This Week in Amateur Radio International

A Circuit Diagram

2011-02-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

Click diagram to em-biggen.

Worlds Largest Wooded Radio Tower

2011-02-02T15:27:00.002-05:00

The radio tower located in Gliwice, Poland (pronounced Glee Veet Say) is believed to be the tallest wooden structure in the world at 387 feet. Constructed in 1935 by the German company Lorenz, with help from Siemens, Telefunken, and others, it went into service on December 23, 1935 to replace a smaller transmitter located on Raudener Street in Gliwice.

The tower is a masterpiece of wood engineering, constructed with impregnated Larch wood with a fascinating lattice structure of beams. All connections were made with bolts made of ore, because bolts of iron would have absorbed the transmitter signals. The larch wood was chosen for it's resistance to vermin and atmospheric conditions. There is not a single iron nail in the tower.

Most radio towers built in Germany before 1945 were built of wood and the Gliwice tower is the only still standing. The rest were demolished between 1945 and 1983. Today the tower supports multiple transmission antennas for mobile phone services and a low power FM transmitter.

The tower is diligently maintained, preserved and repaired every year. To reach the top, workers must climb a ladder with 365 steps. Scientists from the Silesian University of Technology expect the tower to last another 20 years. The tower looks especially attractive after dusk, illuminated with eight massive spotlights and is visible for many miles creating a lasting impression with visitors.

On August 31, 1939, the Germans staged a fake "Polish" attack on the station which was later used as justification for the Invasion of Poland. During the cold war the Gliwice tower was used for jamming western medium wave transmitters broadcasting in Polish.

Even More Ham Radio In Animation

2011-01-20T21:25:00.000-05:00

Ham radio continues to be popular in recent animated programs.
Observe:

Blog Reactived ..The Cincinnati Star Tower

2011-01-20T21:06:00.005-05:00

Recently reactivated the TWIARi blog here. Found that the previous template I was using was no longer supported by Blogger, which brought the blog down. Anyway...lets get started with "The Star Tower".

How would you like to have your shack under this tower!

Star Tower is a digital television and FM radio transmitting tower on Winton Road in the College Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The three-legged lattice tower stands 956 feet (291.4 m) high. It was built for WSTR-TV, known as "Star 64".

An omnidirectional antenna atop Star Tower transmits the signal of owner WSTR-TV, while a number of FM radio stations, including WREW, WGRR, and WYGY also broadcast from the tower.

The Landmark Tower Company, which built Star Tower using a Sikorsky S-64 helicopter, was responsible for several similar structures around the country, including the Mesquite Tower in Mesquite, Texas; the Hughes Memorial Tower in Washington, D.C.; and at a smaller scale, WPXR-TV's analog antenna on Poor Mountain in Virginia. A small version of the tower can be found atop the Energy Plaza skyscraper in downtown Dallas, used by TXU for its communications needs.

Amateur Radio In Animation

2008-12-27T16:33:00.007-05:00

TWIAR Gets Christmas Cards!

2008-12-01T19:50:00.005-05:00

In recent years, several low power FM stations around the world have cleared our ham radio broadcast program, This Week in Amateur Radio International on their air.

This all started with our flagship low power FM station, WTND-LP in Macomb, Illinois. Since then, we have added others such as Robin Valley Community Radio in Omaha, Nebraska.

Our most recent addition, just sent us a QSL/Christmas Card and I thought I would share it with you here.

World FM is located in Tawa, New Zealand. Serving the cities of Tawa, Wellington, and Redwood. World FM is on 88.5 and on the internet at www.worldfm.co.nz. Happy Holidays World FM! We got your card! World FM carries both our broadcast and ham-radio programs.

If you operate a low power, or micro-power broadcast station and you carry This Week in Amateur Radio International, please let us know!

The Case for Minimalist Web Pages

2008-12-01T17:20:00.011-05:00

Every once in a while, I will ask Bill, N2FNH if he has listened to the latest edition of This Week in Amateur Radio International. Although I work on the editing and mastering of the program each week, I only get to hear it on the air occassionally since my job has me at work each Sunday afternoon when the program plays on WBCQ.

Bill is usually my sounding board for how the program is progressing, and thoughts on how we can improve.

