Incandescent Indicating lamps

What is wrong with this picture?

WBNR equipment rack
WBNR equipment rack

It is a little bit blurry, but the real problem is that none of the indicator lamps on the phasor or antenna monitor are working.  Those little incandescent 387 bulbs burn out frequently.  It is difficult to tell, at a glance, whether the phasor is in daytime or nighttime mode.  One also cannot tell which tower or mode is selected on the antenna monitor.

It is a small job to replace them, but it does take some time.  They currently exist in older transmitters, studio consoles, meter backlighting, and other control indicators.  Since I began working in radio, I have replaced hundreds of these little lamps.  I would rather spend my time on more interesting projects.

The 387 bulbs cost about a dollar each and last less than a year, in most cases.  Fortunately, there is a solution to all this.  Enter the based LED replacement lamp.  These little guys have the long life of an LED (100,000+ hours) in a package that is a direct replacement for the Incandescent lamp.  They run about $5.31 each.

Dialight makes a very handy cross reference:

Dialight Incandescent to LED cross reference
Dialight Incandescent to LED cross reference

The entire cross-reference section is three pages long and is a part of their PMI catalog.  The full cross reference .pdf can be found here.

Those Dialight LED lamps are available from Mouser, Allied, and Newark Electronics.

Time is money.  There are much better things to be doing than going around replacing incandescent indicator bulbs in various pieces of equipment.  At the same time, it is important to know what the status of that equipment is at a glance, which is the reason for using any type of indicator in the first place.  Using drop-in replacement LED indicating lamps with certainly save time and money in the long run.

Something is not right

The Goddamnitnotagain edition:

PA module with burned open output transformer

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.

A few pictures

Some things I have been working on lately:

A nice row of transmitters
A nice row of transmitters

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

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.
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
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
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.
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…”

Another FAX 5 install

At the risk of becoming redundant, here are a few pictures of a GatesAir FAX-5 install recently completed in Westerly, RI.  This was installed in a recently vacated Verizon cell site next to the old transmitter building.  The old transmitter building and the equipment contained therein had seen better days, to be sure.

UPDATE:

As requested, the only pre-installation photo I can find:

Some Verizon equipment still in place
Some Verizon equipment still in place

That photo was taken back in October 2018, when we first looked at the Verizon shelter as a viable alternative to the current transmitter site.

FAX-5 transmitter with fancy logo, placed in position

Transmitter in place, AC mains and RF connections made

Ground strap installation

Test mode, clamp-on AC current meter, measuring amps per leg at full power

FAX-5 transmitter and equipment rack, on the air

Transmission line, supported by unistrut

Delta coax switch and Electro impulse dummy load, salvaged from old installation

FAX-5 running into antenna for the first time

Overall, the transmitter sounds great.  Much better than the old unit which had an AM noise problem.

If it wasn’t so far away, this would have been a pretty easy project.  There were minor miscues along the way that added up.  I will say that I learned a few good life lessons about the reliability and responsibility of people.