I didn’t mean to keep you waiting but it was time to shut down all the part 15 transmitters, and that requires a long roundabout trip through the Internet Building.
I will describe the shutdown routine in a minute, but it was only by brave chance that we made it to the end of the schedule, because of storms passing through the area.
At midday the only weather symptom was a dark sky, still and brooding. Our programming was streaming to the world and radiating on four frequencies.
The weather map held steady for hours, a tornado watch zone from Kansas into mid-Missouri, but not moving closer.
But about 3 PM the yellow tornado grid shifted right on top of us here on the Mississippi River at the Illinois border. Stillness continued.
At 5 PM a huge rush of wind rattled everything and rain swept around, so I prepared to leave the air for equipment safety, but the intervals between static pops on the radio and the arrival of thunder were relatively long, so I did not eject.
Calm returned although distant lightning continued.
Sign off time was reached at 7:30 PM and I crawled under the big World Desk to turn off the AMT3000 at 1550kHz.
Next the full length of the building to the Upper Management Lounge where the AMT5000 was putting on 1680kHz.
Then back to the Vacuum Room to shut down 107.1 FM, which feeds the signal for 1680.
Not done yet, as we descended into the deep archives underneath the building to close the carrier current station at 970kHz, broadcasting experimentally with 1/4 Watt.
After all that I faced the task of sitting here at the keyboard describing everything, which is still going on.
Th programming today was excellent, as usual, but the only way anyone will ever know about it is if I tell them in person. There’s no way anyone was actually tuned in to these feeble signals.
But I was. It was the best radio on the dial for me all day, and that’s why it’s an absolute necessity.
Glad to hear that you didn’t
Glad to hear that you didn’t get hit by anything down there, Carl. Heard on the news just a little while ago that several tornados touched down close by.
Spared
Thank you Artisan Radio for your observance, and in fact I was unaware that any tornadoes actually materialized because once we were bypassed I tuned out and stopped following the weather.
Indeed, the news this morning tells of deadly turbulence down south from here, which gives the ominous feeling that the storms intend coming back until they they get everybody.
It might be imprudent to say, but perhaps a safe place to live would be directly next door to the HAARP Array in Alaska. They seem to have good weather everyday.
Storms
Glad there was no damage, Carl.
We had strong wind and heavy rain in North Florida, but no lightning.
Happy to report that Big D Radio made it through safe and sound this time.
And, Carl, I agree that our stations probably are “the best thing on the radio.” I know that’s true here, too.
To North Florida
Glad to hear the all clear from Big D Country.
Understand the storms are still roaming around in the east coast states all the way up to New England.
After learning that the middle states had suffered serious storm damage, I went to the New York Times and could find no word whatsoever about it.
Same with the Denver and Austin online newspapers. They really have cut back. They no longer actually have news. There were stories about movie stars and politicians.
As temperatures fell from the fifties to the twenties we had blowing blasts of gusty wind until about 3 AM, then still.
Cold is better than wind.