M
Meat Plow
Guest
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
--
This is a test sig
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
--
This is a test sig
M
Michael A. Terrell
Guest
Meat Plow wrote:
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
M
Meat Plow
Guest
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
M
Michael A. Terrell
Guest
Meat Plow wrote:
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany (Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just finished
installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters. I also visted
the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the 500KW transmitter.
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany (Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just finished
installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters. I also visted
the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the 500KW transmitter.
M
Meat Plow
Guest
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some digital PSM/PWM
gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied air.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear still in
operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some digital PSM/PWM
gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied air.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
M
Michael A. Terrell
Guest
Meat Plow wrote:
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before there
was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to be
scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple modifications to
fix them, but nothing they could do without a complete shutdown had
helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They were
about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station can do,
when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they used
to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were continuous
tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired frequency, and servo
motors at each stage would tun the transmitter. I was kidding with one
of the engineers if he had ever though about putting it on 27.185 MHz
any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned
pale as a sheet. Can you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their
brakes, all over the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter. A
solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The earlier
Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered with knobs &
meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate controls.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before there
was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to be
scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple modifications to
fix them, but nothing they could do without a complete shutdown had
helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They were
about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station can do,
when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they used
to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were continuous
tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired frequency, and servo
motors at each stage would tun the transmitter. I was kidding with one
of the engineers if he had ever though about putting it on 27.185 MHz
any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned
pale as a sheet. Can you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their
brakes, all over the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter. A
solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The earlier
Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered with knobs &
meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate controls.
M
Meat Plow
Guest
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for a
150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to design
a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi does. And
hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating notMeat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in
use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just finished
installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters. I also
visted the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the 500KW
transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear still
in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some digital
PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before there
was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to be
scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple modifications to
fix them, but nothing they could do without a complete shutdown had
helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They were
about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station can do,
when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they used
to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were continuous
tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired frequency, and servo
motors at each stage would tun the transmitter. I was kidding with one
of the engineers if he had ever though about putting it on 27.185 MHz
any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned
pale as a sheet. Can you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their
brakes, all over the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter. A
solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The earlier
Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered with knobs &
meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate controls.
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for a
150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to design
a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi does. And
hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
M
Michael A. Terrell
Guest
Meat Plow wrote:
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM transmitters,
but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I have copies on
one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't had the time to move
all of the old files to one large NTFS drive yet. I just hope that they
are still readable. Maybe that idiot 'General Failure' hasn't messed
with the drive I need. ;-)
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in
use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just finished
installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters. I also
visted the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the 500KW
transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear still
in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some digital
PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before there
was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to be
scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple modifications to
fix them, but nothing they could do without a complete shutdown had
helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They were
about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station can do,
when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they used
to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were continuous
tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired frequency, and servo
motors at each stage would tun the transmitter. I was kidding with one
of the engineers if he had ever though about putting it on 27.185 MHz
any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned
pale as a sheet. Can you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their
brakes, all over the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter. A
solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The earlier
Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered with knobs &
meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for a
150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to design
a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi does. And
hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM transmitters,
but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I have copies on
one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't had the time to move
all of the old files to one large NTFS drive yet. I just hope that they
are still readable. Maybe that idiot 'General Failure' hasn't messed
with the drive I need. ;-)
M
Meat Plow
Guest
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:14:34 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid state. One
I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL type case and
each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with the power
supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess that's PSM.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
I'm going to google the two methods of digital AM transmitters. There areMeat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in
use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just
finished installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters.
I also visted the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the
500KW transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear
still in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some
digital PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied
air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before
there was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to
be scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple
modifications to fix them, but nothing they could do without a
complete shutdown had helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a
beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They
were about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station
can do, when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they
used to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were
continuous tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired
frequency, and servo motors at each stage would tun the transmitter.
I was kidding with one of the engineers if he had ever though about
putting it on 27.185 MHz any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a
Smokey on your tail!" He turned pale as a sheet. Can you imagine
thousands of semis slamming on their brakes, all over the country?
He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter.
A solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The
earlier Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered
with knobs & meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate
controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for a
150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to
design a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi
does. And hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM transmitters,
but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I have copies on
one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't had the time to move
all of the old files to one large NTFS drive yet. I just hope that they
are still readable. Maybe that idiot 'General Failure' hasn't messed
with the drive I need. ;-)
some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid state. One
I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL type case and
each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with the power
supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess that's PSM.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
C
Cydrome Leader
Guest
Meat Plow <mhywatt@yahoo.com> wrote:
walk-in transmitters running for decades?
what sort of maintenance is required to keep those giant tube monsterOn Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:14:34 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in
use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just
finished installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters.
I also visted the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the
500KW transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear
still in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some
digital PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied
air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before
there was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to
be scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple
modifications to fix them, but nothing they could do without a
complete shutdown had helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a
beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They
were about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station
can do, when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they
used to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were
continuous tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired
frequency, and servo motors at each stage would tun the transmitter.
I was kidding with one of the engineers if he had ever though about
putting it on 27.185 MHz any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a
Smokey on your tail!" He turned pale as a sheet. Can you imagine
thousands of semis slamming on their brakes, all over the country?
He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter.
A solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The
earlier Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered
with knobs & meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate
controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for a
150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to
design a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi
does. And hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM transmitters,
but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I have copies on
one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't had the time to move
all of the old files to one large NTFS drive yet. I just hope that they
are still readable. Maybe that idiot 'General Failure' hasn't messed
with the drive I need. ;-)
I'm going to google the two methods of digital AM transmitters. There are
some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid state. One
I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL type case and
each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with the power
supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess that's PSM.
walk-in transmitters running for decades?
M
Meat Plow
Guest
On Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:40:27 +0000, Cydrome Leader wrote:
forced air, other are water cooled. Both are watched closely. Some of the
old RCA tubes are rebuilt because nobody makes them now. I'm sure time
tested maintenance rituals are established and the intricacies thereof
are unbeknown by me. Monitoring voltage, current levels and attending to
monitored devices running out of spec seems plausible for ensuring proper
operation. Upgrades to more efficient solid state stages in the string of
stages from start to finish where applicable is another consideration.
Considering the old Crosely stuff went into service in the late 20's one
would assume a talented staff of techs who could make broken parts or
find sources to rebuild would be a must. It's pretty complicated to keep
the old stuff on the air in my estimation. This is why most old style
facilities are retrofitting to solid state as it's easier to maintain,
much more efficient and that means much less costly to operate when the
electric bill comes in the mail. I'm sure that a 500kw site was spending
several thousand dollars a month cranking out those watts. And the
transmitters were designed to use half or part of the final output
so any still running probably use a fraction of the designed output.
Try the video link for the Voice of America tour. They explain a lot of
the operation of both old and new equipment and how they propagate their
signals.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Well it appears that maintaining proper cooling is number one. Some useMeat Plow <mhywatt@yahoo.com> wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:14:34 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers
in use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just
finished installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW
transmitters. I also visted the WLW site the same day and got a
good look at the 500KW transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear
still in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some
digital PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the
rarefied air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so
many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before
there was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to
be scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple
modifications to fix them, but nothing they could do without a
complete shutdown had helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a
beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They
were about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a
station can do, when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they
used to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were
continuous tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired
frequency, and servo motors at each stage would tun the
transmitter. I was kidding with one of the engineers if he had ever
though about putting it on 27.185 MHz any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler,
there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned pale as a sheet. Can
you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their brakes, all over
the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a
transmitter. A solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than
a modulated switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay
rack. The earlier Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more
racks covered with knobs & meters, along with a few buttons for LV
& plate controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for
a 150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to
design a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi
does. And hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM transmitters,
but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I have copies on
one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't had the time to
move all of the old files to one large NTFS drive yet. I just hope
that they are still readable. Maybe that idiot 'General Failure'
hasn't messed with the drive I need. ;-)
I'm going to google the two methods of digital AM transmitters. There
are some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid
state. One I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL
type case and each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with
the power supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess
that's PSM.
what sort of maintenance is required to keep those giant tube monster
walk-in transmitters running for decades?
forced air, other are water cooled. Both are watched closely. Some of the
old RCA tubes are rebuilt because nobody makes them now. I'm sure time
tested maintenance rituals are established and the intricacies thereof
are unbeknown by me. Monitoring voltage, current levels and attending to
monitored devices running out of spec seems plausible for ensuring proper
operation. Upgrades to more efficient solid state stages in the string of
stages from start to finish where applicable is another consideration.
