[BC] Re: Transmitters in houses

[Xmitters@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/21/05 10:21:24 PM Central Standard Time, 
broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

<< We had the same setup at our FM and TV transmitter site on East River
 mountain. The transmitters are in a house and the transmitter engineer and
 his family lived there from 1955 to 2001. The company retained that house
 and the site is unmanned now. I used to wish I lived up there. I thought it
 would be incredibly cool. Unfortunately, I was born too late.
  >>

Hmmm...

I guess you could not do that anymore in Alaska. They've passed a law that 
prohibits anyone from installing something that can produce "radiation" to stop 
this guy that wants a cyclotron in his house. Lots of laymen are afraid of 
"radiation" but I kinda dig "radiation" if it's coming off my ham antenna. Hope 
the hams don't get the fuzzy end of the popsicle stick on this one.

As for having a transmitter viewable from the living room, my fantasy is to 
have a 317C-3 (and the money to pay the electric bill) all to myself, right in 
my house so I can play with it when there's nothing good on TV (which is most 
of the time even though we've upgraded Cable from 20 channels of total crap to 
well over 70 channels of total crap)

Seriously, I've wondered about the chief's family living with a working 
transmitter. Wonder what happens when the nephews, grandkids or even the kids ask 
"Gee daddy, what would happen if I pushed this big red button?" or in the case 
of the TV transmitter has this ever happened; "Well boss, here's the 
explanation of why we were off air during the soaps. My son was home with a bad cold 
and he did not like what he saw on the transmitter TV monitor. So he pushed 
"plate off" thinking it was the channel changer button. He called me shortly 
afterward to tell me that he had broken the great big funny looking TV set."

I guess if there's nothing to watch on TV, the family could sit around and 
watch the TV transmitter. Now as a kid growing up, I would have loved that. 
Hell, I would have never, ever, left the house! But that's the story of my life; 
Born too late or I'm at the train station when my ship pulls in.

I know what I've written is silly, but I seriously wonder if there are any 
interesting stories about the kids or relatives and how they relate with that 
live-in transmitter. closest story I have is a station that was about 20 miles 
from me (since taken dark because the land was worth more than the station) 
where The GM lived in a house with the AM transmitter and Phasor and you walked 
down from his living room (tri level house) into the transmitter room. 


Jeff Glass