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Our board is broken :(

N

nd2023

Banned
Why did the board not sound good? Because the board was bored all summer because it wasn't used!

The board at WWPH 107.9 must have conked out over the summer. Today was the first day on the air for WWPH 107.9 FM since June 20th. All of the audio had severe clipping when the modulation level was only 30% from any source. Instead of peaking in the red, we had to peak in the 20% range to avoid clipping. The shows and the football broadcast were great, but the audio quality was not. What connections could be miswired, or what else could have gone wrong?<P ID="signature">______________
17-year-old radio geek
Location: Princeton Junction, NJ
AIM: KewlDude471</P>
 
> All of the audio had severe clipping
> when the modulation level was only 30% from any source.
> Instead of peaking in the red, we had to peak in the 20%
> range to avoid clipping. The shows and the football
> broadcast were great, but the audio quality was not. What
> connections could be miswired, or what else could have gone
> wrong?

Unless somebody unauthorized was poking at the board over
the summer you can pretty well eliminate "miswired".

It sounds like your amplifiers are being starved for power.
Suggest you have somebody who has even a little electronic
experience measure the power supply output voltages at
least a couple of times: Once with no audio at all. Once
more with audio run up to 0-level on your VU meter, paying
no attention to how it sounds. My guess is you'll see
voltages (even with nothing going on) that are far below
those quoted in your manual. To work properly the power
supply must be able to provide full (normal) voltage
regardless of how hard you're driving the audio.

The clue that points directly at the power supply are the
words "any source" in your description.


<P ID="signature">______________
Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.
--Friedrich Nietzsche</P>
 
If the station was off, all the equipment was off. Sure the board is the culprit? Listen in program and not air?

Old Optimods loose electrolytics during months of no use, so do old autogram, rca, and (name your console).

What console?

> > All of the audio had severe clipping
> > when the modulation level was only 30% from any source.
> > Instead of peaking in the red, we had to peak in the 20%
> > range to avoid clipping. The shows and the football
> > broadcast were great, but the audio quality was not. What
>
> > connections could be miswired, or what else could have
> gone
> > wrong?
>
> Unless somebody unauthorized was poking at the board over
> the summer you can pretty well eliminate "miswired".
>
> It sounds like your amplifiers are being starved for power.
> Suggest you have somebody who has even a little electronic
> experience measure the power supply output voltages at
> least a couple of times: Once with no audio at all. Once
> more with audio run up to 0-level on your VU meter, paying
> no attention to how it sounds. My guess is you'll see
> voltages (even with nothing going on) that are far below
> those quoted in your manual. To work properly the power
> supply must be able to provide full (normal) voltage
> regardless of how hard you're driving the audio.
>
> The clue that points directly at the power supply are the
> words "any source" in your description.
>
 
> If the station was off, all the equipment was off. Sure the
> board is the culprit? Listen in program and not air?
>
> Old Optimods loose electrolytics during months of no use, so
> do old autogram, rca, and (name your console).
>
> What console?
>
> > > All of the audio had severe clipping
> > > when the modulation level was only 30% from any source.
>
> > > Instead of peaking in the red, we had to peak in the 20%
>
> > > range to avoid clipping. The shows and the football
> > > broadcast were great, but the audio quality was not.
> What
> >
> > > connections could be miswired, or what else could have
> > gone
> > > wrong?
> >
> > Unless somebody unauthorized was poking at the board over
> > the summer you can pretty well eliminate "miswired".
> >
> > It sounds like your amplifiers are being starved for
> power.
> > Suggest you have somebody who has even a little electronic
>
> > experience measure the power supply output voltages at
> > least a couple of times: Once with no audio at all. Once
>
> > more with audio run up to 0-level on your VU meter, paying
>
> > no attention to how it sounds. My guess is you'll see
> > voltages (even with nothing going on) that are far below
> > those quoted in your manual. To work properly the power
> > supply must be able to provide full (normal) voltage
> > regardless of how hard you're driving the audio.
> >
> > The clue that points directly at the power supply are the
> > words "any source" in your description.
> >
> May be defective output amp.....is audition/prog 2 output distorted also? Get your engineer to go through output back to input with a scope (If the power supply volts read good)
 
Just as a quick "oops" check, did someone flip the padding switch on any equipment (-10dB to +4dB) or turn on some kind of preamp?

When you describe the board, do you mean as soon as you go past like -15dB on the pot the needle suddenly pegs and the clip LED comes on or do you mean you just run the board lower? Did you listen to the dry output of all the buses (program, audition, tel mix minus, etc) to see if the problem is with the entire board, just program out or not in the board at all? Did some ass clown janitor fiddle with knobs on your processing?

If I flip on the webcast, will I hear it?<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
Hey NKD
I offered My help to your Teacher.. and He said He did Not need any help
the school has its own guy To Fix things....
I tried...
goodluck
Neal-WTTM

> Why did the board not sound good? Because the board was
> bored all summer because it wasn't used!
>
> The board at WWPH 107.9 must have conked out over the
> summer. Today was the first day on the air for WWPH 107.9
> FM since June 20th. All of the audio had severe clipping
> when the modulation level was only 30% from any source.
> Instead of peaking in the red, we had to peak in the 20%
> range to avoid clipping. The shows and the football
> broadcast were great, but the audio quality was not. What
> connections could be miswired, or what else could have gone
> wrong?
>
 
Teachers without a broadcasting background faily to realize certainl things.

Neal, thanks for offering to help a high school station.....

> Hey NKD
> I offered My help to your Teacher.. and He said He did Not
> need any help
> the school has its own guy To Fix things....
> I tried...
> goodluck
> Neal-WTTM
 
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