This is a Bauer FB-5000J transmitter, stashed away in the corner of a transmitter site.
Bauer FB-5000J Medium wave transmitter
Sorry I can’t get a better angle on it, as I said, it is stuck in the corner.
I don’t know what vintage it is, it seems to be from the early 1960s or so as it has a low serial number. It ran as the main transmitter until the Harris Gates BC5H was installed in 1976. The transmitter is in beautiful shape, almost a museum piece. I don’t know if it still has all its original iron, as the modulation transformer may have contained PCBs and been disposed of. Otherwise, it is complete and tuned to 1,460 kHz.
I think the owner might be willing to donate it to a reputable organization, preferably a 501(c)(3).
Oh, if only it were so, AM stations would be rich! Rich, I tell you. This dates back to a 1987 article in radio world that details how AM stations receiving Cuban interference could submit to the USIA (US Information Agency), the State Department VOA oversight organization, detailed interference reports and requests for reimbursement of lost revenue. In addition to that, the FCC would consider nighttime power increases and or pattern modifications, so long as no US or Canadian station was adversely affected by the changes.
Prior to about 1980 or so, Cuba adhered to the NARBA of 1950. This allocated broadcast channels in the AM band, including clear channels for the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and the Bahamas. Later on, most of the countries in South America joined the treaty and most international interference was mitigated.
Then, for reasons only known to Fidel, Cuba began broadcasting high power on several frequencies. The stations suffering the worst interference were all in Florida; WINZ, Miami, WVCG, Coral Gables, WNWS, South Miami, WEAT, West Palm Beach, WQBA, Miami, WKAT Miami Beach and WSUN, St. Petersburg.
In our neck of the woods, WICC suffered some pretty bad interference from CMKA on 600 kHz. According to the treaty, CMKA was supposed to transmit with no greater than 2.5 KW. Sometime in early 1981, they increased power to 150 KW. The path between WICC and CMKA’s transmitter site is almost entirely over salt water. Additionally, CMKA utilizes a fairly tall tower, 130 degrees according to the FCC database.
The interference was worst in the last fall and early spring. Several local newspaper articles were written about the subject, noting that WICC developed a contest around the interference. The station would drop its carrier for 10 seconds at 6:30 and 7:10 pm. Listeners would then try to identify the Cuban songs playing on CMKA and drop a postcard to WICC with that information. Winners were picked randomly from all the correct answers received (CMKA would also be heard on the studio air monitor). Coincidentally, after several months of this, the Cuban station switched its programming to English.
In any case, I believe the USIA paid out a total of $500 K to the Florida stations.
The company I work for is in the midst of cleaning out a studio location. Most radio engineers are some form of pack rat. I know I have been guilty of this myself, not wanting to throw something away because tomorrow, it might be needed. That was carried out to the extreme at this location. One of the things that I found in my clean-out was a Western Electric 212E vacuum tube.
Western Electric 212E vacuum tube
It is an impressive thing, measures about 12 1/2 inches tall, including the pins. I am thinking this is pretty old, it probably came from a pre-WWII Western Electric AM transmitter. This would make the most sense, as the station signed on in 1926 with 250 watts. Back in the day, Western Electric was the patent holder for AM technology. In fact, there was some talk of suing General Electric for patent infringement after the airing of the world series by WJZ and WGY in 1922. Parent company AT&T was working on radio modulation techniques to implement with their telephone system.
These tubes were used for audio amplification, according to the spec sheet, the plate could dissipate 275 watts. Filament voltages is 14 volts at 6.2 amps, the plate voltage was 3,000 volts, maximum. It is a tetrode. The RF counterpart to this tube is the WE 308A.
From what I am to understand, these have not been made since 1960 or so. I also understand there is quite a cult following for this tube amongst Asian audiophiles. There are several examples of extremely low distortion class A and AB amplifiers using this tube type. Some prices on eBay are in the $1,500 to $2,000 per tube range. Unfortunately, I don’t think this one works anymore as there is a loose screw and little bits of what looks like control grid wire in the bottom of it. It does light up with 12 volts on the filament, however.
Yesterday, August 14th, was the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. Prior to the start of the US involvement in WWII, the Army and Navy had been intercepting and decrypting radio messages between Japanese military units, consulates, embassies, and other overseas locations.
Back in the day, most everything was sent via Morse code over HF radio circuits. It was the fastest way to send information from one point to the next. These messages would be encrypted offline, either by hand or by a special typewriter. The message text would then be altered into 5-number, seemingly random, groups. On the other side, they would be deciphered using a key that matched the enciphering key. There were several different ciphers systems being used, some for diplomatic traffic, several others for military, merchant marine, etc.
Since the messages were transmitted via radio, they were easy to intercept. Everyone knew that the other side was listening. The Japanese assumed that their codes were secure because a “Caucasian mind could not possibly unravel the intricacies of a Japanese code.” An assumption the Navy cryptanalysts had different ideas about. Through the 1930s and early 1940s they broke some of these codes, but not all of them.
The Japanese diplomatic code was called “purple” by the US cryptanalysts. It relied on a machine called System 97 (by the Japanese) which used telephone stepper relays to generate an ever-changing stream of random code groups. It was considered too secure to break. William Friedman, a mathematician working for the Army, studied the purple messages and deduced that it was a machine-generated code. He then went to work on duplicating the machine and after a year or so came up with a perfect replica of the Japanese System 97 machine in early 1941. From that point on, almost all of Japan’s diplomatic message traffic was being read by the Army, Navy, and state departments. This work was top secret and carried out at the war department in Washington. Information gleaned would be sanitized and transmitted to major commands as needed for tactical intelligence.
In early November 1941, the Japanese foreign office came up with the following code to be transmitted to the embassies in the event of the outbreak of war:
HIGASHI NO KAZE AME (East wind rain) = Japan – US
KITA NO KAZE KUMORI (North wind cloudy)= Japan – USSR
NISHI NO KAZE HARE (West wind clear)= Japan – Britain
It is believed that on either December 4th or 5th, East wind rain message was received and decrypted. This was testified to Congress in 1945 by the head of the Navy COMMINT section, however, no record of the decrypted message exists. Instead, there is a blank page and a missing message number (JD-7001) in the Japanese diplomatic intercepts file.
The fleet commander at Pearl Harbor knew none of this, as the information was kept under close wraps by the Navy Department in Washington. In early December 1941, almost everyone figured that war with Japan would happen very soon. Most of the Washington set believed it would start in the Philippines, then a US territory. No figured that the Japanese would steam 3,900 miles undetected and launch a sneak attack on the US military base in Hawaii. The attacking planes homed in on the signal from KGMB (after-war reading of Cmd. Fuchida’s (IJN strike leader) diary indicates the actual station was KGMB on 590 KHz, and not KGU as their website claims), to help find Hawaii from carriers still 230 miles away. The station had remained on the air overnight to assist a group of B-17 navigates from the west coast. Unaware of the impending danger, the Hawaii military bases were enjoying a peaceful Sunday morning until 7:48 am, when the first bombs began to fall.
Of course, had the Japanese pressed the attack and launched a third wave to take out the fuel storage and repair facilities, indeed, history might be different. The Pacific Fleet would have had to retire to California, leaving Hawaii exposed and quite possibly invaded.
Most people on the mainland first heard about the attack via radio. At 2:22 pm Eastern time, the AP issued a news bulletin and at 2:27 pm CBS broke into their Sunday afternoon programming to announce the attack. The radio played an important part in WWII from start to finish.
