1.4 MILLION watt Shortwave station WRMI Florida
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- I was able to get a tour through the WRMI shortwave station out at Okeechobee. 1.4 megawatt transmitter site. If you want to see some huge antennas, tubes and transformers, check out this video.
Support HamRadioConcepts at paypal.me/hamradioconcepts/1
I will add that after the various comments of the fast moving and shaky camera, I realize when I just watched this again, that this was before I had my good Sony 4K camera, with stabilization. It would have been nice to have this camera for that tour, but I'm sorry for what came out. Still watchable tho.
I thought it was a great video! Nevermind all the nay-sayers! It MUST've been good enough to watch, or they wouldn't have watched it! Some people just like to complain! I was a fellow radio hobbyist & even had a TV shop for awhile so found this video fascinating! Sure do miss it! Thanks for posting it! Regards, Ross
I would like to have been with you that day. Never mind what anyone says. I want a 1.4 mega watt station. Love those old signs! And the chickens walking around. Rhombic antennae? Can you imagine the size of the speaker that would handle 1.4 million watts of power? It would have to be about 10 miles X 10 miles, ya think? And what a voice coil!
Don't apologize. We're just happy to have the video at all.
Great video! WRMI is the main station that my own show "VORW Radio Int." is transmitted from, I hope to tour the facility myself one day.
TheReportOfTheWeek Hey, cool to see you. You use 1Million watts on this setup? That's a lot of power... Do you get to operate or tweak any of that equipment while doing your show or do people run it for you if you mind me asking? I would love to operate equipment or even just to work there.
Holy fuck, did not expect to see you here. You are allot more interesting then I initially thought.
Did you get a ham license?
Holy crap! It's the dapper guy that reviews fast food! Glad to see you're also into shortwave. Can't wait to take one of my SW radios and listen to your show.
I'm literally here to learn his to get in get on your station
I checked out WRMI earlier this evening. They were transmitting on 12 separate frequencies, and only 1 of them was Brother Stair. --73 de N3TS.
world harvest radio the owner is an abba member. Their around 3.830.
@Timothy Stockman, Brother Stair was interesting to listen to! I received him from a clear channel broadcast band station when I lived in New Mexico. 73 de KB5ZDW
Interesting tour and having worked in SW Broadcast for several years and in using very high power RF for science work it brought back memories.
Modern power tetrodes are a far cry from their glass envelope ancestors and incorporate advanced construction techniques operating at MW levels up to 200MHz (Diacrodes). Vacuum tubes are "not dead yet" (M Python) and will be around for the foreseeable future!
Awesome radio !!
Hello! In my oppinion -this radio station can use also as militarty station for digital data transmission using TLS or other crypto technologies. Because a communication satellite can been damage by a rocket or laser. There are only several chinese radiostation in SW broadcasting band in Europe.
WRMI Radio Miami International
1.4 megawatts will likely be heard on the Moon if directed that way. That type of power on UHF could probably be heard outside the solar system.
Lol oh god, a nasa boy,, I could talk with you for months, wouldn't be easy for you mind 😂
@@alanchatfield4271 I think you posted on the wrong thread. Nobody mentioned NASA. That is an outdated American institution which little, except maybe Americans, think about today. Even when they were at their apex, they were using Nazi scientists and technology to accomplish what they did. You must be American to even bring NASA up.
People that believe the moon to be something that can be landed upon are normally nasa fans,,, I got to go, I shouldn't have said anything,
@@alanchatfield4271 you say that as if those who do believe in the moon are the weirdos. Come back to reality!
@@clevername8832 look in to it, may take 10 years but worth it, make fun of me if you like it don't matter to me
Step 1: Build and oversized Qi coil.
Step 2: Install it on top of your Tesla.
Step 3: Park under those antennas and charge your car for free.
It would be a wireless charger like what the cordless phones of the early 2000s had.
I saw a handmade sign in a transmitter site that said “nobody with a steel plate in their head allowed past this point. Last guy with a plate pissed himself and tried to sue us.”
