Hi Fi AM ? Gates Vangaurd I & II

[First Fone 65]

Wonder if any of You old heads remember the Gates Vanguard I , 1 KW AM transmitter from the sixties very futuristic looking, looked more like a Broadcast console or something at NASA, than a transmitter, I remember when KNUZ 1230 put one on the air in the early sixties with a lot of fan fare, very low power efficiency 36 to 40 %, but very good fidelity " 20 Hz to 20 KHZ" if properly tuned up. according to Gates Archives.
They didn't say anything about buck shot and splatter on adjacent frequencies.

 

[KeithE4]

Wonder if any of You old heads remember the Gates Vanguard I , 1 KW AM transmitter from the sixties very futuristic looking, looked more like a Broadcast console or something at NASA, than a transmitter, I remember when KNUZ 1230 put one on the air in the early sixties with a lot of fan fare, very low power efficiency 36 to 40 %, but very good fidelity " 20 Hz to 20 KHZ" if properly tuned up. according to Gates Archives.
They didn't say anything about buck shot and splatter on adjacent frequencies.

Was that legal in the US? I thought the FCC only allowed Ancient Modulation to go to 10 kHz.

 

[frankberry]

Before the FCC required AM stations to limit their high frequency response to <10kHz, some stations actually had very wide audio responses.
An AM station where I was Chief Engineer had a Harris MW-50 (50kW) transmitter which easily passed 20Hz to 15kHz.
The Gates Vanguard I was not too reliable but when it operated, it sounded great.

 

[davideduardo]

Before the FCC required AM stations to limit their high frequency response to <10kHz, some stations actually had very wide audio responses.
An AM station where I was Chief Engineer had a Harris MW-50 (50kW) transmitter which easily passed 20Hz to 15kHz.
The Gates Vanguard I was not too reliable but when it operated, it sounded great.

It was also an "electric chair in a box"... a cute box, to be sure.

 

[Kelly A]

Yeah there are two distinct reasons you won't find many Vanguard line survivors:

1. They were unreliable.
2. There weren't many sold.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I guess we are talking about this: http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/Gates/Vanguard.htm

 

[First Fone 65]

I guess we are talking about this: http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/Gates/Vanguard.htm

That's right Frog, named after the first US space satellite launched in 1958 " Vanguard" I know the local station that put one on in the early sixties got a lot of millage out the name and touting the Space age transistor technology in it. COOL looking for the sixties when most transmitters looked like the second picture and many still do. It had a fully transistorized audio and exciter sections, with a very innovative design, with only one tube which was in the final amplifier, as I remember ?, which made it cutting edge for the time except for a number of quirks mentioned in the article.

 

[Mediafrog+]

That's right Frog, named after the first US space satellite launched in 1958 " Vanguard".

Actually the first successful U.S. satellite was Explorer 1, launched January 31, 1958. The second successful launch was of Vanguard 1 in March of that year. Vanguard 1 is still in orbit, and has the distinction of being the oldest satellite in space. It is expected to remain in orbit another 185 years.

There had been an attempt to launch another satellite named Vanguard in late 1957, but the rocket blew up on the launch pad. The satellite however was thrown clear, and is now at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I recall seeing it there some years back.