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Is KOMO On A Back-Up or On Low Power?

C

CorporateSuit

Ever since 10 AM yesterday, KOMO's amplication is REALLY low, compared to other stations up and down the dial. I thought I heard a pattern change and noticed the very low volume. And it's continuing today. Anyone else notice?
 
I live a mile from the am transmitter and am looking at the towers now. All 3 are still there. The modulation for the station (komo 1000) is low compared to the other 5 50kw transmitters that are all within 3 miles of me. Not sure of signal strength but its modulation is low, maybe a bad processor?

I'll listen to it when I drive to the center of the Island in a few minutes. Maybe they blew a few modules in the Nautel??? And KOMO has a 50KW backup, the 317C....
 
Sunday the AM went off the air for a few moments, I switched to FM and it was fine. I then went back to AM and noticed a degradation of signal quality.
 
No one at the AM transmitter. Maybe this is a way to migrate their listeners to FM?

The station is sending out Power, just not modulating it very hard (or hitting it hard). Nautel maybe had a failure and it's running with some blown modules? Switched to backup transmitter and it's audio processing is off or not working right.

KVI is strong at 5kw, modulating heavy. But KOMO, the power seems to be there at least several KW worth, but the modulation level issue could be a processor or Nautel module issue, Power, Modulator, powersupply.
 
Corperate Suit, you beat me to it, I was just going to start a thread about the KOMO quietness. I thought it might be fixed this morning but nope. At first I thought something had happened with my radio, at night it sounds like KOMO has some low-end distortion kind of like 92.5, but by the time I got up yesterday it had been light for a couple hours. My guess is it will be fixed by tomorrow, when KPLZ had an audio problem a couple months back it didn't last long. That one though was pretty hard to notice though, but it almost sounded like KMCQ for a day.
 
My sources say there is a problem with the AM 1000 plant but wouldn't divulge details except that engineering is working to get it fixed ASAP.
 
I can't imagine what would go bad that requires 50% modulation that they don't have a backup for.

This is a travesty in engineering terms. Either they were caught with their pants down and no proper backup or they've fired all the engineers who know about transmitter plants.

Some major broadcast companies would fire a chief engineer who let this happen in a market the size of Seattle with a station as prominent at KOMO.
 
notalent said:
I can't imagine what would go bad that requires 50% modulation that they don't have a backup for.

This is a travesty in engineering terms. Either they were caught with their pants down and no proper backup or they've fired all the engineers who know about transmitter plants.

Some major broadcast companies would fire a chief engineer who let this happen in a market the size of Seattle with a station as prominent at KOMO.
Click to expand...

I would hope not. Skilled broadcast engineers are WAY too important.

If so, it's their own karmic payback for being so damn cheap...
 
notalent said:
... or they've fired all the engineers who know about transmitter plants.
Click to expand...

Once was in a meeting with a market GM who was getting all high and mighty about why he was planning to dump my computer services because he thought they could do everything themselves. He made a big arrogant boast about "I got rid of two broadcast engineers and replaced them with networking specialists". I queried about why he wouldn't TEACH the two broadcast engineers how to do networking so they could cover BOTH bases more effectively.

Of course...SHOULD have stopped there, but went on to suggest that with THAT kind of outstanding philosophy I'm sure his new media vision was going to ROCK.

Then again, he is STILL a G/M in this market and I'm spending all day eating PB&J ... so who knows.
 
Cost cutting at engineering is nuts. Who are you going to call when your AM Xmtr blows some plate load caps and takes out a bank of 833's with it, bringing the signal down to zero? A "Network Specialist"..??
 
Wonderfulwino said:
C... a bank of 833's with it, bringing the signal down to zero? A "Network Specialist"..??
Click to expand...

Whoa, you are old school! 833's. I haven't seen one of those in action for a long time, except in ham rig. 300 rockin' watts of CCA carrier power!
 
I was wondering if anyone would catch that. Actually, I understand that there are a few small market operations around that are still running some of those ancient amp-sucking Gates transmitters. Usually stations that are on (what we used to call anyway) a "Radio Shack" engineering budget.
 
You mentioned 833's, hmm don't remember if that was the transmitter in the F.E.M.A. bunker in Bothell, but I remember it was a Gates this thing had a glow and a hum to it that would scare you, and the heat even with a exhaust ducting you would still sweat.
The link is to a pic of the same type of transmitter that was there in 1984 and it was old then.
But the 1 I worked/learned on had 4 tubes and was told 7500 watts. Well I still have some burn marks anyway.

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/BC1H-door-open-406x600.jpg
 
gr229 said:
You mentioned 833's, hmm don't remember if that was the transmitter in the F.E.M.A. bunker in Bothell, but I remember it was a Gates this thing had a glow and a hum to it that would scare you, and the heat even with a exhaust ducting you would still sweat.
The link is to a pic of the same type of transmitter that was there in 1984 and it was old then.
But the 1 I worked/learned on had 4 tubes and was told 7500 watts. Well I still have some burn marks anyway.

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/BC1H-door-open-406x600.jpg
Click to expand...

gr. yep, those are 833A's alright. Likely we are looking at the modulators since the plates are nice and cherry red. A pair of 833's would typically be run at 1000 watts in commercial application.
 
gr229 said:
You mentioned 833's, hmm don't remember if that was the transmitter in the F.E.M.A. bunker in Bothell, but I remember it was a Gates this thing had a glow and a hum to it that would scare you, and the heat even with a exhaust ducting you would still sweat.
The link is to a pic of the same type of transmitter that was there in 1984 and it was old then.
But the 1 I worked/learned on had 4 tubes and was told 7500 watts. Well I still have some burn marks anyway.

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/BC1H-door-open-406x600.jpg
Click to expand...

How OLD is that thing? Didn't Gates go out of business, like, EONS ago?

Is ANYONE still using them?
 
Thanks. All I know it's a really old brand name.
 
The Gates name was later resurrected and used on selected products. The broadcast division of Harris was sold recently to a private equity firm. Look for more parts to be removed from products.
 
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