[BC] Powering the big rigs

[Dana Puopolo]

Here's an interesting story:

I took over as CE at 850 in Boston after a fire where one of the 4160 step
down transformers on the pad in back of the building exploded and fire fed by
the mineral oil in the transformer flew out of its top like a blowtorch,
catching the roof on fire. It also burned the glazing off the bricks on the
back wall. The MW-50 was right behind the brick wall, had been on the air and
was dirty with soot inside while the Continental (further away from the fire)
was perfect.  

I cleaned up the MW-50 and got it running again, but the plate current meter
would not work and the rig sounded 'funny'. Turns out the problem was the
meter was in series with the low side return (ground side) on the power supply
which ran through a conduit on the back wall. That wall got so hot the wire's
insulation had melted and the wire was shorted to the conduit (which was
completing the low side connection and shunting out the meter in the process).
 We could not remove the shorted wire so we simply cut it off at the conduit
and snaked a #8 (actually two #10s in parallel as that was what we had on
hand) through the conduit to make the repair. 

One more strange thing - while cleaning out the rig I found a flashlight in
one of the transmitter's air ducts. I have no idea where it came from nor how
long it had been in there - though it still worked dimly (had alkaline
batteries in it).

To my knowledge the MW-50 is still there. The Continental burned after not
being cleaned for over a year (after I left). They replaced it with a DX-50
paid for by insurance.

-D