* Theme - 00:00
"Birthday Serenade" - Willi Glahe
* Opening Announcement - 00:16
Welcome to "Wavescan", international DX program from Adventist World Radio
Researched and written in Indianapolis, coming from Sofia Bu;garia
Program outline
1. Another Blast from the Past: American Mediumwave Radio on High Power
2. NASB 25th Anniversary
3. Japan DX Report
4. Rare, Unusual & Unique QSLs
* Another Blast from the Past: American Mediumwave Radio on High Power - 00:49
On two previous occasions here in Wavescan we have presented the story of high powered broadcasting; on longwave throughout the world, and on mediumwave throughout the world except for North America. On this occasion we present the story of high powered radio broadcasting on mediumwave in the United States, Mexico and Canada under the title "Another Blast from the Past American Mediumwave Radio on High Power".
As in other parts of the world, when mediumwave radio broadcasting made its first tenuous attempts in the United States, the transmitter power was quite low, some times as low as 5 or 10 watts, with 500 watts considered to be in the top bracket. The first station in the United States at 5 kW was Powell Crosley's famous WLW in Cincinnati Ohio which was inaugurated in January 1925 on 710 kHz at a new location in Harrison Ohio.
Audio Insert
WLW station identification
Even though WLW became quite famous in the American power race, yet it was not the first station to operate at a higher power level. Towards the end of the year 1925, Westinghouse opened a new facility at Bound Brook for their mediumwave station WJZ which was licensed at the time to Newark New Jersey.
This new WJZ transmitter was rated at 50 kW (on 660 kHz) and it is listed as the first station in the United States at this power level. However, the strong signal from the new WJZ overwhelmed everything else on the air and so this higher power was in use only spasmodically for the first ten years.
Three years after the inauguration of WJZ at a spasmodic 50 kW, the Cincinnati WLW inaugurated its 50 kW unit at a new location in Mason Ohio, somewhat north of Cincinnati itself. This was the first mediumwave station with regular operation at 50 kW in the United States, and several other stations followed in quick succession.
The first super power station in the United States was not WLW, and not even KDKA, but rather WGY at South Schenectady in New York State.
Audio Insert
WGY station identification & news
According to Radio Broadcast magazine for October 1927, station WGY was permitted to conduct test broadcasts at 100 kW from midnight until 1:00 am under the callsign W2XAG. These high powered test transmissions began on August 4, 1926, and a photo of the transmitter is shown on page 340 of this particular issue of Radio Broadcast magazine. At an increased power of 200 kW, W2XAG began another series of test transmissions on March 9, 1930.
Then came the well known KDKA at Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. In the early part of the year 1932, the famous KDKA began experimental transmissions at 400 kW from its location at Saxonburg under the callsign W8XAR. These experimental broadcasts were permitted on air only between 1:00 am and 6:00 am.
Audio Insert
KDKA station identification
Nearly two years later, WLW began test transmissions from its new 500 kW transmitter under the callsign W8XO. This massive transmitter was assembled under contract by RCA at their Camden factory in New Jersey.
Both GE and Westinghouse participated as sub-contractors for the Ohio project by providing basic segments for the total transmitter assembly which was made up of a 50 kW transmitter acting as the driver followed by three successive power amplifiers. The entire transmitter was installed against the back wall of a second building at Mason Ohio, adjacent to the regular transmitter for mediumwave WLW. The entire facility, transmitter and antenna system, cost $½ million and it was inaugurated on May 2, 1934 during a ceremony at the White House with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
However, because of the massive power output from Mason Ohio, complaints flooded in from listeners in both Canada and the United States who complained of interference to programming from other stations on the same or nearby channels. People living nearby to the massive transmitter complained that the programming could be heard from metal roofing, coil springs in mattresses and from other spots at the conjunction of two different metals. In response, the power output from WLW-W8XO was reduced to just 50 kW during the hours of darkness.
During World War 2, the 500 kW W8XO was switched into service for occasional special broadcasts for American servicemen on duty in Europe. The last time that W8XO was on the air with programming at full power was in 1943, though the transmitter was maintained for possible usage up into the 1960s. Sometime afterwards, the transmitter was gutted leaving just the shell, and the antenna system was sold to an FM station in Eaton Ohio, station WCTM (WJAI-WGTZ) 92.9 MHz.
During the era running from the 1930s into the 1960s, somewhere around twenty mediumwave stations in the United States applied to the FCC for approval to install super power transmitters and the requested power level varied from 400 kW to 750 kW. However, none were approved and the maximum power level for mediumwave in the United States (and Canada also) has remained at 50 kW.
