Weather Protection

Feb 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Chriss Scherer, editor

Tech Tips, Feb 2010

Robert Dominguez, general manager of the Guadalupe Radio Network of West Texas, shared his solution for some weather protection. He explains that some work had been done to a station’s AM transmission lines, including new spark gaps. Just as the finishing touches were put on the gaps, he noticed that storm clouds were moving in. The station engineer suggested covering the spark gap in some way to protect it from being shorted by the heavy rain.

Time was short, and ideas were few, but Dominguez visited a few hardware stores for ideas. He wanted something inexpensive, but it had to stand up to the rain without presenting any electronic influence to the transmission system. He looked in several places but found nothing until he was about to leave the store. That’s when he noticed some small accessory bins on sale for 99 cents. Dominguez bought two and returned to the transmitter site.

He cut holes for the wires to pass through and mounted the bin to the wall. Dominguez notes that even during the recent highest wind day on record the cover stayed in place. Seems like a good investment for 99 cents.

We need your tips!

Ideas submitted to Tech Tips may be suitable to earn SBE recertification credits.

Do you have a tech tip? Send it to us at [email protected]