The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in New York State
 

"Walter Maxwell" wrote in message
...
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.

In the late 1950's White's Radio Log reported XEX (Mexico City) had a
megawatt of power for a while -- several years, perhaps. Later reports gave
their power as 500 KW. I never heard them in NY because there was always
somebody else blocking them. Presently they're on 730 and listed at a
featherweight 100 KW.
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=101201.

What's the record for max BCB power?

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in NewYork State
 

Bill Ogden wrote:
Wow. We can learn something new every day. Joe Rice (W4RHZ) was one of my
idols when I had my first licenses during 1959-61. He was a key member of
NKARC (Northern Kentucky ARC). Google says his "Early Cincinnati Radio" was
privately published, so I am unlikely to run across a copy. (Ebay and
half.com, etc, have no hits for it.)

Bill
W2WO (Was K4DFO in those days)

Bill,

Yep, Joe was a Norwood boy who became a Northern Kentucky transplant.
I was WB4KTR when I moved from Miami to Fort Thomas in 1968. I didn't
meet Joe until coming back from the Air Force in 1972. He was my first
160m contact, good for about ten miles. :-)

I found the Early Cincinnati Radio at a used book store in downtown
Cincy in '73 or so. I have two other books by Joe which he inscribed to
me. One is called "Cincinnati's Powel Crosley". The other is entitled
"Early Norwood Radio"

Joe was a bit eccentric but he certainly knew his stuff about broadcast
radio. He was engineer at many of those Cincinnati area stations and
worked, at one time or another, for many of the electronic/radio
manufacturers in the area as well.

I, too, was an NKARC member until I moved across the river in 1977.

73,

Dave K8MN

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in NewYork State
 

Sal M. Onella wrote:
. . .
What's the record for max BCB power?

Dunno, but some of the SW BC stations sure are impressive. I had the
opportunity to see the Deutsche Welle facility at Wertachtal, Germany a
couple of years ago. It has, I believe, 12 ea. 500 kW transmitters, and
the antenna consists of several miles of curtain array with reflector
grids on both sides for reversibility, arranged in a pattern of three
long radials from a central building. It can also be electronically
steered to some degree. Modulation could be heard at about a half mile
from the antenna, apparently from vibration of some of the antenna feed
components. That facility leases time to many other international
broadcasters.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in NewYork State
 

Sal M. Onella wrote:
In the late 1950's White's Radio Log reported XEX (Mexico City) had a
megawatt of power for a while -- several years, perhaps.

In 1953, XERF at 250 KW in Villa Acuna was the strongest
station on the dial in East Texas. Their studios were across
the Rio Grande River in Del Rio, TX. For some reason, I
remember the White Rose Petroleum Jelly commercials.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in NewYork State
 

On Aug 6, 9:23 pm, Roy Lewallen wrote:
Sal M. Onella wrote:
. . .
What's the record for max BCB power?

Dunno, but some of the SW BC stations sure are impressive. I had the
opportunity to see the Deutsche Welle facility at Wertachtal, Germany a
couple of years ago. It has, I believe, 12 ea. 500 kW transmitters, and
the antenna consists of several miles of curtain array with reflector
grids on both sides for reversibility, arranged in a pattern of three
long radials from a central building. It can also be electronically
steered to some degree. Modulation could be heard at about a half mile
from the antenna, apparently from vibration of some of the antenna feed
components. That facility leases time to many other international
broadcasters.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

No wonder, then, that they can put a 0dBm signal into a decent ham
antenna on 7MHz on the US East Coast. Still, I'm always in awe of the
efficiency of propagation through the air, bouncing between the
ionosphere and the earth/oceans. On the same roughly 5000 km path
through a piece of dry air insulated minimum loss copper coax 1/3
meter diameter (a bit over a foot diameter; about 5 millidB/100feet
loss@7MHz), fed 6 megawatts at the input, you get an undetectable
signal out the other end, over 800dB loss yielding an output less than
-700dBm. [6 megawatts at 76 ohms is 21kV rms, so a line that large
should handle the voltage, but at the transmitter end, such a line
would dissipate about 60 watts per foot.]

