This week, you can see how the other half transmits as we surf to a site where broadcast radio station tours are available 24-hours-a-day.

When I was a kid, my favorite radio station was WABC, 770 on the AM radio dial. I was a big fan of WABC and knew all the station jingles and their DJ's on-the-air schedules by heart. Even though WABC was 90 miles away in New York City, their signal pounded into downtown Waterbury as if it was local. And after dark, it was even stronger than the locals. Yes, it was a clear channel powerhouse, but its voice was still impressive and being a little technically oriented, I always wondered how they managed it. Now, I know!

Tour your favorite broadcast transmitter site at Jim Hawkins' Radio And Broadcast Technology Page.

I just took a tour of the WABC transmitter site circa 1966 at Jim Hawkins' Radio And Broadcast Technology Page. Jim, who is also known as WA2WHV, offers transmitter site tours of WABC and other famous radio stations at his Web site. In addition to covering a bunch of stations in the New York metropolitan area, Jim also checks out transmitter sites in Atlantic City, Nashville, and various locations in the Buckeye State. For shortwave aficionados, there are also tours of three Voice of America transmitter facilities and Radio Canada International. And there's more. At the deep end of the spectra, you can view the VLF transmitter facilities of NSS. Virtual (VRML) tours of a 50-kW transmitter site and a circularly polarized, high-gain FM panel antenna are also on Jim's site.

Jim's page has loads of pictures of transmitters and antenna farms and plenty of links to send you off into WWW-land to find more nuggets of information about your favorite radio transmitter.

Until next time, keep on surfin'.

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (561 pieces in 23 years), not to mention the author of five ARRL books and contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles. First licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can remember, however, instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny Way, he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan, send email to wa1lou@arrl.net.

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