{"id":8272,"date":"2015-03-21T08:18:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T12:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=8272"},"modified":"2024-03-14T18:05:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T22:05:30","slug":"transmitter-site-re-hab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2015\/03\/transmitter-site-re-hab\/","title":{"rendered":"Transmitter site re-hab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the reasons for the recent lack of posts; I have been busy rehabilitating several transmitter sites for various broadcasting companies. These are mostly FM transmitter sites and vary in power from one kilowatt to twenty-six kilowatts ERP.\u00a0 I enjoy project work, but I have been driving hither and yon, racking up 27,000 miles on my new car since last August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Subaru
Subaru Crosstrek XV at remote transmitter site, somewhere in rural New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, here is one transmitter site that I just finished; WFLY<\/a>, Albany, New York.\u00a0 Removed Collins 831F2 transmitter which was functioning as a backup and installed new Broadcast Electronics FM20S.\u00a0 The Continental 816R2 is becoming a little bit long in the tooth for a main transmitter, being new in 1986.\u00a0 Thus, it was time to install a new unit, and I like the Broadcast Electronics solid state and tube designs.\u00a0 With the BE AM and FM solid-state units, their simplicity is their beauty.\u00a0 We service many BE transmitters, some are thirty years old and are still supported by the manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WFLY
WFLY transmitter building, New Scotland, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The BE FM20S transmitter is actually two FM10S cabinets combined with one controller.\u00a0 Each cabinet requires a 100 amp three-phase mains connection.\u00a0 This station’s TPO is 11.5 KW, so there is plenty of headroom in case the owners ever want to install HD Radio or replace the three-bay antenna with a two-bay unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WFLY
WFLY main transmitter, Broadcast Electronics FM20S<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In transmitter cabinet two, above the exciter is room for HD equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BE
BE FM20S exciter housing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also reworked the coax switches to provide an easier implementation of the backup transmitter.\u00a0 Basically, the main transmitter is on the main antenna, and the backup transmitter is on the backup antenna.\u00a0 We can move the second coax switch to test the backup into the dummy load.\u00a0 We can move the first coax switch to change antenna feeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WFLY
WFLY backup and main transmitters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pretty standard setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WFLY
WFLY RF path diagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We moved the Collins 831F2 from Albany to here to replace another, dead Collins unit at WKXZ in Norwich, New York.\u00a0 This transmitter is forty years old but still runs reliably.\u00a0 Of course, doing this work in the dead of winter added a degree of difficulty to the job, as the roads to both the WFLY and the WKXZ transmitter sites needed work to make them passable for a moving truck.\u00a0 In the end, we used a skid steer with forks on it to get the transmitter up the final hill and into the small WKXZ transmitter building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Collins
Collins 831F2 transmitter, WKXZ, Norwich NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Collins
Collins 831F2 transmitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The WKXZ transmitter building interior is floor space challenged. It is located next to a former TELCO microwave site which has a guyed tower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the reasons for the recent lack of posts; I have been busy rehabilitating several transmitter sites for various broadcasting companies. These are mostly FM transmitter sites and vary in power from one kilowatt to twenty-six kilowatts ERP.\u00a0 I enjoy project work, but I have been driving hither and yon, racking up 27,000 miles … Continue reading Transmitter site re-hab<\/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":[3,337],"tags":[82,256,215,292],"class_list":["post-8272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-installations","tag-fm","tag-fm-transmitter","tag-fm-transmitter-site","tag-wfly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8272","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=8272"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11218,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8272\/revisions\/11218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}