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A comment on What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jumper cable. Parent comment

Re:What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jump... by paulgerhardt on Thursday February 11, 2016 @03:03AM (#11078869)
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: http://i.imgur.com/Aigz1Zh.jpg

The back story is kind of interesting. It was run by Powel Crosley - a sort of 1930's version of Elon Musk. Advertising revenues from the station were so successful he applied to increase the limit from 500kW to 750kW(!).

It's a big deal in the ham community, but I only learnt latter that while US stations were limited to 50kW - other parts of the world didn't have such restrictions. Parts of the Middle East have 2,000kW stations. [2]

You can get a full download on the Crosley WLW station in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbHjcwIoTiY

[1] http://www.ominous-valve.com/wlw.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_Solt

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Re:What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jump... by michael_h on Thursday February 11, 2016 @09:26AM (#11080267)
I grew up about 5 miles from that antenna. I can't say I ever heard the radio through the wiring in my house. The Voice of America antenna array down the street though? I could hear it clearly through my stereo speakers when everything was turned off.

It's been dismantled, but I can imagine the number of ghost stories that it spawned. Just sitting in your house, and then you faintly hear a man speaking German...

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Re:What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jump... by bschwindHN on Thursday February 11, 2016 @10:05AM (#11080502)
It's weird seeing people on reddit who grew up in the same town as you, but it's even weirder seeing it on Hacker News for some reason.

I never heard the broadcasts through metal objects in the house either, but maybe they scaled back the power in the time I grew up there. Never heard any VoA broadcasts either.

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Re:What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jump... by dnet on Thursday February 11, 2016 @03:34AM (#11078969)
Actually, Solt is not Middle East, but in Central Europe. (I live ~50 km from it.) But yes, it's 2 MW, and at night, it can be heard using conventional receivers as far as Belgium.
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Re:What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jump... by paulgerhardt on Thursday February 11, 2016 @05:17AM (#11079309)
Corrected link: http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2012/12/the-continental-...
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Re:What 50,000 watts of RF energy sounds like through a jump... by gambiting on Thursday February 11, 2016 @05:01AM (#11079260)
Well, the Warsaw Radio Tower used to be the tallest man-made structure in the world until it collapsed due to a guy rope failure - and it had a 2 megawatt transmitter, it could be received literally anywhere in the world:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_radio_mast

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