WABV Update
Well, the RCA BTA1-M Transmitter is cooked. Well, not literally, but it's seen it's last days. Then again, after 50 years of operations, what can you expect?
The think wasn't very well maintained by previous engineers (I have no idea who they were though).. and the unit was jurry rigged in several places. I was, frnakly, still surprised this thing worked. I did kinda expect it to die one day, so this isn't a total surprise.
We have the hardline transmission cable in place and the ATU rebuilt, painted and mounted. We were up at 500W last week and found , on the same night we had the "new" cable in and ATU remounted that a part had burnt out a fe wmonths ago and we didn't know it till then..
In trying to fix what was wrong with that part, we discovered a few other problems.. and not only can this transmitter not function anymore.. it plain old wouldn't be safe to do so anyways.
I DO have a Gates BC1G tuned to 1580 sitting in the back hallway that came from La Poderosa 1580 WDAB in Travelers Rest/Greenville. It uses 4 833's and 4 807's just like my BTA1M but we haven't had time to finish going through that box and determine if anythings wrong with it. The BC1G is the original transmtiter from when 1580 used to be WBBR.
My engineer knows of another Gates transmitter that ALSO uses 833 tubes which is sitting in Western North Carolina that isn't too far off frequency wise. He's going to be going over to that station Monday to check out the box, make arrangements with it's current owner and bring it down here Tuesday.. and HOPEFULLY.. we should be back on the air Wednesday... hopefully, but that's all dependent on what happens in the next few days.
The only thing that could throw a monkey wrench into the plans is that the crystal I bought for the Gates BC1G from Comemrcial Radio Supply in Cavendish, Vermont may not work with the gates transmitter were getting from a station in Western North Carolina. If we have to get another crystal, it may be a few more days off the air.
Now I'll have oodles of 833 tubes... my RCA BTA1-M Has 4 good 833 tubes in it. My Gates BC1G has 4 good 833 tubes in it and the other Gates transmitter (forget the model number) that's coming from Western North Carolina also has 4 good 833 tubes.
It'll be nice to have an overabundance of 833 and 807 tubes laying around. I'm not totally sure if the other Gates coming down here has 807's or not.... I forget what my engineer told me... we were up till 5am trying to get this contraption working.
I'll post more updates when I know what's going to be happening.
The think wasn't very well maintained by previous engineers (I have no idea who they were though).. and the unit was jurry rigged in several places. I was, frnakly, still surprised this thing worked. I did kinda expect it to die one day, so this isn't a total surprise.
We have the hardline transmission cable in place and the ATU rebuilt, painted and mounted. We were up at 500W last week and found , on the same night we had the "new" cable in and ATU remounted that a part had burnt out a fe wmonths ago and we didn't know it till then..
In trying to fix what was wrong with that part, we discovered a few other problems.. and not only can this transmitter not function anymore.. it plain old wouldn't be safe to do so anyways.
I DO have a Gates BC1G tuned to 1580 sitting in the back hallway that came from La Poderosa 1580 WDAB in Travelers Rest/Greenville. It uses 4 833's and 4 807's just like my BTA1M but we haven't had time to finish going through that box and determine if anythings wrong with it. The BC1G is the original transmtiter from when 1580 used to be WBBR.
My engineer knows of another Gates transmitter that ALSO uses 833 tubes which is sitting in Western North Carolina that isn't too far off frequency wise. He's going to be going over to that station Monday to check out the box, make arrangements with it's current owner and bring it down here Tuesday.. and HOPEFULLY.. we should be back on the air Wednesday... hopefully, but that's all dependent on what happens in the next few days.
The only thing that could throw a monkey wrench into the plans is that the crystal I bought for the Gates BC1G from Comemrcial Radio Supply in Cavendish, Vermont may not work with the gates transmitter were getting from a station in Western North Carolina. If we have to get another crystal, it may be a few more days off the air.
Now I'll have oodles of 833 tubes... my RCA BTA1-M Has 4 good 833 tubes in it. My Gates BC1G has 4 good 833 tubes in it and the other Gates transmitter (forget the model number) that's coming from Western North Carolina also has 4 good 833 tubes.
It'll be nice to have an overabundance of 833 and 807 tubes laying around. I'm not totally sure if the other Gates coming down here has 807's or not.... I forget what my engineer told me... we were up till 5am trying to get this contraption working.
I'll post more updates when I know what's going to be happening.
posted by The Radio God at 6:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home