[EAS] a note of interest

[Bill Ruck]

Two stories.

One is about a very remote site that had essentially no access in the 
winter.  The site was built with two cargo containers.  One for the 
transmitter and equipment and the other for redundant generators.

In the middle of a storm the site went dead.  When the weather 
cleared they chartered a helicopter and went to the mountain.  It was 
silent.  When the door to the generator container was opened they 
found themselves in a tidal wave of diesel fuel.

The float valve on the day tank stuck and the diesel was pumped 
continuously until the container was filled with diesel but none for 
the generators.

It cost a fortune to helicopter in more fuel for the winter.  And 
they added a second float switch.

Other story.

When we had to replace the single wall underground diesel tank the 
contractor that put in the new concrete vault tank convinced me to 
put the overflow fuel line all the way to the big tank, not just the 
day tank.  The thought was that diesel was also cooling for the 
injectors and using cold diesel worked better.  This might also help 
keep the fuel warm when it is cold outside.

Bottom line is as others have said:  Test, test, and test.  And think 
about Single Point of Failure.

I also advocate against timer run exerciser.  You want to be at the 
generator when it is running looking for leaks, etc.  And you ALWAYS 
want to test the generator on line, not without a load.  One of the 
1989 earthquake stories is one about the generator running perfectly 
but the transfer switch was frozen.  It ran every week with the 
exerciser but no load.  When the time came for it to power the studio 
the switch did not transfer.

Bill Ruck
San Francisco