This is The Stairway to Heaven for a different decade.
It is so big. She looks like, one of those rap guys’ girlfriends. But, you know, who understands those rap guys? They only talk to her, because, she looks like a total prostitute, ‘kay?
Ordinarily, I don’t much go in for such things as rap music. But this is entertaining and somewhat universal.
Hard to believe that it was almost twenty years ago. Almost every lyric in that song is innuendo for some sex act. Like it. Dislike it. No rules were broken when making this song. It went to number 1 on the Billboard chart in the summer of 1992 and no radio station anywhere ever received a fine for playing it. It was quite scandalous at the time, of course, we were young and naive then. Things have changed.
To the beanpole dames in the magazines: You ain’t it, Miss Thing!
It occurs to me that part of the reason that the radio industry sucks is that the music industry sucks. The radio and music industry used to have a symbiotic relationship, each benefiting greatly from the existence of the other. Of course, the greed and poor business practices of the last decade have driven every fun and thus entertaining element away from both industries. Leave it to the bean counters, who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Sadly, no hit that I have heard on the top 40 stations these days even comes close to the entertainment value of this 18-year-old song.
I was reading several very interesting IBOC-related articles and posts today. First of all, if Tom Ray, an engineer from WOR and a strong proponent of AM HD Radio seems a little reticent lately, well, perhaps this explains a few things:
It is telling that one of the most vocal proponents of IBOC would publish an article such as this. It seems to be diametrically opposed to the latest press release from iBiquity insisting all is well, never fear, etc. Perhaps it is meant to spur things on, rally the troops as it were.
The second item I found very interesting, Paul Riismandel from Radio Survivor fools around with a Sony XDRF1 HD receiver. He posts a great deal of information about his experience. It is a good read. To summarize some of the points of this story:
It is difficult to receive HD radio signals in the Chicago Suburbs.
When FM HD radio is in use, it is difficult to tell the difference in sound quality between analog and the IBOC programming
Secondary channels have low bit rates and are not suitable for listening to music
Finally, Radio World, again, states that after six months 86 FM stations have completed the allowed IBOC power upgrade. That information is from the NAB. I cannot find any official FCC information regarding this, I would like to know if any of those 86 stations are around here. By the way, 86 out of 1,524 stations representing 6 percent of existing IBOC stations have been upgraded. That makes 0.9 percent of the total number of FM stations licensed to the US running -14dBc IBOC carriers.
I will allow the reader to draw his/her own conclusions.
If you have ever wondered about those ubiquitous NOAA all hazards radio (formerly National Weather Service radio) stations, wonder no more. These stations transmit on one of five frequencies in the 162 MHz band with power ranges between 250 and 1,000 watts. There are over 1,000 transmitters scattered throughout the country including outlying territories like American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
The original 1958 plan was for these stations to transmit Aviation and Marine weather forecasts. The system was expanded for use by the general public in the early sixties. Since that time, it has been slowly expanding, with the most recent survey concluding that NOAA weather radio station can be received by 95% of the US population.
One of those stations in my neck of the woods is due for a transmitter upgrade. WXL-37 uses two Scientific Radio Systems SR-416P transmitters, as a main and a standby. The programming audio comes from the NWS office in Albany, New York, via TELCO line. The old transmitters are tube type made by in 1976. They are reliable transmitters, however, after 34 years of continuous use, they are getting a little tired. They are also big and bulky and since Scientific Radio Systems went out of business, not been supported.
This year, NOAA is replacing these transmitters with a Nautel NG1000. I have worked with Nautel’s military-grade transmitters before and found them to be extremely rugged. Those transmitters are what the original AMPFET design was based on. Nautel is not the only vendor that NOAA is using however, others include Armstrong Transmitters and Crown Broadcast.
NOAA Scientific Radio Systems SR416P VHF transmitters
The Nautel NG1000 is a little thing, taking up about half an equipment rack with an outboard cavity filter and dummy load. There are two drawers, a controller an antenna switch, and a remote control. Each drawer is its own 1 KW transmitter. The GUI is on a laptop, which is what I prefer. If there must be some sort of computer-driven GUI, then make it removable, so that when lightning strikes the 1,000-foot steel lightning rod 25 feet away, it doesn’t get blown up. Each transmitter is connected to a 30 AMP 240 Volt breaker via a 4-prong twist lock plug.
