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WTIC and lightning

P

Popeye

Guest
On a trip to CT Monday morning, I heard WTIC-1080 take a hit from a freaky little thunderstorm around 10:25AM. Modulation went down the toilet at that point and then I assume they were on a backup. The local talk show host said "we're on a 1000 watts...wow". Anyone know what happened? Is the WTIC AM transmitter site unmanned? If so, someone did some fast dialing. Nice job getting back on the air boys.
 
It was Lightning

> On a trip to CT Monday morning, I heard WTIC-1080 take a hit
> from a freaky little thunderstorm around 10:25AM.
> Modulation went down the toilet at that point and then I
> assume they were on a backup. The local talk show host said
> "we're on a 1000 watts...wow". Anyone know what happened?
> Is the WTIC AM transmitter site unmanned? If so, someone
> did some fast dialing. Nice job getting back on the air
> boys.
>
Just in case anyone asks ;-) (that's how we report lightning related radio station problems on the New Jersey board)

Maybe it automatically switches to the backup transmitter.<P ID="signature">______________
17-year-old radio geek
Location: Princeton Junction, NJ
AIM: KewlDude471
WWPH 107.9 FM: http://wwph1079fm.no-ip.org</P>
 
> On a trip to CT Monday morning, I heard WTIC-1080 take a hit
> from a freaky little thunderstorm around 10:25AM.
> Modulation went down the toilet at that point and then I
> assume they were on a backup. The local talk show host said
> "we're on a 1000 watts...wow". Anyone know what happened?
> Is the WTIC AM transmitter site unmanned? If so, someone
> did some fast dialing. Nice job getting back on the air
> boys.
>
Sure, Id be happy to explain what happened.

At 10:25am WTIC-1080 received a late christmas present in the form of a direct lightning strike to the WEST tower, (daytime Non Directional tower.)
The 50kW transmitter came back up after restart but folded power back to approx 3-4 kW and tried its best to stay on the air, but modulation was poor and there was a lot of "popping" of the carrier. (typical of solid state AM transmitters)

You should have heard the signal improve considerably when we transferred off the unhappy main transmitter to our emergency 5kW #3 "low power" transmitter and emergency tower combo just prior to 11AM. This allowed safe examination of the tower bases when we arrived to assess the damage. (the WTIC site is not manned......who has a fully manned site nowadays? :)

The bolt travelled down the tower, decided it didnt feel like jumping the ball and horn gaps like it is suposed to and instead entered the west tuning house. It literally blew a vacuum capacitor off the wall onto the floor and shattered ceramic holders, leaving deep scorch marks until it finally found a large metal grounding plate to dissipate into. Additionally, "TCT" transformers which measure RF power at the tower were incinerated.

After fashioning a new mount, substituting a temporary vacuum capacitor good for about 25kW and some fast retuning, operations were transferred back on the Main 1080 Antenna (at 1/2 power) monday around 4pm.

Unless you live out on the CT border or in an adjacent state, you prob didnt even know we were at 1/2 power yesterday and this morning.

Today final repair were made, a new replacement vacuum cap was received and installed.
50kW ops resumed at approx 1:30pm

What is even more bizarre than that hateful little December lightning storm,
is the fact that glass vacuum cap which was blown 8 feet to the floor didnt shatter. It was electrically messed up, but the glass survived.


