Walter Maxwell wrote:
Quoting from the original post in this thread:

"People in New York didn't even need radios. They could sometimes hear voices in
their furnaces
and coming off chain-link fences. Light bulbs lit up in people's houses even if
they were switched off. "

These are the phenomena reported from WLW's 500 kw operation in the 1930's.

Some posters on this thread mention spark, Poulsen, Alexander alternators as
sources of 500 kw and Mw power in the 1920's, which is true. On the contrary,
from the quote above, I believe the original poster was referring only to a
station broadcasting voice transmissions. This is what I believe to be untrue,
as I don't believe 100 kw tubes were available in the 1920's. In addition, the
WLW story indicates that WLW was the first station to transmit with 50 kw, and
then the 500 kw transmitter with multiple 100 kw tubes was the first one to
transmit AM BC at that power.

Right, Walt. Rice's book indicates that there were 31 tubes in the 500
KW transmitter, each costing $1,000 in 1934. The Cincinnati area
stories of people living near WLW's Mason, Ohio transmitter site being
able to hear the station on fences and down spouts were common.

Even at 50 KW, WLW caused problems for a number of hams who lived near
the transmitter site when they were operating on 160m.

Dave K8MN