I do agree at even 7 watts hum could be an issue with the antenna in thet close proximity.
That said, we used this same exact unit for football broadcasts that were too far out of town for the main signal to reach. It would cover the stadium and not much more, hum was sometimes an issue if the audio cables weren't placed right. The track pad on the laptop would not work at all, some USB touch devices would have issues as well. However these weren't a problem for football.
TheLegacy: I am very familiar with WPRK having been in the studio. They run 1300 watts not 72 and they operate on 91.5. The signal covers most of Orlando.
Sorry the call was WRPK messed up!!
WRPK never used their license and they had it since November of Last Year. I called that station to see when or if they would ever go on the air on 100.1 FM as I said at the time I used the 7 Watt CZE-7C (Same as the picture in Rock 104 williamson, WV. The person who owned the station told me again he had a 72 Watt transmitter and he fired it up after his license was granted and only got 1/4 mile at best.
The community that helped spend money on the Radio Station was not happy and lost interest. I even told them I'd be DJ and run an Album Rock program as his station would have hit Deltaville if he got the antenna in a better place. He said he may check with a land owner and see if he could move his antenna to that area. So far crickets from that station.
It only took from Saturday the day I fired it back on air after 3 months of crickets from me and by Tuesday in the middle of a live show Knock Knock Knock, I open the door...What's up?...FCC badge flashed and the rest is history.
The moral of the story for the new comers is this These transmitters are illegal, cause interference and now the FCC is more than sick of the same old scenario. And some folks want to act out and if they do they will end up the loser in the end. Play by the rules, FORGET FM, use part 15 AM in a good location and you'll be happy, your neighbors and public safety officers will be happy too and all is well.
Who is Pamela Lee? What picture?
If he only got 1/4 mile something is seriously amiss. We run an ERP of 85 watts and our 60 dBuV contour is very close to the predicted from the FCC.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WLSL-FL
Their broadcast engineer was in Richmond and the owner said that the engineer had health issues. I'd think somewhere if necessary they could find another engineer.
What really didn't make sense is the person on the other end of the phone mentioned that they put the antenna on top of a flagpole in front of the studio. That would have been what maybe 10 Ft up? I'd had thought that an engineer would have known not to have the antenna too close to trees. Maybe since the engineer had health issues and the owner didn't know if the engineer would ever be able to get them on air the owner may have taken upon himself to just connect up the antenna and fire away.
If the SWR was not matched properly I could see that or if somehow the final transistor was blown on the transmitter. If that was the case about a few mW's may have been all they got coming from the main exciter before the final amp.
In any case they should make some attempt to get on air.