Tour of a FM radio station transmitter site
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ธ.ค. 2024
- This is a tour of the FM radio station transmitter site that I maintain. This was a requested video so if you have any other video ideas, please leave them down in the comments. The non-commercial radio station transmits with an ERP of 4,600 watts from 100 meters above the surrounding terrain . According to Wikipedia, "ERP (effective radiated power) measures the combination of the power emitted by the transmitter and the ability of the antenna to direct that power in a given direction. It is equal to the input power to the antenna multiplied by the gain of the antenna."
Jay: Thanks for the tour. I worked at WABC AM & FM in NY in the late 1950's, never went to the transmitter. Hank
Thanks for watching!
Never forget about the kettle and the Coffee. That is vital. My boss always tells me no work, no pay. My reply to that is No Coffee, No Work. Needless to say, I always have an endless supply of Coffee at work.
I can understand that but I like iced coffee, not hot. :)
@@TVJAY Freeze it then 😁
My company made the Wohler audio monitor. I believe that this model was produced before we sold the company. In the early days, we did not anticipate the extent to which our gear would also be used at transmitter sites but they came to be seen as essential to many such facilities. It is always gratifying to me to see it in so many TH-cam facilities tours. Also, I knew almost all of the people behind so much of the other gear you and others use in broadcasting. We would all find ourselves meeting again and again at the many broadcast electronics trade events around the world. I've been privileged to know many of the greatest names in the radio, t.v., film and recording industries including Ray Dolby and Rupert Neve.
That is awesome. Thank you for watching.
It's always fun to see people using or enjoying something we have designed or been part of..
Last year I had my nerves tested for MS etc.. all was ok..
I said to the doctor during the test I had worked at Nicolette in the 1980s to do with the development of this type of machine...
The doctor stopped and looked at me.. somewhat stunned .. and said he had been using them for decades including this one.
Love station tours! Not sure how I missed this on your channel before now! Great video, Jay!
Thank you
Fantastic thanks. Around 1968 I worked at a university TV studio with video recorders the size of a small IBM mainframe. Times changed rapidly during my life with miniaturization.
When I first started in TV (21 years ago), we had 1 inch tape machines and they were the size of refrigerators. We used them every day for about 2 years and then we got rid of them.
That's some of the best cable management I've ever seen behind the racks. Usually there's a thousand wires hanging and connected to nothing.
Thank you!
Watching this again 2 years later. Good stuff.
Thank you for watching it again.
Great video, thanks. I've always enjoyed transmitter site tours.
I am glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks a lot TVJAY. Your video is a lifesaving one. I don't think you can imagine how useful it is to me (my graduation project).
Glad it was helpful!
@@TVJAY
😻
Thanks for the tour Jay, very nice!
I am glad you enjoyed it.
My husband grew up in a radio family. In the tube era transmitters needed the constant attention of the Chief Engineer. With AM, FM & TV solid state (FET) transmitters Nautel revolutionized broadcasting and brought dependability up and cost down. This company started out with solid state radio beacons in the early 1970's. With online seminars and excellent customer service Nautel is truly the industry leader.
That is true. This newer solid state transmitter has been really solid!
Thanks for uploading this, I'm currently doing an assignment on diffrent workflows relating to the broadcasting industry. One of the workflows is about how a radio goes from a playlist with music on it, to being mixed with software like radio DJ to eventually being transmitted. Your video is really helpful it shows a traditional professional system at a basic level.
I am glad you found my video useful. I have other videos on radio as well that you may find helpful as well.
It's interesting how so many stations are converting to the solid state transmitters. I removed a Harris 3.5K a few weeks ago as the station had bought a new solid state BE. The building is very very small, so it gave them alot more room. The Harris was cleaned up and retuned for another life elsewhere.
Yeah, when we put the solid state transmitter in we gained the ability to do a full walk around inside the shack.
