[BC] Why an older transmitter may be a good choice

[Rob Atkinson]

thanks Robert, makes sense.  sort of reminds me of when I bought a new car 
and thought I'd keep the old one because it might be nice to have two cars.  
it turned out the old car was pretty expensive to keep around even if I 
didn't drive it much.  I couldn't just let it sit indefinitely with gas and 
oil in it and cancel the plates and insurance so I would up selling it.

rob atkinson

From: Robert Meuser <Robertm at broadcast.net>
Reply-To: Broadcasters' Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: Re: [BC] Why an older transmitter may be a good choice
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:17:50 -0500

That really  depends on a number of things. Tube rigs do not like sitting 
idle, they must be exercised on a regular basis and kept clean just as if 
the are a main. The exercising itself could be a gotcha since that probably 
subjects the TX to a lot more on off cycling unless the station is a hard 
day only operation. With tubes being more and more difficult to find, I 
would think a step start on the filaments would be a good addition. I think 
the practical question is how many small stations can afford to spoon feed a 
tube aux so that it will be reliable when needed that can not afford two 
solid state TXs?  This would be especially true if the station had a history 
of good financial management. In that case somewhere in the 80s or 90s a SS 
TX was purchased. At that time the tube TX was retained as the aux. After a 
ten year depreciation another SS TX was purchased and the original retained 
as backup.  If the station was really old meaning it might possibly have a 
large TX building, the tube TX could be retained as an off line ultimate 
disaster recovery unit.  There are some class A stations that operate this 
way with two or more on line 50 KW TXs one tube TX of 10 or 50 KW normally 
disconnected from everything awaiting the ultimate disaster.

R

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