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 not 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 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…”
I do not know what the record is for the longest tube life, however, this particular tube lasted 17 years, 11 months and 23 days. That’s 157,596 hours.
This was installed new in a Broadcast Electronics FM20T transmitter which was placed on line on June 6, 2001. It lasted until May 28th, 2019 with almost no down time. Towards the end, the emissions started dropping off and we increased the filament voltage up to 10 volts. When you have to increase the filament voltage, that really is the end for a tube.
The new tube was put in and I carefully marked out the date in the maintenance log. The hour meter on the transmitter stopped working several years ago.
Prior to this, the longest tube life I’d experienced was an EEV 4CX35000C from an MW-50B transmitter RF section. When that tube came out, it looked like it have been on fire.
Another install, this time a new BE product. I am familiar with the BE FM “C” series transmitter. Those are pretty solid units and we take care of many of them.
BE STX-5 LP transmitter
This new version of transmitter looks like it has a little bit of Elenos in its DNA. Perhaps I am wrong about that.
The STXe exciter is an all purpose analog/digital unit that will do standard FM stereo, hybrid FM +HD radio, HD radio only, DRM+, or FM and DRM+. I like that. It gives the owner lots of options with regards to future planning. Frankly, I would love to see some DRM+ testing done in the US.
We have actually installed a couple of “C” series transmitter with the STXe exciter as well.
BE FM2C with STXe exciter
The rest of the transmitter consists of four RF amps and an output combiner all in a short rack. Frankly, if I were ordering one of these units, I’d order the taller rack. Not that I am getting old or anything like that, but stooping over to program the date/time, frequency and power output introduced a slight discomfort in my lower back.
BE STX-5 LP controller/exciter
Running into the antenna. At 4.1 KW, 18 watts reflected power is slightly high. This antenna has always had a little bit of reflected power.
“The chicken coop,” WHUC and WZCR transmitter building
The building I installed this in is nick named “The Chicken Coop,” likely because it used to be an actual chicken coop. I am not kidding. The site was originally just the AM station (WHUC). That station had a different transmitter building located some distance away which was fed with open transmission line. This building was put in place sometime around 1969 when the FM station signed on as WHUC-FM (now WZCR). It has seen better days, but we are working on fixing some of the issues with air conditioning and cleanliness.
Remains of open wire transmission line left over from original 1947 installation
The transmitter fired up without any issues and sounds much, much better than the QEI which it replaced.
Tired old QEI transmitter
The QEI transmitter had problems over the years, mostly burned out resistors in the RF combiner network. It has since been scrapped.
