[BC] Transmitter Safety

[Sid Schweiger]

>>ALL of us have has close calls like Chip's-and he HAD someone there with him! What
about the rest of us? How many of us will have to to DIE until station
management realizes that they expose us to hazardous working conditions all
the time? If you ask me, too many untrained 'engineers' are out there working
on transmitters today! From what I read here there are a bunch of lucky people
posting here! How long will that luck hang on?  Let me ask you something-how
many of you after working all day have been awoken in the middle of the night
and had to drive ALONE to some transmitter site in the middle of
knowhere-sometimes in stormy weather and then had to work on the HV section of
a transmitter? Wait---I already know the answer: ALL OF US!<<

Yep, I've done it too.  Management generally asked why it took me so long to fix problems in the middle of the night.  The answer "I'd rather be alive come morning with you off the air, than race to fix the transmitter on two hours' sleep and die in the attempt" usually shut them up.

Some of you may remember Jim Howard (now, I believe, deceased), the former CE of WJIB/Boston (the 96.9 FM signal, not the WJIB currently owned by Bob Bittner at 740 AM).  Jim received a painful lesson, which he would relate to anyone who asked him, about having to call someone's wife to deliver the worst news possible.  He used to work at the WRUL/WNYW shortwave site at Scituate MA, years before I first met him, when one of his co-workers, working alone late at night and presumably on too little sleep, made a fatal error.  Jim was the one who found him the next morning, and had to call the man's wife.  Jim and I worked in the same transmitter building for a few years (underneath the candelabra in Needham MA), and whenever I had to do some transmitter work, he insisted on sticking around.  Besides his comments and suggestions born out of years of experience while I was a neophyte, having him there watching over me (and teaching me the routine of making absolutely sure the box was fully discharged before sticking my hand in there) was both highly informative and comforting.  It's a lesson I never forgot.  My dad (RIP) was an electrical engineer, specializing in high-power transmission, and he reinforced the lessons as well.




Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
WAAF/WEEI/WEEI-FM/WKAF/WMKK/WRKO/WVEI/WVEI-FM
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040
P: 617-779-5369
F: 617-779-5379
E: sid at wrko.com