KSCO(AM), Santa Cruz, CA Whoops

[davideduardo]

This article says they kept losing power:

Radio’s Reliance on Power Companies and Internet Impact Ability to Serve

KSCO, Santa Cruz owner Michael Zwerling says as his station prepared to present a program on preparing for the next big earthquake, ironically, the station lost power numerous times causing continu…

talkers.com

Those are excuses for not having a first-rate technical plant. Generators are made to run in failures; running them when properly maintained is not a problem. Transmitters turn off if power fails. They turn on when it comes back, via the genny or the power company. If a station has decent power regulation and transient filtering, they should not be stressed at all by a failure.

Isn't this the same station that ran illegally for about a decade? They were supposed to be 5 kw directional and night and were not running directional. Now they are 280 watts at night instead... and don't cover most of the market.

 

[michael hagerty]

Those are excuses for not having a first-rate technical plant. Generators are made to run in failures; running them when properly maintained is not a problem. Transmitters turn off if power fails. They turn on when it comes back, via the genny or the power company. If a station has decent power regulation and transient filtering, they should not be stressed at all by a failure.

At least two of the stations that I worked for had the policy that once the generator came on, it stayed on for at least an hour after the utility restored power, if for nothing other than avoiding issues with power surges and intermittent interruptions before the restoration of stable power.

Isn't this the same station that ran illegally for about a decade? They were supposed to be 5 kw directional and night and were not running directional. Now they are 280 watts at night instead... and don't cover most of the market.

That's them.

 

[davideduardo]

At least two of the stations that I worked for had the policy that once the generator came on, it stayed on for at least an hour after the utility restored power, if for nothing other than avoiding issues with power surges and intermittent interruptions before the restoration of stable power.

In Puerto Rico, we might have been on the generator 24/7 at many times if we did that. The problem of being an island is not being on a power grid.

That's them.

Spanish saying, translated, again: "preaching morals in their underwear".

 

[michael hagerty]

In Puerto Rico, we might have been on the generator 24/7 at many times if we did that. The problem of being an island is not being on a power grid.

Having only lived and worked in three states (California, Nevada and Arizona), that's never been an issue. But winter storms in Reno and high wind events (often associated with monsoons) in Arizona would result in power outages that often seemed to involve the power coming back on for as little as a minute, and then going on and off every few minutes prior to full restoration somewhere within an hour.

Given that the generator kicking in wasn't seamless, having that policy of 60 minutes of stable power before switching back from the generator meant only one obvious interruption to programming (the initial one).

 

[Mark Roberts]

With changes that the local electric utility, PG&E, has made in its system as a response to increased wildfire risks, this could be possible. In addition to Public Power Safety Shutoffs (PSPS), PG&E has this year implemented Enhanced Public Safety Settings (EPSS), which are essentially sensors that instantly shut off power if abnormal conditions are detected, typically if an object hits the power line. The result is an unplanned power outage of some duration. To be blunt, this is PG&E's approach to years of underinvestment in its electric system and lack of hardening of key components. EPSS has not always been implemented smoothly. The Danville area in the East Bay in particular has had multiple outages due to hair-trigger EPSS implementation. It's possible the same thing could be happening in the Santa Cruz area, which is in the PG&E service territory. On the other hand, PG&E often becomes a convenient target for multiple types of complaints. It would be incumbent on KSCO to keep a record of power outages to back up its claims. Has that been done?, I wonder.
EPSS explanation (kind of simplistic): PG&E's Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings