Folks:
We (about 17 regional area hams) just had a wonderful tour of the KGO
radio 810 station, in San Francisco. KGO is a Class 1B Clear channel
station of 50KW. Its North-South Roughly beam pattern is heard from Alaska
to Central America at tight. The tour was happily hosted by their director
of engineering, Joe Talbot, KG6RPW
(http://www.joetalbot.net ) The visit to the transmitter site was great,
and would be interesting to any RF-Phyle. The 50KW AM TX is completely solid
state. The 3 element vertical array of 1/4 wave towers literally sits in
extra salty water in the south end of SF bay, off Dumbarton Bridge. The
matching components in the matching 'houses' were particularly interesting,
lots of Jennings vac variables, big coils, etc... The final bare copper
output cable from the matching house, carrying 50KW AM bolted to the base
of the tower was scarily within easy reach of anyone walking underneath the
tower.... about 6 ft off the ground... though the whole TX compound is
highly secure.
Then we went to the KGO studios in SF, and saw how they are set up, and met
some 'celebrities' of the talk radio circuit. It is obvious now to a new
comer that the vast majority of work and complexity of such a radio station
is in the audio bands, in the studio..lots going on there. The TX and
antennas almost take care of themselves.
A great visit, and Joe was great as a host, as was Art Lieberman the
trasmitter engineer, and, I bet they are willing to host another group of
hams by arrangement...
If you are interested in getting a group together to tour, or are visiting
SF with some time, let me know, and I'll let Joe know and he may be able to
set up another tour...
73, DX, de Pat Barthelow AA6EG aa6eg@hotmail.com
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|