This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259
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we go, welcome to Hamtok Live Call in, let's
talk, Neil's your guy Hamtok Live, here we go
on Hamtok Radio Good evening, everyone. It's
time for HamTalk Live, episode number 293. It's
another Hamvention preview, The Voice of America
Museum Tours, recorded on April 7th, 2022. I'm
your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning
in to this episode. of HamTalk Live. Tonight
we're joined by Lee Hite, K8 CLI, the lead docent
at the Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting
in Westchester, Ohio. And we'll be talking about
their open house and some of the new features
of the museum tonight. Last episode, Michael
Coulter, W8CI, was here to talk about all the
plans for this year's Hamvention. And if you
missed that show, you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive
.com or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube.
Or you can catch the rebroadcast of HamTalk Live
over on shortwave WTWW. That's 5085 on your AM
dial, Saturday afternoons. at about 3 .30 p .m.
Eastern Time. So I'll be back with Lee right
after this word from Tower Electronics right
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anywhere at PL -259 .com. All the information
you need for your trip to Dayton. It's HamVention
Preview here on HamTalk Live. Welcome back to
HamTalk Live tonight. Lee Hite, K8CLI, joins
us on the Orlando Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation
Zoom line. Lee is the Lee Dossett and a board
member of the National Voice of America Museum
of Broadcasting in Westchester, suburban Cincinnati,
Ohio. Lee is a retired electronics engineer with
a passion for investigating technical issues.
occasionally surrounded with mystery and often
bridging several fields of technology. He was
first licensed back in 1954 and is active with
the Mason, Ohio and Warren County cert teams.
And as a side, he also engineers wind chimes
and biomass briquettes. So Lee, welcome back
to HamTalk Live. Well, thank you, Neil. Happy
to be back on HamTalk Live and looking forward
to the program. Well, Hamvention is back and
Michael Coulter was here last week to talk about,
you know, the reunion that's going to take place
at Hamvention. That's their theme this year and
so everything is back and so is The Voice of
America Museum. So each year I know the museum
hosts a special open house. So hams that are
coming to Hamvention have a chance to come by
the museum and get a more technical tour. So
tell us about the plans for this year. Well we
are all excited. We have a lot of new things
in the museum. The museum will have special hours
for opening. We will be open Friday Saturday
and Sunday Friday and Saturday 1 p .m. To 9 p
.m. For both Friday and Saturday of hamvention
then on Sunday We will be open from 1 p .m. To
5 p .m. So you can stop down during hamvention
or on your way home Maybe on Sunday stop by we
remain open till 5 p .m. We have quite a few
people stop by on the way home out of Xenia So
we're all excited. There's been a lot of improvements
at the museum. For those that have not been to
the museum or are looking forward to attending,
we have the 250 ,000 watt Collins transmitter
opened up and available to be viewed. We've got
it all cleaned up, it's lit up, and you can walk
through the whole RF section, the modulator section,
and see what 250 ,000 watt transmitter looks
like from the inside out. It's quite a sight
to see how this was actually done that ran all
day long. They ran two 12 -hour shifts. Now,
each transmitter did not run 24 hours a day,
but we had six of them. We've saved one. And
they ran a lot, produced a lot of heat. I will
be there most of the time. There are a couple
other docents that will be there. We can give
you a technical tour of the transmitter. So that's
exciting to see that. We have the original control
room, and we can talk about all the processing
of the audio and how the control room actually
functioned. And then out back, and you're certainly
willing to walk to the back of the property,
back of the building, We saved the antenna switch.
Now, the antenna switch is huge. It's a 6 by
22 crossbar scanner switch that's all manually
operated. There's 152 double pull, double throw
switches, all done by hand on a pole. And you
could take into the switch six high -power transmitters
and push out to any transmitter to any of 22
different antennas. This is all balanced feed
line. 300 ohm balanced into the switch and then
out of the switch It was all 300 ohm going out
of the switch So there's a lot to see with that
transmitter and a lot to see with the the whole
VOA exhibit Yeah, that's an antenna switch for
sure. You don't line up that many of them that
often Now, it's amazing how it was all built
on wood poles. This is the original switch on
wood utility poles. And the accuracy they had
to maintain to close these switches. They were
like a knife switch. And so you had to get in
between the contacts for the switch to close.
