Farnsworth Peak

Farnsworth Peak
Farnsworth Peak from the west face in May 2008
Elevation	9,066 ft (2,763 m)
Location
Location	Salt Lake / Tooele counties, Utah, U.S.
Range	Oquirrh Mountains
Coordinates	40°39′35.22″N 112°12′08.45″W / 40.6597833°N 112.2023472°W / 40.6597833; -112.2023472
Climbing
Easiest route	Hike or private road.

Farnsworth Peak is a peak located on the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountain range, approximately 18 miles (29 km) south west of Salt Lake City, Utah. The mountain is named for Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the first completely electronic television.^[1] It is used mainly for radio and television transmission, but could potentially become part of a ski resort owned by nearby Kennecott Land.^[2] On the eastern side of the mountain, the land is completely private, and access is restricted. The peak can be reached by hiking from the Tooele side, which is mostly public land. The public BLM land extends from ridge peak West to the base of the mountain.^[3] Public access to this land is available off SR-36 near Lake Point. Several Cattle gates need to be opened and closed, but are public access roads to public lands for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding.

Radio and television use

A closeup of "Big" Farnsworth, which houses transmitters for KSL among others.

Deep snow covers the transmitter site. The mountain is often only accessible by snow machines, snowmobiles or a helicopter.

Farnsworth Peak, in local radio terms, refers to three separate radio transmitter sites. They are known as "Big Farnsworth," "The KSTU Site," and "Little Farnsworth."^[1] Each site hosts a number of radio towers which broadcast radio and television stations. Big Farnsworth, the farthest north, hosts towers for KSL-TV, the local NBC affiliate. Extensive studies of RF radiation from the site have been conducted recently, in an effort to aid engineers who work on the mountain.^[4]

FM stations with transmitters on Farnsworth Peak

Farnsworth Peak contains a vast majority of Salt Lake FM signals. The following is a complete list of FM stations with transmitters located on (or around) Farnsworth Peak.

^[5]

Television stations

Farnsworth Peak is home to several full service television stations. KSL-TV is perhaps the best known transmitter site on the mountain, but the peak houses transmitters for KSTU-TV,^[6] the local FOX affiliate, KUCW^[7] (The CW), and KUTV^[8] (CBS) among others. KTMW, an independent station and KUPX, the local Ion affiliate, now broadcast their digital signals from Little Farnsworth Peak about 0.45 miles to the south. KSL-TV was the first television station to use the mountain for broadcasting. It also is responsible for transmitters on the mountain, having engineers on site for periods of time in case of emergencies.^[9] A large number of the television stations located on the peak previously carried their analog signals from the same sites. Farnsworth Peak was one of the first places in the country to construct a facility specifically for digital television transmission.^[10] Specifically, Farnsworth Peak houses transmitters for the following stations:

Lightning incident

On September 13, 2009, lightning struck the main DTV stick carrying a majority of the area's digital television signals. The lightning strike took eight stations in total off air, and damaged the combiner for the tower. According to the engineers on site, the combiner was leaking oil all over the place. The lightning strike of the tower also caused a failure of the waveguide switch control system, which caused it to display improperly. An engineer on site was able to correct that situation within hours, but the combiner would not be working for a few more hours. By the next day, the problem had been fixed and the stations were back on the air and all were in working order.^[11]

References