New Beacon Station

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 35, 15 March 1929, Page 32

New Beacon Station

A WIRELHSS beacon at Start Point has been completed, and it is the seventh of its kind now established round the British coasts. . This type of station transmits a special signal on an exclusive wavelength of 1000 metres, for the benefit of ships equipped with wireless direction-finders. ss The completion of this station¢mean? that very effective cross-bearings can, now be taken by ships using three Channel stations as their fixed points. They can thus obtain a sequence of bearings whenever required by the navigators, and can be sure of their position right up the Channel. Since the wireless direction-finder has become firmly established and more generally employed on the merchant vessels of the world, the demand has arisen for the erection of permanent installations situated at places of advantage from a shipping point of view, round the British coast, and whose function it is to send out a recognised signal at convenient intervals, purely for the purpose of enabling ships to take their bearings and thereby find their exact position.

One of the great addvantages of the system of position finding, in which a’ wireless beacon station at a known position is used, with a direction-finder on board ship, is that the signals are broadcast in all directions and a direct bearing can be taken on the: transmitter from any direction at every signal sent out by it. This method is particularly suitable for lightship installation, as the swinging of the ship’s head does not affect the accuracy of the bearing obtained, and navigators ean lay off their wireless bearings on familiar points on the chart. The beacon transmitter of the type fitted in the British Isles is automatically controlled by a master clock for transmitting groups of interrupted continuous wave signals at pre-arranged intervals.