A Super Station

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 6, 24 August 1928, Page 9

A Super Station

Power of 100,000 watts Listeners familiar with the shortwave transmission of the American station WGY, which is operated by the General Electric Co., of America, at Schnectady, New York, will be interested to learn that at WGY there has recently been installed the most powerful broadcast transmitter every constructed. This transmitter uses a power of 100,000 watts, which is 20 times the power used by 2YA, Wellington. It is designed for operation on ordinary broadcast wave lengths, and it is understood that its normal wave length will be somewhere about 365 metres. About a year ago, experiments were begun at WGY with 50,000 watts transmitter. Although it is similar in principle to Jess powerful transmitters, many details of the new station are interesting. The apparatus

has been’ made extraordinarily com- | pact, and it oceupies less floor space than the 50,000 watts transmitter it replaced. Remarkable Valves. THE valves used are among the most unusual components. Hach is composed almost wholly of metal. The plate, which is also portion of the outer wall of the valve, is about three feet long, and three inches in diameter. Its walls are hollow, and, while in operation, the valve is kept cool by a stream of water, which, by means of pumps, is circulated rapidly through the hollow plates. The filaments used are several feet long, and as thick as fairly heavy fencing wire. Each carries 210 amperes at a pressure of about 30 volts. This is approximately 5000 times the amount of power required to operate a receiving valve of the 20la type. Many safety devices have been incorporated to protect the apparatus and its operators. A Special Alarm. A SPECIAL alarm is attached to the cooling system on the valves, so that, if any interruption of the flow of water occurs, or if the valves tend to overheat, the operator on duty is immediately warned. Several of the large yalvyes are used at once in the transmitter, and as each consumes about 107 kilowatts in plate and filament circuits, the surviving valves would be heavily overloaded if one broke down. Hence, each valve is fitted with a switch, which automatically cuts off power to the transmitter if it fails. The apparatus which carries current at a very high pressure is carefully protected with sereens. Access beyond these sereens is gained by doors so constructed that, while they are open, and until they are locked from the outside by the operator, all current is turned off. Hence, engineers working inside the screens are adequately protected from the danger of a shock from the apparatus,