TRANSMITTER ON WHEELS AN INNOVATION

Synopsis
(The project proposal is submitted for your kind consideration. It is presented as
synopsis form and the detailed project report shall be presented once if it is
interesting to you).
All India Radio, being the oldest sound broadcaster in India, has served the country
for almost a century. All of us are proud to be a part of such an institution. The staff
members have adapted to new technological developments and techniques over the
years and always tried our level best to contribute to the cause of the department.
It is observed that, many All India Radio stations are provided with FM transmitters
of different powers ranging from 100W to 10KW. Our staff members with their
knowledge, experience and exposure try their level best to run transmission as
much trouble free as possible. Most of the equipments will have standby and
therefore failures of them will not be creating major breakdown. Major failure of
Power supply and Transmitter create major breakdowns. For power supply generally
DG is given as back up, so only failure of wiring inside transmitter/studio may create
a major breakdown.
The major trouble starts when transmitter goes off air. During transmitter
breakdown (especially major breakdowns), stations go off the air till engineers could
troubleshoot and rectify the problem. One major concern is lack of availability of
sufficient spares. It creates delay in replacing unserviceable modules/cards etc. (for
example our station is having no working standby exciter due to lack of availability
of front panel layout and exciter PA for almost an year now) The fund availability in
stations, especially small stations may not be sufficient to purchase spares which are
costly as most of the transmitters are imported ones. Also, getting the spares
imported will take time too.
All the staff members both engineering and program will be comfortable if
transmission comes on air at the earliest. For program and marketing staff, it will be
a matter of giving the programs for which they have worked hard and of addressing
to the need of clients who have given commercials. It becomes difficult for them to
say excuse for not giving commercials and programs as per schedule. This will
increase the pressure on engineering staff as they will be asking how much time it
will take to bring the transmitter on air. The diversions due to such irritations will
definitely delay the works too.
The lack of standby transmitter creates a lot of stress on the staff who are
attending the breakdown, especially if it is a major breakdown.
A spare transmitter at every station will be of great comfort for the people who
attend the breakdown as they can switch over to standby (even though they may be
of low power) and it will allow them to work with some peace of mind. Also it avoids
the hiccups what program and marketing personnel face too.
Providing a spare transmitter to every station may be a cause of concern for the
department as even a reasonably powered (say 1kw) transmitter itself will cost
dearly.
Considering the above mentioned facts, development of a portable 1kw transmitter
at lowest possible cost is thought about. The idea is to utilize the
unused/unserviceable parts of failed transmitters in stations. The idea is also to
minimize the cost factor. If the project succeeds, it can save money which otherwise
may be lost due to loss of revenue due to breakdown. It also helps in utilizing the
failed transmitter modules/stages at different stations. Money saved thus can be
considered as money earned too. It may also run surely into lakhs.
It is found that, in many station we have got failed power amplifiers/pallets of
HARRIS make and other type. The suppliers of the transmitters have advised not to
service the PA pallets at station level. In our station we have succeeded in servicing
them to a major extent utilizing our experience and practical exposure.
To reduce the cost of purchasing new RF power amplifiers, we are planning to
service the faulty ones available in other stations and use them for this project. (It is
understood that a new single Harris PA pallet will cost around Rs. 1 lakh where we
are expecting only to spend component price)
Another major part of the transmitter is exciter/modulator. AIR Bangalore has
purchased a stereo fm modulator during 2006-07 and if it is not put into use, it can
be used for our test purpose. It is a low cost FM PLL modulator and deficiency of it
was it varies only in steps of 0.5MHZ. A suitable divider can be designed to further.
In case it is not available, a new exciter with PLL circuit can be purchased at a
reasonable price. (some exciters with good quality and reasonable price in the
market are identified). Being no IPA is proposed we are looking for an exciter with
sufficient output power to drive two Pas.
The combiner and divider sections at input and output of the transmitter will be
designed in our station and testing of the same can be done at our R&D at Delhi or
BEL Banglore, with due permission from our department. Technical detailing and
diagram for the same is under development in our station.






Block diagram for proposed transmitter

Exciter
PA 1
PA 2
Combiner
Control
unit
Power supply
The whole transmitter is proposed to be mounted in a portable rack with wheels.
That helps it to be taken from one place to another. In case different reducers can
be provided(like N to 7/8 flange, N to 3 1/8 flange) by the department, it can be
immediately connected to any RF cable used in different stations.
One major consideration will be the weight of the transmitter and it will be majorly
due to powers supply transformer and heat sink used to PA stages).
The expensive part of this project, according to our calculation will be the power
supply section. Being the plan is to make a portable transmitter, the power supply
transformer weight is to be taken into account. Options like SMPS, linear power
supply etc. are under consideration. This part will be developed only after ensuring
the success of the other stages, so that, the expenditure of buying or fabricating it
can be avoided until other stages are ready. Also depending upon the requirement
of powers supply for different stages (voltage, current etc), the power supply can be
designed. The input power for rectifier will be single phase a.c.
Single phase input supply is sufficient to drive the transmitter. Therefore power
supply can be tapped from anywhere using a 5A power plug. Transmitter is planned
to be air cooled and enough of ventilation will be provided for circulation of air.
Additional air flow/air conditioning can be provided by the user.
The control circuit and its front panel will be made suitable operational requirements
like ON/OFF, variation of Power output and display of RF power and VSWR. Also
provision will be made for identifying status of different power supply tapping.
Attempt will be made to incorporate tripping of transmitter at high vswr and high
temperature dissipation.
Being almost all stations are radiating stereo, stereo modulator will be used. In case
necessary, mono switching can be done.
RF Power Amplifier will be either be developed at our station or serviced RF PA will
be used as mentioned before. It depends on the permission and time given, and also
on the availability of experts in making PCBs and components.
The expected time frame will be around 6 months to 1 year(depending on many
factors like time taken for mobilizing required components/modules, test
equipments, availability of staff and duty and also how early we could succeed in
different stages.
Last but not the least the estimate of the project! Though not an expert of market, it
is expected to be minimum of 1lac and maximum of 2lacs. (Our attempt will
definitely be to reduce the cost, but being a prototype and lot of trials have to be
done, this is an assumed cost). The production cost will definitely be reduced if the
project succeeds and more units are made in the future.