The AM Forum

Checked out the website of WMLK after I drove by it west and then eastbound on I-78 in Bethel, PA on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons on the way to and from the DC area. On the westbound pass I just saw a big ugly sterba curtain like antenna hung between two sagging steel masts very close to the highway right of way.  Suspected it might be some sort of commercial/religious broadcaster, and on the way back last night caught their sign and call letters.  Their web site says they are running 50 KW into that antenna and  that they have recently acquired a 250KW transmitter to replace the 50.  Yikes!  Seems like an awful lot of RF field strength so close to people passing by on the interstate - could you be in compliance with FCC RF field strength limits at that distance at that power level? - if they are getting 10 dB of gain out of the antenna the ERP on the main response axis would be 2.5 megawatts...wouldn't want to be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic around there very long.

What's with the hammy hambone bowlegged support masts for the array?  Was that the result of ice storm damage in 2008 that's mentioned on their web site?

That would be something to think about if stuck in a traffic jam in front of the Curtains.
I'm sure they have FCC blessings to use that high power. How many feet from the roadway??
Here is a link to them and some pics. 9 mhz is pretty harmless if there's some distance from the antenna.
http://wmlkradio.net/pics.html

From the pictures it looks like the curtain is not too far from the roadside. Maybe someone flips to low power if there's a major traffic jam.

Fred

Usually when a high power transmitter like that is in use, the antenna site is some distance from the transmitter building. I would think it may a little RF hot in that shack!

That sure looks like a pair of T-3s behind the then younger "Elder" in the forth pix of the original transmitter set.
Wonder where they ended up?

As close as that antenna is to the building I wouldn't doubt they will have "issues" when their high power rig comes online.
I've driven past that site many times years back and always wondered just where it was transmitting.

Bill

There would be no way of filtering RFI out of any audio equipment if the that long trailer is the TX building. But the Annapolis 192khz station running a million watts was also nearby the antenna field. Everything was bonded and the floor in the tx building was large sheets of steel that were welded together. If a weld broke there would be arcing.
The WMLK site looks pretty low budget and a shoestring operation by the pics. THey are one good step ahead of WBCQ with three phase power.
Fred

Came across a WMLK related link on eham.net in which WB2WIK said he built the HV power supply for them and when they initially tested their original log vee antenna firing toward the ground they burnt up all the grass in front of it...

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Look at the OTs' obits in AWA Bulletin; many have been exposing themselves to loads rf on a daily basis all their lives and still live to their 80s and 90s.  Now, I would be concerned about standing in front of a high power microwave radar dish or directly in the near-field of the tank circuit of the WLW transmitter while it was running 500 kw, but merely to be a few tens of feet away from a transmitting antenna, the biohazard has been way overblown.  As an example, look the RF safety measures the FCC tells us we are supposed to be observing with our amateur transmitting antennas. How much rf exposure do we get from making an old buzzard transmission in front of an open breadboard AM KW?

The public has been programmed to flinch at the very sound of the word "radiation", and fail to make a distinction between dangerous ionising radiation (x-rays, gamma rays, UV, etc) which can break chains of DNA and cause mutations leading to cancer and birth defects, and non-ionising radiation that merely heats tissue. A hot fireplace in mid-winter gives off "radiation" in the form of infra-red, and heaven forbid that we expose ourselves to the sun; it gives off a wide spectrum of radiation, some of which really is hazardous and cancer-causing in excessive doses.

You wouldn't want to dry off your wet cat by putting it in a microwave oven, but I doubt the heating effect on your body from standing on the side of the road in front of that antenna all day would be measurable with the most sensitive digital medical thermometer (assuming rfi from the signal didn't interfere with the electronics in the thermometer).

What about radiation from the VOA site in Mason, OH before it was shut down for financial reasons?  It was right next to I-75 in an area subject to rush-hour traffic slow-downs going in and out of Cincinnati.

With all the hullabaloo about the "aesthetics" of "unsightly" towers and antennas with HOAs and local zoning authorities, it's a wonder we haven't long ago faced a nationwide campaign to severely limit transmitting power or downright outlaw amateur radio because of the "radiation hazard" we generate in residential communities. (Of course, to say nothing about multi-KW 11m installations ;D)

There are hams running almost as much to wires almost over their heads. Granted many sound brain dead but I suspect that is genetic ::) :-\

maybe the curtain will serve as a booming-car-stereo volume reduction device.

Where is Bethel, PA? My Rand McNally shows Bethel Park which is near Pittsburgh. I remember when WINB was on from Red Lion, PA east of York.I had heard that this group had bought it, but not according to their web site. I saw where they had parts from their old SW transmitter for sale.Whate ever happened to WINB's rhombic antenna?

The town is just a little NE on Reading, Pa. It is pronounced Read-ing by the people down south ;D ;D

Not by this southern boy!! There is a city in England which it was named after, and they pronounce it "Redding".Glad to know where Bethel, PA is now. I would like to know what happened to WINB, though. I have an ID on tape from 1971 that I made a copy of.