We were having a QSO together during afternoon drive on the local W2SZ repeater located at RPI in Troy. Bill was telling me that he was having problems downloading the program from our main page at www.twiar.org and from this blog, with his portable wireless device, due to bloat. All that stuff on the right --->

For desktops and laptops, this is no problem. But there are those out there that take a minimalist approach to the internet. Bill uses a Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) for collecting podcasts, and web surfing on the road.

It was kind of funny, because at just about the same time, we both came up
with the idea of putting up a minimalist web page with just the TWIAR podcast links. I have been sitting on a second blogspot account for quite awhile now, so, I decided to do just that.

The TWIAR Labs has come up with just such a page. So now you can take your wireless device to a web page devoid of bloat and memory/time consuming html. Just the links to our International broadcast program (TWIARi) and the full version of the ham radio on the air service.

Hope this helps all those wireless device users out there. Visit the new page at www.kxkvi.blogspot.com.

By the way, does anyone remember where kxkvi is from?

DuMonts Electronicam

2008-11-10T13:27:00.018-05:00

I have always had an interest in early television. Whenever an old kinescope or early black and white videotape program comes on, I am there to see it. Innovators in early television like Ernie Kovacs, fascinate me. Imagine what Ernie could have done with todays technology.

Unfortunately, you don't get to see much of these pioneers work on the air anymore. Occasionally something will pop up on one of the more obscure cable networks. You can catch one every so often on a PBS retrospective. I recently saw a few old kinescopes of the Jack Benny program on one of the new digital sub-channels like Retro TV or This TV.

Recently, I was watching an episode of The Honeymooners on DVD here in the shack. Every time I playback one of these classic episodes, at the tail of the credits is "Filmed on the DuMont Electronicam System". Just what was Electronicam?

The Electronicam system was developed by engineers at DuMont. The DuMont Laboratories were founded in 1931 by Dr. Allen B. DuMont. He and his staff were responsible for many early technical innovations including the first consumer all electronic television set in 1938. Electronicam was the brainchild of DuMont engineer James Caddigan.

Electronicam was a recording system that shot an image on film and video simultaneously through a common lens. It was developed in the 1950's before Ampex came out with the first videotape recorders. Since the system shot directly to film, the quality was much higher than that of the commonly used kinescopes at the time.

Electronicam is actually fairly simple. An image is shot through the lens. A beam splitter behind the lens then sends one half of the image to the film camera mounted on the side of the television camera. The other beam split off to the side onto another mirror at a 45 degree angle to the image tube of the video camera. In the control room, an engineer threw switches to mark the film footage electronically, identifying the directors different camera "takes". Electronicam had a 1.3:1 aspect ratio and a relatively small parallax error.

Here, camera operators man three of the Electronicam "pickup units," each of which consisted of a TV camera and a Mitchell 35mm film camera. Mounted together side by side, the twin cameras allowed for simultaneous electronic and emulsion capture. The video material was transmitted live to a control room where the director selected edits and camera angles, much in the same manner employed today on three camera newscasts.

The director's video editing choices were later fed into kinescope equipment to create a "teletranscription", a blueprint of how the program appeared during broadcast. The teletranscription was then synchronized to the 35mm film reels that were sent off for editing.

Electronicam supported either 16mm or 35mm film. These editing guide kinescopes are the only surviving material from the "lost" Honeymooners episodes.

The archival film used on the Electronicam system was Kodak's Tri-X black and white stock.

The Electronicam TV/Film system permitted the actors to perform with the spontaneity of a live performance, while perserving the program on high-quality film. The audio was either magnetic fullcoat or an optical soundtrack negative.

The Honeymooners marked the first time that a prominent television program was photographed with the Du Mont Electronicam TV/film system. I Love Lucy, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, among others, used the Electronicam system.

Here is a studio photo of the Electronicam system in use during the shooting of a program at WABD Television.

If this system was developed earlier, perhaps many more of the classic DuMont programs would have been preserved.

I hope with the move to all digital television, the new sub-channels will make room for some of televisions history.

How Is This For Tower Work?

2008-11-02T20:06:00.012-05:00

Tom Silliman at work on the Empire State Building transmission tower.

An Audiophile Is Born

2008-10-21T14:21:00.040-04:00

I just got through reading Scott Westermans blog posting entitled "Don't Sell Your Vinyl". Scott is absolutely right. And reading his post, brought back a lot of memories.

I was always interested in audio. My dad was a ham as far back as I can remember, and he always had a sound system in the house. He was an avid fan of HeathKit at the time, and had a few audio amplifiers around. He gave me one that had a rectifier tube, two 35W4's and a pair of 50C5 finals. I loved the blue glow in those tubes. Unfortunately, it had a hot chassis and would occasionally bite me.

