# 07 2015 Vol-21 James O’Neal gives us a history lesson on MW antenna design

the EICO 950B Capacitor bridge by John Estock

Next NMRCC meeting: Jul 12th

Meeting Topic: Radios with tuning indicators (magic eyes, shadow tuning, tuning meters

“Bell Laboratories was in the business of designing radio transmitters and studio equipment [and] now, they wanted a good antenna to recommend to purchasers of their equipment. Dr. Stuart Ballantine … pointed out that there was no point in putting up separate towers and stringing antennas between them because the towers could only be a problem due to the currents induced in them from the antenna and it would distort the pattern. Why not use the tower [itself]? Bell then went to the Blaw-Knox company in Pittsburgh and had them design a tower which would have low capacitance. The first one of those towers was put in at Wayne Township, New Jersey for the Columbia Broadcasting System. Strangely enough, I worked on that installation.”

A Most Unusual Transmitter Plant BY JAMES E. O’NEAL FOR RADIO WORLD

An evolution in antenna technology SPRINGFIELD, VA.—Ever since

Marconi began playing with radio at

his family villa, there have been

many variations on a theme when it

came to transmitting antennas. Very

early antenna design was rather sim-

plistic: “Get as much wire up as high

in the air as possible and tune for

maximum spark or current.”

When radio broadcasting arrived in

the early 1920s, virtually all stations

adopted the horizontal long-wire

antenna design favored by ship-and-

shore radiotelegraphy operations.

These radiators took the form of ei-

ther a “flattop” with parallel multiple

wires supported by cross arms, or a

“cage,” with the ends supported by

rings to create a cylindrical configu-

ration. These arrays were suspended

by self-supporting towers and were

commonly located on tall buildings

(collocated with the station’s studi-

os). These antennas were typically

linked to the station transmitter by a

bundle of multiple conductors at-

tached either to the middle (“T”) or

at one end (“L”) of the horizontal

(Continued on page Four)

The EICO 950B Capacitance Bridge Like most bridge circuits, The EICO 950B is accurate and functional. It can measure capacitance from 10pf to 5000uf and resistance from 0.5 ohm to 500 megohm; capacitor leakage can be checked with a 0 - 500 volt variable DC supply. Power factor, which is an indication of a capacitor's ability to hold a charge, can be calculated, as can a transformer's turn ratio. A capacitor's effective series re-sistance (ESR) is directly related to power factor.

(Continued on page Five)

David Fein was an interesting man, a great musician and great story teller

2A3

Prior to the adoption of the insulated-base vertical radiator, multiple-wire horizontal antennas were the de facto means for coupling RF to free space. The current FCC logo design incorporates the venerable flattop and its feeder system.

Two

The NMRCC Meeting Minutes by Chuck Burch

different antennas, the WD-12 tubes and the amount of regen and filament voltage, they got both John’s pup and

Chuck’s 51 work-ing. John Anthes showed a glass-front home-brew very similar in design to a 1922 regen 3-tube Crosley.

The tubes were remanu-factured by his father who would disassembly origi-nal dud tubes and install transistor guts in the tube base but keep the same exterior tube look and same performance as the original tube. John brought another radio which was a 1924 Crosley 3R Trirdyn radio that his father used as a doorstop. It is both a regen and a reflex radio. Don Menning brought his

homebrew “moonshine” regen radio that he built several years ago using copper tubing for the coils. Richard Majestic brought in a neat compact Ameri-can Ace 2–tube Reflex radio. Robert Gibson brought in a one-tube superhet radio he built that use a 6JH8 tube to provide re-flex amplification on the RF, IF

and audio fre-quencies. The voting for Best of Show was very competitive this month with two tie votes between John Anthes and Robert Gibson. Since club policy allows only one Best of Show win-ner, this month’s winner was ulti-mately decided by a coin flip. Robert Gibson’s home-built radio was selected as Best of Show.

NMRCC 2015 MEETINGS

Jul 12th - Radios with tuning indicators (magic eyes, shadow tuning, tuning meters, etc.)

