1 MILLION watts—really? FM Supertower Part 2!

Having seen quite a few attempts at explaining large scale antenne technolgy, these videos stand out in every way. The production values are extraordinarily good, the touch of humor and the father-son dynamics add a dimension rarely seen in this type of vid. Extremely well done.

This series is EXTREMELY interesting and your father is a great source of info. Thank you very much for letting us into your father's work field. Very very nice!

10:34 When your coax looks like the water main under the street feeding the fire hydrants, you know you're running some serious power!

As a former TV chief engineer I have to tell you that your dad did an EXCELLENT job explaining what you were looking at and how it works. (We are usually pretty camera shy!) One "Bad Thing" that you didn't know to ask and he didn't mention was that, depending on power levels, you can get arc-overs (burn outs) between the center of the coax and the outer part (think welding) inside that large copper transmission line somewhere up the tower. That shorts out or dramatically reduces your power to your listeners/viewers and makes for a Very Bad Day. You have to get a tower crew up the tower, find the problem coax segment (20' long each) and swap it out with a new piece of copper coax. Big Bux too! Plus the loss of revenue if you are off the air during the repair. Thanks for posting this tour video! I brought back) a lot of memories (good and bad)! Best of luck with the surgery too!

You guys are so good with each other. It's refreshing to see good family function. Also love the deeper dive into that tower, look forward to more.. Good luck on your surgery and speedy recovery..

Great videos. I am a HAM operator and it's not everyday you get to see all the goodies inside a real transmitter site. Thanks for sharing.

This is a lot of engineering by the Geerlings!

I was at that site about four years ago. It's very impressive and well kept. That is the 2nd largest FM combiner in the US by number of stations (Empire State Building holds the largest at 19), and the largest by FM combined power. (Miami's Gannett tower is 2nd). That's also the older design of the Dielectric FM-Vee antenna system. It was redesigned after that, and is used in several locations like Tampa. I've actually received a few of those signals here in New England via "E Skip" last summer. And American Tower, who owns the site, is planning on LED retrofits nationwide, so the tower will eventually go LED.

Wow, love this! Best luck on your recovery. Hope to see more! As a professional Ansibler, home Pi person and ham radio operator, Jeff and his dad are really making some great stuff!

I love that you do this with your son. Take all the time you need to heal Jeff, we care about your health!

In Germany we get our radio music through the good, old, reliable fax machine.

One point I don't think was mentioned specifically, was that unlike coax, waveguides don't have center conductors, they are just hollow tubes. As the name implies, they just "guide" the wave through the tube and around corners. Though the cross sectional dimensions of all the tubes (are square tubes still called tubes? lol) are all carefully tuned to match the frequency that is passing through and typically are used in the microwave frequency range. I like to refer to it as black magic. lol.

A thumbs-up is not enough for this video - what a great interview!

Being an engineer in RF facilities (both TV and Radio), I love the instruction being shown in this video. Being a Ham as well (KC8KVA - I lucked out with that one), you truly respect the RF. Thank you for this follow-up video. It enlightened some of my peers in the workplace. ;)

Thank you so much for covering all the questions, especially considering your health condition! Hope you are doing well and that from 2023 on your safe and sound! I’d really like to see so much more RF stuff, please never hesitate to put all possible RF content on your channel 😍 Cheers 🙂

I loved both of these super tower videos. I can’t wait to see an AM tower and if possible a TV broadcast tower video. The production on here was professional and I really watching the father/son dynamics. It’s informative, interesting, educational and wholesome to watch. Thank you for your time!

Massive respect for you both - brilliant information and it was nice to see DAB+ given a mention, we've just gone onto a DAB+ platform with our two stations, though sadly I don't do any engineering on that side of things. Can't wait for the next supertower video :) Speedy recovery from your surgery!

Hi Jeff! This is a very interesting format. You and your dad are true masters in delivering complex engineering info to the general public, keep it up! As a SWL (and hopefully ham next year) I can't wait to see the video about MW antennas, as they are truly a wonderful topic, even more than VHF. Sadly, last September in Italy all AM towers were shut down. They provided a very easy way to get news abroad or even in remote areas, where internet connection or FM signal is not a thing. Thank you for your work, greetings from Italy!

Thanks Joe and Jeff for another wonderful look at this tower. Loved the Bird watt meters. Industry standard that still is the gold standard when it comes to that kind of equipment. Lots of nice explanations like in the previous video. Can't wait to see the other videos you talked about doing after you get back from recovering from your surgery Jeff (and I hope you feeling better and healing well). 73 from K0AZV

I've really enjoyed these videos about the Supertower. I guess you know you've arrived at the radio big leagues when you are using copper pipes as coax.