{"id":2187,"date":"2011-01-15T18:25:14","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T22:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2023-09-23T09:32:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T13:32:12","slug":"the-mechanical-tower-light-flasher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2011\/01\/the-mechanical-tower-light-flasher\/","title":{"rendered":"The mechanical tower light flasher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a Hughey Phillips mechanical tower light flasher that has been in service since 1960. Basically, it is a motor connected to a cam that rocks a mercury relay back and forth. These were standard technology for tower lights from the 1930s through about 1970 or a little later. \u00a0They were very reliable, we still have some with a “pancake motor” in use on some of our towers. \u00a0They were very robust and immune to lightning damage, RF interference, and other problems. \u00a0The only maintenance that I can think of is lubricating the motor bearings. \u00a0Eventually, however, they do wear out. \u00a0Cold weather seems to take its toll, often causing the motor to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hughey<\/a>
Hughey and Phillips mechanical tower light flasher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This particular unit is mounted inside the tuning house for the far tower (north tower) at the WGHQ<\/a> antenna array.  It has finally reached the end of it’s existence; the motor bearings are shot and it has gotten stuck in both the on and off position this year causing the FAA to be notified of the malfunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WGHQ<\/a>
WGHQ 920 Khz Kingston, NY antenna array<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, I am replacing it with a solid-state flasher (SSAC B-KON FS155-30RF). \u00a0Solid-state flasher units have been known to malfunction in high RF fields, such as AM towers. \u00a0To cure that, the manufacturer has built-in 0.01 uf bypass capacitors, hence the “RF” suffix. \u00a0Older units did not have built-in bypass caps, so external 0.1 uf bypass capacitors were normally installed on units mounted to AM towers. \u00a0While I was working on this, I turned the transmitter down to 500 watts, no need to get any RF burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, this has to happen after there is two feet of snow on the ground. \u00a0Also, it should be noted that this is the furthest tower away from the transmitter building. \u00a0Now where did I put those snow shoes? \u00a0Never mind, it has been very cold and the ground is frozen solid, I’ll take the truck… \u00a0This is good because I will have all the tools, drills, nuts, and bolts without having to walk back and forth several times in the snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hughey<\/a>
Hughey Phillips mechanical beacon flasher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I removed the motor and mercury-filled relay. \u00a0I’ll have to figure out how to dispose of the relay. \u00a0I then drilled a mounting hole through the base of the old flasher housing and bolted the solid-state relay to it. \u00a0This is required because the solid-state relay needs a pretty good heat sink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"SSAC<\/a>
SSAC B-KON tower light flasher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Turn everything back on and: \u00a0Ta-da! All works normally, the tower beacon is flashing away up there. \u00a0Time to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Truck<\/a>
Truck stuck in swamp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pull forward about 2 feet to turn around and CRUNCH!  The truck goes through the ice of a hidden stream.  Any attempt to move only makes it worse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Truck<\/a>
Truck rear burried to axle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Put in a phone call to the one guy I know that can get me out. \u00a0About an hour later he shows up with chains, a shovel, and a come-a-long. \u00a0We attach the come-a-long to the fence support post and pull the truck out backward 1\/2 inch at a time. \u00a0It took us about an hour and a half to get it all the way out so I could drive it back across the field. \u00a0I’d have taken some pictures, but my guy; was a little grumpy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won’t do that again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, I did the job I came to do, so it was a good day after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a Hughey Phillips mechanical tower light flasher that has been in service since 1960. Basically, it is a motor connected to a cam that rocks a mercury relay back and forth. These were standard technology for tower lights from the 1930s through about 1970 or a little later. \u00a0They were very reliable, we … Continue reading The mechanical tower light flasher<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[87,33],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff","tag-am","tag-am-towers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187","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=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12457,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions\/12457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}