I will add that after the various comments of the fast moving and shaky camera, I realize when I just watched this again, that this was before I had my good Sony 4K camera, with stabilization. It would have been nice to have this camera for that tour, but I'm sorry for what came out. Still watchable tho.
I thought it was a great video! Nevermind all the nay-sayers! It MUST've been good enough to watch, or they wouldn't have watched it! Some people just like to complain! I was a fellow radio hobbyist & even had a TV shop for awhile so found this video fascinating! Sure do miss it! Thanks for posting it! Regards, Ross
I would like to have been with you that day. Never mind what anyone says. I want a 1.4 mega watt station. Love those old signs! And the chickens walking around. Rhombic antennae? Can you imagine the size of the speaker that would handle 1.4 million watts of power? It would have to be about 10 miles X 10 miles, ya think? And what a voice coil!
TheReportOfTheWeek Hey, cool to see you. You use 1Million watts on this setup? That's a lot of power... Do you get to operate or tweak any of that equipment while doing your show or do people run it for you if you mind me asking? I would love to operate equipment or even just to work there.
Holy crap! It's the dapper guy that reviews fast food! Glad to see you're also into shortwave. Can't wait to take one of my SW radios and listen to your show.
13:16 - 13:56 I used to work on amplifiers which used similar transformers (but with three cores for three-phase power) to power the driver stages. The main P.A. power supply and output transformers were the size of small automobiles, and the output tubes (two [huge] triodes in push-pull) were water-cooled at 300 gpm (two 20-hp pumps)! In any case, this was a great video. Thank you for taking the time to produce and post. 73 DE KI6DCB
@@alanchatfield4271 I think you posted on the wrong thread. Nobody mentioned NASA. That is an outdated American institution which little, except maybe Americans, think about today. Even when they were at their apex, they were using Nazi scientists and technology to accomplish what they did. You must be American to even bring NASA up.
Wow. Excellent tour. I lived in South East Florida for 29 years and have been up in that area, but never knew this station existed. Remarkable engineering. Thank You All.
I saw a handmade sign in a transmitter site that said “nobody with a steel plate in their head allowed past this point. Last guy with a plate pissed himself and tried to sue us.” Engineer had an odd sense of humor.
@Doug Taylor, the RE wasn't joking and he wasn't concerned about anybody getting hurt. He was concerned that said metal plate would detune the transmitter! Lol
That's a crazy amount of power. Incredible the engineering that goes into that. Just the antennas alone. I presume those are very precisely setup so they can beam form to the regions they want.
My brother (who winters in Okeechobee) and I drove out there in late 2012 when WYFR (Family Radio) was still broadcasting from that facility. We got the nickel tour. At that time the place was a real dump. They had plastic sheeting on top of many of the cabinets and racks along with lots of buckets from the leaky roof. It looks much better now. Lots of new equipment and the building has been repaired/remodeled. Somewhere I have a couple of 8MM video tapes of our tour, including an extensive view of the antennas. Thanks for sharing your video guys. It was a treat to see it after someone invested a lot of money and a little TLC.
My parents have a Phillips receiver from 1958, and with some time at home I connected a home made antenna and was able to pick up from Toronto the broadcast on May 4th at 3:00 PM at 15770kHz. Pretty cool for my first time using a short wave. Thanks for the video.
What an awesome tour & thanks so much for it all, Eric & deeply grateful for you sharing it with all of us to enjoy!. Kudos to all the crew with you, as always, they do a spectacular job in sharing their views. I am always spellbound by the mega size of everything with these transmitters & setups when compared to what we use in ham radio from the feedlines, antennas, baluns, power supplies, finals... Wished I could be there in FL to have checked it out up close. Coming from VK where we're only allowed 400W EIRP, 1.4MW is a pipe dream to us. Loved every second & God bless!
@Timothy Stockman, Brother Stair was interesting to listen to! I received him from a clear channel broadcast band station when I lived in New Mexico. 73 de KB5ZDW
I stumbled onto this video - it was cool as could be. Now I'm off to find more shortwave radio station tours. I wanna see some big PA tubes, massive coils, and deadly xformers.
Had never heard of WRMI until TH-cam recommended this video. The scale of the thing is impressive: it reminds me of the Jim Creek Naval Radio Station in Washington state. Thanks for sharing.
Been about 2 years since this video, but I discovered WRMI in the summer of 2018. I just finished restoring an old Hallicrafters tube-type shortwave radio, found on the side of the road (it was on top of some old furniture). And in the wee hours, I get a station playing (if I remember right) 1970's pop. This was received in MA.
Some burning questions in the back of my mind as I watched this. 1) Who pays for all that? What's the business/revenue model? 2) Who's listening? Who would even think to get an AM SW receiver these days? 3) What content is carried on those frequencies? I can't imagine the utility bill for that plot of land being all that cheap and how something like that in 2019 could be ever be viable... ...but still neat to see!! Thanks for sharing.