Engineer had an odd sense of humor.
@Doug Taylor, the RE wasn't joking and he wasn't concerned about anybody getting hurt. He was concerned that said metal plate would detune the transmitter! Lol
Thanks for the tour. I’ve always been fascinated by broadcast towers and transmitter buildings.
Desert Inn is no longer :( A semi lost control and took out a large portion of the restaurant and hotel. (Restaurant closed about 6month prior.
Jonathan Owens oh god I saw that damage riding through there twice with my uncle, pretty bad
@@ntekniklaus3710 :( that's so sad to hear about what happened. Hoping they can rebuild it someday
Where is the hotel located?
That's a crazy amount of power. Incredible the engineering that goes into that. Just the antennas alone. I presume those are very precisely setup so they can beam form to the regions they want.
It is NOT 1,4 Mega Watt.
Transmitters: Twelve 100,000 watt and one 50,000 watt. All are high-level plate modulated (some include supplementary screen and control grid modulation). Some are entirely air-cooled; some also use water cooling and vapor-phase cooling. The transmitter building is 16,000 square feet. The 13 transmitters consist of two 100 kW Continental 418-Ds, and eight composite-construction 100 kW transmitters based on the 418-D but built by WYFR. One of the transmitters has been retrofitted with a solid state modulator and could be converted to DRM digital operation. There are three older Gates/Harris transmitters (1 x 50-kilowatt and 2 x 100-kilowatt). All of the 100-kw transmitters can also be operated at 50 kilowatts, and one of them is able to operate at a continuously-variable power level up to 100 kilowatts.
Dorothy. You R smart that make s u hot
It is NOT 1.4 Mega Watt? Then, what is it actually? And how many different customers can use this radio station at a time?
Hi Dorothy Gale, It sounds highly expensive to operate. Is this all subsidized by civil defense or?
@@chickey333 I think the TOTAL power output of all 13 transmitters are about 1.4 MW. Each transmitter operates on different frequencies. At 6:30, the screen only indicates 6 transmitters active. The output is NOT 1.4 MW on any one frequency.
Trey Hart what is the electric bill cost?
I would like to have a radio station like that but not the power bill
Old call KE6ZWL
13:16 - 13:56 I used to work on amplifiers which used similar transformers (but with three cores for three-phase power) to power the driver stages. The main P.A. power supply and output transformers were the size of small automobiles, and the output tubes (two [huge] triodes in push-pull) were water-cooled at 300 gpm (two 20-hp pumps)!
In any case, this was a great video. Thank you for taking the time to produce and post.
73 DE KI6DCB
At any transmitter plant--that "Jesus" stick-"lightening stick" is your friend-use them out of habit!!!SAVES LIVES--better the "SNAP" thru the hook rather than YOU!!!
That and florescent light bulbs for light when doing yard maintenance. Just ask Ted Randell wtww Nashville, TN and his son Patrick.
Its nice to see a good old fashioned QRP station take on the Italians at their own game.
My brother (who winters in Okeechobee) and I drove out there in late 2012 when WYFR (Family Radio) was still broadcasting from that facility. We got the nickel tour. At that time the place was a real dump. They had plastic sheeting on top of many of the cabinets and racks along with lots of buckets from the leaky roof. It looks much better now. Lots of new equipment and the building has been repaired/remodeled. Somewhere I have a couple of 8MM video tapes of our tour, including an extensive view of the antennas. Thanks for sharing your video guys. It was a treat to see it after someone invested a lot of money and a little TLC.
Some of that plastic sheeting can be seen in this video! 15:45, on the right side of the picture.
What’s the electric bill cost?
What a tour. Thanks guys. This represents some really old time heavy duty engineering. Anyone know or remember what a slide rule is?
only rule of slide I remember is feet first .
Some burning questions in the back of my mind as I watched this.
1) Who pays for all that? What's the business/revenue model?
