Today,
upon station reset a sad discovery was made.
The Crow’s main FM Transmitter, which has been serving us reliably and nearly without stop since 2009 has died.
Today,
upon station reset a sad discovery was made.
The Crow’s main FM Transmitter, which has been serving us reliably and nearly without stop since 2009 has died.
This is the same transmitter that put us back on the air after a lightening strike took us out of AM. The Same FM Transmitter that began “The Crow”, the same transmitter that stayed on, even though the power did not.
This very C Crane that immediately popped back on the air on correct frequency after an hour of power loss.
This C Crane had excellent coverage, better than most other C Cranes, and an excellent audio tolerance to match.
It shall be missed, and now I’m Stuck on AM.
C Crane FMT BYG006 August 6th 2009 – August 13th 2011
Stuck In AM
Well, nothing lasts forever. I’m sure one way or another there will be another C Crane in your future or something suitable.
Perhaps a “Save the CROW” fund drive.
Send to Hospital
Dear The Crow:
Maybe The Crane, who, after all, is ANOTHER SPECIES OF BIRD, will allow you to return your broken transmitter for surgery; perhaps they can get it air-borne again and maybe they can tell you what broke, which you could share with us.
Yes to the “Save The Crow Fund.”
ALSO, now you should think “backup transmitters.”
That Sucks!
damn, nothing does last forever do they, recently my ramsey trasmitter died on me back in june so and now i use carrier current operation. nothing does last forever usually you can find fm transmitters cheaper on ebay.
The Guilt
Oh No!
It just came into my thoughts that the C.Crane FM Transmitter might have been overwhelmed by its owner, The Crow, modulating from his appearance on The Low Power Hour.
Maybe the power isn’t low enough. Back into witness protection for us.
Can’t we just say it was the hot weather?
The C Crane and The Low Power Hour
By the way, Mr. Crow, you were great
on the Low Power Hour! And Carl, you did
another great job, too!
Mr. Crow, I’m very sorry that your C Crane transmitter
isn’t working. For whatever it’s worth – mine
is really beat up and the audio cable is intermittent.
But it is still running. Why I don’t know.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Losses and gains
I’m also sorry to hear about your loss.
FWIW I have a few questions:
1) Do you think the new Version 2 C Crane FM transmitter will work better (supposed to), or have they eliminated the potentiometer screw?
2) Did you use the ‘stock’ telescoping antenna?
I’m thinking about buying one for experimentation with directional dipole reflectors to replace the original telescopic one.
Re: Losses and gains
Well
1) I’m not sure on that one, I was under the Impression they had really just changed the led on the TX. Which is Green when all is good, and Red when it Over modulates. I heard that they might have made it harder to do the adjustment
2) No. I had Attached a much larger telescoping antenna intended for a remote controlled aircraft to the C Crane. This Antenna was designed for 49 mHz, but fell roughly between a 1/4 wave and a 1/2 wavelength for 99.9 mHz.
I saw the addition of a larger antenna as necessary to improve coverage and caused fewer drop-outs.
I’m under the impression that the field intensity of the Talking House might have played a roll in killing the Crane.
Static?
On another board there are numerous reports of FM transmitters (not the CCrane) being damaged by static discharge, especially to the antenna when someone touches it. Probably no way to know if this happened to yours but, in general, it may be good to avoid touching the antenna.
Sorry to hear of your problem.
Neil
Measured gain and other relationships
Hmmm … harder to adjust.
Were you able to determine how much gain the alternate antenna gave?
Why do you think the TH should have done anything to the C Crane? I don’t see how signals at these levels could do any damage, unless actual extended contact was made.
Here’s as good a spot as any, other than a new thread …
Tinkering with directional antennas is on my list of things to do with FM.
