Tube City Almanac

August 15, 2012

Day 1 Report

Category: Announcements || By

Thank you to everyone who tuned into our webcast! Despite some rain, there were plenty of people at International Village for opening night.

The forecast for the next two nights is perfect --- temperatures in the upper 70s and clear skies. And we have plenty of free stuff to give away --- including two $50 gift cards for Westmoreland Pools and Spas. So, please stop by and say hi!

Now, the bad news. Even though our intended audience is on the Internet, we like to be able to say that International Village is "on the radio," even though by law, our so-called "Part 15" broadcast is limited to the confines of Renzie Park. Well, our FM radio transmitter appears to be toast. (The FM transmitter malfunction does not affect the webstream at all.)

Our broadcast range is supposed to be limited to 200 feet. Yesterday, our range was more like 200 inches.

Diligent work by volunteer Derrick Brashear and one of our board members, Dan Malesky, led us to the conclusion that one of the transistors in our little transmitter has fried. Our name may be "Tube City," but our equipment does have solid-state components, not vacuum tubes. (Derrick even made a special trip up to Radio Shack in Olympia to scrounge for parts, to no avail.)

The good news is that tomorrow, we are going to try our backup AM transmitter, just so that we can continue to say that International Village is, indeed, on the radio dial in McKeesport --- even if it's only a small sliver of McKeesport. If this works, I'll post the frequency here and on our Facebook page. Stay tuned, so to speak.

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Your Comments are Welcome!

Ha! Just read this. Radio Shack? What makes you think they would have radio components?
Adam - August 20, 2012



At that point, we actually didn’t need a component as much as an adapter to go from a 300-ohm TV antenna to a 75-ohm antenna. You would think Radio Shack would sell that, since they sell satellite TV stuff.

They do sell it, but the guy at the store denied it. Derrick found it on his own.

We also needed an eight-ohm outdoor speaker. They also denied having one of those, but he found one.

Radio Shack: You’ve got questions. We’ve got dumb looks.
Jason - August 20, 2012



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