Standing Inside a Broadcast Transmitter While it's ON!

Comments · 1.4K

• MR

  @MrCarlsonsLab · 8 years ago · pinned

  Hey! Learn more about electronics, and see more of my video&apos;s on Patreon. Check it out here and join the crowd: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab">https://www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab</a>

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• LE

  @lelandclayton5462 · 9 years ago

  My wife says I have too much stuff but then she saw Paul&apos;s electronics lab. Now she just complains about other things lol.

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• ST

  @Stelios.Posantzis · 6 years ago (edited)

  You deserve a lot of praise for taking care of these old beasts. They would have ended up in the dumpster or have been scavenged for parts otherwise. The demise of AM stations is a darned shame. Modern broadcast equipment are full of digital gimmicks and wizardry. The old valve stuff are simply bombproof works of beautiful craftsmanship and built to last a few lifetimes.

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• MS

  @mssippijim · 9 years ago

  Years ago I worked at a UHF Television with a Townsend transmitter. &nbsp;It was about the size of a streetcar, &nbsp;with doors that you had to go inside to service it. &nbsp;It had safety interlocks on the doors of course. &nbsp;There was also a grounding rod device so you could discharge capacitors that might hold a charge even after powered down. &nbsp;Our engineers called them &quot;Jesus Rods&quot;, because if you didn&apos;t use them you might meet him in person.

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• 36

  @3652Jm · 5 years ago

  This took me back a ways. 60 years ago &nbsp;I received my 3rd Class Broadcast license. I was in high school and I worked at our local Radio and TV station in Ohio. It was a great experience<br>.

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• WN

  @WN8HGZ · 9 years ago

  In 1965 I was trained at ferris state college in transmitter service man does this bring back memories this was way before digital electronics, really enjoy all of your videos you do a super job from Brian WB8IDY in Michigan please beep up the good work 73

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• MI

  @MichiganPeatMoss · 5 years ago

  Feb 2021: &nbsp;My first impression of Mr Carlson&apos;s Lab with this video last year. &nbsp;Back for a replay.

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• LU

  @lucienberton4538 · 9 years ago

  Beautiful technology, excellent channel, flawless presentation. Thanks a million Mr. Carlson.

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• RO

  @Robbie1949 · 6 years ago

  You just took me back 50 odd years, serving in the RAAF starting in &nbsp;Jan 1972 I was posted to Butterworth Air Base, Malaysia. &nbsp;We had a radio broadcast transmitter and studio which collectively went by the callsign &nbsp;RRB, 1KW I believe. &nbsp;I didn&apos;t work on the AM broadcast band transmitters such as this but remember the large transmitter hall where it sat dwarfed by the huge HF transmitters we used for communications back to Australia from the base. A mate of mine from the ground radio side showed me the huge complex and antenna farm. <br>Now I was a radio tech air which meant I worked on airbourne &nbsp;radio comms , navigation and radar equipment. &nbsp;As it transpired I finished up working on the Mirage III Cyrano II fire control radar for 6 years (many pictures of the beast on the net). &nbsp; The &nbsp;RF final and modulator electron tubes you show are bigger than anything I worked on but there were huge water cooled electron tubes in some of the big HF TX&apos;s &nbsp;with PEP of several thousand watts. &nbsp;I had not ever seen tubes that big before, I was in my early twenties and had completed a 5 year &nbsp;electrical/electronic apprenticeship at 15 before I joined the RAAF. <br> I am retired from the RAAF now, &nbsp;spending my last serving years teaching electronics at the then RAAF School of Radio which sadly no longer exists.<br>Thermionic electron tube theory is fairly basic and easy to understand compared with our world of microprocessor controlled electronics &nbsp;now. <br> I obtained my amateur &nbsp;licence &nbsp;in 1989 only having to sit for regulations, the theory was waved. &nbsp;I am wondering what band you work with that transmitter as you would have to retune the drive, final and adjust the ant loading every time you changed your VFO frequency. <br>I am not active at the moment due to wide spread QRM at my current QTH. &nbsp;It&apos;s so bad I can&apos;t really receive anything except the two local AM broadcast stations and the NDB from RAAF base Sale, Victoria &nbsp;up the road where I had two tours , I am still investigating. &nbsp;Cheers Robert VK3URS

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• GL

  @glennsprigg2378 · 9 years ago

  I remember seeing a huge machine about the size of a bus, that used 50,000 W R.F<br>to heat &amp; dry toweling running through it. &nbsp;When you open any of the side doors, &nbsp;all<br>the lighting inside was just numerous Fluoro Tubes, held with spring clips !! No wires.

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• RO

  @robertborchert932 · 4 years ago

  Beautiful! In the early 1980s, I had a transmitter across the street from me in Pennsylvania. WEEP, with a glorious 50kW RCA transmitter.<br><br>It has a beautiful four tower Marconi antenna array.<br><br>That evening, the engineer was working on the rig, changing an RCA 5671 output tube.<br><br>It is the largest tube I have ever seen. Large enough it has its own jack to lift it into position, the apparatus was impressive.<br><br>I had the pleasure of seeing the interior of this transmitter as a lad.

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• KA

  @kaybikerow · 9 years ago

  When you spoke of the HV interlock switch I was reminded of Max Ferguson&apos;s story of the CBC Toronto Xmitter.<br>One of the non-technical staff would open up the door to heat his meal inside and cut off transmission every night. &nbsp;The engineers couldn&apos;t figure out why it was happening.

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