In article ,
"Doug Dotson" wrote:

"Bruce in Alaska" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Doug Dotson" wrote:

and dispatches licensed techs

Nope Doug, no License Required anymore.

I misstated my thought. I mean't "qualified techs" since a license is
no longer required.
The question was as to the reason that a license is no
longer required. Larry seems to suggest that it is because very
few blacks are able to get a 1st Phone. My recollection is that
it is because detailed technical knowledge is not required to safely
and legally operate a transmitter these days.

There's no
such thing as an Automated 50,000 Watt AM Transmitter.

Maybe up in Alaska. But I'm pretty sure that is not the case in general.

When those
puppy's decide to melt down, they do it in a hurry, and usually with
lots of sparks and steam from the liquid cooling systems.

My years in the process control industry make me pretty confident that
the computer can sense and react to pretty much anything unusual faster
than the most skilled engineer/tech. Not to say that an on-site person is
not an asset because once the computer has either shut things down or
reduced power to save the transmitter, someone has to diagnose and
fixed the problem.

Usually
the finals are pulled at 50% of rated time, but nowdays with skimpy
maintaince money, owners are pushing that out to 80% and catastophic
failure is happen a lot more often. Reminds me of a very cold January
Night when KRAB-FM's antenna took a hell of a wet snow load, and
unbalanced the two 5Kw finals explosivly. I came around the corner
and the DJ on duty was out in the street with a bunch of steaming holes
in the snow where hot final Parts had melted down through the snow.
Took the consulting engineer and I, 8 hours to rebuild the final cage
(Lots of plumbing parts) and get it back on the air.

A good SCADA system should have sensed the impending problem and
may have been able to save the day. But, as you say, some failures are
so sudden that there is no way out.

Bruce in alaska
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Well I have now been updated on Broadcast Transmitters...... thanks
Larry. It has been a few years since I inspected an AM Broadcast Station
and the one's I did do were out in the small communities of alaska.
I got out of the Broadcast Industry as an Engineer, many years ago,
so it isn't to suprising that I am a bit out of date on the technology.
Oh well, age gets us all eventually. Thank goodness Marine Radios
are still using 1990 technology, cause I still have a bit of a handle on
them.

I also talked to my buddies at SEA, and they are just coming back
into production on their SEA157 VHF Radio's and even a few of the SEA235
MF/HF Radio's. This is very good news for the thousands of folks who
have SEA Products onboard. I also had a chance to talk to Mark Johnson
of ShineMicro about AIS. He is really big into this new (to me) Position
Reporting System now being mandated for ships of 65Ft in the US.
Way cool stuff if you got the money, and still way cool when the ClassB
stuff for Volitary Compliance comes out later this year.


Bruce in alaska
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