prcguy

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Jun 30, 2006
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15,385
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So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
I've done a few jobs for TV stations and this one was helping to install a new transmitter and I hand built and routed all the high power transmission lines inside the building from scratch on this job precisely cutting the inner and outer copper tubes to make the coax. The new transmitter was only 10kW on VHF and its shown right after I slowly ran the power up into loads to test the new transmission lines.

The last picture is the old UHF transmitter parameters where it was running 19kW out just before being taken out of service. The tube beam voltage is 33.4kV and its drawing 1.64 amps at that voltage. This was an old analog transmitter that was converted to digital and I believe the original power in analog mode was 100kW peak. Its a lot of fun working in this environment although you need to wear hearing protection at all times inside the noisy building and you don't want to get anywhere outside near the antenna main beam with that much power.


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KevinC

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Now that’s a slug…
 

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gmclam

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Sep 15, 2006
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Fair Oaks, CA
This isn't so much as "inside the station" as it is inside the transmitter facility. Yeah I loved the video that had its link posted in a trade publication recently. Once on YouTube, I was offered more links/videos than I have time to watch. High power transmitter sites like this are truly a work of art.
 

K7MEM

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Joined
Dec 16, 2013
Messages
432
Location
Swartz Creek, Michigan
My XYL (wife) use to manage therapy dogs at the local hospital (Glendale Samaritan Hospital, Arizona). One time she was invited to one of the local TV stations for a piece on therapy dogs. So, my XYL and I, plus one of our dogs, went to the station. The dog was a jet black Cocker Spaniel named Trouble (the name is another story). We were escorted to the production room, but there wasn't anyone there, except for one guy behind a big window. And he pretty much ignored our presence. In the production room there was a small set with two chairs and two huge cameras. The cameras were mounted on wheels and had a large cable running over to the wall.

After a few minutes the host showed up and started to set everything up. The host and my XYL were seated, with trouble in front. I was tucked off to the side out of view, but I was able to watch. I hadn't realized that the cameras were completely remote controlled by the guy behind the big window. So the cameras started moving around the production floor. Well, when Trouble saw the cameras moving, his eyes got big. He decided that he was having nothing to do with them. He immediately ran under the XYL's chair and hid.

It took a lot of doing, but they finally got him out from under the chair and proceeded with the interview. But the whole time, Trouble kept a close eye on those cameras. Trouble was very happy to go home.
 
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