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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan N715, November 6, 2022
VOA Voyager: Three Mobile VOA Stations in the United States
On three separate occasions, VOA, the Voice of America, has commissioned a mobile radio station for use within the United States. On each occasion, the intent was to obtain information and recordings about lifestyle and events throughout the nation for inclusion in their worldwide English and foreign language programming.
The first of these three mobile radio stations was constructed and fitted out with radio equipment by RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, in 1951. This vehicle was identified as Mobile Unit Number 1, and it was intended to serve as a roving microphone throughout the nation.
The basic vehicle was a truck chassis with a specially constructed van designed by VOA engineers. A large sign on the side of the van identified the Voice of America, and a smaller sign indicated the International Broadcasting Division of the American Department of State.
The completed vehicle was described as a streamlined radio studio on wheels and it contained a complete radio studio, control room, recording equipment, and an intercommunication system. In addition there was also a low power shortwave transmitter for the transfer of audio programming direct to the VOA studios in Washington, D.C.
On May 8, 1952, RCA delivered the new mobile radio station to the Voice of America in a special ceremony at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Fluttering above and surrounding the ceremony was a concourse of full color flags, representing the almost 200 countries of the United Nations.
However, when in use, the new VOA mobile radio station encountered mechanical problems, and even after expensive modification it was deemed unroadworthy. It was taken out for its intended usage only a couple of times.
Thirty years later, a second and somewhat more successful attempt was made in the construction and usage of a VOA mobile radio station. Construction began in 1984 for what became known as the VOA Voyager.
It was a fully equipped radio studio in an Airstream Van upon a truck chassis, 27 feet long. The shiny new vehicle was colored in red white and blue signage, with a map of the world on one side.
The Voice of America took delivery of that new mobile radio station (number 2) in a brief ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Friday, January 18, 1985. Aboard this station, in addition to the extensive radio equipment, was a small kitchen and a small bathroom. However, it was necessary for the staff to generally use public accommodation in motels and to eat in local restaurants.
Each rotatable crew consisted of two programming personnel and a driver, who was also a competent radio technician. In addition, there was an accompanying car with additional personnel as needed. Locally recorded programming was transferred to the VOA studios in Washington, D.C. via the normal telephone circuits.
Their first tour of five weeks in early 1985 took them to Nashville, Tennessee for participation in the annual Country Music Festival, and then onward into Mississippi. Over a period of time, and with continually rotating crew members, ultimately every mainland state was visited. Live and recorded broadcasts in ultimately forty different languages covered a multitude of different facets of life and activity and events throughout the United States.
The popular VOA Voyager was in widespread usage for almost two years. However, in 1987, mechanical problems and budget cuts brought an end to the usefulness of the Voyager van.
The third VOA mobile radio station was a smaller vehicle with a simpler design. It was known as Voyager 2, and because of its smaller size it was also known as Son of Voyager. That was back in the year 1990.
However, because of budget cuts again, VOA mobile unit number 3 was sold to the United Nations during the following year (1991) and shipped to Africa, where it served in Botswana.
Unusual Loudspeakers
Back nearly one hundred years ago, radio was young, and during those formative years of radio broadcasting before the beginning of World War II, many interesting and sometimes strange experiments were conducted. In the 1920s and 1930s, many experiments were made regarding the transmission of sound from loudspeakers.
For example, in April 1927, we read this news report: "A mile above the Earth, a singer entertained a crowd in Times Square in New York a few days ago. The loudspeaker that carried his voice downwards operates on the 1000 watt output of a group of power tubes."
In September of the same year, 1927, a giant loudspeaker was set up in the Yacht Club Building in Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, and music and speech were sent out to ships on the lake. That loudspeaker was so large that an elementary school girl could sit comfortably in the mouth of the speaker horn.
Speech and music was heard quite distinctly by personnel on the Yacht Perry Kay 2 as it moved around the lake, even up to a distance of six miles. In order to double check the performance of the huge loudspeaker, the procedure was reversed, with the equipment installed on the yacht and the listeners on shore. It was reported that the quality of music and speech in both experimental directions was superb.
Mediumwave radio station WMAF was set up in the ostentatious home of "Colonel" Ned Green at Round Hills, overlooking Buzzard Bay in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts in the summer of 1923. Ultimately, two transmitters, two stations, were set up at the same location, with two high, self-standing towers standing 143 feet tall underneath the antenna system.
The 500 watt Western Electric transmitter was granted the random callsign WMAF, and the 100 watt transmitter was identified as WSAQ. Both transmitters were capable of radiating on the same standard entertainment channel as it was in those days, 360 meters (833 kHz).
Colonel Green also operated his radio equipment experimentally under another callsign, 1XV. Interestingly, the Round Hills stations were on the air only during the summer months, simply because Colonel Green found it financially convenient to be somewhere else, out of state, at that time of the year.
Programming for WMAF was sometimes prepared locally, and the station also took a relay from other mediumwave stations, such as WEAF and WGBS (WINS) and WOR in New York. During the summer, when WMAF was off the air, another nearby station, WJAR (WHJJ), in Providence, Rhode Island took over the program relays from New York. At the end of its history, in 1928, station WMAF was operating on 680 kHz with a power of 1,000 watts.
Colonel Green also set up a radio receiver, an amplifier, and a bevy of huge loudspeakers beneath the overhanging awning that completely surrounded the water tower on his property. This building also served as a lighthouse for the benefit of passing ships.
The "colonel" invited anyone and everyone to drive up to his property and listen to the programming from his radio broadcasting station. The sound from the massive speaker system was so loud that people six miles distant complained of the noise, and the volume had to be reduced.
In June 1958, a gigantic loudspeaker was set up at an Audio Fair in Japan. That giant behemoth stood 20 feet tall, and a whisper from it could be heard clearly one mile away.
Then, in June 1967, Taiwan set up a massive loudspeaker system that was capable of sending its programming across the straits to mainland China. They built a concrete block 30 feet tall, with 48 large holes in the front face. A total of 48 huge loud speakers were inserted into the open holes, and the sound signal could be heard 15 miles distant. That system was reactivated again for a musical concert in 2018.