Naw, it was you.  I thought I heard you say KEN as in echo, GC so I had the 
wrong call I looked up.

Phil.
K0NX




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan R. Downing" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2013 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: Shunt Feeding Old Broadcast Towers


> Phil, could it have been Don, K7MX in Florida?  Don is tight with the Flex
> ownership and management.  I remember telling him that a fellow on the 
> blind
> hams reflector had coded some scripts in his screen reader to permit him
> access to what appeared on the screen.
>
> 73
>
>
> 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 11:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Shunt Feeding Old Broadcast Towers
>
> 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
>>
>