It is NOT 1,4 Mega Watt. Transmitters: Twelve 100,000 watt and one 50,000 watt. All are high-level plate modulated (some include supplementary screen and control grid modulation). Some are entirely air-cooled; some also use water cooling and vapor-phase cooling. The transmitter building is 16,000 square feet. The 13 transmitters consist of two 100 kW Continental 418-Ds, and eight composite-construction 100 kW transmitters based on the 418-D but built by WYFR. One of the transmitters has been retrofitted with a solid state modulator and could be converted to DRM digital operation. There are three older Gates/Harris transmitters (1 x 50-kilowatt and 2 x 100-kilowatt). All of the 100-kw transmitters can also be operated at 50 kilowatts, and one of them is able to operate at a continuously-variable power level up to 100 kilowatts.
@@chickey333 I think the TOTAL power output of all 13 transmitters are about 1.4 MW. Each transmitter operates on different frequencies. At 6:30, the screen only indicates 6 transmitters active. The output is NOT 1.4 MW on any one frequency.
Interesting tour and having worked in SW Broadcast for several years and in using very high power RF for science work it brought back memories. Modern power tetrodes are a far cry from their glass envelope ancestors and incorporate advanced construction techniques operating at MW levels up to 200MHz (Diacrodes). Vacuum tubes are "not dead yet" (M Python) and will be around for the foreseeable future!
The support cables on these antennas speak to the danger of extreme wind down here. A hurricane pushes these antennas so much, they really do _need_ them.
Neat tour, thank you. They must have some interesting business relationships. It's typical of nation states to have the cash to get their message out on such a scale.
These guys used to be a customer of mine back in the Family Radio days. Out in the middle of nowhere which I guess was good for the neighborhood. As for that herd of cattle living under all those different antennas. I bet they glowed in the dark. I know the office as a big faraday cage and they still didn’t need to hook their fluorescent bulbs up to get light. The operators were all nice folks. They busted their asses to keep all that old gear working. At one point they were working with Nautel to design and build a new transmitter but Family Radio went away and so did the funding.
In my early years of exposure to radios, my first junkyard buy was an eight loctal tube shortwave receiver built into a wood box...my first respect for electricity was holding the antenna lead up to connect to a water pipe..pow! Lesson learned.
That is an awesome set up with some very scary HV. Don’t try to pick one of those transformers up or it will be your last. Say hello to hernialand! Easy 300lbs or more. A lot of copper in that joint. Wouldn’t want that utility bill, forget it! Fun tour guys!
And now I know why I can receive this station strongly from 1400 miles away with an antenna tuned for the 2m band. It also looks every bit as new and clean as I expected.
Can I get this station on my Yaeso FT-70DR? I have the radio and know nothing about it. Trying to learn but havent heard a damn thing come over this thing yet.
At 4:45 that looks like a log-periodic antenna, not a rhombic. To put things in perspective, each 100,000 watt AM transmitter is putting out about 30,000 watts in each sideband, or about 2 S-Units (13 dB) stronger than a legal-limit 1500-watt SSB Ham station. Of course, most Hams can only dream about an antenna like one of those used here which likely add another 10 dB or 1.5 S -units to the signal. de AC7AC.
Great video. Thanks. I was smiling when I saw all the 'a la 1970's" timers, relays and contactors in the control panel. You don't see these much anymore. Most people switched to PLC controllers.
Everyone shutting down everyone going digital or retired even my friend shutdown he’s repeater to go digital using no equip I always like all the equip racks and doing the technical stuff I always enjoy using analog and using the earth as the (internet)
1 May 2019, the solar flux index was 66. The Sun is at a grand solar minimum. Radio propagation is very low. There are no sunspots at all right now. People are leaving all radio hobbies in droves. Growing up, a walkie talkie on 27 megacycles would transmit across the continent. They were amazing times. Today, 1500 watts on a home transmitter may transmit to the next city over. Frequencies that were extremely busy in the 1990s are nothing but ghost bands now. Hmm, maybe I should try EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) on 10 meters. I can actually try it in hundreds of frequencies now. They are all dead.
Pretty impressive. I had a radio program on KVOH (Voice of Hope) on 17.775 MHz and 9.975 MHz for several years. The studio was in Simi Valley and the transmitter and antennas were atop nearby Chatsworth Peak. Most of the engineers were my friends and later helped our ministry, Blessings For Obedience build low to medium power FM stations all over the world. We built one or two low power NVIS shortwave stations in South Sudan as well as an AM station in Haiti and another in Uganda. Our program was called ‘Window to the World’. We had music and interviews and Bible studies and even tech tips for missionary hams and Morse code practice. Fun times. In 1995 we were installing an LPFM in the jungle of Venezuela and I got to listen to my own pre-recorded program one Sunday night. It was an ‘S-9’ signal. 73 and 99 de AA5ID (Midland, TX)
Wish people would pull their heads out of a 2000 year old book and stop worshiping it. People need to start looking at reality and quit believing in bullshit love spirits. Humans need to perform human actions to stop the leftist criminals or nothing will change. I feel so bad for kids born in the future state of the USA with such selfish parents who gave zero thought to what their kids are going to be forced to endure. Obviously only thought about themselves. Only love from God is in a book.
