I have a client who is buying a station with a 29 year old DX50. He is thinking about replacing it with a newer vintage Nautel. I have asked around and got various opinions about whether to stay with the DX or move to the Nautel. I would appreciate any thoughts the wizards on this group may have.
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DX50 or Nautel?
- Thread starter bigdonho
- Start date
Wow that's a tough call. I really like the DX-50 in fact, I even chose to buy several of them over the Nautel equivalent back in the day, but agree that the DX-50 is getting long in the tooth. Not sure whether, or for how long the most recent owners of GatesAir will continue supporting the DX-series.
Since Nautel is really the only other newer option for AM since Harris/GatesAir and BE got out of the AM and higher power sales, I'd hold my nose and go with the Nautel. The reason I'd hold my nose is (and I'll likely take some heat for these comments) the newer Natuel transmitters are not built as robustly as they used to be, and like a lot of companies, support has gone further to the backseat. For example, multiple switching power supplies are great when one fails, but they really aren't field repairable anymore. In spite of finding the manufacturer of the power supplies used in Nautel transmitters, they won't sell you a power supply directly. Instead, Nautel marks the price up 100% over buying direct. To me, that's just greed and not supporting your customer.
One other thing that bothers me, is the sexy touch screens and UI on the front panel. There was an issue a few years ago where some touch screens would have a mind of their own, and just shut down the transmitter. And if the backlight on that screen eventually goes away, you're completely blind as to what's going on with the box, or being able to see for control. Here I am sounding old school, but give me some on-off buttons and LED indicators under the flat panel display so I can at least turn the thing on or off.
Good luck!
Since Nautel is really the only other newer option for AM since Harris/GatesAir and BE got out of the AM and higher power sales, I'd hold my nose and go with the Nautel. The reason I'd hold my nose is (and I'll likely take some heat for these comments) the newer Natuel transmitters are not built as robustly as they used to be, and like a lot of companies, support has gone further to the backseat. For example, multiple switching power supplies are great when one fails, but they really aren't field repairable anymore. In spite of finding the manufacturer of the power supplies used in Nautel transmitters, they won't sell you a power supply directly. Instead, Nautel marks the price up 100% over buying direct. To me, that's just greed and not supporting your customer.
One other thing that bothers me, is the sexy touch screens and UI on the front panel. There was an issue a few years ago where some touch screens would have a mind of their own, and just shut down the transmitter. And if the backlight on that screen eventually goes away, you're completely blind as to what's going on with the box, or being able to see for control. Here I am sounding old school, but give me some on-off buttons and LED indicators under the flat panel display so I can at least turn the thing on or off.
Good luck!
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Nautel. More energy efficient and newer design.
Agree the Harris DX50 runs a long time when taken care of. There are two that Kelly bought a while ago still chugging along here in the PNW.
What is the Vintage Nautel, an Ampfet? ND50? XL or newer? If you get the Nautel, do you have the room keep the DX50 as a backup?
If a Nautel touch screen goes out you can still log into the UI on a PC. I have dealt with the touchscreen doing it's own thing. The solution there is to log out the local UI interface. Don't let it auto log in. Then buy a new touch screen and have them throw in the new mounting bezel. Until you get the new screen use a PC to log into the UI.
Ever seen the Curse of Oak Island? It's real close to Nova Scotia. I'm convinced when they find the hidden treasure on the island, it will be a stash of Nautel capacitors for the Ampfet, ND, XL series as well as switching power supplies with a few touch screens thrown in.
What is the Vintage Nautel, an Ampfet? ND50? XL or newer? If you get the Nautel, do you have the room keep the DX50 as a backup?
If a Nautel touch screen goes out you can still log into the UI on a PC. I have dealt with the touchscreen doing it's own thing. The solution there is to log out the local UI interface. Don't let it auto log in. Then buy a new touch screen and have them throw in the new mounting bezel. Until you get the new screen use a PC to log into the UI.
Ever seen the Curse of Oak Island? It's real close to Nova Scotia. I'm convinced when they find the hidden treasure on the island, it will be a stash of Nautel capacitors for the Ampfet, ND, XL series as well as switching power supplies with a few touch screens thrown in.
Keep the DX50 as a backup.
Totally true, but the way Nautel handled the rogue touchscreen issue was really bad. There were several AM and FM stations being knocked off the air randomly, and Nautel initially offered nothing when asked if they knew why their transmitters were randomly shutting down. They knew there was a problem behind the scenes, but were being tight-lipped because having to replace those screens was going to cost them money. In my book, they took a serious PR hit on that incident. No engineer wants to hear their GM getting rightfully upset because their brand new $100,000+ transmitter randomly shuts itself off, and the manufacturer is doing it's best to ignore the problem.
As far as connecting to it with a laptop, sure, but are you leaving a laptop connected to the box for when the screen dies? Again, customer shouldn't need to provide workarounds for something that could be fixed with some buttons and LEDs.
It would certainly be more than those crews on that show have dug up after how many seasons?
Most engineers have a PC at the transmitter site for other uses, Burk, audio processing, email and manuals. Having your newer web enabled transmitter on the network is more the normal for email notifications and accessing from the studio. So not that much of a big deal. In fact the NX series does have buttons and LED indicator inside the door for the touch panel version.
Nautel also offers a version of the NX with no touch panel UI that uses regular buttons and led indicator and a simple LCD display.
Still wondering the actual vintage of the Nautel being considered in this thread though.
Nautel also offers a version of the NX with no touch panel UI that uses regular buttons and led indicator and a simple LCD display.
Still wondering the actual vintage of the Nautel being considered in this thread though.
I know someone that added a Xytronix/ControlbyWeb to their DX-50 and now it has SNMP!
bigdonho- Did the owner ask you a question?
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Actually, this is the buyer of the station. He has never owned or managed a station before and has a "learning curve" to work through. I am just trying to provide him with good answers to his many questions.
Understood. All the best to you bigdonho.
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Oh one other advantage the DX-50 has over any vintage of Nautel: The DX-50 has a very adjustable output network built-in. Nautel has a capacitor between the output stage and the load, that's it. I've heard of some stations that have varying antenna conditions that have required purchase a custom made output network installed between the Nautel and phasor/ATU. In one example; the direction antenna system was close to water where tides going in and out caused an impedance shift. Depending on how far the tide went out, the Nautel wasn't happy. Installing a network between the TX and the ATU kept the TX happy, but came at an additional unplanned expense and delay while a custom network is built.
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