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Wacky technical stuff you've done
- Thread starter BobOnTheJob
- Start date
boiseengineer said:
I worked in a situation similar to that. The owner was too busy building his two bit empire during the nineties to actually buy and maintain equipment. We had three radio stations in the building and three reel to reels but two didn't work. I had to haul a Tascam 32 from production room to each control room to add a spot to each station's automation system.
Speaking of bathrooms, at another situation that was a much better facility a new transmitter building had been built. The building was staffed around the clock to maintain the FM automation system and take meter readings. The GM was rather demanding about answering the phone. So there would be no excuse he had GTE install a five line business phone on the bathroom wall between the toilet and sink.
Back to the topic at hand, the same station that had the phone on the bathroom wall had a unique way to extend the range of a wireless mic. This was the flagship station of UK and part of the pre-game coverage was "Fans in the Stands". They would go over to the Hyatt across the street and talk to fans. The engineering staff grew tired of lugging a marti across the walkway. The mic's frequency was around TV Channel 12 so a high gain yagi tuned to Channel 12 was purchased. The polarity was changed to vertical and the antenna was mounted atop the atrium where the station was located and aimed across the street. Even with a crowded hotel lobby the wireless had impressive coverage. They haven't had UK coverage since the late nineties but the antenna was still mounted atop the atrium the last time I checked.
N
necrat123
Guest
CatFM said:
I had a transmitter site emergency with the stomach flu one time. Nothing like sweeping out several inches of water from the transmitter room floor while making frequent trips to the "transmitter toilet".* Those are definatley good times.
(* "transmitter toilet": that toilet in the old abandoned studio building that is colder than frozen ice cream, with the hard water stains and smells of past users, which takes 3.6 hours for the resivoir to refill after flushing... and the restroom has one half a roll of toilet paper, but plenty of the brown industrial paper towels in it....)
Necrat said:
The first transmitter sites with toilets I ever saw were the old line stations in Evansville. I was amazed that the WGBF transmitter site had a toilet. At that time, 1980, the places in and around Indianapolis were copies of a transmitter site someone else had. Radio never re-invents the wheel.
In Evansville almost all the transmitter sites were a product of the 1940's. And all were copies of something RCA designed wholesale to be built in an Art Deco likeness. Transmitters and studios were together. Commonalities include the brick structure, flat roofs, to what end?, clear concrete block windows that explode when broken, metal doors, and a large air mover in the ceiling for Collins and RCA equipment. Most were at least the size of a small home. Alternatively the AM stations requiring an "Engineer" on site had toilets. They also had a Master Control Console. A large Collins Console was at WGBF. A desk (metal) with a large Collins Mixer on it. The Console had a single prominent meter capable of being buried against the right side since it's install with the 5B in 1952 and still working and passing audio. There was a single large rotary fader below the meter. Patch panels and such were also on the board.
We left audio to the Collins but it was for show. The input audio then went directly from the equalized phone loop (remember these?), to the DAP. I still love the DAP sound on AM.
Prior to this most sites had no inclusion for toilets. Most were in remote areas, most were designed for men who could easily be accommodated. Toilets at transmitter sites while seemingly non needed were a sign that the owner was solid and didn't take shortcuts.
In 1986 WGBF's sister WGBF FM Henderson KY through a series of owners, had a studio that was in a strip mall. I asked about the bathroom at the end of the strip mall. (4 doors down). It had been broken for 6 months. The facilities were at a gas station (get the key) 2 blocks away. Within a month we combined facilities. The studio console in the prod room was left as the night jocks had been using this studio in place of a bathroom. The AM still had the facilities built in the 1970's but the FM had never been engineered well.
How many new transmitter facilities have the restroom feature? Not many.
In Evansville almost all the transmitter sites were a product of the 1940's. And all were copies of something RCA designed wholesale to be built in an Art Deco likeness. Transmitters and studios were together. Commonalities include the brick structure, flat roofs, to what end?, clear concrete block windows that explode when broken, metal doors, and a large air mover in the ceiling for Collins and RCA equipment. Most were at least the size of a small home. Alternatively the AM stations requiring an "Engineer" on site had toilets. They also had a Master Control Console. A large Collins Console was at WGBF. A desk (metal) with a large Collins Mixer on it. The Console had a single prominent meter capable of being buried against the right side since it's install with the 5B in 1952 and still working and passing audio. There was a single large rotary fader below the meter. Patch panels and such were also on the board.
