Equipment Notes and Comments
I see a lot of hits for this section. As mentioned in the previous Nautel post I will start placing links to my notes on the equipment I use and some notes on the conventions that I use.
If there is some specific item that I may have addressed and you would like to see notes on it, then please drop a comment or two and I will get to it.
Thanks for visiting and hopefully we will all learn more!
Nautel NV Software Update
Loaded in version 2.2 of the software. A nice jump from 1.3, eh? Anyways, the update rolled out as planned. Some cosmetic fixes and I noticed email notification is available. I will look into this and see how that works. I sure do like the connectivity aspect of new equipment.
In addition, I spend some time on the phone with Nautel and discussed the efficiency aspect of solid-state transmitters. I proceeded with doing some adjustments to improve the efficiency and I had some good results. I am going to write a tech sheet on the procedures I did. The bottom line is I raised the efficiency from 51% to 55/56% dropping the ambient temperature almost 4 degree Celsius. Stay tuned for this one! (if I’m lagging, please post a comment of this as a reminder.)
New Tube for the HTHD+
In the last couple of weeks I had an interesting series of events with the Harris HTHD+ transmitter. I was out there with my assistant a couple of weeks prior to these events and I made a comment that we should consider replacing the tube some time this year. Of course I was thinking conventional wisdom when it comes to tubes and I figured a couple of months before the actual replacement.
Well, the bottom line I was wrong. Here is the events that occurred. If you saw my tweet on Memorial Day, I experienced an IPA overload on the rig. I visited the site and checked everything. All looked good, even the readings. I had the transmitter back on in about an hour. I visited the site the following day to verify all readings and make sure I did not miss anything. All good again. I decided to purchase the tube and have it on site ready to go for a routine replacement.
Friday morning, 2:30am, I get the remote control call. The rig is off again. Off to the site and sure enough the IPA was indicating overload again. Well, I suspected that this soft tube may be the issue. As protocol, I called Harris tech support and discussed the situation. I had cleaned and checked all the internals for obvious issues. We both agreed that the tube could be the cause. Plus, for the HD rig we were pushing 2 1/2 years on the tube!
With luck, I tracked down our UPS delivery dude as he was making a delivery across the way. The tube was on board, so I signed for it and off to the site. Talk about timing. I performed the installation and tweaked the transmitter up. We were back in business. The end of last week I began my filament management and backed off a bit. All is still looking good.
We are coming up on two weeks after the first occurrence. After the tube replacement we have not experienced the IPA overload. In our case apparently a soft tube caused IPA overloads to occur. The story has been relayed to another in Harris. Interest has been piqued. I must note this is an early HDHT+ transmitter, so we may see some oddities. I intend to talk with Harris and compare notes.
Once again, do not rule out anything when tackling a problem. Eliminate the items not causing the issues and narrow it down to the specific item. In this case, the tube. Another learning experience completed.
When Motivation Fades
Have you gone through a phase where all your motivation to work begins to fade? Seems to come and go, so I call it a phase. Some phases are deeper than others, too.
In this phase it seems a number of items are contributing. One is the feeling of “I can do more.” This one is silly as the economy prevents us from spending and at the same time makes us more creative. Dealing with this one is easy. Another item is the lack of cooperation I see within the facility. It makes me wonder why we even bother. Even those on the same staff just do not get it and all communications are lost. When you see their supervisor not make any effort to correct or follow through, it just gets worse. Moral drops. Again, I do my part on the technical side, but I’ve been pressured not to interfere with the “other” stuff. Crazy. In all, these still lead to my lack of motivation.
On the other side the warm weather and and all makes it more difficult to concentrate. This is common for many. If you have vacation time, take that Friday off or even do a half day. This helps. I know. Some I know take a Monday off occasionally. I have not tried that route yet, but it sure seems like a good idea, too. Another thing that works for me is to focus on something that is different than the norm. Learn or catchup on something different. Break the cycle by doing something else.
As broadcast engineers we have many hats to wear which works to our advantage, so put on another one and leave the mundane behind for a week. Stir it up.
Battery Backup
What does battery backup mean to you? As we go through this slow economy we are finding things that are on the list for maintenance which, if not dealt with soon, may jeopardize our operations. One of these items is our UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) system. I have two which are indicating battery replacement and these happen to be the ones in a control room that required cost cutting measures when built, so these are your off-the-shelf APC boxes. I cannot change the batteries while they are online, nor do I want to by-pass them and not protect my systems. Now I need to walk through and justify the cost of a decent UPS. In the “good” times I would be able to purchase these first and justify their existence when the bill arrived. This should be an easy walk-through as I think it is worth protecting $50k worth of equipment. It also protects our on-air product. We hate to be off the air, you know.
Of the routine maintenance you do this year, I suggest putting your money where it is necessary. Power protection should not be taken lightly. Though inconvenient to swap out the UPS, I know that in the future I will be able to change batteries without taking our studio off-line. With summer coming and our fine California weather which will require “rolling blackouts”, I want to be prepared. Even with a generator on the system, there is still transfer times and there will be brown-outs and spikes that do not trigger the system.
As it turns out, I found a way to change out one UPS without taking down the console or critical items. When the next UPS arrives I will take down the computers in the room. This is only a minor inconvenience as opposed to taking down the whole room. Invest in what you have, it may save you a bit of money down the road.
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.
Tech Notes from the Field 