Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Update on WRNO shortwave service

Thanks to Ron Howard for the latest update from WRNO in New Orleans.
Gayle VH


Email from Larry Thom (Chief Engineer WRNO) at 1700 UTC, Oct 21, 2008:

We are currently off the air but should be back on soon. Elcor (transmitter manafacturer) is making modifications to the oscillatorsections to give it more stability. Additionally, we are awaiting delievery of a Vacuum Variable Capacitor for final RF power output section of the transmitter. The transmitter was furnished with Jennings Glass type vacuum variables. We changed out all but two for the ceramic type before going on the air as they are more durable to high voltage arching, etc. which are encountered by all high power shortwave stations from time to time. Just the nature of the beast!

As luck would have it the one that wasn't replaced caused us a problem on 7.505 Mhz. At this point we are just working out the bugs that come along with the installation of a new transmitter, but having said that, we hope this will take care of most of the issues at hand and cause us less down time in the future.
Thanks, Larry
(Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA)