Paul Thurst – Page 165 – Engineering Radio

The Engineering Room

The rack room, engineering room, technical operations center, frame room, or whatever it is called, is a central part of any radio station studio facility. Normally found in a rack room are things like computer servers, switches and routers, structured cabling, telephone equipment, audio routing equipment, audio processing equipment, satellite receivers, wire termination blocks, microwave transmitters, and receivers, and sometimes even broadcast transmitters and phasors.

This is a rack room for one of the clients we service. This particular facility has 6 FM and 2 AM radio stations. Several stations share the same programming, however, so more accurately, there are four formats, thus four air studios, and four production studios. The station uses AudioVault 100 for its audio playback and automation. It is probably one of the few AV100 systems still in use.

Broadcast Electronics Audiovault 100 system

There are four servers and drive bays mounted in two racks, right next to the 5 KW AM transmitter. Doesn’t seem to be an issue.

TOC AM transmitters and Phasor — TOC AM transmitters and Gates Phasor

The studio is also co-located with one of the AM station’s transmitter sites, which always creates a special set of engineering problems. The antenna array consists of two 90-degree towers phased 210 degrees, which creates a figure eight pattern to the north and south. The studio building is in one of the main lobes of the antenna system. This means extra grounding is needed in the rack room and special attention needs to be paid to things like phone wiring and computer network cabling. This facility uses shielded Cat5E, which seems to take care of any stray RF. Of course, all the audio is balanced and properly terminated.

ATI 416 DA wiring connections — ATI DA 416 wiring connections

For audio distribution, ATI DA416 audio distribution amps are used. These are used to distribute the air signal, the program and audition audio, the satellite feeds, and remote broadcast feeds.

There are several considerations for well designed engineering rooms:

Future wiring work will be needed, there is no way that an engineer can plan for every contingency. It is difficult to plan one or two years ahead, much less five or ten. Keeping the wire conduits, raceways, trays, or troughs accessible is key to a happy existence. This can be done by using overhead trays or raised floors and good cable management.
Ground everything to a single-point ground bus. There is no such thing as too much grounding, so long as everything is bonded together. Be sure to include TELCO and service entrance grounds.
Have direct paths outside to accommodate the STL transmission line, satellite cabling, etc. If those antennas are located on the roof, have roof access in the rack room.
The environment directly impacts the life of the equipment. Keeping the rack room environmentally isolated from the rest of the facility is highly desirable. HVAC systems should be sized for the highest equipment load on the hottest day of the year. Having some type of backup air conditioning is also a good idea.
Leave plenty of room to work behind racks or on the wire wall. Cramped spaces create mistakes.
Make sure there is plenty of light to work, lack of light also creates mistakes.
Reserve some space for future growth. Extra room on the back wall for more punch blocks, and extra space for additional racks is always a good plan.
Keep the wiring neat and documented. There is nothing worse than an undocumented engineering room, it makes life difficult and in many cases, will eventually knock a station or two off the air when a wire gets snipped or pulled out.
Make the room secure. Keep the doors closed and keep unauthorized people out.

There are two conventions of thought when it comes to rack planning. The first is that all equipment should be mounted in close proximity. It is easier to run all the STL transmission lines to one rack, all the satellite cables to another, etc. Then there is the “rack assigned to a station” method, where each station has one rack with all of its processing, STL, EAS, and other equipment in it. I prefer the first method, as it makes the room look more uniform, your mileage may vary.

When done right, engineering rooms can be a great centerpiece to any facility. It is very impressive to take a client through the studio building and end up with “And this is the heart of the facility, all the radio stations run through this room…” Several larger facilities have glass walled rack rooms for just that purpose. It can be a positive attribute when everything is buttoned up.

Radio Station Food

One of the great side benefits of working at a radio station is the regular availability of free food. I almost don’t want to do a post on this because somehow, some corporate boss is going to read about it and a no-free food edict will result.

Every so often, some local deli or pizza place will drop off something for the air staff. Usually, it is a friend of a friend, and nothing nefarious is going on. When it arrives, the odor of good things to eat wafts through the building. With the smell of blood in the water, the sharks swim out of the sales bullpen and a feeding frenzy develops. Just watch out for your fingers, during the scrum, it is difficult to tell the difference between a digit and a sausage.

It goes fast, when I walked by this table 15 minutes ago, there were five full pizza boxes, just delivered.

Now there is one box with two slices of some meat lovers’ heart attack special.

The first radio station licensed to Albany, NY

Although not the first station in the area, that honor goes to WGY. In fact, RPI licensed WHAZ in 1923, which makes it the second regional station. Starting on 1430 Khz as WOKO in New York City in 1923, the station made a few stops along the way. One of those was on Mt. Beacon from 1928 until 1930. The original transmitter building is still there, although the tower was taken down in 2005 to make way for the DTV stations that moved in. I always wondered why an FM tower on the top of a mountain had a base insulator.

In 1930, WOKO was sold and moved to Albany, NY, becoming the first station licensed to that city. The transmitter site is located off of Kenwood Avenue in the town of Bethlehem, about 4 miles south of downtown Albany. It first signed on with 1 KW, increasing to 5 KW in 1947. This is the original transmitter site, but the towers were redone in the mid-1970s. The towers themselves are 130 electrical degrees (235 feet) tall. Like all AM stations, for years it serviced the community until it was gradually reduced to a satellite repeater, now owned by Disney.

The original transmitter building is in the back, the front was added in the 1970s when the studios and offices colocated with the transmitter. Prior to that, they were in downtown Albany.

Nautel XR6 Medium wave broadcast transmitter — Nautel XR6 medium wave broadcast transmitter

The Harris BC5H transmitter was replaced with a Nautel in 2006. The Harris AM H series transmitter has a pair of transistors on the audio driver board that were unique to that transmitter and no longer manufactured. There are no equivalent replacement parts. Once those transistors fail, the transmitter is done.

I really think that AM could make a comeback, but the following conditions need to be met:

Kill AM HD radio. Kill it dead.
Cut away the dead wood. Those stations that are not making money, have not made money and have no hope of ever turning a profit again. Most of these are owned by large consolidators that cannot yet afford to write off the bad investment. More and more will be spun off and given to MMTC and others. If they can make a go of it, good. If not, then the stations will go dark and eventually surrender their licenses. We have one like that around here that basically turns its transmitter on one day a year to avoid license forfeiture. That should stop, either they use it or lose it.
FM radio will continue to be the investment bank darling, in spite of lower and lower listeners and revenue. This will lead to more and more translators, HD radio, LPFM, and other things being shoehorned into an already crowded band, creating AM-like conditions on the FM band.
Those that can take on the challenge of an AM station should immediately begin looking at reducing maintenance costs. Directional antennas are money holes, if at all possible, get rid of the DA in favor of a single tower closer to town. Duplexing with another AM is a great way to save money and the costs of building a new tower. Using a taller tower, up to 190 electrical degrees, will daytime signal and reduce the radiation angle (vertical) of the tower, thus permitting better PSSA, PSRA, and or nighttime operation.
Local programming. Local sports, local politicians, local bands, local church services, local events, etc. Local.

But anyway…

The Bauer Transmitter

This is a Bauer FB-5000J transmitter, stashed away in the corner of a transmitter site.

Sorry I can’t get a better angle on it, as I said, it is stuck in the corner.

I don’t know what vintage it is, it seems to be from the early 1960s or so as it has a low serial number. It ran as the main transmitter until the Harris Gates BC5H was installed in 1976. The transmitter is in beautiful shape, almost a museum piece. I don’t know if it still has all its original iron, as the modulation transformer may have contained PCBs and been disposed of. Otherwise, it is complete and tuned to 1,460 kHz.

I think the owner might be willing to donate it to a reputable organization, preferably a 501(c)(3).