Last updated 100 kW Goldschmidt alternator at Eilvese transmitted at 96kHz. The 250 HP DC electric motor (right), turned the 3 ft. diameter, 5 ton rotor (center), at 4000 RPM, generating radio waves. The transmitter was used for transatlantic radiotelegraphy traffic, exchanging Morse code messages with a similar Goldschmidt station at Tuckerton, New Jersey, USA.
Eilvese transmitter was an early long-distance radiotelegraphy station at Eilvese, Germany owned by Transradio AG, used for transmission of telegrams. It went into service in 1913, exchanging commercial and diplomatic Morse code traffic on VLF frequencies with Germany's colonies, and a similar station at Tuckerton, New Jersey, USA. During World War I when the allies cut Germany's submarine telegraph cables it was one of two long-distance radiotelegraphy stations which maintained Germany's contact with the rest of the world, and was used for diplomatic negotiations between Woodrow Wilson and Kaiser Wilhelm II leading to the 1918 Armistice which ended World War I.
It transmitted on 96kHz with a 100kW Goldschmidt alternator. There were two antennas: an umbrella antenna, which was mounted in the middle on a 250-metre-tall guyed mast, and at the sides by six 20-metre-tall wooden masts and a ring antenna, which was spun between the central mast and the radial masts. The central mast, which was grounded, but at a height of 145 metres divided by glass insulators, was, when built, the tallest structures of Germany.
The umbrella antenna was used for frequencies around 30kHz, the ring antenna for frequencies around 20kHz. In 1915 the wooden ring masts were replaced by six 122-metre-tall guyed lattice steel masts. These masts were replaced between 1922 and 1925 by four guyed masts 139 metres tall, which were arranged in a semicircle. Between these masts and the central masts three triangular antennas were installed.
In November 1928 the Reichspost central office started to examine how useful it would be to buy the station. Although the station, which was last used on April 15, 1929, did not meet the technical requirements it was bought in 1930 by German Reichspost.
However, it was uneconomical to modernise the station and so it was dismantled in 1931. Today there is only the office left, which is used as a dwelling. From the former transmitter building there are some wall remnants left. When digging for peat one can still find remains of the antenna, as the central mast fell to the ground in 1931.
OMEGA was the first global-range radio navigation system, operated by the United States in cooperation with six partner nations. It was a hyperbolic navigation system, enabling ships and aircraft to determine their position by receiving very low frequency (VLF) radio signals in the range 10 to 14 kHz, transmitted by a global network of eight fixed terrestrial radio beacons, using a navigation receiver unit. It became operational around 1971 and was shut down in 1997 in favour of the Global Positioning System.
Sender Zehlendorf or Zehlendorf (radio) transmission facility was a radio transmission facility which was in service since 1936, when a short wave transmitter was built on the occasion of the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics in Zehlendorf as part of the establishment of permanent radio services. This Zehlendorf site, which until the end of World War II was referred to as the Rehmate Radio Transmission Centre, had 26 different antennas at the time.
The Mühlacker Broadcasting Transmission Facility is a radio transmission facility near Mühlacker, Germany, first put into service on November 21, 1930. It uses two guyed steel tube masts as aerials and one guyed steel framework mast, which are insulated against ground. It has two transmission aerials for shortwave and one free standing steel framework tower for directional radio services. The shortwave transmitter was shut off on October 19, 2004. The medium wave transmitter was switched off in January 2012.
The AM transmitter in Burg, near Magdeburg, Germany, is a huge facility for longwave and mediumwave broadcasting. Its most dominant constructions are a 324-metre guyed radio mast and two 210 metre guyed steel tube masts.
The Langenberg transmission tower is a broadcasting station that transmits MW, FM and TV signals. It is located in Langenberg, Velbert, Germany and has had a very turbulent history since its inauguration. The transmitter first went into service in 1927 with 60 kilowatts (kW) of power and a T-aerial hanging on two 100-metre freestanding steel-frame towers insulated against ground.
Transmitter Berlin-Britz was a broadcasting facility for medium wave, shortwave and FM on the site of a former tree nursery in Berlin-Britz. It was established in 1946 and until 1993 it was the most important transmitter of RIAS. It was used by Deutschlandradio until 4 September 2013.
Grimeton Radio Station in southern Sweden, close to Varberg in Halland, is an early longwave transatlantic wireless telegraphy station built in 1922–1924, that has been preserved as a historical site. From the 1920s through the 1940s it was used to transmit telegram traffic by Morse code to North America and other countries, and during World War II was Sweden's only telecommunication link with the rest of the world. It is the only remaining example of an early pre-electronic radio transmitter technology called an Alexanderson alternator. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004, with the statement: "Grimeton Radio Station, Varberg is an outstanding monument representing the process of development of communication technology in the period following the First World War." The radio station is also an anchor site for the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The transmitter is still in operational condition, and each year on a day called Alexanderson Day is started up and transmits brief Morse code test transmissions, which can be received all over Europe.
The Mainflingen mediumwave transmitter is a mediumwave transmission facility south of the A3 motorway near Mainflingen, Hesse, Germany. Mainflingen was the first mediumwave transmitter for the radio station Deutschlandfunk. It went into service in 1962 with a transmission power of 50 kW, on a frequency of 1538 kHz, at the upper end of the mediumwave band. This frequency has a bad groundwave propagation and therefore a low range at daytime, but an excellent skywave propagation with a long range at night.