And it's an amazing piece of construction and
how stable it was, even though it's wood. So
quite a sight. Well, it sounds like another great
opportunity to come and view the museum and and
like I said get a technical tour and if you if
you don't make it during Hamvention but you come
at another time always make sure to tell the
person that you're a ham because There's a lot
more technical stuff that the general public
may not always be interested in. So we do a good
job of connecting you with one of the hams on
staff or someone that's at least knowledgeable
with the RF side of things. to talk about that
as well. Well, there's a lot of construction
going on too, so talk a little bit about this
new part of the building that's going to be opened
up. Yes, the entire east side of the building
was the original building had not been developed
and was used for heavy storage. And we received
a very nice grant from Elliott Block Foundation.
And we are completely renovating the east side
of the building. That's going to include a large
community hall called Block Pavilion, where you
can rent and have meetings and banquets and weddings
and rehearsals and that kind of thing. That's
almost done. We're waiting for one little thing
and that will be finished up shortly. Then we'll
have full compliant ADA compliant restrooms for
men, women, and family. A very, very nice setup
because we're still operating off the original
1942 restrooms. So we will be ADA compliant and
the floor has been brought up to be level with
the rest of the museum. There were numerous steps
in this building. You couldn't go anywhere without
going up or down a few steps. Well, the floor
has all been leveled so that a new entrance door
has been put into the side of the building where
you can come in with a wheelchair and See the
entire museum all all on one level. So that's
very Accessible and then the rest of the east
side is being finished into an exhibit area That's
that'll come after the restrooms are finished
But it'll be a large brand new exhibit area where
we can expand our existing exhibits and put in
a lot of new exhibits we've got a a planning
group that has spent a lot of time determining
what to put in this new area. So that's all very
exciting. I might also mention, Neil, a couple
other new things in the museum. We made a discovery
last summer of a transmitter that we did not
know existed. Way back in the early days when
Voice of America went on the air, they went on
the air July 1st, 1942. just shortly after, about
79 days after Pearl Harbor. And they used the
Paul Crosley WLW shortwave transmitter here in
Cincinnati to make that broadcast. It was a special
shortwave transmitter called WLWO, O for Overseas.
And the government came in and used that transmitter.
We pushed a signal into Europe for broadcast
throughout Germany and the rest of Europe. on
July 1st, 1942. Well, that transmitter we thought
had disappeared and lo and behold, we were doing
some snooping. Last summer, we looked in an old
building out at the back of the WLW property
where WLW radio station is, opened the doors
and lo and behold, there is the WLW -O transmitter.
We hired a moving company. It was very heavy.
We had it moved down to the museum, and we spent
the better part of last summer renovating it.
So it is in the museum now. It's on display.
And it makes a wonderful viewing of how an RF
transmitter looks on the inside. In addition,
there's a story about that. that no one knew
about. It turned out that this transmitter was
also used as a secret spy transmitter for the
U .S. government to broadcast spies throughout
Europe, Africa, and South America. So we'll tell
you the rest of that story, but it's a fascinating
find. And lastly, by the time hand benching occurs,
we will have on display a piece of equipment
that is rather iconic. We are receiving a donation
of a piece of equipment that Marconi used in
Nova Scotia when he did his transatlantic broadcast.
And one of the gentlemen that worked for Marconi
for 53 years has passed it down through the family
and they have contacted us and will be receiving
that unit next week. So we will have an original
piece of, actually it's a receiver that was used
at that facility. So that'll be on display also.
And for those that may have taken the high power
tour for the WLW in 1934 had a half a million
watt AM broadcast station on the air. And that
transmitter still exists down at the WLW site
about a mile and a half from the museum. Last
year we did, or not last year, last time. Last
hand. There was a hand bridge, which was over
two years ago. We did a tour, Jay, Adrake, and
Jeff did a tour of that transmitter. We wanted
to do it again this year, but the property has
been sold and is under commercial development,
and so there's construction going on around that
building, and it's not safe to be in or out around
that building. It's not possible to have that
tour this year, but next year we're hopeful that
all that construction will be finished up and
it'll be safe and that we could take people back
in. So stay tuned for next year. Maybe we can
get back in there. So that's kind of the update.
