The Vatican Wireless Station

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 40, 17 April 1931, Page 6

The Vatican Wireless Station

Erected Under the Personal £ ‘upervision of Marchese. Marconi

[THE short-wave broadcasting and wireless telephone and telegraph duplex station which has just been opened in the Vatican City has a worldwide range. The new transmitter in its main features follows the design of the famous short-wave high-speed beam transmitters which are used in the British Imperial beam stations. The complete installation consists of four main panels, and.is designed for telephony and high-speed telegraphy on either 19.84 or 50.26 metres. On telephony the transmitter is rated to deliver from 8 to 10 kw. of unmodulated carrierwave energy to the aerial feeder system, the output depending slightly on the wavelength used. The normal degree of modulation is 80 per cent. The rating on continuous wave telegraphy is 13-15 kw. to the aerial feeder. Masts and Aerials. Two transmitting aerials are provided, one for each wavelength. This type of aerial has been developed recently by the Marconi Company, and is an improved type of vertical shortwave aerial. Both aerials are suspended and insulated from a triatic slung between two self-supporting lattice steel towers 200 feet in height and 296 feet apart. The energy from the ‘transmitter building is conveyed to the two aerials by two separate concentric copper tube feeders similar to those used in the British Imperial beam stations. The transmitting building itself is situated near the railway terminus in a part of the grounds in the Vatican which is

surrounded by a Roman wall 45 feet high, whilst the masts are placed outside this wall. In order not to destroy the amenities of the Vatican gardens a tunnel 141 feet long passing under the Roman "wall has been constructed to accommodate the aerial feeders. Arehitecture.. VERY effort has been made to harmonise, as far as possible, the transmitting buildings and aerial towers with the graceful surroundings of the Vatican City. The transmitting building is of sober but pleasing architectural design. The tops of the masts are finished off to give a bishop’s mitre effect, which greatly enhances their appearance in silhouette. The transmitting building contains a spacious transmitting room with land-

line control tables, an amplifier control room, receiver room, accumulator room, machine room, valve, and general stores and general office. A special receiver, made: partly of standard parts of the normal telephone and high-speed Marconi receiver and telephone-terminal four-wire two-wire equipment, will secure good telephone and telegraph duplex communication between the Vatican City and any part of the world. This receiver is situated in one of the rooms of the transmitting station and utilises vertical antennae placed. at a distance of only a few yards from the sending antennae. The new wireless station which may be considered to represent the latest word in short-wave technique, to which such far-reaching contributions have been made by Marchese Marconi and his‘'many able assistants, has been erected by Italian engineers under the personal supervision of Marchese Mar-

econi. It will not only provide the ‘Vatican City with a radio telegraph and telephone link with distant parts of the earth, but when required will also enable the voice of his Holiness the Pope to be broadcast throughoutthe world. The Vatican station has carried out good clear telephone communication with Australia, India, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, and the United States outside Europe, and with Twondon, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, _ and other European capitals,