Loran-C station X-ray in the North Central U.S. chain (GRI 8290) is located on a very rural section of rangeland about 27 miles southwest of Gillette, Wyoming. This transmitter is rated at 540,000 watts on 100 kHz. This particular site is "dual rated" and also serves as part of the South Central U.S. chain (GRI 9810). The 700 foot (213.36 meter) transmitter tower is visible behind the sign. One web site that I have viewed proclaims this tower to be the tallest structure in the state of Wyoming.
A closer view of the sign marking the entrance to the property from the main road. The main road is long and dusty and made of very course gravel. Did I mention that this is a VERY rural area? This is truly the wild west. It is the kind of place where you might not see another person for several days. The published location is 44-00-11N 105-37-24W.
Here is a slightly closer view of the transmitter site. The building is probably large enough to house a couple people if needed. The site appeared to be very well maintained but unmanned. The well maintained red stone gravel road leading from the main road to the transmitter building is about 2 miles in length.
Like a typical medium wave radio station, the entire tower is the actual antenna element. Although it is difficult to see in the photos, the top set of guy wires attach directly to the tower and are used for top-loading. The remaining guy wires are insulated from the tower and employee multiple insulators to seperate them into non-resonant sections. Although this is a big tower, it is electrically very short at 100 kHz. There are no insulators in the top set of wires until they get rather close to the ground making them a part of the antenna itself. The area around this tower is basically flat prairie and rangeland for many miles. So the tower is very heavily guyed against the high winds that are prevalent here.
This sign was attached to the short wooden fence surrounding the transmitter building.
There were a large number of these completely surrounding the tower in a circle at about the same circumference as the guy wires. I presume that these caps cover chemically enhanced ground rods at the termination of each buried ground radial extending from the base of the tower. They looked to be spaced about every 3 degrees. So there are probably 120 radials just like a medium-wave broadcast station.
The constant data-like rhythmic chatter from this station was very apparent on my standard AM car radio. The 100 Khz primary signal emits powerful harmonics right on top of some medium-wave frequencies. For several miles from this site I was able to hear a harmonic on some medium-wave broadcast frequencies. The strongest was on 700 kHz. As I left the area I observed that I could still hear the signal clearly on that frequency over 12 miles away from the site. It is no wonder why they locate these in very rural areas!
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