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Gates Radio Co |
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Harris Broadcast Quincy, IL / Mason, OH www.broadcast.harris.com |
50,000 Watt Transmitters
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Gates Radio Co |
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Harris Broadcast Quincy, IL / Mason, OH www.broadcast.harris.com |
Harris purchased Gates radio in 1957, but kept
the Gates name and logo until the 1970s.
Transmitters built by Harris were still essentially "Gates design."
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BC-50B 1957-1959 |
| The first 50 kW unit by Gates Radio. 1957. |
The first 50 kW built by Gates was a design adapted by Stan Ponte from the GE 50 kW transmitter. Only three of the BC-50B's were built. They went to: XET, Monterrey, Mexico, Radio Rumbas in Caracas, Venezuela, and CKVL, Montreal, Canada. According to Larry Cervon:
"Parker Gates didn't want to build this transmitter - he was not a risk
taker." Gates felt there was no sure profit in building such a
large transmitter as the 50B. But with an order in hand, he was
convinced by Cervon. It took a year to construct. |
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BC-50C 1960-1965 |
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| A Catalog page from Gates showing the BC-50C, built from 1960 to 1965. This model removed the "spare" PA tube. This may have had a home at KCUL in Ft Worth, TX |
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VP-50 1965-1972 |
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| Built from 1965 to 1972 at least eight were
built. The VP-50 was "Vapor Cooled" transmitter, this was a real effort to get some of the "Big Iron" business. According to the Gates catalog, The first one went to KDAY/1580, Santa Monica (Los Angeles Tx site), CA. |
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MW-50 1972-1978 |
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| Built from 1972 to 1978, the MW-50 was a Pulse Duration Modulated (PDM)
transmitter. It used five tubes, WJR, Detroit, WBBM, Chicago |
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MW-50A 1978-1981 |
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| Built from 1978 to 1981, the MW-50A had a tube-type damper
diode. Also, the Modulation Enhancer (ME-1) was built into the
transmitter, as well as a modulation "tracker" to keep modulation constant
at different power levels. The transmitter employed Pulse Duration Modulation. One of the 4CX-1500A tubes served as a driver for the 4CX-35000C Modulator tube. The other 4CX-1500A tube was the driver for the RF Output 4CX-35000C tubes. The rest of this transmitter was solid state - in fact, later versions of this MW-50 Transmitter replaced the 4CX-1500A modulation drive tube with a solid-state amplifier, leaving only the rf driver and the two 4CX-35000C tubes. WBZ Boston was one user. |
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MW-50B 1981-1984 |
| Built from 1981 to 1984, the MW-50B used three tubes, as the damper diode was changed to a solid-state rectifier. The modulation driver went from tube to solid-state. |
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MW-50C and MW-50C3 1984-1991 |
| Built from 1984 to 1991, the MW-50C and MW-50C3 versions were a transition to the DX Series. The transformer input was removed the and replaced with a differential balanced input, significantly reducing overshoot and distortion levels. |
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DX-50 1991-2003 |
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| Built from 1991 to 2003. The first unit went to KFBK in
Sacramento, CA This is a Harris Patented system, using a large quantity of plug-in modules. Each generates RF at a different modulation level; incoming analog audio is broken down into digitized data, then it is used to drive the various modules at the varying levels needed to have an amplitude modulated output. This transmitter has an overall efficiency (power line in versus RF out) of around 85 to 90% |
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3DX-50 2003-present |
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| Built stating in 2003 |
