KPFT, the Pacifica Foundation's noncommercial radio station that has struggled for years with funding and equipment issues, has acquired a new $180,000 transmitter that station officials said will enable 90.1 FM to broadcast for the first time at its full 100,000-watt signal strength.

Duane Bradley, the station's general manager, said purchase of the new transmitter also has enabled the station to secure its Federal Communications Commission license through 2021.

Tests were being run on the transmitter Friday and the station was expected to be at full power this weekend.

The new transmitter "will give us the most solid signal that KPFT has ever had," Bradley said. "Knowing that the license is cleared and having this brand new unit will make us more solid in the market than we've been in 45 ½ years, which is a real accomplishment."

KPFT has been operating at a fraction of its licensed signal strength since its transmitter was damaged by a lightning strike in February 2013. It was required to obtain a series of FCC permits to operate at limited power while it raised money for the new transmitter through local fundraisers and a loan from the parent Pacifica Foundation, Bradley said.

"This will increase our (signal pattern), but the real impact is that it will do away with the patchy signal that we've had in areas like the east side of downtown and help us penetrate buildings we haven't been able to penetrate," he said.

The station, which is staffed and programmed in large part by volunteers, continues to struggle with funding as the parent Pacifica Foundation attempts to get its finances in order to qualify for federal grant money, Bradley said.

The new transmitter, he added, could enable KPFT to increase funding by leasing at least one of its two HD Radio channels. One of the HD channels is currently leased to KTRU, the student-run station at Rice University, but that space will be vacated later this year with the launch of a low-power FM transmitter on the Rice campus.