[Boatanchors] WRNO's transmitter.

Mon Mar 23 15:46:07 EDT 2009

Gang,

I can tell you a few things that I know about WRNO shortwave.....

I will read all the messages in the thread and comment on it after that and 
I have a few moments.

YES.  Joe Costello WAS trying to do things 'on the cheap'!

For a long time after the Harris rig went down, he tried getting on the 40 
meter frequency with a Johnson Valiant driving some Henry amplifiers!  After 
the Henry amplifiers went kaput, he used just the Johnson Valiant by itself. 
I repaired it 2-3 times.  Worst was using a very large ferrite balun to try 
and match a 50 ohm transmitter outpu to whatever impedance the log periodic 
was!  It was a big "jury rig"!!

More later.

OH!  Last story I heard was the "new" transmitter they built in [place of 
the Harris rig didn't last long and went up in smoke.

More later.

73,

Sandy W5TVW

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <ranickel at comcast.net>
To: <sdaitch at kuw.ibb.gov>
Cc: "'Harold Hairston'" <k4hca at windstream.net>; 
<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; <W9RAN at oneradio.net>; 
<glowbugs at piobaire.mines.uidaho.edu>; "Bob Peters" <rwpeters at swbell.net>; 
<DJED1 at aol.com>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] WRNO's transmitter.

> sdaitch at kuw.ibb.gov wrote:
>> Thanks for the link.
>>
>> When I clicked on the TX photo, I thought
>> that is NOT the transmitter I saw
>>
> Good catch, Sheldon.  I dug out the article, which tells the sad but
> interesting history of the transmitters at WRNO Worldwide.  Let me share
> a few excerpts:
>
> Joe Costello, the station founder who broke the ground for domestic HF
> broadcasting  back in the late 70s, was described by the author as being
> "extremely cheap".  (Did I mention he was also a ham?  well, no
> correlation I'm sure...)   So instead of fixing up the initial Harris
> 100kw transmitter the station started with, he instead bought a 50KW
> transmitter from CCA - a company that had never made a dual band
> shortwave transmitter before, and evidently the bugs never were quite
> ironed out.  According to station engineer, Larry Thom, the SW-100 "died
> due to little preventative maintenance"; Costello just wouldn't spend
> the money to keep it running properly (Any old broadcast engineers
> nodding your heads out there?)    For example, he had the transmitter
> operator distill their own transmitter cooling water, and often didn't
> run the full 100KW power.  The station didn't own a dummy load large
> enough, so all testing was done on-the-air.   Thom says when he first
> came on the scene, it was putting out only 6000 watts!   After a few
> days he got it up to 60KW but dirt in the cooling system eventually
> caused arcing of the 30KV supply and the teflon cooling hoses wore
> out.   Larry wanted to buy a nice Continental transmitter but once
> again, Joe saved money...
>
> CCA paid Costello  $150K for the old Harris and sold him a transmitter
> before it was built.  The CCA had separate 7  and 15mhz RF cabinets with
> a common p/s and modulator.  Serial Number 1 was finished on-site and
> had to be modified for a 75 ohm output as that's what Joe's balun that
> fed the 300 ohm open wire feedline was for.     The antenna, by the way,
> is a TCI Log Periodic aimed north-northeast with a gain of 9db.  (It's
> located in the scrubby field that you see on Google Earth to the north
> of transmitter building and the two big towers).
>
> One day the FCC called and complained to the WRNO receptionist about
> interference  to other stations.  Someone went to the transmitter site
> and called Larry to tell him that smoke was coming out of the CCA
> transmitter.   Turning off the main breaker did not stop the smoke!  It
> was discovered that the transmitter had burned badly, wiring harnesses
> completely melted, modulator wires burnt up, etc.   In the end, the new
> owners opted for a new 50KW Elcor plate modulated transmitter that was
> built in Costa Rica.  http://www.elcor.org/   According to the article,
> the burnt-up transmitter led to a 50% reduction from the asking price
> when the Good News Outreach group bought it in 2001.
>
> And here's the part "we" can relate to:  In the Costello days the backup
> transmitters were a Johnson Viking and Valiant, as well as a T-368!
> Today, according to the article, Larry has a "Globe King 500D Serial
> Number 1" which can make 300 watts as the backup.   And I'm going to end
> this story right there, but any of you who know what a "500D" is - you
> know THAT is a whole 'nuther story!
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
>
>
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