[BC] New Years Resolutions, or a tale in two acts.

[Tom Taggart]

1. Putting all my eggs in one basket almost cooked the golden goose...

How's that for a mixed metaphor?  Well, not really.  Having had bad  
experiences in the past with air conditioners (Especially with our wild  
weather, 60 one day, 29 the next), when we installed our 10 kw frequency  
modulated space heater we put in a system of fans (really attic exhaust  
blowers) to keep air moving.  Three in, each individually fused, and the  
thermostats staggered, along the bottom of one wall, and three more up in  
the peak of the roof for exhaust.  Works pretty well, we do need to keep  
the filters (furnace filters under a hood on the air intake) replaced,  
especially in grass -mowing season, as they will plug up.  Have to replace  
the fans every once in a while, but usually the motor just dies, doesn't  
even pop the 5 amp in-line fuse.  But the system works, the big 10 K  
usually runs only a few degrees above the outside air temperature even on  
hot days.  Lots of air moving.

Recently we've been putting in a switch and sub-panel for geni power.   
Being cheap and lucky, decided to go with a single phase 20 kw geni. Much  
cheaper than any kind of 3 phase backup, the lucky part comes in finding a  
nice Harris 2.5 K that we can use for a backup while on generator.  Will  
end up being about 5 1/2 db down from normal.

So we have three phase panel>>>2 legs through switch>>> 100 amp  
sub-panel.  With the backups on key equipment we've been able to slowly  
transfer the crucial circuits over without creating too much chaos. But  
first we had to install a 100 amp breaker in the three phase panel to feed  
on to the sub-panel. Stiff. Convinced it to go in.  Went home (Friday)   
Call on the way home--no audio on our booster.  Sent the afternoon guy out  
into the transmitter building to look.

Very hot he reports, and the Moseley 606 that feeds the booster is down.   
Yep, you guessed it. While the blowers were carefully fuesed individually  
so that one shorted motor wouldn't kill the system, they were all on the  
same circuit.  Bouncing that 100 amp breaker in the 3 phase panel tripped  
the breaker for the fan circuit.  We'll split the fans between two  
circuits when we get around to transferring those circuits.

2.  Just do it!

We've just added Delilah.  Now we have an Auditronics 2500, and use the  
automation system to turn channels on and off for the breaks, rather than  
run the audio through the sound card, or use an external swticher.  Test  
run on Sunday evening.  The program ends at midnight, and the next day's  
log is loaded at midnight by the sutomation system.  Recipe for problems,  
unless everything is in the right order. Which it wasn't.  Monday morning  
(the 2nd) I hear Bob and Tom on our light rock underneath the ABC AC  
feed.  This show feeds down the same satellite channel as Delilah,  
obviously Delilah didn't turn off at midnight.  Of course, I was pulling  
out of my driveway 56 miles away from the station at the time, and no-one  
was in the station that early on a holiday (Or awake to use PC anywhere).   
Now I am semi-prepared for automation problems, having the advantage of a  
combined site. I have the important channels on the air console wired  
through the transmitter remote control system.  E.G. 04 is ABC AC, 05 is  
the computer, 06 is ABC news and 07 is the spare (Delilah) feed.   
Unfortunately, couldn't remember which was which while cruising along at  
60 on Rt. 50.  Ending up just dialing up what I thought the channels were  
and hitting lower until the wrong audio vanished.

So I did what I've been promising myself to do.  Made up a little cheat  
sheet the size of a business card on the computer, copied it over 5 times,  
cut it apart and took it down to Office Depot.  Where, for the grand total  
of $1.31, they laminated all the cards.  Which I then handed out to the  
GM, OPs MGr. II Guy, and the retired co-owner, and then stuck one card in  
my wallet.

Doesn't take much, for two stations it looks something like this: (numbers  
changed for obvious reasons):

93R: 123-555-1234 Code 5432
66 Relay code #raise/on *lower/off
00 Fil/01 Plates 03 adj pwr
04/AC 05/Computer/ 06/ABC NWS 07/Delilah

-XCR-678-555-9230 Code 886677
00 TWr Lights  Plates on 02/#

Just takes a few minutes to do, but, you have to Just Do IT!

P.S. In case you are wondering why the remote control happened to be that  
handy to the control console, we used to have  remote meters in the old  
live programming days, since the transmitter is in it's own little  
building.  Just as easy to put the Sine in the studio building since we  
already had a multi-wire control cable strung into the control room from  
the transmitter building.