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Post by jimhenry2000 on May 15, 2017 23:22:19 GMT
I've been especially interested in Bonding and Grounding for quite a long time. Even more so after a lightning strike to one of our towers took out a million dollar carrier grade ATM switch, a Nortel Passport 15k, about 12 years ago. I am not exaggerating, these switches were literally $1M. I remember that just (1) 12 port DS-3 blade for it cost $160k. In that case it was not our fault, the facility and everything in it were properly grounded. One day, a tech from a paging company who co-lo'd in our facility who had access, came in and removed their transmitter. Unfortunately he did not remove the antenna from our 300 foot tower. When he was done he, inadvertently I assume, left the antenna cable lead laying on top of our switch. The facility was un-manned so no one noticed until the tower took a hit and literally blew up our switch. We found out when much of our network in Delaware went down. It was a long night. Anyway I think some folks might like this book: www.arrl.org/shop/Grounding-and-Bonding-for-the-Radio-Amateur/Additionally you might search out "Mike Holt" on YouTube. This guy is fantastic! Perhaps I'm too much of a nerd but I have spent hours and hours watching his videos while enjoying a cigar and a Bourbon!
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Post by Boomer on May 16, 2017 7:54:28 GMT
It is lightning season, the early Summer months especially, and a radio friend had the final transistors get fried in his commercial AM radio station's transmitter by lightning strike, and it happened less than a year ago too, twice in a year I think. Another FM around here went down due to storms last week too, and they just got it fixed.
I've been thinking about the issue myself, I'm near the top of a hill, but not at the real top, and have had very little lightning in the yard or on the power grid, but once in a while tree limbs have have been blown off by lightning strikes in the yard. It's made me think about some kind of some kind of STL with no direct connection to the studio, since it's better to be safe. I've thought of a wi-fi stream and FM feed, but maybe a simple fiber optic system would be worth looking into.
I might just want to disconnect my system during storms.. There are interesting ideas being thought of now in Part-015, such as a horizontal ground that's raised up in the air and horizontal. It seems great, but I wonder how the ground would work there, maybe at the exact center of the ground radials?
Boomer
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2017 19:33:45 GMT
5 Stars for Mike Holt Videos
I was drawn in to watching 3 of the Mike Holt grounding videos and they are packed with good information.
Caution - Avoid drinking bourbon while messing with electricity!
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Post by End80 on May 16, 2017 22:33:10 GMT
....It's made me think about some kind of some kind of STL with no direct connection to the studio, since it's better to be safe. I've thought of a wi-fi stream and FM feed, but maybe a simple fiber optic system would be worth looking into... I've mentioned this before, but I had good experimentation using one of the older Roku units as a STL utilizing the Shoutcast channel.. Those little boxes work off wifi and maintain better connection than my laptop. New there only about $40 I think and you can probably pick up a used one for even less (the model I used had rca outputs) they're powered by 5 volts so with a stepdown you could easily run your transmitter and the roku off a 12v battery and a solar panel without problem. No direct connection to the studio whatsoever. Just something to consider.
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Post by jimhenry2000 on May 17, 2017 1:22:24 GMT
The ROKU idea has caught my interest, especially since I have a second, unused ROKU I brought back from my Michigan home which I sold when I retired last October. It goes on the To Do list, though not at the top yet!....It's made me think about some kind of some kind of STL with no direct connection to the studio, since it's better to be safe. I've thought of a wi-fi stream and FM feed, but maybe a simple fiber optic system would be worth looking into... I've mentioned this before, but I had good experimentation using one of the older Roku units as a STL utilizing the Shoutcast channel.. Those little boxes work off wifi and maintain better connection than my laptop. New there only about $40 I think and you can probably pick up a used one for even less (the model I used had rca outputs) they're powered by 5 volts so with a stepdown you could easily run your transmitter and the roku off a 12v battery and a solar panel without problem. No direct connection to the studio whatsoever. Just something to consider.
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Post by Boomer on May 18, 2017 3:53:35 GMT
Thanks End80, no problem mentioning things over again many times on boards like this, there are always new readers coming by, and the posts are constantly getting buried farther down.
I didn't use a Roku box, but have an older wireless Linksys media server box, it runs a streaming server on the playback PC, through your router's wi-fi, to the Linksys pickup box at the other end, which outputs stereo audio. The receiver is 12 volts I think.
It works to a point, but some part of the system is subject to dropouts, working fine to the point where you feel you can walk away and trust it, then suddenly you monitor and there's no audio, and it hasn't reconnected. The box has a wired connection too, but that defeats the whole purpose.
We'll figure this out..
Boomer
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Post by End80 on May 18, 2017 4:13:17 GMT
I really didn't realize I had mentioned many times over and over again.. or if I had already said it here or part 15, or at hb.. I did know I mentioned more than once though..
I really didn't realize I had mentioned many times over and over again.. or if I had already said it here or part 15, or at hb.. I did know I mentioned more than once though..
Wait.. no, I already said that.
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