KFS Transmit Antennas -- interesting

The remnants of the KFS transmit antennas are still standing, poles up, wires up, ladder line dangling, right next to the SF bay. I go by there from time to time on the Shoreline trail. I never could quite figure out what the antennas were so I asked my regular AM buddy, Craig, W6DRZ (now SK) who was the last owner of KFS when it was still on the air. The answer surprised me. I just came across our email exchange of just a couple of years ago. Maybe some of you will find this interesting.

Jon,

The full wave dipoles at the Palo Alto transmit site (MX) were part of several ?four square? arrays designed especially for KFS by a professor at Stanford University. Four telephone poles were installed in a large square with dipole feed points at the poles and the resonant frequency chosen from either the 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16 MHz bands such that half of each of the adjacent dipoles were on each side of the square. Each dipole had its legs at right angles which generated an omnidirectional pattern. The dipoles were fed with open wire line from a 50 kW CW transmitter, typically run at 10 kW to save the final tubes.

There were several (2 or 3?) of these arrays at MX and one at the Half Moon Bay receive site (LO). They are all gone now, or course.

By the way, the vertical at MX, used on 500 kHz, was supported by two 90 foot telephone poles, spliced butt to butt, to make a tall support, guyed, of course.

Craig McCartney