My parents used to show pictures of me playing records when I was only 5 years old. I guess it started getting serious when I was in grade school. My friend Mark had the usual "kid" type tape recorder. I forget the brand name, but you know the ones. Battery operated with direct drive 3 inch reels so the tape speed increased as the diameter of the take up reel increased. Similar to the ones that self-destructed each week on Mission: Impossible. It had one of those button type microphones. I had one too. I don't remember who made it, but it was tan with a flip up cover, and I distinctly remember it having reels with the Sony logo on them.

Then during the summer of 1966, Mark got new machine. It was a Panasonic RQ-501S.

It had five inch reels, capstan drive, and it was bi-directional. No flipping reels. It had an impressive frequency response for an AC/DC machine, it had manual or auto level control, aux input, speaker output, a VU meter, and more. I had to have one.

Christmas of 1966 Santa brought me an RQ-501S. This was the start of yet another hobby. Now not only was I recording music, but Mark and I started collecting, mind you this was the mid to late sixties, television theme songs.

During the summer, we would get together at each others houses and record network commercials promoting the fall shows. Plus spots like "NBC Week" and the like. We both traded spots and theme songs. I still have all those theme songs. (Except now they live on a hard drive) We would have endless conversations regarding the sonic quality of different types of Scotch recording tapes, and what happened on the last episode of Lost in Space that we recorded.

After grade school, Mark and I lost touch as he went on to a military school. And along the way in years to come, my RQ-501S got lost in a move.

As a side note at this point, two things. First, after a year of watching E-Bay, I finally got another RQ-501S. Six months later, another appeared on E-Bay, this one, with the BOX. That's important. Got that one too. Recently I acquired one of its close cousins, the RQ-156S . My life is complete.

Secondly, Mark had a Panasonic extension speaker for his machine. I don't know the model number of the speaker, but it was really cool, because it hung from the ceiling on a string, and was shaped exactly like the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space. I know Panasonic made it, but I never found one. If you happen to know anything about this speaker, please forward me the info.

Now back to your regularly scheduled story.

Soon I was in high school. And it was here that I discovered high-end audio, and learned exactly what an audiophile was. It was in the library of the school where one day I discovered "High Fidelity Magazine" which began publication back in 1951. It was published not to far away in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The school had all the back issues. And I read all of them. During that time the library got some money for new subscriptions and added "Stereo Review.

A whole new world opened up to me in the pages of those magazines. Whenever I wasn't in a class, I was in one of those magazines. It was in these magazines where I got introduced to the likes of H.H.Scott, Fisher, Pioneer, JBL, Stanton, Shure, Thorens, Bang & Olufsen, Teac, Ampex, Studer-ReVox, Marantz, McIntosh, and a long list of others that manufactured equipment I could only dream about owning.

I devoured the terminology and esoteric terms like RMS amplifier values, damping factors, dB, VU, tracking force, anti-skating, the advantages of a Shibata stylus or an eliptical, frequency response, sensitivity, selectivity, bass reflex, and more. All that geeky stuff. I couldn't get enough of it.

I set a goal for myself. I had to have a high-end audio system. After a year or so and a full summer working, I accumulated enough money to buy a system.

I spent a rather large sum of money, and came home with a car full of gear. I got a Pioneer SPEC-1 amplifier (300 watts/ch) with the matching SPEC-1 pre-amp and the matching FM tuner. I had JBL L-50s for the front and a pair of what would prove to be rather inefficient smaller Advent speakers for the rear. Yes, I went quad. Well, not exactly. I was hooked at the time on a rather crude synthesized quad running a circuit I built designed by David Hafler.

Radio Shack came out with a box later on called a "Quatravox" that would do the same thing. I ran the rear channels with an older Pioneer receiver.

I added a Technics manual turntable (no automatics or semi-automatic for me) with a high-end Audio-Technica cartridge with a Shibata stylus. Two tape decks, a Teac open reel deck, and a ReVox cassette deck. SAE Noise Reduction processor,and a 24 band equalizer with a graphic display, a Technics metering unit for monitoring amplifier and pre-amp outputs, as well as detector output from the tuner, and a few miscellaneous items like an A/R stylus gauge, a Disc Washer, etc. I was playing audio in a big way. I even had a rotatable 10 element antenna for FM DX'ing.