Aug 9th - Unique and novel radio an-tennas and noise eliminators Sep 13th - Wild Card Sunday” (nifty

science gizmos, novel sci-ence toys, or non- radio col-lection, electronics, or sci-ence related that you think will dazzle your fellow mem-bers

Oct 11th – Fall Picnic Audio distor-tion of radio receivers demo

Nov 8th - Old computers, calculators, slide rules, and associated items

Dec 13th - Unusual Devices/Stump the Experts- Unusual tubes, light bulbs, transistors, and radio parts. Also, who can identify that strange gizmo you found, or explain how an unusual ob-ject works?

Proposed Programs *Radio trouble shooting and repair workshop—July or (TBD) *Alignment of AM/FM tuners workshop —Oct fall picnic

NMRCC minutes 6/14/2015 We had a large number of auction items this month. Donation items brought in $78 while auction commissions were $13.25 bringing the auction total income to $91.25.

The meeting started a little late as the auction took longer than usual. Ron Monty discussed the recent loss of long-time club member David Fein. Richard Majestic presented an overview of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention held in Las Vegas in April. John Anthes reported the new web site is seeing a lot of ac-tion. The club checking ac-count currently has $3958.27. NMRCC was planning three talks at the August Hamfest, but with the loss of Dave Fein, we are considering cutting back to two: one by Jim Hanlon on Vintage Ham Equipment and one by Richard Majestic on Software Defined Radio. Vol-unteers are needed to man the NMRCC display at the Ham-fest, so if you can help out, please inform John Anthes. John Anthes asked what we should do at the workshop that we have discussed holding this year. It was discussed that we should hold the workshop during the September meet-ing but the details will need to be decided at the July and August meetings. The monthly theme was Regen/Reflex radios. Richard Majestic gave an excellent introduction on Regeneration and Reflex

radios. Chuck Burch brought in a 1924 Crosley 2-tube Model 51 with one tube be-ing a regen circuit and the second an audio amplifier. A few months ago, John Anthes

brought over his 1-tube Crosley Pup to Chuck’s place to see if it could be made to work. After a bit of experimenting with

NMRCC Officers for 2015

John Anthes: President

John Estock: Vice President

Richard Majestic: Treasurer

Chuck Burch: Secretary

Ron Monty: Membership

Mark Toppo: Director

Ed Brady: Director

Ray Trujillo: Director

John Hannahs

Richard Majestic: Newsletter Editor (President pro-tem)

Don claims these are spring sandals but I saw him tune his Re-gen radio by dancing on these springs.

Three

Obituary for David B Fein Born January 14, 1950 in Elizabeth, NJ, passed away on June 1, 2015. He is sur-vived by his wife Diana Fein, step-son Eli Sorenson and wife Nicole, grandsons Xan-der, Nathan, and Ezekiel, his parents Ray-mond and Marcia Fein, sister Irene O'Con-nor and husband Gregory, sister Betsy Fusek and husband John, four nieces, one nephew, two great nephews and two great nieces in addition to countless friends all who loved him dearly. David graduated from Summit High School in Summit, NJ, and received his Bachelor of Science in Geology from Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He worked as a research labor-atory technician at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, The New York State De-partment of Health in Albany, NY and Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquer-que, NM. He loved his work and made significant contributions to various re-search projects throughout his years of employment. David was a ham radio operator (NM5DF) and received his Novice license with the help of Dr. Don Klein, W2GKR. He earned his Elmer when he was 13. He was a member of The Estancia Valley Amateur Radio Association (EVARA). David's oth-er interests included antique radios and

glass insulators. He was a member of the New Mexico Radio Collector Club and The Enchantment Insulator Club.

In addition to his many interests, David was a gifted musician. He played the bass guitar, the Native American flute, various percussive instruments, and the twelve-string guitar. He was a member of the bluegrass bands Shagbark Hickory and Dyer Switch in Upstate New York; Native American Style music group Cumulonim-bus in Albuquerque; and was currently

