I went to do maintenance at one of our sites and noticed that a certain transmitter was running at half power. Followed the path of the fault log and found this. When I mentioned it to the station staff, they said, “Yeah, we noticed it sounded a little funny…”
This is the second time this has happened with this particular transmitter. In any case, this is what I get paid for, so I am certainly not complaining. If only every problem where this easy to find.
When I get back out there to replace this, I will bring out my network analyzer and sweep the antenna and transmission line to make sure there are no issues with that. In addition, I will double-check all the grounding to make sure the copper thieves have not made off with any critical components like the ground buss bar or #2 solid down lead wires.
Finishing up a transmitter site rehab. The BE FM20T is nearly 20 years old. The BE FM2C transmitters are new. There is also a rack of new fiber equipment and CODECs. This site has good utilization; there are three stations on one tower with a shared STL antenna and generator.
Energy Onix ECO-6
Energy Onix ECO-6 tube-type transmitter. One of Bernie’s better designs; a grounded grid tube with a solid-state driver section. This one needed some fans replaced and a new tube.
AM transmitter site. Looks like these vines have not been cut in a couple of years.
I wonder how much the guy tensions have changed…
Noticed this after some particularly strong thunderstorms
The reason why you do not use a POTS line phone during a thunderstorm.
USS Slater radio room
I took a tour of the USS Slater, a museum ship in Albany, NY. The museum has painstakingly restored the ship to its WWII configuration. The main transmitter is the RCA TBL-8 seen in the left/center of this picture. This unit put out 200 to 400 watts CW or 150 watts AM phone. During the hostilities, it was turned off as allied ships observed radio silence unless they were sinking (and sometimes even then).
A little ChiFi tube-type RIAA phone preamp.
I have been fooling around with this little 6AK5 preamp. I find it works very well and sounds better than the built-in phone preamp on my Kenwood VR-309. The FU-29 tube amp did not come with a phone preamp.
This is a short video clip of an audio processor at one of our transmitter sites. The fancy lights around the control knob are designed for the program director. They are saying “Buy me… Buy me…”
It is a good read, especially for those that use audio streaming as their main content distribution method.
Streaming-only stations used to be a big thing but have been supplanted by Spotify and Pandora. I am not a huge fan of either of those services but I do like to listen to podcasts.
Good audio should be near the top of the list for any content provider. Few things are more annoying than listening to an interesting podcast with low volume, background noise, or other technical defects.
Occasional reader Scott asked for a picture of the inside of a BE AM output tuning network. I figured it might be helpful to make a short post about it.
These things are pretty simple; a T network with a capacitive leg to ground.
BE AM Output tuning network
This particular unit is for 1230 KHz. I believe the capacitor is frequency determined and they may also use larger inductors for lower frequencies.
BE AM output tuning network schematic
The inductors are Kintronic LV-15-20 (15uH 20 amp) and the capacitor is 0.0018 uF CDE 6KV 5.6 amp.
The issue with this particular unit is dirt. The inductors have round metal plates that roll along the inductor coil to make the variable inductor tap. Dirt has accumulated on the coil turns and on the inside of the plates. This, in turn, causes arcing anytime the Tune or Load controls are moved. A thorough cleaning should take care of the problem.
