I'll take a listen on that frequency.  Yep, it is a nice place to live out 
from the city.  I moved from Omaha to Denver with my new wife in September 
of 1972.  Got my novice at age 14 in April of 1966.  The guy I heard you 
talking with I believe was a W2 and it was about the flecks radios and their 
software.  You mentioned talking about the software being discussed on a 
blind list.  It was back scatter so I wasn't getting it all on your end 
since it was late and the band was long.

Phil.
K0NX



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan R. Downing" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 10:56 PM
Subject: Re: Shunt Feeding Old Broadcast Towers


> Until my health problems put a stop to it, I was planning to move to the
> Denver area.  Actually a place called Elizabeth Colorado.  I was intending
> to buy a small place with about 20 or 30 acres, mostly so that I could put
> up 5 or 6 towers.  But alas, that was not to be.  I have a lot of friends 
> in
> the Denver, Boulder, and Durango areas, and I chat with a number of them
> every day at 13:00Z on 7140 + or - QRM.  Most of the guys are retired
> electrical engineers, and one is a retired Delta Airlines 777 pilot.  We
> have a very nice round table 7 days a week.  The weekends are a bit hit 
> and
> miss, but we usually have a good bunch on week days.  It is an open group,
> although we seldom attracted someone from outside of the group.  One of 
> the
> guys did a lot of design work for Pallstar automatic tuners.  He also 
> wrote
> the software for them.  Another guy works at Alpha and also with Rob
> Sherwood running the lab tests on new equipment.  It is quite a bunch.
> Another guy in Madison WI is a retired NASA specialist of some sort, and 
> so
> it goes.
>
>
>
> Alan R. Downing
> Phoenix, AZ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 9:07 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Shunt Feeding Old Broadcast Towers
>
> Many years ago, A friend of mine here in Denver, who was nearly 25 years =
> older than I, got to know each other through the vending stand program =
> here in Colorado.  He had a big stand, one of the largest in the state, =
> and my last 2 weeks of training was with him.  We were sitting at an =
> empty table on break one afternoon and Bill was smoking a cigar and we =
> were drinking pop; I didn't drink coffee till I got my own snackbar.  He =
> offered me a cigar and I said, "I don't smoke."  He said, "Phil, you =
> don't smoke, you don't drink.  What do you do for enjoyment."  I said, =
> "Well, I've been a ham operator since I was 14 and that's a lot of fun." =
> I was 21 at the time I met Bill.  He said, "Really?  I used to be W5LUG =
> back in the fifties.  What's ham radio like now; I let my license =
> expire."  I told him a few things and mentioned 15 meters.  He said they =
> didn't have 15 meters when he was a ham.  He, without studying, went =
> right down and took his general and passed the code and written both.  =
> Bill had a first phone commercial license because he once ran a radio =
> station on the broadcast band in a small New Mexico town just across the =
> west Texas state line.  I forget the name of the town.  His little =
> broadcast station ran 250 watts although he had a 500 watt license I =
> believe.  He made a pretty good living but he did all the maintenance on =
> the transmitter himself.  He also helped maintain a nearby town's small =
> TV stations transmitter for extra money.  He was partially sighted in =
> those days and had a driver or two he had to use to get between towns.  =
> Plus, he was his own general manager at K triple N; his station he owned =
> in New Mexico.  He was on 1070 so he had to run sunrise to sunset since =
> the big KNX news station in Los Angeles is on the same frequency.  I =
> listen to them frequently here in Denver.  One night, Bill was testing =
> something he fixed in the transmitter and although it wasn't his =
> scheduled maintenance time, it was like 3 in the morning, he put a =
> carrier on for a few minutes to make adjustments to the transmitter.  He =
> figured nobody would care or even be awake at that time of night but =
> they did.  In the morning, someone called the station and said "Who in =
> hell is covering up KNX in the middle of the night down there."  But =
> that's not what I am writing about.  Bill told me at the station, they =
> put up a 220 foot tower, omni directional, of course, and laid down long =
> wide sheets of copper and solid copper wiring for a ground plane at that =
> frequency.  I asked how the tower was fed and he said it was shunt fed.  =
> I didn't even know what that was so he explained it to me.  Later, when =
> I had a tower, I shunt fed it on 160 meters just like he did in the =
> forties and fifties.  Anyhow, I asked about a feed line, since we are on =
> the topic, and he said, back then, for little pip squeak stations like =
> his, they built their own wide spaced open wire feed line from the small =
> building, or trailer house, I can't remember which he had, to the tower =
> about 100 feet away.  The radio station was next to a milk processing =
> company.  The milk company used big barrels to transport the milk to the =
> bottling company but there was a large wooden privacy fence, for some =
> reason, between his station and the milk company.  The barrels were =
> ringed with metal rings tightened down to keep the large lids on.  If a =
> ring got bent, they just threw it away.  One day, Bill said the SWR on =
> the transmitter of the station started creeping up.  The next day it was =
> sky high and the reflected power meant they hardly were putting out a =
> watt.  They went out and trailed the open wire feed line to the =
> transmitter.  About half way to the tower, they found dozens of those =
> metal milk rings laying on the feed line.  The guys at the milk company =
> had begun tossing them over the fence and didn't know they were landing =
> right on the feed line.  Bill passed his advanced shortly after getting =
> his ticket again and was W0PPM here in Denver but if he is still alive, =
> he'd be over 90 and living in Austin Texas now where he retired from the =
> vending program here in Denver.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>