We left audio to the Collins but it was for show. The input audio then went directly from the equalized phone loop (remember these?), to the DAP. I still love the DAP sound on AM.
Prior to this most sites had no inclusion for toilets. Most were in remote areas, most were designed for men who could easily be accommodated. Toilets at transmitter sites while seemingly non needed were a sign that the owner was solid and didn't take shortcuts.
In 1986 WGBF's sister WGBF FM Henderson KY through a series of owners, had a studio that was in a strip mall. I asked about the bathroom at the end of the strip mall. (4 doors down). It had been broken for 6 months. The facilities were at a gas station (get the key) 2 blocks away. Within a month we combined facilities. The studio console in the prod room was left as the night jocks had been using this studio in place of a bathroom. The AM still had the facilities built in the 1970's but the FM had never been engineered well.
How many new transmitter facilities have the restroom feature? Not many.
KWKR's transmitter site (about 30 miles from town) was literally the last customer on the power line. It was a "dry" site. It did have a first aid kit, but no trees. 25 miles to the nearest bathroom after 5 PM.
When the owners father was happy to have a working toilet on his frequent visits to the site (loved transmitters), keeping the pump running was a priority.
Chief--Have you wiped (pun intended) the memory of the WCSI quonset hut from your mind? A family lived in that building...it had a workin' turlet. That was there since the late 40's--and you saw it in the late 70's.ChiefEngineer said:
When WKRC 550 Cincinnati built a new transmitter site in 1975, it had a brand spanking new bathroom. WNOP 740 was another story...it had a chemical toilet and it was the CE's duty to haul it into town for 'maintenance'.
K
kenglish
Guest
BobOnTheJob said:
And, people around here think I was making up the part about CE's just having to mow the grass. ;D
If a secretary is not a toy, according to a Broadway show, then certainly an engineer is not a janitor.
I'm sorry for opening this can of worms with the segue switch post. However, it is a valid topic in its own right. It reveals real life problems and situations of real life human beings, which by default often end up in the unofficial job duties of the engineer, since no one else is remotely qualified (or motivated) to fix them. In this day and age, you don't want to be caught outside in these situations. Proper facilities are now necessary in all but the most remote transmitter areas.
I'm sorry for opening this can of worms with the segue switch post. However, it is a valid topic in its own right. It reveals real life problems and situations of real life human beings, which by default often end up in the unofficial job duties of the engineer, since no one else is remotely qualified (or motivated) to fix them. In this day and age, you don't want to be caught outside in these situations. Proper facilities are now necessary in all but the most remote transmitter areas.
M
MickeyD
Guest
During the first attack on the WTC, I put an LPTV on Channel 4 from on top of the Fox Building. NBC had it's satellite stuff up there so we had everything we needed to get it up and running.
Covered Manhattan.
Covered Manhattan.
ChiefEngineer said:
Of my 8 primary transmitter sites in Dayton and Louisville, 5 of them have restrooms. One of those was built in 2008 on the property of a city wastewater treatment plant.
The most difficult part about putting a restroom on that site was getting access to the sewer! All the sewer pipes on the property were high-pressure and could not be accessed directly. We finally got permission to run pipe into the main building at the plant and tie in to their drain.