Not quite the same thing, but years ago when I was a mission pilot in the CAP, we had to find an ELT picked up by satellite. Location it showed was near RNO (Reno-Tahoe Int’l Airport. NV),
The signal was heard off Verdi Peak, but we found nothing with the electronic search from the air … it was a ghost. A previous airport search turned up nothing either.
In the end, the running ELT, probably set off by a rough landing, was actually found on the airport in a light aircraft parked inside a hangar with the OH roller door a bit open. The signal was escaping under it. It was so directional, it couldn’t be heard anywhere but in line with the door, but strong enough to bounce of mineral deposits in a mountain 10+ mi. away.
Re: Measured gain and other relationships
I imagine the gain on the alternate was pretty good. IT certainly increased the range to about 700+ feet. 1,000 feet in some spots.
I’m thinking since the TH had essentially an unbroken path right to the FM TX is what knocked it off. I recall the day I hooked up the Talking House it was overriding the audio on the Crane, and you could see the FM signal strength jumping all over the place.
I had it off for a while, and when I went to turn it on this past week, it just wouldn’t put out a signal anymore.
Studying the Schematic
Considering how plausible it is that power induced from the TH caused a “surge” into the antenna stage of the C.Crane, curiosity turned to the actual schematic, which shows the interesting path on the antenna side of the circuit. Look upper right…
http://scwis.home.comcast.net/~scwis/files/ccsch.pdf
Certainly…
Certainly reminds me I have limited ability to read that LOL!
From what I could tell, there doesn’t seem to be a direct path from audio line to antenna.
What Is Needed
What everybody needs is an amateur opinion from someone who doesn’t have a clue, and that would be me.
I would bet the audio ground path could be common with the antenna circuit components, and the ground in a device like this is probably up in high impedance, not the safer type of low impedance ground.
Did I say something good?
Changing the subject, what about a cold solder? Maybe we are jumping to conclusions about what happened?
Please don’t give up on this. It’s an interesting problem.
Whoa!
looks like we been through alot with transmitters dying (DAMN!) my am trasmitter died from the electricity electromagneticly surging from 2 landspout (non supercell)tornadoes. one in collinsville and one that started west of loy lake in denison, went into loy lake, traveled along the creek leading into in frontier village (all of the houses from rich grayson county history is preserved into that park im talking old houses from the in late 1800’s) some of the houses got damaged which is pain the rear if your working to restore to damaged houses which could fall with a single touch to it. went east of 75 along the creek (a right turner) and went into south denison, it nearly but missed my friend house by 50 Feet according to my friends mother! the loy lake landspout was an EF2 With winds at 105-110 miles an hour reaching 120 inside the funnel. sheer was 60 notts 50 outbound 40 inbound. holy mother of god even though it was skinny rope it was windy for sure!
the collinsville mostly hitting in fields and some houses in collinsville, ethel, and southmayd that was rated an EF1 with winds at 100 miles and hour
both contibuted to the electricity failing and my transmitter dying. what a day
Using a whip antenna
Using a whip antenna indoors..I seriously doubt static buildup caused your C-Crane demise. I also doubt that the TH caused the failure as well.
I have a Ramsey FM-100 (first model, not the B model) I purchased back in 97 in kit form and that thing is a tank. It has been serving my station since and continues to operate flawlessly. Even in the middle of severe lightning storms, the thing will bleep upon a power surge or outage and come right back on, and on frequency, when the AC power returns.
I would guess that it was just some random failure of a component. If it were mounted up on a pole outside, where static buildup has a greater chance of happening than indoors, then perhaps static could be blamed.
Question however….do you have carpet in your studio and do you get a zap every time you touch something metal..like the enclosures of your gear or a door knob?
Tip….pull up the carpet and put down a layer of chicken wire under the carpet..attach that to your station ground and that will kill static buildup when walking across the floor.
Or you could wear a grounding strap around the wrist attached to a long wire and bolted to station ground. Hang it at the door with a sign saying “Caution..static sensitive area…wear ground strap prior to entry”. :p
RFB