Fun at Mt. San Miguel

KUSI, KSWB Having Spring RF Troubles

By Gary Stigall
KFMB-TV
Chairman, Chapter 36
June 1, 1999

If you play with matches, sometimes you're going to get burnt. The guys at KUSI and KSWB squirt a LOT of UHF power up those big waveguides. And lately they've had some trouble doing so.

Last Monday afternoon, May 24, KSWB channel 69 went off the air after a massive arc at the antenna feedpoint. Chief Engineer John Weigand said that the Rexolite gas barrier window burned out. Western Technical Services helped clean out the carbon deposits and the station was able to operate at reduced power by Wednesday night. Friday they installed an emergency panel antenna in order to lower and clean the main antenna. The station has been plagued by similar problems before.

The troubles started for KUSI channel 51 when they moved to a new building, tower, and antenna. A troublesome feedpoint of the Dielectric antenna finally forced them to ask for a replacement.

Richard Large, Chief Engineer at KUSI said, "We are awaiting delivery of a new antenna from Dielectric. This is to replace the defective antenna with VSWR problems. They anticipate delivery in early July. Because of the vswr, we are only running the transmitter at 70% licensed power, anything high causes VSWR trips."

Richard says that once the new antenna is installed they will move the old tower to the new building to get it ready for DTV service. He adds, "The Comark transmitter is running fine."

Meanwhile, KPBS has been moving their FM antenna to make room for KSWB's ENG dish. Because of tower work for that project, and for the safety of tower workers repairing the KSWB transmission gear, KPBS-FM was at 60 watts for much of last week.

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Web site contents ©1999 Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 36 San Diego. For more information, to become a member or a sponsor, or to make suggestions or comments, e-mail sbe36@broadcast.net. Write to P.O. Box 710702, San Diego, California 92171-0702.  

Edited by Gary Stigall. Posted 1-Jun-99.