Radio fog signal experimental station Arkona
The Arkona radio fog signal experimental station was an experimental arrangement for researching the propagation of electromagnetic waves on the open sea. The results of these tests were the basis for the later development of marine radio fires .
After previous attempts in 1906–1909 in Swinoujscie and at Müggelsee near Friedrichshagen , at that time a suburb of Berlin, from 1911 a radio system was built in Jaromarsburg at Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen , with which the “ Hertzian waves could be used for the fog signal service “ Should be tested for shipping .
Previous attempts
Since lighthouses are not very helpful in foggy conditions and bells (from 1866), sirens (from 1875) and foghorns (from 1888) to mark a station on land, as well as underwater bells (from 1905 initially under lightships) as sound signals only enabled an inadequate bearing , were ab 1906 made the first attempts to use electromagnetic waves in the fog signal service. These attempts were significantly advanced by Walter Körte on behalf of the leading Ministry of Public Affairs and Bruno Donath , head of the physical department of the Urania Science Society in Berlin, with the assistance of the Society for Wireless Telegraphy ( Telefunken ), which was founded in 1903.
After the first radio-technical experiments from June 22nd to 25th, 1906 in the test rooms of the Urania, these experiments were continued from July 30th to August 28th, 1906 in Swinoujscie. The signals sent could still be received at a distance of 16 nm on the steamer Dresel , a tour ship of the Swinoujscie hydraulic engineering authority.
In 1909 the idea came up to send the electromagnetic waves out one after the other in the 16 directions of the compass rose and to mark the signals according to a dash-dot system (similar to the Morse code ) (this solution is related to the Telefunken compass) Transmitter from 1908, which was later developed into a rotary radio beacon for aviation navigation). The signals sent by a transmitter station located on land could then be evaluated on a ship with a relatively simple receiving station and the own position direction could be determined by comparing the respective volume. For this purpose, a transmitting station with 16 pairs of antennas was set up between Friedrichshagen and Rahnsdorf am Müggelsee , and in the autumn of 1909, with the help of telegraph engineer Franz Kiebitz from the Reich Post Office, a test boat sharpened bearings of half a compass line (about 6 degrees ). Although the results were very encouraging, they could not be continued on a larger scale in 1910 due to adverse circumstances (quote from Walter Körte). The main features of the experiments in theoretical and practical terms were published in the Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung (published in the Ministry of Public Works) on October 30, 1909, in order to make the system unpatentable, i.e. to prevent any patent claims from other parties.
Quote:
“Electric waves in the fog signal service. The Prussian building administration is pursuing the idea of making the electric waves usable for the fog signal service, so that the beacons are replaced in bad weather. At the beginning of June d. J. began building an electrical fog signaling station in the experimental rooms of the Sea Marking Committee of the Ministry of Public Works. In order to enable the direction from which the signal is coming to be recognized, the device has been designed in such a way that a specially marked signal is transmitted from a fixed pair of antennas after each compass mark. The highest or lowest volume perceived in the receiver is decisive for the observation of the direction. Particular care is taken to ensure that the receiver is simple and cheap so that it can also be used in small shipping. The receiving device consists of a simple receiving wire with one of the known radio receivers. Two small test stations are currently set up at the Müggelsee. The results of previous attempts justify the hope that it will be possible in this way to create a fog signal that surpasses the previous purely acoustic fog signals in terms of reliability, without necessitating greater expenditures for shipping. Ke. "
Experimental setup at Cape Arkona
It was not until November 6, 1911, in connection with securing the Saßnitz – Trelleborg ferry line, the Minister of Public Works ordered that attempts to utilize the Hertzian waves in the fog signal service should be continued on a larger scale at Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen as soon as possible. For this purpose, a coordination took place with the Reichsmarineamt , the Reichspostamt and the regional president of the administrative district Stralsund . Then the detailed planning of the technical and structural procedure began in close cooperation with the Telefunken company, which also provided the necessary equipment, as can be seen from a protocol of April 15, 1912. The antenna arrangement essentially corresponded to the one built in 1909 at Müggelsee. It consisted of eight masts of 20 m height, which were erected in a circle of 40 m diameter according to the main directions of the compass rose within the Jaromarsburg , which had been deserted since 1168 , between which the 16 antennas were arranged with the help of suspension cables. In the middle of this circle, a small building was erected to house the technology for broadcasting. On September 30, 1912, the Stralsund government and building councilor Hentschel announced that the new station was completed and operational. With the help of simple detector receivers on board the ferries on the Saßnitz – Trelleborg line and government steamers, promising results were achieved (bearing from a distance of 32 nm and the signals audible to the port of Trelleborg). However, the following tests (particularly intensive from December 11th to 19th, 1912) showed that, on the one hand, the radio signal was severely weakened in the shadow of the Jasmund peninsula and, on the other hand, the radio link sometimes completely failed in rainy and stormy weather. In 1913, various sides discussed possibilities for improvement and expansion, but these were no longer used before the outbreak of the First World War .
