Category: General

We are off the air!

A phone conversation that occurred one Saturday morning:

DJ: (answers hotline) Hello?

Myself:  This is Paul from Radio Engineering Services, you called the answering service and said you are off the air.

DJ: Yes!  The red bat light is flashing and everything!

Myself: Okay, did you try to put the backup transmitter on?

DJ: No.  I didn’t want to mess anything up.

Myself:  You are off the air; I don’t know how things can be more messed up than that

DJ: (laughing) Okay, you’re right.

Myself: Do you have the directions for the backup transmitter?

DJ: Yes, they are right here

Myself: Okay, go ahead and do that, I will call the local engineer and see if I can get him out to the transmitter site, then I will call you back.

DJ: Okay, thanks.

The good news is the backup transmitter came on and they were back on the air.  It is also nice to know that the station has a live DJ on Saturday morning at 7:00 am, many do not.  The main transmitter power outage was likely due to a utility company transient, the area had suffered an ice storm the day before and they were out restoring power that morning.

At least this was a real emergency, I used to get calls at home that the headphone jack on the console was loose.  I took the home phone number down after that.

New Studio Pictures

This is from several years ago. We rebuilt the WBPM studio using a reconditioned AudioArts R-60 console.  WBPM is licensed to Saugerties (Saw-ger-tees), NY, however, the studio is located in Fishkill, NY some 50 miles away.  As such, the air signal is not listenable at the studio, and off air monitoring is done via the T-1 STL line.  I am sure that this is what the FCC had in mind when they wrote the Main Studio rules.

WBPM, Saugerties NY air studio
WBPM, Saugerties NY air studio

The studio is a fairly small setup, but functional.  It is located with co-owed Pamal stations WSPK and WHUD.

WBPM Saugerties NY
WBPM Saugerties NY
WBPM studio
WBPM studio

I always try to get several pictures of the studio before it gets turned over to the DJs.  Come back the next day and it will look like this:

WBPM Kingston, NY
WBPM Kingston, NY

Goodbye you piece of junk

We are scrapping several old transmitters these last few weeks as part of a site upgrade  A couple of Harris FM20 and 10H transmitters are out the door.

Harris FM20H transmitter, circa 1970
Harris FM20H transmitter, circa 1970

Some people like these transmitters. I am not one of those. I found that they were of dubious reliability, tended to drift out of tune and have AM noise problems, and had multiple catastrophic failure modes. If it was not tuned just right, it also had a tendency to have HF oscillations and internal arcing in the PA cabinet.

Harris FM20H3 PA cabinet modification
Harris FM20H3 PA cabinet modification

This transmitter had a non-factory authorized modification installed as a tuning aid.  Tune for best efficiency, and minimum AM noise then check and see if it is arcing.  It is also advisable to wear hearing protection during the tuning process.

Harris FM20H3, circa 1972
Harris FM20H3, circa 1972

This particular transmitter was my nemesis for a couple of years. It is actually possible to hate an inanimate object, I can tell you. Goodbye, you piece of shit.

We tend to scrap these instead of dumpster them.  It saves the client a little bit of money on dumpster charges.  If all the metal is sorted out by category, e.g. all the copper windings are cut from the HV transformer and PS filter inductors, and all the brass, aluminum, and wiring harness are separated, then it is almost worth the time and effort.  Personally, I’d rather see all that material reused than landfilled.