When 700 WLW Was 500,000 Watts

[Gregg]

According to Wikipedia, WLW operated under a special authorization at 500,000 watts from 1934 to 1941. My dad, who lived about 100 miles away in Chillicothe, Ohio for several years in that time period, tells me everyone in his neighborhood listened to WLW for the popular shows. He wasn't aware of any local station. He just remembers WLW.

With that kind of wattage, I'm sure some DXers picked up the station in Europe, Asia and South America. But I wonder if the station also was like a local in most of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. My dad didn't know that WLW had an unusual power. He just took it for granted that this Cincinnati station was his local station, even though it was about 100 miles away while Columbus was only 35 miles away. People went to Columbus a few times a year for shopping, entertainment, special doctors, etc. but they all listened to a Cincinnati radio station.

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[radioman148]

According to Wikipedia, WLW operated under a special authorization at 500,000 watts from 1934 to 1941. My dad, who lived about 100 miles away in Chillicothe, Ohio for several years in that time period, tells me everyone in his neighborhood listened to WLW for the popular shows. He wasn't aware of any local station. He just remembers WLW.

With that kind of wattage, I'm sure some DXers picked up the station in Europe, Asia and South America. But I wonder if the station also was like a local in most of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. My dad didn't know that WLW had an unusual power. He just took it for granted that this Cincinnati station was his local station, even though it was about 100 miles away while Columbus was only 35 miles away. People went to Columbus a few times a year for shopping, entertainment, special doctors, etc. but they all listened to a Cincinnati radio station.

Gregg
[email protected]

When I first became interested in DXing around 1960, WLW was the first station I picked up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. When I mentioned to my dad that I liked hearing out of town stations he said "try for WLW--I could always pick that one up". I'm sure he was referring to the days when they were running on high power.
I wonder what the bleed over was like if you were near their transmitter?

 

[microbob]

It would be neat if the could fire the old transmitter up for a few minutes one late night.

 

[radioman148]

It would be neat if the could fire the old transmitter up for a few minutes one late night.

Or for an entire day. I'd love to see how their groundwave coverage would increase as well as the skywave.

 

[microbob]

Please though, No IBOC on the 500,000 Watt Monster cause it would wipe out the entire AM Band

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

For a good portion of the time that WLW was 500000 watts, it only operated during the experimental period, 12-6AM, as I recall being told. Also, CFRB Toronto, which was on 690 at the time, complained to the international authorities, and they had to go directional. It was 50 kW toward Toronto, so Ohio probably wasn't much better.

I heard that people could hear it coming out of furnaces and plumbing fixtures near the transmitter, and that if you grounded even a fairly short wire nearby it would arc.

 

[radiorob2.0]

It would be neat if the could fire the old transmitter up for a few minutes one late night.

There were stories the amplifier was fired up a few times through the years for test purposes...wink, wink, know what I mean, say no more.

I've even heard gossip that someone who shall remain nameless but a main principle in the hierarchy of ownership as well as an accomplished engineer fired up the amplifier back in the eighties for test purposes.

Here is the beast circa 1997 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaRRGi-jRM

Speaking of old school WLW, their engineer fired up the 1928 Western Electric 50kw transmitter on the evening of December 31, 1999 and utilized the unit until just after midnight January 1, 2000. The Western Electric was the transmitter that fed the 500kw amplifier.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I never tried it, but they say if you take two aluminum pie plates and insulate them with wax paper or other insulator, it will work as a radio if you are close enough to the transmitter or if you add enough wire to the plate. The amplitude modulation variation from the electromagnetic field causes the field between the plates to vary and vibrate with the modulation. This is the basis for many no detector instances of hearing audio near powerful AM transmitters like WLW.

 

[quadraphonic]

Please though, No IBOC on the 500,000 Watt Monster cause it would wipe out the entire AM Band

And some people, livestock, and animals in the wild.

 

[eskipper411]

I didn't know this. Born in the 90s and living in the 2000's, I would have not known that WLW was 500kW. What has radio become?

 

[Gregg]

I grew up about 8 miles from WABC's Lodi NJ transmitter. WABC's 50 kw signal bled into everything.

There was a pay phone nearby. When you picked it up you heard Top 40 music from WABC, not a dial tone. My dad would be working on an old reel-to-reel tape recorder he had in the basement. If he grounded it, we heard WABC. A friend of mine got walkie-talkies for Christmas but every time he keyed one of them, he got WABC.

And that was with a 50 kw station. Imagine the signal being 10 times more powerful? I'm sure some people would get WLW on their metallic tooth fillings.

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[davideduardo]

I didn't know this. Born in the 90s and living in the 2000's, I would have not known that WLW was 500kW. What has radio become?

The 500 kw operation was "experimental" and, ultimately, not renewed by the FCC. Through their last appeal in, IIRC, 1967, the original 1-A clears wanted powers of between 500 and 750 kw but that was never granted.

