The Voice of Major Armstrong on W1XOJ 1941

[W1TAV]

I have always held a deep interest about broadcasting in New England. Here is a gem of a recording done on February 14th, 1941 of a test on the Yankee Network. There is a rather long narrative in the beginning setting up the story about what you are going to hear. However stick with it. It is worth the wait! This recording hit me on so many levels, 1st, hearing Major Armstrong, the testing of the 1st FM Network on 40 MHz, the stories about the sites themselves and the added bonus of hearing about life for the engineers on top of Mt. Washington. I have been fortunate  in that I have visited and in some cases done work at all the these historic broadcast sites that where used for this 1941 broadcast.   https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share?s=8kQLYm0yQ_IsTAIIFZdCGo

The Voice of Major Armstrong @ W1XOJ 1941

[W7TFO]

Think how nice a place the radio world would be if Sarnoff went out the window instead...

73DG

[KA0HCP]

Amazing audio quality, and what a technical achievement.   Quite charming to hear the cordial conversation of these technical experts.

[Knightt150]

I work for a historical society I would love to have this recording, but my computer will not download it, and when it dose I get nothing.

John W9BFO

[ke7trp]

Its almost 300mb so it might take a while.  Even on my Cable modem it took some time.

That was very neat recording!

C

[w1vtp]

I work for a historical society I would love to have this recording, but my computer will not download it, and when it dose I get nothing.

John W9BFO

Upper right hand corner "DOWNLOAD"  Hope you have a reasonably fast connection the file is big

GL  Al

[W4NEQ]

That file is WAY too large for a downloadable audio file - almost 300 Mb!

I made an mp3 out of it - 6 Mb.  Quality loss is minimal.   

Get it here:

http://w4neq.com/htm/misc_files.htm

Chris

[w1vtp]

Chris

Thanks you so much for that service.  I was completely immersed in the drama of the day.  I have always admired Major Armstrong's work.  I felt as though  I was there.  We were privileged to have the pioneering Yankee Network in Rutland VT on  WSYB.  Those were wonderful days as the true pioneers were trying to make great advances for public broadcast.  It's certainly tragic and perhaps criminal what Sarnoff what the profiteering gang did to stop this noble experiment.

Major Armstrong had the last word.  I just wish he could have been around to receive thanks from us all for his and other true pioneers tireless and selfless work

Al

[W1TAV]

Thanks for putting this into a MP3 file. I have a CD coming from the same source with other historic recordings from around New England.  I'll look to convert any more files to MP3 should there be other material that might be of interest to those on the board.

[NE1S]

Extremely cool, Steve! Thanks for posting and telling me about it on the Lonely Guys net this morning. Listened to it in it's entirety while on the rowing machine this morning - the length was just about perfect for my normal workout 

I took the liberty of sending the link to this topic, the one to the .wav file you had posted, and Chris's .mp3 rendering to a few of the Email reflectors I belong to that would be very interested in this, as well.

-'1S

[Ed-VA3ES]

Very interesting  and cool.  I too have   forwarded the MP3 to my own e-lists and  groups.

I am always interested in historic and vintage recordings, particularly  amateur radio in the '50's and '60's.     Having lived in Montreal in the '60's,  I used to hear tons of New England and  eastern U.S. station on 75 back then. Would love to have recordings of that, particularly the Green Mountain Net  (on 3855 kc).

[Knightt150]

Hello: I have lisitend to the recording many times and enjoyed it very much, but could someone tell me what a TURN STYLE ANTENNA is? And how dose W1xoj a ham call fit into this, all the calls I heard were four letter calls like any broadcast station.

John W9BFO

[W1TAV]

Back in the day, Experimental stations received the "X" in the beginning of the call. An "X" call was not assigned to hams.. So for this set up in 1940, it was W1 indicating the call district for New England and then the "X" call.. for an experimental station.

I have attached a picture of a turnstile. I remember seeing these on roofs back in the 60's

[W4AAB]

I have one of those FM turnstiles in my attic. One day I will put it up outside and see what it will do.
                                           Joe W4AAB