The AM Forum

Quite the set of photos...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53074617@N00/3082432255

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangstaudt/3084041127/

73DG

Looks like really big open wire coax!

Pretty cool!

On line translation:

In rock mountain and Berus, two local parts of the municipality over gentleman in the Saarland, in direct proximity to the French border, the private, French broadcasting corporation Europe 1 operates a long wave transmitter on the frequency 183 kHz. This transmitter, which owes its emergence to the special statute of the Saarland into the 1950er years, is with 2.000 kilowatts of transmitting power the strongest radio station of Germany and one of the largest broadcast end plants of the world.

As antenna a directional antenna consisting of four masts isolated against earth (radiation maximum in southwest direction) is used. By the strong directional characteristic of the antenna the receipt is northeast the transmitter (thus in the largest part of Germany) bad and/or distorted. The masts are 270 meters, 276 meters, 280 meters and 282 meters high and 1954/55 were established. 1959 were shifted one of these four transmitting poles in perpendicular condition. Besides exists still another reserve antenna, which consists high bracing steel framework masts isolated against earth of two 234 meters.

The building, in which the transmitters are accommodated, is an architecturally remarkable prestressed concrete construction without supporting column, which stands today under monument protection. It has a length of 82 meters, width of 43 meters, a height of 16 meters, a surface of 2700 square meters (of it 1770 square meters of glass area) and a volume of 31000 cubic meters. Like the transmitting poles 1954 were established. The heating of the building takes place via the waste heat of the transmitters. Before this building is still another telecommunication tower from reinforced concrete, which should originally serve Telesaar for the spreading of the television programme.

Well known European border blaster.

"As antenna a directional antenna consisting of four masts isolated against earth (radiation maximum in southwest direction) is used. By the strong directional characteristic of the antenna the receipt is northeast the transmitter (thus in the largest part of Germany) bad and/or distorted."
What that means is that the array is directional to the southwest to cover most of France, and reception to the northeast (in most of Germany) is poor and distorted. Located in Germany, the programming is entirely in French.  When the station was first constructed, no commercial radio was allowed in France, only the government-run national radio service. So they built the station just across the border into Germany to blanket the entire country, and the French government was powerless to stop them.  Another source of alternative programming was Radio Luxembourg, which also skirted the BBC's monopoly in UK.  To-day, both countries allow private commercial broadcasting to compete with their national service.

I didn't try listening this past winter, but they sometimes came in here entertainment quality 1 and 2 years ago, using a Kenwood R-1000 and the 160m beverage, with a LW tuned circuit between the antenna and receiver.  This, despite the fact that the nominal frequency range of the R-1000 goes only down to 200 kc/s.

Hey Steve
Remember the Low freq station in Annapolis? With the (how many strands) of transmission line? The TX was a Continental ? 1 million watts?
It becomes a task to manage 184kc.
Really nice pictures in the large format
Fred

NSS, Annapolis. Looks like they were 4 wire. But the big center tower was fed at three different heights.

http://www.amwindow.org/pix/htm/nss1.htm

http://www.j-hawkins.com/nss.shtml


That baby worked at 21 kHz!

When I flew into Baltimore a few years back, there were still 3 big towers out on the peninsula. Did they survive the decommissioning and conversion to park? They sure were some bad ass looking towers.

I remember a story in RadioWorld (the broadcast rag) some years ago about a communications tower in NJ, a huge self-supporter something like 400' or 600' high, built in the 1920's, being demolished with explosives.  The article said the tower was originally designed for 800-year life expectancy.

I think the annapolis towers were dropped.  I was there several years ago 4 i think installling a 2 meter dish for a commercial computer link at the transmitter building.  guy on sight gave me a hard hat and took me on the tour.. transmitters were still there but the roof mostly fell in

That's sad to hear that the building is in shambles.
Ok on the towers gone. That will always be a liability.

I am happy to report that they did keep three Eiffel-style towers, freestanding on Greenbury Point where the Severn River opens into the Chesapeake, right across from the US Naval Academy.

They dropped at least two others of the same style, PLUS a couple of 600' guyed jobs and what I think was a 1200' center tower that held the array aloft.

An AMer from the past, Mike, WA3WDO, whose parents used to live just outside Annapolis, used to ride his bike over to the docks at Annapolis and watch the lightning strike the tallest pole during summer storms.  

I've got a bunch of pictures I took when NSS was still in operation during a tour I was given.  I actually knocked the station off the air for 0.0006 of a millisecond or somesuch when the arc detectors in the transmitter mis-interpreted the strobe from my Vivitar 283. DOH !    

"Don't use flash," the rather stern looking Navy tech advised, after we heard all sorts of alert noisemakers go off.  He printed out the fault report for me as, uh, a souvenir.

I have to dig up my copy of some dramatic footage of the towers coming down. A local TV cameraman I know, Greg, K3HOT, came up and videotaped the event.

It would be great if you could post some of those Paul ;D ;D

   Paul,

   I've got a Vivitar 283 stashed away along with a couple 225's plus 
   several Canon 277's, all with remote sensors that I used to use as
   slave units on locations where the extra light was needed...

   That 283 was great for bounce flash and after I got my first Canon
   299, never got another speed light that didn't swivel at least vertically.