2) Who's listening? Who would even think to get an AM SW receiver these days?
3) What content is carried on those frequencies?
I can't imagine the utility bill for that plot of land being all that cheap and how something like that in 2019 could be ever be viable...
...but still neat to see!! Thanks for sharing.
@@mayshack I listen to their spanish broadcasts here in Germany. Frecuencia al día DX related programs.
Neat tour, thank you. They must have some interesting business relationships. It's typical of nation states to have the cash to get their message out on such a scale.
I stumbled onto this video - it was cool as could be. Now I'm off to find more shortwave radio station tours. I wanna see some big PA tubes, massive coils, and deadly xformers.
Wonder why they don't offset the power requirements with solar panels and windmills. Certainly have enough land.
If I owned a 1MW shortwave station, the callsign would have to be WRFI or WEMI
What about WEMP? Or WQRM?
Everyone shutting down everyone going digital or retired even my friend shutdown he’s repeater to go digital using no equip I always like all the equip racks and doing the technical stuff I always enjoy using analog and using the earth as the (internet)
1 May 2019, the solar flux index was 66. The Sun is at a grand solar minimum. Radio propagation is very low. There are no sunspots at all right now. People are leaving all radio hobbies in droves. Growing up, a walkie talkie on 27 megacycles would transmit across the continent. They were amazing times. Today, 1500 watts on a home transmitter may transmit to the next city over. Frequencies that were extremely busy in the 1990s are nothing but ghost bands now. Hmm, maybe I should try EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) on 10 meters. I can actually try it in hundreds of frequencies now. They are all dead.
My parents have a Phillips receiver from 1958, and with some time at home I connected a home made antenna and was able to pick up from Toronto the broadcast on May 4th at 3:00 PM at 15770kHz. Pretty cool for my first time using a short wave. Thanks for the video.
This is the station I am going broadcast at 6:00-6:05 pm EST at December 24
16:53 - That guy on the left looks like Gabe Newell from Valve.
The rf instantly pasteurizes and homogenizes the grazing cow's milk.
Also pretenderizes the beef too
@@sighpocket5 oh yea that too lol all these benefits I can understand why the farmer likes a quarter million watt radio station on his land a win,win.
@@sighpocket5 I'd be surprised if the farmer won't be able to find his cows at night the cows should glow in the dark as if he's using a thermal imaging camera.
Wow. Excellent tour. I lived in South East Florida for 29 years and have been up in that area, but never knew this station existed. Remarkable engineering. Thank You All.
Where’s the turboencabulator?
But this is all really interesting, I’ve always wanted to get into ham radio, but never have really been able to.
@MoonMoon, becoming an amateur radio operator, builder or designer requires an interest in the subject. Are you really interested? If you are, get in touch with the local Amateur Radio Club and one of the many books available to help you study for a Technician Class license. From there, hang out with amateur radio operators and learn all you can from them. The ARRL Handbook is a must have pub. It has everything in it; electronics theory, home brew projects, antenna design, rules of operation, etc. Come join us!
73's KB5ZDW
Thanks for the tour! I passed this station around Christmas '84 and lusted after their curtain array!
Reminds me of the Navy radio stations in San Diago and Charelston.
DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE
KEEP OUT.Not only will it kill you but it will hurt the whole time you're dying. Borrowed from youtuber AvE. Seemed appropriate here.
They need to buy his signs.
@@earledward8766 I've watched a coworker die from an arc flash. He died in extreme agony. Had nightmares for years following.
Yeah, I seem to recall a brief period in the late 80-the-mid-90s when Commercial/Private SW broadcasting was taking off in the US. Up until that point, most SW broadcasting was either the US Government (VOA) or religious broadcasters, i.e. WYFR the previous owner of the Okeechobee facility, KGEI, and a few others. The new wave of commercial broadcasters were news and entertainment-oriented with formats similar to US domestic broadcasters. I believe that most failed and were shut down altogether or bought out by other broadcasters, The survivors like WRMI sold airtime to major int'l broadcasters like BBC, CRI, R.Japan, etc.
I left the hobby in the mid-90s, not certain what happed to the likes of...
*KGEI San Francisco
KUSW Salt Lake City
KNLS Alaska
WGTG Copperhill TN
WSHB Maine/WCSN South Carolina (Christian Science Monitor)
*WINB Red Lion, Pa
KAJI (I forgot where they were transmitting from and the QSL do not show a location)
WHRI South Bend, IN
WRNO New Orleans
WWCR Nashville TN
WJCR Upton KY
*WMLK Bethel PA
I do recall a station in Texas (near Dallas), but the call sign escapes me.
*KGEI, WINB, and WMLK predated the Commerical growth in the 90s.
motormouth maul will still key down over this station
No Valve porn which is a shame. Still, grand video non the less, thanks...DA.
Old timer: just tune for maximum power and minimum smoke! Just don't worry about the FCC.
Thanks for the great tour! 73
i am curious what the average monthly electric bill is
Minimum $10,000 per 100,000 watt transmitter. There's 14.
Andy Millgrove so REALLY where was that money coming from???? You really think people were mailing old Harold millions upon millions of dollars a year? If so his outfit would have qualified as one of the largest charities on the planet , how ultimately stupid
No radio expert, but I can do some basic math. Assuming exactly 1.4 MW is consumed and they are using the commercial electric rate of about $0.096 per KWh their monthly electric cost for transmission would be $96,768. Per their website they will sell airtime for as little as $1 per minute. If each of the 14 transmitters got $1 per minute for the month the income would be $604,800. I'm sure the electric bill is higher, and I doubt they are taking in that much money. But rough numbers.
@@saxyweed
But you're basing the math on the output power right?
So the incoming power VIA the transformers would be much lower no?
I'm just thinking the 1.4Mw RF output wouldn't be anywhere close to the actual AC current coming in being consumed.
Higher the voltage lower the wattage as the general rule goes no?
Lol idk just thinking out loud, not claiming i know anything but there's got to be a major difference i would think.
I mean it's not like they're feeding the building 2 million Watts to cover both the building lighting etc and the transmitters. And Watts always sound so much higher than ampers by number but really doesn't compare.
1.4Mw / 440v = 314amps feed give or take.
Just going by the voltage he quoted in the video for an example, if my simple math used is remotely correct, lol.
I learn so much from the comment section :)
Transmitter not putting out 1.4MW but is the erp from the antenna.
Exactly!
Yes. Wonder what the beam looks like?
When taking over a small radio station the former engineer told me the Jesus stick was named so because if you didn't use it the next person you would see is Jesus.
James Halfhorse lol
I don't get how the stations pays for itself. I mean all that power, equipment, land, and utility bill, and upkeep, on something that hardly anyone listens to except for some remote countries and parts of Europe.. I mean FM is less popular in this computer / bluetooth age, and AM only gets a fraction of FM in viewers and shortwave listeners is only a fraction of AM.. Other than hams, I mean whom has a shortwave capability today..
Scott Anon The person putting on the program pays. Someone like RG Stair has deep enough pockets to be on several shortwave stations simultaneously. There are SWLs (shortwave listening hobbyists), not just people in third world countries who listen in.
Domestic AM is still popular for sports, religion and political talk. Coast To Coast AM is pretty popular. I listen to AM in my area and there are home improvement shows, investment shows, real estate shows, etc. Advertisers pay for that.
Given how much of this programming is religious, I suspect they pay for it by hitting up the elderly for donations.
What an awesome tour & thanks so much for it all, Eric & deeply grateful for you sharing it with all of us to enjoy!.
Kudos to all the crew with you, as always, they do a spectacular job in sharing their views.
I am always spellbound by the mega size of everything with these transmitters & setups when compared to what we use in ham radio from the feedlines, antennas, baluns, power supplies, finals...
Wished I could be there in FL to have checked it out up close.
