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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Great photo's.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Steve Spears</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Orrs Island, Maine</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ted@quadvideotapegroup.com
href="mailto:ted@quadvideotapegroup.com">Ted Langdell</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=QuadList@quadvideotapegroup.com
href="mailto:QuadList@quadvideotapegroup.com">Quad List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, April 19, 2010 12:02
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [QuadList] Off-Topic: Former
Voice of America, Delano,California short wave station after sunset, Saturday,
April 17, 2010</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Howdy from back home after a good week at NAB.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>This post has nothing to do with Quads, but since there are RF engineers
and aficianados of BIG and powerful things... enjoy!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Can't just post the photos, though. Have to provide some background and
context, so have fun with the links below, too.</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ted</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: 14px Helvetica; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0"
class=Apple-style-span>
<DIV
style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space">
<DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" size=3
face=Helvetica>Ted Langdell</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" size=3
face=Helvetica>Secretary</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: rgb(0,24,234)" color=#0018ea size=3
face=Helvetica></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>A Radio World article tells the story of how the VOA stations in Delano
and Dixon came to be:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.rwonline.com/article/9882">http://www.rwonline.com/article/9882</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>There's a move to keep the Delano site from being gutted and transmitters
removed... </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.radionational.org/voa_site_in_jeopardy.htm">http://www.radionational.org/voa_site_in_jeopardy.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>and also to keep the last operating VOA shortwave facility in Greenville,
North Carolina from being shut down in the next federal budget cycle:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.afge1812.org/index.cfm?PageToWork=Content_Page_3">http://www.afge1812.org/index.cfm?PageToWork=Content_Page_3</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Radio World columnist Kim Elliott outlined why Shortwave is still
important in the TV/Internet era in a 2006 article:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.rwonline.com/article/2554">http://www.rwonline.com/article/2554</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The Broadcasting Board of Governors website is here:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.bbg.gov/about/index.html">http://www.bbg.gov/about/index.html</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Here's a link to a Google Map showing the satellite view of the Delano
facility:</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 13px"
class=Apple-style-span>11015 Melcher Road, Delano, CA 93215-9310</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 13px"
class=Apple-style-span><SPAN style="DISPLAY: block"
class="pp-headline-item pp-headline-phone"><SPAN class=telephone><NOBR>(661)
861-4136</NOBR></SPAN> (Apparently a Fresno number)</SPAN>
<DIV><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Helvetica><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><FONT
class=Apple-style-span size=3 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; FONT-SIZE: 13px"
class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV></SPAN></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3 face="'Lucida Grande'"><SPAN
style="WHITE-SPACE: pre; FONT-SIZE: 11px" class=Apple-style-span><A
href="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">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</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3
face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px; FONT-SIZE: 13px" class=Apple-style-span><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Helvetica><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: medium"
class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>The driveway and mailbox for the facility are around 11300 Melcher.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://hawkins.pair.com/voadelano.shtml">http://hawkins.pair.com/voadelano.shtml</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Hawkins' page has links to pages about the Bethany, Ohio and Greenville,
North Carolina VOA sites that are mirrors or similar to Delano.</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Nevada Tower and Microwave has some daytime closeups of some of the
towers on its website:</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.nmandt.com/thevault2.html">http://www.nmandt.com/thevault2.html</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>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 </DIV>
<DIV>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.)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Perhaps I should have pushed the intercom button?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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,</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>but there's a closer shot at the end of the series.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV>We were still working on getting the focus dialed in on this one, and
it's the best I have.</DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="cid:16A0A0B059AD46C49C4323B59DF1B2C8@Instrumate" width=976
height=650 apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes"></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In this shot looking to the west and the north-eastern part of the
property, you see several more tall curtain systems.</DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="cid:2E06251FF1EE497384050DA57C0F5CEF@Instrumate" width=976
height=650 apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes"></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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 </DIV>
<DIV>shows is a subdivision or something like that way beyond the transmitter
building. </DIV><IMG
src="cid:6DD9646788A541D8B8A3EAB97E91F448@Instrumate" width=976 height=650
apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV>The Sat dishes may be part of a video turnaround point mentioned in
the </DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="cid:368A4E78F827420E9CAB6A978A8331AE@Instrumate" width=976
height=650 apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes"></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>And the tallest antenna towers showing the curtain system the support,
and other towers in the BG.</DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="cid:7D9C42E7322F46CC9A8C17AEAA22F3DC@Instrumate" width=654
height=972 apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes"></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Note the guard dog lying in the center of the drive at the electric
gate:</DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="cid:269D170621714B9EA389FAAC41ECEFE8@Instrumate" width=976
height=650 apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes"></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Hope you enjoyed.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>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</DIV>
<DIV>late one day and took photos. I can post those if there's
interest.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Ted</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<P>
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