Nautel NG1000 NOAA transmitter
The antenna for this station is near the middle of this 1,000-foot tower, thus the station gets excellent coverage with a TPO of 1,000 watts.
American Tower site, Highland, NY
On a related side note, the computer synthesizedvoices normally heard on NOAA stations took several years to evolve. Remember when this began back in the mid 1990’s with “Paul.” Several years later, “Craig” and “Donna” were introduced. Finally, “Tom,” is able to change voice inflections for emphasis. When I was in the Coast Guard, we did high seas synopsis and forecast on HF without aid of computers. At times, especially during typhoon season, it got a little busy in the weather broadcast position. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Personally, I’d rather hear a human voice, especially in a crisis.
As broadcasters, we don’t really hear that much about ceramic power vacuum tubes these days, as more and more broadcast transmitters migrate to solid-state devices. Once upon a time, however, power tubes were the engine that drove the entire operation. Tubes had to be budgeted for, stocked, rotated, and replaced on a regular schedule. Some of those dern things were expensive too.
Take the 4CX35,000A which was used in the Harris MW50 transmitters. The transmitter used two of these tubes, one in the RF section and one in the modulator. As I recall, new tubes cost somewhere north of $8,000.00 each from EIMAC. Plus, in the A models, there were two 4CX1500A driver tubes. All of which could add up to an expensive maintenance cost every two years or so.
The next best option was to buy rebuilt tubes. Rebuilt tubes were about half the cost of brand-new ones. Some people complain that rebuilds don’t last as long, or only last half as long as the new tubes. I never found that to be the case. I often found other factors that affected tube life far greater, such as filament voltage management, cooling, and by extension, cleanliness.
I can say I never had a warranty issue with ECONCO tubes. I cannot say that about EIMAC, as during the late 90s and early ’00s (or whatever you call that decade), I had several brand new 4CX3500 tubes that were bad right out of the box. These days, ECONCO and EIMAC are both owned by CPI.
I spoke with John Canevari from ECONCO who had a lot of information. For example, as the tube ages, the filament gets more flexible, not less. Most ceramic power tubes use a carbonized tungsten filament containing some small amount of thorium. As the tube ages, the filament can no longer boil off enough electrons and the emission begins to drop off. That is the normal end of life for a power tube. Occasionally, some catastrophic failure will occur.
There are many steps in the rebuilding process:
Dud is received from the field, the serial number is recorded and the tube is tested in.
The tube is prepped by sand-blasting the sealing rings
It is opened
The filament is replaced. In 60-70% of the cases, the grid is replaced. In those tubes that have a screen assembly, 20-60% of those will be replaced.
The Interior of the tube is cleaned
The tube is resealed and tested for leaks with a gas spectrometer
The tube is placed on the vacuum machine. Tubes are evacuated hot, smaller tubes take 12 to 24 hours, and very large tubes can take up to one week.
The tube is nipped off of the vacuum while still hot. When the tube is fully cooled the vacuum scale is normally around 10-12
The exterior of the tube is cleaned and replated. Silver for tubes that are socketed and Nickel for tubes that have leads.
The tube is retested to the manufacturer’s original specification or greater.
After that, the tube is sent back to its owner or returned to stock. John mentioned that they are very proud of their vacuum tube processing machines, so I asked if he could send along a picture. They certainly look impressive to me, too:
Vacuum tube processing machine, photo courtesy of ECONCO
Not exactly sure which tube type these are, but they sure look like 4CX15,000:
Vacuum pump working on rebuilt ceramic power tubes, photo courtesy ECONCO
Econco has been in business since 1968 and rebuilds about 600-1,000 tubes per month. In the past, broadcasters used most of the larger tube types. However, with the majority of broadcast transmitters shifting to solid state, other markets have opened up such as industrial heating, military, research and medical equipment.
