MUSEUM VISITOR APRIL 15

The VOA museum welcomed visitor Menyan Cheng Siebel to the Saturday open house on April 15, 2017.  She learned to speak English as a child by listening to the Voice of America in China.

RADIORAMA JUNE 18, 2016

The Cincinnati Antique Radio Society (CARS) held their annual Radiorama on Saturday June 18.  Radiorama is open to the public and is a chance to show, buy, sell and trade collectable radios.  It is also a fundraiser for CARS and the Gray History of Wireless Museum through the donation auction at the end.

On display was a Zenith windcharger.  This is how many farmers listened to the radio in the 1930s before power lines were extended into the rural areas.  The windcharger charged a storage battery that would power the 12 Volt DC farm radio.  A farm radio is sitting below the charger.

Also pictured is a collection of Zenith radio receivers that belong to members of the club.

VOA CONCERT ATTENDEES HEAR GREAT MUSIC

Music in the tent at the VOA building (Oak Tree Communications photo)

Concert attendees were treated to a spectacular evening of music under a tent at the Voice of America on June 4.  After a reception with hors d'oeuvres, great music was provided with Carmon DeLeone and the New Studio Big Band and guest artist Mike Reid.  Seating was under the tent as it did rain a bit during the concert.

Thanks to sponsors the Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation and Dee Dee and Gary West along with Alice Sparks for a great evening.

VOA Museum Director Jack Dominick (Jay Adrick photo)

Carmon DeLeone (Jay Adrick photo)

Members of the band (Jay Adrick photo)

Guest artist Mike Reid (Jay Adrick photo)

OPEN HOUSE FOR DAYTON HAMVENTION

Dayton Hamvention attendees were invited to a special open house on Saturday evening, May 21 at the VOA Museum. Over 100 amateur radio operators came down from Dayton for refreshments and tours of the three museums and amateur radio station. Here are three pictures of one group in the Control  Room listening to the history of the Voice of America.

GRANDAUGHTER OF LONGTIME CROSLEY EMPLOYEE VISITS

Joan Baysore, grandaughter of longtime Crosley rigger James A. Baysore visited the station for a tour on May 21, 2016.  Jim Baysore war responsible for the construction of the shortwave antennas on Everybody's Farm in Mason as well as all of the Voice of America antennas at the Bethany Relay Station during World War II.

Just for fun, here is a picture of Jim Baysore (standing) on the roof of the WLWT television transmitter building, 2222 Chicasaw Street, in 1951 in the Clifton area of Cincinnati.

HAMS THRONG TO HARA ARENA FOR 2016 DAYTON HAMVENTION

by James E. O’Neal

on 05.23.2016

The crowd inside Hara Arena at the 2016 Dayton Hamvention

The 65th annual Dayton “Hamvention” officially got underway in Dayton, Ohio, Friday morning with crowds of radio amateurs streaming in from virtually every point of the compass to check out the latest in ham radio equipment, look for a vintage “rig” or replacement parts for one in the vast flea market, take in the numerous ham radio-related presentations offered, or to socialize and engage in “eyeball QSOs” (speaking to each other in person rather than via radio).

Despite rain on Saturday, the hams were very good at “keeping the show going” and were ready with tents, tarps and foul weather gear, with some wet feet about the only casualties of the storm.

Vintage broadcast equipment is usually seen for sale at the flea market and this year was no exception. This Gates Gatesway 80 eight-pot console might have found a new home if the price was right.

A final headcount was not immediately available but according to Hamvention media chairman, Henry Ruminski, W8HJR, the number was expected to be close to 25,000. The Hamvention is something of a major stimulus to the Dayton-area economy, with most hotels, motels and RV parks completely filled, restaurants packed and roads crowded with vehicles sporting license plates with amateur radio call signs. Various estimates put the impact at somewhere between $10 and $20 million during the three-day event.

