Terry Green Blogs About KUSP

KUSP’s engineers will be back in Palo Colorado Canyon on Wednesday, May 15 to finish up the installation of the replacement equipment for our 91.3 FM translator, which returned to the air a few weeks ago.

The work is relatively straightforward, in contrast with some of what we’ve encountered there recently, but it will take the KUSP signal off the air for a period of time.

Work is scheduled to start around mid-morning and should be wrapped up by late in the day.

We apologize for this inconvenience… but we are all supremely relieved that this ought to finish the task and keep things running reliably long-term.

Today marked the return to the airwaves of KUSP’s 91.3 FM translator serving Palo Colorado Canyon on the Monterey County coast, north of Big Sur.

The restoration of proper operation has been a very long time coming, and I am grateful to our engineering staff and all the canyon residents who contributed to the Palo Colorado Canyon Recovery Fund for their efforts.

There is still work to be done to complete the installation, which will mean some short interruptions in service in the next couple of weeks. These should only affect reception for a few hours at a time.

Canyon residents who experience problems from here on out should let us know — the toll free number is 800-655-5877.

Again, thanks to everyone who has helped us get this system back into proper operation.

Two or three weeks ago I was hopeful that we were well on our way to completing the reconstruction of our Palo Colorado Canyon translator at 91.3 FM. Regrettably, we aren’t.

When we started installing our new equipment, we discovered that the electrical service coming out to the equipment location was not functioning the way we expected. Our engineering staff received a lot of advice, much of it contradictory, about how to solve the problem we encountered in the most reliable and least expensive manner. Sifting through these proposals to come to a solution has been time-consuming and a little frustrating for all of us involved.

The good news is that our engineers have settled on a course of action and the additional parts will be ordered shortly. Thankfully, our Palo Colorado Canyon Recovery Fund surpassed its fund-raising goal, and that gives us the cushion we need to make this additional investment. As we get the installation back on track, we will keep you posted here.

As blog subscribers know, KUSP has been working since the start of December to restore our service to Palo Colorado Canyon on the Monterey County coast, north of Big Sur. Our 91.3 FM translator was heavily damaged in a winter storm and almost all of our equipment there was destroyed.

We recently received our insurance settlement and started buying replacement equipment, most of which has arrived. Reconstruction will proceed forthwith.

However, insurance being what it is, we have a $2,000 gap between the amount of the insurance settlement and the expected cost of getting back on the air. To fill this gap, we’re turning to our community of supporters in Palo Colorado Canyon and nearby communities.

The Palo Colorado Canyon Recovery Fund will take in any designated gifts for this project and use them to fill the gap between the insurance settlement and the cost of reconstruction. If our donations to the fund exceed the final costs, the remaining balance will be used for the upkeep of the translator (normally, the major expense for the translator is the cost of the electricity to run it — we occupy the plot of land it’s on rent-free).

We’ve e-mailed this news to many Palo Colorado residents, and KUSP donors in the region will be receiving invitations to contribute in the mail soon. If you’d like to help too, go to KUSP’s secure pledge page and, in the box on the online pledge form labeled “ordering instructions,” indicate you’d like your gift to support the Palo Colorado Canyon Recovery Fund.

Meantime, the KUSP Spring Membership Drive continues, in support of everything you hear on KUSP, no matter where you live — and your gift to that campaign will be appreciated just as much!

KUSP has reached a settlement with our insurance carrier on the claim we filed for the damage our Palo Colorado Canyon translator sustained in the storms that began on November 30. Our insurance will cover about $7,500 of the cost to replace the equipment that was damaged or destroyed. The remaining cost, about $2,000, will need to be paid by us.

We’ve got orders in for the replacement equipment, and we are hoping to get back in operation in a few weeks. Much of the replacement equipment is “off-the-shelf” but some pieces have to be manufactured or tuned to KUSP’s specific operating requirements.

If you’d like to make a special gift to KUSP to help restore public radio service to Palo Colorado Canyon, just click on this link.

The good news is that one of the three major pieces of equipment that make up the 91.3 translator that serves Palo Colorado Canyon and nearby parts of the Big Sur coast survived the late November/early December storm series without serious damage.

The bad news is that the other two pieces of equipment are really hurting. Steve Laufer provides us with this picture of the insides of the final RF power amplifier:

When the shed that houses the equipment lost its door in high winds, rain was driven into the equipment rack, picked up by the amplifier’s cooling fans, and sprayed directly onto the guts of the amplifier. Havoc ensued.

There’s some chance we can still replace the damaged components and clean up the rest of this unit, but that is looking less and less likely. If it has to be replaced, there will be some additional delay (and additional cost) while we arrange for that.

The third piece of equipment in the shelter was also severely damaged. Fortunately, we had a spare assembly for that unit, which has been tuned up and is being tested now.

Again, more updates will be forthcoming as we learn more about the situation.

KUSP’s 91.3 signal on the Monterey County coast has been off the air since it was severely damaged in a storm on November 30. Efforts to repair the equipment on site have not been successful. We have some replacement equipment in hand now, and this weekend we’re bringing back the remaining damaged equipment to our Santa Cruz studio to see if we can make repairs and tests more expeditiously here than out in the field.

We’ll keep you posted on future developments.

KUSP’s FM translator on 89.3 that rebroadcasts our signal to the west side and downtown areas of Santa Cruz returned to the air today, after we completed repairs to antennas that were damaged in the November 30 storm.

Geo Warner and Brant Herrett are shown here adjusting one of the replacement antennas.

The big antenna in the background (which was unaffected by the storm) is, incidentally, the satellite receiving antenna that connects us to the Public Radio Satellite System, our gateway to NPR, BBC, and other nationally and globally-distributed programs.

Work continues on restoring the 91.3 translator that serves Palo Colorado Canyon and nearby areas along the Big Sur coast. The damage to our equipment there was more extensive. When we have more information about our return to operation there I will pass it along.

Here’s what we know about our recovery efforts from the storms that knocked off two of our translators on November 30:

89.3 downtown/west side Santa Cruz – we have lined up most of the materials we need to repair and reinstall the damaged antennas. If weather is satisfactory on Tuesday afternoon 12/18, we’ll do the work. If we run into weather problems on Tuesday, our fallback option is Wednesday.

91.3 Palo Colorado Canyon – we hope to reassemble and test the equipment in the next few days. If that goes well we should be back on the air shortly thereafter.

When more definitive information is available, I’ll share it here.

The FM translator that rebroadcasts KUSP’s signal on 89.3 to parts of Santa Cruz went off the air on Friday, November 30. High winds damaged one of the antennas that relays the signal from our studios out to the translator itself.

We will get replacement parts coming this way as soon as we can and provide an update when we have an estimate for the 89.3 signal to return to the air.

Most areas that are served by the 89.3 translator can also receive our main 88.9 signal, just not as well. The live stream at kusp.org is a good alternative as well.

We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.