The first high powered mediumwave transmitters in Canada were 50 kW units that were installed for coverage of Toronto and Montreal in 1937. The new CBL Toronto was built at nearby Hornby and it was allocated the channel 740 kHz; the new CBF Montreal was built at nearby Contrecoeur and it was allocated the channel 910 kHz.
Interestingly, Mexico also entered the power race back in the 1930s with a whole slew of stations in northern Mexico that were bent on capturing listeners across the border in the United States, a lucrative commercial market. These border blasters as they were called, emitted power ranging from 50 kW, up to 100 kW and 250 kW, and even 500 kW.
Station XED in Reynosa was the first border blaster in Mexico at 10 kW in 1930. This station later became XEAW. It appears that the highest powered border blasters in Mexico have been XERA at Villa Acuna, and XEX & XEW in Mexico City, each at around 500 kW.
The current WRTVHB lists just seven super power mediumwave stations in Mexico. These are:- One station at 78 kW XEWW Tijuana 690 kHz
Four at 100 kW XEG Monterrey 1050
XEP Mexico City 1060
XERED Mexico City 1110
XERF Cuidad Acuna 1570
One at 150 kW XEWA San Luis Potosi 540
One at 250 kW XEWW Mexico City 900
Audio Insert
XEWW station identification in Spanish
In the United States itself, four super power stations have been constructed and taken into regular radio broadcasting service. The first on air was WGY-W2XAG at South Schenectady in New York State with 100 kW in 1926 and 200 kW in 1930 The second superpower station was KDKA-W8XAR at Saxonburg in Pennsylvania with 400 kW on 980 kHz in 1932. The third was WLW-W8XO in Mason Ohio with 500 kW on 700 kHz in 1934.
The fourth American superpower station was WJZ in Bound Brook New Jersey with 500 kW on 770 kHz. However, this WJZ super power transmitter was never activated at Bound Brook in the United States; instead it was exported to England for another purpose, and that's another story for another day here in Wavescan.
* Program Announcement - 11:05
Allen Graham
* NASB 25th Anniversary - 11:57
Formation in 1989
Continental Electronics at HFCC Sofia Bulgaria
* International DX News - 14:34
VOR Russia to be revived on shortwave, 14 languages
BBS Bhutan re-activated
Greenland: 3 mediumwave stations to be reactivated
* Japan DX Report - 18:12
Yukiko Tsuji
* Rare, Unusual & Unique QSL Cards - 24:15
Shortwave listeners, international radio monitors and DXers around the world are invited to search their collection of QSL cards and letters for rare, unusual and unique verifications. You are invited to make up a list (up to 5 in number) of your QSLs in this collective category, and to write a short paragraph about each, as an important part of our annual DX contest. Partial entries for this year's contest are considered to be valid.
At the conclusion of the contest, we at Wavescan are planning to write up and publish a detailed compilation of interesting information on a world wide basis about the rare, unusual and unique QSLs that come to light in this way. This will be the first occasion in the history of international radio broadcasting for the compilation of such a QSL list, and you all are invited to submit entries.
Full details of this remarkable contest are available on several websites:-
* ontheshortwaves. com
* mt-shortwave.blogspot. com
* alokeshgupta.blogspot.com/2014/06/
* awr. org
As an example of a rare, unusual or unique QSL card . . . In August of 1972, the Adventist denomination conducted an international temperance convention in the Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul Afghanistan that attracted a multitude of delegates from many countries on all continents. A small ½ watt FM transmitter was on the air in the hotel to provide language translation for those who did not understand English. This small FM transmitter was on the air on 102.8 MHz, and only one QSL card was ever issued for this unit, a Do-It-Yourself prepared card that was signed and rubber stamped with the Kabul postal address.
* Music of the World - 26:42
Bulgaria: Folk instrumental
* Closing Announcement - 26:59
Thanks for listening to "Wavescan", international DX program from Adventist World Radio
Researched and written in Indianapolis
Several QSL cards available. Send your AWR & KSDA reception reports for Wavescan to the AWR address in Indianapolis; and also to the station your radio is tuned to: WRMI or WWCR or KVOH, or to the AWR relay stations that carry Wavescan.
Next week:-
1. Travel the World with the Great White Fleet
2. WRMI Insert
3. Philippine DX Report
Wavescan address:-
Box 29235
Indianapolis
Indiana 46229 USA
Wavescan @ AWR.org
Jeff White, shortwave WRMI
* Music Outrun - 28:24
* Program Ends - 28:55
