Earlier this week our Rock Springs transmitter went off the air. I was out of town but sent one of our other engineers to check it out. He wasn’t able to diagnose the issue with the main transmitter but was able to get our HD transmitter at the site on the air in analog mode to provide a reduced power signal until the main transmitter can be repaired. I went to the site today to attempt to restore service.
Made it to the KUWZ site…A nice clear day without too much wind. Pretty rare to have a calm day without wind here in Wyoming!
My faithful canine companion, Callie, accompanied me to the site.
Betsy came along as well but I guess the ride wore her out…
The initial issue was that the blower would not power up. I started by looking at the blower motor including a 3 phase rotation sensor which can prevent the blower from powering up if all 3 legs of the power feed are not present. Incoming power to the transmitter appeared to be missing on one leg. I replaced a fuse in the main disconnect but still was not able to make the rig power up. It was looking like an issue with the transmitter’s controller since all voltages appeared to be present…
Looking at the controller…Seems like everything is OK here. No obvious signs of a failure and all logic seems to flow as expected through the controller.
Reinstalling the controller in the transmitter…There is another board inside the controller chassis that contains some filtering circuitry. I have seen numerous failures in that particular board before and it appears that is once again the case. Unfortunately that particular board is no longer available from the manufacturer and EXTREMELY difficult to access and work on. Eventually this transmitter will need to be replaced but I will bring the entire controller chassis back to Laramie with me and attempt to make repairs…
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