THE VIDEO SHELF · am radio transmitters
WLW's 500,000 Watt Transmitter
A tour of the historic WLW transmitter facility in Mason, Ohio, recorded at Hamvention 2013. It shows the surviving equipment from the 500,000 watt AM era, when WLW was the only US station at that power, and explains the history.
Why HN readers recommended it
Recommended as the definitive visual walkthrough of the WLW 500 kW transmitter, with detailed equipment views and lots of history.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- K7AGE
- Topic
- am radio transmitters
- Format
- documentary
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 4
- HN mentions in dataset
- 4
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2016–2023
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
That was one specific station - the infamous WLW / W8XO - the first and only US station authorized to operate at 500kW of power.[1] To give you an idea of how powerful that is, take a look at their coverage map: [LINK] The back …
paulgerhardt on Hacker News · 2016-02
In What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jumper cableThe links at the bottom of the article are also excellent. At the 2013 Dayton Hamvention, there was a tour of the facility shown here: [VIDEO] . Apparently, the engineer who first designed the transmitter was barely 21.
wglb on Hacker News · 2016-02
In WLW: 700 kHz, 500 kW, 100% modulation, no limiter (2000)Was randomly recommended a video on YouTube a few weeks ago which was a recording of a tour of the WLW broadcast transmitter facility. You get to see the high power equipment in detail accompanied by lots of history about the facility. Was a fun …
mschwar99 on Hacker News · 2020-01
In WLW: America's 500,000 watt radio station (2015)
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.