Author Topic: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility  (Read 48730 times)

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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« on: January 17, 2014, 12:05:36 am »
David Kilpatrick from TXAustralia takes us on a detailed tour of the old decommissioned 10kW analog TV transmission system at the Artarmon facility in Sydney. How it all works from the broadcaster video input to final transmission output up the 180m broadcast antenna. Plus some teardowns of the old equipment that's been used to transmit the Channel 7 TV signal in Sydney since 1981.
Copper rigid coaxial lines, waveguides, filters, splitters, combiners, converters, transmission valve, power supplies and all the equipment necessary to transmit a 10kW analog TV signal in a major city like Sydney.

 

Offline IO390

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2014, 01:02:15 am »
Oh, well thanks.

Looks like I'm not getting much sleep again tonight (although for a better reason this time  ;) ).
 

Offline CRCasey

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2014, 01:11:40 am »
Yes this is one I have been waiting for!

Woot!

-C
 

Offline Alexei.Polkhanov

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2014, 01:26:16 am »
Wow, rigid coax heaven!
 

Offline rolandpenplotter

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2014, 01:31:01 am »
Here's the actual news story referenced in Dave's tour, where you see them turning it off:

« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 01:34:27 am by rolandpenplotter »
 

Offline nitro2k01

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2014, 02:05:52 am »
I'm hearing a high pitched whine from about 48 and 53 minutes. (If you're over 30 you'll likely not hear it.) I wonder what exactly would produce such a sound. Especially when it's all digital. Maybe it's not related to the broadcast as well, but some other equipment?
Whoa! How the hell did Dave know that Bob is my uncle? Amazing!
 

Offline nathanpc

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2014, 02:06:30 am »
I can't stop drooling. Thanks very much for sharing this awesome tour Dave! :clap:
 

Offline rolandpenplotter

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2014, 02:19:18 am »
Grab a few hacksaws and I'll start the truck; we're off to strip out all that ally and copper - worth a few thousand quid ;)
 

Offline orion242

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2014, 02:22:32 am »
Sweet video!

Thanks Dave.
 

Offline rolandpenplotter

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2014, 02:37:26 am »
Dave, in the video you mentioned you were going to stand at the base of the tower and show us it, but didn't... was that an editing error?

BRILLIANT video; thanks :)
 

Offline pickle9000

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2014, 02:46:05 am »
David Kilpatrick did a great tour, easy to listen to and informative. Two thumbs up as they say.

An overall excellent excellent video in so many ways.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2014, 02:51:07 am »
Dave, in the video you mentioned you were going to stand at the base of the tower and show us it, but didn't... was that an editing error?

The shot I got is in the previous video. Sorry, nothing else.
 

Offline BravoV

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2014, 03:03:19 am »
Great video and love the scenes of tons of RF voodoo at huge scale there !  :-+


Meanwhile, <sarcasm:ON> ...I guess those audiophools or those pcb trace right angle nay sayers are shouting ...

LOOK !!! Those engineers must be a noob there, they're using sharp turn right angle almost everywhere !   :-DD

« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 03:16:04 am by BravoV »
 

Offline rolandpenplotter

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2014, 03:18:59 am »
David Kilpatrick did a great tour, easy to listen to and informative. Two thumbs up as they say.

An overall excellent excellent video in so many ways.

He was a good guide, but I can't help feeling he was holding back a bit; he didn't exactly seem enthused and very driven about it (mind you, it's his daily job - he's seen it a thousand times); it may just be the bloke's character though. I loved the video, but I'm more looking forward to being back in the lab, with Dave's infectious excitement and passionate enthusiasm - I'm one for details - EXCESSIVE details, and David seemed to only skim over the basics, although I can appreciate HOW much there is to talk about for a limited amount of time in a place like this... maybe I'm wrong, who knows :)
 

Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2014, 03:26:09 am »
The amateur radio community would probably be very interested in those solid state amplifier modules. Small but a decent amount of power. The big tube stuff not so much - overkill and too big.
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Offline lilshawn

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2014, 04:12:52 am »
Absolute beauty. More rigid coax than you can shake a length of rigid coax at. A crapload of thought and planning and engineering went into it, that's for sure.

Good job!  :-+
 

Offline dave_k

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #16 on: January 17, 2014, 04:34:47 am »
David Kilpatrick did a great tour, easy to listen to and informative. Two thumbs up as they say.

An overall excellent excellent video in so many ways.