Considering the old Crosely stuff went into service in the late 20's one
would assume a talented staff of techs who could make broken parts or
find sources to rebuild would be a must. It's pretty complicated to keep
the old stuff on the air in my estimation. This is why most old style
facilities are retrofitting to solid state as it's easier to maintain,
much more efficient and that means much less costly to operate when the
electric bill comes in the mail. I'm sure that a 500kw site was spending
several thousand dollars a month cranking out those watts. And the
transmitters were designed to use half or part of the final output
so any still running probably use a fraction of the designed output.
Try the video link for the Voice of America tour. They explain a lot of
the operation of both old and new equipment and how they propagate their
signals.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
M
Michael A. Terrell
Guest
Meat Plow wrote:
Did you see the report about all three towers at WWVA collapsing in a
storm the other day?
http://www.fybush.com/featuredsite.html
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:14:34 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers in
use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded. The
contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just
finished installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW transmitters.
I also visted the WLW site the same day and got a good look at the
500KW transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear
still in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some
digital PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the rarefied
air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before
there was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were to
be scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple
modifications to fix them, but nothing they could do without a
complete shutdown had helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a
beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They
were about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a station
can do, when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they
used to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were
continuous tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired
frequency, and servo motors at each stage would tun the transmitter.
I was kidding with one of the engineers if he had ever though about
putting it on 27.185 MHz any yelling, "Hey 18 wheeler, there's a
Smokey on your tail!" He turned pale as a sheet. Can you imagine
thousands of semis slamming on their brakes, all over the country?
He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a transmitter.
A solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more than a modulated
switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed relay rack. The
earlier Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or more racks covered
with knobs & meters, along with a few buttons for LV & plate
controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for a
150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to
design a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi
does. And hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM transmitters,
but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I have copies on
one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't had the time to move
all of the old files to one large NTFS drive yet. I just hope that they
are still readable. Maybe that idiot 'General Failure' hasn't messed
with the drive I need. ;-)
I'm going to google the two methods of digital AM transmitters. There are
some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid state. One
I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL type case and
each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with the power
supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess that's PSM.
Did you see the report about all three towers at WWVA collapsing in a
storm the other day?
http://www.fybush.com/featuredsite.html
M
Meat Plow
Guest
On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:34:35 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
studio for the Saturday Jamboree back in the late 50's early 60's. My dad
announced a commercial for one of the sponsors and had a friend who was a
musician that performed in the studio.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
No I didn't. That's a real FUBAR damn! I've actually been inside WWVAMeat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:14:34 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers
in use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded.
The contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just
finished installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW
transmitters. I also visted the WLW site the same day and got a
good look at the 500KW transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear
still in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some
digital PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the
rarefied air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so
many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original
Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before
there was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were
to be scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple
modifications to fix them, but nothing they could do without a
complete shutdown had helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a
beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They
were about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a
station can do, when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any
frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they
used to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were
continuous tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired
frequency, and servo motors at each stage would tun the
transmitter. I was kidding with one of the engineers if he had
ever though about putting it on 27.185 MHz any yelling, "Hey 18
wheeler, there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned pale as a
sheet. Can you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their
brakes, all over the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a
transmitter. A solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more
than a modulated switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed
relay rack. The earlier Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or
more racks covered with knobs & meters, along with a few buttons
for LV & plate controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for
a 150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to
design a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi
does. And hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few
years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM
transmitters, but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I
have copies on one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't
had the time to move all of the old files to one large NTFS drive
yet. I just hope that they are still readable. Maybe that idiot
'General Failure' hasn't messed with the drive I need. ;-)
I'm going to google the two methods of digital AM transmitters. There
are some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid
state. One I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL
type case and each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with
the power supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess
that's PSM.
Did you see the report about all three towers at WWVA collapsing in a
storm the other day?
http://www.fybush.com/featuredsite.html
studio for the Saturday Jamboree back in the late 50's early 60's. My dad
announced a commercial for one of the sponsors and had a friend who was a
musician that performed in the studio.
--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
M
Michael A. Terrell
Guest
Meat Plow wrote:
That is the second set of towers that have collapsed at WWVA.
I was in the WPFB studios and engineering area a number of times.
