[BC] Re: Aux Transmitters

[Brew Schiller]

Paul asks:

> I'm curious, what are the most amount of transmitters you've seen at a
> stations transmitter which could readily be used on the air?

I realize it's TV and not Radio, but at WCBS-TV (Channel 2, NYC) pre
September 2001 we had 5 transmitters ready to air immediately,
filaments running, if they weren't actually on the air already.  There
were four Harris transmitters at WTC, that's two sets of two combined
transmitters.  They usually almost always ran combined, but each one
COULD be switched single ended and make full power, if necessary.  And
each set had two solid state exciters, either one could drive the two
combined transmitters.

And don't forget each transmitter was actually one Aural and one
Visual amplifier chain (tubes).  We had two sets of antenna bays, as I
remember it we used the top bays for Visual and the lower bays for
Aural, but could combine them in the 'shack' on the 110th floor and
feed both Aural and Visual to one set of bays if necessary.

And then there was the backup site at Empire, another Harris
transmitter, controlled via remote control from WTC or master control.
 I don't know the status of that site after I left Channel 2 in 1995,
but when I was there the filaments were hot and it could almost make
it's licensed power.  We used to use it overnights when tower work was
underway on the WTC mast or when the WTC was under attack.

Having detailed all that equipment and it's quadruple redundancy it
was still probably overkill (but maybe not, that's for the accountants
to say, it's surely a good idea to keep the revenue stream of a TV
station in NYC flowing!).

Generally though, a main and a working backup is the most efficient
way to go.  You keep them both working and if one breaks you fix it
quick because you are unprotected.  With all those other backups the
law of diminishing returns comes into play.  With four backups there
was always something needing time and money to fix.

On the other hand, we didn't go off the air either time the WTC was attacked.

But, still on the other hand (what, thee hands?), the first thing we
did when these crisis developed was stop running spots

Let the managers and accountants hash it out.

Funny story..... when I was at WCBS-TV, running the transmitter
locally we had an old backup U-matic tape player, loaded with some
promos and then an episode of Quincy for use if we lost both STLs.
There was a company memo on the wall that said we could only run the
tape if we first got approval from any one of three people.

They were: Joe Fedele, the WCBS-TV Director of Engineering, who had
left the company and went to Telemundo (I think it was), the
Vice-President and General Manager who had died, and one other person
who I didn't know and would have a hard time getting in touch with if
I needed to.

Well, we never lost the STLs, and if we had I'd have put Empire on the
air (it was fed via telephone coax), but it sure would have been
interesting to be in the position to follow the memo and refuse to put
the backup tape on the air when it was needed!

I figured that I'd follow the spirit of the law, not the actual
letter, and just get ANY high level authority before I rolled the
tape.

When I left the WTC transmitter I left my old FCC Lifetime General and
Former First Phone there because I'd always know where it was if I
needed it.

Oh well.

I did get a replacement from the FCC - it looks exactly like my ham
license and actually conveys less privileges than my ham license.

di-di-di-dah-di-dah

brew  Bruce Schiller at CBS-TV NY Master Control Maintenance and WA2ZST