Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-14
H|GH-POWER TEST
SET-UP ARRANGED
Auxiliary of KDKA Will Use
100000 Watts in Special
Breakfasts.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

Four hundred kilowatts of power
100000 watts-will soon be projecting
special programs into the ethereal
spaces nightly from station W8XAR,
auxiliary of the pioneer KDKA at East
Pittsburgh. The experimenters have
Informed the Federal Radio Commits
sion that they are now ready to broad
cast with this power, the highest ever
employed for broadcasting anywhere in
the world.
Because W8XAR will go on the air
between / am. and 6 am, when silence
reigns over most Of the broadcaSting
channels and when night reception con-
ditions are at their best, its programs
should be heard more or less clearly
over the length and breadth of the
North American continent, and possibly
In foreign lands, too.
Listen in, you radio fans everywhere.
on the $50 Kilocycle channel, as soon
as the announcement comes from East
Pittsburgh that the paSt-nlidnight eX-
perinents are starting. They May show
the way to the future of broadcasting.
just as KDKA 10 years ago pointed the
way to the development of present-day
broadcasting.
Will Boost Power Gradually.
Two giant new 200,O00-watt tubes.
each standing feet high and requiring
the passage Of tons of cooling water
to keep them from overheating and
bursting, are making possible this note
worthy experiment. H. P Davis, who
directed while DR.. Frank Conrad engi-
neered the pioneering broadcasting
from KDKA decade ago, stated in
his license application to the commits
sion that the power will be boosted
gradually from $4,000 watts to 100000
wattS-but there is also evidence that
the power may ultimately go even
higher if the tubes prove their worth
Today the highest powered broad
casting in the world is done from Radio
Moscow and Radio Roma, each rated
100000 watts. although WGY at Sche-
nectady, has conducted some convincing
experiments with 100000 watts.
Equals $40 Horsepower.
Just how much power is 10000
watts? Well, one horsepower is the
equivalent of TAG watts. so 40O, 900 watts
VIII approach $40 orsepower-enough
TO drive five or more of the highest
powered motor cars now on the market.
This IS the energy that villa be thrust
from the aerials of W8XAR. It is ire
mendouS power in the radio sense, yet
not very considerable when you observe
that the receiving sets only few miles
away from W8XAR will measure the
energy they pick up in infinitesimal
fractions of t-fly-power.
A 50O-watt radio station uses less
power than is required for the average
electric iron. All the broadcasters in
the United States, according to Federal
Radio, Commission records, use an
aggregate Of 1,453.355 watts, a little
less than 1000 horsepower. Probably
all the received energy of the $4,000 900
or more sets in the country would ag-
gregate one watt or two. The rest is
diSSipated in space within a few blocks
OF the tranSmitter
Comparing with the 1,453,355 watts
OF power consumed in this country by
all broadcasting stations are these fig
ures showing the aggregate aerial
energy used abroad: Germany, $4,000
watts; Great Britain, 10000; Russia,
$4,000: Sweden, 10000: Czecho-
slovakia, 107,00 and France, 81, 900.