performing with The Canyon Brothers who play mostly oldies from the 50's-80's era. They volunteer a lot of their time playing at nursing homes bringing immense joy to the residents. David was also a hospice volunteer for five years. Along with his kind, gentle spirit and healing flute play-ing, he brought immeasurable comfort to the patients and their families. His first CD titled "Hearts to the Sun" was dedicated to Hospice patients, families, and workers. He also donated a portion of the proceeds to the University of New Mexico Hospice Program. He was also an animal lover, particularly cats, and gave them the same love and affection he did to his human family. David was a rare soul, a "spiritual leader" without even knowing it. He was kind, gentle, caring, patient and humble. He en-dured many physical struggles that would've shattered most people's spirits, yet he continued to live life to the fullest and wanted more than anything to be of service to anyone who needed their spirits lifted. Services in celebration of David's life will be held at 11:00 am on Saturday, June 6, 2015 at Daniels Family Funeral Ser-vice~Wyoming Chapel, 7601 Wyoming Blvd NE. A reception will follow. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be given in David's honor to Animal Humane New Mexico, : https://animalhumanenm.org/pets/help/donate/online/gift.php. Donations may also be mailed to 615 Virginia St SE, Albuquer-que, NM 87108. With deep regret, I need to inform you that my close friend and fellow radio club member, David Fein has passed away. Over the years he has had many life threatening medical issues but was unable to conquer this last one. He is finally at peace and without suffering. I will always remember him as a caring gentle soul that had a great outlook on life........ I will keep you informed on final arrangements. Ron Monty

So sorry to hear about David’s death Ron. David was the best; a great story teller and musician how loved the re-search and hunt in collecting old com-munications technology. He will surely be missed. Please give my heartfelt condolences to his family. Richard Majestic

We Will Miss NMRCC Member and Friend David B. Fein

Four

wires. [See Reference 1.]

It seems to have escaped notice

early on that these feeders were

neither balanced lines nor wire-type

coaxial cables, it was really the feed-

er that did most of the radiating; the

horizontal wires above it basically

amounted to top-loading.

According to Ron Rackley of duTreil,

Lundin & Rackley Inc., this wire an-

tenna trend can be traced to AC

power distribution theory that car-

ried over into early radio engineer-

ing.

“Most early radio engineers were

trained in power systems design

rather than in field theory,” said

Rackley. “There was actually a con-

troversy at the time, with many en-

gineers believing that larger anten-

nas wouldn’t radiate as well [as

smaller ones], because if you in-

crease the height, the antenna cur-

rent goes down because the re-

sistance goes up. A man named Stu-

art Ballantine showed mathematical-

ly that taller antennas produced in-

creased horizontal plane radiation.

He was doing calculus and showed

that if you integrated current over a

larger vertical span, you get more

current. He published his paper in

1924 [2] and this started changing

things.”

INSULATED-BASE VERTICAL

RADIATOR

Based on Ballantine’s findings, some

pioneer stations did reexamine an-

tenna effectiveness and began ex-

perimentation. New York’s WABC

(now WCBS) was one of these, and

erected what is believed to be the

world’s first medium-wave insulated-

base vertical radiator in nearby Pat-

terson, N.J.

This radical departure from existing

antennas created something of a

sensation among radio practitioners

and the WABC installation rated a

cover story in the November 1931

issue of Radio-Craft magazine.

As described in the article: “This

‘mast-antenna’ (a new term in radio)

is part of a new 50,000-watt trans-

mitter … and is a new type of broad-

cast aerial construction which breaks

away from tradition, and establishes a

precedent.”

The story noted that in addition to

providing a non-directional pattern (not

possible with horizontal wire antennas)

the new “mast-antenna” also concen-

trated more energy into the ground

wave to provide better local area ser-

vice.

The vertical radiator got high marks

from Jack DeWitt, WSM’s legendary

director of engineering, who had left a

position at Bell Labs to take the WSM

job just as that station was readying

for 50 kW operations. DeWitt was able

to convince management to dump the

flattop that RCA had specified for the

installation. In a 1982 interview, he

recalled:

“Bell Laboratories was in the business

of designing radio transmitters and

studio equipment [and] now, they

wanted a good antenna to recommend

to purchasers of their equipment. Dr.

Stuart Ballantine … pointed out that

there was no point in putting up sepa-

rate towers and stringing antennas

between them because the towers

could only be a problem due to the

currents induced in them from the an-

tenna and it would distort the pattern.

Why not use the tower [itself]? Bell

then went to the Blaw-Knox company

in Pittsburgh and had them design a

tower which would have

low capacitance. The first

one of those towers was

put in at Wayne Town-

ship, New Jersey for the

Columbia Broadcasting

System. Strangely

enough, I worked on that

installation.”

