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.)
Round Up
As you can tell from my last two posts we have been busy fixing things. My signature line, “breaking things before their time”, seems quite fitting for me. My assistant gets a kick out of this stuff as I train him on the ins and outs of broadcast engineering.
Yes, I am training a new assistant. He is a sponge right now and he asks the right questions. He does not hesitate to ask the questions. He asked a question that had a simple answer. I gave him the simple answer and then asked him, “do you want to know what really is going on?” It was on optos and relays in our SAS 32KD system. Using a simple example of what we are about to wire up, I started to show him what really was happening and bounced over to our one and only satellite delivered show that is fully automated. His last comments of the day, “now I won’t sleep. My head is spinning.” Welcome to my world.
For those of use doing this for so long it is amazing how second nature some of this becomes. Then you try to explain it to someone. It is mind boggling. I think we should get more credit for some of the miracles we pull off. Today it seems some much easier than 20 years ago. At the same time we are dealing with newer technology and companies who are attempting to do radio from a non-radio mentality. It is fun.
As a round up, over that last few months you have read the completion of a 445-foot tower with a diplexed, shunt-fed, skirt system; the installation and commissioning of the first 2 Nautel NV20 transmitters in the states; the early issues with the Daysequerra mod monitors; the total lock-out and corruption of an Audemat FMB80; and early on the success of our Arbitron PPM equipment installation and Nautel V1-D transmitter. Not bad for the last 4 months.
I hope we all make it through this little economic down turn and get to move on. I have so many other ideas to make this facility a dream place to work.
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.
All Is Well with Nautel NV20’s
Without getting into the details of version information as that is proprietary with Nautel, I will say we discovered a little issue with the controller on the NV20’s. Needless to say the issue did not cause much of an problem as more of an annoyance. It was a controller reset with no explanation. Random with no warning this reset would occur. I can say now that we worked this out as Nautel works on the next major release of NV software.
It is quite interesting to work through these issues and provide the information necessary to catch it and fix it. I feel good that we got it as quickly as we did. Tech support on Nautel’s side was awesome. If you find your NV series transmitter randomly dropping you off the air for 2 seconds and cannot find the explanation you better give Nautel a call. The fix is there. Get it.
I did drive our friends nuts as I was able to corrupt the AUI software on the transmitter itself. The fix was to ship me a new compact flash card with the “good” files in tact. Did the NV20 operate in this “mode”? You betcha. We had full remote control through the our remote control and we had full control via IP. If you are worried about such things as this with software based systems, you should be relieved to know that the important information is contained on the controller and does not fully rely on the computer running the AUI .
Great job Nautel. I look forward to the next major release so I can break that!
PS- Look forward to a Field Report coming to a trade near you.
Shunt Fed Skirts & Diplexing
The scenario: New 445′ tower, two AM stations diplexed, shunt fed.
Who thought of 445′ for stations on 1040 and 1240? Not a good beginning.
Three legs, each a climbing leg, one with a safety-climb cable.
Center feed to two sets of 3 skirt wires. That makes 6 skirt wires. Kintronics designs the skirts to go up each leg, that makes for 2 skirt wires per leg, and separated by approximately 36″. To me that is a bit too close for comfort. Lots of interaction.
Two storms now and each time the safety-climb cable comes loose from their clips. One time entangles 1240, the next it attacks 1040.
Repairs are made today and new clips are added to supplement the existing clips. The cable is run and looks good. Turn on 1240. It comes up OK. Turn on 1040 and it does not like what it sees. VSWR foldback and settles on low power. Engineer comes out and tries to tweak it. No go. I check the ATU’s and connections. All look good.
Conclusion: The cable was never installed properly and the impedance measurements and sweeps were not correct. 1040 needs to be tuned to make it work. Break out the bridge!
It is amazing what a “little” change will do to such a system. Shunt fed is fragile enough, but to put it on a tower at such an odd height is nuts. Then instead of having the skirts go up the face with some good physical separation, they are run up the legs. Now you cannot climb the tower without shutting it down. It will be interesting to see how far out of tune 1040 ended up. 1240 is slightly out as it was not happy after the connection checks on 1040. A mess it is.
Juggling the Fun
It is just crazy lately. I received a nice call today in regards to my comments on the Harris Flexstar. Thanks for that. I’m also busy with Nautel working out some little bugs with the NV20’s. These were to be expected as they are new products and will exhibit some strangeness. And that AM tower build, that is almost done though there are some details for the final city approval.
I am expecting my first software upgrade to the NV’s. This is necessary as we are experiencing an interesting little problem that may be commercial power related of which the NV’s are sensitive. Our Z10’s were also sensitive to something, but now it seems more apparent that a little phase brown-out situation may be occurring.
Overall I am quite please with the new transmitters, so these minor little things do not bother me. I feed information to Nautel and they are very receptive of the input. Daysequerra on the other hand….
Whomever decided that a shunt feed for an AM tower of odd-ball height is on drugs. Poor match that was closely matched shows signs of being unstable with some weather we are getting here. High VSWR that is random. A head-scratcher to say the least, but still annoying. It is a similar unstable thing our old tower exhibited in weather. Bad connections of the skirts? Poor design on how the skirts are installed. Rigidity of the skirts or lack thereof. Who knows.
All in all it is interesting, but very busy.
Cheers!
92kHz subcarriers and HD
Has anyone run into issues with 92kHz subcarriers and HD? Seems that when I turn on our HD carrier our 92kHz subcarrier client complains of noise or static. It is a crackly type sound from what I hear over the phone. It goes away when the HD carriers are off.
My initial feeling is the radios used to receive the subcarrier are sub-par and do not do well with the additional carriers turned on. We do not have that issue on another station with a 67kHz client.
As always I am interested in your thoughts and opinions. I will post any of my findings.
Tech Notes from the Field 