Low Power pending repairs
Every now and then something goes wrong. One of the nicer features of a solid state transmitter is a soft failure mode. For example, the loss of a single RF module may bring the transmitter down to 95% power vs 100% power. In a tube transmitter, the failure of the tube would mean 0% power.
This happened recently when a transmitter was turned off for tower maintenance. Upon restart, an RF module failed. Unfortunately, the spare RF module had already been used due to a lightning strike in early July. So we were down a few percent on the output meter until another RF module was ordered and installed. The station was running at 94% power according to the external watt meter. That equates to about half a dB power reduction over normal operations, which is really insignificant.
Naturally, the fact that the transmitter was at low power gave the program director another excuse to pile on. First I received this e-mail:
Getting reports out of both XXX and XXX that it’s nothing but the The (competing station) on 1xx.1 – the tropo is going pretty good right now. I’ll monitor on the ride in but needless to say we can’t fix this soon enough. We’ve been bad in XXX County for the last two weeks and I just assumed tropo and stayed quiet – could this module have been out for a while?
Where are we on a software controller so we can log in and monitor stuff like this?
To which I responded:
The module problem arose after the transmitter was turned back on, so no, this has not been a problem for the last two weeks, it has only been a problem since Sunday Morning at 11:42 am.
As I said below, the new module was ordered and as soon as it arrives, it will be put back in.
I then received this e-mail:
With all the shadowing in our contour and the short-spacing, we just can’t afford to loose 1db without tangible effects. We need every nanowatt possible everyday – especially in the summer.
So, Mr. Smarty paints there thinks that 0.00000001 watt makes a difference. The absurdity of that statement is un-measurable. Why not a femto watt or a yacto watt? Here was my politically correct response:
- I understand you want the transmitter fixed.
- I have done everything humanly possible to effect repairs including calling Harris on my day off to order parts and have them shipped.
- e-mails of this type do not make things go any faster, and are in fact, counter productive.
I hope one day, he reads this blog.
This power “craze” has been around for ever. I was on duty at a kW daytime directional station on 1590 when a TV crew arrived and set up their cameras to videotape the DJ giving a speech during a race riot back in 1967. The huge current draw from the lights needed for the video popped a breaker and the studio went dark. The Gates “Yard” was luckily on a separate circuit as well as the 30 Amp 2-pole breaker feeding the BC1-T. Immediately, the DJ asked if this “affected my wattage”! I had to run a couple of extension cords for the TV crew to other circuits in the building to power their hot lights for the taping. Most non-engineering types cannot fathom a reduction of a 100 watts! They think they have become a peanut whistle! If you told them that their 50 kW station was running at 25 kW, (only 3 dB less), a screaming match would undoubtedly occur.