BREAKING FROM

CONVENTION (SORT

OF)

About the same time that

the vertical radiator was

being readied for prime

time, WHK, a pioneer

Cleveland, Ohio station,

was having second

thoughts about the “conventional” flat-

top antenna they’d been using since

commencing commercial operations in

1922. Its studios and transmitter plant

were collocated in a downtown high-

rise building, and as the 1920s drew to

a close the station’s management, and

its chief engineer E.L. Gove, were be-

came increasingly concerned about

coverage problems:

“A careful study of the range of WHK,

Cleveland, Ohio, revealed the fact that

the field pattern was decidedly ragged

in certain areas of the city. From this

and other investigations it was quite

apparent that the station, situated on

the top floor of a Cleveland office

building, surrounded on all sides by

other skyscrapers and broadcasting on

a power limit of 1,000 watts, was by

no means operating at its highest effi-

ciency.”[3]

Gove concluded that the poor coverage

was due to the rooftop transmission

plant employed by the station — spe-

cifically, the presence of other nearby

high-rise steel framework buildings, a

poor ground system and power loss

from re-radiation by the flattop’s sup-

porting towers.

The solution appeared simple: Relocate

the transmitting plant!

“After considering the problem from all

angles it was decided to petition the

Radio Commission for permission to

move the transmitting apparatus into

the country where it would be

possible to put in an effective

ground system, and where

there would be no interfer-

ence from steel girdered

buildings.”[4]

A search of retired Federal

Radio Commission records for

the station did not disclose

the referenced “petition,” but

it was most likely filed in

1929.

WHK acquired property about

nine miles south of Cleveland

for the new facility and pro-

ceeded to construct what was

to become perhaps the most

unusual transmitting plant

WABC’s new 1931 transmit-ting plant included a half-wave vertical antenna, marking a radical departure from conven-tional horizontal wire antennas; however, the vertical radiator was slow to be adopted by the other medium-wave broadcast-ers.

Five

The electrical bridge is an elegant and reliable design whose principal is compar-ing an unknown to a know value with a null indication. The indicator of the 950B is an eye tube, which is as accurate as a meter and doesn't need a positive and negative current like a galvanometer. With fewer than 30 parts, this hobby-grade tester performs admirably. Of course, short-cuts were made, most nota-bly the power supply that delivers 500 volts DC. Ideally, this voltage should be controlled by a power tube like the 6L6 and have a regulator circuit for stabil-ity. As it is, the power supply output is simply run through a linear control, and the eye tube is in series with a known resistance; very basic, but it works. Unfortunately, a shorted or leaky electrolytic will cause a fair amount of current to flow through that control, so many of the 950s will have bad voltage controls, which are wirewound and rated at 4 watts. With care, it can be used for capacitor reforming (if you believe re-forming can be effective). There are only 2 tubes and 4 precision resistors in the 950B, but it works surpris-ingly well. It is basically a DC power supply for leakage test, a null indicator tube and an AC source for the bridge. These EICOs can usually be found for a reasonable price and service information is readily available. ~John Estock

way to break the steel masts into non

-resonant sections, just as was done

with the guy lines at the new WABC

installation.

Austin had been previously granted a

patent for sectionalizing high-tension

power line support towers and was a

logical choice for the WHK mechani-

cal engineering tasking. He was later

granted another patent for the design

of the WHK isolated

section towers. [5]

Fabricating the nec-

essary insulators

posed no real prob-

lems; however, there

were still issues to be

resolved.

One of these was

access to upper tow-

er sections for

maintenance. As it

would have been

unwieldy and dan-

gerous for riggers to

climb over or around

these big hunks of

glazed ceramic, Aus-

tin devised what was

referred to as a “jack

-knife” ladder system, with ladders

pivoting to an open position when not

in use to maintain isolation of tower

sections. He also engineered a means

for breaking the steel winch cables

used to hoist up the flattop into non-

resonant lengths.

AN UNUSUAL LIGHTING SYSTEM

The real engineering challenge was in

lighting the new masts to warn aircraft

pilots of their presence at night.

Radio tower lighting was in

its infancy then, for as

mentioned, most antennas

were installed on high

buildings, which had their

own warning lights.