Coming from VK where we're only allowed 400W EIRP, 1.4MW is a pipe dream to us.
Loved every second & God bless!
*Is this where that annoying reverend staircase spews his BS come from* ?
The support cables on these antennas speak to the danger of extreme wind down here. A hurricane pushes these antennas so much, they really do _need_ them.
Here's hoping Michael hurricane did not do any damage to this property! Can't imagine the repair bill for ANY of that equipment!
they should put them underground in a bunker of some sort
@@dylanlockler1039 yep, put the antenna's in there too
Had never heard of WRMI until RUclips recommended this video. The scale of the thing is impressive: it reminds me of the Jim Creek Naval Radio Station in Washington state. Thanks for sharing.
Dave Beedon
I just got a used sw radio from my dad. Dialed in this station this station by accident. Came to youtube and this video popped up. :-0
We had one like this in Canada near sackville the CBC used it for shortwave broadcast to and from Europe and beyond. They tore it all down recently
I just saw the Desert Inn on Saturday while heading to Miami....A truck smashed into it. Half of it is on its side. This was on 1/18/2020
I heard about that. Very sad.
Yes really sad
I remberthe VOA site near Dayton Ohio you could see all the long wire antennas from I 75 it’s all gone now
Did you get a peek at their power bill?
Great video Eric. You really edited that together well.
Interesting... wonder if this is where all the old LORAN techs go to die.....
No just the old pirates from England. The North sea. The old LORAN techs go to Monticello, Main the old airfield wxme, wbcq fm and international shortwave.
Great tour ... and not a single MFJ item in sight. 😀
What type of programming do they xmit? It would have to be commercial, right? I haven't listened to SW in years, mega, years. probably since the late 60'tys.
Please walk me through this. I get shortwave and it’s wide reach capability. I don’t understand the reason and economics of why transmitters in Florida are used for countries to the south for example. Is the signal reaching non internet locations? Are there radio stations in the south rebroadcasting in AM or FM for public listening or is this all a hobby? How are all these costs being paid by? Is the input signal coming in by phone lines or internet? Can someone walk me (or all of us) through this please? Thanks much... who pays the electric bill and how much is that?
WRMI makes money by selling its airtime to anyone who wants to get on the air - you have religious programs, music shows, conspiracy talk shows, foreign governments who buy time to relay their International Broadcaster etc. I have a show on WRMI where I play music and take requests, I do it a few times a week and it still reaches a good number of listeners. The show reaches Amateur Radio Operators and Hobbyists, listeners in remote or rural areas, listeners in developing countries and people who just like listening to shortwave! I send the shows in over the internet and I go out on 4 frequencies of theirs (9955 kHz, 9395 kHz, 7780 kHz, 5850 kHz).
TheReportOfTheWeek Thank you for your detailed reply. From an economic affordability perspective, the high wattage suggests a very expensive electric bill. One smaller station in Texas indicated in a video that it pays $500 a day in power costs. Are these shortwave channels subsidized in the interest of civil defense or national security? Otherwise it sounds like it would be too expensive.
How can they do with the storms or with a cyclone?
3:21: ~~TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT IN PROGRESS~~
Laughing my ass off!
my show aired at 0500utc last night from here at 7780khz
And now I know why I can receive this station strongly from 1400 miles away with an antenna tuned for the 2m band.
It also looks every bit as new and clean as I expected.
I am listening to this rite now i believe from North Eastern Pa Wayne County
Been about 2 years since this video, but I discovered WRMI in the summer of 2018. I just finished restoring an old Hallicrafters tube-type shortwave radio, found on the side of the road (it was on top of some old furniture). And in the wee hours, I get a station playing (if I remember right) 1970's pop. This was received in MA.
14:55 Damn those are some big Caps!!!
Indeed
Now I'm gonna look up WRMI to see what freq they're on.
Can I get this station on my Yaeso FT-70DR? I have the radio and know nothing about it. Trying to learn but havent heard a damn thing come over this thing yet.
