Safety is, as it has been said: “Job One.” Yet, broadcast engineers are often under pressure to diagnose and quickly repair a transmitter, so the station can get back on the air at full power. As Richard Garrett explains, it is wise to remember and recognize safety issues. Many hazards exist in a […]

Most every AM station has a fence surrounding the base of each tower. And it seems like vast majority of these fences are square. However, Clay Freinwald decided to take on convention with a different shape. Some years ago, I was given the job to construct a new four-tower AM Array in Auburn, […]

Transmitters – and electronic equipment in general – do not do well when over-heated. Components deteriorate, moving parts develop friction, and wiring can melt. Ensuring good cooling is Dave Rose’s topic for discussion. Before FM, most AM transmitters were co-located at the studio site. This usually meant they had better care and maintenance. […]

As more and more wireless services seek tower space, broadcasters are being approached. Can an AM broadcast tower host other services in an economical way that does not impact regular transmissions? Michael Hayden from Lawrence Behr Associates (LBA) shows how it can be done. Even in Paradise, zoning boards can be quite an […]

Sometimes a discussion on an Internet mailing list can range far and wide, leaving a lot of opinions (we all have them, right?), but often as the discussion proceeds different ways of looking at a problem may provide alternate solutions. In September 2010 a discussion on the BROADCAST mailing list [BC] www.radiolists.net which […]

As one of the biggest changes in AM directional applications since the “Approved Sam-pling System,” the FCC approval of the Method of Moments modeling excited many stations who wanted a simpler way to design, build, and prove directional arrays. As Ed Trombley notes, this procedure is also of use with existing directional stations, […]

One of the skills a broadcast engineer may have to practice at some point is brazing. That is, where a filler material is heated and used to form a sealed joint with two pieces of metal. The resulting bond creates a strong joint at low resistance. If you are lucky, you know someone […]

If you maintain a Collins 831G2 or Continental 816 Series tra nsmitter that is not located in a “clean room” and is ventilated with outside air, and you are tired of having to repeatedly clean out the transmitters insides, or if you have had reliability issues due to foreign things that get inside […]

With more and more stations operating unmanned at night and weekends, remote control systems are more useful than ever, especially with the enhanced capabilities that web interfaces, etc, have added. It is – or should be – easy to see exactly what is going on, whether you are in the studio or a […]

Sometimes not knowing the exact definitions can get in the way of understanding engineering terminology. Richard Fry discusses a pair of terms that often seem interchangeable, but are not. Taking the time to investigate leads to better understanding of what happens when the signal leaves your antenna. When discussing electromagnetic radiation, the meaning […]