This is the RCA Section of
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by:
Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
Last Update 12/12/23

Radio Corporation of America Camden, NJ.

RCA delivered its last transmitters over 30 years ago. 

RCA was formed during World War I as a company to share the patents of GE, Westinghouse, and AT&T, to further the war effort without legal issues. In the early years, GE did most of the hardware construction, Westinghouse was highly involved in the control and power circuitry, and AT&T was the source of many audio products.

As far as broadcast, all the early RCA transmitters, etc were really built by GE until RCA (now an independent company) bought the Victor Company in 1929 for $154 million.  In 1930, RCA Radiotron was started, but some GE products were still rebadged until the mid-1930s, when RCA was fully operational as a manufacturer.

Interestingly, in a kind of strange circle, RCA itself was dissolved when GE bought the company in 1985. The "RCA trademark" is currently owned by a Japanese company, for use on consumer products. There are some professional sources for parts and information, though:

AM Transmitters

Click on picture for a larger image
	1B?  1 kW  (1930?) built by GE
	1-D - 1 kW  (1935) a 250W xmtr to drive the kW
	100-C  100-D
	100-G  100-H   100-H - four 845's (mod), pair of 838's (RF)
	150-A
	250-D 250-D a pair 845's driving pair 805's (mod), pair 805's (RF)   250-E  250-G
	BTA-250K - 250 W essentially the same as the "L" series
	BTA-250L - 250 W (post-war) 828s modulating 810s
	BTA-250M - 250 W
	BTA-500M - 500 W
	BTA-500MX - 500 W
	BTA-500R - 500 W
	BTA-1L - 1 kW KSCO 833s modulating 833s
	BTA-1M - 1 kW
	BTA-1MX - 1 kW
	BTA-1N - 1 kW
	BTA-1R - 1 kW   (500R)
	BTA-1R2 - 1 kW       (1R3) KKTY, Douglas, WY
	BTA-1S - 1 kW
	5-C - 5 kW
	5-D - 5 kW  four 845's driving a Pair 891R's (mod), single 892R (RF)
	5-DX - 5 kW   Art Deco styling
	5-E  - 5 kW
	BTA-5F - 5 kW  WERE - Cleveland, OH
	BTA-5G - 5 kW
	BTA-5H - 5 kW
	BTA-5J - 5 kW
	BTA-5L - 5 kW     (5L1  .. 5L2) Ampliphase
	BTA-5R - 5 kW    (R1)
	BTA-5SS - 5 kW  1975 A solid state design - a number were sold, but most had to be bought back as they apparently did not work well.
	BTA-5T - 5 kW
	BTA-5U - 5 kW     (BTA-5U1   5U2)
	BTA-10F - 10 kW
	BTA-10G - 10 kW
	BTA-10H - 10 kW
	BTA-10J - 10 kW
	BTA-10K - 10 kW CHMB, Vancouver, BC
	BTA-10U - 10 kW   (U1  U2)
	BTA-20L - 20 kW
	50A - 50 kW
	50B - 50 kW
	50C - 50 kW (possibly a field conversion of the "B")
	50D - 50 kW WWL - New Orleans
	50E - 50 kW  x-KOB at the Bolack Museum
	BTA-50F - 50 kW  - 1948? - $95,000 KOMO Seattle, WA KRMG - Tulsa            (50F1)
	BTA-50G - 1955 - 50 kW
	BTA-50H - 1960 Ampliphase with solid state rectifiers
	BTA-50J - 1970 - 50 kW Ampliphase with solid-state exciter KFQD, Anchorage, AK
	250 kW "special" built for XERF.
	500 kW "RCA-1 built for WLW a second was said to have been built for WJZ, but not delivered. It appears it may have gone to England. More info is coming on this.

FM Transmitters

Jack Sellmeyer shares some tips on the model names: "RCA used no prefix for the transmitters before about 1946.  The RCA model numbers were simply 250A, 1D,1L, 10A, 10B, 50B, 50C, 50D (only a couple made) and 50E. The first of "BTA" numbers were applied to AM "F" series, the BTA-5F, BTA-10F & BTA-50F. I believe this had to do with avoiding confusion between AM, FM & TV after the war. The AM's were BTA-NNNL; the FM's BTF-NNNL, ant the TV's were TT-NNL for low band TT-NNH, for high band VHF and TTU-NNL for UHF."

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