I found it!

[NQ6U]

The perfect station for IZE (http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?400901-RCA-BTA5G-Broadcast-Transmitter):

http://forums.qrz.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=143661&d=1370626222&thumb=1

Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

[KG4CGC]

:applause:

[ki4itv]

Heavy metal baby!
Judging by the squirrel fan in that rack, I'm guessing you HAVE TO YELL TO OTHER PEOPLE IN THE ROOM LIKE THIS when that mojank is all fired up.
Kinda like very cool though.

[WØTKX]

Naaa, just needs a sound booth. :agree:

[WX7P]

Carl:

Remember these? The old font was different.

10331

[NQ6U]

Carl:

Remember these? The old font was different.

10331

Now that you've reminded me of them I do. And I'll never forgive you for that, either.

[WX7P]

Now that you've reminded me of them I do. And I'll never forgive you for that, either.

Heh, heh, heh. Mission accomplished!

AC Transit is going on strike Wednesday (I know, off topic...)

[K7SGJ]

Naaa, just needs a sound booth. :agree:


As opposed to an unsound booth?

[KG4NEL]

As opposed to an unsound booth?

There are two rooms I want to spend some time in before I die - an anechoic chamber and a saltwater float tank.

Both have the potential to be very unsound rooms, lulz.

[WØTKX]

Sensory deprivation tanks are very trippy... recommended. :agree:

[W2NAP]

The perfect station for IZE (http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?400901-RCA-BTA5G-Broadcast-Transmitter):

http://forums.qrz.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=143661&d=1370626222&thumb=1

Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

far out man!

[wa6mhz]

FB!

[W7XF]

The perfect station for IZE (http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?400901-RCA-BTA5G-Broadcast-Transmitter):

http://forums.qrz.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=143661&d=1370626222&thumb=1

Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

Lots of TOOBS....and KNOBS!!! :spin:

[N8OBM]

The perfect station for IZE (http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?400901-RCA-BTA5G-Broadcast-Transmitter):

http://forums.qrz.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=143661&d=1370626222&thumb=1

Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

I saw this ad as well. I was thinking that If I had a little more room in the garage, it would be tempting. That would be one heck of a way to go on 160 meter. I'm not that far from Springfield Ma. Its about 2 hours and I could empty out my sound gear trailer to go pick it up. The only question is how long would it be before my wife let me back in the house? It gets mighty cold in the winter here. I could be outside till mid winter.......

Archie N8OBM

[NQ6U]

I saw this ad as well. I was thinking that If I had a little more room in the garage, it would be tempting. [...] The only question is how long would it be before my wife let me back in the house? It gets mighty cold in the winter here. I could be outside till mid winter.......

Archie N8OBM

I suspect the garage would be plenty warm enough once you fired that monster up, Archie.

[kb2vxa]

Eh, that's only the VFO so why stop there? How about 500KW with a few tons of mod iron like two of these babies?

[ki4itv]

There are two rooms I want to spend some time in before I die - an anechoic chamber and a saltwater float tank.

Both have the potential to be very unsound rooms, lulz.

Me too.
"stick out your tongue"... then, slam! :shock:

[N8OBM]

I suspect the garage would be plenty warm enough once you fired that monster up, Archie.

This is true and the garage has its own 200 amp service and meter. The fellow who built the house and the garage was a welder who ran his welders out in the garage. There is no shortage of power there.

Archie N8OBM

[kb2vxa]

Eh, you underestimate the AC power requirement. That beast looks like the 5KW RCA BTA-5G Ampliphase transmitter that had WAY too many problems for me to bother with. First, it requires a 480V 3 phase service the power company charges a king's ransom to install. Then the rectifiers are made of unobtanium, they're not the usual mercury vapor tubes, they're thyratrons (mercury SCRs) controlled by a rotary pulse transformer. The fronts are accordion style sliding doors prone to jamming, that's why in the picture they were completely removed, not just opened for the photo. Ampliphase, RCA's trademark for phase modulation, this is not your standard high level plate and screen modulated transmitter. It saves power because of it BUT the RF sections are overly complicated and require frequent tune ups, like an expensive sports car it spends more time in the shop than it does on the road.

[n2ize]

Eh, you underestimate the AC power requirement. That beast looks like the 5KW RCA BTA-5G Ampliphase transmitter that had WAY too many problems for me to bother with. First, it requires a 480V 3 phase service the power company charges a king's ransom to install. Then the rectifiers are made of unobtanium, they're not the usual mercury vapor tubes, they're thyratrons (mercury SCRs) controlled by a rotary pulse transformer. The fronts are accordion style sliding doors prone to jamming, that's why in the picture they were completely removed, not just opened for the photo. Ampliphase, RCA's trademark for phase modulation, this is not your standard high level plate and screen modulated transmitter. It saves power because of it BUT the RF sections are overly complicated and require frequent tune ups, like an expensive sports car it spends more time in the shop than it does on the road.

