This appeared on eBay today:
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AM Transmitter for $1
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
Maybe it'll find a home with some interested hobbyist. Wonder if there's a reserve?
Difficult to haul away?
Looks like it still has PCBs.
Where is it? Quito, Ecuador?
Looks like it still has PCBs.
Where is it? Quito, Ecuador?
Looks like it's in Dodge County, Wisconsin.
Wow, steal of a deal! I suspect it's on the medium-wave band and therefore that 1kw probably requires a license, then hauling it... that dollar is deceptive. And tempting. Hopefully it finds a good owner, per-say a hobbyist who will dedicate his/her time to the station and make it high quality and local.
Thank you for sure. Here's the actual listing: RCA Broadcast transmitter-1000 watts | eBay
As I suspected, it is AM MW.
Here's another one.
Harris AM broadcast transmitter-1000 watt | eBay
Harris MW-1A broadcast transmitter 1000 watt. Believe to be installed in 1979. Do not know if it works but appears to have all parts from the final day is was in use. Pickup only at 53916. Thanks!
www.ebay.com
The Harris is apparently from WBEV 1430 Beaver Dam, WI. Good Karma owns that station. For some reason, I thought it was owned by Magnum Communications. The RCA looks like it's from the same seller. Apparently an RCA BTA-1R put into service in 1970.
Similar.
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http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=50552
Similar.
front-corrected-door.jpg
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they are trying to dump it rather than pay the disposal costs for the PCB's in the components
That brings up the story of a smaller station in SoCal that had PCB components they replaced in a transmitter. They called all over, from the EPA to companies that handled PCB disposal. The government entities sent them to the private companies. The private companies were structured for large volumes, such as power companies and factories, and had a base rate... all of them... of over $25,000. So, out of desperation, the engineer set out with the items late at night and put them in a dumpster behind a 7-11.
This is a case of where rules, regulations and laws are enacted, but the consequences are not evaluated or measured. If other radio stations with old transmitters had to do similar things, we can imagine how the "cure" was worse than the problem.
Reminds me a little of my parents' neighbor when I was a kid. He had a few TV sets that had given up the ghost. This was back in the days of CRT TVs that were built into some really ornate and nicely appointed cabinetry in some cases. The guy wanted to turn the cabinetry into a desk or other piece of furniture, but the trash guys wouldn't haul the tubes away, he heard they could explode or store huge voltages and if one came into contact you'd risk serious electric shock, so he ended up bringing each of the console TVs out in back of his house, unbolted the big CRT from its mounting, dug as deep a hole as he could and dumped the CRT into the ground and buried it. He did that with both sets before taking the gutted wooden consoles back inside, stripping out the speakers and audio components and turning the used cabinetry into furniture.
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Also note that you can't ship vacuum tubes, or anything containing them, internationally on eBay. Their "Global Shipping Program", privately contracted and run by Pitney Bowes, considers them to be a "hazardous substance" and will dispose of them if they receive any! It seems that someone there heard about mercury rectifier tubes, and now they incorrectly think all tubes contain mercury.
community.ebay.com
DANGER GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM IS SEIZING AUDIO VACUUM TUBES AND DESTROYING THEM
Hi everyone, My name is George and I have been selling and buying on ebay for 20 years with several accounts, selling mostly vintage Audio Equipment, Vintage Tubes and vintage Ford parts and always with excellent feedback ratings. I am now down to one account and trying to sell off my remaining...
Anymore, trying to ship these old devices or their parts around, isn't worth the effort. A friend of mine used to collect military surplus radios. Primarily Navy issue. He had a basement, plus two storage facilities full of the stuff. When he died of a massive heart attack, his poor kids got to clean all of it out. That includes all the hazardous disposal fees. Talk about your hobby becoming a massive burden for your kids. The real shame is; all that gear that he literally searched the world for, ended up being a lot of pain for his family, eventually scrapped.
I know a family who was left with a whole basement full of that Dayton swap meet stuff when he died. I took the stuff I could carry and store out. I tried to get some hams to help carry out the 2 or 3 R-390s and other heavy stuff, but we just couldn't time it right. I shudder to think about those R-390s and what happened to them. But unless you literally have a nice cabin in the woods in an electrically quiet area with a good roof and no holes for varmints to get through in the Winter, you really couldn't use them to their capabilities anyway. I don't even think Omena, Central and Northern Lower Michigan, and similar towns are electrically quiet anymore. The best I can do is park the car on some state lands and parks, and try to avoid the rangers wondering why I have all these funny looking antennas and other equipment, and who I was communicating with, while they whip out their walkie talkies with rubber duckies and call headquarters.
A guy doing monitor points for Keener 13 back in the day got yelled at by lady and questioned as to what he was doing in front of her house. He explained that he was "measuring radiation levels for the federal government". The lady asked if the radiation levels were OK, and he told her "unfortunately they're high, very high, ma'am". That got her to go back in her house until he moved on to the next MP. There's a picture of the house in the 1960 NAB Engineering Handbook where the monitor point was, somewhere around Dearborn.
500px-R390A.png
A guy doing monitor points for Keener 13 back in the day got yelled at by lady and questioned as to what he was doing in front of her house. He explained that he was "measuring radiation levels for the federal government". The lady asked if the radiation levels were OK, and he told her "unfortunately they're high, very high, ma'am". That got her to go back in her house until he moved on to the next MP. There's a picture of the house in the 1960 NAB Engineering Handbook where the monitor point was, somewhere around Dearborn.
500px-R390A.png
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Interesting, I never knew ebay had such a policy. Ive made multiple international tube purchases via ebay other the years. Nothing major, several 4CX1500A's, 572B's, and smaller receiving tubes for vintage radios I restored. Pretty sure we used UPS or FedEx, or maybe I just got lucky šAlso note that you can't ship vacuum tubes, or anything containing them, internationally on eBay. Their "Global Shipping Program", privately contracted and run by Pitney Bowes, considers them to be a "hazardous substance" and will dispose of them if they receive any! It seems that someone there heard about mercury rectifier tubes, and now they incorrectly think all tubes contain mercury.
DANGER GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM IS SEIZING AUDIO VACUUM TUBES AND DESTROYING THEM
Hi everyone, My name is George and I have been selling and buying on ebay for 20 years with several accounts, selling mostly vintage Audio Equipment, Vintage Tubes and vintage Ford parts and always with excellent feedback ratings. I am now down to one account and trying to sell off my remaining...
I've mentioned it before, but ive found Michigan's thumb area to be one of the most isolated, electrically quiet places near here. My in-laws cabin near Port Hope is one of the only locations I've found in the lower peninsula that antennaweb.org returns no results for terrestrial over the air television availability. Ive spent lots of time FM DxIng there, and its not unusual to receive stations from extreme northeastern Ontario to Rochester NY with only minimal enhancement. Almost at will. Located about 4 miles inland from Lake Huron.
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