On the maintenance subject, the boss wanted visits to the transmitter to be as short as possible so that I could be assigned to other tasks. I told him that cleaning was part of the job, but if he did not want cleaning done he should never take anyone to the site. The big boss came down from corporate and wanted to see the site, so I e-mailed him ahead of time telling him of my direct supervisor's unwillingness to let me take the time to make things spotless. Next thing you know my boss is insisting I go up to the site and put a shine on everything. It took hours, but the floor and equipment was left so clean you could lick it like a dinner plate. I even sprayed some stuff on the block walls to prevent dust from being there. When the big boss saw the place he was ready to give me an award!
At my day job, our two sites are both visited once a week.
Nice presentation. I retired from exactly what you're doing in 2007. I was CE for Maui stations from 1960 to 1989 then Big Island from 1990 to 2007. It was a good run, I surfed a lot back then too. Look up AH6V.
ALOHA
Jeremy
Very cool!
Thank you for the tour of your site. There are so many "armchair" transmitter site experts out there with all their wise guy comments on how THEY would keep things so clean and pristine. It seems you are doing just fine with the budget you have been given, and the once-per-month schedule you have at the location.
Thank you very much for the kind comment.
I've gotta agree with this. If you have time to keep everything pristine and spotless, then clearly you need more work to do!
Cool! I manage about 15 Nautel transmitters -fun stuff!
That is awesome. I like ours, I just wish the PAs were hot swapable.
Nice tour but you might want to invest in some clean filters for that Nautel transmitter, clean out the junk and clean the dust and dirt out of there. All of your equipment will run much cooler and last a lot longer.
I actually did after this video.
When was the last time the air filter on the transmitter was cleaned? That hut if filthy!
I replaced it after this video was taken.
Great tour it was very interesting. Can I how do you get internet for all the networking equipment out there?
We have a DSL Internet circuit.
I hope by now you have cleaned it up. The transmitter is full with dust, as is the other equipment. Other then that it is a standard setup.
Yes, I was there to clean the site and I clean it monthly. The roof has some issues and it gets dirty crazy fast.
Awesome! Great job! Good tour explaining what the different parts are.
Thank you, that means a lot coming from a fellow broadcast engineer.
Great video and tour once you get everything running and the process and use are basically the same almost all the time and you have redundancy you are good to go. The equipment does need some cleaning and dusting though. Looking forward to a lot more projects and tours.
Being in a field, it is hard to keep it super clean but I do clean it once a month.
Awsome.... Excellent description. The description is so well done, I can run the site in an emergency...
Glad you liked it!
Thanks for putting this up. Quite interesting to see what's in those sheds.
Glad you enjoyed it
Neat tour Jay! Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked it!
I am an intern at a radiostation. We use optical fiber to transmit digital signals from some audio processing technology to the transmitter where analogue signals will transmit to receiver.
The use of fiber is very common these days.
Thank you for the tour!
Lol...I was thinking to make a radio channel in my village cause only two stations u can find with bad service...so I tought I get a transmitter from Amazon for couple hundred bucks😂 all this stuff 😂 and the maintenance...just beautiful ❤
Thank you
Thank you for sharing a vidio i work in community radio myself
That is awesome
Would you have an installation plan showing the synoptic of the system?
I will try and do a video explaining the whole system or you can join a live stream (Mondays @ 9pm eastern) and ask the question. It would make for a great segment.
Great video. Would be interested in a video showing the studio and its wiring/interconnects. Thanks!
That is a good idea. I will have to work on that.
@@TVJAY Thank you! Interesting stuff!
I think that propane tank needs a good high pressure wash to get rid of all that alge. 🍒🍒🍒
Me too however there is no water out here.
Nice Video. Always love visiting our stations transmitter site. 100k Watt Transmitter. Things a monster! Top of the bally over looking all the valley. Beautiful
100KW FM transmitter? I would love to see some pictures, if you can share.
@@TVJAY will do when im up there next!
Great explaining Video - thanks for the tour.....very nice transmitter station!👍👍👍👍
Thanks for watching!
