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BE AM500

T

TVJunkie12

Just wondering if anyone has had this happen to them. Got out to the client's TX site this morning and found a fault on the #1 power module. Power output looked normal (it's a 250 watt station) so I shut the TX down and pulled out the amp modules to check fuses before ordering a new one. Fuses were fine and I wanted to get back on A.S.A.P. so I put the modules back in and fired it up. The fault cleared and everything seemed OK. I stuck around for about 20 minutes and everything was fine. This is my first experience having to do anything to the TX other than clean the little filter in the 7 months I've been associated with this station.

Anybody have any kind of similar experience with one of these units?
 
Yep...and it was a sign that the main power supply board was getting ready to go. In my case, the room was cold & placing a heater near the AM 500 helped for a while. Seems that Gilbert at BE helped me through that one...good guy.
 
I spoke to Gilbert today too. He was very helpful but he didn't mention anything about this being a symptom that the main power supply board being ready to die on us. How long did you have between the time this occurred and the supply board died?
 
Between the first hint of trouble & total failure was 2-3 months. First we blamed it on the cold winter air..that slowed the diagnosis down. From what I gather in conversing with BE, the RF Modules aren't likely to be intermittent, but the power supply can be "iffy" when it's on the way out. If the transmitter is mission critical, it's always a good idea to stock an RF Module, a Main Power Supply, a blower fan & one of the small power supplies in the cage with the circuit boards. Of course, no station I'm involved with has been willing to do this, but it's still good policy.
 
I'm beginning to wonder if I have a power supply on the way out. I'm getting full pulse width out of the controller, however the transmitter will only go to about 200 watts out of 500. I am fortunate enough to have a Harris SX1 for a backup so I can take my time with the troubleshooting.
 
Thanks for all the info Bob. I'll get with BE again tomorrow about the supply board and break the news to the owner. This is the only transmitter they've got so I need to get this straightened out on my time line before it fails.

Thanks again.
 
Another engineer related this story to me. A BE AM10 started faulting a module that could be cleared by cycling it off & on. Turned out to be a bad connection on that module's slot plug that was overheating. Had to be replaced.
 
I spoke to Gilbert at BE yesterday and he too suggested that it could be a connector on the module. He didn't believe that in this case the supply board is the culprit.
 
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