At the time, I lived not to far away from WHRL 103.1. It was one of the first FM Stereo stations to come on the air in upstate New York. It programmed beautiful music, as did a few others. I became fascinated with Drake/Chenault, and Schulke's "Matched Flow" beautiful music formats.

I was always a fan of Top 40 music, but when I got the new gear, I was constantly looking for something new to listen too. I grew to like selected pieces of classical music, blues, and jazz. I became a big fan of Wendy Carlos, Tomita, Vangelis, and other electronic music artists. I made weekly trips to the record stores in the area.

My friends and I at the time would compare opinions on the latest albums we purchased. We would share our music with one another on open reel tape or the occasional cassette. The subject of copyright never even crossed our minds. We would periodically create "mix" tapes for each other. If I got a reel from a friend and I liked it, I would generally pick up the record at the store the next time out. (See it works) I had around 500-700 albums in the collection in no time, from a lot of different musical categories.

Through my interest in 11 meters, (yes I was on 11 meters for a few years, but then weren't we all?) a radio friend introduced me to a friend of his that lived down the street from him. His name was Joe, and he was also into high-end audio. We both hit it off right away, and began not only talking about the aspects of various new pieces of audio gear at the local shop, but about the music. We would go over to each others houses and listen to music for hours on end, discussing how certain tracks were mixed, or why my JBL's seem transparent compared to his Bose systems that he always thought colored the music a certain way.

He was going into college at the time and soon joined the radio station there. He was attending RPI in Troy. The college station there is WRPI, a 10 kilowatt FM outlet on 91.5. He asked me to join him in producing his weekly program.

Now, when you are an audio geek, there is nothing better than playing radio at a technology college with all the latest toys. We both enjoyed taking our listeners on a musical journey for three hours a week. Both of us always longed for the day we could own Technics SP-1 turntables like the station had. We both also volunteered at the local classical music station WMHT which has a reading service for the print handicapped. We got to hone our on-air talents reading the local papers. Not to mention the PBS television station down the hall, we got to play with a lot of really cool equipment.

It was during the time at WRPI that I discovered artists like Genesis,Passport, Renaissance, Pentangle, Weather Report, Keith Jarret, and a long, long list of others.

On what proved to be our last show, we played tracks from our favorite artists. Joe was a dyed in the wool Yes fan. I picked a few tracks from Camel. One of their albums, Moonmadness, has a rather long track called "Luner Sea", that has one of the best synthesizer solos you'll ever hear.

One artist we both enjoyed was Renaissance. Our favorite album was "Scheherazade and Other Stories". Favorite track? Trip To The Fair.

Sadly, Joe passed away from leukemia during his sophomore year. The world lost a budding architect. Today my equipment sits idle in a rack here in the shack. I hope to get it going again some time soon.

I miss those days. It just doesn't seem to be the same today. I love digital technology, but I miss the sound of analog. I can do things in the digital domain that used to take a rack full of equipment. (Don't tell anybody, but right behind me right now, is a rack full of Behringer audio processors, EQ's, Digital reverbs, an Optimod, and few other things).

Today everyone seems to be in their own little digital world. Everyone has a white wire leading down to the iPod in their pocket. I don't see anyone talking about the music, let alone the audio equipment.

Maybe they discuss the music and the gear via text messaging.

Note: This post took three hours to write, post, and edit. I wanted to get it right the first time.

I've Been Working On A New Callsign Logo

2008-10-19T21:29:00.003-04:00

News From The TWIAR Labs

2008-09-20T19:22:00.009-04:00

Had a call from the TWIAR Labs today. I was informed that they are working on a exclusive codec that will enable us to offer our news service audio in a format ready to be fed to any D-STAR repeater via the ethernet link.

They tell me it may be ready soon, no target date was given but when the new codec is ready, TWIAR will be the first D-STAR enabled amateur news service. More details will be coming soon.

TWIAR Now On Twitter

2008-09-07T21:05:00.001-04:00

This Week in Amateur Radio is now on Twitter, the web site dedicated to quick and fast messages for mobile users or those wanting to keep up with friends and family with short updates.

Using the new Twitter feed, TWIAR will send links to news as well as updates to the web site (file uploads, downtime, new features, etc.).

Users can set up their PDAs or cell phones to receive these updates as they are posted, or use the RSS feed to send updated to their RSS readers.

