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Wfom am 1230...

Some of those old transmitter parts are simply not available. Often you have to go back to the OEM who may be out of business. Then you're on your own and you have to get something fabricated.
 
Back in 1973 I was working for a little AM station. The transmitter blew a finals circuit and we had to wait 4 weeks for the board to be built and shipped.
 
I'll fix it for them. Tell Weber, just tape the (cashier's) check to the front of the transmitter.
 
kf4rca said:
Some of those old transmitter parts are simply not available. Often you have to go back to the OEM who may be out of business. Then you're on your own and you have to get something fabricated.
Click to expand...

With a fairly large number of AM stations "biting the dust" a good used solid state tranmitters can be had for less than a lot of used cars:

http://michaelpatton.com/for-sale

$5K to $9,000

If it were my money I would get the Nautel or BE. There are lot of old Harris MW1 parts still around and that could be an answer with a small budget.
 
secondchoice said:
With a fairly large number of AM stations "biting the dust" a good used solid state tranmitters can be had for less than a lot of used cars:
Click to expand...

Do you call 20 a "large number"?

While there is a list that approaches 100 silent stations, there were only about 20 AM licences surrendered and / or deleted in the last 18 months.

And it is a probability that the equipment of a deleted station suffered from the same problems that caused the station as a whole to fail: lack of money for operations and upkeep. I'd guess that a fair number of them were old hollow state rigs, with all the parts availability issues WFOM's current transmitter has.

The better used gear is going to the profitable small AMs, although there is a glut of tube transmitters since Mexico is no longer buying any AM gear and that is where much of the surplus US used equipment used to go.
 
And don't forget Canada has moved off AM. No doubt tubes are more resistant to lightning strikes. But my guess is most of those tube transmitters have been sent to recycling. While they were still usable they were not very efficient and, hence, there is no market for them.
 
WFOM's transmitter is practically new. Not sure where the misinformation originated about them still using a tube rig. There hasn't been a tube rig in that building in many years.

If I were a betting man, I would place my money on AT&T and the telco circuit that's used as the STL.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Do you call 20 a "large number"?
Click to expand...

I must live near the black hole of AM broadcasting. There was an AM station WYHG 770 in Young Harris GA that had a MW1 with a complete set of spare cards that went away because of owner incompetence. Clayton and Mountain City GA* lost their AM's due to loss of transmitter site(s). WLSB Copper Hill TN is about dead. That is 3 and soon 4 within 200 miles of my home.

* Same owner as WYHG but was sold for less than the price of the land the station sat on so there was another owner who took the hit.
 
It appears that the transmitter is on...but there is no audio. Yes, AT&T, or whomever handles the line going to that site is the likely culprit.
 
secondchoice said:
I must live near the black hole of AM broadcasting. There was an AM station WYHG 770 in Young Harris GA that had a MW1 with a complete set of spare cards that went away because of owner incompetence. Clayton and Mountain City GA* lost their AM's due to loss of transmitter site(s). WLSB Copper Hill TN is about dead. That is 3 and soon 4 within 200 miles of my home.

* Same owner as WYHG but was sold for less than the price of the land the station sat on so there was another owner who took the hit.
Click to expand...

Clayton and Mountain City AMs moved to a FM translator with coverage equivalent to a Class A FM. No longer needed small signal AM signals.
 
Last time I tuned in there was no carrier on 1230. Since solid state transmitters have been around for a long time, I doubt there are many tube ones still on the air.
Some have been converted to SW use by religious organizations, because they were usually available for free. (You haul it away.)
 
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