Cheers,
Tom

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in NewYork State
 

Sal M. Onella wrote:

What's the record for max BCB power?

I don't think any of the "national" radio stations
in the Mideast run more than 1 Megawatt. Here's
some interesting stations from the Americas:

PJB3 800 kHz ND1 Daytime TRANSWORLD R 800.0 kW
ZYJ-457 800 kHz ND1 Daytime RIO DE JANEI 900.0 kW
YVTB 800 kHz ND1 Daytime MARACAIBO 5 900.0 kW
YVKY 710 kHz DA1 Daytime CARACAS 11 900.0 kW
YVKG 950 kHz DA1 Daytime CARACAS 2 400.0 kW
YVLL 670 kHz DA1 Daytime CARACAS 9 500.0 kW
ZYH-446 740 kHz ND1 Daytime SALVADOR BR 800.0 kW
ZYH-707 AM 980 kHz ND1 Nighttime BRASILIA 600.0 kW
ZYK537 AM 1040 kHz ND1 Nighttime SAO PAULO 900.0 kW
ZYJ-455 AM 1280 kHz DA1 Nighttime RIO DE JANEI 700.0 kW
HCXY1 AM 620 kHz ND1 Daytime LOJA EC 900.0 kW
HCJB1 AM 690 kHz ND1 Daytime QUITO EC 600.0 kW

Jim, K7JEB

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in New York State
 

Back at about the same time the BBC had (and still has) a powerful
transmitter on 200khz (now198) a local farmer who lived close to the station
built a large tuning coil in the loft and lit his house using fluorescent
tubes.

He was successfully prosecuted for stealing electricity or something
similar.

Alec


"javawizard" wrote in message
...
In the 1920's a radio station in Schenectady, NY built a powerful
transmitter. In those days before FCC regulations, not knowing just
how big to make a transmitter in order for the signal to be received
some distance away, the station set up to broadcast at 500,000 watts.
It requires about one watt to be received four blocks away. A cell
phone is three watts. This station broadcast at such tremendous power
that they could be heard around the world. 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. - from www.clip-text.com

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in New York State
 

"Ed Cregger" wrote in message
...

I used to pick up AM radio stations in my head. The theory back then was
that it was due to dental work acting as a rectifier, etc.

How on earth could you sleep. You'd need to make your bedroom into a
Faraday cage.

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in New York State
 

"HiTech RedNeck" wrote in message
...

"Ed Cregger" wrote in message
...

I used to pick up AM radio stations in my head. The theory back then was
that it was due to dental work acting as a rectifier, etc.

How on earth could you sleep. You'd need to make your bedroom into a
Faraday cage.



--------------

Truly, it didn't bother me at all. Of course, it could have been just a
coincidence. I used to wonder if I had memorized their play sheet and then
just applied that to the great sense of time that I had back then. I could
come within a minute, twenty four hours a day, of giving the correct time
each and every time someone asked.

The AM radio sense disappeared when I went into the USAF in 1965. When I
came back from the USAF some four years later, the 1380 WAMS radio station
was gone as was the use of the frequency. The USAF removed quite of a few
teeth during my four year sojurn. I always figured that was the reason why
radio reception stopped.

Ed, NM2K

The Strange True Story of a Radio Station's Transmitter in New York State
 

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:43:48 -0500, Cecil Moore
wrote:

Sal M. Onella wrote:
In the late 1950's White's Radio Log reported XEX (Mexico City) had a
megawatt of power for a while -- several years, perhaps.

In 1953, XERF at 250 KW in Villa Acuna was the strongest
station on the dial in East Texas. Their studios were across
the Rio Grande River in Del Rio, TX. For some reason, I
remember the White Rose Petroleum Jelly commercials.

Wolfman Jack... 100 baby chicks for $2.98, shipped to your door!

bob
k5qwg