Please visit our Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/twiar .

As a side note, some of our staff are also Twitter, N2FNH, K4HSM, W9WSW.

A Week At The TWIAR Studios

2008-09-06T18:06:00.013-04:00

Here is a quick look at a week here at the TWIAR studios.

Sunday is usually a recovery day from the production process. Newsgathering (web browsing) is usually done (as it is every evening), and I sometimes actually get home from work to hear International on WBCQ. (If the propagation is good).

Monday evening usually involves downloading material from Leo. Editing begins on Leo's segment. Newsgathering continues.

Tuesday evenings activities include finishing the editing on Leo's segments (two are produced, one for International and one for the ham services). Anchor rotation schedules are reviewed, and e-mails for anchor participation are sent. Newsgathering continues.

Wednesday evening involves the production of segments for International, which usually includes, the final story edit, the closing edit with new production music beds, and the selection and "sweetening" of the music used in the program. Newsgathering for the ham service continues. Anchor e-mail responses come in. Any new anchor interviews, remote interviews and logistics are usually done on Wednesday evenings.

Thursday evening finds N2FNH uploading his popular "Random Access Thought" segments for both the broadcast and ham services. These are downloaded from our server, and master editing is done for International. News files from the previous weeks ham service are selected for the program. Incidental wave files are edited in along with PSA's and promos, and the final master is saved.

International is edited on Adobe Audition in three multi-track segments. The first segment produced is actually the last heard. the final half hour of the program is reverse assemble edited. That means the first piece placed on the file is the closing, and work proceeds backwards from the closing to the bottom of the hour. The middle segment is produced normally. Times for the middle and bottom segments are noted. The beginning of the program is produced last, multi-track, and us usually cut to time the entire program. We aim to hit 59:45 if possible.

The final master wav file is saved and then converted to MP3 and WMA files. These are tagged and then uploaded to our server for release to the world, and uploaded to WBCQ. Back up copies are burned on to archive CD.

While the program is uploading, contact is made with all anchors for reading for the ham service on Friday evening, and the newsgathering continues.

Friday evening is devoted to the ham service. All incoming news audio is downloaded (if I have to work late, I take the laptop to Penara Bread and use their open wi-fi during a work lunch hour to get a little ahead).

In the studio I fire up an old Digital 486 laptop running DOS and use an old text editor in Procomm (remember that?) to write about 20 to 26 news stories. This usually winds up being between 900 to 1200 lines.

The finished script is e-mailed to the anchors and uploaded to our server in case of e-mail failure. Meanwhile, the following segments are edited for air: Handi-Hams, KK5DO Satellite, The Ancient Amateur Archives (if needed that week), and the propagation report. Around 1am eastern Vern Jackson WA0RCR phones his convention/contesting segment in to the studio. This is recorded through our phone patch, and edited.

Saturday morning finds me downloading the files from the anchors off the server. The promo is produced and uploaded. Both the full version and the headline version are produced simultaneously. When both versions of the program are finished and saved as master wav files, they are converted to MP3, AAC, WMA, and low bit rate RealAudio. These are then tagged and uploaded to the server usually around 5pm.

The editing process usually takes most of the day. Back up archive CD's are burned for posterity.

From there, Dale our file guy in Iowa downloads and re-packages the files and uploads them to our site server for you to download, or receive via our RSS feed.

Local playout of TWIAR sometimes occurs on Saturday evenings.

REPEAT PROCESS . (and I haven't had a weekend off in 15.46 years)

How We Play TWIAR On The Air In Albany

2008-09-06T17:50:00.009-04:00

Here in TWIAR's home base, we air our news service on our flagship machine, the K2CT repeater, operated by the Albany Amateur Radio Association, on 145.190mHz. From our studios on the outskirts of Albany, it is about a twenty air mile trip to the repeater, which is situated on a mountain top in the Town of New Scotland. Our secondary, or back-up repeater is located in the same area, and is the KA2QYE machine on 147.375mHz, and is used when the primary machine is busy with club activities, or down for maintenance.

We air the full version of This Week in Amateur Radio here in our home market. (Actually the one hour Headline News version has never aired here)

Up first is the re-editing of the audio file to drop in the K2CT idents in each break point on the program. These voice id's not only identify the repeater, it also identifies our originating transmitter. This file is either saved as an mp3, or we play the original wav file.

