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A day in the life of a lamptimer

R.I.P. 11 second drift. A phenomenon that has happened every day for how long now??

One may ask, "what in the wide, wide world of lamptimers" could have happened? What killed the lamptimer's 11 second drift? Some WD40, or something more?

A sad day nonetheless, as we're no longer awarded a little extra time to hear "the same old song" anymore.

Kookie? Kookie!?
 
There's something "muy curioso" going on over at our beloved Lumberyard.

I've noticed the last three nights that the Lumberyard has been powering down their transmitter from their normal day-time power of 5000 watts to something considerably less (something along the lines of their 52 watts of authorized night-time power). Since this has happened the last three nights in a row, I venture to guess that this will occur again tomorrow night so faithful Lumberyard listeners should take notice! :eek:

As we all know, the August sign-off / power down time is 7:15 P.M. for Phoenix AM stations. This reduction of power that I've noticed over at the Lumberyard occurs just after the 7:00 P.M. TOH ID (today it was exactly at 7:03 P.M.). The KAZG signal continues to transmit at this reduced power until 7:15 P.M. when the newly improved Lamptimer (thank you WD 40!) kicks in and dumps the carrier. Over here in Gilbert, the transmitter power for these brief 10 plus minutes appears to be along the lines of the PSRA that KAZG graciously provides us in the early morning hours during the winter months. If this is true, I venture to guess that the power would be along the lines of 500 watts and not the night-time authorized power of 52 watts (because Catfish with a "c" says that the KAZG transmitter can't go down to 52 watts).

So, my question for those with superior knowledge than me (I.E. oldiesfan, KOOL Lauren, the lovable Doc, etc.) is what in the wide world of sports is going on over at KAZG? Could the Miner 49er's perhaps be testing out their PSSA? Since the FCC granted KAZG the PSSA back in 2007, we have yet to see them use it. Could this be changing here in the upcoming winter months? "Neugierige" Lumberyard fans want to know! ???
 
asugeorge1 said:
As we all know, the August sign-off / power down time is 7:15 P.M. for Phoenix AM stations. This reduction of power that I've noticed over at the Lumberyard occurs just after the 7:00 P.M. TOH ID (today it was exactly at 7:03 P.M.). The KAZG signal continues to transmit at this reduced power until 7:15 P.M. when the newly improved Lamptimer (thank you WD 40!) kicks in and dumps the carrier.
Click to expand...

Well this may explain the somewhat inferior signal I've had when turning the radio on at
around 7:10 PM to catch the sign off carrier dump the past few evenings. I couldn't figure
out why it's been weaker and noisier than usual. Maybe catfish (with a "c") can give us the
scoop?

And as for the lamptimer, since it started "going the other way," it's been dumping carrier
each evening about 15 seconds earlier than the night before--yesterday at 7:14:38, tonight
at 7:14:23, for example.
 
well the old lamptimer died.. gone.. new lamptimer dos based like the other one taken out of the closet.. new battery on the motherboard,, burk lamptimer dos before windows.. donations needed and no internet at the site to correct the time.. no I do not work at 1440 but the engineer is awesome and a very nice man and working with no budgets..
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
And as for the lamptimer, since it started "going the other way," it's been dumping carrier
each evening about 15 seconds earlier than the night before--yesterday at 7:14:38, tonight
at 7:14:23, for example.
Click to expand...
Maybe the lamptimer was accidentally unplugged, and then plugged back in backwards.
!aaH aaH yawA eM ekaT oT gnioG er'yehT :eek:

Well looks like Catfish with a "c" ruined that thought.
I guess now the lumberyard needs an atomic clock.

R.I.P the beloved lamptimer
11/8/2008?-8/21/2011
 
catfish said:
well the old lamptimer died.. gone.. new lamptimer dos based like the other one taken out of the closet.. new battery on the motherboard,, burk lamptimer dos before windows.. donations needed and no internet at the site to correct the time.. no I do not work at 1440 but the engineer is awesome and a very nice man and working with no budgets..
Click to expand...

Makes a lot of sense. Sounds like the old lamptimer didn't survive the recent haboob that blew through south Scottsdale! ;D As always, thanks for the insight catfish with a "c"!


So now we know why the 11 second lamptimer drift disappeared, but what's with the power reduction 10 minutes before sign-off? Is the Lumberyard saving a few bucks on power before monthly sign-off or is this is a preview of the Goldmine's future use of their PSSA? The mystery continues!
 
In all our years of listening to Lumberyard 14~Forty (which includes thousands of worn out oldies), Nurse Jeff and I have never heard the Goldmine use their PSSA. For the month of August they're authorized to use 123 watts between 7:15 (local sunset) and 7:45pm. Then the pow-pow-power drops to 49 watts between 7:45 and 8:15p, and goes to 29 watts until 9:15pm. But of course it doesn't take Middle Eastern Men of the Media to tell you KAZG has nightime authorization of 52 watts, which trumps the 49 and 29 watt settings. What makes this information all the more useless is catfish (sans capital C) swears on Mrs Gumpdusky's Bible that the xmttr is incapable of operating at any setting less than 500 watts. Therefore the mystery remains as to why Lumberyard 14~Forty is reducing power at 7pm. Maybe J. Fife Symington III can figure this one out ;)


Please join the staff of the Buckeye Media Hut for a moment of silence in honor of the recently departed Lamptimer.
 
As we're waiting to see what shenanigans the Lumberyard is about to pull off tonight before sign-off with their 7:00 P.M. power reduction, loyal listeners of 1440 were treated to another dose of Kookie medicine.

"Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb" played tonight at approximately 6:37 P.M. It's always nice to wrap-up the broadcasting day with Edd "Kookie" Byrnes!
 
Between approx. 7:03:05 and 7:03:15 tonight, the Lumberyard's signal dropped power
from five gallons to ??? You could hear the interference start to occur.

How many watts is it, catfish (with a "c")?

Good catch, asugeo!

And carrier dump was at 7:14:08 PM, 15 seconds earlier than last night.
All hail the new "Lamptimer 15." ;D
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
Between approx. 7:03:05 and 7:03:15 tonight, the Lumberyard's signal dropped power
from five gallons to ??? You could hear the interference start to occur.

How many watts is it, catfish (with a "c")?

Good catch, asugeo!
Click to expand...

There is definitely something afoot over at the Lumberyard. The power levels for that brief 10 minutes seem to be the same as the PSRA, which we may start to see next month with local sunrise moving to 6:15 A.M. The only way to really tell whether or not this is a long-term thing is to wait a couple weeks and see if come September, the Lumberyard decides to use their PSSA and broadcast past local sunset (6:30 P.M.). It would make sense for Sandusky to broadcast past sunset in the winter months, especially come December when monthly sunset is 5:15 P.M. I don't think Radio Khushi would appreciate their show ending 45 minutes early because of some newly improved reverse *Lamptimer!


* Speaking of the newly improved reverse Lamptimer, the drift continues! Sign-off today was just past 7:14 P.M. around 7:14 and 10 seconds. Time to make those donations for a new atomic clock for the Lumberyard. Donations can be made to the lovable Doc over at the Buckeye Media Hut! ;D
 
If the old Lamptimer died a really horrible hard-drive grinding death maybe they couldn't retrieve the setting from the old one to use on the new one. Those DOS lamptimers (AutoPilot 1.0) can be a bear to program and maybe they haven’t got the bugs out of it.
 
asugeorge1 said:
It would make sense for Sandusky to broadcast past sunset in the winter months, especially come December when monthly sunset is 5:15 P.M. I don't think Radio Khushi would appreciate their show ending 45 minutes early because of some newly improved reverse *Lamptimer!
Click to expand...

..and miss out on 45 minutes of dedications and Hindi hits?

An excellent question, Jorge from lib-land ASU. Nurse Jeff asked the Buckeye Media Hut Research Department for a solution to pre-mature carrierdumpitis and brokered programming. They produced a massive 37 page document... but allow Los Buckeye Boyz to cut to the chase and provide a simple answer: invoke the KFuNN clause of FCC rules. This allows stations to run at full daytime power until their paid programming finishes. 15~Tin runs at 22kw until 6pm in December, long enough for Market Rapper Moe Ansari to finish his show. Then the pattern is changed and power reduced to 100 watts. By using the KFuNN clause, Lumberyard 14~Forty can stay on the air until 6pm in December with full power and play those Bollywood ballads so many listeners love. Then they can either go to PSSA power; 52 watts of night power; or let the lamptimer end the Goldminer's day!
 
And most importantly, will the Prattster hold a memorial BBQ for the late lamptimer? ;)

Tonight's odd power reduction also occurred about fifteen seconds earlier than last night,
as did the carrier dump--so the new lamptimer really has this "15" deal down!
 
That power dump at 7pm is weird. Doesn't sound like 500 watts to Los Buckeye Boyz...sounds more like 52 watts :eek: Has anyone checked with Ponderosa Lumber to see if they're rippin' logs every night around 7pm? Could be puttin' a strain on that old PCB filled transformer that keeps Lumberyard 14~Forty blastin' out the worn out oldies. YIKES!
 
All hail Radio Shack! We have questions? The Shack has answers. A reverse Lamptimer! Who'da thunk?
 
C'mon, let's keep this thread active, folks...lamptimer, next-gen lamptimer, whatever kookieness. We're almost to 100 pages of material here.
 
NoMoreLurking said:
C'mon, let's keep this thread active, folks...lamptimer, next-gen lamptimer, whatever kookieness. We're almost to 100 pages of material here.
Click to expand...
My emphasis ---
"almost 100 pages of "material" - - isn't that what the stand-up comedians use to perform their stage shows? ;D

Sure, we can hit the century mark... b t w - Is this thread the Guiness' Book of Records thread? ???
 
How 'bout a contest?: guess whose posting makes this a 100 page topic? (the Nurse wants to take credit for this idea, but I think it was Pppppreston Westmoreland's baby ;D ) Congratulations Gumpdusky for giving us something to talk about for year after year after year..etc!
 
As we push toward the 100th page of this wonderful thread, the reverse drifting Lamptimer was at it again tonight as the carrier dumped right before 7:13 P.M. at 7:12 P.M. and 58 seconds. Looks like the reverse drift is, coincidentally, 14 seconds earlier every day at sign-off. Also, the 10 minutes of reduced power continued again tonight with power-down shortly before 7:01 P.M.

As we push toward the 100th page of this lovely thread, I think some sort of celebration is in order. Maybe 1440 can do an on-air shout-out during Kim and Don's food show or maybe we could get a nod from the RI board moderators with a headline on the homepage ticker. I think the best way to celebrate would be for everyone who has posted on this thread to get together for a barbeque over at Dave Pratt's house the Buckeye Media Hut. Now that would be a true celebration of the Lumberyard! ;D
 
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