All that dead air is an unfortunate result of all the automated unattended stations these days. I know of some other Yankees radio network airers that have had similar problems when the board op (back when they thought it was important to have one) headed home during the post-game show but the end-o...

Another "stretch" of the ID requirements that seems to be prevalent in my state, is to have a news break at :15 and :45 and put the "legal" station ID there, even though they have a two-minute commercial break at the top of every hour, where they throw in a promo that mentions the station's slogan/p...

What's annoying is that you might be able to actually FIX the unit if you had a schematic. It could just be a simple interface IC or even a burnt trace hiding somewhere. One cluster where I've done some work has two remote ARC-16 units plus one control unit in the studio. Corporate forced them to go...

Can you select remote channels? Can you get remote status and analog inputs? The up/dn commands drive relays on the sub-panel. Could the common relay power be missing, such that the actual remote controls are being sent and received but the relays never do their thing? I wouldn't be surprised if the...

There ARE railroad tracks to the southeast of the site but they've been there since the days of steam engines. At one time (1970s and earlier) they had to detune all of the RR structures within about a mile, but I don't think that system is in place any more. Since the 60s, a major interstate croppe...

There are a couple of cables and connectors involved in the power meter circuit, one coming from the directional coupler sensor, one going to the meter switch. Removing and reinstalling those connectors might fix you up. I wouldn't be surprised if replacing fuses caused the cables to move slightly. ...

There are no active elements in the fwd/rfl power circuit. There's a directional sampler that outputs both forward and reflected power signals. These feed calibration pots, then the metering switch, then the meter. That's about it. Could be a connector issue, a dirty switch, an open pot, or somethin...

Thanks. I'm not sure when the reading was taken but it was within the last two weeks and around here sunset is at least 8pm EDT now. Chances are it was done mid-afternoon. The carrier could easily be dropped for 5 seconds to hear what, if anything is behind it. The 10kw station is pointed NNW so we ...

1kw directional station, one monitoring point is at one of two pattern nulls about 6 miles west of the TX. The expected signal strength is around 1.5mV/m range, yet it seems to be slowly wavering up and down by several mV/m. The station is within 0.1 Hz of its assigned carrier frequency. The meter a...

You might try soaking the keyfob in hot clean water for a while, agitating it a few times, then repeat several times, to dissolve any residual detergent that might be sitting under components and causing a low (under 10 megohms) resistance path. Follow this up with a wash of 91% or greater isopropyl...

Of two sites I go to regularly here in Southern New England, one is cooled to around 74F and relies on the tube TX to heat the room in the colder months. It's fairly well insulated but with no trees around the building it definitely bakes in the hot summer. The other site is cooled to around 70F, wh...

Thanks all. Yes, I too was expecting the power to be reduced during pauses, not increased. I suppose that since the modulation is reaching its peak about the same time the carrier level is being reduced, probably keeps the S/N at a decent level. It just initially seemed counter-intuitive. Luckily th...

While tuning around with my FIM-41, I ran across one 50kW IBOC station (supposedly all news) that showed an odd reading on my meter. During voice modulation, I got about 1.5 mV/m, however during pauses in modulation, the meter ROSE to over 2mV/m. I immediately thought this was odd and it reminded me...

I suppose the M2 is better than nothing, but its accuracy was far from what you'd need to assure FCC compliance. I wonder what the FCC uses, by the way, when they investigate overmodulation complaints? There was one pirate station in my town a few years ago that was running 40 kHz deviation on their...

I owned one of those units for a couple of months. The blue LEDs were bright enough to light up my entire house! Unfortunately even after a trip to the factory to be updated and calibrated, the unit still didn't perform up to my requirements and I refused to send it to them for another month. The qu...