Day: July 26, 2018

Well my job can’t begin here yet.

kg4cyx3 Comments

Nothing left to do now but get a very strong adult beverage. The Carr fire hit the site—

Left cabinet was a CSI 3KW on KEWB-FM, center rack was exciters and STL and the aux for KNCQ-FM, rightmost rack was a BRAND NEW Nautel VS 2.5 that seems to have just… vaporized. All the aluminum parts of everything just disappeared, including a brand new 2-port Bext combiner that was going in along with the Nautel for a new project. A tech who came up found the propane line burning in the wreckage like a torch and shut it off at the tank.


There was also a VHF repeater for an air ambulance service and the gear for two wireless ISPs in the building, which dated back to the early 1990s.

Note the Fibrebond structures fully intact in the background.

The two towers up there experienced extreme heat, melting every plastic part about halfway up.

In which I realize I should find a good self-service car wash.

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Sometimes your gear just needs a good power wash with spot-free rinse and tri-color foaming wax. I didn’t have this handy so an ENTIRE CAN of CRC QD went to cleaning this poor old transmitter up. It lost about two pounds in the process and there’s a red mudpuddle in the parking lot where the runoff landed and evaporated.

Before:

After:

Washed the voltage regulator cover right off! Heehee. First time I’ve seen one of those Sanken STR series voltage regulator units before. It looks similar to the STK series audio amplifiers that wound up in a lot of low and mid range BPC* audio amplifiers, usually accompanied by a muddy, dark, IMD-plagued tone. I kinda expected to find that this regulator which powers the 250 watt PA section is of adjustable voltage and that varies the transmitter power output, but no! The output control takes place on the intermediate power amplifier card (IPA) to the right. This may mean that the amplifier isn’t very stable at low power output levels, and may explain why an identical unit I have in service that’s turned down to like ten watts tends to act stupid. Oopsie noodles??!!

* Black Plastic Crap