Operation Wolfpack-5

Pictures from

11-7-2009 Disposal and later repurposing of the WCVB-TV ch-5 Larcan analog transmitter including dozens of 1000 Watt 6-meter power amplifiers.

PA's were donated to The Minuteman Repeater Association for later use as a fundraiser by selling the repurposed PA's to other hams. The MMRA provided a proper Certificate Of Insurance to WCVB-TV for the on-site work as well as signing off on a company-required affidavit of proper disposal.

Almost all of the volunteers were "RF people" in their day jobs and due to the needed expertise, the event was by invitation only.

Please contact the MMRA directly if you wish to indicate your interest in obtaining one of these high-quality PA's which will be available for for amateur radio use only. http://www.mmra.org

Former WCVB-TV transmitter engineer, Jim McCann, now of NH Public Television. Several of these components will also assist NHPTV to keep their Larcan transmitter on the air. We gave Jim bonus points if he took a three-phase power transformer. He respectfully declined.

Screen shot taken at the Larcan factory during school in 2006

5dB per div sweeping 45-100 MHz A high-lowband VHF PA (ch5 which was 76-82 MHz analog) under test at 51.050 MHz. Expect a cool 300W+ FM even when used out of the default factory spec. Expect a full 600W CW/FM and 1000W SSB with proper biasing when in-band at 53 MHz (54-77 MHz factory spec). Optionally, a few chip cap changes will bring a high-lowband PA down to native low-lowband frequencies at full specs.

When operating out of factory specs (high-lowband), expect the overall PA gain to reduce from 20dB to 15dB. We were told by Larcan not to expect spurious emissions but obvious good engineering practices will require at least a look at filtering.

Each volunteer got to keep one PA as a thank you.

Week-2 Operation Wolfpack-5a 11-21-2009
The MMRA Copper Clapper Caper

Operation Wolfpack-I

Operation Wolfpack-II

Operation Wolfpack-IV

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