WLW's 50,000 Watt Transmitters
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- This video covers the four existing 50 kW AM broadcast transmitters at WLW. If you have seen my WLW 500 kW video, this is the segment between Jay on the front steps and inside with the 500 kW transmitter.
More transmitters, more history.
Enjoy the tour of the facility and the history of this high power station. Thanks to Jay, Geoff, and Ted of WLW for hosting the tour.
My WLW 500 kW transmitter video
• WLW's 500,000 Watt Tra...
To learn more about this transmitter's history, please visit these sites.
Randy
RADIOWORLD article about this video
www.radioworld....
WLW Archive Files
www.arizona-am....
Jim Hawkin's WLW page:
hawkins.pair.co...
History of WLW, Cincinnati:
jeff560.tripod....
WLW's Big Arse Transmitter:
www.ominous-val...
Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.or...
WLW - A "Super" Station Tour:
www.oldradio.co...
Not Just a Sound: the Story of WLW:
www.broadcastin...
WLW is on an old Crosley radio that my dad had as a child. It was actually on the radio dial glass. It was an Old Tube radio that had a grounding terminal that you had to attach outside of the house to a grounding rod dug deep into the Earth. I think of it every night when I tune in WLW out of Cincinnati
I especially liked the part about using the old non-computerized transmitter on Y2K.
Sometimes the older technology is better.
Hi Jeff...I worked at KACY with Don Sinclair, Bill Tanner and Terry Harris in 1977. I had issues with the RCA Ampliphase Transmitter as well. I remember a good swift smack to the back of the plate relay container would switch it on air when the switching didn't occur! Ha! That was a monster rig. I loved the signature sound of the RCA Ampliphase at 50 KW. It sounded great.
These current days of getting all radio stations on the internet is great, but sometimes I miss the old days of the wireless transmitters. I could pick up WLW clearly at night down here in n. Alabama.
Another great video, very interesting! Especially about how the AM is developed in the newer digital transmitter.
I Love this Video of WLW's History.
Always enjoyable to hear very smart people talk about their craft ;)...thank you!
Very interesting. I'll never forget a few years ago I brought one of my radios over to a friends house to listen to a football game on 700AM KSEV out of Tomball, TX from Pasadena, TX. When KSEV turned down their power for the night then WLW totally wiped out their signal in short order. It was funny to see his reaction when I told him the station out of OH was wiping out the local one, he had no idea that was even possible.
We get it here in Little Rock as clear as local am stations. At least at night.
The Earth is a level plain because radio waves are parallel and don't curve around the supposed curve!
Very interesting video, the modern solid state digital transmitter is a great example of modern electrical engineering. The older vacuum tube transmitters are also fascinating and like the new digital model represent the state of the art of their era. The longevity of the classic designs is incomparable, as good as the new digital transmitter is it's doubtful it will have a service life approaching the classic designs. Great stuff, thank you for posting.
You hit it out of the park again Randy! Give us more...
Greg W7HRC
Very well done and informative. Thank you.
Here in the New York City area if 710 wor goes off the are which they did for transmitter maintenance few months ago WLW comes in like a local here
Yeah. WOR is a powerhouse too. I believe WABC and WOR both have the best transmitters in the NY market. If your on a long drive, tune to ABC or WOR, it just keeps going! WLW has come in OK if you go out to the east end of Long Island, WOR comes in fine, but doesn't have as much bleed through as if you're anywhere from north jersey to central Long Island.
Muy interesante, buen trabajo y gracias por difundir esta información y este trozo de historia de la radio, 73 thanks Randy
took over WZIP from Ted (Kendrick) who was part-timing it. Glad to see he is still around at least in 2013. good dude
Thanks so much for posting. I have seen several videos of WLW transmitters, but this video is really a nice display. I wished during the New Year of 2000 that the one transmitter was actually on the air. I would have tuned in to listen to it, I was living in Dallas,TX at that time. I know I have heard it in the 70's because I grew up in Indianapolis. Again thanks for posting this great video. Oh yea one of these days I want to see this site, with the radio tower in person.
It is so great that they have kept all those transmitters around.
+K7AGE +1! Glad they did! Great tech history at 1 station!
He said that a particular 50KW transmitter had no iron in the modulation path. That is very interesting, as a Cobra 148GTL CB radio does not either in AM mode. The final transistor is biased at 1/2 B+ voltage. The audio drives that regulator that then increases and decreases the B+ at the audio rate modulating the final and driver at 100%. And it works beautifully! No CB radio sounds better on AM than a Cobra 148GTL CB radio! Now has the punch! That old WLW transmitter was ahead of its time. With transistors she would be booming today!!
Love this stuff! Thank you Randy! George Thomas W5JDX just put up a video about his tour of VOA Bethany. Apparently Crosley was the authority on MW superpower in the 30's. R.J. Rockwell, originator of the Cathinode, was called upon by the government during WWII to design and build (with the help of RCA, GE, etc) Voice of America's equipment.
I remember when they did the millennium thing. I was actually listening to them during that whole ordeal. Was funny they thought the world was going to end. Was a big deal. Now its hindsight.
Interesting on the Harris how it modulates, You would figure todays technology the exciter could be SDR. modulation is generated into the carrier wave mathematically in the programmable DSP which is then shaped and amplified to its output. If you did it that way, simple software routines to add IBOC, RDS, c-QUAM, etc could be implemented without any hardware change.
Fun stuff. that 500kw transmitter was massive. wholy hell....
nice... i pick it up in central florida every morning till about 11am with varying signal levels... first thing in the morning it's pretty strong
Fab vid really loved seeing the 5 0 K Continental in the corner,didn't know .about the engineer before now well done guys
Thanks Randy. Great video...keep them coming.
From "Down Under"
the last transmitter (the digital one) is pretty much a Class D Amp
Nice, thank you.
Nice video. Has anyone ever calculated the energy savings from no VSWR? Curious what it would amount to.
AM transmitters sure have changed.
O wow wow . Listened to y'all all my life. Would love to see that power amp. Out it in my basement. Ha. Love it thank you wlw , thank you Nichola Tesla , f. Graham, n r.j. rockwell
excellent...
I couldn't care less about those modern units but I could sit in a lawn chair with a 30 pack and just stare at that old one all night and the next day.
For the same reason there are still cars with carburetors and an EM pulse will not effect them.
Boy I sure would love to be able to run 50 kW's thew my Ham Radio lol.
tell me about it😆
Randy, I always enjoy your video. Meet @ "onair", here is DS4GVQ in South Korea.
they have been using that same tower all those years?!
nzoomed yep, there was 2 other regular towers but they got taken down a long time ago
I just ordered an old 833 triode. I just now saw positive grid voltage,current .The triode needs compensation somehow. MBO . "When the boss invents." When will a new "Commodore Computer" be built? What are red green blue returns on the monitor 15 pin connector? So a video card is turned into a commodore. A z80 with eprom can replace the 6567 graphics chip. How are antennas connected together?
Yep, we get WLW down here in Florida in the wee hours of the morning.
And now, you know where those watts come from....
Loud and clear in Atlantic City New Jersey at 11:30 p.m.
heya k7age, any idea if that continental has been used since this video?
I have no idea. Maybe try and contact Ted at WLW? From Geoff's description, it seems to be operational, at the time of the video recording.
Why do they keep all the old transmitters?
It’s called history. So you can see where we came from.
The saddest thing in the world is the only thing left of something is a picture. Someone that hasn’t been born yet will never understand some things without a standing example. Take a battleship for example. Till you walk through one, you never get the true size and scope.
sweet, I live by the KFI station in orange county, 100,000 watts i can get it clear 150miles away with like the worst internal ferrite bar radio sitting on the floor, with a decent dipole it goes even further just hard with all the other stations
KFI does not broadcast with 100,000 watts. The maximum power allowed for commercial AM broadcasting is 50,000 watts.
Any chance of them "restoring" the old TX'ers? Shame to leave them in such a dismal state. Especially the 500KW unit. All that is history there.
I can hear this station from Chicago
intresting
From the days when AM was King...
Someone send me money to get there...I'll move there n love it on the streets. I live in McAlester, Oklahoma now...so antique. I may just move there cause history of wlw... I'll come if y'all find me. I'm all broadcasting. Graduated and talking...
I read that the signal was so strong that there was daylight reception as far away as Australia, and people living within view of the transmitters could pick up the signal by attaching earphones to their barbed wire fences. Probably exaggerations,
MrUnidyne I saw a 500 Kw coverage map for WLW once...ant the 0.5 m,V/m contour was as far south as north Georgia, eastern Iowa, southern Ontario, and near Baltimore. They verified QSL reports from every continent on earth.
I saw some reference to 'singing' pots and pans, neon signs that never went dark etc. That's some strong EMF there.
I've heard stories about residents near the tower receiving WLW through their bedframes.
Wow
Anyone know the Jingle Package the Top of the Hour came from? 00:00 - 00:12
+MendotaTech Not sure, I found it somewhere when I was editing.
Is WLW an independent station or does it belong to a network?
Not sure, check their web page.
According to their website, they are carriers of ABC News Network and also they live stream to iHeart Radio.
WLW is owned by iHeart media.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WLW
Can that be tuned to 40 meters? I have an idea. LOL
And, you told your boss, I don't know what happened?
old technology was damn reliable compared to new technology.
And if you know how the old analog technology works, some of the older but well-made tube stereo amplifiers can play music that sounds more natural and real then any digital amplifier anywhere. I first started investigating lamp when I was in junior high and some of the audio files who had high-end stereo turntables said they would put their turntables up against any compact disc player
I can pick up 700 WLW in North Dakota at night. LOL
+hornfrog32 Now you know how and where the RF comes from.
Yup, pretty cool stuff. I grew up in Cincy, and I've listened to 700 WLW from Texas to North Dakota.
Can you donate one to me XD
Radio Pushka I wish XD
WLW. AM. 700. .
Lots of endless talk about sports and much ado about nothing. Most of the programming is completely irrelevant an hasn't served the public interest in decades. Ninety percent of their audience doesn't care about Cincinnati sports teams. Very limited appeal, big waste of electricity.
Mo salah😂
stop saying "SO"!!!!!!!!!!!