Many years ago I attended the SWL Conference in Kulpsville PA, the Bethel site transmitter engineer was there; a big-bearded guy as I recall.

I thought that WINB was still on the air, a couple years ago i remember hearing them.

The antenna is directly north of, and adjacent to, Route I-78, approx 45 miles west of Allentown and 38 miles east of Harrisburg. You can't miss it.

Googled it while ago. WINB is on two frequencies on 31m, 9405 and 9625, and near 25m on 13570. They used to be on 11795 and 17-something. They have a web site.<www.winb.com>. I would like to get pictures of that site.WINB says that they are the oldest private SW station in the USA.

Not true.  They say they came on the air in 1962, so that makes them a Johnny come  lately. I remember WRUL from about 1953 and they were probably on the years before I first heard them. I also remember listening to KGEI from sometime in the early 60s.  There were numerous pre-WW2 shortwave stations that were operated privately, some dating back to the 20s.
I think WRUL still operates, but at another location with a different call sign.

Their antenna supports appear to be wooden poles, with now outlying guys, that would explain the 'bowlegged' appearance.  After years of tension, they are developing a permanent set.

Glad you brought that up, Don. I had heard of other SW stations on for many years. I think the VOA probably shared time on some of the private station's equipment for a time until they built their own, but KGEI, WRUL, and WNYW's facilities were there own. Where are the transmitting facilities for Nashville's SW station? Back in the mid-'90's, I was in Dallas, TX headed east on I-30 toward Greenville and saw a big antenna array to the southeast. I figured it was a SWBC station.

I think to be a broadcaster on SW you need to have 50 KW PEP. If it were 5 to 10 KW there might be more SW stations on the air. My thinking is that the costs to do everything would be less costly if the power level was lower. A lot of us could put a 5 KW station together.

I drove by the antenna/transmitter site just last weekend on my way to a meeting.  I'd seen it before, but slowed way down as I approached in order to get a better look.  The supports appear to be steel and badly in need of a fresh coat of paint.  The antenna looked to be a curtain array with a non-resonant mesh reflector.  It was fed with a wide spaced open wire.  It was aimed roughly NW, slightly away from the highway. 

It was pretty impressive, but not as cool as some of the big contest station antenna farms.

Charlie

but since the FCC considers HF broadcasting an international service they somehow figured out on their own that the minimum power required is 50 kw for AM (carrier power), 50 kw PEP for sideband (with carrier down 6 db, i think) and 10 kw for digital, but that is average power for digital, the amount of peak power a transmitter has to be capable of putting out to make 10 kw avergae is something like 100 kw.

http://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdf (http://pl703.pairlitesite.com/Stations/WRUL-WYFR.pdf)
Family radio bought WRUL in 1972, WRUL started as W1XAL in 1927.

I tried to tune this station in many times at the published hours and I hear notin! Can anyone else hear it? WMLK that is. 9.265kcs.

i know i probably am too close to either one of them to hear them really good. probably if you are within a 200 mile radius the reception isnt that well because thier antenna systems would most likely be directional and low angle for maximun long distance coverage.

It’s a little known fact outside of the commercial broadcast world but the religious broadcasters are exempt from any federal or financial regulation. Or so they believe and not with any difference of opinion offered by the FCC. In thirty years of work I have seen any number of religious broadcasters operate way over licensed power, over modulated, move stations from the licensed location to a new location without notifying the FCC and operate the worst collections of old and some cases not type accepted junk you can imagine.  The FCC is always ready to come after commercial broadcasters and fine for serious offenses like not having your public file up to date or improper storage of EAS logs but the religious non coms can apparently get away with anything. I can think of maybe two or three religious broadcasters who were good to work with and operated their stations like a business, you know things like paying bills and complying with federal regulations but can tell stories of at least a dozen who I have known to willfully violate regulations and when caught cry the  " I am just a poor old preacher" song and continually get away with it. Maybe the only thing worse than a religious non com is a station owned by a lawyer, but that’s just my opinion.
KA3EKH

I have seen a few that operate as much as 1 KC off their assigned frequencies but no one seem to care.

YUP 50KW and a 10dB gain directional antenna. The shortwave B'cast is intended to broadcast to a foreign country beyond the USA. The licensee must specify the target area for his/her broadcast.

I know it is strange how Allan Weiner has his dream SW B'cast station on one end of N. America and "beaming' to central America. And at times blankets most of the USA, except the Left Coast with WBCQ.

Here is a link to the requirements to have a short wave broadcast license. I think it is a 50kw carrier not a 50kw P.E.P.
http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/appinfo.html

Very interesting read on that FCC site. I do think it could be done for a lot less than a million dollars.The other big hassle would be getting the land and the approvals from local governments to construct such an enterprise especially, if anyone seen those RF Radiation signs.