[BC] Re: Wind and STL Mutes

[gary]

Carl:

I have had the same issue with a Starlink and a Harris CD Link. Mine were 
factory one watt units. In both instances the receivers had the a bandpass 
brick inline. My experience with these dropouts spans a couple years and a 
couple of installations far removed from one another. One happened in 
Nashville, the other is happening here in Cleveland. Other people in my 
company have complained about the same problem. None of us has solved it 
yet. It always happens during higher than normal winds, but not necessarily 
winds in a damaging class, so you would think that points to a physical 
problem. In Nashville I had a tower guy climb, inspect, tighten, align, and 
even fabricate a brace for the 6' Mark grid dish. None of it helped and the 
dropouts persisted. Here in Cleveland it also happens during stronger than 
normal winds....but not always. It is infrequent and unpredictable, 
nevertheless it is annoying and problematic. Error counts happen even under 
no dropouts, so that avenue does not point to any particular alignment of 
the planets.

Some people have suggested it is a path issue....I have a hard time with 
that one because my path in both cases was very clear. One person suggested 
it was related to foliage in the FZ moving around.....there are no leaves on 
any trees here in Cleveland this February, so I have a hard time with that 
too. I am beginning to think it is related to a static discharge that 
happens when the wind charges the coax jacket. I suspect the discharge is 
small, but near the dish, so it creates enough spectral junk to scramble a 
few bits. I have not proved this at all, but I am lacking any other 
explanation and others who deal with this have not been any help either.

Since this is a recurring issue for more than just me and you...with the 
wind always being mentioned, I would love to hear from anyone else who has 
encountered and solved this problem. Then again, there is a chance that not 
one single explanation will cover all....

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Gary Zocolo
Cleveland

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl Fletcher" <carlf at radiooneindiana.com>

During a recent blizzard with high winds my STL (Mosely Starlink) for one of 
my FM's began muting.  This problem first reared its ugly head last March 
and after much discussing with Mosely a 10 watt PA was installed and the 
problem disappeared until last night   Carl
Radio One Communications