@@private7384 thats a uhf vhf radio..
Which is a better radio??i have a choice between tecsun r9700dx or pl 380 and i need help if possible...tough choice
I just finished copying the Shortwave Radiogram program from WRMI on 9395khz!
Awesome!!
Digital SUCKS and will lead to a HUGH downfall! Why does Digital suck? Remember when you had Analog TV? You could eventually get in a station your adjusting the antennas too? Well- in digital you either have a GREAT signal or none. Same applies to Analog vs Digital for 2 way radios. You need a great signal or your literally cut off. The WHOLE purpose of Analog is to REACH people. Not force them into a new commercial 'mode' that costs big $ and is almost useless in many scenarios.....
At 10 cents / kWh, this thing costs at least $140 / hr just on electricity alone (and probably a lot more counting losses and auxiliaries). They must make a lot of money selling advertising to cover that.
pretty expensive, antiquated equipment....the internet is much easier to get your message across the world....shortwave transmitter stations are going the way of the dinosaurs. Internet shortwave requires a switch, server, router and a laptop....minus the high voltage.
wormy radio ..... No disrespect meant. It's an awesome operation with an unfortunate call sign when you try to say it phonetically
Geeeee-eez!!! The scale is incomprehensible!! Kinda like the wlw station. Thank you for this vid!!
Years ago we would stop by a high power transmitter antenna aray. Place fingertips lightly on car window and feel the power on tips of fingers. I think it was a HAARP station.
Was this built by HAMs or was it built for some commercial or governmental purpose?
Everything is staticly charged ! Don't touch anything . 10000 wats , is nothing to.sneeze at if you want to live .
this was a learning experience. I am guessing that the antennas are not resonant? That is why they use a balun between the output of the transmitter and the antenna??? It sounded like they do tune the "balun" ??? can anybody clarify??
I haven't bothered to watch much of this. So how is it 1.4 mega watts? Can you explain to me how that is achievable? Fucking useless hams.
Chattilla to. Veruthe asha kodutha ashane. Ana koduthalum asha chechi kodakaruthu.
Koothirpu undakum. Asha chechi. Aliya ultra violet pallu. Akkiyechu. Pallu ka nichu nadakuva.
Avaluku mansilayi. Njan Arey kurucha parinje nnu. Ambaddi Kalli. Ni enne chathichu alledi bhayankari. Sho Nasir sir. Thakarthu. Road.
Is this a Christian station? Where are the studios, "Downtown" Okeechobee, lol?
Thanks for the great tour! Thanks for sharing. 73. KJ4URG
I'd love to hang out there and be paid, but I'm afraid I'd shirk the PM. I guess that's why we have bosses.
Their electric bill must be in the $ hundreds of thousands each month.
There is always one who must ask the stupid question, WHY?
Just one question. Who pays the electric bill ? 🤔.........If you can just be a "little" specific.
Near the end it seems they do not have a 1.4 million watt Xmitter, but 14 100K Xmitters.
Do the multiple antennas have anything to do with frequency changes or to direct the signal toward different areas?
22 mins in "globe" oh dear,, also don't these people know what they are really looking at, it all to do with our weather, come on people
100 kW? Thought it might be one of those big-gun ham contest stations... :-)
Cool video. I now know what those strange arrays do that you see driving around
Hey, what's this red button for?⚡🌠✨💫🌟💥🔥biiiizzzp!🤣
Imagine trying to find a single noisy intermittent component like a transistor or cap in this conglomeration!
The world's largest commercial broadcast station.
lol @ "fallopian tube" and "flux capacitor"!! 73 de KE5LIB!
Who pays for this facility. Is there money to be made in shortwave radio?
What if all these man go into retirement? American education sucks.
So what are they transmitting, music, weather, news???
So what are they transmitting, music, weather, news???
I like the restaurant, I have been there. I have driven by the transmitter many times. Thanks for showing what is inside.