Ditto what Clay wrote about Barry's informative topband presentations at our
local club meetings in Joliet, Illinois. During my junior high school
years, I happened to live a short distance from the monthly meeting place
and often either walked or rode my bicycle to attend the local meetings,
weather permitting. Barry is blessed with the gift of having exceptional
public speaking skills.
Regarding WLW: the Mason transmitter site is half the story. The other half
is still visible today to the west of I-75, just north of Cincinnati in the
Camp Washington neighborhood. The old WLW studios and Crosley manufacturing
facility rise high above the interstate and a real sense of history can be
gleaned when exiting off Hopple Street. The WLW building is located near
the intersection of Colerain Ave. and Sassafras St. One telltale sign that
you have the right structure can be evidenced by the Morse code displayed on
the art-deco fashioned building top. The building is in very poor condition
today and hasn't been occupied with any business or storage activity for
about ten years. On the southwest building floor is a large loading dock
that faces a set of rail tracks that, at one time many decades ago, must
have seen a very high volume of traffic as thousands of Crosley sets were
shipped to dealers around the world. The building is not long for this
world. If you have an interest in WLW and Crosley's history, I encourage
you to take a short drive to the south of Mason and experience the building
before it's gone.
Paul, W9AC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Clay Melhorn" <n9io@hotmail.com>
To: "Barry Boothe W9UCW" <w9ucw@aol.com>; "Top Band"
<topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 3:43 AM
Subject: Re: Topband: WLW
I have been licensed 4o years and almost 6 months now Barry.
Just a kid and barely having a clue occasionally getting my dad to drive
me over to the other side
of town for a meeting of the Joliet JARS and Gypsies.
I truly miss hearing you speak with the authority and passion that you did
back in the day.
I particularly remember the program you did a few years later on the then
new "Minooka Special".My only wish is that I had come into the fold a
little earlier in life.
Thanks for being such a willing and eager steward and teacher of amateur
radio.
You and Joyce are very much remembered and missed.
73'
Clay Melhorn N9IO Bonfield, IL
Webmaster: KARS - Kankakee Area Radio Society - W9AZ http://www.w9az.com/
From: W9UCW@aol.com
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 00:05:12 -0400
To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Topband: WLW
One Sunday at the close of the Dayton Hamvention about 40 years ago,
some
Cincinnati friends arranged for a tour of Gray's Radio Museum, The Voice
of
America installation and WLW, all in or near Mason, Ohio. A bunch of us
got back to Illinois late that evening with unforgettable memories...
and
about 100 pictures.
I have told the stories of that wonderful day many times. The wildest
stories were from the WLW-RCA 500 KW station. Our guide was an expert on
the
subject. The original control console was moved over to a side wall, but
it
was still powered up... likely for the entertainment of visitors. The
two
experimental calls issued to Crosley were emblazoned on some controls.
They
were W8XO & W8XAL as I remember. BTW, my long time friend Dave, one of
those
guys from Cincinnati now holds one of those calls. Ask him about "when
Skip was in."
As we walked along the elevated walkway in front of the stages of the
transmitter, we were awed by the 6 foot diameter pi wound coupling coils
with
Farraday shields and we noticed that there were as many water guages and
valves as there were meters and controls. Each of the three final stages
was
water cooled and a fountain in the center of a small lake outside cooled
the
water.
Each final stage was about 8 feet wide and had a metal door you could
walk
through. Our guide stopped at that point in the tour as we gazed at a
huge
ammeter with a 150 amp full scale. "What's this," someone asked.
He told us it was put in for Crosley who got a bug in his butt to see
what
the rig would really do. The meter showed the total current on the three
finals. One night he cranked it up as far as it would go. Keep in mind,
the
voltage on the finals was 17,500 volts, as I remember. He got that meter
up
to 100 amps. Do the math. He burnt up some local fences that night.
Of course, 13 transmitters (with plug-in coils) each running 220,000
watts
simultaneously on several bands down the road at VOA was astonishing,
but
that 1,700,000 watts at WLW was stuck in our minds all the way home that
night. We were TopBand guys, afterall!
73, Best DX, Barry, W9UCW
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Topband Reflector
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Topband Reflector
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Topband Reflector
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