Harris Flexstar
And on the other side, we had to do some network modifications while we installed the HD for the Nautels and other two stations. The bottom line is we had to configure our switches to a managed mode and take down the HD data streams to do this. The Nautel gear came back without much issue when all was done. The Flexstar did not fair as well. As it was late in the day we decided to let the HD slide until today.
What did we find: This morning I was told to listen closely to the station. I confirmed an audible tone in the audio. Before heading to the site, I confirmed that the HD stream did not recover on its own. I was able to ping the exciter. Questions popped into my head. I can ping the box, so network connectivity was good, but no stream. Interesting. Once at the site I noticed the red LED on the Flexstar indicating that something was not right with the data. We switched to the backup transmitter and confirmed the tone went away. It did. The Flexstar had degraded to the point it was generating some sort of intermodulation tone.
I rebooted the Flexstar by cycling the power. After boot, it came up and all looked good. After placing it back on the air, the tone was gone and the analog audio was good again. Very interesting. As you may guess, I am going to send a note to Harris regarding this.
Nautel NV20 On The Air
We officially put the first NV20 on the air today, FM + HD. After cleaning up the air chain wiring we capitalized on the things we learned this week. It is amazing the engineering it takes to make a solid state transmitter run IBOC. Linearity is the key and on these boxes it is taken to an extreme. The mask is amazing.
I plan on having the second NV20 on by tomorrow afternoon. A slightly more complex chain and a bit more cleaning up. We will see how this goes.
And one question that may be in your head: yes, the exciter is brand new, built from the ground up. Bright and clean. Nice full bass. You may say it is transparent. Exciters should not color audio.
Nautel NV20 Update
I’ve been able to spend almost 2 quality days on these boxes. I have AES audio to each exciter and control is connected to the remote. I’ve done some basic tests into the dummy load. We still await AT&T’s repair of our data T-1, so no HD as of yet. I can rant about AT&T as it is over a month since the trouble ticket was called in.
As I am working without manuals, I have a list of items I need to discuss with Nautel, so they will not be written about until I have a proper understanding of the situation. On one box, I do seem to have a PM, power module, with a bad power supply. Not a surprise as I’ve seen other transmitters with modules that go bad within weeks of installation.
I do have an interesting situation with my Bird sample slug and the level to a Daysequerra modulation monitor. Either the slug is bad, and that means at least 2 are bad, or the mod monitor is bad. I do not seem to get any RF level on the monitor yet the meter shows full forward power and the spectrum analyzer shows the modulated carrier using the same sample. It’s just another thing to look at.
All in all, we are having fun doing this project, though it is taking a bit longer than expected.
Why Do I Bother?
It is days like today that I must ask myself, “Why do I bother?”
It wasn’t a bad start, it just went down hill quickly. It is tough to deal with an over reactive station. They heard a second long drop out on the air. They called me. I responded that I would check it out.
After listening for over 10 minutes, there was no audible issue. I reflected on what we have scheduled and new we had a T-1 with a trouble ticket open. AT&T is notorious for messing with other circuits that are at the same site as the one with the trouble. I informed the PD of my conclusion, but instead of listening, he proceeded to explain to me what they heard. All good and well, but I’ve heard the story. I just wanted them to LISTEN to my conclusion. They sure know how to talk, but when it comes to listening, I may as well be speaking to a wall.
That’s my rant for the day. Probably week. Why bother? Trying to help seems to be a waste. Instant gratification is more important. Oh well. I’ll get over it. I always do.
Nautel vs. Harris
I really do not want to get into such a “fight”, but our IT guy and my assistant mentioned how much better our Class A simulcast sounds compared to our Class B main station. This morning we took a trip to a spot where both stations come in real well, analog and HD. We listened to one. We changed to the other. Very interesting results.
The Class A station runs the Nautel V1-D with the M50 exciter and the Class B station runs a Harris HTHD+ with a Flexstar exciter. Both have the same processing. Both are fed the same way. The only difference is the transmitters. The Nautel does NOT color the audio in any way and the station sounds really good. The Harris colors the audio, it is slightly grungy, and it seems to be lacking in fullness and apparently “missing” sounds. It is quite interesting. We intend to record our results when time permits and everything settles down on the other work.
Anyone have similar experiences? Oh, we also noticed the HD’s sound different too. To us the Nautel is more listenable than the Harris. Crazy. An exciter and transmitter should not color the audio or degrade the audio in any way, shape, or form.
Nautel V1-D 12vDC Issue
So the transmitter in question this week was the V1-D by Nautel. The thing has been running great since the installation last month. This week, Monday, we time aligned the digital and analog, then matched the simulcasting station. A day later, the Nautel falls back on power and shows a 12v fault. Hmmmmm?
