Losing Sanity
Like I've said before, if I'm not writing much, then I'm just busy. Actually, I've been more than busy...
Last Friday even was yet another late finish as I found myself helping to write another advert, and preparing the racks for the TX install on Saturday. I'd spent the day monitoring the station's internet connections, which had been rather unstable over the last few weeks.
The TX install wasn't a smooth one. We re-wired the main output lines to have XLRs on the end, so the output is now fully balanced, then putting the TX into a dummy load, we fed it a 1kHz test tone. The only problem was... the deviation was wondering all over the place. The output level was going up and down as it pleased. I suspected it might be a dodgy cable, but after testing the cable, it appeared ok. This theory (and proving that the mixer was ok) was backed up by the input into the compressor being constant. Maybe it was an effect of all the harmonic filtering and the circulator that have to be used on the transmitter? We wound up the power, and let it run for a while, and it seemed to stabilise, but maybe we'll never know what was wrong with it.
While I was there, I installed a new rack mounted tuner (which we picked up for a tenner) and replaced the amp for something smaller. The DA, PA, and compressor still hadn't turned up.
Andy and I did some shopping, and we bought, and bult, a set of selves to sit all the monitors, etc, on next to the rack. Went home fairly early for a change, and got round to fitting some new lights in the lounge.
I took Sunday off from the radio station, opting to go shopping with my parents, and have a drink or two. Andy and Duncan used the day to redecorate the kitchen area of the studio.
I spent Monday evening wiring up the off air return and second guest headphone lines from the new rack mounted tuner.
We decided to close the office on Tuesday, and had re-arranged all the presenter's bookings around it... except we forgot about Carl, who had booked a slot on Sunday. Do'nt know how we forogt his booking, but I had a phone call from him while I was on my way to the 2E0 course in Lincoln. Not an awful lot I could do about that. Spent some time after the 2E0 course chatting to Barry G4DBS over a coffee at the Pyewipe.
Yesterday morning, I phoned Carl to explain what has been going on at the station, and to offer an apology for screwing things up, and not being able to give a detailed account of why we shut the office at the time (it was Andy's mother's funeral, and none of us really fancied manning the office). By yesterday evening, after my usual session at Radio Witham, I visited the studio to find the DA, PA, and SCOM processor all waiting to be installed. I racked them up, and powered them up to smoke test them, but once again, I'm down to just 12 inches of solder, and it was 00:30, so I though better of doing any serious wiring or configuration.
I've just noticed that the high quality stream has regained some of its stability, and didn't even drop connection once during Tuesday. Maybe things are looking up?
Last Friday even was yet another late finish as I found myself helping to write another advert, and preparing the racks for the TX install on Saturday. I'd spent the day monitoring the station's internet connections, which had been rather unstable over the last few weeks.
The TX install wasn't a smooth one. We re-wired the main output lines to have XLRs on the end, so the output is now fully balanced, then putting the TX into a dummy load, we fed it a 1kHz test tone. The only problem was... the deviation was wondering all over the place. The output level was going up and down as it pleased. I suspected it might be a dodgy cable, but after testing the cable, it appeared ok. This theory (and proving that the mixer was ok) was backed up by the input into the compressor being constant. Maybe it was an effect of all the harmonic filtering and the circulator that have to be used on the transmitter? We wound up the power, and let it run for a while, and it seemed to stabilise, but maybe we'll never know what was wrong with it.
While I was there, I installed a new rack mounted tuner (which we picked up for a tenner) and replaced the amp for something smaller. The DA, PA, and compressor still hadn't turned up.
Andy and I did some shopping, and we bought, and bult, a set of selves to sit all the monitors, etc, on next to the rack. Went home fairly early for a change, and got round to fitting some new lights in the lounge.
I took Sunday off from the radio station, opting to go shopping with my parents, and have a drink or two. Andy and Duncan used the day to redecorate the kitchen area of the studio.
I spent Monday evening wiring up the off air return and second guest headphone lines from the new rack mounted tuner.
We decided to close the office on Tuesday, and had re-arranged all the presenter's bookings around it... except we forgot about Carl, who had booked a slot on Sunday. Do'nt know how we forogt his booking, but I had a phone call from him while I was on my way to the 2E0 course in Lincoln. Not an awful lot I could do about that. Spent some time after the 2E0 course chatting to Barry G4DBS over a coffee at the Pyewipe.
Yesterday morning, I phoned Carl to explain what has been going on at the station, and to offer an apology for screwing things up, and not being able to give a detailed account of why we shut the office at the time (it was Andy's mother's funeral, and none of us really fancied manning the office). By yesterday evening, after my usual session at Radio Witham, I visited the studio to find the DA, PA, and SCOM processor all waiting to be installed. I racked them up, and powered them up to smoke test them, but once again, I'm down to just 12 inches of solder, and it was 00:30, so I though better of doing any serious wiring or configuration.
I've just noticed that the high quality stream has regained some of its stability, and didn't even drop connection once during Tuesday. Maybe things are looking up?
posted by Steve Caddy | 00:34
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