Archive
What?! Nothing Happening?
Wow, I cannot believe I have not posted in over two weeks! Well, yes I can. Nothing is going on. As my tweets have mentioned I have updated our NV20’s to Version 2.6. Guess what, 2.7 is available. From what I can tell I may not need 2.7 at this time as i am not experiencing the issues of which it contains. I do not update just for the sake of updating, so on this one I will wait it out just a bit and research more on what it is supposed to do. I am quite happy with 2.6. No issues. Uh, Oh, now there will be something.
Harris? This buffer overflow thing seemed to be the issue. I still am surprised that an HD data overflow would mute the exciter. How can you put something on the air that is NOT critical but can cause a critical outage? Flabbergasted is a word for that. Hey, at least we’ve been on the air since I changed the Exgine delay setting.
DaySequerra M2.2R? Not back yet. Still waiting. This better work when I get it back!
Time change. Hopefully everyone who needs to made their changes. When you get down to it I find it amazing how many things have clocks in them. I also find it amazing why. I know my processors have dayparting, but we do not use it. Need a clock? Not really, but we check them anyways. Anything that logs need updating. Now my Nautel transmitter clocks need to be checked so I can get accurate logs on any issues. Nice feature, eh?
The super secret item mentioned in a tweet? It is a Tieline product. I am beta testing for a week coming up here. I don’t think I am supposed to talk about it yet, though it is a product they demonstrated at NAB. I am honored to be able to test something for a company. They trust I will either like it or can find issues with it. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
That’s all folks. I’ll keep you posted and may even write an opinion on something like HD power increase.
So What Have We Done with the M2.2R?
Some of you are interested in what resolve has occurred with our DaySequerra M2.2R. The bottom line is there has been no resolve.
The latest is we sent a bunch of data to them with the box we still have here. We sent a spectrum plot of what a whip antenna receives at the site. We’ve sent spectrum plots of what the samples see. We sent screen shots of their own web application showing signal strength and the like. They are still combing through it.
The last thing I did was take some measurements attenuating the signal from the sample and feeding the low level or antenna input. When the air conditioning folks move to the next unit, I will do more measurements. So far I’ve attenuated about 55dB. I have another 20dB attenuator I found. In any case, so far nothing seems to work. Inconsistent readings, or just not trustworthy readings, continue.
Stay tuned!
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!
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.
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.
Tech Notes from the Field 