Let's Talk About Transmitters

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

This press release oughta make you guys nostalgic (or excited...):

22 August 1931, from the files of Shepard Broadcasting Services

"WAAB's vertical half-wave radiator at Squantum, Mass is the first antenna 
of this type in the world to be used by a broadcasting station.  The whole 
tower is the antenna and rests on a porcelain insulator tested to a 
compression of 1,000,000 pounds.  The four guy wires, each of which carries 
a strain of 50,000 pounds, hold the tower in place.  The steel giant is 430 
feet high and weighs 30 tons.  A 75 foot pole at the top can be raised or 
lowered in tuning the antenna.  Six insulators in each guy wire weigh 450 
pounds each.  Guy wires are moored to four anchors, each of which contains 
50 tons of cement.  The tower is 18 feet square where the guy wires are 
attached and one foot square at the base.  The cromium ball at the top of 
the mast is twice the size of a man's head.  An aviation beacon of 2,000 
watts power will flash from the top-most part of the fabricated structure 
which will also carry stationary aviation lights.  WAAB alternates with 
WNAC as key station of the Yankee Network."