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

Mon Apr 19 01:28:04 CDT 2010

What's really amazing Ted...is that "short wave" is still here and even funded, in this modern era of communication, in so many forms. 

Great photo's.

Steve Spears
Orrs Island, Maine
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ted Langdell 
  To: Quad List 
  Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 12:02 AM
  Subject: [QuadList] Off-Topic: Former Voice of America, Delano,California short wave station after sunset, Saturday, April 17, 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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