What would happen to the cows if they were near the tower in the event of a lightning strike? Voltage dissipates through the ground. Step potential current can go in one leg through another. Since cows have farther feet spacing they may get a bigger shock then humans. That tower would get hit for sure sooner or later. I would not wat to be standing nears the base if it got struct! I ran this question through Chat GPT and it said that danger zone could be 50 feet or more. Same thing if you are near a tree that gets hit.
Yeah I would assume they would feel it. I do not like being at the site when there are storms. That being said none of the equipment gets hurt and I am sure the tower has been hit many times so I don't know how much energy would actually go out 50 feet.
Thank you for the video. I was wondering, what might be the gain factor of your antenna?
2.4
@@TVJAY Thanks. How much cooling air the transmitter (or the site) needs per hour?
@@MrPoqsu I don't actually know as I didn't spec any of this gear out. I just took over. Let me look into that.
Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.
Your welcome. Glad you are enjoying my videos.
@@TVJAY If you can check out a few of my videos and let me know if they are terrible or not.
Nice videos i worked in Community radio the mosely stl link is the best quality out there 😅
It has been very reliable!
This is really cool. Thanks for sharing. 😁👍
Thanks for watching!
Hi TV Jay why did they not use Hard line to the Gen set instead of just soft copper on the blocks is not good if ice falls off the tower and cuts the gas line open. How is the tower grounded not for RF, But for lightning strikes. I worked in radio for 10 years had fun fixing things. The tower was so well grounded that never had problems even in bad weather and lightning. It had 4 inch copper straps coming off all 4 sides and screen welded to each copper strap. It had a day time Gates 5000 watt Am and a 3kTube Harris transmitter.
The gas line was put in by the previous engineer and I don't know why it was done that way. I'd like to get it fixed someday but right now I am more focused on the roof that I mentioned in my latest video. The tower has 3 copper straps coming off of it and is tied into the building. It is in need of some work and is on the list as well.
@@TVJAY i need to know your electric system and the name of the equipment's with their list
Hi. Can I ask, the thicc pipe is grounded and contains a coax inside?
And also, the 40kW amp is on the mast?
Thank you.
No the pipe is called coax and has an inner layer and an outer layer. The amp is the transmitter in the right rack. The effective radiates power is around 4kW...not 40kW.
@@TVJAY thank you :)
73
Very nice Nautel. I’m a huge fan. Mine has been running for almost a decade. No hiccups.
Ours is going on about 7 years. We have had one amp failure in that time.
ERP refers to how the antenna DIRECTS the power that the transmitter emits. Thee is no "combination" involved.
More power gets radiated to specific areas (with the intent of more power to where the listeners/watchers are), less to areas where they are NOT - like straight up or down.
ERP is equal to the input power to the antenna (which is transmitter output power minus line loss) multiplied by the gain of the antenna. Technically this measurement is only the signal strength along the main lobe but that is more advanced then most people need/want to know.
Thanks for the video. Wouldn’t the equipment give off enough heat so that you would not need to run a heater?
Yes, the heater is really only for people like me if I have to work there. We only really use the cooling part of the HVAC system.
5:17 Good heavens, is THAT what your dummy load looks like?! :O It's enormous! Is it just a big tank of mineral oil with an enormous resistor inside like the ones we use in ham radio? Or are these beefy industrial ones more complex than that?
It is just a bunch of resistors mounted vertically in air. It doesn't have oil or even a fan. Due to the lack of space, it never actually got hooked up. Maybe someday I will be able to find a way to mount it and actually use it.
Nice tour - thanks. You showed an Aux Tx - I think a BE unit, but I didn't notice any Tx line switch to change between the main and back-up Txs. Did I miss it?
No, the backup transmitter has it's own line and antenna. We have a transfer switch but ran out of space for the dummy load so we don't use it.
Really awesome tour, thanks for sharing! I've always been curious for sites like these, is there any ability to pipe the audio stream over the Internet connection as a backup STL in the event of an issue with the 900 MHz link? Looking forward to more interesting content from your channel!
