[BC] Maintaining old transmitters

[Broadcast List USER]

Oh, and I meant to mention one while writing my last message -- Paul Greg.

Bauer Transmitters, Inc.  / Elcom-Bauer / Cetec / Sparta / Cetec- Sparta / Granger, and so on grounded grid transmitters are still  
supported by Paul Greg (last I knew).

I had two of them, a Cetec/Sparta and an Elcom/Bauer.

They were and are fantastic rigs.  They don't use hard to get parts.  I replaced the wiring harness in the older Elcom-Bauer rig.  It kind of concerned me because the power supply was not a step-start supply, so it went from Zero to 25 kW out in one shot (when I got to the station it was 17.5 kW but I took bays off the antenna and increased TPO.

The second transmitter was a Cetec-Sparta with a delta start, so it  could run 1/3 power on low Voltage on the step-start.

Both were very reliable transmitters once I fixed the Elcom-Bauer, which would only make 5 kW when I took over the station.  It had many problems, including one Dayton blower not working, and the air- interlock was held up with a paper clip!  The final was covered with black "hair" from being overheated.

I got a new Continental from the company, so I had to decide which  transmitter to sell.  I sold the Elcom-Bauer and kept the Cetec- Sparta, not because I thought the latter was the better rig, but because I was afraid the DoE would criticize me for getting rid of the newer rig.

Paul Greg wanted the transmitter, but I sold it to a friend.  The friend wanted me to lower the price, but I couldn't offer it to him for a lower price than Paul Greg was offering.

I haven't talked to Paul for almost a decade, but if you have one of those rigs he will buy it from you and sell it into south and central America.

Those transmitters are the Timex watches of transmitters.  They take a licking, but they keep on ticking.

I cannot imagine what could go wrong with those rigs that one couldn't fix by purchasing parts from the normal sources.

CCA transmitters are similar, however you really need to know what is going on inside them to keep them running.  Replacing the first IPA in  
the 20.000 (x) seems to be a really important thing to do.  You can get that little UHF tube to work, but the coupling is really hard to adjust.

--chip