K7AGE posts video of WLW's 1932 500,000 Watt AM transmitter

It must have been a living breathing machine when it was running.

 

I think they changed the height of the tower to improve reception within a hundred miles or so. If you dig through some of the sites that I listed, you find something about this.

 

They kept it operational during WWII in case a big station was needed.

 

Amazing, lay some tracks before delivery!

 

Worlds Largest Wireless... Great stuff. It was nice the the presenter had a micrpohone and spoke clear so we could actually learn something. A lot of these type of videos have poor audio. Thanks for sharing this awesome look inside the Nations Station at the Tylersville site. Listen to WLW (wireless internet radios) almost everyday. One of the very few staions still that produces it's own original programming from it's Kenwood Ohio studios (except for at 11:00 AM Saturdays between Darryl Parks and Ken Broo when they play an hour of some syndicated financial show). Thanks again.

 

That is truly amazing!

Thank you for such a great video presentation!

73
j

 

Talk about Thor's thunderbolts! Half a million watts of AM. I stood inside the backup transmitter at Tok, Alaska, that was 540 KW. It was not nearly as large, but was water cooled and the plate transformer was an outdoor pad mounted model - the tank circuit was the size of a 30 gallon trash can or maybe a bit bigger.

WLW is a terrific story though, Crosley seems like an interesting guy, one has to admire his go for broke attitude with that big spark. What a cool project. It's nice also to see so many preserving the history - most stations would long ago have ripped out the 'useless stuff'.

4,500 amps of filiament? Great googley-moogley as Frank Zappa would have said.

 

I worked at a 750KW UHF TV Station the klystron final amp in the transmitter weighed over 600 Pounds. They bought the new tranmitter(Analog) That was over 2 million watts ERP.

 

My father lived in Cincinatti during WLW operation. He told me stories of driving by the transmitter and having his car lights come on.

 

Great video and very enlightening! Certainly puts amateur radio 1,500 watt amplifiers in proper perspective. Runs an abstract parallel how mankind and Earth must look like from space.

However, I, for one, remain a QRP devotee. heh.

 

Yes, Great googley-moogley
Randy

 

1,500 watts is QRP compared to this monster.

 

It is amazing how built up is now is around the transmitter. Do a google map search.
Randy

 

That sucker could bust every pileup on 20 meters AT ONCE lol

yikes

 

Awesome video!


When I was CE at KUOA in Siloam Springs, AR (a 5kW 'peanut whistle') we had a 420 foot Blaw-Knox tower, 8 x 8 cross-section, top to bottom. There was an eight foot square catwalk at the 420 foot level (no handrail), and a tapered 30 foot pole with climbing spikes. Up there changing the bulbs, my head would feel a bit warm.

As a prank, some college students stole an American Flag from a nearby nursing home, and flew it from the top. I have a picture of that somewhere. The following morning, I climbed up and took it it down, then the GM and I folded it regulation style, and returned it to the owners.