The AM Forum

The last remaining intact Voice of America shortwave broadcast facility in Delano, California is facing destruction unless we act now to save a vital part of our cultural heritage.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qlLhWlDbKbI&fmt=18

Enough of this preservation! Either fire it back up or tear the *!$#er down and recycle the steel.

It is definitely ashame that history has to go the way of the dumpster, but how could one individual be able to get control over something as big as the VOA site?
Mike wanted to get a shortwave station together for the seeing impaired, and was shot down by some nasty lawyers not too long ago. That property and facilities he started building involved some serious dineros, I'm sure. He was trying to get a 50KW station together, like Allan Weiner did on his farm land in Maine.

Fred

There may be more to the story than you realize. There are powers that would love nothing more than to have full control of all communications with every transaction--economic, communication, news, and entertainment controlled & monitorable by a central entity. Even our cars are equipped with RFID and recording devices that can be polled to determine driving conditions & habits. The continued destruction of "analog" is just another piece of the puzzle falling in to place. I am not a conspiracy theory freak but when you get so many arrows pointing in the same direction it is not too hard to envision the target. Why the ARRL push to digital?
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The push to digital....   Digital has its place but in a lot of places it does not IMO in some places.  I work for defense contractor and what I've seen over the years I care not to mention here in the public domain. If the taxpayer only knew...

The ARRL has been pushing digital since the 30's. The CW bigots ruled the League for years.

Steve said:
Damn (be)League(d)!  ;) A better watch that, it may be considered politicals ;)

Should we scrap all the Museum ships too?  Mabe recyle the planes in the Smithsonian?

Keeping something available until someone is smart enough to realize it's value isn't a bad idea.

Budweiser cans made from antique airplanes and new subdivisions at Delano?
Scrap the historic ships and send the pieces to China to return as refrigerators?

How do we know that the facility at Delano won't be of historic or national interest a century from now, even if we don't seem to care about it today?

A memorial to the 1950s-60s Cold War? Or worldwide shortwave broadcasting before satellites?

Like all those obsolete vacuum tubes in the 1970s. Junk 'em to the landfill. No one will want them in the future.

Or the steam locomotives, obsolete for more than a half century now.

Perhaps the Delano facility isn't worth saving, but it shouldn't be our decision, it should be the decision of the future generation. They should decide.

Mike is a go-getter. Don't sell him short-yet.

Leave it to you guys to bemoan anything new and the loss of the old.

My personal opinion? Yes, there are many artifacts that don't have the value than their supporters claim. For many, including these old transmitter buildings, the history they document is small, and the loss isn't going to impact our ability to understand the past very much at all. Scrap it and move on.

I don't care what a privately funded group would do with it. As long as the govt. can make some money back.

Q: Budweiser cans made from antique airplanes
A: You may have drunk out of those already. Military/manufacturers scrapped most of the surplus.

Q: And new subdivisions at Delano?
A: Sure.

Q: Scrap the historic ships and send the pieces to China to return as refrigerators?
A: Navy didn't mind doing this.

Q: How do we know that the facility at Delano won't be of historic or national interest a century from now, even if we don't seem to care about it today?

A: I don't care what happens with it privately.

I'd rather see the govt. make a buck on the scrapped steel, but perhaps they would find a way to lose money on the deal...

I think some VoA recordings may be a national treasure, perhaps having has direct impact on the course of history (maybe I had to hear VoA back then, because I find the 90's broadcast instantly forgettable). The place it got converted into RF is immaterial, IMHO.

S: A memorial to the 1950s-60s Cold War? Or worldwide shortwave broadcasting before
satellites?

CS: If there is one, there are already plenty. Also, Berlin wall is THE memorial of the Cold War.
 
S: Like all those obsolete vacuum tubes in the 1970s. Junk 'em to the landfill. No one will want them in the future.

CS: How is this related, exactly? If you think I'm attacking everything old, then let me do the heavy lifting for you. If I had the money, I would buy every vacuum tube designed radio at NEARFest, and have them ground down to metal powder, then used as landfill for a gated community that I would build on the fairgrounds. Also, no antenna towers allowed in the community.

-------
David Goncalves
edit: ...

Yo! Now that's a massive chain yank. ;)


The video was a little over the top in some places, like when they compared the Delano site to the Eiffel tower and used the term "scrap metal pirates."

It would be better for some independent SW broadcaster similar to WBCQ to buy the site, and actually use it on the air.  Or if Mike acquired the site, he could lease it out.  I'm sure plenty of bible beaters would be interested in purchasing air time. 

One of the more inspiring things I saw in my early ham days was a tour of the now-extinct Bethany OH VOA facility. That really motivated me into looking at radio as a future career rather than only a hobby. Wow, that was impressive, from the rogue's gallery of transmitting tubes in the front lobby to the switchyard where the overhead open wire feeders were connected to different antennas.

With Delano going, are there any other VOA shortwave facilities left in the CONUS?

Isn't Greenville, NC still operating? Just not in English.

Hi all:

This video was interesting, but it could have been produced better and in shorter time.

