Broadcast resumes by Armstrong in New Jersey during June
Commemorative Broadcast from the Alpine Tower to Mark the 20th Anniversary of the Armstrong Memorial
On June 19, the historic Alpine Tower in Alpine, New Jersey, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Armstrong Memorial event. Steve Hemphill, along with his team, will honor the pioneering radio engineer, Edwin Armstrong, who made FM radio possible. The commemorative broadcast will be conducted on 42.8 MHz in the New York City Tri-State area.
Hemphill credited Chuck Sackermann, owner of CSC Communications, for allowing the first memorial broadcast to be conducted 20 years ago and funding its site logistics. The Armstrong Memorial broadcast station, WA2XMN, will return to the air on June 19, beginning at 12 p.m. Its signal has been heard as far as 100 miles away, making it accessible to most police scanners and software-defined radios.
The Alpine Tower and original brick transmitter building were completed in 1937 to aid in Armstrong's FM radio experiments. The call sign is still etched in cement above the front door of Armstrong's original station building on the site today. The Alpine Tower staff has worked to preserve the history of the site nestled in the Palisades of Bergen County, approximately 15 miles northwest of the Empire State Building. Fairleigh Dickinson University's Class B1 89.1 WFDU(FM) transmits from the Alpine Tower, and it served as an emergency site for several New York City TV and FM stations following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
For the commemoration, Hemphill's restored Phasitron transmitter, running 250 watts of power output, will feed into a Ringo vertical antenna mounted on the Alpine Tower at approximately 400 feet above ground level. The transmissions will be in wide-band frequency modulation, using the same technical standards as modern FM broadcast stations. The event will feature programming from the 2005 event, including the original Armstrong panel discussion and interviews with Armstrong's niece, Jeanne Hammond, and Tom Lewis, author of "Empire of the Air."
Hemphill is also planning a collaboration with Kirk Harnack's "This Week in Radio Tech" podcast as part of the 42.8 MHz coverage. Plans to stream online coverage of the 42.8 MHz broadcast are still being discussed. The last time WA2XMN broadcasted was in 2015, and a 2018 broadcast honoring Hammond - who had recently passed away - was canceled due to problems with the station antenna's transmission line.
Hemphill received a Special Appreciation Award from the Radio Club of America in 2005 for the 70th anniversary broadcast. He is a consulting engineer since 1969 and is the founder of Solid Electronics Labs, which manufacturers and sells FM broadcast exciters and stereo generators. FM radio has had an enormous impact on his career, and he has continued his efforts to preserve Armstrong's memory.
The Armstrong Tower is the site of the world's first FM broadcast station, W2XMN. It first signed on in 1938 and broadcast until 1949, when the FCC shifted frequency allocations to the 88-108 MHz band we know today. The tower serves as a symbolic and functional memorial honoring Armstrong's contributions to radio technology. His innovations revolutionized radio broadcasting, influencing communication technology worldwide.
- For the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Armstrong Memorial, Steve Hemphill will utilize a restored Phasitron transmitter to broadcast on 42.8 MHz from the Alpine Tower, a frequency that reaches up to 100 miles.
- The Armstrong Memorial broadcast station, WA2XMN, will return to the air on June 19, marking the anniversary of the event that honors radio pioneer, Edwin Armstrong.
- The Armstrong Tower, constructed in 1937, serves as a symbol of Armstrong's pioneering contributions to radio technology, being the site of the world's first FM broadcast station.
- Kirk Harnack's podcast, "This Week in Radio Tech," will collaborate with Steve Hemphill's commemorative broadcast in honor of Edwin Armstrong's 20th Memorial.
- Beyond the commemorative broadcast, Steve Hemphill's career has been greatly influenced by FM radio, as he is a consulting engineer since 1969 and the founder of Solid Electronics Labs, which specializes in manufacturing and selling FM broadcast exciters and stereo generators.