Okay, very good. Yeah, for those of you who may
not have heard, the WLW site, which he was talking
about, mile and a half down the road, they actually
sold off most of the land and they're building
a shopping center. And I think the guy wires
actually like end up in the parking lot somewhere
or something. Is that what I saw? Yes, under
the tower will be storage facility. It's going
to be where you do locked up storage and it's
actually going to be called towers storage. But
it'll be a storage facility. That's underneath
the tower. And remember, that tower is pushing
out 50kW of RF. But you're underneath the guy
wires. It's going to be interesting to see how
this plays out and how they protect the guy wires
and protect the tower. Because they put the roads
in, and they've done a nice job of circumventing
all of the guy wires. But yeah, you're going
to be right next to that tower. That is going
to be interesting because that thing puts out
some power even though it's only a tenth of what
it used to be. It's still 50 ,000 watts and so
I'm going to be interested to see how they keep
it out of the PA systems in the stores. Things
like that because it's going to be a stretch.
What we have heard is this company has already
done two commercial developments under high -powered
transmitter antennas and the building apparently
will be hardened. And special grounding and filters
will be on the phone lines and net lines and
everything. So apparently they have some background
and experience making us successful in a high
RF environment. Yeah. And I just can't imagine
the guy wires for this monster tower just ended
up in a parking lot. But yeah, but we'll see
how it goes. But It's gonna be interesting. So
hopefully next year, it'll be far enough along
that we can do that tour. Well, if people wanna
come and do the special Hamvention tour, and
again, you said Friday and Saturday during Hamvention
one to nine, right? Yes 1 to 9 on Friday and
Saturday and 1 to 5 p .m. On Sunday yeah, and
and you know we usually bring a crew down on
Saturday evening after ham vincen and so that's
why it goes to nine o 'clock so that way you
can still do all the stuff at Hamvention and
then run down and enjoy the museum but it'll
be it'll be open and so if people want to come
how much does it cost how do people sign up do
they need to sign up do they just show up what
tell us tell us about how to make those arrangements
okay there is no Sign up it's just walk in we're
open and we will have docents and tour guides
available The cost is $10 per person for age
16 and above And that's at the door and then
you can do a self -guided tour The ham shack
is open. You are more than welcome to go into
ham shack and operate under the WCA whiskey Charlie
8 Boa Call sign And we have six operating positions
and a couple of yagis. We've got a lot of broadcast
capability there. So you're more than welcome
to get on there. And quite a few hams do come
in. You make sure you bring your license with
you. We need to see an active amateur radio license.
And with that, you pretty much be good to go.
The location is down in Westchester, Ohio. There
will be maps at our booth. booth number 1910,
1910, in the building number one, the Maxim building
for Hiram Percy, Maxim. We'll be in that building,
booth number 1910. We're kind of back in the
one corner. There'll be maps on the booth that
you can get. And we're also going to have maps
on the ham radio website, the WCAVOA .org, riskycharlie8voiceofamerica
.org. Go to that website and you'll be able to
download a map. It's not up today, but it'll
be up in a couple, three days here. So you can
get a map. But come on down, any time between
1 p .m. and 9 p .m. on Friday and Saturday, and
we'll have people there. And you can, it's just
a fun place to look around. Two rooms now, I've
got one room that's just 100 % dedicated to ham
radio. You'll see some of the old original Collins
transmitters used by the development engineers
there. And then I've got another room of early
radio, which is basically spark gap up through
the 1930s and 40s. And then another room that
picks it up from the 40s up into the 1990s. So
there is a lot of radio and a lot of broadcasting
to see there. So come on down. Yep, just a quick
trip down 75 and about a mile off of the road
and you're there. So, all right. Well, we're
going to take a break. And when we come back,
we're going to talk some more with Lee Height,
KHCLI, about the National Voice of America Museum
of Broadcasting open house during Dayton Hamvention,
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Coming to you live from the glass -enclosed Faraday
box, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live.
Daily at this time we shall speak to you about
America and the war the news may be good or bad
We shall tell you the truth Welcome back to HamTalk
Live. We'll get back to Lee Hite, the KHCLI,
here in just a moment. He's the lead docent at
the Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in
Westchester, Ohio. That's suburban Cincinnati.
Just a short trip away from the Hamvention. We'll
talk some more with Lee about the open house
and some new stuff at the museum. We're back
with Lee Hite, K8CLI. He is the lead docent of
the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting
in Westchester, Ohio, and they are announcing
their open house hours during Hamvention. So
if you are coming to Hamvention, this is a nice
little side trip. Just down I -75 for an evening.
Come check it out or on your way home on Sunday.
Again, the hours Friday and Saturday of Hamvention
1 to 9 p .m. and then 1 to 5 p .m. on Sunday.
And Lee, let's talk a little more about the shack.
