Wow. That's sad. The lower power HT stuff are a wonerful piece of equipment. I'm sad to hear someone has abused one that bad. Ours just sits there and runs.
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And it's kind of hard to blame the maker for some nut with a holesaw.
Yes. That has to be the most frustrating thing for manufactures. They have to get calls from idiots that are mad "it isn't working right" when in fact things like cutting holes in the top of the transmitter is the real issue. Sadly there are no restrictions on who can be hired to do our work other than the poor results that come from it afterwards. Some owners simply are too cheap for their own good and get what they pay for in engineering talent (or lack there of).
In this case it WAS the owner with the power tools.
Which I think equates to Problem exists between saw and owner. Not a good thing to do. The Z line has been my favorite Harris in recent memory. I still prefer my Continentals and my Collins gear, best tech support and parts support and the friendliest support from any vendor I deal with. And they just run and run save for tube changes every 3 years.
CE is an amazing company. I truely wished they somehow had made the transision from tube to solid state by introducing some great solid state boxes. Their support is second to none. People think nothing of asking for support for 30 year old boxes from them. They still support and supply parts for them. If CE could do something similar in the solid state world, they would be at the top of my list!
I actually bought a CE solid state TX about 15 years ago. 2.5 kW rig not really made by them as I recall, but it still works great in a frequency agile emergency go to box. The really cool thing about SS TX is the general manager can fix it if it dies. (sarcasm)
I can hear the sales pitch now, "It's so simple, even a General Manager (that's an over-glorifed salesman) can do it!"
You think that after putting in a SS transmitter the expenses like replacing that tube every 3 years is gone.
Well, there's all those big electrolytics that slosh and dry out after only 5 years.The blown FETS.
And the rare occasional full blown partial destruction of a SS transmitter from lightning, power, or design problem.
Ever see what 8 blown fuses on the 240VDC power supply in a DX-50 will do?
Oopsies.
Now with the old GE you could get it on the air with a loaner transformer from a Ham rig for the 5500 V supply or run the thing on only two of three 480 to 7200 pole pigs for the 9500 V supply (a little hum but it was on!).
$12,000 and 10 days later it was back up with nearly everything in the lower part of the power cabinet replaced. That transformer made a great smoker. Harris did send a tech out to test and install modifications for free. DX hasn't burped in the 14 years since.
Well, there's all those big electrolytics that slosh and dry out after only 5 years.The blown FETS.
And the rare occasional full blown partial destruction of a SS transmitter from lightning, power, or design problem.
Ever see what 8 blown fuses on the 240VDC power supply in a DX-50 will do?
Oopsies.
Now with the old GE you could get it on the air with a loaner transformer from a Ham rig for the 5500 V supply or run the thing on only two of three 480 to 7200 pole pigs for the 9500 V supply (a little hum but it was on!).
$12,000 and 10 days later it was back up with nearly everything in the lower part of the power cabinet replaced. That transformer made a great smoker. Harris did send a tech out to test and install modifications for free. DX hasn't burped in the 14 years since.
I have 7 transmitters in our group 1 of which is solid state. I deal with terrible lighting strikes on an annual basis, even with more Henry Power Clamps, static cats, copper ground strap, and deep rods than you can imagine. Why in the world would I want to replace very durable tube transmitters with SS's full of lightning susceptible transistors. Our SS transmitter (not going to bash the brand on here) is used as a backup and made full power for the first year, but soon after this module or that module would not come up with the rest of the transmitter. The exciter has had to be serviced twice in two years and the combiner is currently at the factory after the unit failed to make more than 1/4 TPO the last time we needed it. I think an improvement to tube transmitters would be to further remove semiconductors from their design and engage more "pin-ball" and "relay" logic to reduce lightning susceptibility.
3-4 weeks ago we had a nearby lightining strike. Took out 4 devices' ethernet ports, two hubs, and a fuse in
an audio processor.
Fortunately the port on the automation machine lived, and all the audio equipment, including the transmitter.
When I wanted a transmitter 20 years ago, I designed and built my own, and already having
seen way too many semiconductor devices die for the silliest reasons, decided to go all-tube.
6V6 oscillator, 6SN7 audio mixers and modulator, 78 buffer, 6L6 output.
No iron anywhere in the audio. It's been on for 20 years as my part 15 AM, it just runs and runs.
I think I did have an electrolytic pop about 10 years ago, and was off-air for 3-4 hours.
To be honest, there is a full-wave rectifier somewhere in the modulator chassis to make DC for
a separate input jack just for carbon microphones.
In the recent lightning strike, The transmitter didn't care.
Still need to replace or repair ethernet ports on a Canon printer, Netgear RAID storage, and DSL modem.
If semiconductors had the durability of tubes, they still wouldn't be anywhere near as attractive.
Nothing quite like watching audio modulate the purple aura on the wall of a tube.
an audio processor.
Fortunately the port on the automation machine lived, and all the audio equipment, including the transmitter.
When I wanted a transmitter 20 years ago, I designed and built my own, and already having
seen way too many semiconductor devices die for the silliest reasons, decided to go all-tube.
6V6 oscillator, 6SN7 audio mixers and modulator, 78 buffer, 6L6 output.
No iron anywhere in the audio. It's been on for 20 years as my part 15 AM, it just runs and runs.
I think I did have an electrolytic pop about 10 years ago, and was off-air for 3-4 hours.
To be honest, there is a full-wave rectifier somewhere in the modulator chassis to make DC for
a separate input jack just for carbon microphones.
In the recent lightning strike, The transmitter didn't care.
Still need to replace or repair ethernet ports on a Canon printer, Netgear RAID storage, and DSL modem.
If semiconductors had the durability of tubes, they still wouldn't be anywhere near as attractive.
Nothing quite like watching audio modulate the purple aura on the wall of a tube.
I think there's quite a difference in different SS transmitters out there. Checking my previous posts, you'll notice that I'm not a huge Big H cheerleader, but I have to give credit where it is due. Their tried and true Z-plane design in the Z and ZX series transmitters lends itself to keeping failures to an absolute minimal. I have another major brand's SS box and have had to fiddle with it more. It's about 8 years old, so newer designs might be better, however I've had a Z5 for over a decade with NO failures. Not all transmitters are created equally.
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