Yes, in fact there is. The transmitter can pull in an IP stream and air it.
@@TVJAY Interesting, that's very cool. Working in telecom, I've always found it interesting that broadcast almost always has a wireless STL as primary vs something like a dedicated fiber / hardlined connections.
@@sized4spills I don't know about everyone else but for me it comes down to cost and reliability. With our wireless STL connection, there is no monthly cost and we control the whole link so there is no chance of backhoe fade or an ISP outage causing us downtime. I tell people all the time, my radio and TV stations have better uptime then Facebook and TH-cam, and that is a fact. At my day job (the university is my side job) I have redundant internet connections and they have gone down more then either one of my STL connections.
@@TVJAY I'm finding that cell data tends to be more reliable than terrestrial ISP options, a good backup to running your own links.
I think seeing this stuff is awesome! Also what kind of music does the station play?
A wide variety but mostly indie.
Hello, is there any type of equipement that can mesure the listener? thank you
There is a service that does but you have to subscribe to it and we don't do that.
@TVJAY - I have always been wondering why thieves never break into these small spaces that stands in the middle of nowhere. All this expensive equipment would be a gold mine for them! What kind of security do you have? I can't see any cameras or alarms? I mean... All these has to be connected to the internet which means they all should have a camera equipped inside?
I am not going to discuss security in a public forum but sites like this always have alarm systems and/or security cameras.
I have also been wondering about this for a long time. My heavy criminal cousins would have stolen everything if they knew about it. Rubb och stubb! 😬
@@TVJAY It is understandable. Yes exactly! These should be equipped with cameras. Only the transmitter NAUTEL VS2.5 costs around €14,150.00...
While expensive, the equipment is very specialized and would probably be hard to sell. You might find someone on the black market who would buy it for scrap for cheap, or to someone who is looking to set up pirate radio, but they'd be few. And selling the stuff elsewhere might seem suspicious.
I guess there's the bare copper, but one would have to be dumb or desperate to risk electrocution. Not saying that no one would try to steal radio equipment, but I feel like the risk to reward is not that great.
The APC UPS battery should not be flashing like that -- there may be something wrong with it.
According to my records, it is time to replace the battery.
Really nice equipment. I'm surprised there isn't a desktop computer setup in there as well.
I always carry a laptop so it isn't needed but I have thought about it
I saw a cablemodem with no coax connected to it. Did you have cable service to that building at one time?
We actually have DSL service. The modem has both a DSL and coax input.
@@TVJAY A combo DSL/cable modem? That's unusual.
@@brianleeper5737 actually it may be a cable TV output. I can't remember now.
@@TVJAY It might be a MOCA output for set top boxes that support MOCA (ip over coax).
Cool tour!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it
Could you please explain the dummy load antenna? Thanks
The dummy load acts like an antenna to the transmitter but doesn't allow the signal to radiate out to the whole world. This is great for testing a transmitter without actually broadcasting the signal. There are certain things you can't do to a transmitter without an antenna hooked up.
@@TVJAY Okay. Thankyou. Assuming then that all transmitters regardless of AM or FM and power output utilize dummy loads for tuning or maintenance (?)
@@steveferguson698 yes. TV does as well.
Very cool
Thanks for watching
How often do you get to the transmitter site? You also have a set of monitoring gear (mod monitors, etc) at the studio?
I visit once a month. We don't have monitoring at the studio. Being a college radio station, it isn't staffed all the time and we don't have a very big budget.
Hello. I have a question please. One of the local FM stations here in Tampa is run out of the University, and I notice the radiators are placed halfway up the antenna. Why not mount them at the top? Thank you.
It really depends and could be one of the following....
1) The top of the tower is already used for something else.
2) They are renting the space and the higher up you go, the more it cost.
3) The tower was rebuilt and the license could not be modified.
4) The license was moved and based on the equipment the station owned that is the what made the most sense.
5) The coverage area isn't that big so they did not need to go all the way up to get the coverage they were allocated.
