In This Extreme Heat. . .

[DJ Jim Wayne]

Is there extra stress on engineers to keep stations OTA?

 

[rapking]

Its Hot and I still love HOT 93.7 !!!

 

[Tom_Ray]

Hi DJ Jim:

There's always stress to keep the station on the air. Extreme hot weather doesn't help much.

Some sites have air conditioning and, as long as the AC doesn't fail, there probably won't be many issues.

Some sites move air through the building. The idea with the transmitter is to move the generated heat away from the unit. Most transmitters have an upper ambient air temp limit around 120 degrees, which you generally won't hit in the northeast, so as long as air is moving into and out of the building, things *should* be OK.

If you have a flaky capacitor in an AM tuning house, it may act up during extremely hot weather, as most tuning houses are poorly ventilated (if at all) and it gets very hot in there.

You could also have an O-Ring on a pressurized transmission line let go, but this can happen in any weather.

The big issue is the working conditions. It's very easy to come down with heat stroke in extremely hot weather. You need to move slower, and you need to remember to bring LOTS of water with you, especially if the site is not air conditioned. It may be necessary to go sit in the air conditioned car on frequent breaks working in the hot weather. That is where the big problem would come in - making sure personnel aren't injured during the hot weather, and the fact that everything has to move slower.

Tom Ray
WOR, New York