WWRB

[ChrisSmolinski]

Glenn Hauser posted this message from David Frantz of WWRB:

Greetings!! Our main transmitter went up in smoke. Hope to have it up today Sunday with all the cold weather then warming up. We think moisture got us.
We have many programmers that want to take advantage of our $25.00 airtime rate per hour. It is a great rate for 100,000 watts of transmitter power with frequencies that people can HEAR!
Most of my time now is giving flight training for instrument students. We have on site a full ILS, NDB, VOR DME aircraft approaches saving plenty of time and money for our students as no time is wasted getting vectored around and sequencing with other aircraft.
The shortwave station is nothing more than a hobby station now. We keep it on for various programmers on days that make sense.

[Josh]

Lol mixing flight students and radio towers.

[Pigmeat]

Wire's and airplanes don't mix. A fact that was discovered early on by several power line fried experimental fliers.

Once WWI started, the wires were blown to smithereens within 25 miles of either side of the front, so pilots trained for the war became used to not having to deal with them. Pilots in WWI were called "Three Week Wonders" because that was their average lifespan after heading to their units behind the front. Wires were the least of their worries, and it came back to haunt them after the war.

Lothar Von Richthofen, brother of Manfred, the "Red Baron" survived the war but was killed a couple of years later when he clipped a power line. There were a number of WWI aces that survived four years as flying targets only to fall victim to power and phone lines in short order as the European grid was rebuilt. Wires up until then weren't really a thing that had entered their minds as a danger.

[Pigmeat]

BTW, 25 bucks for an hour of programming on a flamethrower like that is dirt cheap. Shoot, the local MW one lungers used to charge preachers more than that back in the 70's, and they might have covered a grand total of four small towns and a bunch of squirrels with their 1 kW of power.

[ChrisSmolinski]

$25 for an hour of 100 kW RF output. Even with the cheap TVA electricity, I have no idea how they keep the lights on. Zero overhead?

[KaySeeks]

I have no idea how they keep the lights on.

It's a hobby. An expensive one but that doesn't stop a lot of guys with their boats and whatever.

[redhat]

The same could be said of pirate broadcasting.  To do it right, and with relative safety isn't cheap either.

+-RH