Of course, with 500 kw stations relatively common in Europe, the Middle East and Asia (where powers may go to 2,000,000 watts) WLW was not that exceptional. There have been several 500 kw and 1 million watt stations in the Western Hemisphere, too, although I believe that 250 kw is the highest being used today.

 

[radioman148]

I grew up about 8 miles from WABC's Lodi NJ transmitter. WABC's 50 kw signal bled into everything.

There was a pay phone nearby. When you picked it up you heard Top 40 music from WABC, not a dial tone. My dad would be working on an old reel-to-reel tape recorder he had in the basement. If he grounded it, we heard WABC. A friend of mine got walkie-talkies for Christmas but every time he keyed one of them, he got WABC.

And that was with a 50 kw station. Imagine the signal being 10 times more powerful? I'm sure some people would get WLW on their metallic tooth fillings.

Gregg
[email protected]

I grew up about 8 miles from WJJD's transmitter in Des Plaines, Il and had the same issues that you had with WABC. The only thing in my favor was that they signed off at night in those days.

 

[K4WRF]

In 1979 (if that was the year NAB was held in Dallas), a group of us dropped by the Continental Electronics factory out on Buckner Blvd and they had just completed test on a 2 Million watt transmitter that was getting ready to be shipped to Saudi Arabia. It consisted of two 1 million watt transmitters hybrid combined; regretfully it was too late to see it run. In 1993, was by there again to see test pad run on a paltry 100,000 watt SW transmitter. At that same time witnessed a medium frequency 600,000 watt under full power test. It is indeed an interesting sight to see the “ON” button pressed, hear a couple of vacuum contactors close, then see the power meter smoothly rise to 610,000 watts without a burp, it was headed to Indo-China. In 1999, went to Harris for test pad check out a little 50 kw and they had a 750,000 watt water-cooled 100% solid-state transmitter under test that was going to be shipped to mainland China if I remember correctly. Summary: what we consider as "BIG" here is the US is small potatoes elsewhere. All of these big transmitters were being sold to governments.

Not in the past and certainly not in todays economy would these power levels justify the expense in construction and ongoing operations and maintenance cost.

Best,
w/

 

[Bongwater]

....and then there's the story of Dr. Brinkley and XER/XERA, a 500,000 watt station on the Rio Grande back in the '30s......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XERA-AM

 

[davideduardo]

....and then there's the story of Dr. Brinkley and XER/XERA, a 500,000 watt station on the Rio Grande back in the '30s......

The power claims of XER and XERA were much exaggerated; Doc Brinkley used antenna gain (he used the towers as support structures for an antenna which aimed at the US via skywave) to allow him to say that the power was 1 million watts.

 

[Basnya]

Word was Doc Brinkley employed the same techs that built the 500k WLW transmitter. XERA supposedly could do a megawatt on a good night.

 

[K4WRF]

Word was Doc Brinkley employed the same techs that built the 500k WLW transmitter. XERA supposedly could do a megawatt on a good night.

There was no collaboration and the circuits were entirely different According to the late James Weldon who was the builder of the XERA transmitters and later founder of Continental Electronics. The RCA in Mason Ohio was a high-level anode modulated transmitter where the Brinkley composite was a Doherty style amplifier. Mr Weldon said the efficiency was much better and the Doherty was capable of much higher peak modulation than the high-level RCA. First hand accounts of the WLW operation reveal that constant manual gain-riding was necessary as a loud program audio burst could trip overload circuits requiring a restart. Fast peak limiting systems were not on the scene yet. Mr. Weldon did say "the Brinkley could achieve much higher power than 500kw but at the sacrifice of modulation capability". As stated earlier, towards the end of its existence, XERA later used a passive reflector to develop a 3db gain to the north, better defined as "effective Radiated power". Apparently, the Dr Brinkley greatly over stated many claims of performance in products, services and remedies he offered for sale over the air.

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/WE320A.htm

Best,

w/

 

[travisl5678]

Here's and idea, all of us DXers across the country should pool toughther enough money to pay of the FCC Fine that would come from WLW for kicking up the power to 500Kw. Just holler if you need any more good ideas

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I grew up about 8 miles from WABC's Lodi NJ transmitter. WABC's 50 kw signal bled into everything.

There was a pay phone nearby. When you picked it up you heard Top 40 music from WABC, not a dial tone. My dad would be working on an old reel-to-reel tape recorder he had in the basement. If he grounded it, we heard WABC. A friend of mine got walkie-talkies for Christmas but every time he keyed one of them, he got WABC.

And that was with a 50 kw station. Imagine the signal being 10 times more powerful? I'm sure some people would get WLW on their metallic tooth fillings.

Gregg
[email protected]

I grew up about 8 miles from WJJD's transmitter in Des Plaines, Il and had the same issues that you had with WABC. The only thing in my favor was that they signed off at night in those days.

My relatives near WJJD (about 3 miles away) didn't seem to have a problem with overload. It overwhelmed the crystal radio I brought and pinned the signal meter on the Sony CF-450 but it didn't seem to cause any problems. Of course, they had a lot of old tube radios back then. I do remember WNWC overloading the FM section of an old Zenith though.