You know, you mentioned several operating positions
and you need to have proof of your license. Talk
a little bit about what goes on there in the
shack. Yes, we have six operating positions.
We have full digital, full digital sideband and
CW, actually two sidebands operating positions,
and of course amplifiers to run full power, but
a lot of the QSOs that go on are with 100 watt
transceivers. And when the museum is open on
the weekend, the hams graciously come in and
staff the ham shack. And as we begin a tour for
guests that come in, most of them have no clue
what shortwave radio is. They've heard the term,
have no idea what it is. So we stop by the ham
shack for about 10 minutes and the operators
there, there are three or four, they can just
do a wonderful talk. and explain to the public
what is ham radio what is shortwave radio because
the voice of america used shortwave radio is
one of its vehicles for pushing its message out
so that that is what we do every weekend and
they do a marvelous job and they'll put small
children on the air they have people that they
talk to regularly in europe that know that we
are open on the weekend and they're kind of listening
for that special call and We've had five -year
-olds, 10 -year -olds on the air, and they're
not bashful. They just get right into it and
start talking to somebody in Spain or Australia
or wherever we happen to be talking. But it makes
a very good point that the communication is antenna
to antenna and nothing in between. and you can't
turn it off like some countries do with the Internet
and other forms of communication. Short waves,
antenna to antenna, and it really makes a powerful
impression, I think, on people. Now, we've been
hearing in the news, you know, some things about
broadcasts starting back up and pointing them
into certain places of the Earth. And, you know,
that's kind of... reminiscent of what Voice of
America was doing with this Bethany relay station
back in the 40s. So talk just a little bit about
why this place existed. Yes, when World War II
started in 1939, there was concern about propaganda
being broadcast out of Germany and other nearby
countries. But it wasn't until France fell in
1940 that President Roosevelt figured out that
he's going to have to eventually probably get
into this war. And of course, Pearl Harbor was
the wake -up call. And at the point of Pearl
Harbor, that's when President Roosevelt says,
I got to do it and I got to do it now. So they
immediately put on the air within five days after,
I'm sorry, seven days after Pearl Harbor. they
put on the GE station out on the west coast,
KGEI. That went on the air seven days after Pearl
Harbor. We got cranked up. It took us a while
to get cranked up, but by 80 days after Pearl
Harbor, they got WLWO reconfigured. That was
a 75 ,000 watt shortwave transmitter. They got
that on the air, and by July 1st, 1942, it began
making official VOA broadcast with the studios
in New York. And it was to counter the propaganda.
Hitler had been very, very successful in understanding
shortwave radio and particularly understanding
propagation. He had not only over 68 transmitters
in the country, but he was very successful at
getting control of his people. The radio that
he subsidized was the only radio people could
afford and he owned the only broadcast station.
So he very much got control of the information
that the people received. Then on top of that,
he said he needed to get the rest of the world
involved. He was trying to encourage Latin America
to go to war with the United States. So he put
a powerful signal into Latin America. And that
really fired up Roosevelt. And he says, that
can't be. We've got to counter that with our
view of democracy. And that's really what kicked
off Voice of America. I mentioned something.
If you set aside communism, if you set aside
the Nazi ideology, and just look at what German
engineering did, it was, in my personal opinion,
just downright brilliant. Because very early,
in 1933, They've really understood propagation
because the radio that they put out into the
population in a course of six years, they put
15 million of these home radios out. And guess
what? It wasn't short wave. It was medium wave
and long wave. It was the AM broadcast band.
But more importantly, it was long wave. And the
long wave is 150 kilohertz to 300 kilohertz generally.
That is not dependent as you all know not dependent
on the ionosphere So he was able to push the
signal out anytime daytime anytime nighttime
And it would you know, you could push long wave
as far as a couple thousand miles. So He understood
prop his people understood propagation and they
did a very good job. So Why do I say all that?
Well, so did Voice of America. We use shortwave
out of Bethany Station here in Westchester to
push signals around the world. And so did Delano,
California, and Dixon, California, and Greenville,
North Carolina, the four VOA sites, use shortwave
to push signals around the world. But once they
got to their destination, they generally went
through a relay station. Like we pushed a lot
to BBC. And BBC rebroadcast our signal. Well,
guess what? It was on long wave. After Germany
fell, BOA built a gigantic facility in Munich,
Germany, a 1 million watt long wave station.
