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BW TX300 transmitter not booting - Suggestions?

Eric ATX said:
So we're back on the air as of yesterday! Progressive Concepts (I believe they're the exclusive U.S. distributor for BW transmitters) had shipped me two new pre-programmed SD cards with the latest firmware (2.0). After installing them (very easy) and putting the transmitter back in the rack (and re-connecting the antenna), I powered it up, and the transmitter went through a 5-minute boot and it was ready to go. Since this had the effect of restoring everything to factory defaults, I had to re-input the settings, but that didn't take long. Still need to look up my RDS settings, though...
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When you have the transmitter from the rack to blow out the dust just make sure you have discharged any static electricity you've picked up before you touch it.
 
Flying Dutchman said:
When you have the transmitter from the rack to blow out the dust just make sure you have discharged any static electricity you've picked up before you touch it.
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That's a good point. Another thing to consider is this appears to be a common malady with these particular transmitters and it will likely happen again. Not familiar enough, but if there is a way to copy the working SD card while the box is in service, it would be good to have a spare or two on hand. Consumer-grade SD cards aren't made to last indefinitely.
 
Thanks to the OP for posting, this enlightened me a bit.. we have 3 BW transmitters at KSKO... main for KSKO, back up for KSKO and a back up in a hard case with hardware codec for our rebroadcast stations. One of them wont boot.

I've got the other that will boot but wont generate RF
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Thanks to the OP for posting, this enlightened me a bit.. we have 3 BW transmitters at KSKO... main for KSKO, back up for KSKO and a back up in a hard case with hardware codec for our rebroadcast stations. One of them wont boot.

I've got the other that will boot but wont generate RF
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The one that won't generate RF. I'd bring it up on a computer with the web browser and see if the RF might be turned off. Make sure you have a dummy load attached to the RF out first. Still no RF. I'd take the working SD card out and put it in the one that won't boot. Then send the other one to Eric in Chicago and get it fixed.
 
Flying Dutchman said:
The one that won't generate RF. I'd bring it up on a computer with the web browser and see if the RF might be turned off. Make sure you have a dummy load attached to the RF out first. Still no RF. I'd take the working SD card out and put it in the one that won't boot. Then send the other one to Eric in Chicago and get it fixed.
Click to expand...

It will boot but nothing i do will get the rf to fire up, i can still see and operate htings form the lcb panel on the front
 
Here's something important to know about the BW transmitters: First, it's a very good idea to duplicate the SD card as a backup. Second, the BW transmitter writes to the SD card for events, like alarms. All SD cards have a limited number of write cycles and then they will fail. Since the BW used these cards to hold the basic configuration data, the transmitter will get stuck at the boot up phase any time the card goes bad. The more stuff that the transmitter writes to the SD card, the faster the failure will occur. So....... if you have a lot of alarms, like low modulation reporting enabled where you get a notification or two every day, then the card will fail in less than 5 years, on average. On the other hand, if the transmitter doesn't have to do much except run, then the cards typically will last 10+ years. Eventually, though all BW transmitters will require replacing the SD card, which is why it's a good idea to make your own backup copy while the cards are still good.
 
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