The completed file is then loaded into our playout computer. This is a dedicated box. It is an old Dell 500 mhz desktop running Windows XP with about 250 megs of memory. The computer has two soundcards. The first, is an internal Soundblaster, and the second is an external Creative USB interface.

I use several different radio automation/live assist programs to play out the audio files. The software allows independent cueing of several audio channels while one is on the air. The audio output of the computer is fed into two Behringer DI boxes, which isolate the computer from the rest of the audio chain, helping to avoid ground loops.

The output of the DI boxes feed a dedicated Behringer UB-1622 12 channel mixer. This board receives two independent channels from the playout system, audio from a 30 second sampler, and a mic input if needed.

The sampler (and also the playout system) have CW id's of the local transmitter and the repeater, to insert into segments that run longer than the FCC's ten minute amateur ID rule. If a segment runs long, the system inserts the CW over the program audio. This ID method is independent from the repeaters own ID on the local controller.

The output of the mixer is then fed into a 24 channel analog equalizer. This device is set up for unity gain, and allows for audio sweetening. Next in the chain is a Behringer DSP processor. This adds in just a little bit of reverb which brightens the audio on the air. It also tends to bring up the average modulation. From the DSP, we go into an Optimod equivalent processor. This device splits the audio into several different bands (ie 20 to 500hz, 500-3000, etc) and adds compression and limiting on each band before reassmbling the audio at its output. A Behringer Auto-Com monitors the average audio levels from the Optimod, and has a high peak limit if needed.

The last box before we hit the transmitter is an old Shure audio master. The Shures only purpose in the chain is to drop the audio from line level to mic level for input to the transmitter.

Our transmitter, which by now has a few thousand transmit hours on it is an old Kenwood TR-7950. This particular radio, operated at low power, and equipped with a three inch external fan on the heat sink, will run forever. In fact, this particular radio has proved so reliable, we have two stand-by 7950's that we got years ago, that are still on the shelf.

The radio is fed into an eleven element Cushcraft VHF beam. The output of the repeater is monitored locally so that in the event of an emergency need for the machine while the news is played out, we can drop.

Next time, I'll go into how This Week in Amateur Radios ham service is put together each week.

Till then..73 and enjoy the programs.

Audio Software In The TWIAR Studios

2008-09-06T17:47:00.005-04:00

Back in time, during the early days of TWIAR, all was analog. Segments from the single announcer would arrive on cassette tape. All of the needed segments were assembled onto a master open reel tape, producing the final program. Later on, we started to embrace digital as a few news anchors would send in low bit rate audio on our dial up connection. These were then
assembled with the analog cassette segments on our Revox open reel deck for local air, and for telephone line playout on the satellite. The program went completely digital around 2000.

Some folks have been asking what hardware and software we for audio production, and for final mastering of This Week in Amateur Radio International, and our two amateur news services, This Week in Amateur Radio, and This Week in Amateur Radio Headline News.

Here is a quick list of software we currently use:

Adobe Audition - This is our workhorse program. All final cuts and mastering is done on this program. Although we have versions 3.0, 2.0 and 1.5, most of the staff likes the older 1.5 version the best. You can't beat it for multi-tracking, and it runs on old computers.

Sony SoundForge 9.0 - This program is used for phase checking our broadcast program. After the rough cut is done, the final mix is pulled into SoundForge. This program features a phase meter which is useful when producing stereo programs that will air on mono radio stations. Phase cancellation is to be avoided at all costs.

We also have in-house, Steinbergs Wave-Lab (has some really cool metering), Pro Tools, Audacity, CuBase, and a couple of other editors.

All of these programs are run on various vintage PC's in the studio. The studio has four external Western Digital USB drives on the network which hold all production audio, such as production music beds, sound effects libraries, and our music library. (Our music library, which is mostly top 40 oldies, is now over 100 gig) All computers are fed into a virtual KVM system. We use Dell flat panel monitors, and nVidia, and ATI video cards. All audio D/A and A/D is done "outside the box" on M Audio Quattro 24 bit interfaces. All networked together (including our office PC) using Linksys routers. That is, when the machines feel like talking to each other.

International is produced on an old, dumpster rescued, HP LPR Netserver. Dual 450 Intels. We had to re-build this box. It has an Nvidia 6200, and USB 2.0 cards. Running XP Pro on 356 meg of memory. Yeah its a little slow. It also has an external CD/DVD Burner. The only problem with this machine is it uses all proprietary memory, and uses HP SCSI drives. We have no back up for these, plus their small, on the order of 9 gig. It has two drives.

