[BC] AM HD power levels

[Phil Alexander]

First, Parker Gates did not DESIGN transmitters.
Most of the Gates AM boxes were designed by Hilmer
Swanson, with Bill Hoyt and Harlan Strattman
doing most of the FM boxes.

The AM's that Parker approved in the early days,
The BC-250GY, BC-500GY, BC-1F and BC-5B were very
solid transmitters. "Value Analysis" became the
mantra when Harris took more control in the early
'60's and the translation was "How can we make it
cheaper and still get it to work."

Second many of the deficiencies in design were the
result of penny pinching in Cleveland (Harris).
The worst example was the BC-1T/G design, but even
that one had no problem passing an audio proof out
to at least 12 kHz.

Please, let's not re-write history. If there was a
problem in Quincy, it was Harris, not Gates. Parker
was there for 10 years after he sold the company to
George Dively et al (a/k/a Harris) and Larry Cervone
tried to carry on the Parker Gates tradition so far
as Dively would let him, but when he left in the early
'70's, it was the end of a great tradition.

---------------------------------------------
Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD
Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology
(a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation)
Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037


On 2 Sep 2008 at 1:39, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote:

 > Additionally, modulation transformers used in many
 > high power AM transmitters were easier to design
 > than 1 kW rigs because the operating impedance was
 > lower. This led to excellent AM fidelity up to the sixties
 > when the 250 W to 1 kW allocations opened up. After
 > the "no town without a radio station" fiasco began, AM
 > transmitters would usually not work above 7.5 kHz and
 > many of those designed by Parker Gates needed to
 > have their proofs fudged.