This is the Bauer Equipment of
The Broadcast Archive

Maintained by:

Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
Last updated 7/1/03

Bauer Broadcaster - 50 and 100 W

These transmitters got to Vietnam long before AFRT. In the early stages of our involvement there was a program called "Hamlet Radio" -- the idea being to bring the people into small hamlets so they could better govern and protect themselves. The US AID program bought 50 complete radio stations from us -- including a small console, a turntable, the transmitter and a short tower system that could be tuned to any frequency in the band.

The tower was top loaded with a 120 uh inductor in a fiberglass box and the upper guy wires were connected to it. We prepared a chart of tuning settings so that it could be set up easily in the field and the transmitter could easily be loaded into it. They worked well -- too well for Vietnam, however. Once on the air the hamlet became the target for the night and was stormed by the Vietcong.

After a few of these disasters they dropped the idea and not long after that our military presence increased and the AFRT was given this equipment. All this happened during our early days in San Carlos before we moved to Palo Alto and later to Sacramento. Later AFRT bought a 707 that became their main transmitter in Saigon.