[TowerTalk] The Early Transatlantic Wireless Stations

Fri Jul 6 08:44:04 EDT 2007

Dave,

Rugby was indeed a massive longwave and HF station.  Unfortunately, technological progress made it obsolete. It was the fourth
generation of transatlantic wireless stations in the British Isles.

The first generation was Marconi's famous station in Poldhu, Cornwall, built in 1901.  Its counterpart stations in North America were in
St. Johns, Newfoundland; Table Head, north of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia; and Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachussets.  All of these were experimental transatlantic stations. They carried some commercial and government traffic but not with the reliability needed to compete with the transatlantic telegraph cables.

Poldhu was replaced by Marconi's huge station near Clifden, Ireland in 1907.  Its North American counterpart was Marconi's new station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada.  These were the first transatlantic wireless stations that could compete successfully with the transatlantic telegraph cables.

Marconi replaced the Clifden Station with his new wireless station near Caernarfon, Wales.  This was the first commercial wireless station designed to communicate directly with the United States.  Marconi's
counterpart was in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  

Caernarfon was replaced by the General Post Office station in Rugby, although Marconi's Caernarfon station continued in operation through World War II.  Rugby initially communicated with RCA's Radio Central in Rocky Point, Long Island, New York.

Most hams are unaware of the massive transmitters and antennas required
for transoceanic communication prior to the discovery of long distance shortwave communication by hams in 1921.  Prior to 1921, the transatlantic receiving antennas were just as large as the transmitting antennas -- typically 400 feet high and more than a mile long -- and located at least 20 miles from the transmitters.  

Harold H. Beverage's invention of the Beverage antenna in 1920 lead directly to the consolidation of the former Marconi transatlantic receiving stations into a single station at a 2000 acre site in Riverhead, Long Island, New York. The Beverage antenna made the gigantic transatlantic receiving stations in Belmar, New Jersey and Belfast, Maine obsolete and directly lead to their destruction in 1924.

These huge stations were then made obsolete by the discovery of transatlantic shortwave communication by hams in 1921, but the big transoceanic wireless stations powered by the 200 KW Alexanderson alternators continued to be used to supplement shortwave communication through the end of World War II.  All of the longwave stations that survived after World War II were used for naval and marine communications.

An excellent starting point to learn more about the early transoceanic wireless stations is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexanderson_alternator#Stations

Just click on the name of each station for more details.  

All of these longwave stations were demolished except Grimeton which is a now very unique wireless museum.  There are also excellent wireless museums in Glace Bay and Table Head, Nova Scotia; Poldhu, Cornwall; Chatham, Massachussets; and Camp Evans, New Jersey

73!
Frank
W3LPL

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 00:10:15 -0400
>From: "WA3GIN" <wa3gin at comcast.net>  
>Subject: [TowerTalk] All 12 of Rugby Station's 820FT tower (demolition video)  
>To: <TOWERTALK at contesting.com>
>
>Our tour first visited the coil room on the upper floor of the transmitter hall. The vast arrays of copper 'plumbing' were similar to those of Criggion but in the larger building looked more impressive. All of this was supported on wooden framing held together with plastic bolts (no ironwork allowed that might detune the radio performance). The apparatus was built to carry 1000 amps of radio-frequency current, although it normally operated at 750 amps. The frequency transmitted was 16kHz normally, although tests had also been made at 22kHz. The transmitter valves operated with an anode voltage of 12 kilovolts, supplied by some pretty powerful power transformers or else by standby generators that we saw later in the power hall. Transmissions were normally MSK (Minimum Shift Keying, a form of FSK-Frequency Shift Keying-used to carry digital information on a radio carrier) and occasionally A1 (on-off keying or 'OOK').
>
>Some great radio history at these web sites:
>
>http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/r/rugby_radio/index2.shtml
>
>http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/r/rugby_radio/index70.shtml
>
>I was there several years ago visiting a friend who worked at BT.  It was a beautiful site to see on a clear day...100s of sheep feeding on the grassy fields under the towers; a  massive installation...British TEL actually built their own towers in those days, had their own repair and maint. shop, crew, et al.
>
>This installation was significantly larger than our Annapoplis, MD  VLF station.  ;-)
>
>73,
>dave
>wa3gin
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