NAUEN, GERMANY, WORLD’S LARGEST RADIO STATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 837, 4 December 1929, Page 16

NAUEN, GERMANY, WORLD’S LARGEST RADIO STATION

Mighty Maze Of Masts And Wires

GERMANY to-day is said to possess the greatest wireless station in the world. The original plant was erected in 1906 by the Telefnnken Company, at Nauen, some 20 miles from Berlin. Now as a result of short waves it has had to be enlarged, and short-wave work has become the all-impor-tant feature of the station.

Long-distance wirel using was done in the early days with long waves up to 25,000 metres, and the Nauen station was equipped accordingly. In 1910 a world congress decided that the best way to keep amateurs from disturbing official communications was to limit then; to wave lengths not exceeding 200 metres. The few New’ Zealand amateurs then on the air did their transmitting round about 140 metres.

With such waves, it was believed, no harm could be done. But it soon became apparent that the professionals had made a sad miscalculation, for the despised amateurs achieved such results that the long-wave senders began to look more like amateurs themselves. Famous Dominion Amateur.

A New Zealand amateur who achieved world-wide prominence in radio circles at this time was Mr Bell, of Shag Point, Otago, with whom was associated in experimental work his sister Miss Bell. Mr Bell’s amateur station at Shag Point was among the first to communicate with amateur stations on the other side of the world.

Such a development naturally had to he coped with, and the great official wireless companies turned also to the short waves, for which purpose the Nauen station has now been rebuilt and enlarged. To the older transmitters, with respectively 13,000 and 18,000 metre wave lengths, seven new short-wave transmitters have now been added, which work with waves from 15 to 30 metres long. At least one of this station’s transmitters, DHC, can be heard in Christchurch at almost any time. By the end of the current year another seven short-wave transmitters will have been erected.

The mighty maze of antennae at Nauen, with its 12 high masts, two of them 853 feet high each, seven others each 090 feet high, and the other three eacli 492 feet high, is by now almost antiquated, so rapid has been the advance of the technology. The great masts are now used only for the two long-wave senders, which chiefly take care of communication w’ith America and the Far East. Between them stand the new masts, only about 85 feet high, from which are strung the antenna? for sliort-wave sending. These look but little different from the telegraph wires along the neighbouring railroad line. Directional Antennae.

Two somewhat larger nets of antenna? hur.g from masts 245 feet high are being built for thd service to North

and South America. These antennm are so directed toward the destination to be reached as to prevent the waves from going backward around the earth. YV ith a wave length of 15 metres by day and 25 to 30 metres by night, they take care of the entire short-wave traffic, above all to South America, Siam, Manila, and Cairo. This short-wave traffic will soon be extended to Mexico and perhaps also the British Dominions. In fact Mexico City’s station XDA can be heard at times in Christchurch working with tJhe Nauen stations DHA or DHC.

Underneath the great web of antennae stands the station’s pow’er plant—for all the world like a great spider in the middle of its net. Here the great generaters hum their monotonous song, bringing the. electrical current up to the vast tension of 120,000 volts for the two long-wave senders, and they run day and night without ceasing. One of them has been running ever since 1916 with a pause of but four hours a week. Operated From Berlin. All the transmitters at the Nauen station are operated from the central office in Berlin. The station hence requires only sufficient employees to look after the plant and see that the purely mechanical equipment functions properly. The enlargement of the station has been follow’cd by a large increase in traffic; in 1919, 1,200,000 words were sent, but by 1928 the total had increased to 16,300,000 words. About half the total sent went to North America, Press messages alone totalling to 2,400,000 words. In part the increased efficiency is due to the improvement of the short-wave transmitters, which makes possible the transmission of from 150 to 200, and under special circumstances of as many as 300 w’ords a minute. Nauen is exclusively a sending station. The receiving station is at Geltow, near Potsdam. The latest stage in the advance in wireless communication was the introduction at the end of last year of wireless telephony with Buenos Ayres, a distance of some 7300 miles. This service is to be extended to cover the entire Argentine, and also to other South American stations. A lot of experimental duplex telephone work has been carried out w’ith the Sydney short-wave station 2ME. The next step will be the transmission of pictures. After long experimentation, ®the station is about readj T to undertake these transmissions in a practical way.