[KFCF Friends] KFCF transmitter problems

[subs at mail.kfcf.org]

1/5/05
Greetings from KFCF!

It has been quite an eventful day. I woke up this morning and noticed that
KFCF was off the air. After determining that other stations in the same
building were also off the air, I called PG&E to report it and get an
estimate of when power would be restored. PG&E couldn't find our account by
address and they had changed the way they have account numbers so the list
of account numbers I had at home was out of date. Finally got the right info
and found out that PG&E still had us listed under the old street name that
had been changed 15 years ago. They said power would be back on about 9 AM.

We still had the issue of why the station wasn't on the air with the
generator. I contacted one of the other station's engineers and he said he
was on his way to the mountaintop. When he got up there (with 2 feet of
snow) he found the generator running "funny" and measured the voltage and
found it was putting out 300 volts rather than 110. The transmitter building
also smelled like something had fried. PG&E came back on and the KFCF rack
of equipment was dark. 

As we readied some people to go to the transmitter site he called and said
that there were some fried fuses in the KFCF transmitter/amplifier but the
"exciter" was still working and he could plug that into the antenna and
bring the transmitter down the hill. So he did, and KFCF is back with the
"exciter" output of 20 watts. With gain from the antenna, we've probably got
about 50 watts. Normally KFCF does 1000 watts and the antenna gain brings it
up to 2400 watts.  Driving around Fresno, I'm amazed how well only 50 watts
does. Some people in the south valley or inside buildings will have problems
because the signal is not as strong.

Then after we got the transmitter on the workbench we realized the manual
for it was still sitting in the equipment rack at Meadow Lakes.  Luckily
FFCF/KFCF board member Leni Reeves lives fairly close to the transmitter and
was able to hike thru the snow and recover it tonight and is sending it down
the hill tomorrow AM with someone who works in Fresno. Thanks to Leni and
our courier Mrs. Kilpatrick.

So tomorrow we can replace the melted fuse holders, the fuses and then
determine how much other damage the transmitter has. If we're lucky, the
fuses gave up their lives and saved the other parts. Otherwise we will need
to do more extensive repairs. 
We'll have a better idea by tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for all your concerned calls. And I need to head home and get some
sleep.

Rych Withers
KFCF
Fresno Free College Foundation , President

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