With the new breed of in-

sulated-base vertical radia-

tors (and the WHK section-

alized masts), a major

problem arose — lighting

power conductors would

shunt RF to ground, or in

the case of WHK, ground

the RF and defeat the pur-

pose of the isolated tower

sections.

WABC made their 665-foot tower visible

at night with powerful ground-mounted

floodlights illuminating the mast, building

and surrounding acreage.

Other schemes were also proposed for

lighting this new breed of medium-wave

antenna. [6]

One involved outlining

the structures with neon

tubing energized by the

tower’s RF. This would

have required all-night

operation though, some-

thing that few stations

did then. Another ap-

proach was the use of a

motor-generator set,

with the generator

mounted on the tower

and separated from the

ground-mounted motor

via an insulated shaft. In

theory, this could have

worked at WHK, but

would have required

multiple generators, as

AC (or DC) lines couldn’t cross tower sec-

tion insulators, and some very, very long

insulated shafts.

A slightly saner approach would have

been the use of chokes designed to pass

low-frequency AC lighting current, while

presenting a high impedance to RF. This

EICO 950B Capacitance Bridge By John Estock

ever built, as the station elected not to

adopt the new vertical radiator tech-

nology, but rather to stick with the

“tried and true” flattop. The idea was

to make it perform better.

THE NEW (AND RADICAL) WHK

ANTENNA

Gove correctly identified the rooftop

antenna supports as major contribu-

tors to the station’s poor coverage and

was determined to do something

about this at the new site: employ flat-

top support masts that did not re-

radiate. Wooden towers of the desired

height — 185 feet — were apparently

ruled out as impractical, and Gove en-

listed the services of Arthur O. Austin,

chief engineer at the Ohio Brass Com-

pany’s insulator division, to develop a

Inside the building (and below the station ground plane), this Western Electric transmitter excited the flattop radiator 185 feet above. PHOTO CREDIT: Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives

Arthur O. Austin received a patent for the design of the special WHK antenna supports

Six

approach was successfully adopted for

insulated-base vertical radiators, but

would not have been practical at WHK

due to the number of tower sections

that had to be isolated from each oth-

er.

Austin and Gove finally settled on a

lighting system that did not depend on

electrical power at all.

A gas line was brought up to the tower

bases and a tubular porcelain insulator

was used to connect this to a copper

line running along the periphery of

each tower section. The line was bro-

ken again at each the tower section via

non-conductive passageways incorpo-

rated into the tower section insulators.

Gas was flared at various levels of the

towers to identify them to night-flying

aircraft.

One can’t help but wonder what near-

by inhabitants and aircraft crews and

passengers thought about these two

185-foot “burning men.” One can’t

help but wonder, too, what sort of gas

bill this lighting system generated, as

the gas jets would have had to flare

24/7. Relighting them every evening

would not have been practical.

Looking back 80-plus years, another

aspect of the “new” WHK transmitter

plant is also quite interesting. The two-

story transmitter building was con-

structed with its lower eight-and-a-half

feet set below ground level. According

to the surviving document, this was

done so that the top of the transmitter

was at the level of the ground system.

Readers can draw their own conclu-

sions about this bit of engineering.

Austin’s tower patent also describes

the use of a heating system (either gas

or resistance heaters powered by stor-

age batteries) to keep the sectionaliz-

ing insulators dry and minimize losses.

It is not known if this amenity was in-

cluded in the WHK installation.

Quite an unusual transmitting plant!

By the way, while Arthur O. Austin is

not really well known for inventing the

sectionalized radio tower; he is re-

membered for his later invention of the

“ring transformer” for passing AC to

insulated base radiator lighting sys-

tems without shunting RF to ground.

Undoubtedly, his experience with WHK

led him to invent this special trans-

former that bears his name and is still

used today.

Special thanks to Ron Rackley, Lud-

well Sibley, Frank Foti and Mike Ol-

szewski for assistance.

