{"id":12874,"date":"2024-05-25T07:10:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T11:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=12874"},"modified":"2024-05-25T07:10:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T11:10:56","slug":"how-long-should-a-transmitter-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2024\/05\/how-long-should-a-transmitter-last\/","title":{"rendered":"How long should a transmitter last?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Broadcast Electronics FM3.5A is 40 years old. There was a small problem that took the station off the air for a couple of hours this morning. The high voltage shorting solenoid fell apart, causing the 40 amp breaker in the service panel to trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
BE FM3.5A defective shorting solenoid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These types of failures will become more frequent as the transmitter ages. Things like air switches, blower motors, tuning and loading mechanical assemblies, circuit breaker fatigue, plate rectifiers, screen and plate bypass capacitors, exciter and controller fans, etc. The list of potential failure points can get quite long. The fact is, nothing lasts forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Manufacturers nameplate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is no backup transmitter for this site and there is no easy way to get a temporary unit on line, if needed. This is not the oldest main transmitter that we service with no backup. That honor goes to a CCA DS-3000 built in 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is; how long should old tube transmitters be kept in service? Also; how long should we (an independent service company) agree to maintain them? The temporary solution for the above failure was to remove the broken shorting bar and turn the transmitter back on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Broken shorting bar removed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That creates a safety issue for anyone who may need to work on the transmitter before the replacement arrives. It also creates a potential liability issue for my company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put a big label on the back door indicating that anyone doing service needs to discharge the power supply capacitor with the grounding stick (which they should be doing anyway). But I will feel better when the shorting solenoid is working again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Broadcast Electronics FM3.5A is 40 years old. There was a small problem that took the station off the air for a couple of hours this morning. The high voltage shorting solenoid fell apart, causing the 40 amp breaker in the service panel to trip. These types of failures will become more frequent as the … Continue reading How long should a transmitter last?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,4],"tags":[82,15],"class_list":["post-12874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales-of-disaster","category-tech-stuff","tag-fm","tag-fm-transmitters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12882,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12874\/revisions\/12882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}