Late on Sunday night our new Jazz station (KUWL) went off the air after a power glitch at the site. The transmitter went down and stayed down. I immediately suspected either a blown fuse or tripped breaker. The only problem was that earlier on Sunday we had a sudden snowstorm. This made it extremely difficult to access the transmitter site.

Reid and I attempted to access the site with the truck on Monday morning. We were able to make it about 3/4 of the way to the site after about 5 hours of exploring for a suitable route. By the time we made it that far we only had a couple of hours of daylight left and had been stuck twice. I decided to turn around and try again tomorrow.

We only made it this far on the first attempt…

Buried under the snow are DEEP ruts that can trap the wheels of the truck

This is what happens after being stuck in the ruts!

Tuesday morning (New Year’s Day) we tried again. Since we had probed out a route yesterday and knew where the worst spots were, we were able to avoid these spots and make it all the way to the top.

Reid and I shoveled snow from in front of the truck at one of the worst spots
This gave it a better chance of getting up the hill

Success! Making steady progress to the top once again…

Made it! Looking down on Laramie from the top of the hill…

Once we made it to the top and into the shack, the problem was readily apparent. As suspected, the KUWL transmitter had no power.

Note the lack of indications on the lower transmitter

Yours truly gives it a closer inspection…

Reid inspects the breaker panel. The breaker feeding the KUWL transmitter had tripped.

The only apparent problem was a tripped breaker. Hopefully it was a one time transient. We tested switching to and from generator and could not recreate the problem.