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Gates BC1H

O

OKCRadioGuy

Does anyone have experience with getting one of these beasts to auto-recycle when the AC line voltage drops off and back on again?

Thanks!
 
Partially...the Sine Systems RFC 1/B remote control has a "power up" function that can be programmed to execute a command or series of commands. Catch is that if the power just flashes, the Sine doesn't always catch it. But for outages of more than 5 seconds, it works like a champ.
 
You could route the Sine Systems remote control's power supply through a delay relay set to hold off for more than 5 seconds. The power source for the delay relay would be the AC line. Doesn't sound like such a great thing to power cycle your remote control for every momentary power hit though. All of my remote controls are on UPS. But delay relays or relays and digital logic can certainly be added to have your transmitter come back up directly. Be safe about it if you modify your transmitter! You'd need to disable such a circuit at times too.
 
Thanks for the info. I get from the consensus of posts so far that the remote control will have to do the work and the transmitter itself doesn't have a latch-on built in to it. I'm so dang used to Continetal FM transmitters that just recycle back up after a power hit that having to do the restart external is a new thought process to me. I'll start thinking about how to do that effectively. Thanks for the posts!
 
Good to hear that it's still in service. I had a BC-500H 30+ years ago (it was all but new then) and with some attention to keeping the 807A's in the audio stage balanced (I learned a neat trick--put a voltmeter between the plate caps of the tubes & adjust the balance pot until the meter read 0 volts--tracked exactly with minimum distortion), the thing was only a db down at 10khz, had -59db noise & the distortion was around 0.5%...and that baby sounded sweet.
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
Does anyone have experience with getting one of these beasts to auto-recycle when the AC line voltage drops off and back on again?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Why rely on the Sine power-on function to perform the reset? Most folks put a UPS on their Sine Systems boxes because they lose date and time when they lose power.

Why couldn't you simply sample filament voltage and set an alarm sequence to reset the transmitter when it drops below a set value? (ie power failure) Only thing to remember -- you must have a way to disable it when you manually power down the transmitter from the front panel. Most modern rigs have remote/local switches -- I believe the BC1H may have one too.
 
The old thing is actually a lot more reliable than the Energy-Onix solid state box it backs up. Part of the reason I'd like to recycle the power back on is that we go to the old beast during storms to protect the solid state rig. The main will restar but the old backup won't so the station manager has to keep an ear on the station just to make sure the tube rig is still going at this point. The solution we think we have now is to alarm the common point with a delay of a couple minutes. That way he will know when he is totally off for good and can remotely restart the Gates. The best news of all is it's just a remote control programming thing to impliment it that way. Thanks for the input guys!
 
I had a problem at a site with a CCA transmitter that wouldn't restart after a power outage, and there was no phone line to get to the remote control (New Orleans post Katrina). I wired a 3 volt wall wart to the remote and programmed it to hit plates on after a loss of voltage and return to power. The R/C was on a decent UPS that would carry it several hours. Worked like a champ.
 
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