Topband: WLW

[W9UCW at aol.com]

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