James E. O’Neal is technology editor

for Radio World sister publication TV

Eventually WHK gave up on flattop antenna technology and reworked the 1931 supporting masts into “conventional” vertical radiators. This 1944 photograph shows the “after” version with capacity hats added to the original structures. The station had also gone “directional” and added a third tower. Close examination shows the insulators used to isolate the upper sections have been bypassed and conven-tional lighting installed. The photo also reveals that the bottom-most tower sections are still isolated from the upper portions, with a “feeder box” (or perhaps an ATU) located at the top of the lowest sec-tion. Multiple conductors emerge from this unit and connect to all four mast legs. PHOTO CREDIT: Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archive

An Austin “ring transformer” couples AC lighting power on to this modern AM vertical radiator. Did A.O. Austin invent it due to the difficulty in lighting WHK’s 1931 towers?

Seven

Technology. Find past history articles by

scrolling the Roots of Radio tab under

“Columns” at radioworld.com.

REFERENCES

[1] Chamberlain, A. B., and Lodge, W.

B., “The Broadcast Antenna,” Proceed-

ings of the Institute of Radio Engineers,

Vol. 24, No. 1; Jan. 1936, p. 13.

[2] Ballantine, Stuart, “On the Optimum

Transmitting Wavelength for a Vertical

Antenna Over Perfect Earth,” Proceed-

ings of the Institute of Radio Engineers,

Vol. 12; Dec. 1924, pp. 833-839.

[3] “Station WHK introduces important

refinements into radio transmit-

ting,” (author not named), Radio Engi-

neering magazine, Aug. 1931, p. 21.

[4] Ibid, Radio Engineering, Aug. 1931.

[5] U.S. Patent No. 1,968,868,

“Radiotower,” filed Feb. 16, 1930; grant-

ed Aug. 7, 1934.

[6] Gunsolley, Verne V., “Radio Tower

Tuning and Lighting,” Radio Engineering

magazine, June 1932; pp. 7, 8, 12.

- See more at: http://

www.radioworld.com/TabId/64/

Default.aspx?

Arti-

cleId=274693#sthash.U3CMgyCt.dpuf See more at: http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/a-most-unusual-transmitter-plant-/274700#sthash.rtKWt4AG.dpuf I worked with James O’Neal for over ten years at VOA—WorldNet Televi-

sion and with his permission I recycled his Radio World article. James is one of the best system engineers in radio

and television. He has built in his home a replica 1940 (pre-war) radio studio

hooked up to a 1KW Collins MW AM transmitter. He’s talking about putting

up a Rhombic antenna, I think he wants to put some RF energy into Europe. ~RM

Eight

The New Mexico Radio Collectors Club is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 in order to enhance the enjoyment of collecting and preservation of radios for all its members.

NMRCC meets the second Sunday of the month at The Quelab at 680 Haines Ave NW , Albuquerque NM Tailgate sale at 1:00PM meetings start at 2:00 pm. Visitors Always Welcomed.

NMRCC NEWSLETTER

THIS PUBLICATION IS THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW

MEXICO RADIO COLLECTORS CLUB. INPUT FROM ALL MEMBERS ARE SOLICITED AND WELCOME ON 20TH OF THE PRECEDING

MONTH. RICHARD MAJESTIC PRO-TEMP NEWSLETTER EDITOR, SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS IN WORD FORMAT, PICTURES IN *.JPG

FORMAT TO: RMAJESTIC@MSN.COM

N E W M E X I C O R A D I O

C O L L E C T O R S C L U B

New Mexico Radio Collectors Club Richard Majestic (Membership inquiries)

5460 Superstition Drive Las Cruces NM 88011

E-Mail: ronmonty@comcast.net Phone: 505 281-5067

E-Mail: rmajestic@msn.com Phone: 575 521-0018

FOR INFORMATION CHECK THE INTERNET

http://www.newmexicoradiocollectorsclub.com/

USPS Stamp

REQUEST I want to create a club history column for our newsletter, a story about why we collect old radios, old ham

receivers and transmitters, vacuum tubes and old black and white televisions.

Tell Us…

What’s your motivation? What’s the limits we set for a collection? Why a particular brand? Why a particu-

lar year? Are we collectors or technology hoarders? How much time do we spend on this hobby? Do we re-

search and record the history of items we collect? What are our sources of the items we collect? What are

the stories you’ve heard from a seller? How far will travel to get an item? What’s your hot pursuits this

month?

Put your story in words, write it up and I want to print it as a monthly column in our

newsletter. ~RM

Thank you Don Menning our first contributor…