Construction of WFMXs current transmitter and site in Fairfield, ME, circa 2008. Worked with The Timtron to convert a Harris FM-25K to single-phase using a 25 kVA pole transformer back-fed. This required pumping the oil out and moving the center tap to the high-voltage side to allow us to have a low-power strapping for initial tune-up and testing, then pumping the oil back in again. LOTS of inductance and capacitance added, as anyone who has been inside a stock FM-25K power supply will notice. This also required replacing the blower with a single-phase blower, for which I manufactured a new vibration boot out of metal screen and RTV silicone (which I will NEVER do again without a mask or SERIOUS ventilation). The site owner (whose name rhymes with samaritan shower) wasnt about to let me or our usual rigger friend climb the tower, so we had their riggers hang the seven-bay Shively. I did hang the STL transmit dish, this is actually a second hop from the original transmitter site in Skowhegan, which Tim owns and I am free to climb. Once the Harris made power, the gratuitous posing next to the running transmitter commenced (this is what I look like after several months on a build. Restrain yourselves, ladies). The insultant wanted to sell the GM a brand-new HD-ready walk-your-dog wipe-your-butt solid-state single-phase Harris for 65 grand or so. Tim had found this rig for $500 from someone who was trying to use it to drive a laser with a 100MHz square wave (and couldnt understand why the waveform wasnt nice and square). Even after we handed in our invoices, we saved these guys a good $55,000 bucks. Id do it again in a heartbeat!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:50:05 +0000
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