The Godzilla of home raddios

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Are you saying there were other 500-kW flamethrowers in this country (and elsewhere in the 1930s) besides WLW? My goodness, I would have thought one such station would have been enough, given the interference WLW's transmitter and towers caused in the Cincinnati area, let alone much of the rest of this country and the world.

BTW, the idea of being able to hear a radio station over, of all things, an electric fence, the burners of an electric stove, etc. seems almost incredible; this would make an excellent story line for a science-fiction book. I personally cannot see, for example, how it would be possible to hear radio signals over electric stoves' burner coils, as these are simply round spiral steel coils, with no visible means to detect an AM radio signal (let alone reproduce the audio from one). How on earth would it have been possible to hear these signals, anyway, without some way to reproduce the sound? I can understand how things such as tooth fillings could detect and reproduce AM radio signals, but good grief, I cannot see how even a 500-kW signal can be heard over a wire stove burner coil or an electric fence; after all, neither of these would have any way whatsoever of reproducing sound, even if they somehow managed to detect the radio signal.

The interesting thing is that in Mexico they still have 500kW stations active to this day, and that's because Mexico's version of our FCC didn't clamp down on the maximum broadcasting power of its radio stations like we did here in the U. S. of A. and so because of that in Mexico they still have the ability to license out new 500 kW stations.

[dtvmcdonald]

I believe that the FCC still has the ability to license superpower stations, it just has decided not to.

Our local college FM station was at one time 300 kW, but they let that lapse so as to get a taller tower. The new tower is a couple of miles farther away, but the older one calculates to have put a substantially larger signal into the lown of license. Its now only 100 kW. (Signal to noise is now limited by distortion products of the IBOC carriers, not signal level).

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by dtvmcdonald

I believe that the FCC still has the ability to license superpower stations, it just has decided not to.

Our local college FM station was at one time 300 kW, but they let that lapse so as to get a taller tower. The new tower is a couple of miles farther away, but the older one calculates to have put a substantially larger signal into the lown of license. Its now only 100 kW. (Signal to noise is now limited by distortion products of the IBOC carriers, not signal level).

Ok, interesting for some reason I thought I had read somewhere (and it may have been on here somewhere) that the FCC was no longer licensing new stations that were more than 50 kW...

Also that aforementioned Ken Burns Documentary I talking about in one of my previous posts in this thread was talking specifically about WSM out of Nashville Tennessee (the station that was home to the Grand Ole Opry for many years and still is AFAIK, that station at one time was also a 500 kW blowtorch and that Ken Burns Documentary mentioned that WSM and it's live broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1940s and 1950s was how most of the early Country Music Stars like Johnny Cash and his wife (when she was part of the Carter Family Singers) and others became famous outside of the USA.

[old_tv_nut]

Don't confuse AM and FM stations - the limits are different.

The info on WLW indicates it was the only 500 kW AM station ever in the US. I believe WSM was a standard 50 kW "clear channel" station, meaning no interfering stations on the same frequency.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Don't confuse AM and FM stations - the limits are different.

The info on WLW indicates it was the only 500 kW AM station ever in the US. I believe WSM was a standard 50 kW "clear channel" station, meaning no interfering stations on the same frequency.

Hmm, interesting. So then the Ken Burns Documentary must of been inaccurate then.

[old_tv_nut]

Can you find a clip of Burns' documentary where it actually says 500kW? It would be kind of an an easy mistake to say 500 kW instead of 50 kW.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Can you find a clip of Burns' documentary where it actually says 500kW? It would be kind of an an easy mistake to say 500 kW instead of 50 kW.

Yeah, let me see if it's on YouTube or not, I know it was originally aired on PBS many years ago and so I'm not sure if it's something that would be available on YouTube or not for that reason. Most of what I was saying about this documentary was going by from what people told me about it as I had never seen it before (as the documentary aired on PBS way before I was old enough to be able to watch it.)

[vortalexfan]

Unfortunately it seems that that Ken Burns documentary is behind a paywall even on YouTube...

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Paging through Rider's vol13, Zenith made a 22 tube, 22h698 using two chassis. The output stage uses 6 6A3's and claims 50 watts output! It has the old FM band.
I often wonder how many survived!

That's an interesting console I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for one. It seems like one of those sleeper deluxe consoles that the Zenith Stratosphere, Magnavox Concert Grand, etc high end console collectors aren't aware of/hunting.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Unfortunately it seems that that Ken Burns documentary is behind a paywall even on YouTube...

Yeah, I saw that. I didn't think it was on that long ago, but I erased it from my DVR after I watched it. Even if I had it, it would be hard to find the quote in the 7 or 8 hours total!

[ARC Tech-109]

Would need your own substation to run it.

[Telecolor 3007]

I wonder how much Watts the loudspeaker had.

[ARC Tech-109]

Think it was mentioned in the description, from what I saw it really rocks. I have a 1939 vintage United Motors (pre Delco) model R1160 that does an honest 10 watts from a pair of 6F6's. Many of the older higher end consoles had stout audio sections feeding the field coil speakers giving them a good punch.

[Jeffhs]

IMHO, this radio seems to me to be far, far too much radio for most people. Most people in the 1920s-40s listened to radio the same as folks in the 1950s to now watched television--for news and entertainment. There would be little if any need, IMHO, for a radio with as much audio output and probably RF sensitivity as this one in radio's early days.

I believe this radio was made just for people who wanted the best radio available at the time, and could afford it (it probably sold for well over $500). Think of this radio as the Cadillac of radios, again with a price tag to match.

I don't think very many of these sets were sold; those which did sell were probably sold to filthy rich people, such as Texas oil barons or folks who inherited fortunes from deceased relatives. Most of the rest of America listened to radio broadcasts over consoles or small table radios, and made the best of it. There may have even been some people who could not afford even a small table radio, so they listened to the then-new radio broadcasts over a crystal set. There was a major radio manufacturer, I can't recall the name as I write this, which made a small one-tube battery-powered radio; the single tube was mounted in a tube socket on the front panel of the radio. I remember seeing a picture of this radio in an issue of, IIRC, Popular Electronics magazine, from 1960 or so, in an article on old radios.

Again IIRC, I think the picture showed this radio with the single tube broken at the base or elsewhere; however, this didn't make much difference since the photo was only meant to show the radio itself. On the front panel was the volume control, of course, and a large, lever-shaped knob with a hole at one end; this knob was the station selector, with the hole being used as an indicator to show the station to which the radio was tuned (the dial scale, of course, was printed on the radio's front panel and showed the numbers 1 through ten, not the actual frequency in kilocycles).

[ARC Tech-109]

You're absolutely right, the monster Crosley was for the well heeled with the excess money but its also an excellent example of craftsmanship and the technology of the day.