They lost a tower to high winds or a tornado in the late '60s or early
'70s. I can't find any reference online.
I also found that their long time country DJ, Moon Mullins passed
away. He was a friend of my dad, when they were growing up.
<http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/08/04/mj080508mullinsobit.html>
for anone in the Cincinnati or Dayton area.
On Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:34:35 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:14:34 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:44:11 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:09:04 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:49:47 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
May be of interest to some of the group RF nuts like me.
http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html
I told you about that site a couple years ago.
Well shit, I don't memorize these things.
Here is one about the different types of broadcast towers
in use, in
the US.
http://www.fybush.com/
Did you watch the VOA videos or had you seen those before?
Yes, when I first found the site. I visited the VOA Bethany
(Mason,
Ohio) facility in the late '60s when it was being upgraded.
The contractors were modernizing the controll rom, and had just
finished installing the 10 new National Radio 50 KW
transmitters. I also visted the WLW site the same day and got a
good look at the 500KW transmitter.
I going to try to arrange a tour of something that has that gear
still in operation. Like a few Continentals some Marconis, some
digital PSM/PWM gear. Listen to the hum and buzz, smell the
rarefied air.
It would be hard to match the WLW or an old VOA site with so
many
working transmitters.
The VOA site had ten new nationals, and all the original
Crosley
transmitters they were replacing. The Crosley were built before
there was television, and they caused so much TVI that they were
to be scrapped. The engineers said they had tried multiple
modifications to fix them, but nothing they could do without a
complete shutdown had helped.
The Crosley transmitters were cool, art deco styling with a
beautiful
fine grained green metal flake finish, and big glass windows. They
were about 25 years old, but looked brand new. That's what a
station can do, when they have a team of full time engineers.
That site could produce a total 1 million watts on any
frequency
from 2 to 30 MHz. They had a huge east west curtain antenna they
used to hit Russia & Europe. The new National transmitters were
continuous tuned, so all you had to do was dial in the desired
frequency, and servo motors at each stage would tun the
transmitter. I was kidding with one of the engineers if he had
ever though about putting it on 27.185 MHz any yelling, "Hey 18
wheeler, there's a Smokey on your tail!" He turned pale as a
sheet. Can you imagine thousands of semis slamming on their
brakes, all over the country? He quickly changed the subject!
Modern transmitters look more like a server room than a
transmitter. A solid state 5 KW AM transmitter isn't much more
than a modulated switching power supply in a single 19" enclosed
relay rack. The earlier Gate, Harris GE, RCA etc. were three or
more racks covered with knobs & meters, along with a few buttons
for LV & plate controls.
I find the newer pulse width and pulse step digitals fascinating not
really knowing much about them. One Marconi 500kw does pulse step
modulation. Raises the efficiency from 70 to 90 percent. No need for
a 150kw audio amp just to modulate. Takes more brains then I have to
design a smart switching supply and amp to do that like the Marconi
does. And hell that's 1975 technology to boot.
Harris Broadcast had some white papers on their website a few
years
ago that described the operation of their solid state AM
transmitters, but they had pulled them all the last time I looked. I
have copies on one of a dozen small fat 32 hard drives. I haven't
had the time to move all of the old files to one large NTFS drive
yet. I just hope that they are still readable. Maybe that idiot
'General Failure' hasn't messed with the drive I need. ;-)
I'm going to google the two methods of digital AM transmitters. There
are some that still use a tube array final and some strictly solid
state. One I was looking at had an 8 devices on a card, maybe TO-3PBL
type case and each one put out 1Kw. These output modules in sync with
the power supplies are modulated by switching them on and off. I guess
that's PSM.
Did you see the report about all three towers at WWVA collapsing in a
storm the other day?
http://www.fybush.com/featuredsite.html
No I didn't. That's a real FUBAR damn! I've actually been inside WWVA
studio for the Saturday Jamboree back in the late 50's early 60's. My dad
announced a commercial for one of the sponsors and had a friend who was a
musician that performed in the studio.
That is the second set of towers that have collapsed at WWVA.
I was in the WPFB studios and engineering area a number of times.
They lost a tower to high winds or a tornado in the late '60s or early
'70s. I can't find any reference online.
I also found that their long time country DJ, Moon Mullins passed
away. He was a friend of my dad, when they were growing up.
<http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/08/04/mj080508mullinsobit.html>
for anone in the Cincinnati or Dayton area.