EAS check-up

Regular maintenance and inspection should be a part of any maintenance routine, but it's often easy to shift into a deal-with-it-when-it-breaks routine. One piece of equipment that can be left untouched for some time is the station's EAS encoder/decoder.

Bad weather and emergencies can happen at any time, so it's important that the EAS units are always functioning.

Phil Johnson, chairman of the LECC in Seattle, recently shared his thoughts on maintenance steps for the Sage Endec.

1. Replace the clock battery once a year. It uses a CR2330 button cell.

2. Check the unit's time and date and correct it as needed. Johnson suggests checking the time accuracy once each month.

3. Set Daylight Saving Enable to NO. While the unit can adjust for Daylight Saving Time, EPROM versions 6.2 and earlier have the old Daylight Saving dates imbedded in them.

4. Manually set the UTC offset to account for the change in Daylight Saving Time.

In addition, the wall wart power supply is known to deliver just enough power to the unit. Over time, the supply may be insufficient to power the unit reliably, especially if the internal printer is used. Many engineers replace the supply with one of a higher current rating.

Daryl Parker of TFT has also provided some notes for the TFT 911 EAS encoder/decoder.

1. Update the firmware if necessary. It should be V.87.2.EN or V.82.1SP

2. Replace the lithium battery if it has not been replaced in the last 6 years.

3. Replace the battery in the digital voice recorder if it has not been replaced in the last 8 years.

4. Check the Vcc voltage at U19 pin 32 or at the front side of R101, a 1 ohm, 1/2W resistor near the junction of U17 and U19, and adjust VR1 on the switching power supply as necessary to maintain a supply voltage of of +5.0/-5.1 Vdc.

5. Ensure the ac transformer is plugged into a 60Hz reference. The internal clock is referenced to this source.

Do you have another brand of EAS unit and have some tips to share on keeping it operating at its best? Perhaps you have additional tips for the Sage and TFT units. Tell us about them.

Do you have a tech tip? Send it to us at radio@RadioMagOnline.com