Working at a new small-town FM in TX in the 70s. Severe ice storm hits, really bad. Too much ice on the antenna (no radome/heaters, consulting engineer said there wasn't enough ice in that climate)...reflected power too high. Town shut down, many without power. The station was off from Sat Night, through Sunday with no melting, into Monday morning. Owner/GM was also the morning guy, he was very concerned the station wouldn't be on the air for all of the school closings Monday morning. But the Collins transmitter wouldn't run at less than 8% power. Even at this low power, the VSWR was too high, too much ice. Chief Engineer woke up early Mon morning, looked out at the icy streets and knew the station was still screwed. He turned on the radio and heard the GM/Owner on the air at what sounded like a low power, but he was on. Chief Engineer went in to the station, walked in to the control room and almost fainted. The Owner/GM/Morning DJ had put scotch tape on the RAISE button on the Mosley Remote Control. It was constantly sending the RAISE command, if he pulled the tape off, the transmitter would turn itself off. The chief engneer cursed the Owner/GM/DJ out saying he didn't know what he was doing, he was going to burn up the transmitter. The Owner/GM/DJ said something like "it is my station and I'll do whatever I want to do to get on the air!" The chief engineer threw up his hands and walked out. The Owner/GM/DJ thought about it for a moment, then went ahead and tore the scotch tape off the Mosley panel. The transmitter went off a few seconds later, but they had been on the air like that for an hour or so. When the ice melted, the transmitter was fine and they were back at full power a day or so later. I later became chief engineer at that station and heard the story, although the station was great/sounded great, that Collins transmitter always gave me problems. ???
Cool story...I was wondering if you were about to walk in and find that the owner had brought the exciter to the studio and hooked it to the police scanner antenna. Some owners are more creative/adept than others!LiveLocal said:
LiveLocal said:
Same thing happened at WRKA - Louisville in 1986. Collins transmitter. Moseley remote control. Only this ice storm rolled in at 2am and the overnight guy didn't want to bother the chief engineer. He put a piece of tape over the raise button, and waited until 6am to call the chief.
When he told the CE what he had done, he was immediately ordered to remove the tape. He refused... as it was now 6am, and the morning show was starting (Glenn Beck was the morning guy... a 22 year old kid in tennis shoes)
The Chief told him if he didn't take off that tape he'd come down there and kick his @##! The guy refused, and went home to bed. The chief went to the transmitter site, and found that the brand new 5CX1500A tube was toast.
I got hired about 8 months later and heard the story from the old chief as I was getting the tour. And he was still mad about it!
LiveLocal said:
Similar story... I had a site with a Harris 20K xmtr and Burk dial-up remote control. Transmitter dies one afternoon - afternoon guy calls the remote to turn it back on. He found out it would only stay on if he was holding down the pound key on the phone. What does he do? You guessed it... taped down the pound key on the phone! After 10-15 minutes, the transmitter finally tripped a breaker, but not before melting down several components in the overload circuits. Instead of a 10-15 minute fix, it took 2-3 days at low power for all the parts to arrive and fix the original damage, plus what the afternoon guy caused. He couldn't understand why I was so upset... go figure...
RFB
About 20 years ago I was working at a new Docket 80-90 3 KW Class A that had a 3 bay side mounted at about the 350 ft. level on a 1000+ ft. TV/FM tower. There were two full power VHF TVs on top, and just below them was a master FM antenna shared by 5 Class Bs. When one of the top mounted TV antennas needed some major repairs, everything but the smaller signals on the tower had to sign off while any workers were on the tower. They had to be on the tower late at night several times over the period of a week or two. That wasn't a problem for the TVs or other FMs since they all have off site backups, but we didn't have that luxury. We were given permission to stay on with peanut power, but our transmitter couldn't be backed down that low, so our contract engineer brought in a spare exciter he had and hooked it up to the 3 bay during those work periods to keep us on the air.
I never gave much thought to it until now, but I am wondering how legal it was to do that since that exciter was not licensed as an auxiliary for our station. My guess is that some notification was given to the FCC about that operation, but I know there never was a regular FS license issued to us. Since I was not on the air during operation with the exciter, I don't know how it was logged.
From what I have seen, the Commission is pretty lenient about what can be done to keep a station on the air. Does this sound like it was all above board?
I never gave much thought to it until now, but I am wondering how legal it was to do that since that exciter was not licensed as an auxiliary for our station. My guess is that some notification was given to the FCC about that operation, but I know there never was a regular FS license issued to us. Since I was not on the air during operation with the exciter, I don't know how it was logged.
From what I have seen, the Commission is pretty lenient about what can be done to keep a station on the air. Does this sound like it was all above board?
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