And it's about the only one. There were other
high power medium wave stations in Africa and
other parts of Europe because you're not dependent
on the atmosphere. You know, here in Bethany,
we had certain times of the day that we could
either hit the E or F layer. And it was very,
it was kind of complicated to get on the air
at the right time. So a little bit of a long
explanation, Neil, I apologize for that. But
what was not very well understood was the success
that they used for long wave communication. Europe
is still using long wave. The United States never
did buy into long wave. But you, I just listened
the other day, BBC has A long wave station on
the air still today. Oh, and I take that back.
It went off just a couple of years ago. It lasted
all the way from the 30s when BBC went on the
air and was shut down a couple of years ago.
That channel is still on the air, but the long
wave station was finally shut down. So that's
kind of the short version of that. Yeah, so that
was incredible. Find and you are so good at finding
out all this stuff that that you know we talk
about the shortwave all the time but actually
you know there was there was a lot of long wave
there too and i know you know a lot of those.
Those radios that were available just you know
would not tune in the right frequency so it was
always you know a battle to get. the signal on
the right frequency so people could actually
hear it. Yes, yes it was. And there was a lot
of jamming going on. And the interesting thing
is when you talk to, we had a lot of immigrants
in the museum that listened and immigrated because
they listened to Voice of America. And what's
fascinating is they were so used to jamming that
what VOA would do is if we got jammed, we just
move five kilohertz up or down the band. We didn't
go clear to the other end of the band. So if
you're in the broadcast and all of a sudden we
go away, they knew enough just to touch the dial.
Little bit up, little bit down. Oh, there they
are. And so they would, Cat and Mouse, they'd
follow us around the band as people tried to
jam us. Pretty ingenious. And you can check out
all of this. History and all the equipment and
all these cool things at the National Voice of
America Museum of Broadcasting, Westchester,
Ohio, just off of Tylersville Road and Crosley
Boulevard, I believe, is what you want to use
on your GPS, because if you put in Tylersville,
it takes you to some place crazy, I think. Crosley
Boulevard is the front driveway, so that'll get
you there. And you know, last week WLW celebrated
their 100th anniversary just down the street
and I listened to part of that on the air and
just a lot of good memories. And the Voice of
America is here in Ohio because of WLW, because
of Paul Crosley. Had he not have put his radio
station here, particularly had he not have done
a half a million watt AM broadcast station in
1934, they would have not known how to do the
high power. You know, when they went on the air
in 42, or I'm sorry, in 44 with the high power
stuff, this country had never built 200 ,000
watt shortwave transmitters. It was the first
shortwave transmitter in the United States to
go on the air. We didn't know how to build the
tubes. We didn't know how to build the transmitters.
And so Crosley figured all that out. And they
got a lot of experience earlier when they put
that half million watt station on the air. Sure
did. well lee thank you so much for uh... coming
on the show and tell us about the uh... open
house and again uh... whiskey charlie eight voice
of america dot org uh... that we see it the way
dot org you can uh... look up the uh... times
if you forget those in them the maps will be
up there soon uh... check that out and and get
uh... what you need and and stop by the booth
ham vincente uh... in building one and and visit
and uh... and then Come down to the museum, check
it out. And that's also the site for the second
Youth on the Air camp coming up. Got to put my
plug in for that. Coming up, I think it's three
weeks after Hamvention, if I remember right,
June 12th through 17th. So you'll get to see
where we're having the camp here. So Lee, any
final words here before we sign off tonight?
No, thank you, Neil, for inviting us to be on
the program. It's always exciting to be here.
And just to invite everyone, come on down for
that weekend. We can enhance your overall experience
for coming up to Hamvention in the Xenia area.
So come on down, see us, and I'm sure you'll
have a good time. Absolutely, and you can...
Get on the air and Whiskey Charlie 8 Voice of
America and you'll get a pile up. So be prepared.
Come on down and enjoy some time in the shack
as well. So Lee, thank you so much for being
here and we'll be talking to you again soon.
Thank you, Neil. That is a wrap for this edition
of HamTalk Live. I'd like to thank my guest,
Lee Hite. K8 CLI and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening. For a list of all of our upcoming
guests go to HamTalkLive .com. So for now this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may
the good DX be yours. To you and your family
I'll be seein' you further down the line It's
hard to believe that you're empty indeed Cause
you sound just like a local up here But why don't
those whistling Mediterranean's Check it when
the frequency's clear? We're warm and cozy in
our shack So we have talked about thousands of
things About shoes, about ships, about ceiling
wax About cabbages and kings So 73's, to you
and me