20 August 2024

Shortwave Broadcasting 1940 | Phantom Dancer

Phantom Dancer Swing Radio Show

Shortwave broadcasting by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra from New York to Latin America in 1940 is your Phantom Dancer Feature this week. And below are some relevant paragraphs on shortwave broadcasting taken from a 1942 article in ‘RCA Review’.

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SHORT

From ‘RCA Review’, 1942…

“AN EXPANDING horizon of steel towers, tall wooden poles, and networks of elevated antenna wires attests to the growing international broadcasting activities of NBC stations WRCA and WNBI at Bound Brook, New Jersey.

NBC has provided this service for many years. International activities have been stimulated in recent years, first, ih point of time, through the action of the Fed­eral Communications Commission authorizing commercial operation, and second, by the more important contribution this service brings to National Defence.

The Bound Brook plant contains NBC’s international transmit­ting facilities plus the WJZ transmitting facilities. The original property was purchased for these combined facilities in 1925 when RCA built its first short-wave broadcast transmitter, the predecessor of the present busy stations.

The original site consisted of 54 acres. Recently the expanding scope of NBC’s international activities resulted in the purchase of an additional 16 acres, making a total of 70 acres, most of it devoted exclusively to international transmitting antennas.”

WAVE

“It has been the writer’s privilege to be associated with radio for 26 years and with broadcasting for 20 years.

Rarely has there been an opportunity in those eventful times for any form of communication to demonstrate such unique feats as are now becoming accepted common­ places in international broadcasting.

Barely 16 years ago the first rebroadcast from across the seas took place. Scheduled rebroadcasts from the far corners of the earth have since become matters of but casual interest.

But only in recent months has the bewildered victim of catastrophe, propaganda, and censorship so fully appreciated the modern miracle of radio which enables him to listen, perhaps secretly, at night.

The following is an example of the technical character of the WRCA 9670-kc signal received in Rio de Janeiro from the steerable antenna.

It covers from 6.00 to 7.45 P.M. E.D.S.T. on May 15, 1941. Reception was on a common receiver with six feet of wire for an antenna.

Carrier strength …  Very Strong
Fading-Depth … Very slight to slight
Rate of fading … Very slow to slow
Interference from other stations … None
Static ….Very weak
Background noise … None
Quality Overall rating … Excellent.”

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