L
live1019
Guest
I just thought I would warn anyone I could about buying anything from TFT. We have had one nightmare after another since last September when we purchased a TFT 5290 STL transmitter.
1) This unit was defective from day one. The first day we had it in service, the
display board went out and we had to wait several days before we received
a new display board. We could not read the frequency or output power....
2) We bought a subcarrier card for this transmitter and it would not fit,
(if you wanted to put the lid back on the unit.) We had to wait on a replacement subcarrier card. The time we waited on the subcarrier card, we were off air
on our AM stations......
3) Most recently, while doing the morning show, I first noticed faint audio from the subcarrier(our AM station) coming over the headphones in the background on our FM.
The background noise increased over the course of the next 2.5 hours. At 9:30 a.m.,
(after doing 3.5 hours of the morning show) the TFT STL transmitter quit completely.
I contacted our contract engineer (Chris Hall at Reel Audio) and suggested we send
the 5290 back to TFT for warranty repair as the unit was only 10 months old. Chris
got us back on the air with a loaner STL transmitter and we waited on a response
from TFT. We shipped the unit back on July 2nd with an approved RMA and requested expedited repair service, since the unit was under warranty. On July 14th, we received notice that the unit had lightning damage and the reapir costs would be $1462.00 !
There was NO Lightning that morning and none of the other components in the same rack, including 5 Starguide III's, an Optimod, and various other pieces of processing equipment has any symptoms of any problem. TFT sent us pictures, which we have shared with several other engineers, that all agree that the damage looks more like long term overheating and would explain that gradual fade we experienced.
Rather than bore you with additional details, all I can do is tell you that TFT has not been helpful, prompt, or willing to work with us on this repair.
We have learned an expensive lesson here - pay more and go with a quality unit - whatever you do- DONT BUY A TFT !
Kevin Dowdy - WGMK-FM, WBGE-FM, Bainbridge Georgia
1) This unit was defective from day one. The first day we had it in service, the
display board went out and we had to wait several days before we received
a new display board. We could not read the frequency or output power....
2) We bought a subcarrier card for this transmitter and it would not fit,
(if you wanted to put the lid back on the unit.) We had to wait on a replacement subcarrier card. The time we waited on the subcarrier card, we were off air
on our AM stations......
3) Most recently, while doing the morning show, I first noticed faint audio from the subcarrier(our AM station) coming over the headphones in the background on our FM.
The background noise increased over the course of the next 2.5 hours. At 9:30 a.m.,
(after doing 3.5 hours of the morning show) the TFT STL transmitter quit completely.
I contacted our contract engineer (Chris Hall at Reel Audio) and suggested we send
the 5290 back to TFT for warranty repair as the unit was only 10 months old. Chris
got us back on the air with a loaner STL transmitter and we waited on a response
from TFT. We shipped the unit back on July 2nd with an approved RMA and requested expedited repair service, since the unit was under warranty. On July 14th, we received notice that the unit had lightning damage and the reapir costs would be $1462.00 !
There was NO Lightning that morning and none of the other components in the same rack, including 5 Starguide III's, an Optimod, and various other pieces of processing equipment has any symptoms of any problem. TFT sent us pictures, which we have shared with several other engineers, that all agree that the damage looks more like long term overheating and would explain that gradual fade we experienced.
Rather than bore you with additional details, all I can do is tell you that TFT has not been helpful, prompt, or willing to work with us on this repair.
We have learned an expensive lesson here - pay more and go with a quality unit - whatever you do- DONT BUY A TFT !
Kevin Dowdy - WGMK-FM, WBGE-FM, Bainbridge Georgia