[BC] Proving your worth

[Chris Boone]

That wont help with certain GM types...at my last station group, one of our
rimshot FMs took a lightning hit...the local "engineer", who was good at
changing the tube and sweeping the xmtr bldg out but not much else, called
me and asked me to come down and help....we got to the tower (which was a
mile from the Gulf of Mexico and 3 miles off a decent road...have to use a
SUV mounted on monster truck tires to get to it) and sure enough, the power
was tripped to the 816R. Pulled the tube out and cleaned the cavity...found
the plate blocker with a pin prick in it....so rewrapped the blocker trying
to keep the holes from lining up....got the new tube installed and put the
PA all back together....I decided to check the blower motors and make sure
they were ok....pulled the PA door off the back and noticed the pool of
ALUMINUM in the bottom of the cabinet....yep, the harmonic filter was melted
in several places...soooo much for the PA deck going back on...called CEC
and ordered one to be shipped via counter call on SW Airlines...BUT wanted
to get it back on if possible....looked around the clean bldg (too clean! :)
and found a piece of RG400 coax....but had a Type N on both ends and I
really didn't want to cut it...soo removed the outer section of the
connector and wrapped from braid around it, soldered it and then tacked
soldered a lug ring onto the center pin.
Was able to pull the bullet out of the top of the cabinet and set it on a
insulating block....then jammed the lug ring into the bullet and with a nut
and bolt, wired the braid to the outer conductor....and fed the IPA directly
to the antenna...at 600watts, it covered quite well (the spectrum analyzer
showed us to be clean thankfully!)..
Got home at 2am...(poor Max was waiting in the bedroom...would not move but
he needed to GO once I opened the back door!)...

Next day got to the office at 8am, package arrived at Hobby airport at 10,
down to the tower and replaced the filter and the plate blocker and then
trained the local guy on how to tune the xmtr for best efficiency (he had
never had that)....got that 816R humming and tuned up with little problem.
Left the site at 5am that morning...dropped the truck at the studio and went
home (a 22hr day this time) to sleep.

Max was happy to see me again :) Poor dog..I would have brought him with me
but the site had toooo many mosquitos!! At times you have to wear a face
mask to avoid CHOKING on them!

Think the GM cared??? HELL NO!!! Little snot nose twit never even said thank
you or anything...1 1/2 years later, I was waiting for a raise.....and when
I didn't get one, I left....(My blood pressure went from 160/100 back down
to 110/68 the next day :) And legally I should have gotten OT for the work
(as well as the local guy as well..but then none of the engineers at the
place at that time are there now....good riddance!)

Of course this place doesn't give raises...they run you off if they don't
think you are worth them keeping...and if you decide to leave early and they
want to keep you, THEN they offer you a raise....what a slave place....It
was the worse broadcast company I ever worked for.

Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net 
> [mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Cecile Gibson
> Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 8:45 AM
> To: broadcast at radiolists.net
> Subject: [BC] Proving your worth
> 
> At the Broadcasters General Store Midwest Expo, John Bisset 
> of Radio World's Workbench column did a presentation 
> discussing this subject.  A couple of his suggestions were to 
> attend all staff meetings, and to keep a daily log of your 
> activities, noting specificially when something you have done 
> has saved the company money, such as preventing loss of air 
> time.  Many GM's have no idea of the time involved driving to 
> the transmitter, or the value of regular maintenance at the 
> transmitter site.  They are not always aware of the middle of 
> the night calls.  By keeping a daily log, when it comes to 
> asking for a raise you can present to the GM just exactly 
> what you have been doing for him over the last year, the time 
> invovled, the money you have saved him, etc.