[QuadList] Off-Topic: Former Voice of America, Delano, California short wave station after sunset, Saturday, April 17, 2010

Sun Apr 18 23:02:58 CDT 2010

Howdy from back home after a good week at NAB.

This post has nothing to do with Quads, but since there are RF  
engineers and aficianados of BIG and powerful things...  enjoy!

On the way home, I was passing through Delano, California just as the  
sun was setting. The antennas at the International Broadcast Bureau  
(umbrella org for Voice of America,) Delano short wave station were  
quite obvious from Highway 99, so I took a jaunt into the fields to  
the west of town and shot the photos below.  Many are 30 seconds or so  
at ISO 100, w/Nikon D40x digital camera.

Can't just post the photos, though. Have to provide some background  
and context, so have fun with the links below, too.

Ted
Ted Langdell
Secretary

A Radio World article tells the story of how the VOA stations in  
Delano and Dixon came to be:
http://www.rwonline.com/article/9882

There's a move to keep the Delano site from being gutted and  
transmitters removed...
http://www.radionational.org/voa_site_in_jeopardy.htm

and also to keep the last operating VOA shortwave facility in  
Greenville, North Carolina from being shut down in the next federal  
budget cycle:
http://www.afge1812.org/index.cfm?PageToWork=Content_Page_3

Radio World columnist Kim Elliott outlined why Shortwave is still  
important in the TV/Internet era in a 2006 article:
http://www.rwonline.com/article/2554

The Broadcasting Board of Governors website is here:
http://www.bbg.gov/about/index.html

Here's a link to a Google Map showing the satellite view of the Delano  
facility:
11015 Melcher Road, Delano, CA 93215-9310
(661) 861-4136‎  (Apparently a Fresno number)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Voice+of+America,+Delano,+CA&sll=33.596218,-97.7225&sspn=43.17392,78.925781&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=Voice+of+America,&hnear=Delano,+CA&t=h&z=14

You can use the "Street view" function to see what the place looks  
like in the daytime and scoot down Melcher Rd. toward the site's  
driveway and beyond.

The driveway and mailbox for the facility are around 11300 Melcher.

Jim Hawkins' radio site has photos from a 1993 visit someone else made  
to the site, and got some really great close ups of the antennas and  
RF handling gear.
http://hawkins.pair.com/voadelano.shtml

Hawkins' page has links to pages about the Bethany, Ohio and  
Greenville, North Carolina VOA sites that are mirrors or similar to  
Delano.

Nevada Tower and Microwave has some daytime closeups of some of the  
towers on its website:
http://www.nmandt.com/thevault2.html

While the Delano facility may have officially shut down in 2008, last  
night, I noted a late model pickup truck parked near the main  
building, and there seemed to be very rhythmic
music booming from somewhere in the neighborhood... of antennas and  
alfalfa fields.  I was wondering whether it was coming from the  
transmitter building. (VERY quiet, otherwise.)

Perhaps I should have pushed the intercom button?

On the far left (south east end) of the property, there are four of  
these towers carrying a curtain antenna. I seem to have cropped out  
the left one in this shot,
but there's a closer shot at the end of the series.

This photo is a distant shot, as zoomed in from South Albany Street  
aka Stradley just north of Airport Ave. aka Wollomes Ave., across  
several fields and an orchard.
We were still working on getting the focus dialed in on this one, and  
it's the best I have.

In this shot looking to the west and the north-eastern part of the  
property, you see several more tall curtain systems.

Here's a wide shot from the east, along South Albany St.  The orange  
lights that appear to be in the center of the antennas are from what  
Google Maps
shows is a subdivision or something like that way beyond the  
transmitter building.

Here's a shot of the antennas as viewed from Mechler Rd., on the east  
side of the property.  This is just south of the main driveway.
The Sat dishes may be part of a video turnaround point mentioned in the

And the tallest antenna towers showing the curtain system the support,  
and other towers in the BG.

Note the guard dog lying in the center of the drive at the electric  
gate:

Hope you enjoyed.

The farmlands near Dixon, California between Sacramento and the Bay  
Area host the other California VOA site, also dark. Tim Stoffel, a  
friend and I visited there
late one day and took photos.  I can post those if there's interest.

Ted

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