I could easily borrow a truck and get to Springfield. But wouln't pick up this beast and bring it down for for the very reasons you stated... plus one more. As you pointed out, the power requirements are too complicated and Con Ed would charge me a fortune to deliver the power I would need to run it. This sure as heck ain't no welding machine. . Secondly, it is overly complex. I suppose it may be possible to do something about the rectifiers but there are too many other potential headaches with that beast. And the one more, I'd have no place to put it. I already have something that resembles a refrigerator and that take enough space as is.

I wouldn't mind getting hold of a 500 W or 1 Kw Bcast AM transmitter... But this beast is too much. Closest I ever got to a big AM transmitter was the 50 kw Continental they had at the old WNEW transmitter site which today the whole site is now somewhere underwater... a part of the Jersey shore. ;)

[kb2vxa]

We both forgot an important reason to forgo phase modulated AM, way too many tubes which raises operating costs all in itself. The Continental 317-C uses far fewer so is economical, very popular and one more bit of reduced AC power requirement, screen grid modulated finals in the Doherty configuration. (If I remember right he was a ham cartoonist, hi.) Eh, if you're power mad why stop there, you might find a 105-C around someplace. Ah, that's a puny megawatt, if you want to add 3dB to that there's a band switching shortwave Collins in Greenville, NC...............

"I wouldn't mind getting hold of a 500 W or 1 Kw Bcast AM transmitter..."
That 200A 230V single phase main would yawn and go back to sleep, typically the mains breaker for a KW broadcast transmitter is 40A. I installed a few, ran the wiring and put the cutoff switches on the wall next to them, when stations went solid state we saved SO many tubers from the scrapper.

Since I've already posted 1KW broadcast transmitters too many times here's your Continental at the WNEW plant. Not exactly underwater there's still a bit of wreckage across from WMCA on Patterson Plank Road, not the Jersey Shore, the Meadowlands. What's here at the Jersey Shore are relics, the defunct AT&T transatlantic HF station WOO in Ocean Gate and the old RCA maritime CW station in West Creek, ex WSC now W2WSC, the Tuckerton Wireless ARC club station. Since I don't have a photo of WOO here's something else of interest besides my AT&T avatar.

OH, ALMOST FORGOT! One of the local clubs (Tesla?) made an agreement with AT&T to lease space at the site, turn it into a museum and use the old antennas. That would give the boys down in West Creek a run for the money but last I heard Sandy did extensive damage putting it all in doubt. I wish I had a better connection to the jungle telegraph, it would be nice to know what's going on in my back yard.

[n2ize]

state we saved SO many tubers from the scrapper.

Since I've already posted 1KW broadcast transmitters too many times here's your Continental at the WNEW plant. Not exactly underwater there's still a bit of wreckage across from WMCA on Patterson Plank Road, not the Jersey Shore, the Meadowlands.


So, how did that place end up underwater. Did they raze it and then flood the area ? Or did they abandon it and just let nature take it's course. It's strange I remember being in that plant quite a few times. However, when I was there the transmitter in the forefront was removed and a solid stater installed in it's place and the one at the far end was still there as a backup.

[kb2vxa]

It always WAS underwater, that part of Kearney is a salt marsh. Here are a couple of screen capture shots from Google Earth to refresh your memory. Notice the capacitance hats you saw in the photo in the lower right. Down the street is WMCA, same situation underwater... well, at least the radials are. Interesting, installing them they didn't use a Ditch Witch, they used a boat. (;->)

Solid stater? Are you sure it wasn't a solid rotor? <hiss boo> Yeah, it was a Nautel AMPFET 50 that along with the Continental as backup moved to Carlstadt.

As an aside, the original WBBR, the old Watchtower Bible and Tract Society station on 1330 kHz that had its transmitter on Staten Island, New York City, on an 18 acre farm owned by Jehovah's Witnesses and a 4X6 foot studio in Brooklyn. (;->) Religious station WBBR first went on in 1924 and in 1957 it was sold to a new owner, who called it WPOW. It shared air time with WEVD named after the Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs and (heh heh heh) a certain pirate station on 1340 that waited until they switched to avoid being buried in splatter. Oh, now WEVD is WWRV and the old WPOW dark, now the callsign is assigned to Power 96 in Miami.