[v7arcssbnet] [V7ARC] Voice of America 80th Anniversary

[Jim Madsen]

I remember the VOA station in Bethany, OH very well.  When I lived in 
Pittsburgh, PA in the 1960s (where I grew up), I could receive their 
signal slightly above the upper edge of the 15-meter band  about 21.475 
MHz or so.  Because of their proximity to my location, I picked them up 
mostly on back scatter.  However, every morning, I could hear some 
meteor scatter on their signal.  The meteors created a "whooping sound" 
on their signal (because of the doppler shifted-signal heterodyning 
against the backscatter signal).  The reflected signal would rapidly 
decrease in frequency.  Once in a while, there would be a "blue whizzer" 
-- the doppler shift would go down to zero, and their signal would "peg 
the needle" for about 5 seconds or so.

Another effect I noticed on their signal was echoing.  This happened 
about 10 - 11 AM in the morning -- their signal would circle the Earth 
three or four times.  It sounded like they were in an echo chamber.

Yes, I had a good station back then -- my antenna was a 2-element 
triband Mosley cubical quad.  Those were the days (sigh).

73

Jim
K3ILC

Douglas Ducote wrote:
> With regards to WA6IFI's email:
>
> Amateur Logic TV did an extended tour of the Bethany Relay VOA site in Ohio
> and posted a 45 minute video on YouTube. I believe the fella's name is
> George Thomas, W5JDX. He has a very strong background in broadcast
> engineering and does a pretty good job of pointing out some amazing
> transmitter related points without going full nerd. The video is worth
> looking up and watching - make sure to have a good sized cup of coffee.
>
> Off topic, but still related to broadcast history and VOA - Randy, K7AGE,
> did a video tour of WLW. He included some information about the period of
> time that the station ran 500,000W. That power level led to an
> injunction being filed by the Canadian government. The connection is that
> WLW's owner/designing engineer was one Powel Crosley, Jr. Mr. Crosley was
> later solicited by the US government to help design VOA stations for
> counter-propaganda operations against AXIS powers in WW2. My best guess at
> a paraphrase of the solicitation would go something like this: "Mr.
> Crosley, you built a hell of a flamethrower at WLW. Could you please help
> us build something even more ridiculous to talk over Adolf's lunacy
> anywhere in the world from Ohio?"
>
> I think I'll be re-watching both of those videos this week...
>
> 73,
> Doug
>
> *Douglas R. Ducote*, CBTE
> doug at ad0tp.net
> 719-496-8446
>
>