Tech Notes from the Field

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.