[SBE] going green - tower lights

[Reynolds, Paul (CXR-San Antonio)]

I have had two warranty claims in the past 2 years...about 2 years into
the 5 year warranty period.  Dialight honored warranty and no issues.
Now yes, you are out the tower labor to fix them.  I have several of the
Gen 1 AOL's, some of the Gen II AOL's and now I am installing a Gen III
p/s on a GenII fixture.  
Now I have heard your same story about "...around high RF" when it
involved another manufacturer, but not Dialight.  I have Dialight on my
tall tower involving 6 full power FM's and no issues.  Your complaints
seem most unusual to me.

Paul K. Reynolds, C.E.
 paul.reynolds at coxradio.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of R.
V. Zeigler
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 9:29 PM
To: sbe member discussion mail list
Subject: [SBE] going green - tower lights

Paul,
I am glad that you have had good luck with them. We have had nothing but

problems from Day 1 (while the tower was being erected) with the things.

Dialight brand beacons were deplorable for us and were changed to Orga's

by the lighting system supplier. The Orga's worked much better but still

had some problems when temperatures dropped sharply. We continue on the 
problem, but from what I can tell, one major tower lighting supplier no 
longer supplies Dialight with their packages.
Our problems were so horrendous, I removed LED's from the specs of 
another tower we are building and reluctantly reverted to incandescent 
for the build. I have heard of others having like problems with LED's 
from various tower contractors.
I do have to say that the clearance lights are LED's (and Dialight as 
far as I know) on this problem stick and we have never had any problems 
with those. We do have 3 separate-antenna Class C FM's on this stick, 
and when I called Dialight about the problem beacons, they said to me, "

You are not supposed to use those around RF. Three, hundred kilowatt 
stations on one tower? I am surprised they work at all!" (I will swear 
to this in court if necessary) When I heard that, my confidence in 
Dialight pretty much evaporated. I do wish that LED's were a bit more 
reliable, but I think the control units in the beacons need a bit more 
engineering.
Rod

-- 
R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
KRVN-KTIC-KNEB
1007 Plum Creek Parkway
Lexington, NE. 68850-0880
rzeigler at krvn.com