[BC] Gates 20B

[George Nicholas]

Imagine having to try to tune one in the days before spectrum analyzers.
There is a 20B still in backup service in Waterloo, IA.  It's been reduced
to 10K operation, but frankly, it still works.  Yes, 4-400's for FM are a
bit scary.  I recall when I was Asst. CE there for a short time in 1983, we
had to change the IPA tubes.  Fired it back up with a heck of a spur on
101.9 (another local frequency).  We were supposed to be on 105.7.  We were
careful to leave every connection as it was before, but apparently the
inter-electrode capacitance got us.

Or Elvis.

gn

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Holderfield" <mholderfield at sw.rr.com>
To: "Broadcast Radio Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 2:35 AM
Subject: Re: [BC] Gates 20B


>
> Oh Yes. Although as a back-up to an FM-25K that replaced it
> as the main. I nursed it along until 1985 when I put it back
> in service as the main for about a week. I was moving the 25K
> to a new tower site at the time. Fingers crossed the whole time!
> It played all week though.
> Later that year I de-commissioned it. The driver cabinet had gone
> bonkers and I just didn't want to fool with it any longer.
> The driver cab & driver ipa was a real b*tch as anyone who has dealt
> with one knows. Oscillation city! For that matter, the entire TX
> was very touchy. When you got it to run...leave it alone!
> My predecessor, Oscar Lanmon, told a funny story about
> the 20B. He was having problems he couldn't get a handle
> on and called in a Harris field engineer.
> The Harris tech told him the transmitter was just not designed
> to operate on his frequency (99.7 MHz)!
> Oscar swore he was serious about this statement.
> I believe the problem turned out to be some door knob
> caps in the (2)4CX10,000 cavity.
> Looking back at the old maintenance logs, lots of problems
> with that TX. I didn't have too many as I only ran it
> once a week on the dummy. At 15 KW though.
> Full power would often invite a trip of the big
> main breaker in the bottom of the right cabinet.
> BTW..There was also a BC-5B when I arrived there.
> Nice big walk-in TX. It was also a backup to a MW-5A.
>
> mike
>
> I
>
>
>
> >From: "Dave Hultsman" <reader at oldradio.com>
>
>
> > Mike did you ever work on the Gates 20B in Dothan?
> >
> > Dave
>
>
>
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