[BC] AM loads

[Scott Cason]

>> The solution is real simple give your transmitter a good load and you
have nothing to worry about.

 

Something else to consider with the bad load is, how much of your power is
really making it to the antenna?  Four years ago, I replaced a Bauer 707
with a Nautel J1000.  The Nautel would not come up.  We stuck a OIB on the
line and the load was severely mis matched and had been running that way for
DECADES!  Once we had retapped the ATU and got the Nautel running, suddenly
we could hear the station in areas it had been unlistenable.  The owner
could hear it at his home.  They were going through a set of tube a year in
the Bauer.  

 

Tube transmitter will load into a wet noodle.  A bad load should be only a
temporary situation until you can get it fixed.  Purposely running a tube
transmitter into a mis-match is very foolish.  It may cost $500 to get a
good engineer to check the load, but think of the money this station wasted
over the years in tubes and reduced coverage.  Along with the additional
cooling for an overheated transmitter.

 

Scott Cason
LaGrange Communications
www.lagrange-com.com
(502) 213-0024