[BC] Worst 'engineering' ever seen

[RichardBJohnson@comcast.net]

I nominate KMMT Mammoth Lakes, CA. FM transmitter was in a large non waterproof (cardboard, with a wooden frame) shipping container with 240 AC lines running through the woods on the ground. The antenna was near the top of a pine tree, fed with heliax, which was tied with rope, branch-to-branch up a lone pine. The studio was in a restaurant and bar about ¼ mile down the hill. Both the AC feed and the audio line was taped together and laid across the forest floor for that ¼ mile. The transmitter was brand new but owned by a leasing company. It is still around so somebody must have fixed it up! http://www.kmmtradio.com/kmmthome.php . 

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.AbominableFirebug.com


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: engineermike <engineermike at mindspring.com>
> 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...
> > 
> >   . 
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