More than 200 commercial equipment vendors packed the exhibition space in Hara Arena, usually a sports venue, the home to the Hamvention for decades. The large surrounding parking lots were almost completely filled by flea market tailgaters.

Besides the arena and parking lot flea market, there were five meeting rooms to learn about the latest developments in such areas as portable HD antenna technology, digital operating modes, “fast scan” television on the ham bands, amateur radio satellite developments, radioteletype contesting, and more. Especially popular was a Saturday afternoon Federal Communications Commission forum hosted by Curt Bartholomew, N3GQ, senior emergency and continuity manager of the commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The fact that Bartholomew is a radio amateur himself made the Q&A session even more lively.

Curt Bartholomew, senior emergency and continuity manager of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security, traveled from Washington to host an FCC forum at the Hamvention. Due to travel budget cuts, this was the first time the FCC was represented at the show in four years, and Bartholomew’s session was especially popular.

A familiar face, Jay Adrick, radio amateur and GatesAir technical advisor, was on hand at the VOA Museum booth to greet fellow hams and provide information about the area museum housed in the former Voice of America Bethany shortwave transmitting station.

VOA MUSEUM EXHIBIT HALL NAMED FOR ENGINEER

By Denise G. Callahan
Staff Writer, Journal-News

Clyde Haehnle is a legend at The National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting, and he was honored as such this weekend.

The 93-year-old was to be the guest of honor at a reception at VOA on Friday for being “the driving force in the development of the museum.” He provided matching funds for renovation of the West garage at VOA, but being 

a modest man, the former electrical engineer declined to name the size of his gift.

Haehnle started his career as a Crosley Broadcasting intern and went to work at VOA just prior to the Cold War, designing the antennas that would carry information across the globe. The VOA is precious to him.

“It was a historical event in the war, the Cold War, it contributed a great deal for the success of World War II and the Cold War,” he said.

Situated along Tylersville Road near Voice of America MetroPark, the facility and its technology served as the main conduit for the United States to present news, entertainment and educational programming from actual press agencies to people worldwide hungering for facts instead of state-fed propaganda during the Cold War.
The Voice of America Bethany Relay Station in West Chester Twp. was one of three, with similar facilities in New York and California. The Butler County facility was the main transmission facility for news, entertainment and educational programming going to Europe, North Africa and South America.

As vice president of engineering at WLW, he worked off and on at the VOA until 1962. He was involved in the design and construction of television stations in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Indianapolis and seven stations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Jack Dominic, executive director of the museum, said Haehnle helped build the VOA Bethany station in 1944, and when the facility was decommissioned in the 1990s, he and a few others decided a museum was needed. An exhibit hall at the museum has been restored and will be named after Haehnle.

“Clyde has probably been the most significant person in the development of the museum,” he said.

Haehnle describes himself simply as “an old man,” but Dominic said he is anything but.

“He is brilliant,” Dominic said. “At 93 he’s feeble in gait but his mind is like a 14-year-old.”

Haehnle lost his wife of 68 years Ethel a week-and-a-half ago, and his son Gary was in from California — where he is a Superior Court judge — for the funeral. Gary said his parents always put his brother and three sisters first, and they never wanted for anything.

“He made sure we were able to fulfill our dreams; we all got to go to college. They just always made sure we had what we needed to get through life,” the judge said. “Sometimes they cut back on their stuff so we got ours; they sacrificed so we could make it.”

Haehnle, who has lived most of life in Finneytown, said his favorite thing to do was work, but he played a little golf at the Maketewah Country Club on the side. He has 13 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.


“I never resented a day doing to work. It was always a challenge,” he said. “As I teach my grandsons, a man’s got two important decisions to make in life: most important is pick the right partner and second is pick the right career.”

Clyde Haehnle introduced by Museum Board President Ken Rieser (Jay Adrick photo)

Clyde Haehnle (Oak Tree Communications photo)

Clyde Haehnle presented with a Founders Award by Mike Martini of Media Heritage (Jay Adrick photo)

(Jay Adrick photo)