Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who notes that he discovered, “some radio equipment in the latest episode of The Walking Dead series”:
Can anyone ID the rigs above? Please comment!
I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film.
The piece of equipment in the first photograph appears to be a E.F. Johnson “Viking Valiant” AM/CW Transmitter…
K9GGZ
” Unknown to Rick, Negan has a 1,000? tower from a defunct TV station and a 250 KW amplifier which plays an important role in the season finale.”
That is brilliant! Slow hand clap to @DanH. Too funny…
Gabriel finds an abandoned ham station and Rick makes him chief radio officer of Alexandria. Scavenging operations improve a lot for Alexandria with improved communications especially after they find the cache of HTs at a run-down duck club. They never find anyone else on the air besides Saviors although Carol wants to mount organized wide-band efforts to find other survivor groups, which Daryl dismisses as dangerous and hopeless. Enid, still pining for Carl, sneaks into the radio room late at night and does an impassioned CQ for Carl during static crashes on 80m. This is one of the most touching moments of Season 8 and it is overheard by Laura. Unknown to the residents of Alexandria, Negan has acquired a full range of amateur gear from the Scavengers and made Laura chief radio officer. Unknown to Rick, Negan has a 1,000′ tower from a defunct TV station and a 250 KW amplifier which plays an important role in the season finale.
The transmitters on the left are Hallicrafters HT-32(A) series. They were known for having weak power transformers that would short. I know, I had one. The HT-32 that I had was really considered an “exciter” for a linear amplifier. The dead guy’s station was more like a museum than a station. The electric bill to run that thing would pay for more modern equipment in a hurry. You’re looking at late 50’s – early 60’s equipment that damned near needed a gorilla to move and could be used as auxiliary heat for your house.
https://www.universal-radio.com/used/ul42lrg.jpg <—–HT-32A
http://www.k3msb.com/sx101a/sx101a_front.JPG
http://rigpix.com/hallicrafters/sx101a.htm
http://www.rlinwood.com/family_webpage/pix/radio/equipment/valiant/Valiant_pix/Eq2012-0005.jpg
Nice for nostalgia purposes and there's something about the #47 pilot lights and the smell of dust on tubes that you're not going to get with modern equipment but the guy who would be running a station like that would have died of old age in the late 80's.
It’s unfortunate the writers of the Walking Dead series never capitalized on the obvious plot possibilities involving radio. It would’ve been easy for the main characters to spot ham radio antennas on rooftops, etc to know where to find radio communications gear for short-range VHF/UHF and long-range HF gear.
Surely among all the survivors around the world someone would’ve put a pirate radio station on the air (powered by a generator or car batteries) or engaged in HF communications that others could receive.
An excellent post-apocalyptic film involving HF radio is On The Beach (1959) where a U.S. nuclear submarine crew travels from the coast of Australia to California to DF the source of a mysterious CW signal. What they find is heartbreaking. (I won’t spoil the ending for anyone who hasn’t seen it.)
In my distant past I had a Valiant and an SX – 101A on a very hefty oak table. The combined weight of the two exceeded 150lbs. Father Gabriel would need to be blessed with a very powerful throwing arm. Today I couldn’t stop an undead pill bug with my Airspy HF +.
Father Gabriel learned early on the value of amateur radio when the stuff hits the fan. You can always throw the gear at walkers.
The transmitters to the left of the SX – 101’s receivers are Hallicrafters HT – 32 series.
Behind Father Gabriel
Johnson Valiant Behind Father Gabriel.
Hallicrafter SX-101 MK-1