@@Truth-Be-Told-USA We don’t worship a book, we worship the loving God who created you fearfully and wonderfully on His image and likeness and the rest of the universe and everything in it.
@@kellycoleman715 just like the Maricopa county supervisors were created in his evil image. Read Isiah 45:7 and Acts chapter 5 where murders took place for God love of evil entertainment for himself. There is zero evidence of love outside of the book and you know it. You can't prove love at all except the book says so so it's true. Not! Overwhelming evidence of an evil God in today's reality. Look around. I am not going to accept responsibility for God's entertainment. Nope
@@kellycoleman715 It's amazing that a God of love never ever shows love except in very ancient stories. Why is it so hard or impossible to show actual actions of true love. Humans "in his image" show love to spouses through actual kindness and affection for each other. Why do people fall for words in a book for God, but expect real actions from other humans to prove love. Amazing and certainly not divine. 2000 + years ago stories are so ancient they really mean nothing today
Like going back in time; 19" racks and lit button switches. The good old days when technology was reliable, if not predictable. I listened to WYFR on the SWL receiver in the calibration lab I worked in. 73''s de KB5ZDW
@@sighpocket5 I'd be surprised if the farmer won't be able to find his cows at night the cows should glow in the dark as if he's using a thermal imaging camera.
Looks almost like the FCC monitoring station in Canandaigua, NY I visited back in 1980. I was told that besides monitoring, it could transmit on the old Conelrad frequencies at up to half a megawatt if needed. I spent the day with a friend that worked there after I was cleared by the FCC to even enter the building. Security was tight back in the day before the Soviets quit.
The highest power ever ham radio transmission was made by G3AAT (Richard Brett-Knowles) using a 50kW transmitter in England. He transmitted his callsign in morse. G3AAT is now SK, so the story can be told!
@MoonMoon, becoming an amateur radio operator, builder or designer requires an interest in the subject. Are you really interested? If you are, get in touch with the local Amateur Radio Club and one of the many books available to help you study for a Technician Class license. From there, hang out with amateur radio operators and learn all you can from them. The ARRL Handbook is a must have pub. It has everything in it; electronics theory, home brew projects, antenna design, rules of operation, etc. Come join us! 73's KB5ZDW
Andy Millgrove so REALLY where was that money coming from???? You really think people were mailing old Harold millions upon millions of dollars a year? If so his outfit would have qualified as one of the largest charities on the planet , how ultimately stupid
No radio expert, but I can do some basic math. Assuming exactly 1.4 MW is consumed and they are using the commercial electric rate of about $0.096 per KWh their monthly electric cost for transmission would be $96,768. Per their website they will sell airtime for as little as $1 per minute. If each of the 14 transmitters got $1 per minute for the month the income would be $604,800. I'm sure the electric bill is higher, and I doubt they are taking in that much money. But rough numbers.
@@saxyweed But you're basing the math on the output power right? So the incoming power VIA the transformers would be much lower no? I'm just thinking the 1.4Mw RF output wouldn't be anywhere close to the actual AC current coming in being consumed. Higher the voltage lower the wattage as the general rule goes no? Lol idk just thinking out loud, not claiming i know anything but there's got to be a major difference i would think. I mean it's not like they're feeding the building 2 million Watts to cover both the building lighting etc and the transmitters. And Watts always sound so much higher than ampers by number but really doesn't compare. 1.4Mw / 440v = 314amps feed give or take. Just going by the voltage he quoted in the video for an example, if my simple math used is remotely correct, lol.
Great tour! I won't be seeing the facility in person because I have a pacemaker. I've seen on you tube, the video by Photonicinduction where he destroys things with a homemade 80,000 amp transformer. Look it up!
I was involved with ham radio 1962. I do recall the station: K6VDL a Ranger transmitter of around 50 Watts, but am not sure. The power you kick around, 1.4 megawatts is power input to the finals, is not the output from tube. The antenna's used, rhombic is the best there is and has high gain. Output power from finals is about 1/2 input power (the rest dumped as heat) and power absorbed by the antenna has to include the power factor of the antenna. It should be 1.0 but in reality is not, VSWR. Transmission line from the finals is pure copper pipes with a center pipe with internal spacers, (teflon) all pressurized with an inhert dry gas. The actual voltage and current into the antenna ( 50.0 ohms?) can be calculated easily.
Does the Desert Inn still have the rubber spiders and bugs on strings? the bartender use to be able to let one down on the table you were setting at. This was back in the 1970's.
Please walk me through this. I get shortwave and it’s wide reach capability. I don’t understand the reason and economics of why transmitters in Florida are used for countries to the south for example. Is the signal reaching non internet locations? Are there radio stations in the south rebroadcasting in AM or FM for public listening or is this all a hobby? How are all these costs being paid by? Is the input signal coming in by phone lines or internet? Can someone walk me (or all of us) through this please? Thanks much... who pays the electric bill and how much is that?
