently for two years to resolve the problem. We tried different receptions schemes. We installed special filters. Yet the operation was not stable unless the power was reduced and the audio placed in mono.

Thanks to the cooperation of Virginia Military Institute (our installation has always been located on the post) we were able to move the receive section of our installation to the rear wall of the steam plant far away from the transmitter antenna on Nichols Engineering Building . The receive signal is piped back to the transmitter site using direct cables "borrowed" from the phone system.

The WMRL photo tour has some pictures and text that will give you further insight into this unusual installation.