WLW's 500,000 Watt Transmitter
K7AGE4 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2016–2023
documentary · general · evergreen · 2016–2023 on HN
A tour of the historic WLW transmitter facility in Mason, Ohio, recorded at Hamvention 2013. It shows the surviving equipment from the 500,000 watt AM era, when WLW was the only US station at that power, and explains the history.
Recommended as the definitive visual walkthrough of the WLW 500 kW transmitter, with detailed equipment views and lots of history.
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4 comments from Hacker News
There's a fascinating tour of WLW on YouTube, too...[1] back when radio was the cutting edge and all the young engineers would go balls to the wall with RF. [1] ▶ this video
Was randomly recommended a video on YouTube a few weeks ago which was a recording of a tour of the WLW broadcast transmitter facility. You get to see the high power equipment in detail accompanied by lots of history about the facility. Was a fun watch. ▶ this video
That was one specific station - the infamous WLW / W8XO - the first and only US station authorized to operate at 500kW of power.[1] To give you an idea of how powerful that is, take a look at their coverage map: link The back story is kind of interesting. It was run by Powel Crosley - a sort of 1930's version of Elon Musk. Advertising revenues from the station were so successful he applied to increase the limit from 500kW to 750kW(!). It's a big deal in the ham community, but I only learnt latter that while US stations were limited to 50kW - other parts of the world didn't have such restrictions. Parts of the Middle East have 2,000kW stations. [2] You can get a full download on the Crosley WLW station in this video: ▶ this video [1] link [2] link
The links at the bottom of the article are also excellent. At the 2013 Dayton Hamvention, there was a tour of the facility shown here: ▶ this video . Apparently, the engineer who first designed the transmitter was barely 21.