It's really interesting how all this equipment survives on a tiny place like that, against the moisture, storms, dust...see how it would be easy to vandalism ! 🤔. I think these sites need more protection and care.
I agree.
He failed to mention the tower light switching and monitoring equipment. Ron W4BIN
I really should do another video with more details.
@@TVJAY
A update video would be good as it's 2 years.. with a healthy amount of views...
also covering what changes and why the tube for the aerial..
Palo firewall, nice!
I can't access it so I have no idea if they are nice or not but it does work, that I know!
Nice work
Thank you
Nice set up onmia one a good processor in time you might get a onmia 9
We are very happy with what we have. We don't do a lot of processing since we play a variety of different formats
Interesting. So, I notice your using 88.3 fm, is that info correct? Also, I notice you mention 9500 mhz too. Could you dummy it up a bit for those less knowledgeable for people like me? Also, with what you mentioned about the split ac system barfing out heat due to it being winter. What? The station equipment doesn't barf out enough heat on it's own to make up that difference 😁?
88.3 MHz is the frequency we transmit on. This is what the listeners hear. 950 MHz is our link from the studio to the transmitter site since the studio is located several miles away from the transmitter site.
@TVJAY out of curiosity, your call sign and slogan isn't WVCR the Saint, and we play anything, is it? Because, 88.3 is what I often hear.🤔☺️
@@morganrussman no. There are A LOT of 88.3 stations in the US. Most only cover an area 30 or 40 miles wide.
@@TVJAY ok, I was just curious.
Okay my question if the transmitter is in that shed how does the actual dj and radio host stream live,from where ever the dj and radio host is?
We send the audio over a STL (Studio Transmitter Link) which is a wireless signal that goes from our studio on campus to the transmitter site.
We could also send it over the Internet, if we wanted to.
What is the way to measure the mod? Is it a test tone you have to use?
No, the units measure modulation regardless of what content is on the air.
How does the signal GET from the studio to the transmitter sight???? Is that what the dish is for?
Not the satellite dish, if that is what you were referring to. We use a 950 MHz digital microwave to get the signal from the studio to the transmitter site. You can see the dish for that when you look up the tower. It is a circular antenna about 3/4 of the way up the tower on the right side.
@@TVJAY Thank you for the response. Always wanted to know how the transmitter got its signal....
tremenda estación amigo en que país es?
USA
What does that big satellite dish do??
Nothing anymore but it used to receive programming for the previous station that was located at this site.
@@TVJAY
Solid dishes this size with a microphone capsule placed at the reflected focal point make unbelievably good long range listening device..
I have a small satellite dish for recording birdsong.. they've just started doing the morning chorus as it's spring.. so I will have a play, also had thought of doing stereo.
Thinking about it the mesh might have an advantage in tone but wind might be an issue.
@@mySeaPrince_that is very interesting
@@TVJAY
You just secure the microphone capsule front point at exactly the same point as the satellite sensor was inside the plastic housing.. the dish focal point.. the more accurate the better but appropriately does work. You can also make a small soft foam rap around the capsule to reduce wind noise and with a small dish make a tube going about a foot forward of the capsule (this eliminates sounds from the sides) lined inside with sound absorbing foam or a fluffy towel. You can also cover the outside to help dampen external sources.
How do know what size or what kind of transmitter we need to get.
Our FCC license tells us the amount of power we are allowed to output.
@@TVJAY where would I find this info, needed direction.
We are just starting to look into FM station for Christian radio and church broadcasting.
Any direction would be most helpful, everything has to legal.
@@timothymatthews-s2b if you are trying to launch a new radio station then your most likely option is low-power FM, which would be less than 100 watts. The other option is to buy a radio station and within the station license it will say TPO or transmitter power output.
@@timothymatthews-s2b
Have you thought of doing a TH-cam channel as well?
Is it digital 0:49
No, it is analog.
how many amps is the electric service?
100 amps at 240V
Please more about this
I hope to soon.
not bad, i wouldn't mind that tower for my ham repeaters lol.