So we head to the site and check things out. We cannot get it to fail, so we let it be. We get back to the station it starts showing 12v faults again and then a foldback of power. I switch it to the backup and head up the next day.
I talk things over with tech support and we tear into the box. We measure the test points. We check connections. We drop the fans and look under and deeper in. We find nothing out of the ordinary. Next we put it all together and light it up in the dummy load. That surely will heat the room up and cause a fault if it is heat sensitive. One hour and no problem. I have to get back, so we button it up and put the box on the air. IT’S BEEN RUNNING FINE EVER SINCE!
I sent the logs to tech support. This morning I follow up and leave an email stating that things are running just fine now. I get a response that some customers have had the wiring on the fans chafe and begin to exhibit these same symptoms. Short wires from the controller board to the fans. I noticed ours was somewhat tight, so next time up for maintenance I will check on that. For now, it works great and I will not touch a box that is not having any issues.
If anyone has an issue with customer support at Nautel, I sure have not had one. They are really nice and as responsive, or more, than some others I know.
Weekly What Up?
As you know, last week was fun. The upcoming weeks should be fun too. As we proceed to dismantle the old remains of the tower we will see how things change, tuning-wise, on the new. I also get to take care of the details preparing for the filings. We are already hitting a road block with the FAA. All pre-filings were no issue, now they want verification of the actual height and ground level. I really do not think the ground level has changed since the surveying for the original FAA notification. Wacky!
I get to head into the NV20 installations, too. Whether we get to those this week or not depends on the last of the AM work. I still need to time-align the HD install from December. Tough to do when the monitors are at the studio and the transmitter is just out of range of getting an HD lock! I can get the data, though, which makes me wonder why I cannot get an audio lock. Oh well, it will get done.
I also received the new Aphex HeadPod. A headphone amp which is claimed to be high end. I look forward to trying it out. I have some ideas of how to use it pending I am able to spend any money!
PPM is in, so we will see how that works over the next couple of months. Arbitron has been slow in responding to my call sign change notification and my analog backup for an FM.
Have a great week!
new tower and hot
This week we completed the move of 1240 and 1040 to the new tower. The match is not too bad considering the oddball height of 445 feet.
I guess that is what happens when you get two parties not thinking.
I must say it was hard work and fun. Next we remove the remains of the old tower and do our final measurements. Then the stupid city gets their fencing (iron not chain link) and an easement that will separate the transmitter building and tower. Quite nuts on all fronts.
Till next time!
More:
Did I mention the fact that I must lower a whip antenna as it was not caught in the designs by a certain unnamed individual. Oh, and the skirt wires are located such that it is impossible for climbers to get up the tower without shutting down the AM stations. Oh, and the mount for the T.V. tenant needs to be moved. It’s placed within the skirt wires. Can you say arcing? I new you could! At least there is no antenna yet! I’m moving that mount to the 250 foot level.
Later!
What’s Happening
I’ve done a number of posts on the Nautel NV20. What else is going on? Well, we are rebuilding our AM tower that “broke” in half 4 years ago. It is now at 445 feet. We intend to move the diplexed AM stations to the new tower this coming Tuesday. Hopefully we will match well. We are using the existing ATUs for this move. Insurance would not pay for the complete replacement. Go figure.
As you know we install our PPM equipment. This is a completed project included our Internet streams. We are using the Roku Soundbridge for our monitoring source to the PPM monitor. It works well. I have also given each station a selection on the console to monitor this feed, too. Nice what I can do quickly with the SAS system.
One morning show talent has moved out of state, again. Still part of the show we create a studio for her. Our feed back to the station is using a Tieline iMixG3 using IP. We’ve done it before and will do it again. I make sure we are ready for Monday tomorrow.
Hope you all have a Happy New Year. I hope we make it fine during this slow economic times. I will have some comments on the FCC and their weak backbones and the liberals that will try to ruin the industry. I still have thoughts on how greed has attempted to ruin the industry, too. We’ll see how it all pans out!
NV20 Preliminary Installation
On 12/30, I finished the preliminary installation of 2 NV20s from Nautel. I plumbed the RF line into the switches and the electrician wired up the panels. One disconnect had to be upgraded to accommodate one of the new transmitters.
I successfully turned both on within 4 hours of each other without modulation. Both came up as expected and it is quite amazing what can be monitored and controlled via the front touch screen. As our IT guy said, we have two 20kW Linux computers!
Next is to finish the air chain and wire the audio into the systems. Nautel has a planned software upgrade for our boxes. This is to be expected as we have the first production runs installed in the real world. I am quite interested to see how they perform.
Tech Notes from the Field 