WRMI makes money by selling its airtime to anyone who wants to get on the air - you have religious programs, music shows, conspiracy talk shows, foreign governments who buy time to relay their International Broadcaster etc. I have a show on WRMI where I play music and take requests, I do it a few times a week and it still reaches a good number of listeners. The show reaches Amateur Radio Operators and Hobbyists, listeners in remote or rural areas, listeners in developing countries and people who just like listening to shortwave! I send the shows in over the internet and I go out on 4 frequencies of theirs (9955 kHz, 9395 kHz, 7780 kHz, 5850 kHz).
TheReportOfTheWeek Thank you for your detailed reply. From an economic affordability perspective, the high wattage suggests a very expensive electric bill. One smaller station in Texas indicated in a video that it pays $500 a day in power costs. Are these shortwave channels subsidized in the interest of civil defense or national security? Otherwise it sounds like it would be too expensive.
this was a learning experience. I am guessing that the antennas are not resonant? That is why they use a balun between the output of the transmitter and the antenna??? It sounded like they do tune the "balun" ??? can anybody clarify??
That 10KW plate transformer looks about right. I had to replace the plate transformer way back when in a Harris (Gates) FM10H3 10KW FM broadcast transmitter. One can't get that transformer out without removing a couple dozen power supply components which are in the way. i hope i never have to do that again! An even bigger transformer was the Thordarsen Tru-Fidelity modulation transformer in the Collins 21A 5KW AM broadcast transmitter
I will add that after the various comments of the fast moving and shaky camera, I realize when I just watched this again, that this was before I had my good Sony 4K camera, with stabilization. It would have been nice to have this camera for that tour, but I'm sorry for what came out. Still watchable tho.
I thought it was a great video! Nevermind all the nay-sayers! It MUST've been good enough to watch, or they wouldn't have watched it! Some people just like to complain! I was a fellow radio hobbyist & even had a TV shop for awhile so found this video fascinating! Sure do miss it! Thanks for posting it! Regards, Ross
I would like to have been with you that day. Never mind what anyone says. I want a 1.4 mega watt station. Love those old signs! And the chickens walking around. Rhombic antennae? Can you imagine the size of the speaker that would handle 1.4 million watts of power? It would have to be about 10 miles X 10 miles, ya think? And what a voice coil!
Don't apologize. We're just happy to have the video at all.
Great video! WRMI is the main station that my own show "VORW Radio Int." is transmitted from, I hope to tour the facility myself one day.
TheReportOfTheWeek Hey, cool to see you. You use 1Million watts on this setup? That's a lot of power... Do you get to operate or tweak any of that equipment while doing your show or do people run it for you if you mind me asking? I would love to operate equipment or even just to work there.
Holy fuck, did not expect to see you here. You are allot more interesting then I initially thought.
Did you get a ham license?
Holy crap! It's the dapper guy that reviews fast food! Glad to see you're also into shortwave. Can't wait to take one of my SW radios and listen to your show.
I'm literally here to learn his to get in get on your station
13:16 - 13:56 I used to work on amplifiers which used similar transformers (but with three cores for three-phase power) to power the driver stages. The main P.A. power supply and output transformers were the size of small automobiles, and the output tubes (two [huge] triodes in push-pull) were water-cooled at 300 gpm (two 20-hp pumps)!
In any case, this was a great video. Thank you for taking the time to produce and post.
73 DE KI6DCB
1.4 megawatts will likely be heard on the Moon if directed that way. That type of power on UHF could probably be heard outside the solar system.
Lol oh god, a nasa boy,, I could talk with you for months, wouldn't be easy for you mind 😂
@@alanchatfield4271 I think you posted on the wrong thread. Nobody mentioned NASA. That is an outdated American institution which little, except maybe Americans, think about today. Even when they were at their apex, they were using Nazi scientists and technology to accomplish what they did. You must be American to even bring NASA up.
People that believe the moon to be something that can be landed upon are normally nasa fans,,, I got to go, I shouldn't have said anything,
@@alanchatfield4271 you say that as if those who do believe in the moon are the weirdos. Come back to reality!
@@clevername8832 look in to it, may take 10 years but worth it, make fun of me if you like it don't matter to me
Wow. Excellent tour. I lived in South East Florida for 29 years and have been up in that area, but never knew this station existed. Remarkable engineering. Thank You All.
Thanks for the tour. I’ve always been fascinated by broadcast towers and transmitter buildings.
Step 1: Build and oversized Qi coil.
Step 2: Install it on top of your Tesla.
Step 3: Park under those antennas and charge your car for free.
It would be a wireless charger like what the cordless phones of the early 2000s had.
I saw a handmade sign in a transmitter site that said “nobody with a steel plate in their head allowed past this point. Last guy with a plate pissed himself and tried to sue us.”
Engineer had an odd sense of humor.
@Doug Taylor, the RE wasn't joking and he wasn't concerned about anybody getting hurt. He was concerned that said metal plate would detune the transmitter! Lol
I am listening to this rite now i believe from North Eastern Pa Wayne County
That's a crazy amount of power. Incredible the engineering that goes into that. Just the antennas alone. I presume those are very precisely setup so they can beam form to the regions they want.
