WBCQ

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n5rv

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Yes, it is very directional and is made up of 16 folded dipoles arranged 4 by 4 with a mesh reflector. I am not sure of the gain, I was just stating that the effective gain of this antenna over a dipole, which is how quite often ERP is derived in antenna systems such as the one under discussion, is quite a lot. Was trying to be succinct in my response, but no doubt it was not clear enough in stating what ERP is to some. The term is effective, not actual....

Sorry, but you can't make anything from nothing. If the applied power is 500kW then you can't make 20MW without restricting the beamwidth whether it be horizontally or vertically. If you want to cover a vast area of the earth you have to point your antenna up a bit to get the reflections from the ionosphere - if you you to target a specific area then you have to narrow the beam - there's no magic involved. By the looks of their antenna it appears to be like the Russian OTHR with many dipoles against a reflector background - you can't call that 'non-directional.


.View attachment 72783
 

majoco

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It's quite easy for me convert UTC to local as they're 12 hours apart but seeing as I have no idea what Eastern Time is can you please tell me in UTC? Thanks.
 

n5rv

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It's quite easy for me convert UTC to local as they're 12 hours apart but seeing as I have no idea what Eastern Time is can you please tell me in UTC? Thanks.

0100-0300, I think that it right....
 

cralt

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For the last few nights WBCQ's been running programming tightly akin to the old Doctor Dimento type stuff. Not sure I'm too thrilled with it. Also one guy on Saturday was just hating on President Trump for a good bit to the point I just tuned off.

Their programing is all over the map. IIRC its around $15/hr on the "low" power (50mw?) 5130khz transmitter.
The weekends normally have some interesting music shows on 5130 or 7490. 5085 WTWW has music also now. I am happy to have some decent options to listen to on my big ol' recapped 1930's RCA Victor console. The classical music show on sunday night sounds great on it.

Unfortunately the fun on the 9330khz 500mw flamethrower is over. Worlds Last Chance ministry has it booked 24/7 from now on. Who knows how long that will last with Maine's electric rates though... :unsure:
Lots of interesting pics of it being built on their tweeter Allan Weiner (@AllanWBCQ) | Twitter
 
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majoco

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Amazing antenna on 9330kHz - has anyone been close to it? Does it physically turn or is it all done by phasing?

Unfortunately the fun on the 9330khz 500mw flamethrower is over.

500mW is not going to get you very far. "m" = milliwatts, "k" = kilowatts, it was said to be 500 kW transmitter power and 20 Megawatts "Effective Radiated Power". I'd like to see some more details of the antenna, although it's probably a bit too much for my backyard. :p
 

n5rv

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Amazing antenna on 9330kHz - has anyone been close to it? Does it physically turn or is it all done by phasing?



500mW is not going to get you very far. "m" = milliwatts, "k" = kilowatts, it was said to be 500 kW transmitter power and 20 Megawatts "Effective Radiated Power". I'd like to see some more details of the antenna, although it's probably a bit too much for my backyard. :p

Fully rotatable 360 degrees @ 1 degree per second. 19-23dBi gain. https://ampegon.com/download/20160727_leaflet_hp-rca.pdf
 

majoco

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Very interesting leaflet and a very interesting antenna. I'm somewhat surprised at the narrow beamwidth shown in the polar diagrams for the 4/4 antenna - anyone have a clue where it is aimed? I guess there will be a good deal of scattering but even so, it's giving me a huge signal on 9330kHz peaking at 20dB over S9 at 1530local/0330UTC. Same two guys talking, do we get any of the good music that was on a couple of weeks ago. The antenna is in Maine so if they wanted to cover most of the US, then they would want a wide beam pointing southwest - incidentally coming straight at me! 20MW - I can feel the warmth....... :oops:
 

majoco

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Here's a strange one... I was still listening about 1610local/0410UTC when the station went off the air for about 2 minutes. When it came back on again there was the same two guys waffling on... but the signal was much weaker, now only about S9.... have they rotated the antenna a bit to cover another audience? Weird.
 

n5rv

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Here's a strange one... I was still listening about 1610local/0410UTC when the station went off the air for about 2 minutes. When it came back on again there was the same two guys waffling on... but the signal was much weaker, now only about S9.... have they rotated the antenna a bit to cover another audience? Weird.

I think they are still in the testing mode for the antenna system even though they are now 100% broadcasting Worlds Last Chance Radio. They are the ones who are paying for the new superstation. They have a schedule published on their website, but are not following it yet. WLC Radio Broadcast Schedule

I am interested in seeing how the long path signal will be and look forward to when they are on their published schedule.

73 de Jerry N5RV
 

cralt

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The music and other shows where mostly the normal wbcq stuff that is on 7490 & 5130. They are testing now on 3265 which works great to me in new england at night.
9330 is now booked 24/7/365 for WLC and it looks like from n5rv's link is their plan will be to move the antenna every hour to target different parts of the world.
Allan W was talking about the contract with WLC on his firday show a while ago and he mentioned that part of the deal was he had to prove the station was at a full 500kw when ever it was on the air for them.
Northern Maine has some of the highest electric rates in the USA. I can't even imagine what the electric bill will be.
 

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cralt

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Well according to WLC there is no pole :alien: :unsure:

On Alan's show tonight he talked some more about the station. If he puts a 1Khz test tone on at 100% modulation the transmitter draws 1.2megawatts on the 3 phase input with 700kw peak output. The monthly power bill is a "very large 5 figures". They also plan on expanding to 11mhz and 15mhz for daytime so the antenna tuner will get a workout as well as the rotor.
 

AC9BX

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Ah yes, dipole curtain arrays are marvelous things. Modern nomenclature is HRS, or HRRS: H meaning horizontal for the orientation of the dipoles, R meaning reflector, RR meaning reversible reflector, and S meaning steerable. The WBCQ antenna is the only HRS (as far as I know) in North America and perhaps the first. Canada had HR (maybe HRS, I'm not sure) but has been demolished. There was supposed to be some built by the Chinese in Cuba but as far as I know that didn't happen. There are other curtain arrays, HR only, not steerable. The letters are typically followed by numbers describing the number of dipoles and number of rows of them and wavelength above ground of the bottom row. WBCQ is the common HRS 4/4/1 (I assume 1 but could be 0.5 or something else) with 2 frequency ranges, longer wavelengths on one side and shorter on the other. 4 wide and 4 high yields 30° beamwidth and approximately 10° take off angle, very high gain.
Ampegon and Thales are it for these steerable types. There's 11 of these in France at Issodun, 4 in Germany at Nauen, plus other places in both countries.
Google Maps

Google Maps

Curtain arrays are all over, China, Cuba, US, New Zealand.
The USofA Agency for Global Media, formerly the International Broadcasting Bureau, operates a large SW facility in Lampertheim in Germany.
Google Maps
 

Boombox

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I wonder if the Indonesia beam readout on that chart is a misprint. Whether the WLC people are flat earthers or not, the station has actual engineers.
 
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