GatesAir suspends manufacture of AM transmitters

[joebtsflk1]

Citing lack of availability of critical components, the decision was made to suspend manufacturing new AM transmitters. https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/gatesair-suspends-sale-of-am-transmitters

Will this be a temporary situation while new suppliers of the particular components are found, or is the worldwide decline in AM transmission catching up with us here in the States and the decline here becomes more precipitous?

 

[Kelly A]

I think most AM stations that had the means have already replaced their aging tube transmitters with solid state. I doubt any manufacturer sells many new AM transmitters anymore.

My guess is GatesAir is testing the demand waters before any further investment in renewed design or parts. If nobody at NAB in April is interested in AM transmitters, then they'll have their answer.

 

[rfburns]

I think most AM stations that had the means have already replaced their aging tube transmitters with solid state. I doubt any manufacturer sells many new AM transmitters anymore.

My guess is GatesAir is testing the demand waters before any further investment in renewed design or parts. If nobody at NAB in April is interested in AM transmitters, then they'll have their answer.

What about support for the existing transmitters in the field? Some other manufacturers of sold state AM transmitters support 25+ year old gear, but GA has been lacking on that front.

 

[EricStein]

Nautel has been eating Gates’ lunch as of the past decade. Now that Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz has a competitive high power FM design, they might take away some of their FM sales too.

However, Gates still has a lot of contracts with major groups to supply transmitters (however Cumulus or iHeart are not in the position to buy new equipment). That might be the key to them to survive and whether or not they will continue to make AM transmitters.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Component obsolescence happens a lot. But it's usually pretty easy to plan for: reputable vendors will provide a warning that component will cease to be manufactured in 90 days or 180 days, allowing an equipment manufacturer like Gates Air to purchase enough stock to hold them over until their new line of transmitters is ready for production.

Which leads me to believe that either GatesAir is telling a fib, they used a non-reputable vendor, they had an unexpected surge of AM transmitter sales in 2017, or someone in their purchasing office made an oops.

 

[Grounded Grid]

Gates seems to have had a half-hearted view of their AM section for some time now. Their "Dax" line, which goes up to 5kW, is a rare sight around here (I've seen 3 1kW versions). They seem reliable, but there are a lot of surface-mounted parts on some boards that would be tough to service. Their only 10kW transmitter is part of the "DX" line, which goes back to the mid '80s. That's a great box, but it has a high parts count and they've had to change bits and pieces to keep it current. I don't know a lot about their "3DX" rigs, but a friend has had to do some updates on a few of them and says just thinking about them is insanely expensive.

Unfortunately, I'm cursed with several of their "Gates" series transmitters. If everything is not perfect in their world, they let you know by blowing output transistors... usually after you get 5 or 6 hours away from them. Gates lost me when, during a tech call about one of these rigs, they told me I should quit trying to keep them going and just "buy a new one". That's sad because, as others have noted, Gates had many great products in their lineage... transmitters, boards, cart machines, turntables, monitors, RF components... they pretty much did it all.

But... you can't buy a Packard anymore, so.... progress?

 

[Kent T]

The way GatesAir/Harris attitude was about support on a lot of their transmitters, and the DAX surface mount (not a good transmitter as a main with any age on it) gives me no confidence in the company. In fairness the DX line of transmitters are excellent (but expensive and high parts count). Simple answer, Nautel or BE. I favor Nautel.

 

[Oldie919]

Back in the '80s I remember the big flap over beryllium oxide transistors in several solid-state transmitters....The Harris MW-! was one of them......
On EVERY PAGE of their Operation/Tech manual -- at the bottom of the page -- was a "WARNING!" notice.....effectively saying; "Don't crush these components...they could release cancer-causing dust....."!
During my last visit to the station I worked for, that HAD one of these rigs, they had long since replaced it with a BE AM-1A (90 lbs., fits in a 19" rack - WITH tuning unit!)......
Kinda funny....they got rid of the 1kw soild-state, and kept the Gates BC-1T as the backup.....They tell me it hasn't seen filament voltage in more than 10 years now.....
The original 8008 and 866A mercury-vapor rectifiers were replaced with Wilkinson diode stacks sometime in the mid-80s when I was still at the shop....I missed that cobalt-blue glow!!!
And the 833As in the modulator and final helped warm the basement studio on cold winter nights!!

 

[ContinuousWave]

The way GatesAir/Harris attitude was about support on a lot of their transmitters, and the DAX surface mount (not a good transmitter as a main with any age on it) gives me no confidence in the company. In fairness the DX line of transmitters are excellent (but expensive and high parts count). Simple answer, Nautel or BE. I favor Nautel.

I own a DAX3....when it works, it's very efficient and great..but working on the damn thing is a PITA ..AND they had an EEPROM on the CPU board with a lifespan of 7 yrs max due to the way it handled data...a firmware change in 2011 made it last much longer but a lot of DAX owners didn't get the notice or ignored it ...previous ops of my station were one ..the damn thing recently died...chip is only a buck...but Gates says it made need software reloaded thru special connector at factory for 800!! Screw that..next xmtr Nautel...or maybe a BE if affordable