The Monte Ceneri transmitter was first established as the nationwide medium-wave radio transmission station for Italian-speaking Switzerland in 1933. Located on Monte Ceneri in Ticino, it broadcast on a frequency of 558 kHz.
Taldom transmitter is a large facility for longwave and shortwave broadcasting located near Taldom, Russia. It transmits on two longwave frequencies, on 153 kHz with 300 kW and on 261 kHz with a power of 2500 kW, the latter is, according to the World Radio TV Handbook's listings, the most powerful broadcasting station in the world. There are two longwave transmissions aerial systems: a single 257 metres tall mast radiator for 153 kHz and a ring antenna system consisting of five masts arranged in a circle around a 275 metre high guyed mast for 261 kHz. The latter antenna delivers good skywave suppression. The shortwave antenna system consists of several masts arranged in a row which are interconnected by cables at various heights.
Deutschlandsender Zeesen was a facility for longwave broadcasting near Zeesen, a district of Königs Wusterhausen in Germany. Built by the German Reichspost in 1927, it served the nationwide Deutschlandsender radio transmissions by the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.
The Zeven DECCA-transmitter was a transmitting facility for DECCA transmission at Zeven, Germany. It used a 93 metre tall guyed mast antenna, which is insulated against ground. As backup antenna, a 46-meter mast radiator also insulated against ground was in its proximity.
Goliath transmitter was a very low frequency (VLF) transmitter for communicating with submarines, built by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine navy near Kalbe an der Milde in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, which was in service from 1943 to 1945. It was capable of transmission power of between 100 and 1000 kW and was the most powerful transmitter of its time.
An umbrella antenna is a capacitively top-loaded wire monopole antenna, consisting in most cases of a mast fed at the ground end, to which a number of radial wires are connected at the top, sloping downwards. They are used as transmitting antennas below 1 MHz, in the MF, LF and particularly the VLF bands, at frequencies sufficiently low that it is impractical or infeasible to build a full size quarter-wave monopole antenna. The outer end of each radial wire, sloping down from the top of the antenna, is connected by an insulator to a supporting rope or (usually) insulated cable anchored to the ground; the radial wires can also support the mast as guy wires. The radial wires make the antenna look like the wire frame of a giant umbrella hence the name.
The Wiederau transmitter is the oldest broadcasting facility in Saxony. It is located near Wiederau, a village which is part of the municipality of Pegau, and is used for medium-wave, FM and Television broadcasting.
Marnach transmitter was a broadcasting facility of RTL near Marnach in the commune of Clervaux, in northern Luxembourg. The Marnach transmitter was built in 1955 for improving the transmission of the English-speaking program on 1439 kHz, which was transmitted from 1951 with an omnidirectional antenna from Junglinster, to the British Isles and for a better transmission on this frequency to Germany at daytime. Therefore, it was given a directional antenna with a switchable directional characteristic pointing North-northeast towards the Rhine-Ruhr area, Germany's most populated area, and West-northwest in the direction of the UK. This antenna was implemented in form of a directional antenna consisting of three ground-fed 105-metre tall guyed mast antennas arranged in the form of an isosceles triangle with a 90 degree angle. As transmitters, two 100 kW units switched in parallel were used when it went in service in December 1955.
Dillberg transmitter is a transmitting facility of the Bavarian Broadcasting Company on the 595-metre-high Dillberg mountain west of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany. Dillberg transmitter went into service in 1955 for serving the area of Nuremberg with TV and FM radio programmes from a 198-metre-tall guyed mast.
Ravensburg-Horgenzell transmitter was a mediumwave broadcasting facility of Deutsche Telekom used for transmitting the program of Deutschlandfunk on the area of community Horgenzell northwest of Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg. It was inaugurated on August 23, 1951 and used until 1959 for transmitting the radio programme of SWF with a transmission power of 40 kW on 1538 kHz. As antenna, it used a 120 metre tall guyed ground-fed lattice steel mast radiator at 47°47'10" N and 9°31'16" E.
VLF transmitter Lualualei is a facility of the United States Navy near Lualualei, Hawaii transmitting orders to submerged submarines in the very low frequency (VLF) range.
Nauen Transmitter Station in Nauen, Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany, is the oldest continuously operating radio transmitting installation in the world. Germany's first high power radio transmitter, it was founded on 1 April 1906 by Telefunken corporation and operated as a longwave radiotelegraphy station through World War II, and during World War I became Germany's main link with the outside world when its submarine communications cables were cut. Upgraded with shortwave transmitters in the 1920s it was Germany's most advanced long range radio station, continually upgraded with the latest equipment and serving as an experimental station for Telefunken to test new technology. At the end of World War II, invading Russian troops dismantled and removed the transmitting equipment. During the Cold War it served as the GDR's international shortwave station Radio Berlin International (RBI), and was the East Bloc's second most powerful radio station, disseminating Communist propaganda to other countries. Since German Reunification in 1991 it has been operated by Deutsche Telekom, Germany's state telecommunication service. The original 1920 transmitter building designed by architect Herman Muthesius is still used; it is the only remaining building designed by that architect.
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