My brother (who winters in Okeechobee) and I drove out there in late 2012 when WYFR (Family Radio) was still broadcasting from that facility. We got the nickel tour. At that time the place was a real dump. They had plastic sheeting on top of many of the cabinets and racks along with lots of buckets from the leaky roof. It looks much better now. Lots of new equipment and the building has been repaired/remodeled. Somewhere I have a couple of 8MM video tapes of our tour, including an extensive view of the antennas. Thanks for sharing your video guys. It was a treat to see it after someone invested a lot of money and a little TLC.
Some of that plastic sheeting can be seen in this video! 15:45, on the right side of the picture.
Its nice to see a good old fashioned QRP station take on the Italians at their own game.
That's my favorite Ch it's nice to actually see it
Cool video. I now know what those strange arrays do that you see driving around
Thanks for the tour! I passed this station around Christmas '84 and lusted after their curtain array!
My parents have a Phillips receiver from 1958, and with some time at home I connected a home made antenna and was able to pick up from Toronto the broadcast on May 4th at 3:00 PM at 15770kHz. Pretty cool for my first time using a short wave. Thanks for the video.
What an awesome tour & thanks so much for it all, Eric & deeply grateful for you sharing it with all of us to enjoy!.
Kudos to all the crew with you, as always, they do a spectacular job in sharing their views.
I am always spellbound by the mega size of everything with these transmitters & setups when compared to what we use in ham radio from the feedlines, antennas, baluns, power supplies, finals...
Wished I could be there in FL to have checked it out up close.
Coming from VK where we're only allowed 400W EIRP, 1.4MW is a pipe dream to us.
Loved every second & God bless!
I checked out WRMI earlier this evening. They were transmitting on 12 separate frequencies, and only 1 of them was Brother Stair. --73 de N3TS.
world harvest radio the owner is an abba member. Their around 3.830.
@Timothy Stockman, Brother Stair was interesting to listen to! I received him from a clear channel broadcast band station when I lived in New Mexico. 73 de KB5ZDW
Desert Inn is no longer :( A semi lost control and took out a large portion of the restaurant and hotel. (Restaurant closed about 6month prior.
Jonathan Owens oh god I saw that damage riding through there twice with my uncle, pretty bad
@@ntekniklaus3710 :( that's so sad to hear about what happened. Hoping they can rebuild it someday
Where is the hotel located?
I stumbled onto this video - it was cool as could be. Now I'm off to find more shortwave radio station tours. I wanna see some big PA tubes, massive coils, and deadly xformers.
Had never heard of WRMI until TH-cam recommended this video. The scale of the thing is impressive: it reminds me of the Jim Creek Naval Radio Station in Washington state. Thanks for sharing.
Dave Beedon
I just got a used sw radio from my dad. Dialed in this station this station by accident. Came to youtube and this video popped up. :-0
Been about 2 years since this video, but I discovered WRMI in the summer of 2018. I just finished restoring an old Hallicrafters tube-type shortwave radio, found on the side of the road (it was on top of some old furniture). And in the wee hours, I get a station playing (if I remember right) 1970's pop. This was received in MA.
Love this shortwave station ! Keep shortwave radio alive by listening and sapporting !
Some burning questions in the back of my mind as I watched this.
1) Who pays for all that? What's the business/revenue model?
2) Who's listening? Who would even think to get an AM SW receiver these days?
3) What content is carried on those frequencies?
I can't imagine the utility bill for that plot of land being all that cheap and how something like that in 2019 could be ever be viable...
...but still neat to see!! Thanks for sharing.
@@mayshack I listen to their spanish broadcasts here in Germany. Frecuencia al día DX related programs.
Geeeee-eez!!! The scale is incomprehensible!! Kinda like the wlw station. Thank you for this vid!!
I like the restaurant, I have been there. I have driven by the transmitter many times. Thanks for showing what is inside.
Thanks for the video/tour!
Very impressive antennas and transmitters.
It is NOT 1,4 Mega Watt.
Transmitters: Twelve 100,000 watt and one 50,000 watt. All are high-level plate modulated (some include supplementary screen and control grid modulation). Some are entirely air-cooled; some also use water cooling and vapor-phase cooling. The transmitter building is 16,000 square feet. The 13 transmitters consist of two 100 kW Continental 418-Ds, and eight composite-construction 100 kW transmitters based on the 418-D but built by WYFR. One of the transmitters has been retrofitted with a solid state modulator and could be converted to DRM digital operation. There are three older Gates/Harris transmitters (1 x 50-kilowatt and 2 x 100-kilowatt). All of the 100-kw transmitters can also be operated at 50 kilowatts, and one of them is able to operate at a continuously-variable power level up to 100 kilowatts.
Dorothy. You R smart that make s u hot
It is NOT 1.4 Mega Watt? Then, what is it actually? And how many different customers can use this radio station at a time?
Hi Dorothy Gale, It sounds highly expensive to operate. Is this all subsidized by civil defense or?
@@chickey333 I think the TOTAL power output of all 13 transmitters are about 1.4 MW. Each transmitter operates on different frequencies. At 6:30, the screen only indicates 6 transmitters active. The output is NOT 1.4 MW on any one frequency.
Trey Hart what is the electric bill cost?
