{"id":6648,"date":"2013-03-29T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=6648"},"modified":"2023-04-08T19:47:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T23:47:00","slug":"moving-and-upgrading-a-translator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2013\/03\/moving-and-upgrading-a-translator\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving and upgrading a translator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Something that I eluded to in a previous post, we finalized the move of the WSBS<\/a> translator, W231AK<\/a>, from the Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington to the side of the AM tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tower<\/a>
Tower crew hanging translator antenna on AM tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The move was started by hanging a new Shively 6812B antenna from the side of the AM tower, located off of US 7, north of Great Barrington. This is a half-wave-spaced circularly polarized antenna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this work was going on, some guy from OSHA showed up and started taking pictures without asking permission or telling anyone who he was.  We informed him that he was on private property and asked him his reasons for being there.  He got in his car and left, no doubt to a parking lot down the road so he could keep the tower climbers safe… mostly from themselves… by levying huge fines for free climbing…  Wasn’t there something in the news about the government running out of money?  Anyway…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"W231AK<\/a>
W231AK antenna, Great Barrington, MA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WSBS had been using this translator for a few years. The advantages for the station from the translator move are greater power output (from 35 watts to 250 watts ERP) and less operating expenses in the form of TELCO line charges and roof top rental at the Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WSBS<\/a>
WSBS tower with W231AK antenna mounted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to that, the reliability of the translator should increase, as there have been several instances in the past when TELCO line problems have taken the translator off the air for days at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"W231AK<\/a>
W231AK new transmitter, WSBS base current meter below<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The transmitter for W231AK was changed from a Crown 35 watt unit to a BW Broadcast T600<\/a>.\u00a0 These units are made in the UK and it is an all-in-one processor\/exciter\/transmitter. We took the cover off to make a few configuration changes and the entire unit is very well made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BW<\/a>
BW Broadcast T600 insides<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the nice features of this particular transmitter is the screw-down clamping method of connecting the RF devices. Lets face it, unsoldering MOSFETS is a PITA. This screw down clamp eliminates all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BW<\/a>
BW Broadcast T600 power amp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The audio input and processing board is pretty neat too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BW<\/a>
BW Broadcast T600 audio input board<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are several different processing settings which we played around with.  All in all, it seems like a pretty solid unit and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a low to moderate power transmitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something that I eluded to in a previous post, we finalized the move of the WSBS translator, W231AK, from the Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington to the side of the AM tower. The move was started by hanging a new Shively 6812B antenna from the side of the AM tower, located off of US 7, … Continue reading Moving and upgrading a translator<\/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":[87,82,15],"class_list":["post-6648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff","tag-am","tag-fm","tag-fm-transmitters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648","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=6648"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11427,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions\/11427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}