I also knew this day would come soon. As a student of SW broadcasting, I am very saddened about the potential demise of this excellent site. I think this and Greenville (still operating) are the best US transmission sites the BBG (VOA's parent organization) has. The VOA Morocco site was recently turned over to that country...it too was an excellent and relatively short lived (20 years?) site. With the BBG's cutting back the English service so much we are losing our capability in informing the world of our political positions and no longer can "sell America" to the developing countries.

It would be good to get more years of return from the Millions of $$ it took to create these sites, but I think the BBG sees SW is no longer an economically viable operation (it is still the most cost effective way to get a message to a listener). Note the VOA (mostly offering balanced news and features) and RFE (run by the CIA as a propaganda station) were separate operations under the same umbrella.

The Internet is more often a better medium as one can get information faster and easier given the fact you have a computer and access. This will be limited and controlled in times of conflict, where SW broadcasting does indeed shine. Another point of contension is the Internet listener must actively seek out the information they want. It is not a passive medium like listening to the radio.

As the BBG moves further into TV and Internet delivery, I feel we should keep the site in standby mode and use it as necessary. We will get very little scrap value and cannot rase the money needed to build a site like that from scratch these days.

We are currently losing our world diplomatic stand due to our lack of broadcasting. The Voice of Russisia and China Radio are all broadcasting more hours in english than we now do to the world.

73,
Dan
W1DAN

Hello
I sent Mike a quick email and he replied.

from my hotmail account

Hello Mike,
I am an avid AMer, Fred KC4MOP. I have been reading of past efforts to get something on the air for the seeing impaired, and remember the nightmare of a property you own and somehow the land became impossible to change zoning for a large shortwave radio station.
I was wondering what headway or influence you have to take control over the VOA site on your side of the USA? It would be a helluva facility, but the cost of maintaining a monster like that must be out of this world. What individual could ever afford to get all of those assets back on the air. It would be nothing for our brainless gummint to knock the whole thing down and not flinch an eye.
Are you on the air much?? What quiet part of 75M do you hang out?? 3885 is a zoo on the East coast and even into Western Pa.


Fred,
 
Thanks for following our problem in Wisconsin.  Maybe the reason I feel so strongly about saving the VOA is because of the loss of the shortwave capability in Wisconsin.  It would be a dream come true to be able to operate out of Delano but as you said, out of reach for any individual.  That's not to say that a group of well-heeled individuals might not be able to put together a non-profit foundation to maintain and lease out portions of the station if the feds totally abandon it.
 
I am on the air a few nights a week on 3.870 MHz.  The 'AMI Net' meets on Wednesdays at 8:00 PM my time.  We usually start taking early check-ins after 7:00 PM.  You can hear and see us as well on a web video service called 'Stickam'.  Go to www.stickam.com/ko6nm this Wednesday.  Brian, NI6Q will be net control but I will be running the Stickam feed.  Now you don't have to wait for the band to go long to 'check-in' via the Internet.  If you sign up for the free Stickam service you can even chat with the group while the net is going on.
 
Fred, I hope to 'see' you Wednesday!
 
73,
Mike Dorrough
KO6NM

just call the newly elected messiah.  he can wave his hand and save the world. including the voice of america.  err um wait he plans on crushing that

As long as there are villages in Afghanistan and Africa that have one shared TV set or shortwave radio, we need to continue broadcasting American ideals and news in native tongues.

Yesterday, villagers in remote Kenya, Sudan and Ethoipia wrapped themselves in American flags (instead of burning them, for once) while listening to Obama's Chicago speech on one of their few shortwave radios. Instead of Bin Laden, for once.

Instead of wrapping themselves in bombs. Or burning our flag.

Talk about money well spent by the VOA. Time to chill out, friends.

This is as political as I'm gonna get in my Western boots.

Yep, all our problems are over now. Everyone will love us. There were no terrorists before 2000 and there will be none after 2008. All the nations of the world will be a happy place. They will have flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children dance and laugh and play with gumdrop smiles.


 :P

on the big rock candy mountain ..................beefus

Really!

Almost...

You forgot that we shall all join hands and sing "Kumbayah" while worshipping under the tree of diversity.

" under the tree of diversity "

You left out hugging aformentioned tree.........


klc

(http://www.qwasi.org/images/marlene_millard/LittleTreeHugger_L.jpg)

(http://hazelrigg.biz/Images/Exported_trip_photos/Hajo_the_tree_hugger.jpg)

(http://ashley.mareelove.com/Picture%20Library/Tree%20Hugger.jpg)

That lucky tree in the bottom pic


Fred

How did we get this far off thread so fast.......
meanwhile back at the VOA, what is really happening, and is there anything that can be done?  It looks to me like many millions of dollarettes will be required to even get a sniff of this (for private use), and given the current economic situation in CA & the nation this would be way down the priority list for development as a heritage site. It looks to me like the only "hope" is that our economy is so badly wrecked the only thing that can be done is to throw a padlock on the gate because the millions of dollars needed to raze the site are not available. From the ham standpoint a KPH scenario would be nice, but I think that is a real long shot. These are just my views without knowing the facts. What are they anyway?
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