Great video Eric. You really edited that together well.
This is the station I am going broadcast at 6:00-6:05 pm EST at December 24
Thanks for the tour. Good to see Jim Davis, I knew him from his WXYZ Detroit days.
do you know his former partner Pete Akerman retired senior engineer.
Reminds me of the Navy radio stations in San Diago and Charelston.
Interesting tour and having worked in SW Broadcast for several years and in using very high power RF for science work it brought back memories.
Modern power tetrodes are a far cry from their glass envelope ancestors and incorporate advanced construction techniques operating at MW levels up to 200MHz (Diacrodes). Vacuum tubes are "not dead yet" (M Python) and will be around for the foreseeable future!
The support cables on these antennas speak to the danger of extreme wind down here. A hurricane pushes these antennas so much, they really do _need_ them.
16:53 - That guy on the left looks like Gabe Newell from Valve.
Awesome radio !!
This SWL site was cool to see, Thanks for the video!
Neat tour, thank you. They must have some interesting business relationships. It's typical of nation states to have the cash to get their message out on such a scale.
What a tour. Thanks guys. This represents some really old time heavy duty engineering. Anyone know or remember what a slide rule is?
only rule of slide I remember is feet first .
These guys used to be a customer of mine back in the Family Radio days. Out in the middle of nowhere which I guess was good for the neighborhood. As for that herd of cattle living under all those different antennas. I bet they glowed in the dark. I know the office as a big faraday cage and they still didn’t need to hook their fluorescent bulbs up to get light. The operators were all nice folks. They busted their asses to keep all that old gear working. At one point they were working with Nautel to design and build a new transmitter but Family Radio went away and so did the funding.
In my early years of exposure to radios, my first junkyard buy was an eight loctal tube shortwave receiver built into a wood box...my first respect for electricity was holding the antenna lead up to connect to a water pipe..pow! Lesson learned.
We had one like this in Canada near sackville the CBC used it for shortwave broadcast to and from Europe and beyond. They tore it all down recently
14:55 Damn those are some big Caps!!!
Indeed
That is an awesome set up with some very scary HV. Don’t try to pick one of those transformers up or it will be your last. Say hello to hernialand! Easy 300lbs or more. A lot of copper in that joint. Wouldn’t want that utility bill, forget it! Fun tour guys!
Thanks for the great tour! 73
And now I know why I can receive this station strongly from 1400 miles away with an antenna tuned for the 2m band.
It also looks every bit as new and clean as I expected.
Thanks guys
Great tour ... and not a single MFJ item in sight. 😀
Slowly, but surely, making my way through all of these videos. LOVE it. KC1LUX
GREAT WORK ERIC!!!!
Being a lifelong DX Shortwave enthusiast, this stuff is gold. Well done mate!
Larry
Now I'm gonna look up WRMI to see what freq they're on.
Can I get this station on my Yaeso FT-70DR? I have the radio and know nothing about it. Trying to learn but havent heard a damn thing come over this thing yet.
@@private7384 thats a uhf vhf radio..
At 4:45 that looks like a log-periodic antenna, not a rhombic. To put things in perspective, each 100,000 watt AM transmitter is putting out about 30,000 watts in each sideband, or about 2 S-Units (13 dB) stronger than a legal-limit 1500-watt SSB Ham station. Of course, most Hams can only dream about an antenna like one of those used here which likely add another 10 dB or 1.5 S -units to the signal. de AC7AC.
Transmitter not putting out 1.4MW but is the erp from the antenna.
Exactly!
Yes. Wonder what the beam looks like?
Great video. Thanks.
I was smiling when I saw all the 'a la 1970's" timers, relays and contactors in the control panel. You don't see these much anymore. Most people switched to PLC controllers.
Everyone shutting down everyone going digital or retired even my friend shutdown he’s repeater to go digital using no equip I always like all the equip racks and doing the technical stuff I always enjoy using analog and using the earth as the (internet)
1 May 2019, the solar flux index was 66. The Sun is at a grand solar minimum. Radio propagation is very low. There are no sunspots at all right now. People are leaving all radio hobbies in droves. Growing up, a walkie talkie on 27 megacycles would transmit across the continent. They were amazing times. Today, 1500 watts on a home transmitter may transmit to the next city over. Frequencies that were extremely busy in the 1990s are nothing but ghost bands now. Hmm, maybe I should try EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) on 10 meters. I can actually try it in hundreds of frequencies now. They are all dead.
Thanks for the tour Damn
Pretty impressive. I had a radio program on KVOH (Voice of Hope) on 17.775 MHz and 9.975 MHz for several years. The studio was in Simi Valley and the transmitter and antennas were atop nearby Chatsworth Peak. Most of the engineers were my friends and later helped our ministry, Blessings For Obedience build low to medium power FM stations all over the world. We built one or two low power NVIS shortwave stations in South Sudan as well as an AM station in Haiti and another in Uganda. Our program was called ‘Window to the World’. We had music and interviews and Bible studies and even tech tips for missionary hams and Morse code practice. Fun times. In 1995 we were installing an LPFM in the jungle of Venezuela and I got to listen to my own pre-recorded program one Sunday night. It was an ‘S-9’ signal.
