Not to over-explain, but on a shortwave station the actual transmit antenna is a grid of wires hung between the towers. See
http://www.antenna.be/lph.htmlBeen a few decades since I got the nickel tour from Joe C., but I recall WRNO's antenna as being a spidery, zig-zag thing. Didn't look like much, but the engineers would tell tales of the insulators melting from all of the high-power rf.
Back during WRNO WW Heyday you could recive it from Alaska to the middle east and in central america off the back side of the antenna, even in San Deigo Ca. All this from a 100kw water cooled transmitter. When it finally gave up the ghost, Joe got an air colled one but did not replaced the tuning coil. According to an engineer I talked to when the new owners bought it from the family, when they would change frequencys they has to make sure nobody was in the room for fear of being electrocuted. Burnt marks dotted the walls by blue sparks from the transmitter.(Both the water cool and the air cool). The final nail in the coffin was a lightening strike that made the coil catch fire and severly damaged the transmitter.
The antenna did have melted insulators but were easly repaired. It was a very expensive system for its time , but had the widest coverage over all the single transmitter shortwave stations in the world. They used a small 150watt transmitter to stay on the air, but after Joe death the family just wanted to unload it It was a shame, because when I was working abroad RNO ww was my little peice of home eapecially when they simulcast with WRNO-FM. Now it is just another wasted station programing needless garbage.
