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Photo of the
Month

November 2005

circa 1940 Postcard of the Yankee Network's W1XER / W39B

Pioneer FM station W1XER atop Mount Washington was the state of New Hampshire's
first FM station, both as an experimental facility then as commercial station W39B.
W39B was also the first commercial FM station in New England.
John Shepard 3rd and Paul deMars of the Yankee Network, constructed  this FM facility in one of the 
most inhospitable locations in the world.  Mount Washington lays claim to having the world's worst weather.
The Mount Washington installation began as an APEX station, with the calls W1XOV.  The station operated 
with a 500 watt transmitter in space rented from the Mount Washington Weather Observatory, 
using a single dipole antenna. (the lower antenna in the photo)
The supporting structure (tower) and antenna were erected during the summer of 1937.
The tower was erected after the famous "highest wind gust ever recorded", but did survive the hurricane of 1938.
In the summer of 1938 the famous "spring antenna", designed by Paul deMars, was added to the structure.
This is the 2 bay turnstile that is at the top of the photo.
            Editors note:
This is the same tower that is now referred to as the "Alford" tower, some websites call it the "Armstrong" tower.
Not withstanding the plaque that is mounted on the tower, it is in fact neither.....it's the Yankee FM Tower.  
When WMTW-TV went on the air, it used the then vacant Yankee Tower for their antenna. It was an Alford product,
 thus the connection.  The tower was so named to differentiate it from the new main antenna, an RCA Traveling Wave,
 that was later erected on a nearby structure.  The only Armstrong tower is the Major's installation in Alpine, NJ.  
Major Armstrong was an enthusiastic supporter of Yankee FM, his involvement was only that of an interested third party. 
This was a John Shepard / Paul deMars / Yankee Network endeavor.

For more information on W1XER / W39B and other Mount Washing broadcast facilities,
click here  and/or do a DataBase Search

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