73 and 99 de AA5ID (Midland, TX)
Wish people would pull their heads out of a 2000 year old book and stop worshiping it. People need to start looking at reality and quit believing in bullshit love spirits. Humans need to perform human actions to stop the leftist criminals or nothing will change. I feel so bad for kids born in the future state of the USA with such selfish parents who gave zero thought to what their kids are going to be forced to endure. Obviously only thought about themselves. Only love from God is in a book.
@@Truth-Be-Told-USA We don’t worship a book, we worship the loving God who created you fearfully and wonderfully on His image and likeness and the rest of the universe and everything in it.
@@kellycoleman715 just like the Maricopa county supervisors were created in his evil image. Read Isiah 45:7 and Acts chapter 5 where murders took place for God love of evil entertainment for himself. There is zero evidence of love outside of the book and you know it. You can't prove love at all except the book says so so it's true. Not! Overwhelming evidence of an evil God in today's reality. Look around. I am not going to accept responsibility for God's entertainment. Nope
@@kellycoleman715 prove God's love outside of a book. LOL you can't. Read Isaiah 45:7
@@kellycoleman715
It's amazing that a God of love never ever shows love except in very ancient stories. Why is it so hard or impossible to show actual actions of true love. Humans "in his image" show love to spouses through actual kindness and affection for each other. Why do people fall for words in a book for God, but expect real actions from other humans to prove love. Amazing and certainly not divine. 2000 + years ago stories are so ancient they really mean nothing today
What’s the electric bill cost?
Like going back in time; 19" racks and lit button switches. The good old days when technology was reliable, if not predictable. I listened to WYFR on the SWL receiver in the calibration lab I worked in. 73''s de KB5ZDW
I just saw the Desert Inn on Saturday while heading to Miami....A truck smashed into it. Half of it is on its side. This was on 1/18/2020
I heard about that. Very sad.
Yes really sad
Did you get a peek at their power bill?
The rf instantly pasteurizes and homogenizes the grazing cow's milk.
Also pretenderizes the beef too
@@sighpocket5 oh yea that too lol all these benefits I can understand why the farmer likes a quarter million watt radio station on his land a win,win.
@@sighpocket5 I'd be surprised if the farmer won't be able to find his cows at night the cows should glow in the dark as if he's using a thermal imaging camera.
Thanks! This is fascinating!
Looks almost like the FCC monitoring station in Canandaigua, NY I visited back in 1980. I was told that besides monitoring, it could transmit on the old Conelrad frequencies at up to half a megawatt if needed. I spent the day with a friend that worked there after I was cleared by the FCC to even enter the building. Security was tight back in the day before the Soviets quit.
They never quit; they have, merely, changed their spots. They are still working feverishly to overthrow "The West"!
@@edwatts9890 Good call. 2022 proved lots of people wrong about Russia.
Here's hoping Michael hurricane did not do any damage to this property! Can't imagine the repair bill for ANY of that equipment!
they should put them underground in a bunker of some sort
@@dylanlockler1039 yep, put the antenna's in there too
The highest power ever ham radio transmission was made by G3AAT (Richard Brett-Knowles) using a 50kW transmitter in England. He transmitted his callsign in morse. G3AAT is now SK, so the story can be told!
I think it was within a ham band. Richard was something of a genius and more than capable of making a broadcast transmitter work on another frequency.
Where’s the turboencabulator?
But this is all really interesting, I’ve always wanted to get into ham radio, but never have really been able to.
@MoonMoon, becoming an amateur radio operator, builder or designer requires an interest in the subject. Are you really interested? If you are, get in touch with the local Amateur Radio Club and one of the many books available to help you study for a Technician Class license. From there, hang out with amateur radio operators and learn all you can from them. The ARRL Handbook is a must have pub. It has everything in it; electronics theory, home brew projects, antenna design, rules of operation, etc. Come join us!
73's KB5ZDW
Slow cooked old guys , Thank you for the tour ) QC
i am curious what the average monthly electric bill is
Minimum $10,000 per 100,000 watt transmitter. There's 14.
Andy Millgrove so REALLY where was that money coming from???? You really think people were mailing old Harold millions upon millions of dollars a year? If so his outfit would have qualified as one of the largest charities on the planet , how ultimately stupid
No radio expert, but I can do some basic math. Assuming exactly 1.4 MW is consumed and they are using the commercial electric rate of about $0.096 per KWh their monthly electric cost for transmission would be $96,768. Per their website they will sell airtime for as little as $1 per minute. If each of the 14 transmitters got $1 per minute for the month the income would be $604,800. I'm sure the electric bill is higher, and I doubt they are taking in that much money. But rough numbers.
@@saxyweed
But you're basing the math on the output power right?
So the incoming power VIA the transformers would be much lower no?
I'm just thinking the 1.4Mw RF output wouldn't be anywhere close to the actual AC current coming in being consumed.
Higher the voltage lower the wattage as the general rule goes no?
Lol idk just thinking out loud, not claiming i know anything but there's got to be a major difference i would think.