After the end of the First World War and the German Empire, Germany experienced a long phase of political and economic reorientation. It is true that Article 101 of the Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919 stipulates that it is the responsibility of the Reich to take ownership and administration of all navigation marks , especially beacons, lightships, buoys, buoys and beacons, and Article 171 states "The state railways, waterways and navigation marks will be transferred to the Reich on April 1st, 1921 at the latest." , But the practical implementation took years. The newly established Reich Ministry of Economics took over the lead for the navigation system, but had to deal with the Reich Ministry of Transport, the Reichswehr Ministry (naval management) and the Reich Ministry of Post (when using radio telegraphy) and the individual German states, especially with Prussia, which has been the largest so far in questions of navigation Had competence, vote. In 1924 and 1925 plans were developed for a radio fog signal service for the North and Baltic Seas. On May 6, 1926, the term radio beacon was officially established for Germany based on the term beacon . In several shipping and navigation mark conferences between 1923 and 1939, technical and organizational questions were discussed and the common uniform procedure for the construction and operation of radio stations and radio beacons was determined.
The ideas for the directional transmission of radio signals marked accordingly by the compass rose, which had led to the test setup on Cape Arkona, had now become obsolete due to the advancing development of radio technology and the international standardization of radio fog signal stations (radio beacons). In particular, directional reception by on-board direction finders with DF frame antennas and the non-directional transmission of radio signals were preferred. It is therefore very likely that no further attempts were made with this transmitter at Cape Arkona during or after the war. As early as March 26, 1920, the district president in Stralsund announced that important equipment had been stolen from the Arkona test station. A restoration of the complex was suggested in December 1921, but probably no longer realized.
Further development
Instead, in 1925 , the Reichsmarine showed interest in the location to set up a direction finder radio station. In 1927 the naval direction finder tower for the observation of radio traffic on the southern Baltic Sea at the foot of the Jaromarsburg was built and, according to a message from June 4, 1927 in the news for seafarers , the eight wooden masts of the earlier experimental radio system in the Jaromarsburg has been eliminated. Although the original development of radio beacons began with this experimental station at Cape Arkona, an international agreement was reached at the beginning of the 1930s on the locations, frequencies, transmission methods and ranges of the eight radio beacons to be operated in and on the Baltic Sea. These locations were FS ( lightship ) Kiel, FS Fehmarnbelt, Warnemünde, Stubbenkammer, Swinemünde, FS Adlergrund, Jershöft and Pillau. The radio beacon Stubbenkammer on the Jasmund peninsula , only 18 km as the crow flies from Cape Arkona, has consisted of two steel lattice masts since April 1927, which were 45 and 55 m high and 110 m apart. The antenna was suspended between these at about 150 m above sea level. This radio beacon was only taken out of service in July 1984.
See also
literature
- Johannes Braun: Funknavigation (Seefunkfeuer) / Work of the Prussian and German navigation mark administration and the navigation mark test field / A summary of the development history of the radio navigation marks from files from 1905–1939 Part 1 and 2 Published by the WSV for traffic engineering. Seezeichenversuchsfeld, Koblenz 1962. Retrieved on May 23, 2006 at fvt.wsv.de/museum/ff_Zeittafel/ff_zeitt_01.html and /ff_zeitt_02.html (obtained in fragments from web.archive.org )
- Johannes Braun: Attempts by the German administration with electrical waves in the fog signal service (radio beacon / marine radio beacon) Published by the WSV specialist office for traffic engineering. Seezeichenversuchsfeld, Koblenz 1962. Retrieved on May 23, 2006 from www.wsv.de/fvt/museum/ff_arcona_01/ff_arcona_01.html (available in fragments from web.archive.org )
- Gerhard Wiedemann (eds.), Johannes Braun, Hans Joachim Haase: The German sea mark system - 1850-1990 between sailing and container shipping. DSV-Verlag, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-88412-275-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Communication on electrical waves in the fog signal service in the Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung dated October 30, 1909, pp. 570–571.
- ↑ Wiedemann: Das deutsche Sezeichenwesen - 1850-1990 between sailing and container shipping. 1998, p. 407.
- ↑ Wiedemann: Das deutsche Sezeichenwesen - 1850-1990 between sailing and container shipping. 1998, pp. 412-414.
- ↑ Wiedemann: Das deutsche Sezeichenwesen - 1850-1990 between sailing and container shipping. 1998, p. 414.
Coordinates: 54 ° 40 ′ 35.8 " N , 13 ° 26 ′ 12.2" E