{"id":4721,"date":"2012-03-24T17:16:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-24T21:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=4721"},"modified":"2023-04-29T10:50:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T14:50:02","slug":"the-harris-z6hd-transmitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2012\/03\/the-harris-z6hd-transmitter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Harris Z6HD transmitter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

These transmitters are good.   They seem to behave in a mostly normal manner, having a few quirks now and then. This particular unit is installed at WFAS-FM in White Plains NY.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Harrsi<\/a>
Harrsi Z6HD transmitter, WFAS-FM, White Plains, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I believe the reason for the installation was for the HD Radio\u00ae that was in it.\u00a0 The Deathstar HD Radio\u00ae exciter is in the next rack over.\u00a0 No further comment is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this day, the transmitter had given up, throwing a main fan fault.\u00a0 The fan (blower) motor had been replaced in the last six months (on a transmitter that is only five years old), so it was not that.\u00a0 As it turns out, the stock fuses; 10 amp, slow blow, were just a little bit underrated for the job.\u00a0 Harris released a service bulletin a few years ago calling for 15 amp slow blow fuses as replacements.\u00a0 In any case, it was an easy fix and now there is a box of 15 amp slow blow fuses in the transmitter next to the fuse holders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Harris<\/a>
Harris Z6HD transmitter front RF modules<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The modules are accessible by the front and rear of the transmitter.\u00a0 These doors can be opened with the unit on the air since all of the high voltage is in the bottom of the transmitter where the blower is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The module in the middle is the IPA.\u00a0 Each module has two RF amps, and each RF amp has two devices (BLF-177).\u00a0 The devices are field replaceable, however, on the HD models, one has to make sure that the amplifiers are still linear.\u00a0 On the non-HD models (Z6CD), this is not a problem at all.\u00a0 Shorted MOSFETS will be noted by a fault of one entire power supply.\u00a0 Removing the bad RF module will allow the transmitter to run at somewhat reduced power.\u00a0 Finding the bad module may take a bit of trial and error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Harris<\/a>
Harris Z6HD transmitter back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The back of the transmitter has the directional coupler, low pass filter, access to the back of the analog exciter, controller, and remote control connection points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power supply at the bottom of the transmitter has multiple taps, each one with its own fuse.\u00a0 These can be a bit of a chore to work on.\u00a0 There is also a ribbon cable that goes from the controller to the power supply board.\u00a0 This is directly in the path of the cooling fan and can flop around causing the conductors in the cable to break.\u00a0 The result is the power supply may not come on or may show an unbalanced power supply condition (in the case of a three-phase transmitter).\u00a0 Very difficult to diagnose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Harris<\/a>
Harris Z6HD transmitter, on air, WFAS-FM, White Plains, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here it is, running again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These transmitters are good.   They seem to behave in a mostly normal manner, having a few quirks now and then. This particular unit is installed at WFAS-FM in White Plains NY. I believe the reason for the installation was for the HD Radio\u00ae that was in it.\u00a0 The Deathstar HD Radio\u00ae exciter is in … Continue reading The Harris Z6HD transmitter<\/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":[15],"class_list":["post-4721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff","tag-fm-transmitters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721","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=4721"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11629,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions\/11629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}