Topband: VOA Antennas

[Lloyd - N9LB]

I am a retired broadcast engineer.  When we'd give tours at the transmitter
site in the evening, I'd hand out fluorescent light tubs to all attendees,
then we'd all walk out near the tower bases ( but definitely NOT touching
anything ).  When we get to within a few feet of the towers, people would
freak out when the fluorescent tubes they were holding magically lit up in
their hands.  Once lighted, you could walk quite a ways away from the tower
before they would extinguish.  There was no sensation of heat or burning.
Of course the light would flicker a bit with modulation.  Looked kind of
like the light-sabers from star wars.

BTW - I see the second comment on the u-tube video says: "hope you had kids
!! -- and insurance has leukemia coverage --".  Experience and time have
shown that this is an unfounded fear for MW and HF.   I've been around both
for close to 50 years and no cancer, and yes I have kids too.   Our local
ham clubs have members who have been making RF since they were kids are now
well past the median life expectancy age.  Obviously they have not been
adversely affected by RF.

I really like RF!

73

Lloyd - N9LB


-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Chuck
Hutton
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2016 2:21 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: VOA Antennas

And for those that like to be closer to a lot of power while producing arcs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNawh4faZM8

Chuck

________________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Mike Waters
<mikewate at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2016 7:00 PM
To: dick.bingham
Cc: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: VOA Antennas

The Sterba curtain at the old Bethany, Ohio VOA had 20 dB of gain. I saw it
up close during a ham club trip years ago.

Hams that worked there would sometimes drive out next to it at night, and
connect their mobile transceivers to it for a night of DX fun.

The RF field in front of that antenna was so intense that one could
sometimes hear the program audio emanate from tiny arcs in a low, rusty
barbed wire fence along the road in front of that huge Sterba.

That enormous antenna, fed with huge Collins and Crosley transmitters
re-defined the word "awesome". :-)

Across the road from that fence were a number of newer houses, BTW. Helps
prove that shortwave never hurt anyone, doesn't it?

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Sat, Apr 9, 2016 at 12:40 PM, dick.bingham <dick.bingham at gmail.com>
wrote:

> What was the gain/beamwidth of these arrays ? The ERP must have been 
> incredible given the high power transmitters used plus the antenna gain .
> Migratory Geese could have warmed themselves as they flew thru the region.
>
> 73 Dick/w7wkr CN97uj
>
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