Ah, the Mundane.

Analog transmitter operating on the air


Several weeks into the new tower on line and I am finally starting to get into the groove of routine and mundane. I know that sounds like life has gotten boring and all, but not really. I loved doing this project, but it was time for it to come to a close. The mad rushes to make deadlines and such are over and I am NOT missing that. My days are now completing and tying up the loose ends, something that will be going on for months, and that is not bad, that is the way it is.

The details are always the longest items to finish up, but are important. Something else that is important is getting out of work on time for a change. The wife is loving that. After being a construction widow for 10 months, she is glad to see me coming in at decent hours and not thinking about what else needs to be done. (Well I still think about it even if I don't say anything.)

Equipment racks in the analog transmitter room being installed in March

With a new facility you always have little problems that drive you up a wall. They take time away from other things that I should (and want to) be doing, that Ross the Boss expects me to be doing as well. The HVAC has been one of those.

After several weeks of the temperature oscillating up and down in the analog transmitter room and the mechanical and software people out several times, it looks like an economizer module is either not turning on quick enough or not shutting off fast enough or coming on when it isn't suppose to. The engineers at the HVAC company get to figure that one out with the HVAC manufacturer.

Another real puzzler is a video issue on the analog side that isn't a break up, but like someone is turning the brightness level up and down. I am hoping it is just a receiver issue but since it only happens at 7:30 in the morning on certain mornings of heavy fog, it could be a microwave path issue, or it could be a transmitter issue that the early morning moisture is somehow getting into the transmitter building. The backup microwave path doesn't seem to be effected so the microwave path doesn't seem to be the issue since both frequencies use the same transmit and receive antennas. Of course as long as there is no fog, all seems to work well. Strange.

These issues will be resolved, and they usually are small things that really throw the cogs out of whack, but these are the real posers of the biz and I guess why I like this type of work so much. It is always a mystery. Ah, the mundane!! I LOVE IT!