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Nice setup!
Hey, what a neat setup. Tell me, what broadcast software are you using?
That's a very nice studio.
Great stuff, or as the Rolling Stones would say "Hot Stuff" (A funky song on my playlist before).
Sad, though, that LPB is out of business, they made such great hardware, transmitters and tuners, considered expensive in its day, it was the Cadillac of low power commercial AM transmitters I'm sure. With good product it's strange how they're not in business now.
The great transmitters that they built are now orphans, and need a qualified tech to service them when they do break.
Thanks for taking the time to blog your station in pictures like that, many stations would be more concerned about their on air presentation than their nuts and bolts, which seems to be true in the long history of radio facilities, a "for the moment" rather than an archive and historical approach.
Lookin good!
It is a great setup, better appointed than some AM stations I've seen. It can get very crude on smaller AMs, especially local channels, 1490, etc., or small daytimers that had been around for decades and billed great, but their best times are behind them, faded glory.
I've seen wires twisted and out in the open, unsoldered connections, laminated in clear tape with the station's main audio running on them, and the processor broke? Just bypass it, and use bell wire.
There are many pressures on a commercial AM that isn't doing well, but here the hobbyist has a simple setup in one room, and no towers or phasing to worry about, it becomes a labor of passion and love instead.
It does lead to the idea that big station rules should be restructured - I believe fully gutted and start with new much less cumbersome and especially less costly standards from the ground up - so there's much less burdon on stations, then they can put more effort where it belongs, entertaining and informing an audience.
I don't want to throw your thread off, just to point out that hobbyists have certain advantages, being able to do this within budget and of our own free will.
One issue with LPB transmitters is how they use a throwback technology, and are not very efficient, power-wise. It's low level modulation, with a big amplifier at the output, and the AM-30 for example, takes 150 watts AC draw to put out 30 watts of carrier.
Now I'd like to keep my stations costs proportioned to their impact on the community, so with a lot of listeners all day and providing real service, 150 watts might be worth it, or it might be good for special broadcasts, but I wouldn't like it for constant operation.
Shcools and theaters can do it, they have the backing, but I think what LPB technology really needs is an upgrade to the modern day. Most big stations today now use "class D" circuits, for much greater efficiency, around 80 percent compared to LPB's 20 percent.
The plus side to LPB, their circuits are simple, built like a linebacker and easy to adjust.
i use a "Fox" solid state transmitter employing DDS synthesis and more than likely class D efficiency. it's all solid state. i will be upgrading to one of those greek cquams in the future at some point. working on paying off the optimod stereo am processor before i work on going cquam. my electric bill for the whole apartment tops $600.00 in the summer time but we have a two tier rate system here in colorado so in the summer when that AC is going we hit that second tier and the rates double.
i have once again updated the statation and updated the pictures.
the link is still valid only pictures are updated