A WONDER STATION

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 6, 26 August 1927, Page 2

A WONDER STATION

830 MILES BY CRYSTAL From time to time radio authorities have contended that the broadcast stations of the future are to be of power gigantic, almost beyond comparison with existing super-stations, News now comes to hand of a wonder station which is operating in Germany, with an output of 24,000 watts and a crystal range of 830 miles. , This giant station is located on a wooded height between the rivers Wupper and Ruhr, in Germany’s greatest industrial district, the Rhineland, six miles north of Elberfeld, and a little more south of Essen, Its studios are -at Elberfeld, Dusseldorf, Koln (Col_ogne}, Dortmund, and Munster ; though it may be connected by land-line with any other German broadcast station. Its input is 60 kw.3 ontput, 24 kw.; : wave-length 468.8 metres (O40 kee. A Powerful Transmitter, The transmitter operates in three stages; the first a 400-watt valve with.

two 60-watt modulators; the second has two 1l}-kw. valves; and the third employs three 20-kw. valves, the various types used being illustrated above. On the plates of the intermediate valves, 4000 volts is used, and on the final amplifiers 10,000. Six huge rectifier valves are used to convert the 5000-volt A. C. received over long-distance power lines; this current supplies the valves, except for the filaments of the smaller ones, for which a D. C. generator is used. The Apparatus House. The apparatus is housed in a single building, 75 x 140 feet. The transmitter room, 32 x 45 feet, is divided by a 14vanel iron switchboard. All the operating leyers are grounded for the protection of the staff. A special refrigeration plant is included to cool the plates of the valves; it consumes hourly about 1300 gallons of water, which is first put throngh a softening process, in order that scale may not be deposited in the jackets wround the valve plates. A Lofty Aerial. A ‘f-aerial, of five 70-metre (230-foot) wires, is suspended between two 328foot steel towers, 820 feet apart. These are not guyed in any way, but sect in concrete foundations, with porcelain insulation about their lowest members. Condensers shunted by variometers are. used to tune this aerial, which was the subject of much experiment. Eight Miles. of Earth Wire, The ground is a radial net of copper wire, buried about three feet deep, and joined by an outer circuit. Eight miles of wire are thus used; and excellent tegeption of this station (830 miles on a crystal set) is attributed to this claborate system, Powerful as Langenberg is, 2 ‘dead’® area for its reception has been found south of Cologne; and a relay station is proposed for the benefit of the residents of this district,