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PTEK Power exciters

K

kyscott

Guest
Anyone have any experience with Ptek? I'm looking at a 50 watt exciter for a translator.
 
kyscott said:
Anyone have any experience with Ptek? I'm looking at a 50 watt exciter for a translator.
Click to expand...

I've had a very good experience with PTEK over the years. One of my stations is currently using an "FM Series" exciter as a stand-alone transmitter and it has operated 24/7 faithfully (non-stop) for nearly 10 years. It handles both Stereo and RDS quite well and sounds quite nice. One of my other college stations is using the same type of exciter from PTEK as a warm standby-unit. This particular exciter at the college station (rated at 30 watts, max) can be run simply as a transmitter or can be used as low as 5-10 watts into a second PA. PTEK may not be one of the bigger names in transmitters, but I've been pleasantly surprised with its' performance. Their service is really outstanding. I've dealt with other names of transmitters over the years namely Harris, Crown, BE, BEXT and Versa-Count (remember them?). The PTEKs are nice solid units. They're good backups and I'm sure for your translator use you should be able to set it and forget it. I honestly wish I had one of these PTEK "babies" when my old W221AG (now deleted) translator was up and running some 10 years ago. Give them a buzz sometime and tell them your needs. Good luck.


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
 
Thanks for the feedback Peter. I'm hearing more good things from Ptek. I may have to look at them closer. It sucks that most manufactures go from 30 to 100 watts or even 150 watts with nothing in between. I am not going to run a 150 watt exciter at 33 watts. That's way over kill.
 
Hello,

I run lots of Crown stuff and they have never failed me yet! They have a 30 watt unit that will put out 33 watts if you push it, otherwise they have a 100watt unit.

If you are interested, here is a review I recently wrote in Radio World (unpaid, just a happy user):
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/Crown_Radio World_UserReport.pdf

and a few images of them in real life:
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/s1.jpb
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/d2.jpg
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/c3.jpg

Disclaimer: While I do sell these units, I used them for many many years before that and have always recommended. By my account there is no better transmitter for a translator (or higher power) than these crown units. Email me at [email protected] if you would like more info and I would be happy to help you.

Jeff
 
jorr said:
Hello,

I run lots of Crown stuff and they have never failed me yet! They have a 30 watt unit that will put out 33 watts if you push it, otherwise they have a 100watt unit.

If you are interested, here is a review I recently wrote in Radio World (unpaid, just a happy user):
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/Crown_Radio World_UserReport.pdf

and a few images of them in real life:
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/s1.jpb
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/d2.jpg
http://www.communicorr.com/docs/c3.jpg

Disclaimer: While I do sell these units, I used them for many many years before that and have always recommended. By my account there is no better transmitter for a translator (or higher power) than these crown units. Email me at [email protected] if you would like more info and I would be happy to help you.

Jeff
Click to expand...

I've heard some of the translators you put on air...they sound really good.

--Matt
 
Crown stuff is VERY good. I have a couple translators that use them. They just play and play and play... NO PROBLEMS. I have a friend that has a 500 watt PTEK. It seems to work fine as a backup for him. He did have to have it repaired once after a number of years of service. The repair rates were quite reasonable. I personally have a Nicom 300 watt amp. I've had it on the air for a max of 4 days at a time as a backup my little class A I'm the CE for. So far so good with Nicom.
 
I like Crown's stuff, however I have learned they have discontinued the 100 watt boxes. I'm not going to take a 100 watt box and run it at 33 watts. So I keep looking. I am familiar with Nicom also, but they too do not have a 100 watt box. Looks like my choices are being narrowed down to Ptek and a 50 watt Harris Digit.
 
Some of the Ptek stuff is OK. Some is junk. I had an FM50E exciter that worked like a champ into a 500 watt power amp. I also had a combiner module that literally caught fire every time we installed it. They "fixed" the combiner everytime we sent it back, but it always smouldered again as soon as we put any RF into it. We opened it up and it looked like a Radio Shack project kit inside.

I'm not saying don't buy the stuff, just be aware. Personally, I'd go with a Crown unit if you can afford it. Or Nicom.
 
Bext has the Lex100 and Armstrong has the FMX100B...I own and operate several of each unit and I am pleased with them. My experience with Ptek in the past wasn't tremendous, but from all accounts they've improved considerably.

Crown's still the best if you can afford them.


--
Chris Hall
RF Specialties of GA/Reel Audio Broadcast Engineering
800-476-8943 (office)
229-228-4875 (fax)
229-403-9795 (cell)
[email protected]
www.rfspec.com
www.reelaudio.net
 
I had a small issue with my FM25E unit once with frequency lock and it was fixed quickly and under warranty. It's a great unit and has been 24/7 service for about 4 years now.
 
There's a translator in the Dayton area running a PTek FM250E. Initially it did have a problem with a resistor in the modulator section that manifested itself as a LPF effect (stereo pilot was low and audio had poor stereo separation). After a trip back for repair, it's been good ever since.
 
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