Part  of the evening will be devoted to DurHamFest organization.   This will be your best chance to find out about and volunteer in various ways to make your DurHamFest 2013 a great success.

We may have some time left for Show & Tell.  This is always popular, so if you have something suitable, bring it just in case and be ready to spend 5 minutes or so talking about it.

On March 4, 2013, Dan, KR4UB and Wayne, KJ4GDW were privileged to tour the only operational remaining Voice of America high power short wave broadcast transmitter site in North America.  Situated on a 2,715 acre site, Site B continues to operate a full broadcast schedule but the future is uncertain due to aging equipment and the cost of operation in these economic times and the perceived reduced need to broadcast information to the world.

Dan & Wayne will present pictures and facts about this interesting facility located a few miles east of Greenville in Pitt County, North Carolina.

The following information excerpted from Wiki:

In the early 1950, VOA planned for the construction of a high-power shortwave complex on the East Coast of the United States to provide coverage to Europe, Africa, and South America. By 1954, the project was suspended, but the need continued to grow. The transmitters in Wayne, New Jersey and Brentwood & Schenectady, New York continued to become more inadequate every year. Congress gave approval for a new transmission station in 1958. That same year site exploration found 38 potential locations. Final selection was made a year later, and the land was acquired. The site had to be south enough to avoid the northern auroral zone, but close enough to Washington D.C. to keep transmitting cost to a minimum. Because of the number of transmitters needed, it was decided to split the transmission site into two, site A and site B. The receiving facilities, program master control, communications center, and station main offices were located at site C. Construction began on February 15, 1960 and was completed December 7, 1962. All three stations were dedicated by President John F. Kennedy and became operational on February 8, 1963. The new facilities doubled the VOA's power and employed 100 people around the clock. The Greenville facilities became the most powerful international broadcaster in the world, in both physical size and radio frequency energy. Each of the sites initially housed nine transmitters – three of 500,000 watts, three of 250,000 watts, and three of 50,000 watts.