The AM Forum

Wow.
I was just on a new shortwave station WTWW out of Tennessee, during a radio hobby call-in show hosted by Ted Randall WB8PUM.

Turns out Ted's got an RCA BTA-1M at home, has been listening to us AMers, and spent most of our 20 minute live call talking about the AM Community.

Plugged this website.

Nothing quite like strapping on 31 meters with 100,000 watts on AM.
YAY-allo!

Whorl-wye

Details:

http://tedrandall.com/ (http://tedrandall.com/)

100 KW ??? what frequency, Paul.....
More chit and chat or a mix of music and talk??

WTWW is a religious format station.

Seems like all there is left on the commercial SW bands is Spanish language or bible. :P  A showing of Asian dialogue as well.

It is a bloody shame the likes of VOA, BBC, and a lot of the European giants have given it up for lack of $$ to operate. :'(

I really miss all the harping in the cold-war radio days!

73DG

Anybody can buy time on those commercial stations, its the religious nuts that pay the bills and make a profit for the owners so they can let others in during open slots for little money.

You should give it a listen this evening. It's open forum and mostly ham oriented. Neat so far.

Thanks for pointing this out Paul. It's been a great SWL evening. Been listening to WTWW on 5085 here in Detroit and 75 meters split for the past few hours and enjoying it a bunch.

Mike

I rolled tape on the segment. They were on 9990Kc at the time. May render it as an MP3 and post it on here.

Ted Randall may have gotten this time slot on the station beyond whatever the bulk of its programming may be.  I asked him twice what they had in mind and he didn't respond very specifically, so I sensed there was something up.

Just dialed in now to 5085 at 0310z. I see they are talking about ham radio now with an operator in Arizona. Nice signal too hovering around s9+40

Great sounding audio on that blowtorch!

100KW and three phase power will definitely make the TX sing..........I guess he has a very nice antenna and has about 15dB of gain.

here's a video of the modulator, solid state, i'm guessing PWM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCM8R8bx8Q (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCM8R8bx8Q)

here's one of their transmitters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnI6aWDDJjs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnI6aWDDJjs)

And here's what it sounded like last night.

Me too.  During the late 50's early 60's used to listen to them on the S-85 [which I still have].  Would listen to VOA and Radio Moscow, then average out the news; I figured somewhere between both extremes was about the real truth.  Last Christmas season I heard a station that sounded a lot like Radio Moscow and was on the right freq playing Christmas music.  Things have changed for sure.

That Continental 418F uses 48 IGBT-switched power supplies, in series, for plate modulation of the single tetrode final. These supplies are switched on and off at a high rate to create HV audio, after a low pass filter.

The new VHF amplifier prototype at my workplace uses a similar 'modulator' as a cap charging supply for plate voltage. 225 uF is charged as it is a pulsed amplifier for 2 MW peak, about 250 kW of average power. Since it is a linear amplifier, the IGBT power supply stays at constant voltage, while a ring modulator causes the 'bits' that are on to rotate through 96 IGBT modules. They are all floated on 96 three phase secondaries from four giant power transformers that are fed directly off 4160 VAC primary line. Diagram attached shows the power supply/modulator. Only difference is that in the transmitter it has fidelity and an audio response, in the power supply it is much slower responding and has much higher power capability.

Radio Havana was still screeching last time I checked. Also Viet Nam. A few others too, but you need to look around for them now, whereas they used to be wall to wall. Wasn't too long ago I was listening to one station doing a show on shortwave listening and QSLing.

Radio Moscow is also alive and kicking, though I think they now go by Voice of Russia.

These are facts.

Indeed.  I hear them occasionally, but nothing like the old days with the heavy skeds.  The rhetoric is softer, and has lost most of the bite.

I do hear them, when I'm not blasted by hets, bible babble, and South American Spanish.

73DG

BALUN
I didn't think high power transmitter folks would use those........50 ohm transmitter to OWL and log periodic beam??
It would be nice to see the antenna system.
Fred

Many years back I was tuning around the bands and came across a station playing some really kick-ass blues. (I'm a big blues fan) Many of the older greats and a long run of Muddy Waters with no DJ running his mouth in between. I listened intensely for a long time before noticing that familiar 50Hz hum between songs.

When they finally IDed as Radio Moscow. I felt like I had been violated! ! !   :o  :o

Could someone re-direct me to the Voice of Russia freq.?
I listened to them until the vacating and could not find them after that. The Russian ballads are really nice to hear and the audio was outstanding.
WTWW has nice coverage up in Western Pa.
Thanks
Fred
EDIT:: Disregard found a nice shortwave freq website............
http://www.short-wave.info/index.php?freq=5110&timbus=NOW

Voice of Russia is on several freqs. 7250 with the 50hz buzz and 7290 no buzzz.
WTWW not on the air 7:40PM Eastern

need to update their information, WBCQ still listed on 7415 not 7490.

I think it is amazing that they fit 100KW of transmitter in a box looking like a 50KW.
The modulator section looks scary with all of those modules.
Still very nice audio

Did you notice the size of that PDM inductor/coil or whatever it is called?

Hello All!

     Just watched the link on the Big TX.

     The guy was sure touching things, and leanning up against stuff. Didn't see if he still had all 10 fingers though!

Tnx,

In regard to Radio Russia, several months ago while I was driving through the Big Apple, or at least quite near the fruity city, I received radio Russia loud and clear while flipping through the channels.  It was on FM...the broadcast band.   8)  Only in America.....

~ps