[TowerTalk] KGO Radio Station TX Tours

[Pat Barthelow]

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 at hotmail.com