Topband: and KDKA

[Herb Schoenbohm]

There is an old story about KDKA's antenna system that was told to be a 
long time ago. During WWII KDKA along with a frew other stations was 
allowed to operate with 250,000 watts to the antenna system.  A farmer 
across from the KDKA's arrays was plagued by RF on everything including 
hearing the station in his kitchen sink.  A friend of his was a ham and 
came up with the idea of tuning all the lamps in the barn and house into 
a tuned circuit to resonate and provide a means of lighting for free.  
It work so well that the farmer would brag about it at a local tavern 
and was overheard by one of KDKA's engineers who told the management who 
called the FCC Field offices.  So the dispute insued that the farmer 
claimed the radiation  was on his land without permission and he had 
rights to it no matter what.  The whole matter ended up in the DC 
Circuit with KDKA claiming it could not comply with its required 
radiation pattern  because the farmer was distorting their pattern.  The 
court came up with an unusual conclusion that there was merit to both 
arguments.  But since the station was required to have a precise RF 
level at a measuring point the court offer the farmer the option of 
leaving his lights on all the time or completely turning the lights off 
permanently. Since the lights were constantly flickering with modulation 
he chose the later solution if KDKA agreed to pay for his lawyer.

I would be interested if anyone else has heard this story before and if 
there is any veracity to it.

Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ










On 9/10/2013 1:34 PM, Bill Cromwell wrote:
> Hi Ed,
>
> The engineer at WTIC responded. That station does not have a Franklin 
> antenna but has "series fed halfwave" during the day and switches in a 
> second one at night, phased to change the radiation pattern. He also 
> told me that their 'sister station', KDKA in Pittsburgh, does use a 
> Franklin antenna. Some members near Pittsburgh may want to roll by for 
> a peek at it.
>
> 73,
>
> Bill  KU8H
>
>
> On 09/06/2013 04:13 PM, Edwin Karl wrote:
>> There are several interesting articles if you Google "Franklin Antenna"
>> they are mechanically BIG and require feeding ingenuity (hams are known
>> for this feature ...) but are stacked verticals, note- phase the top 
>> element
>> to avoid cancellation.
>>
>> If memory serves me right WTIC in Hartford phased two of these puppies,
>> but it's been a long time ...
>>
>>
>> 73!
>>
>> ed k0kl
>> _________________
>> Topband Reflector
>>
>
> _________________
> Topband Reflector