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Engineering
When I
first joined Milton Keynes Hospital Radio back in 1986 I had
an ambition to be the man in charge of all those bundles of
wires and bits of techie stuff that makes the station work.
As an electronics engineer specialising in computers it seemed
that this would be my most natural path.
It wasn't
until 1995, when I achieved my ambition, that I realised exactly
what I had let myself in for. The previous engineers had built
the studio using some domestic components such as cassette
decks and CD players, some professional components such as
the Mixing Console and the NAB Cartridge players (used for
some of the Jingles) and some items they designed and built
from scratch.
All was
okay until some of the scratch built items started to go wrong.
I realised that there were no studio diagrams or circuit diagrams
to work from, so I had a mammoth task on my hands. First of
all I had to find out how it all worked before I could even
begin to work out why it wasn't!
I had
a young family by this time, so you can imagine my spare time
was limited. I managed to farm out some of the routine tasks
to other members and so the studio remained in working order
throughout.
It was
about this time I set about installing the new computers for
the automatic broadcast system. It was this project that brought
to light the necessity to produce some accurate circuit diagrams.
After
much pulling out of hair, I finally made a start on mapping
out the studio, but it wasn't until last year that I finally
could say I know exactly where each cable goes and what it
does.
Now my
task is to tidy up some of the mass of wires that don't appear
to go anywhere, and at the same time maintaining the existing
equipment and planning for future modernisation.
If you
have a background in electrical or electronic engineering,
preferably with a penchant for Audio, Video or Hi Fi equipment
and you would like to get involved in the maintainance and
development of the studio, please contact
me. I look forward to hearing from you!
Tony
Lee-Delisle
Chief Engineer
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