[BC] Comparing the audio in the Big 50's

[Gary Blau]

FWIW the MW-50 at WNBC was installed in 1980 by Mike Bock, and was one 
of the 'good' ones, with the 100KW supply, etc.  Was always reliable, 
and played very loud.  Certainly blew the old Fuzz out of the water on 
all audio counts.

The 317C-2 went in either in 1982 or 83, replacing the (then aux) Fuzz 
which was removed.  AFAIK, the 317 was run as the main from then on.  I 
don't know about Imus demanding the MW over the 317 prior to my arrival 
in early 84, but I can say that it never came up during my tenure thru 
87.  By then Imus's hearing was pretty degraded and there's no way he 
could have known what tx was on unless someone told him.  But I can 
maybe see him doing something like that early on, throwing his weight 
around.  So there shouldn't be a dearth of hours on that 317, wherever 
it may be today.
What may have happened after 87 or during WFAN times I have no idea. 
Jim Seaman can answer that.

The 317 was always just a bit cleaner than the MW, and the MW always was 
just a hair louder.  Never really figured that out, but it wasn't a big 
deal.  Cleaner was better.  The 317 did a much nicer square wave, which 
probably says it all.

The MW needed a rotation network in front of the diplexer input, like 
just about every other PDM rig of that era it had to be spun around to 
make the load as symmetrical as possible.
The 317 didn't seem to change much either way.

Both rigs were very reliable and stable.  Only problem with the 317 was 
the filament contactor would get sticky and hang in the on position 
after a few months.

Joe Sainton used to scare hell out of me whenever he came to town to do 
field updates on the 317, with how he'd punch the plates on and off and 
pull open the front door and get right into the rig without shutting the 
AC power off or grounding anything.  He really trusted that design!

Never forget seeing the first display of a DX50 at the NAB (Atlanta?) 
where they had it set up into a dummy load with a test oscillator next 
to it, and let you do your worst.  Never saw a square wave like that out 
of a big AM tx before, and it handled 20Hz with no trouble at 100%. 
Game over!

g

Robert Meuser wrote:

> ...The MW 50 was primarily limited by the PDM filters when compared to a 
> modified 317 c1 or later version Continental.
> 
> I worked with Joe Sainton incrementally modifying a 317 C1 as he was in 
> the process of developing the C2 so we had almost everything in the C2 
> except the 12 phase power supply.
> 
> I also modified an MW50 and with NRSC processors and the use of the Mw50 
> bessel filter option it beat most 317s around. This would not have been 
> the case with just a raw square wave evaluation.
> 
> None of the above can hold a candle to the current solid state units 
> available today.
> 
> My personal evaluation is:
> 
> RCA forget about it.
> 
> Mw50 with mods and a 100KW PS could be the loudest on the dial and was 
> easy for many CEs to understand.
> 
> Continental had great performance but did not quite have positive peak 
> capability of the MW 50 (145% vs 165+%) and some were intimidated by the 
> tuning although they should not have been.
> 
> Many stations had a 317 and an MW50 in their plants. The 317C 2 at WNBC 
> had very few hours because at the time Imus went nuts if it was on the 
> air during his show. He preferred the Mw50.
>