While working at the Mechanicsburg transmitter site I found a piece of radome laying on the ground. Given the time of year, someone taking target practice at the tower is the most likely culprit. It’s happened before. Great. The radome keeps freezing drizzle from forming on the antenna. This causes reflected power that can damage the transmitter. The transmitter automatically reduces power to prevent damage. With radomes, the effect is minimized. If an antenna bay or transmission line is punctured, the repair is very expensive. I’ve had to deal with a transmission line puncture from gunfire at another station. Quote to replace the entire transmission line was around $75,000. Insurance insisted we splice the line for $25,000. The line would lose pressure after the splice was installed. Nitrogen usage increased after that. I did take a picture through the bullet hole and gave it to the FBI who paid a visit to the house across the street. Shooting at towers is a very stupid idea.
The STL/Transmitter replacement project was started over 2 years ago. I won’t go into why it has taken so long. I would have started it back then if I could. WUIS uses a Studio To Transmitter Link manufactured by Moseley called Starlink. Eight years ago we started having severe drop-outs. I do not have a spectrum analyzer. I was loaned one for a short period from a distributor, but I could not find terrestrial interference. (Interference by another entity improperly operating their transmission equipment) I sent the Starlink pair back to the manufacturer for testing. I switched to the back-up system. The backup is an older compressed digital system. The output amplifier on this system has been weakening over the past 8 months, and concern was expressed. I was able to get one of the amplifiers a few years ago, but the part is obsolete and I no longer can find a source. Apparently that does not constitute an emergency. A couple weeks ago the amp finally got to the point where the receiver could no longer pick up a usable signal. I had no choice but to go back to the Starlink riddled with drop-outs. Meanwhile another broadcaster put up a repeater on an adjacent frequency to 91.9 in Jacksonville. That wiped out our off-air pickup for WIPA Pittsfield. I moved the receiver to the Griggsville tower. This is not ideal, because the signal is often weak or non-existent. I took the STL pair for this relay and used it for the WUIS Studio To Transmitter link. It is also weakening. It is working for now. The new 11gHz radio link I have planned will become the new Studio To Transmitter Link. We are in a waiting period now. A Prior Coordination Notice has been sent to other broadcasters to allow them an objection if they feel this system will interfere with theirs. I can not order equipment until this period is over with no objections. The Reading service is down until I can get this new system up and running. Right now I am configuring Cisco switches and Wheatnet I.P. blades that will be used to route audio from the studio to the Mechanicsburg tower.
Below is a picture of the STL transmitters at the studio. Top is the Moseley PCL-6010 pilfered from Jacksonville. Second is a PCL-606 as a last resort backup. It is not legal to use this one for an extended period of time. Below that is a Moseley Starlink. A last last resort is a Comrex Codec that uses a dialup phone line.
I uploaded new firmware to a Barix encoder that was used to provide RIS (Radio Reading Service) over the internet. The internet service was discontinued so I could use the enccoder. I could then have the encoder use RTP to send an audio stream over the Starlink Simplex link. I am using an old Windows computer and Video Lan Player to receive the audio stream in Mechanicsburg. A Barix Exstream decoder has been ordered to replace the computer. This will be replaced with the new Wheatnet system and I.P. Radio link. The half year delay in getting a purchase order to go through has additional expenses when equipment is allowed to fail before replacement.
I have a preliminary quote from Mediacom in Jacksonville to provide internet at the IDOT tower used to relay WUIS to WIPA. This might take a while as the University will not sign contracts, and I do not currently have a budget. With internet we can purchase a codec pair to get audio to the Jacksonville IDOT tower.
11/29/2018 - The exciter switched to the backup STL feed (The Starlink) due to the aging Moseley 6010 STL signal dropping out. The Starlink as mentioned above is riddled with dropouts. I programmed the exciter to have no backup so it will not switch back to the Starlink. While at the site I replaced the computer with a hardware codec to return RIS audio. The Intermediate Power Amplifier failed and I needed to power down for a few minutes to reset it.
