Archive
Harris HTHD+ IPA Burp
It just would not be a holiday if something unexpected, unexplained, and just plain nuts happened. Today it was our Harris HTHD+. Just decided it was not going to work and stopped putting out power. When I arrived on site, the only red LED on was the IPA. I inspected everything and flipped on the dummy load. Powered up and all was fine. Chalk another one up for the head-scratcher’s list.
I do know I am about due for a tube replacement, so I suspect a little arc action or some sort of commercial power surge, though no overloads were indicated. BTW, the box did not turn back on via remote control right after the event. Only after sitting idle for about 20 minutes did it seem to work again.
Happy Memorial Day
Though late, I want to say thanks to all those who serve, have served, and will serve our country. It is great, and hopefully will remain so.
Weely Roundup
Well, as the economy goes, so does the number of projects that get done. What do you do when things slow down? I like to catch up on documentation and one thing that really gets boring, inventory. I am also working on a couple of ideas that need to be researched before I make the budgetary plan. Sure it may not be for a couple of years, but it is fun to keep up and look into potential time-saving projects.
This week we had a Harris Flexstar exciter failure. Coincidentally, and if you have been following my tweets, it occurred about the same time our T-1 went down. The T-1 repair was at a B-box mid-span though AT&T testers showed it out our site. The tech dispatched showed it at the CO end. Go figure. Anyways, the XLR input board seems to have an issue on the exciter. No AES audio in the main nor the aux inputs. The analyzer says the audio is there and our axillary transmitter is on the air, but the Flexstar is not happy. My new parts should be here tomorrow. We’ll see if this is the only failure. I have a feeling I will be sending the box in for factory repair.
On the other side, I upgraded our Nautel NV20’s to version 1.3. Many of the minor things mentioned before are fixed. They even incorporated a screen saver. Some cosmetic changes makes the AUI look a bit better. One of these items is the Local/Remote button. It is not a split button and shows green on the half that is currently engaged, i.e the half that says Remote is green when in remote mode. Also fixed is the saving of profiles. The boxes will no longer put the profile being saved on the air.
Enco “fixed” their PADApult software and we are running PAD data on the older version of the Exporter. I don’t really know why the product was not compatible with the older versions as there are more out there than the the latest 4.2.
As for the Exporter 4.2, IBiquity has fixed the left/right channel swap and we await the software update from Nautel. Still have to wait for everything. Good thing HD is not that important.
DaySequerra has had our first M2.2R for over a week now. I still do not know if the fixed receiver board solves our RFI issue. When I know, you will know.
Phew. Have a good week!
All in a Day’s Work
We are waiting. While we wait we clean up. The economy is killing every project on the planet. Thanks, O, B, and previous leaders.
I am working on a field report. This one is the Aphex HeadPod. Look for it soon. All I can say, “how can I get the money to buy a few of these!”
Part of my waiting is the Burk remote control. It should be back today if they read my paperwork and expedited return. They also have a same day turn around in that the day they receive the unit they repair it and send it back out.
Carry on!
Minor Rant
After this last week and especially the last two days I have one question: Why is there such a lack of communications and understanding between customer and support?
I’ve mentioned our attempt to get the Enco PADapult to work. First Enco supplies software that does not work. They never activated and tested serial capture from their own workstation. It takes a week to convince them something was not right. Today we actually get something to work, BUT instead of being activated for 3 instances, it is only activated for one. Then we find out it only works with Exporter version 4.2. We have 2.4.2W on the Harris Exporter. We cannot change this until BTC catches up.
This leads to Harris. They could not tell us anything about why the Padapult did not work. All we got is a “it should work”. Not.
What is so different that one version takes something and another doesn’t? ID3 data is ID3 data. It’s been so for many years. Go figure.
Of course if the Padapult works with Exporter 4.2, who has that? Well, we do with the Nautel Exporter+. Guess what? The Padapult actually worked through that system. I check with another station in our group and they have pre-2.4 version of the Exporter and they have no issue. Of course their system is not Enco. Makes you wonder, eh?
My conclusion is we have a bunch of people messing with this IBOC HD crap and know one can make everything work together. Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to have resources and work something like the NPR labs? Do they even test for this type of crap?
IBiquity still has not corrected the Left/Right channel swap in the 4.2.2 Exporter software. OK, I can get PAD, oh, I mean PSD, data to the air, but I cannot get my channels straight? I’m the dog chasing his tail. It is driving me and our IT guy nuts. At least we know that there will be something to move on to.
I’m out.
Piles of Little Things
Wow. Crazy busy at home with the little one and family duties and I check to see that I have not posted anything new except for some tweets. I’ll do 2 posts, one with the list and one little rant.
Nautel Update: NV20 still running well. New version 1.3 is out for the transmitters and I must admit I have not installed it. I think I will wait until things settle down just a bit.
Daysequerra: Confirmed they are still working on the M2.2R RFI issue. I am just happy they are willing to work on this and I look forward to the results.
Harris: Seems we are stuck in the water right now. See the next post.
Enco: Same as Harris. They are the stars of the next post.
Did some interesting packet sniffing on our “transmitter” network. Amazing what traffic is generated with so little items that should not be talking at the time. Thank you Microsoft (Importers).
All the little things are keeping us busy. It’s the cleanup I mentioned in previous posts. I have to review the public files and prepare one for transfer pending a sale. We want to improve our Issues & Programs file and make it better. Ours is quite detailed and should be streamlined. I am also looking at a system of storing all transmitter logs electronically which will be a scanning routine to start.
We are also entering the remote broadcast season. This keeps us busy with morning show broadcasts and busy weekends for concerts and events. This is where being understaffed becomes a challenge. we will keep at it until it is all done.
