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).
In the time that I have been working as a broadcast engineer, I have seen some pretty unique transmitter sites. The aforementioned power plant, with the antenna mounted on a smoke stack. The more traditional AM station, is located in a swamp. Other stations both AM and FM combined into one antenna, etc.
WGDJ AM transmitter site
This is WGDJ, 1300 KHz, Albany, NY. It is located in what might be a swamp if we were not experiencing marginal drought conditions this summer. The transmitter is located along route 9J. It is a four-tower directional daytime, 10 KW, and a six-tower directional night time, 5 KW. Nothing spectacular, 90-degree towers, spaced 90 degrees apart. Since they are below 200 feet, they don’t need to be lit or painted, which is nice.
WGDJ directional antenna towers
The building and all the towers are on 20-foot-high steel stilts. The area is right next to the Hudson River and often floods in the springtime.
Back of WGDJ transmitter building
The transmitter site sort of reminds me of something I once saw at coastal radio stations WCC and KPH. They were located along saltwater bays.
Phaors with Nautel XR12 transmitter
The station signed on the air in 1963. Initially, it was a 5 KW daytimer only. They added night operation sometime in the seventies. Around 2006 or so, they went to 10 KW day, 5 KW night. The phasor is gigantic for a 5 KW station, or even a 10 KW station. I’ve seen smaller phasors on 50 KW directionals. It has a “Quakertown, PA” nameplate on it, which may be the forerunner of Phasetek. There is a rare art form to creating a functional, yet space economical phasor. Harris could sometimes pull it off, RCA did well, Kintronics seems to be the one of the top phasor makers today.
The main transmitter is a Nautel XR12, which has a very similar look as the V series FM transmitters. The backup transmitter is a MW5A, which, quite frankly scares me. The site was just recently air-conditioned, which means the MW5A transmitter was sucking swamp air through it for 25 years. I do not want to turn that thing on under any circumstances.
Nautel XR12 medium wave transmitter
All in all, the station has a pretty good signal into the capital city of New York. It nulls to the west, somewhat. Being on 1300, it doesn’t carry as far as some of the other class B AM stations like WROW 590 kHz, but it does alright.
After years of neglect, the station is making a bit of a comeback in the Albany market. They do a lot of local talk radio, which, when the other station is carrying almost all satellite syndicated talk, is making an impression. Being the state capital, there is a lot of fodder.
Letter to the editor in the April 15, 1987, Radio World:
I’ve heard all the garbage I can stand about the AM stereo “issue.” The problem?
1. Motorola and Kahn each was a monopoly.
2. The stations don’t want to waste $6,000 on the wrong system.
3. The FCC is afraid it will be sued by the “sore loser” in a standard decision.
4. The receiver makers are afraid of wasting millions of the wrong system.
5. The listeners don’t know anything about AM stereo.
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar regarding some AM “improvement” schemes currently being used? Those that fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it, Bob.
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.
