Photography

0 readers

76 users here now

All things photography. Share your own original photos, your questions, your inspiration.

Rules

Share your own original photography. No NSFW images. Be Nice.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

photography@fedia.io

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024. (fedia.io)

submitted 6 months ago by mattblaze@federate.social to c/photography@fedia.io

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024.

All the pixels, straight from the ionosphere, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54131707918/

#photography

top 13 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Captured with the Rodenstock 50mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/6.3), Phase One IQ4-150 digital back, Cambo 1250 camera (vertically shifted -5mm).

This modest but handsome, art-deco-accented building was built in 1941 to house the transmitter for "KGEI", a commercial shortwave radio broadcast station whose programming could be heard across the Pacific. It shut down in 1994.

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

KGEI was a 250KW commercial shortwave international radio broadcast station. Originally constructed, owned and operated by General Electric, the station opened in 1939 on San Francisco's Treasure Island. In 1941, it moved to a permanent site in Redwood City. This building housed the transmitter and control facilities; the exterior walls are three feet thick, to better resist any WW II enemy bombings. At the time, KGEI was the only US broadcast station capable of reaching across the Pacific.

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In 1960, the station was sold to the "Far East Broadcasting Company", which changed the format to chiefly Christian religious programming. The station ceased operation in 1994, and its antenna field was razed soon afterward.

Fortunately, the transmitter house remains in excellent condition. It currently belongs to a wastewater treatment plant now located adjacent to the site. I believe it is now leased out as office space.

[–] greem@cyberplace.social 1 points 6 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social that is a truly glorious looking building.

If it housed the transmission gear, the walls may have been that thick to prevent explosions getting out rather than in!

[–] bayport@theatl.social 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@mattblaze@federate.social
250kW is a lot for a radio transmitter right?
I vaguely recall growing up listening to the radio some stations boasting that they were broadcasting with their 100kW tower but I didn't understand what they were saying other than thinking, it's a hundred, that must be a lot 🙃

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 1 points 6 months ago

@bayport@theatl.social Yes, though not uncommon for international shortwave broadcasters (who want to achieve maximum coverage for their signals).

[–] danmcd@hostux.social 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@mattblaze@federate.social

As the son of a GE lifer, seeing old things like this, esp. given what the GE remnants look like now, is a tiny bit heartwrenching. (Only a tiny bit, however...)

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@danmcd@hostux.social As a child of parents from Schenectady, NY (and whose grandparents were GE and Alco), I feel you.

[–] danmcd@hostux.social 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@mattblaze@federate.social

Whoa! My grandpa worked at GE Schenectady (yes, Dad was a 2nd-gen GE lifer)!

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 1 points 6 months ago

@danmcd@hostux.social Hey, if it was good enough for Kurt Vonnegut...

[–] petes_bread_eqn_xls@mastodo.neoliber.al 1 points 6 months ago

@mattblaze@federate.social quite good looking

[–] offby1@wandering.shop 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

@mattblaze@federate.social I am constantly impressed at the way you capture what looks to this untrained eye like orthogonal projections of buildings.

[–] mattblaze@federate.social 1 points 6 months ago

@offby1@wandering.shop Painters have to work hard to master multiple points of perspective, while photographers work hard to eliminate them.