[BC] Worst 'engineering' ever seen

[engineermike]

There's always the engineer that went in to try and fix an AM station in east 
TN.  He had worked on it before and it was pretty much junk with no meters 
working and maxed out about 75% licensed power.  He walked in hit the plate off 
button walked around to the back opened the door stuck in his hand and was blown 
across the room into a stack of pallets.  Nearly killed him.  He had forgotten 
that the plate off button was bad and he bypassed it.  Sitting there making 
about 4KW and he grabbed the tube.  When I saw the transmitter I was floored. 
Meters either dead or disconnected, all safety bypassed, off switch wires cut 
off and twisted together with no tape on them.  No idea what was on or off and 
where the levels were on the thing.  I was told it went from a nice transmitter 
to that in 2 years under this persons maintenance and repair.  This is the same 
person working for the same company that had a drop in FM.  For the antenna he 
climbed a tall tree and cut off all the outer limbs and then screw a single bay 
antenna to the center trunk area as high as he could get it.  Still in the tree 
line mind you.  Zip tied the cable to the tree and turned it on.  I get a call 
complaining about bad coverage and fading in and out on windy and rainy days.  I 
asked where the site was and almost wrecked the truck laughing when I drove by 
and saw what had been done.  Wish I had a camera with me back then.  I know this 
guy is still out there somewhere but I don't know where.  He was sort of 
encouraged to leave the area by many companies he was "contracting" for.  It 
amazes me what some people will do and do it to themselves no less.
Later
Mike


WFIFeng at aol.com wrote:
> This warrants a new thread! ;)
> 
> In a message dated 04/09/2007 11:51:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> chuck at akpb.org writes:
> 
>> Years ago while engineering in western Kansas, I came across a transmitter 
>>  site that was repeating another station.  The equipment consisted of a 
> table 
>>  radio with a Shure microphone stuck against the speaker grill.  The Shure 
>>  fed one of those incredibly bad Shure mixers. (M267?).  I had always 
>>  wondered why the audio was so bad and where the blower noise was coming 
>>  from.
> 
> Oh no... this *must* a case of "You can't make this stuff up!"
> 
> That has got to be one of the WORST cases of "engineering" ever! Can anyone 
> else top this?
> 
> Willie...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  . 
> **************************************
>  See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
> _______________________________________________
> 
> The BROADCAST [BC] list is sponsored by SystemsStore On-Line Sales
> Cable-Connectors-Blocks-Racks-Wire Management-Test Gear-Tools and More! 
> www.SystemsStore.com       Tel: 407-656-3719    Sales at SystemsStore.com
> 
>