Paul Thurst – Page 43 – Engineering Radio

North Adams tower update III

And final.

It has been a year and a half since the tower collapse in North Adams, Massachusetts. Since that time, WUPE-FM (Gamma Broadcasting), WNNI, and W266AW (New England Public Radio) have been operating with STAs at lower than licensed power. We have completed the installation of the combined antenna, filters, and combiners and now all stations are back to full power. Here are a few pictures of the transmitter room:

WUPE-FM and WNNI transmitter racks, North Adams, MA

WUPE-FM (left-hand rack) is using a Crown FM-2000 transmitter, loafing along at 1,060 watts. WNNI (right-hand rack) is using a Gates Air Flexiva 2 running at 1,650 watts. Those stations are combined with a Shively Combiner:

Shively combiner — Shively 2-way star junction combiner

We are still doing some grounding and neatening work behind the racks:

The Shively versa tune antennas that were mounted to the wooden utility pole as emergency antennas will be retained as backup antennas for both stations.

Transmitters for WUPE, WNNI and W266AW — Transmitters for WUPE, WNNI, and W266AW

We share the room with Access Plus, which is a wireless internet service provider in western Massachusetts. Their stuff is in the open-frame racks to the right of WNNI.

Another view:

Transmitter racks for WUPE-FM, WNNI and W266AW

TL;DR: Tower collapses, and the facility is rebuilt better than before.

Radio is dead? Don’t tell these guys then…

WXHC in Homer, New York will never be listed on the NY Stock Exchange. Is that bad?

They don’t think so. A small class A FM station, one of many that signed on in the early 1990s as part of the 80-90 drop-ins (FCC docket 80-90, for those unfamiliar). Many of these stations did not fair too well and ended up being absorbed by larger stations and groups starting with the first wave of ownership deregulation in 1993.

WHXC has remained under the same ownership since it signed on in 1991. Eves Broadcasting is a family operation, employing maybe half a dozen people. Their studios and offices are on the third floor of the Bank of Niagara right in the center of town. The facility is very nice. Like any successful radio station, its focus is the community they serve. The format is “Oldies” but they also broadcast high school football, Syracuse sports and so on. They host a yearly Blue Grass festival on the village green.

The air studio has an Arrakis console and uses BSI Simian automation software. They have live DJs from 6 am to 6 pm, local news, weather, sports, etc.

The production room has a BE Spotmaster 8S200A console from 1978. Aside from needing some power supply capacitors, it still works relatively well. However, as the owner’s son said; that thing belongs in a museum.

BE Spotmaster line input card. Probably can still get all these parts if we wanted to.

I forgot to take pictures of the transmitter site when I was there. Next time.

We will be working on several projects for these folks, so I will keep you posted on the progress.

The Gates Air FAX-10

This is the first one of these transmitters that I have installed. This particular unit is analog only, but there is lots of room left over for an HD exciter if need be.

GatesAir Flexiva FAX-10, 10.000 watt FM transmitter — GatesAir Flexiva FAX-10, 10.000-watt FM transmitter

The size of a 10 KW FM transmitter these days is pretty small, basically taking up the equivalent of one rack. This is a relatively small transmitter room, the old tube transmitter basically took up the entire room. With this unit, there is room to install a full power spare, if that was desired.

RF modules use LDMOSFET devices, each module has a power output of approximately 1,600 watts.

GatesAir Flexiva FAX10 power amp section

There are eight power amp modules and seven switching power supplies.

GatesAir FAX10 power output — GatesAir FAX10, licensed transmitter power output

One issue at this site, there is no reliable three-phase power available. There was a three-phase open delta, but man, that thing scares me a little bit. Since this is a single-phase setup, I was curious to know what the current draw on each leg was at full power. I measured with my clamp-on ammeter; 54.3 Amps at 120 volts, or 6516 watts per leg. Overall power draws 13,032 making the AC to RF efficiency 65.2%. VSWR calculates out to 1.21, which is not great. I think the antenna could use a little bit of tuning love.

A case for security cameras

I little bit of local awesomeness from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department:

A Patterson (NY) man was committed to the Putnam County Jail in lieu of bail in connection with three separate thefts of copper fixtures from cell communications towers in Patterson and Kent.

The rest can be read here: Man charged with stealing copper from cellphone tower sites

I once got into an argument with my boss about transmitter site security cameras. His attitude was “what difference does it make, nobody will do anything about it anyway.” Clearly, if the police have something to go on, they will take action. I know that several E911 sites in Dutchess and Ulster counties have been victims of copper theft as well.

IP security cameras are inexpensive and fairly reliable, provided you keep them out of the direct elements. We have dozens of old Windows XP computers floating around which, with the addition of a software package like Blue Iris, can be repurposed as a record and save system. The advantage of Blue Iris is the record on motion. The cameras do not need to be monitored continuously; if something happens, go back and look at the stored video.

The old Windows XP boxes do not need to be connected to the outside world unless one wants to look at the security system from the studio or home. Alternatively, if one is Linux savvy, something like Zoneminder or Xeoma look like full featured video surveillance software packages. I have not fooled around with these yet, but perhaps when I have some spare time…

The point is, for not too much money, a full-featured video surveillance system can be installed at remote transmitter sites to keep track of comings and goings. If enough idiots get busted for stealing copper, perhaps it will stop (or at least slow down).