WPDX

If it's about broadcasting, radio, TV, satellite, cable, this is where to talk about it.

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JKF18
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WPDX

Post by JKF18 »

Anyone know why WPDX AM & FM are both off the air? Has the AM side actually been on the air recently?
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Lester
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Re: WPDX

Post by Lester »

BookFace wrote:Devastating lightning strike to the building housing the studios and offices. Every piece of electric powered equipment destroyed except for our microwave relay. A Friday afternoon hit means "no parts ordered" until yesterday. New computers, consoles, phone equipment etc arriving daily. Well, I'm getting my studio and automation upgrade well ahead of schedule.
Tom Taggart
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Re: WPDX

Post by Tom Taggart »

1. GACopper.com 100 ft. of 3" copper strap is around $350.

2.DXEngineering.com Search for "grounding." Their short little brad straps a good for interior use where the heavier copper strap or #4 is too awkward for a good connection to equipment

3. No.4 bare copper or better & ground rods from the local electrical supply house.

In the 32 years at our hill-top St. Marys site we've lost exactly two pieces of equipment to lightning--a System 90 automation sequencer and, more recently, a switch on our local network. In both cases caused by incoming coaxial cables from the cable company--not grounded. We also found that the "EMP" pulse from strikes would pop the low-noise IC's on the output modules of our Auditronics 2500 consoles. Running the program lines through Western Electric 111C transformers before the audio left the building for our adjacent transmitter building cured this.

Don't want to write treatise on grounding methods, but simply tying consoles, service entry panel and main equipment racks to a common, exterior ground point (e.g. several ground rods a few feet apart in good soil outside the building) with either strap or the #4 will make a big difference the next time storms run through. Strap is preferred because the lightning strike is a "skin effect" phenomenon.
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