Bernie got his start in the 60's working for RCA on flamethrower UHF TV rigs, then set off to form CCA in 1962. CCA was notable for bringing grounded grid PA design to high power FM transmitters, that with the authorization of FM stereo broadcasting, were becoming more in demand. They made tube based AM rigs as well, and there are lots of them out there in backup service to this day. The CCA FM rigs I've worked on over the years were pretty solid, but their efficiency sucked. It took close to 60KW to make 25KW of output power, because there was so little gain in PA stage, you would need massive amounts of RF drive. This is why, withe the exception of some Italian and E/O rigs, all current tube FM rigs are of a grid driven tetrode design. Efficiency is more important than ever, and no one wants to pay the power bill on something with 30% efficiency, when a comparable tetrode transmitter is around 65-70%.
To his credit though, there are a few CCA FM's over 40 years old still cranking out the juice. Tube life was good too
Fast forward to the late 80's when Energy Onix was founded. Bernie continued making tube based FM's up to around 20KW IIRC. His solid state low power FM stuff was ok, but his medium and shortwave rigs were not so hot. I've never been a fan of Class-E designs, and all Bernies' AM's were class-e, pushed to the limit. That stuff barely worked at 1MHz, I'm not sure how He managed to get 10 MHz out of it. Based on the article, that transmitter was installed in 2010, and ran for 2 years, then died. I've heard E/O's tube shortwave rigs were much more reliable, and a lot more forgiving of things like hot shacks and dirty power, two things that are a real problem in many parts of the world.
Just my 3¢
+-RH
Topic: Shortwave transmitter in Guyana is being repaired (Read 3241 times)
