Category: tech stuff

Yesterday, I threw out a transmitter.  I know there is probably some radio station out there that may have been able to use a 5 KW FM transmitter but believe me, not that one.  There are limits to how much you can help out a fellow broadcaster.  Donating an FM transmitter that never really worked right in the first place is counterproductive.

Anyway, to demonstrate that I am not a total heel, here is my favorite brand of transmitter, Nautel:

I like Nautel because they are rugged, reliable, and good-looking.  Okay, good-looking is low on the list of transmitter attributes, however, you have to admit, it is good looking.  It is also good sounding.  The night we switched over from the long-in-the-tooth BE FM30A to the Nautel V-40 I noticed a marked improvement in the station’s sound.  It was like somebody switched off the background noise generator.

As the caption states, this is 4 V-10 transmitters combined with an ERI magic T combiner.  It is set up so that if any one transmitter fails or reduces power, the magic T combiner automatically adjusts for minimum rejected power, then the SC-1 controller turns up the other three transmitters to maintain the station’s Transmitter Power Output (TPO).

In this case the TPO  is 28 KW, which is getting into the semi serious range for an FM station.   Nautel has updated their transmitter line, which now consists of the NV series transmitter.  The differences mainly have to do with the IPA module/PA module interchangeability (not interchangeable in the V series, fully interchangeable in the NV series) and the “Advanced User Interface.”  I don’t know, fancy touch screens are optional on FM transmitters as far as I am concerned.  It’s the underlying RF generating sections that I am most concerned about.

Another view.  Just for the useless trivia that is in it, the “V” in these transmitter names stands for “Virtuoso.”

Takes its rightful place in the world today, the scrap heap:

As EDWARD I of ENGLAND once said, “A man does good business to rid himself of a turd.”

Of course, he was speaking about Scotsman John Balliol and not some old cranky FM transmitter, but I understand that feeling.  The Gates and later Harris transmitters always seemed to be somewhat less than top-notch. The 5G was no exception to this rule.  The final step for tuning the transmitter was to turn off the lights in the room and look down through the screen on top to make sure there were no little arcs in the PA tuning section.  It also had a way of self-oscillating, which could make for some exciting tuning.

Goodbye, I will not miss you.

In one of my past jobs, I worked in a RCA town.  I worked there long after the broadcast arm of that company went out of business, however, all of the broadcast transmitters, AM, FM, TV were made by RCA.   I had an RCA FM-20ES1 which was 22 years old, built like a tank and just kept going along.  I think that transmitter was finally destroyed in a fire, caused by it’s replacement transmitter.

Old Collins, Contenental, RCA and even Broadcast Electronics transmitters had some heft to them.  Of course, not every RCA transmitter was well thought out, the amplifuze series of AM transmitters were a maintenance nightmare.