The AM Forum

I went to the CCA website to see if there was some HF-80 info for another thread on here and noticed this story. There was some action here in the QSO section a few years ago when the demise of the Delano site was a hot topic.

Looks like some good has come.

http://www.collinsradio.org/821A/

Link to Google map of Delano

https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B045'16.7%22N+119%C2%B016'44.4%22W/@35.7543967,-119.2825592,1764m/data=

400' Curtain Towers !!!!  :o :o :o :o 

Oh MY !

22 tons...thats a lot of autotune.....when will it come up on 160 meters?

At least the TX and studio equipment did not become scrap metal.
Fred

VOA Delano is an engineering marvel.

It's located about a half hour or so North of me.   I have some cool pictures of the towers,  etc.   

So sad they aren't pumping rf out anymore.   Breaks my heart every time I drive by.

--Shane
KD6VXI

Shane, I usually visit my niece in Eagle Rock once a year. How far of a drive would that be for me?

If your talking Los Angeles area,  6 to 7 hours.

--Shane
KD6VXI

This type of thinking is totally myopic and ignorant, which is why we have lost the information war.

Developing and third world countries DO NOT have access to information except by short wave radio.

While I was up at the yearly AWA conference I got to see the VOA acquisition.  What a major piece of equipment that has quite a legacy behind it.  It was still in crates and bubble racked on very large skids but I could really get a good appreciation of what was acquired.

AWA has a year to get the setup completed then it will remain at AWA for a minimum of 18 months.   After that, if Rockwell Collins builds the space for it, it will be moved to that location.  

http://www.antiquewireless.org/latest-news.html

Also here is the Summer 2014 addition of the AWA Gateway, which is a free downloadable. You will find it within this link I have attached.  It also includes some more information about the VOA transmitter acquisition. 

http://www.antiquewireless.org/awa-gateway.html
 

Joe, W3GMS

Thanks for that info...I was moved enough to make a donation! There was some amazing brain energy out of Cedar Rapids thru the years as there was from the other players back then. Must have been a great time to be in the industry.

Is there any type of drawing available to figure out what antennas' were out there in Delano and to where they were headed?

I had the opportunity to visit KPH grounds at the end of July. I was awe struck there to see what they had strung around the property. Such a very cool setting a way out there. Advisable to stop if you are in the area.
Even more awe struck to see the Delano set up on Google.... Ouch.

Bob

Thanks for your donation Bob.  Certainly a good cause to help. 

Concerning the antenna farm, I am sure a drawing is out there but not sure where.  Let me see if I can find one through the AWA.  The last I heard, all the antenna's at Delano will be scrapped.  As part of the display up in Bloomfield it would be great if a small scaled model could be built to show the details of the array.

Sounds like KPH is a wonderful place to visit.  I will put it on our list the next time we get out West.  I was / am a member of SOWP and I know the group still is around but have not kept up with it lately. 

Joe, W3GMS   

Looking at the Google Earth picture, you can see the orientation of the big towers.  Those are broadside curtains and they would be beaming northwest generally, into the Soviet Union (in those days) and Red China.  They are basically stacked colinnear broadband dipoles in front of a wire screen which makes them unidirectional. 
I have put up quite a few of that type of array all over the world (but not at this site).  Usually they are slewable, with a zero degree "boresight" position and plus and minus 15 and 25 degrees for five azimuth choices.  Gain runs over 12 or 13 dbd.  These may also have had elevation slewing, to control the signal as the ionosphere changed.

Shortwave curtains are fun.  Once the riggers hang them up, the job of tuning them begins.  One has to match them across a range usually spanning an octave to within 1.5 to one SWR.  Some customers demand better than that.  And matching has to be achieved at all slews.  The techniques are proprietary, but basically you use a high power swept network analyzer and tackle the array and its feed system.  The feeders are four wire 300 ohm line, and the whole array is usually made with Alumoweld cable, which is similar to copperweld, except with aluminum.

I'm sure that the whole antenna assembly was lowered to ground and scrapped, as they don't move well.  I have never put a big curtain on the ham bands as they are usually on hot sites with other antennas being fed with 100- or 250 KW arrays within a few hundred feet.  Even though they are sited for minimum coupling, there's still enough RF coupled across to pooch the front end.  These are the ultimate shortwave strappers.

Sounds like a fun job! 

My good friend Chuck became director of engineering for TWR after being their Chief Engineer.  He told me some neat stores about the various sites around the world and all the work he had done on the Curtain Arrays.  Here is a link to the Guam KTWR site. Some great antenna shots!

https://www.google.com/search?q=ktwr+transmitter+site+today&biw=1280&bih=862&tbm=isch&imgil=knbmq827mv0imM%253A%253BkM87nN8Xrj7beM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.twr.asia%25252Ftag%25252Fktwr&source=iu&pf=m&fir=knbmq827mv0imM%253A%252CkM87nN8Xrj7beM%252C_&usg=__iNw8gChYpBvMZvuNRGeOFQ_PEl0%3D&ved=0CCcQyjc&ei=qHcYVOH4GIipyATpgYKICQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=F5mQ1HH6BIfzMM%253A%3BhBrVbaEdT-K-iM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fc1.staticflickr.com%252F3%252F2724%252F4367979753_4c20037791.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.flickr.com%252Fphotos%252F30201906%2540N05%252Fsets%252F72157623337355039%252F%3B500%3B375

Joe, GMS

Joe..
I visited that TWR site a couple years ago when I was working on a neighboring site at the south end of Guam.  One of the pictures shows them using a vector voltmeter to measure.  I took the high power swept network analyzer and  did a demo of how that all works.  Having used everything from GR impedance bridges up through modern network analyzers, I have a lot of respect for anyone who can tune a complex array like the TCI model shown in the pictures with a vector voltmeter.  I guess the new stuff tends to spoil one.
It's sad that governments are shutting down shortwave so quickly.  One BBC site I worked on in the middle east with 28 arrays and a dozen or so transmitters is now cold.  The Broadcasting Board of Governors (used to be VOA) here at home has stated that "nobody" listens to shortwave any more.  Now VOA does satellite feeds to local FM stations in foreign countries.  That's just great until the host nation decides that they don't want their people to hear our version of the news.
The TWR guys were a good crew, and the station was quite shipshape.  There are still some sites out  there where they really take pride in their work.

Very nice to hear the good word for the TWR folks.  My friend who was the Chief Engineer at that site had probably moved up the later since you were not there that long ago.   Chuck insisted on a neat well organized facility.  He often told me that that might not have the latest, but they would keep what they have clean and in good shape.  I bet you saw no clutter when you were there!  Chucks call is NA3CW and he now resides just a few miles west of me.  He is a very sharp EE and now is working for a division of J&J responsible for designing insulin pumps.  We grew up as kids and had the same radio mentor who was Harry-W3FDY. 

Joe, GMS