He was a good guide, but I can't help feeling he was holding back a bit; he didn't exactly seem enthused and very driven about it (mind you, it's his daily job - he's seen it a thousand times); it may just be the bloke's character though. I loved the video, but I'm more looking forward to being back in the lab, with Dave's infectious excitement and passionate enthusiasm - I'm one for details - EXCESSIVE details, and David seemed to only skim over the basics, although I can appreciate HOW much there is to talk about for a limited amount of time in a place like this... maybe I'm wrong, who knows :)

The day that was filmed was my first day back on site after 2 weeks of Christmas holiday, plus I kept forgetting to 'hype up' my presentation to match Dave's style. In that regard I suppose I seem a bit laid back in comparison to Mr Jones :) The video was not meant to be too in-depth, and there was a lot to cover with limited filming time. If there's anything you want covered in more detail, feel free to ask here on the forum.
 

Offline Co6aka

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #17 on: January 17, 2014, 05:50:36 am »
LOOK !!! Those engineers must be a noob there, they're using sharp turn right angle almost everywhere !   :-DD

LMRFAO!!!  :-DD

Anyway...  "Ahhh... RF p0rn!!!"

Brings back fond memories of building my (now OOB) UHF trunked system; four-window RX preselector out of a pile of cans, TX combiners from 6-cavity duplexers... the smell of a rackfull of toasty 200W amps... (Oh man, I'm getting a woodie!)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... I know... Y'all are :palm: :palm:

(Yes, this is what overexposure to powerful electromagnetic fields looks like...)
« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 05:55:05 am by Co6aka »
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Offline johnh

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #18 on: January 17, 2014, 07:04:02 am »
When I was trainee Technical Officer with Telecom Australia , ( Telstra now).  Back then they maintained the transmitters for the ABC.

They took us on  tour of  3AR/3LO AM transmitter out at Sydenham and the ABC TV transmitter on Mt Dandenong. 

They had two radio transmitter that were fed to combiner that was in a hut at the base of antenna. The feeds were open air, and the birds used to land on the feeds. All you could see of the bird, were their feet.
 

Offline bktemp

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #19 on: January 17, 2014, 08:40:44 am »
The display on the door of the channel ten transmitter is actually an Electroluminescent display made by Sharp which runs at a few 100V therefore the high voltage warning.
They look nice, but the image burns in quite fast when it displays a constant image for a long time.
 

Offline digital

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #20 on: January 17, 2014, 09:02:00 am »
A fascinating video, somethings I have never seen before the size of that coax brilliant video and good interview. Thanks Dave
 

Online mikeselectricstuff

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #21 on: January 17, 2014, 09:31:07 am »
How long do those big-ass transmitter valves last?
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Offline jeremy

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #22 on: January 17, 2014, 09:40:29 am »
thanks both daves. Top notch video and Dave K I think you were more than enthusiastic enough, just some are not used to aussies I think  ;)
 

Online ve7xen

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #23 on: January 17, 2014, 09:41:37 am »
I've watched all the broadcast station tours I've been able to find, and this is far and away the best one yet. Thanks Dave and Dave! Too bad we couldn't see the new shiny. :D

Maybe this is a naive question, but if they're combining 5 ~10kW transmitters toward the antenna, why is the total output power so low (looked like under 10kW)?
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Online fcb

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Re: EEVblog #569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility
« Reply #24 on: January 17, 2014, 09:42:03 am »
David Kilpatrick did a great tour, easy to listen to and informative. Two thumbs up as they say.

An overall excellent excellent video in so many ways.

He was a good guide, but I can't help feeling he was holding back a bit; he didn't exactly seem enthused and very driven about it (mind you, it's his daily job - he's seen it a thousand times); it may just be the bloke's character though. I loved the video, but I'm more looking forward to being back in the lab, with Dave's infectious excitement and passionate enthusiasm - I'm one for details - EXCESSIVE details, and David seemed to only skim over the basics, although I can appreciate HOW much there is to talk about for a limited amount of time in a place like this... maybe I'm wrong, who knows :)

The day that was filmed was my first day back on site after 2 weeks of Christmas holiday, plus I kept forgetting to 'hype up' my presentation to match Dave's style. In that regard I suppose I seem a bit laid back in comparison to Mr Jones :) The video was not meant to be too in-depth, and there was a lot to cover with limited filming time. If there's anything you want covered in more detail, feel free to ask here on the forum.

Thanks Dave K & Company and Dave J for the video tour - best thing I've seen for ages, really very interesting.

Nice to see where the 1V goes in (there's an old joke about BBC Television Centre efficiency in the UK: 1 megawatt in - 1v out)
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