TWIAR's ham services are produced on a box we built up a few years ago. It's on an ASUS motherboard, AMD 1.2gig processor, 526 meg of RAM, XP Pro. Nvidia video card and it uses the second M-Audio box.

Both of these audio workstations can be patched into the analog studio equipment. More on that in a future post.

On hot stand-by in the studio is another box we built up about four years ago, it too uses an ASUS mother board with an Intel 1.2 processor and about 526 ram. This system fills in when one of the systems above is sick.

Playout of the TWIAR ham service here in the Albany market is done using an old Dell 500 mhz box with an internal Creative sound blaster,and an external Creative USB audio interface. Exactly how we play out here locally will take another posting coming up in the future.

Personally, if I have to record something for the either service (I usually do the special event stations and sometimes the propagation forecast on the ham service) I use...are you ready...Cool Edit 96. Yeah..it's old, but that's habit for you.

Although you can do almost any special effect in software, we still have racks of audio gear here at the studio. More on this in a future post.

History Of W2XBS

2008-09-06T16:15:00.016-04:00

I recently received a very nice letter from K1AAG, George Dupee of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, regarding an article he came across on the history behind my call sign, W2XBS.

George's article is taken from a Boston Red Sox e-mail newsletter.

"On this day in 1939, the first televised Major League baseball game was televised on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. At that time, television was still in its infancy.

Regular programming did not yet exist, and very few people owned television receiving equipment. As a matter of fact, there were only about 400 in the New York City area. Not until 1946 did regular network broadcasting catch on in the United States, and only in the mid 1950's did television sets become common in the American household.

In 1939, the Worlds Fair -- which was being held in New York -- became the catalyst for the historic broadcast. The television was one of the fair's prize exhibits, and organizers (and RCA) believed that the Dodgers-Reds doubleheader on August 26th was the perfect event to showcase Americas grasp on the new technology."

This was not the first letter regarding the history behind my call sign that I have received over the years. I did a little more research, and here is a little more history behind W2XBS.

What is now WNBC-TV traces its history to experimental station W2XBS, founded by the Radio Corporation of America (a co-founder of the National Broadcasting Company), in 1928. Originally a test bed for RCA's Photophone theater television, it used the low-definition mechanical scanning system, and later was used mostly for reception and interference tests. W2XBS left the air sometime in 1933 as RCA turned its attention to cathode ray tube (CRT) television research at its Camden, New Jersey facility, under the leadership of Dr. Vladimir Zworykin. The station originally broadcast on the frequencies of 2.0 to 2.1 megahertz. In 1929, W2XBS upgraded their
transmitter and broadcast facilities to handle transmissions of 60 vertical lines at 20 frames per second, on the frequencies of 2.75 to2.85 megahertz.

It was 1935 before the CRT system was authorized as a "field test" project and NBC converted a radio studio in the RCA Building (now the GE Building) in New York City's Rockefeller Center for television use. In mid-1936, small-scale programming began to air to an audience of some 75 receivers in the homes of high-level RCA staff, and a dozen or so sets in a closed circuit viewing room in 52nd-floor offices of the RCA Building. The viewing room often hosted visiting organizations or corporate guests, who saw a live program produced in the studios many floors below.

RCA began transmission in 1928 W2XBS on 2.0 to 2.1 megahertz from a location at Van Cortlandt Park. In 1929, W2XBS moved their transmitter and broadcast facilities to to the New Amsterdam Theatre Building in New York, and began broadcasting 60-line pictures on thefrequencies of 2.75 to 2.85 megahertz.

NBC, on June 29, 1936, began field-testing television transmissions from W2XBS, using Zworykin's all-electronic television system. These transmissions were received on experimental receivers scattered throughout the New York area. In 1937, scanning had reached 441 lines, and television programming was extended to include pickups remote from the studio.

The National Broadcasting Company, as a service of RCA, has been in the vanguard of television pioneering and since the earliest days of experimentation, when about the best that could be produced were barely recognizable pictures of Felix the Cat on screens the size of a playing card, or smaller. NBC'S first experimental, on-the-air broadcast was on July 7, 1930.

In June 1931, an RCA-NBC television transmitter was installed on the top of the Empire State Building and W2XBS began regular television and facsimile operations in December of that year. Experimental broadcasts continued and in the next few years, during the course of extensive development field tests, the transmitted picture was increased from 120, to 240, and then 343 lines, respectively.

