[BC] Engineering Advice

[dynotherm at earthlink.net]

What is really amazing is that some are still making
the same "mistakes" they got away with 40 or 50 years 
ago.

Today, we know that good design practice solves
a lot of impedance and pattern bandwidth problems,
but still some try to design with closely spaced
or short towers, or BOTH, and phasors with half 
the parts they need for good control of the array,
BECAUSE IT IS CHEAPER.

It is not that, as an industry, we don't KNOW how
to do AM, it is that good AM remains expensive, and
there are quite a few so-called "consultants" who
continue to cut corners and seem to think designing
an array that can be cheaply built proves their
expertise even though that "cheap" array will need
frequent, expensive attention just to keep it 
compliant.

The result is non-compliant, junk arrays continue to 
be built, put on the air cheap, and sold to the
unsuspecting who think since the station is new it
will not need maintenance when the fact is the need
for constant, expert maintenance was designed into
the array. 

It is not so much that new technology needs to be 
learned, as learning to USE the technology we have
had for the last 40 years.

Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD

-----Original Message-----
>From: Barry Mishkind <barry at oldradio.com>

>         As some have mentioned, there are always
>         new aspects of technology to be learned,
>         even in staid old AM.  Look at the MoM
>         initiative. Many of us are now looking at
>         a new way to do a DA.