Some of these may seem like no-brainers, however, one would be surprised at how transmitter sites have grown over the years. \u00a0An FM site that may have started with one 5 KW transmitter in 1950 will have been greatly upgraded over the years. \u00a0Today, that same site may not employ a 30 KW transmitter, full air conditioning, several tower tenants, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a transmitter site that we redesigned about four years ago. \u00a0The original site was built in 1958 and had a Gates FM5B as the main transmitter. \u00a0The electrical service consisted of two 200 amp panels which had been greatly altered over the years. \u00a0It had an old Onan 65 KW propane generator inside the building. \u00a0Grounding, Air Conditioning, lighting, and workspace were all substandard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing we did was replace the generator with an outdoor unit. \u00a0That allowed us to remove an interior partition, freeing up a good deal of floor space. \u00a0The next thing we did was upgrade the electrical service and replace the generator transfer switch. \u00a0Much of the interior wiring had been altered or added to in non-code-compliant ways. \u00a0All of those modifications were removed or bought up to the current electrical code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A safety grounding ring was installed around the outside of the building and all grounding points were bonded together. \u00a0Nautel has an excellent guide for transmitter sites which includes lightning grounding and protection for AM and FM transmitter sites. \u00a0Recommendations for Transmitter Site Preparation<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(.pdf) and Lightning Protection for Radio Transmitter Stations<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(.pdf) are available for download from their site. \u00a0All RF cable outer jackets are bonded to the ground at the base of the tower and the entrance to the building. \u00a0All the interior equipment is bonded together. \u00a0Ferrite toroids are placed on all cables going into and coming out of the transmitter cabinets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the electrical service upgrade, we added the series LEA surge protector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This site as at the very end of the utility company line and has always suffered from power issues. This unit greatly smooths out the various nasties that get sent our way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I decided that it was easier to use compact fluorescent lights (CFL) rather than long tubes. \u00a0This site is as the top of a rough mountain road and it is simply easier to carry several small boxes in the cab of the truck than four foot or eight foot florescent light tubes. \u00a0There is a total of ten 28-watt fixtures in the main transmitter room which light up every nook and cranny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of the transmitters and electrical panels were laid out to give working room around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The air conditioners were also greatly upgraded and added to the generator load. \u00a0Prior to this, when the power went out, which was often. the air conditioners did not run and the transmitter room would overheat unless the door was left open. \u00a0What we previously the filter room became space for tenant equipment. \u00a0There are a few two-way and paging companies still at this site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, all this work was done while keeping the station on the air as much as possible. There were a few instances of having to turn off to move transmission lines and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result of all this work is greatly improved site reliability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are currently working with one of our clients who need to rebuild an FM transmitter site. \u00a0 The site is an old house that used to function as a studio. \u00a0The transmitters are wedged into various places and the whole place looks like a fire trap. \u00a0We are working on moving the transmitters to … Continue reading FM transmitter site design<\/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":[28],"class_list":["post-3239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff","tag-fm-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239","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=3239"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11771,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions\/11771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"WHUD](\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/WHUD-transmitter-diagram.jpg\")
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