Every quarter, one of our local Chevy dealers runs 30-second spots that are silent...black background with supers that slowly fade in and out. They get my attention!

Oh boy...when did this happen?

Not having a backup STL option is...wow. We heard a horror story of a station that didn't have a backup encoder and spent (I think) 4 days off the air. We still have our original Flexicoder and a NetVX still around for doomsday duty, and two matching Selenios as our main and backup encoders. What's ...

I've only had one Z PA failure, and I didn't fix it myself because I didn't have the time, but Paul Thurst's broadcast engineering blog has details on swapping Z PA FETs. I don't believe he had to align anything. One thing to be mindful of is the age of the transmitter. Harris changed the FET suppli...

I'm working on an AM-1A with a similar problem...symptom was high reflected power, even when running into a good dummy load. I was advised to first try the balance adjustment procedure on the Directional Coupler replacement manual (you can download it from the BE website). That got the reflected pow...

I have a RF client that is still running a version that predates me... Probably early 90's in what looks like DOS. I have never had to touch it since a guy at the station is intimately familiar with it and keeps it limping along. One of my clients has two DOS Smartcaster chassis sitting in the base...

Deep Thought wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:21 pm

http://www.smartsbroadcast.com/manuals.htm

Dang it...you're quick on the draw.

http://smartsbroadcast.com/library/ Here you'll find manuals for the current Skylla product and the older Smartcaster 2002 product that merged the DOS Smartcaster program with On Air Digital's RS-HD Linux-based audio playout...the Smartcaster software runs in a DOS emulation window within Linux. If...

Yup, they are only doing 608 apparently. This started on May 13th with Fallon. Commercials come though with 708. I have my encoders set to translate 608 to 708 when 708 is missing, so that explains why I still have CC on my Volicon recordings. I just found out NBC has moved network master control t...

Make it three thumbs-up for Compusat. It works, and it controls a lot more than receivers. It costs, but if you have to automate receiver switching, dish moves, recordings, etc...this is the way to go.

I spot-checked our Volicon and all looks good.

We finally had a chance to test this end-to-end today, and it worked! Thanks again NECRAT!

Thanks for all of the great replies everyone! I actually have a new question regarding Namedropper. This is the box that just wont stop! After all of the drama with getting the triggers to receive properly, I now have an issue with LTC. When we set it up initially, we just set the time manually unt...

Always a good idea to check for loose connections on the regular. It'll also save your ATU components and avoid downtime... The input and output connections on the SX PA boards are also good places to check for tightness. The output side of the SX1 I care for burned off at the lug and I had to do s...

Loose bolts are one thing, but a guy should never have loose nuts. Ouch! That's part of our routine with our Harris Platinum SS TV transmitter...check all of the DC bus connections for tightness. Lotta current to arc-weld with if it got loose. That, and cleaning, are about all we do for maintenance...