In the course of extensive field tests, NBC and RCA engineers succeeded in increasing the quality of transmitted pictures to 120 lines, to 240 lines, and then 343 lines.

It was 1935 before the CRT system was authorized as a "field test" project and NBC converted a radio studio in the RCA Building (now the GE Building) in New York City' Rockefeller Center for television use. On June 29, 1936, NBC began field-test television transmissions from W2XBS to an audience of some 75 receivers in the homes of high-level RCA staff, and a dozen or so sets in a closed circuit viewing room in 52nd-floor offices of the RCA Building. The viewing room often hosted visiting organizations or corporate guests, who saw a live program produced in the studios many floors below. Eventually these transmissions were received on about 200 experimental RR-359 receivers scattered throughout the New York area.

Shortly after NBC began a semi-regular transmission schedule in 1938, DuMont Laboratories announced TV sets for sale to the public, a move RCA was not yet contemplating. In response, NBC ceased all TV broadcasting for several months.

As a result of the continued tests, scanning was stepped up to 441 lines, and television programming was extended to include pickups remote from the studio. NBC's mobile television vans, then a great curiosity, appeared on the streets of New York for the first time on December 12, 1937.

In 1939, RCA introduced television to the American public at the World's Fair. At the same time, the station began regularly scheduled broadcasting, with both studio and remote programming.

The station began commercial television operations on July 1, 1941, the first fully-licensed commercial television station in the United States. The call letters were changed to WNBT and it originally broadcast on channel 1. Soon after signing on that day, WNBT aired the first television commercial. The Bulova Watch Company paid $9 for a commercial aired during a baseball game of the Philadelphia Phillies at the Brooklyn Dodgers.

As W2XBS, the station scored numerous "firsts", including the first televised Broadway drama (June 1938), live news event covered by mobile unit (a fire in an abandoned building in November 1938), live telecast of a Presidential speech (Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the1939 New York World's Fair), the first live telecasts of college and Major League Baseball (both in 1939), the first telecast of a National Football League game (also in 1939), the first telecast of a National Hockey League game (early 1940) and the first network telecast of a political convention (the 1940 Republican National Convention).

During World War II, RCA diverted key technical TV staff to the U.S. Navy, who were interested in developing a TV-guided bomb. WNBT's studio and program staff were placed at the disposal of the New York Police Department and used for Civil Defense training. Public programming resumed on a small scale during 1944.

The station began commercial television operations on July 1, 1941, the first fully-licensed commercial television station in the United States. The call letters were changed to WNBT and it originally broadcast on channel 1. Soon after signing on that day, WNBT aired the first television commercial. The Bulova Watch Company paid $9 for a commercial aired during a baseball game of the Philadelphia Phillies at the Brooklyn Dodgers.

During World War II, RCA diverted key technical TV staff to the U.S. Navy, who were interested in developing a TV-guided bomb. WNBT's studio and program staff were placed at the disposal of the New York Police Department and used for Civil Defense training. Public programming resumed on a small scale during 1944.

In 1946, the station changed its frequency from channel 1 to channel 4 after VHF channel 1 was removed from use for television broadcasting. (Channel 4 was previously occupied by WABD before moving to channel 5.) The station changed its call letters on October 18, 1954 to WRCA-TV (for NBC's then-parent company, RCA) and on May 22, 1960, Channel 4 became WNBC-TV New York.

This Week in Amateur Radio International On WBCQ

2008-09-01T21:40:00.003-04:00

As most of you know, our short wave service, This Week in Amateur Radio International, is broadcast each Sunday at 4pm eastern time, on WBCQ on their 7.415mHz transmitter. The station is located in Monticello, Maine.

<--- The map is WBCQ's 7.415mHz propagation projection.

Here is some information on the station: WBCQ broadcasts 50,000 watts on each of its four international shortwave transmitters on 5.110, 7.415, 9.330 and 15.420 MHz. Our broadcasts serve North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. WBCQ has been offering access to the airwaves since signing on the worldwide shortwave bands in 1998. WBCQ broadcasts a wide variety of content, including spiritual and religious programming, eclectic musical shows, and intriguing and entertaining live talk radio. WBCQ makes airtime available at really reasonable rates. If you are at all interested in radio, shortwave broadcasting, or just have something you would like to say on the air, give them a call. Visit them at www.wbcq.com