- W T I C
 
> > On a trip to CT Monday morning, I heard WTIC-1080 take a
> hit
> > from a freaky little thunderstorm around 10:25AM.
> > Modulation went down the toilet at that point and then I
> > assume they were on a backup. The local talk show host
> said
> > "we're on a 1000 watts...wow". Anyone know what happened?
>
> > Is the WTIC AM transmitter site unmanned? If so, someone
>
> > did some fast dialing. Nice job getting back on the air
> > boys.
> >
> Sure, Id be happy to explain what happened.
>
> At 10:25am WTIC-1080 received a late christmas present in
> the form of a direct lightning strike to the WEST tower,
> (daytime Non Directional tower.)
> The 50kW transmitter came back up after restart but folded
> power back to approx 3-4 kW and tried its best to stay on
> the air, but modulation was poor and there was a lot of
> "popping" of the carrier. (typical of solid state AM
> transmitters)
>
> You should have heard the signal improve considerably when
> we transferred off the unhappy main transmitter to our
> emergency 5kW #3 "low power" transmitter and emergency tower
> combo just prior to 11AM. This allowed safe examination of
> the tower bases when we arrived to assess the damage. (the
> WTIC site is not manned......who has a fully manned site
> nowadays? :)
>
> The bolt travelled down the tower, decided it didnt feel
> like jumping the ball and horn gaps like it is suposed to
> and instead entered the west tuning house. It literally blew
> a vacuum capacitor off the wall onto the floor and shattered
> ceramic holders, leaving deep scorch marks until it finally
> found a large metal grounding plate to dissipate into.
> Additionally, "TCT" transformers which measure RF power at
> the tower were incinerated.
>
> After fashioning a new mount, substituting a temporary
> vacuum capacitor good for about 25kW and some fast retuning,
> operations were transferred back on the Main 1080 Antenna
> (at 1/2 power) monday around 4pm.
>
> Unless you live out on the CT border or in an adjacent
> state, you prob didnt even know we were at 1/2 power
> yesterday and this morning.
>
> Today final repair were made, a new replacement vacuum cap
> was received and installed.
> 50kW ops resumed at approx 1:30pm
>
> What is even more bizarre than that hateful little December
> lightning storm,
> is the fact that glass vacuum cap which was blown 8 feet to
> the floor didnt shatter. It was electrically messed up, but
> the glass survived.
>
>
> - W T I C
>
Thanks for the information. Made me check my lightning protection on my amateur antenna cables before they come into the shack. But I suppose with a direct hit like that...the protection I have wouldn't stand a chance. Just call the fire department, vent out the shack and use the insurance money to buy some new equipment. Happy New Year.
 
> > On a trip to CT Monday morning, I heard WTIC-1080 take a
> hit
> > from a freaky little thunderstorm around 10:25AM.
> > Modulation went down the toilet at that point and then I
> > assume they were on a backup. The local talk show host
> said
> > "we're on a 1000 watts...wow". Anyone know what happened?
>
> > Is the WTIC AM transmitter site unmanned? If so, someone
>
> > did some fast dialing. Nice job getting back on the air
> > boys.
> >
> Sure, Id be happy to explain what happened.
>
> At 10:25am WTIC-1080 received a late christmas present in
> the form of a direct lightning strike to the WEST tower,
> (daytime Non Directional tower.)
> The 50kW transmitter came back up after restart but folded
> power back to approx 3-4 kW and tried its best to stay on
> the air, but modulation was poor and there was a lot of
> "popping" of the carrier. (typical of solid state AM
> transmitters)
>
> You should have heard the signal improve considerably when
> we transferred off the unhappy main transmitter to our
> emergency 5kW #3 "low power" transmitter and emergency tower
> combo just prior to 11AM. This allowed safe examination of
> the tower bases when we arrived to assess the damage. (the
> WTIC site is not manned......who has a fully manned site
> nowadays? :)
>
> The bolt travelled down the tower, decided it didnt feel
> like jumping the ball and horn gaps like it is suposed to
> and instead entered the west tuning house. It literally blew
> a vacuum capacitor off the wall onto the floor and shattered
> ceramic holders, leaving deep scorch marks until it finally
> found a large metal grounding plate to dissipate into.
> Additionally, "TCT" transformers which measure RF power at
> the tower were incinerated.
>
> After fashioning a new mount, substituting a temporary
> vacuum capacitor good for about 25kW and some fast retuning,
> operations were transferred back on the Main 1080 Antenna
> (at 1/2 power) monday around 4pm.
>
> Unless you live out on the CT border or in an adjacent
> state, you prob didnt even know we were at 1/2 power
> yesterday and this morning.
>
> Today final repair were made, a new replacement vacuum cap
> was received and installed.
> 50kW ops resumed at approx 1:30pm
>
> What is even more bizarre than that hateful little December
> lightning storm,
> is the fact that glass vacuum cap which was blown 8 feet to
> the floor didnt shatter. It was electrically messed up, but
> the glass survived.
>
>
> - W T I C
>

Makes me feel considerably lucky that the little 1KW AM I use to engineer never got nailed while we had the solid state Harris MW-1 on-air. TRhe "golden oldie" RCA BTA-1R seemed to be bullet-proof for the few times I knew the towers were subjected to a lightning strike.

Bill
 
> What is even more bizarre than that hateful little December
> lightning storm,
> is the fact that glass vacuum cap which was blown 8 feet to
> the floor didnt shatter. It was electrically messed up, but
> the glass survived.
>
>
> - W T I C
>


I've seen once where lightning has turned cement below the telephone pole it took out turn to glass, but this definitly blows that away. Did you take photos?
 
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