[BC] AM maintenance question

[Chuck Lakaytis]

They actually did stay on for that very purpose at the request of the 
War Department.

And on of the reasons that nobody at headquarters got excited at the 
radar report was that they had heard the AM station broadcast and 
assumed that the planes were US.

By the way, one of of our legendary broacast engineers in Alaska, Augie 
Hebert, was the first station outside Hawaii to announce the air raid.  
He used to switch his AM antenna to a receiver to do some DX'ing.  He 
was listening to that Hawai station when they announced the air raid.  
He immediately went on the air from Fairbanks and announced the attack.

He just recently died, a true radio and television engineering pioneer.

John Mayson wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Robert Paine <ka3zci at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   
>>  Do AM stations still routinely sign off Sunday night/Monday morning for transmitter maintenance? I recall hearing in the late 60's WABC going off for a few hours then coming on intermittently, sending various tones and doing other engineering-type stuff.
>>     
>
> I realize Hollywood isn't real life, even when it covers a historical
> event.  I was watching "Tora! Tora! Tora!" the other day.  In the
> movie they had asked "the radio station" to broadcast throughout the
> night (Dec 6-7) for the benefit of the B-17s coming in from the
> mainland.  I know pilots used broadcast stations for direction finding
> and that the Japanese used this to find Pearl Harbor.  But I
> questioned if a radio station would broadcast all night upon request
> of the military.  I'm guessing is was SOP for the station to sign-off
> at least one night per week if the movie is accurate.
>
> Just my random thoughts.  The thread made me think about that again.
>
> John
>
>   

--
Chuck Lakaytis
Director of Engineering, Alaska Public Broadcasting
135 Cordova Street, Anchorage, AK 99501
office   907-277-6300