• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Is LPB Inc still in business ?

R

RadioMan203

For the last several months I've been trying to obtain a quote on some of their radiating coax and their Part 15 compliant FM booster. I had ordered from them about 4 months ago and had similar problems getting a contact but now I never get any email response and calling them only seems to end up in a general mailbox.

Are these guys out of business or just not interested in doing business?
 
Bill DeFelice said:
For the last several months I've been trying to obtain a quote on some of their radiating coax and their Part 15 compliant FM booster. I had ordered from them about 4 months ago and had similar problems getting a contact but now I never get any email response and calling them only seems to end up in a general mailbox.

Are these guys out of business or just not interested in doing business?
Click to expand...


I don't think they are around anymore. I had the same experience last year when a client needed an power amp upgrade. I called, left messages, wrote an e-mail, letter, several times. Nada. Big change from when the Devecka folks ran the shop and you could get an answer in 5 minutes.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
For the last several months I've been trying to obtain a quote on some of their radiating coax and their Part 15 compliant FM booster. I had ordered from them about 4 months ago and had similar problems getting a contact but now I never get any email response and calling them only seems to end up in a general mailbox.

Are these guys out of business or just not interested in doing business?
Click to expand...

If you need radiating coax, there is a little trick that Radio Systems, Inc. told me about a couple of years ago. Cut a piece of ordinary 50 ohm coax to the length you need to cover the broadcast area and terminate it at the far end with a 50 ohm non-inductive load (a resistor or bank of resistors). At the transmitter end, reverse the coax polarity--that is, connect the transmitter output jack's center conductor (hot) to the coax braid and the output jack's barrel to the coax center conductor. (The Pomona BNC-to-banana jack/threaded post connectors are handy for this.)

Just remember to keep the field strength within the Part 15 limits for Carrier Current radio systems.


-- Black Shire
 
Fred: You're said it plain and true. I remember when the AM I was engineering needed a low power AM box for pre-sunrise service and they were so on top of their game. Funny thing is I just ordered a small amount of their radiating coax just a few months ago (it came in right around the time I requested a major league quote for the campus radio project I'm working on). I suppose if they can afford to give up business that's up to them.

Black: The only thing I'm worried about it the physical length of the run (upwards of 1200 feet). I think reversing the polarity may get me into a heap of problems. With the area I need to cover I will need to feed a higher power level and I think it will just plain radiate too much. From the specs I've been supplied with, it seems the radiating coax allows a "controlled" radiation from the line and I was told that I would need a couple of booster amps approx. every 400-500 feet to keep a uniformed signal distributed the entire length of the line.

I know Andrew and a few others manufacture this cable but I was hoping to get a turnkey purchase with connectors already installed as well as having the bulkhead connectors as part of the purchase. Since this is for a school district I need to make sure it's compliant as well as keeping it within their budget.
 
I figured I'd update this thread with some not-so-good news.

Just a couple of weeks ago I left a rant on LPB's voice mail (which was completely screwed up to say the least) and I got no response. Being a little more desparate for a quote I decided to call them again. All the phone does now is ring and ring without even being picked up.

It looks like for all intents and purposes LPB has bitten the dust. Too bad, but it seems to have gone downhill in recent past so maybe we're all a bit better off. The unfortunate thing is I have part of the makings of their Part 15 FM system which I now have to find a way of completing without the help of their products. An entire high school campus was looking forward to having this system implemented and now I have to figure out a way to drag my backside out of the fire on this one.
 
Bill,

I just found your question on Google while I was researching to see if there was a blog about LPB. I'm a former employee of LPB and, just to let you know, they are still "in business" under the name CCI, Camden Consolidated Industries. I assume the reason they changed their name was to avoid the numerous law suits for undelivered equipment and the angry vendors looking for their money. They are in the habit of taking down payments for product (usually 50%) and then delivering nothing. I know of a $111k down payment they received three years ago from a government contractor for a $10k AM Transmitter which still has not been delivered. And I am one of the former employees who left the company when I hadn't been payed for 6 weeks. You were lucky they never picked up the phone or answered you email requests. They need a lot more that a loud rant. They need jail time.
 
It's really sad as I remember back in the John Devecka days things were pretty decent. I guess I was lucky I was able to get the 100 feet of radiating cable I ordered (of course school systems don't pay until they receive the product). It's too bad as I had an old LPB box at one of my AM sites that we used for post sunset and it was a pretty decent box.

I don't think Radio Systems is going carrier current stuff to the degree the old LPB was. I was happy to hear Dave Strode left and started Sandies. I hope you escaped relatively unscathed.
 
IMHO, there will always be a need for low-priced but relatively well-built broadcast components. It's too bad LPB has gone under. They filled the niche pretty well.

I remember helping a friend upgrading the electronics of an LPB rotary-fader console and being impressed with the mechanical construction.

And I would guess hundreds if not thousands of future engineers got started at college carrier-current stations that were outfitted with LPB transmitters.


Kind Regards,
David
 
I've got a nice-looking LPB Signature II 10 channel stereo console in storage. One of these days I need to put it on eBay I guess. Loved the switches and ladder attenuators...
 
The rotary pot LPB console we used at KROQ Pasadena, Ca. in 1976 is still in use at KFXM-LP in Lancaster, Ca. Here at KDES-FM Palm Springs we got a slightly used LPB Dynamax MX series board for our newsroom cheap on e-bay a few years ago and have had no problems with it.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom