Radio World Buyer’s Guide articles are intended to help readers understand why their colleagues chose particular products to solve various technical situations. This month’s articles focus on transmitters.
WSHR(FM) on Long Island in New York recently deployed a new 5 kilowatt transmitter manufactured by Ecreso, part of WorldCast Systems.
The noncommercial educational station is licensed to Sachem Public Schools in Lake Ronkonkoma and is operated largely by students. It takes a professional approach and broadcasts a CHR format.
Around 2020, Sachem began an RFQ process for a new 5 kilowatt transmitter. WSHR General Manager and Chief Broadcast Engineer Mark Laura said he wanted a transmitter that could operate in a somewhat harsh environment and offered good redundancy, preferably with a good built-in audio processor too.
“Our station is in a very competitive market and it’s a very important asset to our school district,” he said.
Laura had seen the Ecreso 10 kW FM transmitters at an NAB Show. “I liked the amplifiers’ clean, planar design and the hot-swappable components for easy maintenance. You could see the quality in the circuit design and the transmitter’s overall construction.”
He eventually settled on the Ecreso 5 kW Full Redundancy version for WSHR’s transmitter project, with dual exciters and extra power supplies to maximize uptime.
The transmitter was delivered before the new building was ready, and a replacement power input panel was shipped to accommodate the 208V three phase at the site (European 3 phase is 380V).
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WorldCast Systems’ Tony Peterle joined Mark Laura and his team in November 2021 to assist with the installation. They swapped out the power panel and connected it to the mains in about 40 minutes. Total installation time was about one hour.
Laura says the students, community residence, school administration and board members have noticed improved signal quality and coverage.
“We had a few storms and some fluctuation in power due to high winds but the transmitter handled everything like a champ,” he said. “I was very happy (and relieved) to see how well our Ecreso transmitter functioned.”
The transmitter is much more energy efficient than their old one, he said. Sachem may choose to test the Ecreso Smart FM technology for additional savings on power costs.
Laura also appreciates the built-in audio processing and RDS encoder, and said the embedded website makes it easy to control from his office on the other side of campus.
Contact channels for WorldCast Systems can be found on the company’s website.
