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

[Bailey, Scott]

Gary,
   That's cool your tube rigs come up and working, BUT, as I mention, call Bernie Wise at Energy Onix and buy his 250 watt rack mount unit as a back up. You can get it for around 3500.00. That's cheap! Yea, I know, you would be on low power, but at least you would be on, and that little box is louder than the MW-5A, and would burn WAY LESS electric than that MW-5.
    I've consider doing this, but "knock on wood", since I bought my Armstrong, I have had "0" problems with that box and it has never been off, period.
    I am a small station owner and my station is on 1 KW, daytime. The Armstrong has two 600 watt modules, so if one goes down, I'm still on, but on about 500 watts, but that hasn't happen yet.
    I one of the lucky ones that my little station is fully paid for, I don't owe anybody but yearly taxes and utilities. No need for an SBA for me.

Scott


I've got a couple of stations with tube-type backups.  One, a BC-1T, and the
other an MW-5A.  Once a month, I run each into a dummy load for five or ten
minutes.  They have both come up, reliably, for several years.  About the
only time they are on-air is when I want to clean/inspect the main
transmitters, which have been very reliable.  If either auxiliary suffered a
major, expensive failure, they might get parted out.  Until that happens,
they will probably remain in place.

It amuses me when station owners/managers balk at replacing an old 1 kW rig
with a SS box that costs less than $15K.  I haven't met one that would
consider driving a 20+ year-old car on a daily basis.  It isn't unusual for
these folks to buy a new car every couple of years that may cost three times
that of a contemporary transmitter.  SBA loan payments for something that is
absolutely critical to their business is out, but car payments for a fully
loaded Escalade are OK. <g>  BTW, I'm not employed by these types, but they
call me when they have a crisis and need advice or want to borrow spit and
bailing wire.

Gary, K?CX