Re: Some of the wild and crazy things we have done to get back on the air.
Greg got me remembering...WKID, Vevay,IN 1988...I was out for a drive in the boonies & came across downtown Vevay,IN. Saw a studio & a 95.9 frequency logo but nothing on the air. Looked into the window...typewriters being typed on and a console with VU meters in motion. Stopped in and was told the station had been off for a few day & they were waiting for an engineer from Cincinnati (1 hour away) to get there. I introduced myself and the GM took me up the hill. What happened is that the house that the transmitter was in was in the process of being demolished. They were under orders to move the transmitter to a new building and hadn't started on that. So the second floor of the house was removed as were the adjacent rooms. All that was left was the room the transmitter was in and it had rained hard for days. When the back cover of the PA cavity was removed, water literally poured out. I forget what kind of transmitter it was, but I've never seen another one. It used an 8877 grounded grid PA. I sent the GM back into town to gather hair dryers and started in on it. After being satisfied that the PA was dry, I got brave & applied high voltage. No sparks from the PA, but plenty from the rectifiers...more hair dryer time. Turned it back on and this time sparks emanated from the high voltage transformer. That part took a LOT of hair drying, but after 3 hours of drying time (amazingly, no hair dryers were harmed in the process), it came back on. I later read a letter to the editor in Radio World (or it's predecessor) from Eldon Durand in PeeWee Valley,KY detailing the lack of maintenance at the site and how they called him when this happened and he wisely declined as they owed him money. I never did get paid for that episode, but I was an active ham at the time and was happy to accept a used 8877 for the bill. Eldon wondered in his letter who the sucker was that ended up saving their hide. 23 years later, I confess...
Greg got me remembering...WKID, Vevay,IN 1988...I was out for a drive in the boonies & came across downtown Vevay,IN. Saw a studio & a 95.9 frequency logo but nothing on the air. Looked into the window...typewriters being typed on and a console with VU meters in motion. Stopped in and was told the station had been off for a few day & they were waiting for an engineer from Cincinnati (1 hour away) to get there. I introduced myself and the GM took me up the hill. What happened is that the house that the transmitter was in was in the process of being demolished. They were under orders to move the transmitter to a new building and hadn't started on that. So the second floor of the house was removed as were the adjacent rooms. All that was left was the room the transmitter was in and it had rained hard for days. When the back cover of the PA cavity was removed, water literally poured out. I forget what kind of transmitter it was, but I've never seen another one. It used an 8877 grounded grid PA. I sent the GM back into town to gather hair dryers and started in on it. After being satisfied that the PA was dry, I got brave & applied high voltage. No sparks from the PA, but plenty from the rectifiers...more hair dryer time. Turned it back on and this time sparks emanated from the high voltage transformer. That part took a LOT of hair drying, but after 3 hours of drying time (amazingly, no hair dryers were harmed in the process), it came back on. I later read a letter to the editor in Radio World (or it's predecessor) from Eldon Durand in PeeWee Valley,KY detailing the lack of maintenance at the site and how they called him when this happened and he wisely declined as they owed him money. I never did get paid for that episode, but I was an active ham at the time and was happy to accept a used 8877 for the bill. Eldon wondered in his letter who the sucker was that ended up saving their hide. 23 years later, I confess...