Keep on keeping on!
Daily Grinding
A fine crazy week of catchup and finishing touches. All is running fine with the Nautel NV20s. No complaints here. We are awaiting word from Daysequerra on the M2.2R issue I mentioned in an earlier post. Again, I will post the details once we receive and are satisfied with the solution.
So, while we wait we attacked our PAD data. As we use the Enco DAD system, we decided to attempt the PADapult. After one week of IT playing the “it’s your problem” tag war with Enco, it turns out to be Enco’s problem. We want to use the serial input to the computer running PADapult. Hyperterminal shows the data coming in, so what is the software doing? Friday we received word that Enco has duplicated the issue. They said PADapult needed to be re-engineered. We use serial as we do not wish to bridge networks. Simple. Make it work. We cannot be the only ones doing this.
I also learned this week, Friday, that there is an firmware update to the Sine System 1.5 controller. Version 1.52 is to fix an issue with input being configured properly, but not working as reported. Sine Systems was quite helpful and we should receive the update next week.
As you can see, it has been a daily grind to get through this past week. Routine turned into issues. At least it makes for some interesting work as routine can get a bit “grinding”.
Twitter Feed Now Available
WordPress has now made it possible for twitter feeds to be displayed. You will find these on my right hand side bar. Now you can catch updates before I sit down and make some long-winded post on something or other.
In the meantime keep on visiting. BTW, how do you feel about polls?
92kHz SCA on an HD Station
One last post of the evening. I don’t know how I missed this, but it is quite a story. I will only put the highlights in.
We have a client on a 92kHz SCA. I am not a fan of doing this in a competitive market, especially this one, but money talks. While doing the HD installation, and the reason I needed a good modulation monitor, the client called within an hour of us turning on the digital carriers. NOISE. That’s all they could say. From all my spectrum analysis I was not able to determine what the deal was. I obtained one of their cheap radios and tested. Sure enough it was gone. Was I missing something? I obtained a modified FMeXtra Aruba radio so I can use that as a base. Way worse.
I made a couple of calls the the Radio Doctor, Lyle Henry, to pick his brains and maybe commission him to fill in the blanks. Well, last week he was all ready to come down and I said to wait as I was going to double check everything and meet with the client to really compare the apples with the apples this time. The day before I spent about an hour verifying all the parameters. I even decided to give the client a bit more injection above what our contract was written. (all I can say is I did not write this thing and we will leave it at that.) I tweaked the Modulation Sciences SCA generator. These guys are not getting what they are paying for and then some.
The next day we met outside the client’s offices. They were late. I turned on the digital carriers. We walked their building with their cheap radio. We ran the Aruba from the back of the car. We were quite amazed that the changes I did the day before made for a better quality signal for them. The client arrived and asked them to listen. They liked what they heard and that is when we told them the digital was on.
“oh, hear the noise?” they exclaimed. I explained to them that everyone has this noise, and believe me the noise was not that bad. It was a hash sound, by the way. I proceeded to take our secret weapon, the Aruba, and tune to another station running HD and a 92kHz SCA. Same noise, even worse. We tuned to our sister station with a 67kHz SCA. Same noise crappy audio. (don’t ask, it’s what we get from them.) Then came the icing, the car SCA tuner the client uses. After a little exchange, the answer is it was just fine. We won them over, and HD is still on today.
Overall, yes there is a hash noise that is very noticeable on the SCA’s when the digital carriers are on. Injection is very important at this point in the game. Also allowing them to modulate the full or close to full 7kHz deviation is a good thing. It all ties in and it all works. Thanks Radio Doctor for your insight. I would not recommend an analog SCA on an HD station, but it can be done. It’s old technology meshing with new. Go new and use FMeXtra or wait until we can sell secondary services on HD3, HD4, or whatever.
I still do not like HD. Seems to be quite a headache. A bitch to deal with. A pain if you have to use older software on a newer box. (That’s a whole other story that I cannot discuss quite yet.)
M2.2R by Daysequerra
I do not spend all my time breaking transmitters. I discovered a little problem with the Daysequerra M2.2R Modulation Monitor. At our transmitter site we could not get a decent read on anything. We observed up to 4 bars of RF on the level meter with ALL inputs terminated. Yes, that is correct, nothing but the power cord was plugged in. WTF, you would ask.
After describing the issue with the company, I tried all suggestions. I tried stuff like running on a UPS only. I even brought one unit back to the shop. That one worked a bit better in the shop, but I still had my doubts. I expected a couple of new boxes to try after I returned from vacation to find nothing. A quick email was shot off to Day.
I get a call which confirmed I was not going crazy and that Daysequerra was able to duplicate the problem. Looks like I found a little issue with the receiver board. In an high RF environment with many HD stations, the receivers were overly sensitive. I little issue that should be resolved here shortly and we will have some working boxes.
As always I do not fill you in on all the details until everything is complete resolved. I started to think I made a bad choice on purchasing these boxes though I have two working just fine at two other sites. If the fix works I will post and let you know if these do what I expect them to do: Modulation Monitor, SCA injection measurements, MPX output, and the other basics.
3/27/2009:
Just a note that I still await the repair on my monitors. The last I heard was the PCB manufacturer was behind on delivering the fix. Until the fix is tested I cannot comment on anything. I hate waiting.
10/2/2009:
I still wait for our box to come back with new guts. Can you say the longest service in the history of radio? Anyone else with a long repair tail? The last I heard our DOE talked at NAB about our specific box. No answer yet. Hello? Customer service, please.
Tech Notes from the Field 