[BC] Designers then and now

[Thomas G. Osenkowsky]

 > Good advice, but it sounds like you are working for the incompetent
 > designers.

I have redesigned many AM directional arrays and feeder systems.
I could write volumes on the inefficient, narrow banded designs.
I have something those designers didn't. Powerful software to design
an array to meet the client's coverage needs and Moment Method
analysis accompanied by a matrix circuit analysis program. The
transmitter designers didn't have circuit analysis software.

Back in the day, the multiplication method was a simple way to
design in-line symmetrical arrays. Yes, there were reciprocal
nulls but those fell over cow pasture and farm land.

Then came progress. The cows gave way to condos, the farms
became malls. The station no longer serves its intended audience
because the environment changed but the array didn't.

The designers of the equipment we now laugh at did the best
they could with the available technology at that time. There was
just a discussion over the Sta-Level. Great design for its time.
Same for the 20-V3, the Gates BC-x series and so on.

Not every design was the best, from a service or specification
POV. There are some simple math errors in "Theory and Design
of Directional Antennas". A classic text. A simple BASIC code
can bang out a list in fractions of a second. Carl Smith had to do
it all by hand. I am careful not to criticize designers of the past
because someday someone will probably be saying the same about
one or more of my designs.

Some designs of the past are very much in demand. Pultec EQ's,
UREI LA-x series, 1176, etc. There are even emulators for them.

Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE