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Author Topic: What AM tower is this (Paul G. Thompson or anyone?) Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-02-2003 07:13 PM                        Folded Unipole. Those 6 wires are hot. STL antenna on top (easy to do, since the tower's grounded). What?... humongous Marti yagi up there???  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 10-02-2003 08:34 PM                     Matthew, the registration number does not reflect what kind of tower it is. However, it is 60.4 meters high (198.16 feet). It is located at 29-54-18.0 N and 093-56-24.0 W (Intersection of Florida and 27th. The owner is CityGate Media, Inc. If you are nice, they may tell you all about it if you email manager@teamradio.com. I think that is 1340 or 1380 AM KRCM in Port Arthur, Texas. According to the FCC Website, daytime power is 1KW, night power is 127 watts. (non-directional) FCC has it as Voice Broadcasting, Inc. I would presume that is who owns it now. There home base is Beaumont, Texas. Mark, I still say, "BAH!" Seems to me that when I was about 22 years old, I was working with a 125kw radar at Naval Air Testicle Twisting Center in Memphis, Tenn. I didn't know it, but the demonstrator radar set was blasting me with full power from the other side of the wall. We didn't have a dummy load on the demonstrator radar set since it was used to track aircraft during classroom "playtime." Anyway, the antenna was about 6 feet from me. In about an hour, I noticed my eyes felt like sandpaper. That is a danger sign so I left the area. I found the radar on the other side of the wall was running full power unattended. Naturally, I shut it down. Well, I am almost 63 now, and I am still "functional" I had fun with that 125KW radar, too. At night I would wait for the post watch to come around the building. I had a big shitcan full of flourescant lights sitting in the field. When that poor kid who was on watch come diddy-bopping around the corner, I fired the transmitter up and beamed the antenna at the shit can. BLINK!!!!! They all lit up. It would scare the shit out of that kid on watch. One took off running the other way once. And then, the 'ole APS-20 2-megawatt radar....Someone had a armful of flourescent tubes. The radar tech working on the radar fired the transmitter at him, and all the tubes lit up like a Christmas Tree. The person who was carrying the tubes went into a panic, through all the tubes up in the air and took off running like an ape. All that was left was a pile of glass. I would presume the person who was running away went back to the barracks to change his underwear. (Ah, those were the days....)  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-02-2003 10:13 PM                     Yea, from the photos it looked like low power stuff to me. Mark  |  IP: Logged Luciano Brigite Master Film Handler Posts: 277 From: Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-02-2003 11:54 PM                     My knowledge of antenna towers and big transmiters is about none.. the only thing I know is that they looks nice and why not amazing.. Specially the old time ones, spent more than 2 hours looking at picturees of them, starting at the link Mark posted in one of his replies. Those big tube transmiters ,in special some of the RCA's and a few others I saw in the pictures are,to me, hmm.. something beyond beautiful. Makes me wish to see some of them in person and on the other side wonder where to find something like that where I live and how to make to see it  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 10-03-2003 01:10 AM                     Luciano, I had to keep an RCA 50KW Ampliphase BTA-50H1 transmitter running or a while before it was replaced with a Harris. They operated on 460 volts 3 phase and would draw 130KW off the AC line at 100% modulation. Really made the power meter spin.. They were about 16 feet long, about 8 feet high and 4 feet deep. The power supply cabinet was so big you could walk into it and take a look around. (with the power off, of course...) In addition to that, they were built like a brick shithouse. Definately "Industrial Strength." The forced air blowers to keep the damn thing cool were powered by 2.5 horse-power motors if memory serves me correctly. The blowers were so noisy that ear protectors were needed. The plate transformers were huge....about 4 feet high and two feet in diameter. They were located outside. The place where the transformers were looked like an electrical power substation. Getting that thing "on the road" was tricky. Here is the start-up procedure: 1. Close the external incoming line switch. 2. Close the distribution breaker. 3. Close the control breaker. 4. Close the Transmitter Start Switch. 5. Close the filament switch. 6. Close the plate switch. 7. Close the ACB Closing Coil Breaker. 8. Supposedly, you are then "On The Air". (maybe if you are lucky) There are also time delays during the start-up. If the start-up procedure is violated, damage to the transmitter could result. I didn't like that transmitter. When it dies, the challenge of getting it back on it's feet becomes personal. It was an extremely complicated transmitter.  |  IP: Logged Chris Greenwell Film Handler Posts: 28 From: West Valley, Ut Registered: Mar 2003 posted 10-03-2003 03:28 AM                     Hey Mark, what station was it you were telling me about that had a huge transmitter??? And I use to think the Harris Shortwave SW100B transmitter here at KTBN was big...its a baby compared to some of these older transmitters  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-03-2003 11:47 AM                     Paul, Very funny about the flourescent lights.  |  IP: Logged Floyd Justin Newton Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 559 From: Phoenix, Arizona, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 10-04-2003 08:05 AM                     In 1961-2 I was working at KYND-AM 1580 (MOR). We operated a Collins 10KW. Well, one day we got the go-ahead to increase power, and double the height of the stick to 300 feet. Our new transmitter was a GE 50KW. There was no need to turn the lights on as they were on all the time anyway (50KW of power makes things do 'strange' things as anyone who has work with RF can attest to).  |  IP: Logged Edward Jurich Master Film Handler Posts: 305 From: Las Vegas USA Registered: Jul 2003 posted 10-04-2003 10:59 AM                     There is no doghouse, the matching network is in that little gray box next to the tower. The insulator at the base of the tower is grounded (ground strap across it) so it is indeed a folded unipole tower. The RF is fed up the wires running outside the tower. This type of tower puts out less skywave and more ground wave improving local reception somewhat. The fence around the tower is to keep you out of the danger zone, you'd have to be standing next to the tower to be in danger. However, it's not a good idea to spend a lot of time (hours-days) near an AM tower while it's on. PS, I was a broadcast engineer for almost 30 years  |  IP: Logged Luciano Brigite Master Film Handler Posts: 277 From: Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-04-2003 12:22 PM                     Thought it was easy to have a transmitter like that turned on.. but then, there's all that switchs spread on the panels and they're not htat just to cover a hole made by mistake Compared to all the switchs,controls,variable capacitors and coils that need to be adjusted during the setup of one.. it seems nothing (tried to build a simple AM transmitter once,tube based and did get mad with the matching coils in the output stage,ended tossing them far away and connecting the antena cable with a ceramic capacitor .. ended with a frying machine )  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-04-2003 04:46 PM                     Chris, That was WCFC in Chicago. Its now a PAX station with different call letters. Far as I know they are still running that TTU 110 though. It had a huge 3 phase feed, probably 460 volts, definately a 1200 amp feed as I had to reset that mother of a breaker once by myself. The 6 high voltage cubicles paralleled put out 18kv at close to 20 amps for the three Klystrons! And a huge power bill monthly of at least 15 grand. Those cubicles were not oil cooled but air cooled and had to be cleaned out monthly of dust to prevent really nasty things from happenning. Interestingly, enough those Varian Klystrons were manufactured here in SLC, but donno if they still are. We had a specially made case we called "Grandpas Coffin" that we shipped the Klystrons back to Varian in to be rebuilt. This transmitter filled half the 94th floor of the Hancock Building in downtown Chicago. The actual transmitter cabinets were along one wall of a large room with everything else behind those. There were also three school bus sized heat exchangers right above the ceiling of the 94th on the parapit. We put in deionized distilled water(which we produced ourselves)and got steam back out of the Klystrons. The distilled water we produced kept the level constant as there was always a little loss. There were also MANY cooling problems with the plumbing in those TTU-110's and we were forever re-doing water pipe joints. WBBM, Channel 2's TV transmitter was in a small closet right next door. It was all contained in one tall cabinet. It was only 5kw. There werea total of three TU-110's in Chicago with the two others being installed and still are running over in the Sears Tower. Just about everything else was Continetal Electronics or Harris. I have photos of the studios and Master control, but unfortunately not of the transmitter site . Mark  |  IP: Logged Edward Jurich Master Film Handler Posts: 305 From: Las Vegas USA Registered: Jul 2003 posted 10-05-2003 09:39 AM                     Mark Gulbrandsen....I'm from Chicago originally and started in radio at WBBM (CBS) in 1970. I was at WBBM-TV's transmitter on the Hancock for a visit once, can't remember why. Then they had an engineering staff that had shifts watching the transmitter. Back in 1970, WBBM-AM radio was still using the original studio equipment, all tubes (octal at that). The FM had just built new studios and had new soild state Harris consoles.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-06-2003 02:15 AM                        Edward Jurich wrote: quote: PS, I was a broadcast engineer for almost 30 years a GENIUS of broadcast engineers.  |  IP: Logged Jeff Stricker Master Film Handler Posts: 481 From: Calumet, Mi USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 10-06-2003 11:42 AM                     I remember taking a tour of the Purdential Building in Chicago in 1968. At that time WGN (ch 9) had their transmitter there. Visitors to the observation deck could watch the transmitter techs through a glass window. They wore white lab coats like doctors!  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 10-06-2003 12:00 PM                     Well, NUTS! The 10KW Collins blew its brains out. Time to pussy-foot up to the station and find out why. One of these days something is going to burn up and there is not going to be parts available to repair it. The transmitter is about 30 years old.  |  IP: Logged

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