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Question for JIB guy

C

chrish

Bob, curious about what caused WJIB to be off the air for almost two days,
really missed the music.
The interesting result being WGSM oldies in its place all day, not as good as WCBS
which is very listenable on my car radio 24 hours a day all the way to NH but clear
enough to ID the songs and location.
I was under the impression that when it was upgraded by Greater Media years ago
it had a cardoid that nulled north to protect CBL and at the same time WJIB.
All the power went into the Atlantic south of Long Island.

Happy to hear it WJIB back on Thursday night, if you ever have an equipment
problem give me a call I have lots of stuff, if I have it you are always welcome
to anything that will get you up and running.

Chris Hall
 
chrish said:
Bob, curious about what caused WJIB to be off the air for almost two days,
really missed the music.
Click to expand...

I noticed that since coming on after that outage, WJIB has been in mono.

There were storms around the time that WJIB went out. I don't know if the tower or station took a big hit and the C-Quam generator got blown out, or if it's on a mono backup.
 
I hope Bob got 'JIB back up an d going....that 250 watter is a treasure! I remember the old BC250 GY and the TEMCO aux that were there when I was chief in '84. You used a knife switch to switch transmitters....

The 740 on Long Island hasn't had the WGSM calls for quite a while; it's now WNYH. Intersting oldies, but the audio sounds like it's compressed through the wall, and the automation needs tweaking. I can hear the station up[to the NJ-PA Turnpike connector, after which finally my WVCH takes over. Someone on the Long Island board said that 'NYH is supposed to have a null over Nassau County to protect WVCH.
 
Yes, WJIB was off Thursday 9/14 9:30 AM. That was when N*Star crew was workin on lines near the station, and they accidentally put 600 volts onto the 117-volt line into the city block that WJIB is at.... Needless to say, it blew out most electronic equipment in the building... including the 250w transmitter. Was able to get it back on the air with 30 watts daytime on Fri Aug 15th 2:30 PM, after fixing some blown studio equipment. On-air computer and some other items were protected by surge-protectors. Every power-strip in the building got blown. Friday, N*Star provided a generator-truck to sit beside the building WJIB is in, and on Saturday 2:35 PM, N*Star disconnected that too (not telling anyone beforehand) and WJIB went off AGAIN! - Now the building has power from the regular lines. And supposedly, there will be another power-off period soon... don't know when. At the height of the mess, there were 7 N*Star trucks parked around WJIB plus 3 or 4 N*Star supervisor cars. All of this did a number on traffic on Concord Avenue; at times, partial or full shut-down. WJIB DOES have a spare 250w transmitter, which I have to install soon. Meanwhile the fried one goes up to Bangor to get it repaired. - And yes, WJIB is in mono now. And yes, WNYH-740 has a null towards Cambridge. Most of their signal is sent to the east-south-east to straight south.
 
Bob - this might be a little moot at this point, but if your 30 watt spare is a loaner, I think you could buy another 30 watt (maybe 20) on the cheap from Boston University. There's still four (I think) carrier-current AM transmitters in some of the dorms and I think all of them are not in use anymore now that WTBU mostly relies on the webcast and CATV (they're audio on a campus channel). Unless things have changed since 1998 (and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't) the CCAM in Danielsen Hall (on Beacon Street a few doors west of Mass Ave) was in the best shape, and had the best antenna tuning unit / matching unit. It's on the fifth floor in a closet just outside a dorm room, in a little nook around the corner from the elevators.

Any one of those CCAM's will work fine with a regular AM antenna system, and WTBU's is old enough that it's not worth much on the open market but those LPB things are built like tanks so it'd probably work fine for your needs. And I hate to see a well-built device go to waste, ya know?

I haven't talked to them in a while, but Prof. Anne Donohue of the College of Communication was faculty advisor last time I did.
 
Thanks for the info, but at WJIB, I have 2 Nautel 250watters and 2 mono LPB's.
Click to expand...

LOL! I should've known that a pro like you would have backups galore. ;D Ah well, if there's anyone else who's running a small AM station and in need a low-power backup, the info still stands. Lord knows my alma mater (well, the STATION, not BU itself) could use the cash, too...
 
Yes, I have a lot of backups, but other equipment got blown too when the 600 volts came thru the 177v lines. Anyway, thanks to "chrish" (on this list) on his visit today, we got things back up & running like normal. Later this morning at sunrose, WJIB should be belting out, in full force, each and every 250,000 milliwatts of power. (equivalent to 100,000 simultaneous butterfly sneezes). Now, off to Bangor with ailing xmtr in car to get repaired.
 
JIBGUY said:
Yes, I have a lot of backups, but other equipment got blown too when the 600 volts came thru the 177v lines. Anyway, thanks to "chrish" (on this list) on his visit today, we got things back up & running like normal.
Click to expand...

Was the console repairable? Or was the power, umm, surge, the end of the line for it? And if so, what are you using for a replacement? Do you now have to file massive paperwork to make a claim against N-Star or against the company, if any, that carries your loss-of-business insurance (if that's the right name for a policy that would compensate you for the kind of losses you suffered)?
 
I was Dxing WJIB driving north on Rt93. I tuned in to the 3 watt night signal in my car at the Zakim Bridge. It was clear there and strong until Rossevlet Circle exit on 93. It got weaker from there until Stoneham- Medford line. After that I began to get interfernce from 740AM in Toronto. JIB was gone by Montavle Ave. exit in Woburn. It is too bad that JIB isnt on FM. Stations like JIB would make out with the proposal of an expanded FM band where TV Ch 5 and 6 are now after the DTV transition.
 
mgpt6 said:
It is too bad that JIB isnt on FM. Stations like JIB would make out with the proposal of an expanded FM band where TV Ch 5 and 6 are now after the DTV transition.
Click to expand...

But we all know that once the government got a taste of all that money from spectrum auctions, any newly-available spectrum will be awarded to the highest corporate bidder. And the NAB is just fine with that too.
 
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