I mean it's not like they're feeding the building 2 million Watts to cover both the building lighting etc and the transmitters. And Watts always sound so much higher than ampers by number but really doesn't compare.
1.4Mw / 440v = 314amps feed give or take.
Just going by the voltage he quoted in the video for an example, if my simple math used is remotely correct, lol.
I learn so much from the comment section :)
Oh dear. I was a 30454 ground rat in the USAF. Even worked at a Giant talk site on a 1 million-watt HF transmitter. Its no big deal.
How can they do with the storms or with a cyclone?
Awesome video, I really enjoyed it!
Seems like a fun place to work!
Just for grins, the FCC should have assigned a call sign of "WRFI"!
That is one helluva shack
That is amazing! Thank you for sharing.
I remberthe VOA site near Dayton Ohio you could see all the long wire antennas from I 75 it’s all gone now
Great tour! I won't be seeing the facility in person because I have a pacemaker. I've seen on you tube, the video by Photonicinduction where he destroys things with a homemade 80,000 amp transformer. Look it up!
I've seen that guy on TH-cam he's crazy lol
The size of those transformers he uses
Very Impressive station.
Great video! Thanks! For what it is worth, those (4:25) are not Rombics....rather they are HLP's. But that is a no big deal nit.
I can only say one thing. WOW!!!
6:21 That is my keyboard. Seems everyone has them. So who is listening? And those guests are pretty close to the controls.
Well said!!!!!!
Near the end it seems they do not have a 1.4 million watt Xmitter, but 14 100K Xmitters.
dont know if you know or not but desert inn is no longer there due to rogue semi that went thru it
I was involved with ham radio 1962. I do recall the station: K6VDL a Ranger transmitter of around 50 Watts, but am not sure. The power you kick around, 1.4 megawatts is power input to the finals, is not the output from tube. The antenna's used, rhombic is the best there is and has high gain. Output power from finals is about 1/2 input power (the rest dumped as heat) and power absorbed by the antenna has to include the power factor of the antenna. It should be 1.0 but in reality is not, VSWR. Transmission line from the finals is pure copper pipes with a center pipe with internal spacers, (teflon) all pressurized with an inhert dry gas. The actual voltage and current into the antenna ( 50.0 ohms?) can be calculated easily.
Does the Desert Inn still have the rubber spiders and bugs on strings? the bartender use to be able to let one down on the table you were setting at. This was back in the 1970's.
Great video, thanks
So what are they transmitting, music, weather, news???
Please walk me through this. I get shortwave and it’s wide reach capability. I don’t understand the reason and economics of why transmitters in Florida are used for countries to the south for example. Is the signal reaching non internet locations? Are there radio stations in the south rebroadcasting in AM or FM for public listening or is this all a hobby? How are all these costs being paid by? Is the input signal coming in by phone lines or internet? Can someone walk me (or all of us) through this please? Thanks much... who pays the electric bill and how much is that?
WRMI makes money by selling its airtime to anyone who wants to get on the air - you have religious programs, music shows, conspiracy talk shows, foreign governments who buy time to relay their International Broadcaster etc. I have a show on WRMI where I play music and take requests, I do it a few times a week and it still reaches a good number of listeners. The show reaches Amateur Radio Operators and Hobbyists, listeners in remote or rural areas, listeners in developing countries and people who just like listening to shortwave! I send the shows in over the internet and I go out on 4 frequencies of theirs (9955 kHz, 9395 kHz, 7780 kHz, 5850 kHz).
TheReportOfTheWeek Thank you for your detailed reply. From an economic affordability perspective, the high wattage suggests a very expensive electric bill. One smaller station in Texas indicated in a video that it pays $500 a day in power costs. Are these shortwave channels subsidized in the interest of civil defense or national security? Otherwise it sounds like it would be too expensive.
this was a learning experience. I am guessing that the antennas are not resonant? That is why they use a balun between the output of the transmitter and the antenna??? It sounded like they do tune the "balun" ??? can anybody clarify??
12:40 - 12:50 the old man talking sounded like his pacemaker was about to give up.
Awww, poor Harold, LOL
That 10KW plate transformer looks about right. I had to replace the plate transformer way back when in a Harris (Gates) FM10H3 10KW FM broadcast transmitter. One can't get that transformer out without removing a couple dozen power supply components which are in the way. i hope i never have to do that again!
An even bigger transformer was the Thordarsen Tru-Fidelity modulation transformer in the Collins 21A 5KW AM broadcast transmitter
100 kW? Thought it might be one of those big-gun ham contest stations... :-)
Now to tour the Firedrake Jammer facility
The combined total may be 1.4 million spread out over a number of transmitters, but isn't all applied for any one antenna
I understand that, jeez, I showed each transmitter was 100,000 watts...
Awesome!
Where's the cobra 29 ?
Site used to be WYFR, Family Radio Broadcast station.
KI8W , I wonder how much the facility sold for, when sold by WYFR.
Sooooo what do the do with all that power?
That's what I'm wondering as well
tell the FCC to shove it
They are 30 over 9 in Connecticut