[BC] New respect for tower climbers!

[Dana Puopolo]

Mitered 90 degree elbows historically give more problems then any other type
of transmission line part COMBINED! I remember one installation where an 3
inch FM transmssion line had to go around/over two bays of a TV batwing aux.
antenna. The whole thing was done with 90 deg miters and they blew an average
of one out per year. I suggested they replace the whole top with a 30 foot
piece on 2 1/4 line (which could bend around each TV bay), as the line
length/loss of the 3 inch line was such that by the time you got to the top of
the tower, the power had dropped down into the safety range of the 21/4. I
don't know if they ever did this though...(it's now a CC station).

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: 
From: Tom Bosscher <tom at bosscher.org>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: Re: [BC] New respect for tower climbers!

    I DVR'd the 12 mid feed. The problem was at the top of the tower, a 
3" 90 degree elbow has developed a leak along the weld seam. They were 
going to do a simple glue/tape repair. I would have wanted to replace 
the elbow. And when they put the glue on. the line was still 
pressurized, which caused a delay of time problem. . I even mentioned to 
my wife, when they started the climb, that I hope they opened the purge 
valve at the bottom, so there was no pressure.. But they didn't. Too bad 
they didn't have a 5 second B roll of the transmitter room. We all know 
that is what "we" here wanted to see!

Nice looking FM DA array. There were the typical media type reporting 
errors, but overall it was not bad.

    tom bosscher


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