[BC] Antenna Radials

[William Eaton]

After the water main turned plastic, the phones became unusable in building. Smart guy figured out lack of phone ground connected to fence. Better but let's drag a few from fence to RR track.
CSX guy called me assuming I was again to blame for his woes. Before he accused our paging transmitter over modulated caused his woes (using an analog meter on a wavetek is not the way to measure rail-rail pocsag)
It seemed that the signals on either side of station would latch randomly and the track tone was modulated with Jones radio programming.
AM/FM same town same owner different towers same commercials same feed.
We owned Tower FM was on. I did service FM licensee son operated AM.
I shut down FM. Guy calls me lying SOB.
I had to go over and hear the singing track myself before dude stroked out.
I didn't even get to hear the modulated track. The 50' of 00 streched across grass. Didn't look right to me.
I suggested that he find a different ground for floating section.
After a polite letter to CSX suggesting radio tech have supervised cross-training attached to my 1500.00 invoice. (Pain and sufferage) prompt payment, idiot probably promoted. And signals worked well.
Conclusion: Not all track is grounded. And once you get a Railroad Job you are set for life, no matter how unusually intelligent you are.
William Eaton CET,CCNA
On Feb 14, 2012 12:51 PM, "David Senft" <dsenft at rawlco.com> wrote:
>A couple of stories, -one factual, the other is perhaps folk-lore. The
>radials of a West Coast station that were spread on the rocky ground would
>disappear. They replaced them with galvanized-steel "telephone" wire. Not
>being buried, it lasted fairly well and cheap to replace. Since telco lines
>went underground it may be hard to find. Another mountain-area 1 kW station
>located near a rail line had poor coverage. Someone improved the "ground" by
>running a wire to a near-by railway track by (mistakenly?) attaching a wire
>to the tower. Reports claimed that it could be heard 50 miles away if you
>lived near the tracks. An inspector found the "improvement" fed by a
>sweating transmitter with interlocks defeated. Removal of the "ground"
>reduced coverage.
>D.

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