[AMRadio] Source Broadcast Xmtrs

[D. Chester]

Unfortunately, we are probably on the down side of the curve.  Most 
broadcasters have already converted to solid state, so the abundance of 
retired tube type transmitters peaked out several years ago. As far as I 
know, there are very few AMBC stations still using tube type transmitters as 
their main unit, and most of the discarded units have already gone to hams 
or to the metal recycler.

There are probably still a few on the air, and more are still installed at 
the station as auxiliary (stand-by) transmitters, but abundance of available 
transmitters  has pretty much slowed to a trickle.

Something that hasn't helped is the corporate take-over of the broadcast 
industry.  The big companies tend to take care of business in-house within a 
closed system, so we  no longer have the benefit of the ubiquitous small 
town mom-and-pop radio station with a real live breathing manager you can 
chat with via a local telephone call, and the lone CE who maintains 
everything from the transmitter and studio equipment to the plumbing and air 
conditioning system. Therefore, a lot of these transmitters are being 
scrapped before anyone but personnel of the parent company is even aware 
that a transmitter is about to be thrown out. Try calling your local AM 
satellite repeater on the phone, and all you get is a voice mail box, and 
your call is never returned.  Try going the station in person, and you are 
apt to find locked doors, since the operation is automated, and visited only 
occasionally at odd hours of the day, and if you do catch someone there,  he 
probably works in sales and/or programming and doesn't have a  clue what you 
are talking about.

To make matters worse, many of the chains that have bought up broadcast 
stations are so paranoid about liability, that they won't release the old 
transmitter out of fear they might be held liable even years down the road 
for any PCB or mercury spills you might cause with the rectifier tubes, oil 
capacitors and transformers, or for any injury you might incur while moving 
the transmitter off-site or even while working on it after you get it home.

I gave up on the local BC1-T that I maintained years ago before the station 
started going through numerous owners, after trying to penetrate the brick 
wall for more than a year, and never being able to get in touch with anyone 
who could even tell me whether or not the old transmitter was still at the 
transmitter site.

But it still won't hurt to try.  Transmitters are out there, but the 
pickings are slimmer and harder to find.
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