When 700 WLW Was 500,000 Watts

[Tom Wells]

The Cinncinnati airport at one time had a huge 1930s art deco mosaic displayed in a luggage pickup area that I think was originally in a train station downtown, and it is a composite idea of "WLW radio" with black panel equimpment, ring stand microphone, etc.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

With WLW's present antenna, inverse field with 500 kW would be 8456.8 mV/m at 1 km.

WWJ's night augmented maximum at 354.5 degrees with 50 kW is 7980 mV/m at 1 km, about 94% of the WLW 500 kW field. The skywave signal is awesome to the north, but no doubt fades more than WLW would because of the shorter antenna and broadside type pattern.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I wonder what the coverage area of a 2 megawatt station on 540kHz (or 153kHz if you want to do longwave overseas) would be if it was right on the beach and used a Franklin antenna?

 

[radioman148]

I wonder what the coverage area of a 2 megawatt station on 540kHz (or 153kHz if you want to do longwave overseas) would be if it was right on the beach and used a Franklin antenna?

It would have to be a helluva tall antenna.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Going from 50 kw to 500 essentially put Toledo and Indianapolis and even Howell, MI, in the primary day coverage of WLW... they published coverage maps in an ad in Broadcasting Magazine in the 40's.

I used to live near both Howell and Toledo, and WLW's daytime reception at 50kW was generally excellent.

 

[cyberdad]

If WLW fired up their 500kW transmitter, is it possible someone on the west coast could pick them up in the middle of the day

To use some "real world" examples....

There are quite a few midwave transmitters operating in excess of 50KW in other parts of the world. In some cases...far in excess of 50KW. Relatively speaking and as a practical matter, the result of all this brute force often isn't all that impressive. Sure, you can find some really good coverages, but you can also get some really good coverages with 50KW in a big chunk of the Midwestern U.S.

I'm in Europe a couple of times every year. There are a few mega blowtorches there, as well as in adjacent parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Depending on your location, you might find yourself within daytime range of one or two of these, but usually it'll be the country next door, and from a distance which wouldn't be considered particularly unusual. What happens at night with the skywave is fairly similar. Some of these high powered stations do really get out well....but so does the main lobe of a 50KW directional station located aanywhere. Again, my point is there's really nothing all that remarkable.

Check out the Radio-Locator coverage maps for the high-powered Mexican stations to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

[davideduardo]

Going from 50 kw to 500 essentially put Toledo and Indianapolis and even Howell, MI, in the primary day coverage of WLW... they published coverage maps in an ad in Broadcasting Magazine in the 40's.

I used to live near both Howell and Toledo, and WLW's daytime reception at 50kW was generally excellent.

Today's 2 mV/m skirts Indianapolis, Columbus and Frankfort, far short of Toledo and south central MI. While you could certainly pick it up, those locations are far outside the useful service area. With the 500 kw, those areas had a 5 mV/m signal.

The real point is that in the 30's when the 500 kw transmitter operated, radio's prime time was nights and listening was much less in the daytime (cars with radios? At work radios?).

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

The Cinncinnati airport at one time had a huge 1930s art deco mosaic displayed in a luggage pickup area that I think was originally in a train station downtown, and it is a composite idea of "WLW radio" with black panel equimpment, ring stand microphone, etc.

This is correct and to my knowledge, it and other mosaic murals depecting major businesses in Cincinnati are still located there. As noted, these were originally at Union Terminal, the train terminal just northwest of the immediate downtown area. That facility is now the Cincinnati Museum Center. When Union Terminal closed, the mosaics were moved to the airport for display.

 

[eskipper411]

Was WLW probably hearable in Texas? Dallas/Fort Worth maybe?

 

[pianoplayer88key]

So if a 50kW station in Denver can be heard 827 miles away (east of the Mississippi) in the daytime, and stations could be heard a thousand miles away on a couple occasions in Texas, how far would WLW have gotten out with 500kW, and how much farther if it had a KFBK-style Franklin antenna?

 

[BRNout]

There are quite a few midwave transmitters operating in excess of 50KW in other parts of the world. In some cases...far in excess of 50KW. Relatively speaking and as a practical matter, the result of all this brute force often isn't all that impressive. Sure, you can find some really good coverages, but you can also get some really good coverages with 50KW in a big chunk of the Midwestern U.S.

I'm in Europe a couple of times every year. There are a few mega blowtorches there, as well as in adjacent parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Depending on your location, you might find yourself within daytime range of one or two of these, but usually it'll be the country next door, and from a distance which wouldn't be considered particularly unusual. What happens at night with the skywave is fairly similar. Some of these high powered stations do really get out well....but so does the main lobe of a 50KW directional station located aanywhere. Again, my point is there's really nothing all that remarkable.

Check out the Radio-Locator coverage maps for the high-powered Mexican stations to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

I have to second Cyberdad's comments here. My travels have taken (and take) me to various parts of Latin America where there are many 100 kw MW stations. A good example is Venezuela, where there are several 100 kw signals based in Caracas. Frankly, you wouldn't know that they were 100 kw unless you knew that they were 100 kw. From Maracay (a city that's about 50 miles west of Caracas, but on the other side of the mountains) for example, the 100 kw AMs from Caracas come in during the day but are hardly impressive. They didn't sound any different than what I'd expect from a 50 kw station, in fact. At night, none boomed in - the big signal at 750 sounded weaker (at night) than it does from Puerto Rico. I've had similar experiences elsewhere in the region, the 100 kw signals aren't all that impressive.

And, in my numerous trips to the UK, I never said "oh wow!" with the superpowered muscle that 1215 am (now Absolute Radio) has from multiple transmitters. It's signal is solid, though up in the East Midlands you still need to tune to an alternate frequency for a clear signal.

 

[Tom Wells]

How far could it have been heard? There are accounts that it was audible in Germany and annoyed the Reich to no end.
But that was then.

Today? Not unless you get all the dis-continuous current noisemaking devices turned off.
Much more a problem on the receive end.
To that end, superpower is good for quieting action for listeners close in with high-noise environments.

On the other hand, given an absolutely pure ether, the first 100 (or 1000) watts does all the work of getting there.
Any extra just brings in AVC action and pushes up the S meter.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Going from 50 kw to 500 essentially put Toledo and Indianapolis and even Howell, MI, in the primary day coverage of WLW... they published coverage maps in an ad in Broadcasting Magazine in the 40's.

I used to live near both Howell and Toledo, and WLW's daytime reception at 50kW was generally excellent.

Today's 2 mV/m skirts Indianapolis, Columbus and Frankfort, far short of Toledo and south central MI. While you could certainly pick it up, those locations are far outside the useful service area. With the 500 kw, those areas had a 5 mV/m signal.

The real point is that in the 30's when the 500 kw transmitter operated, radio's prime time was nights and listening was much less in the daytime (cars with radios? At work radios?).

Not trying to question their contour maps. All I know is that while living near Toledo I was able to listen
to daytime Reds games on a cheap little GE clock radio.