Greetings! I want to make a section here from the Engineering department. I know a lot of our valuable listeners (OTA or stream) are interested in the technical ongoings of the station. I hope to keep those interested in the loop here on the Engi-nerding page.
2024-11 Update: The tower site where our main transmitter is located has be undergoing some maintenance. Workers have been changing the guy wires that hold the tower up. One set of wires were located above the commercial power lines that supply the building. This required an almost daily disconnection of the high voltage power lines to the building while the workers were above. To supplement power, we relied on our backup generator. Now as with all generators, we "exercise" this generator weekly for around 30 minutes to ensure that it is ready to go when needed. Unfortunately, we discovered that after about 3 hours, something would fail and the generator would go into "panic mode" which prevents an automatic restart. Someone would have to drive out to the transmitter site and manually restart the generator. This is why you occasionally heard some down time.
After careful consideration and some poking around, I "think" the issue is with the voltage regulator. Since we cannot replicate this issue on demand, this is the "best guess" based on what we do know. In the near future, that regulator will be replaced.
As of now, I am told by the tower crew that they have finished the work as of 11/3/24 and we should not see any more scheduled shutdowns.
