The Godzilla of home raddios

[ARC Tech-109]

I'm old enough to remember the Wolfman... I'm antiquating

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

Neat, I'd never heard of it before

It's a direct coupled dual triode. Cathode follower configuration. The octal base tube was either a glass tube and the metal one was the M/G type. Type 6N6!
The UX base tube was the 6B5, same basic tube!

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by ARC Tech-109

I'm old enough to remember the Wolfman... I'm antiquating

I remember The Wolfman too.....sorta. Back in the 1970s, IIRC, I listened to a weekly syndicated radio broadcast featuring Wolfman Jack over a Cleveland radio station (WGAR, 1220, now sports-talk WKNR; WGAR-FM is now a country-western station on 99.5 MHz).

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It's a direct coupled dual triode. Cathode follower configuration. The octal base tube was either a glass tube and the metal one was the M/G type. Type 6N6!
The UX base tube was the 6B5, same basic tube!

Did some reading about it - Really unusual tube. One of the few that the audio crowd hasn't latched on to. The MG tubes look neat, very mid 1930s modern.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

Rarer than the Zenith Stratosphere and was designed "money is no object". Try listening to that with the old WLW 500K "flamethrower. The stuff that dreams are made of!

The US was just recovering from of the Great Depression!
It's amazing what the various radio manufacturers were coming up with!

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

The US was just recovering from of the Great Depression!
It's amazing what the various radio manufacturers were coming up with!

It was a good thing WLW was eventually forced by FCC rules to reduce its power output to 50kW from 500kW. That station's "flamethrower" signal probably caused more trouble (illuminating light bulbs not in sockets, not to mention bulbs in unplugged floor and table lamps, etc., being received on bedsprings, electric range burner coils, tooth fillings . . .) than it should have; people who lived anywhere near WLW's towers when the station was running 500kW...well, I would imagine a lot of folks left Cincinnati at that time, since the radio station's incredibly powerful signal may well have come close to irking them, if not driving them nuts.

Today's WLW runs 50kW; the signal doesn't (I don't think) cause the same problems its predecessor did, although, as I said, anyone living very close (within a mile or less) from the station's towers are probably having the same problems, on a much smaller scale, of course, than did folks who lived that close (!) to the original WLW's transmitter towers.

I live catty-corner upstate from Cincinnati, near Cleveland in northeastern Ohio, so I can hear WLW here only at night (when I listen to AM radio, which isn't often these days, given the fact that most if not all AM stations are running talk formats). However (more years ago than I care to remember), I formerly lived very close to a 27.5-kW (ERP) FM radio station that came in on just about everything (in fact, I could see the station's tower lights from the third-floor bedroom window of the house in which I lived at the time, in the early 1970s), so I have at least a very small idea what those folks in Cincy must have been going through when WLW had its 500kW signal.

I'm sure folks in Cincy won't forget the flamethrower 500kW signal of WLW, and I know darn well I will never forget the troubles that nearly 3-kW signal from the local station in suburban Cleveland caused me in the early 1970s. It may have been 27,500 watts effective radiated power, but it might as well have been much higher, given the problems that signal caused me in the three years I lived in the Cleveland suburb the station was in. I don't know or care what format that station has anymore; for all I care, it could have gone off the air for good last night.

Goodness knows I do not miss it. That station has since moved its transmitter and tower 20-some miles away from its former location in Cleveland Heights; I bet many folks who lived near the station's tower breathed a sigh of relief when that happened, saying, no doubt, "Good-bye and good riddance!" Goodness knows that is exactly how I felt when I left Cleveland Heights for the last time in 1975, and not just because of the local radio station (very long story and OT).

[ARC Tech-109]

I'm curious as to what they were running in those days that could do half a megawatt even if it was a grounded grid. Half a meg out... that must have been one colossal transmitter and a serious plate supply transformer.

[old_tv_nut]

Here's a tour with lots of tech details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbHjcwIoTiY

[jr_tech]

And some great photographs of the transmitters and tubes here:

http://www.theradiohistorian.org/wlw...wgallery2.html

jr

[vortalexfan]

I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with this or not, but there was a Ken Burns documentary at one point in time that talked about some of the old 500,000 watt stations in the US and in Mexico where the signal was able to be heard on electric fences and what not, I think it was the documentary about the early history of country music in America.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with this or not, but there was a Ken Burns documentary at one point in time that talked about some of the old 500,000 watt stations in the US and in Mexico where the signal was able to be heard on electric fences and what not, I think it was the documentary about the early history of country music in America.

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.

[ARC Tech-109]

Could be galvanic action, stainless heater coils on the stove interacting with the aluminum or other metals, at half a megawatt anything is possible

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

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.

There'd have to be some degree of 'diode' action occurring to provide enough rectification of the signal. The 'demodulated' audio would then magnetically vibrate the metal stuff.

(Edit) A good example of fortuitous rectification is seen in a foxhole radio. Several vids on UTube.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

Rarer than the Zenith Stratosphere and was designed "money is no object". Try listening to that with the old WLW 500K "flamethrower. The stuff that dreams are made of!

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!

[zenith2134]

Amazing. 500 kW stations, just massive levels of RF. To think what the microwatts per centimeter were with a couple of those on the air, along with all of the other more conventional stations also on air.

A good read is Brodeur's book "The Zapping of America", about the risks of RF and microwave radiation.

Pretty unimaginable what has happened since it was written in the late 70s.

On a more relevant note, Yeah I would love to own one of those monster rigs!