OT--What do Mason, OH and Lakihegy, Hungary have in common? BIG Diamonds!

[Ted Langdell]

As in big, tall Blaw-Knox diamond shaped AM transmitting antennas.

Mason, OH is home to the site of the only 500,000 watt US licensed AM broadcast station.  Back then, it boomed across the "midwest," and its said you could hold neon light bulbs near the site and they'd glow without other connections.

Now only 50KW, ND WLW (AM) 710, Cincinnati's 747-foot tall  Blaw-Knox Tower was getting new guy wires when I passed by in the late afternoon of Oct. 30, 2010 and shot a series of pictures.

Look to the left of the tower's lower section and you'll see the first replacement being hoisted.


The Hungarian village of Lakihegy just south of Budapest is the home of another Blaw-Knox, a 1,031 footer erected in 1933, currently handling TWO stations with a combined power of 250KW.

This Blaw-Knox carries 150KW of AM RF for a station on 540 KHz, and 100KW for a station on 135.6 KHz.

Open transmission line is apparently used to get the 540KHz signal to the tower's antenna tuning unit at the base of the Blaw-Knox.

Take a look at pictures and details here: 
http://www.waniewski.de/LW/Lakihegy/lakihegy_lw_1en.htm

The diplexing of 540 onto the tower the was done in 2006 by the folks running the website linked above.

What the 135.6Khz facility does will surprise you!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakihegy_Tower

In the 1970's the coverage provided by the Lakihegy tower was deemed inadaquate (only half of Hungary) and construction began on another facility near Solt, about 50 miles south of Budapest.

"Transmitter Solt" uses a conventional tower with three guy-wire levels that's 996 feet tall with 2 MW (that's right... MEGAwatts) of power, the most powerful AM medium wave facility in Europe, and one of the four most powerful MW facilities in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_Solt

Solt coverage map here: 
http://nmhh.hu/dokumentum/1704/mr1_kossuth__kh_lefedettseg_nappal.jpg

The Lakihegy 540KHz facility is apparently a backup for the Solt signal.

We know you like 'em big, so we try to oblige.

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary
Quad Videotape Group
e-mail:	ted at quadvideotapegroup.com

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