A lot of radio stations have repeaters on them. Good and easy income for the tower owners
Wow! Thank u for the tour. What is the range or coverage of this setup?
It covers all or parts of 7 different counties.
Great tour! And, btw, I can see you have a big problem with bugs and spiders 'cause you have a ready Raid sprey at hand... 😉
Thanks for sharing,
*Cheers!*
I am glad you enjoyed the video. Bugs and spiders can be a problem at this site.
@@TVJAY Yeah, I know. They can be a problem in any electronic apparatus...
Cheers!
Which country is this Fm transmitter located ?
USA
The air filter on the transmitter sure needs cleaning or replacing. I'm surprised the air flow interlock isn't tripping.
It was replaced after this video was taken.
Can you turn the transmitter off?
Yes. I can.
cool stuff! always wanted to see what makes one of them thar radio towers do the waves! :)
I hope to do a TV station one at some point in the future
And can u turn that tower to be HD radio?
We could upgrade to HD but that would require some investment and currently there is no plan for that.
Ok
Thanks
Your welcome
Cool. Something about a radio transmission site for FM.
I can't wait to show you guys a TV transmitter site...hopefully sometime soon.
What city does this station serve ? And what frequency is it on ?
We are on 88.3. I don't want to say where this is.
They used to have a C-band feed, I am guessing either NPR or they actually had a lease on a C-band frequency and an uplink at their studio
This site was previously a commercial station so it was used for some form of syndicated programming.
Curious about the current state of the art in transmitters- I would guess this is solid state? I do way different electronics now- not sure of the state of the art for broadcast transmitters. I will try and check out other videos to see if you get into this.
In the 80's I volunteered in the engineering department of our university station- that was a tube transmitter, fed by a BE exciter. Moved to another university station (volunteer CE there for nearly 10 years FWIW), and our transmitter was just a BE exciter at 10W.
Yeah, the transmitter is solid state. In fact, I don't know if you can even buy a tube transmitter anymore.
Old tube transmitters were great. Particularly AM transmitters were fun to be around.. Now they are small and reliable and don't use up tubes. I miss the old tube transmitters but I see why people go to solid state.
Sad to see the orban not in use 😢
Yeah but the new gear sounds a lot better. I think the Orban had something die inside because it did not sound good.
How far does a 4000 Kw transmitter reach
Our coverage pattern is no a perfect circle but it covers area about 28 miles wide by 21 miles tall or roughly 588 square miles. Also, the transmitter only ouputs 2000 watts (2 kw) but the antenna adds gain so the signal has a "effective radiated power" of around 4 kw.
1:25 lol why ?
Most FM and/or TV towers are 500 feet or more tall. This tower is only around 300 feet tall.
Great tour! Does the transmitter run on 110V AC? Or something beefier?
220V AC
Is the station digital
No
Is the optimod for sale
Wasn't planning on selling but if you have an offer, I would be interested.
Can you please make more content like this
Yes, what would you like to see? Anything in particular?
Where is that
For security reasons, I am not going to say.
Should do a video tour of KJOY 98.3 radio tower
I don't have access to that site
Actually. that IS a very small base for a 100 meter tower - but being a guyed tower helps a lot.
Yeah, I thought the same thing.
And what’s the amount of watts?
Transmitter output is 2000W
What does the nitrogen do?
It keeps moisture out of the transmission line.
Wao, luarbiasa... Itu keluar berapa what powernya?
Pemancar menghasilkan 2000 watt
Luar biasa. Bisa menjangkau brp kota pak?
@@linggajayafarm9265 Kami menjangkau banyak kota kecil sehingga sulit untuk benar-benar dihitung tetapi kami mencakup populasi sekitar 100.000.
Mantab. Luar biasa... Terus semangat.... 👍👍👍
Kalo di daerah saya pemancar fm keluar 200 whatt sudah luar biasa....
Great OPTIMOD 8200 !
We don't actually use that anymore but keep it around, just in case.