Coast station
Coastal radio stations (KüFuSt) are fixed radio stations of the mobile maritime radio service that transmit messages to and from ships on the high seas by telegraph or telephone . They can be used to communicate with the rescue services in emergencies.
meaning
The exchange of messages with and between seagoing vessels is referred to as a marine radio service. The fixed radio stations of this service are called "coastal radio stations", the mobile ones, i.e. ships, " marine radio stations ". Coastal radio stations serve to switch public telecommunications (in this case radio telegrams and calls) between the marine radio stations and the telecommunications networks on land. In earlier times, when there was no satellite radio or mobile phones , shipping companies were dependent on marine radio. In addition, the members of the ship's crew can contact their loved ones at sea via the normal telephone network and the switchboard of the coast station.
Private telephone calls and telegrams and an even larger number of official matters run over such radio networks from and to shipping companies, charterers , ship brokers and port operators from all sea areas of the world .
Since the 1990s, the structure of global marine radio has changed fundamentally and with it the importance of coastal radio stations. Due to the global coverage of the seas by navigation and communication satellites, many commercial ship operators use the Inmarsat satellite telephone network in particular . The analogue switching of calls by coastal radio stations via global shortwave radio is no longer necessary. In non-commercial shipping, land-based cellular networks are increasingly being used because they guarantee usable coverage in coastal waters such as the Baltic Sea.
Coastal radio stations still play a role in three main areas:
On the one hand, they are an integral part of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS for short, worldwide distress and safety radio system ). The uninterrupted observation of the telegraphy and voice radio emergency frequencies, the management of the emergency and urgency radio traffic within the distress area of the responsible coastal radio station are still mostly part of the scope of work today. Likewise, the coordinated forwarding of information on emergencies at sea to the responsible departments and organizations of the rescue services. After all public German coastal radio stations have been closed, the Bremen Rescue Radio (BRR) is the only non-private facility to operate as the radio station of the MRCC Bremen (Maritime Rescue Coordination Center) for GMDSS operations.
The military seafaring usually operates its own coastal radio stations because they want to keep their communications independent of public networks. The naval forces only partially use commercial and mostly sovereignly operated satellite radio systems.
Finally, after the end of the public marine radio stations, there was an increasing commercialization of marine radio. The public coastal radio stations also raised fees, but radio stations have now been replaced by them that are operated by communications groups or private individuals who, for. B. offer worldwide e-mail traffic and operate their own billing centers. One example is that of Swisscom operated Bernradio . Kiel Radio GmbH offers various services in Germany.
history
The maritime radio service is one of the oldest branches of radio communication. The first attempts at wireless telegraphy were made on the coasts . Ships and lightships were the carriers of the first radio systems. The year 1897 is considered to be the year of birth of practical radio telegraphy, because it was here that Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in wirelessly transmitting messages for the first time on the Bristol Channel over a distance of 5.5 km. On December 10, 1901, he transmitted the first Morse code (letter "S") between England and Signal Hill near St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Radio tests in Strasbourg
From 1898 onwards, Ferdinand Braun , Rector of the Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasbourg , dealt again with radio technology. Braun and Hertz were known to each other because Hertz was Braun's successor at the Technical University of Karlsruhe. After Hertz discovered radio waves in 1887, no importance was attached to radio waves. Like other researchers, Braun initially introduced radio waves into bodies of water, but quickly switched to air conductors. In the spring of 1899 he visited Cuxhaven in order to coordinate the modalities for the experiments at sea with the authorities. Concerns were expressed that the radio waves might interfere with the compasses of ships passing on the Elbe. The history of the German maritime radio is connected with the island of Borkum and especially with the city of Cuxhaven .
Coastal radio station Borkum
On May 15, 1900, a station of the Marconi system was put into operation at the Kleiner Borkumer lighthouse and on the lightship Borkum Riff . The operator is the water and shipping administration in Emden, the systems were paid for by the North German Lloyd Bremen. This station is considered to be the first in the world to be set up for commercial service.
Radio tests in Cuxhaven
Initially, Braun's assistant Cantor undertook the first experiments at sea and was replaced in summer 1899 by Jonathan Zenneck , who was in Cuxhaven until the end of the experiments in autumn 1900. Starting from the lighthouse (built in 1805) on Alte Liebe , new circuits, antennas and arrangements are tried out.
The seaside resort ship "Sylvana" of the North Sea Lines is used to try out the systems on board a ship on the voyages between Cuxhaven and Helgoland. The land station will later be relocated to Kugelbake in Cuxhaven-Döse. Success can be celebrated on September 24, 1900: Braun is on Heligoland; spontaneously asked to formulate a text that is to be transmitted wirelessly to the mainland, he composes:
"For today's festival, best wishes, don't drink so much at Dölle, otherwise you will be full."
At that time Dölle was a well-known and popular hotel in Cuxhaven. Zenneck is remembered in Cuxhaven-Döse, directly on the sea dike within sight of the Kugelbake, by a memorial stone in the form of an obelisk.
After the success, the lightships in the Elbe estuary are equipped with telegraph radio systems and take part in a ship reporting service. The experiments on the North Sea are over and Zenneck is returning to Strasbourg. Zenneck later became a professor himself and played an important role in the study of the ionosphere; among other things he becomes director of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Cuxhaven is considered the cradle of German maritime radio.
In 1904 the "Marinefunkenstation Cuxhaven" was built at the Alte Liebe in Cuxhaven, which initially served purely military purposes. From 1906 onwards it also brokered telegrams of private content from the sea to the Reich Postal Administration . From 1910 on, post officials also worked for this radio station in addition to the navy. Finally, in 1912, the Reich Postal Administration took over this station and since then has operated it as a coastal radio station for public maritime radio traffic. This practically begins the history of Elbe-Weser Radio. The service was closed on December 15, 1996 and handed over to Norddeich Radio.
Coast station north
The best-known German coastal radio station was Norddeich Radio: Allegedly on the instructions of Kaiser Wilhelm II , the establishment of a coastal radio station was operated from 1902, which was to cover the area of the Western German Bight to the English Channel. In 1907 the plant in Norddeich went into operation. In the 1990s, the tasks of the other German coastal radio stations were gradually transferred to Norddeich Radio until the station was finally shut down on December 31, 1998.
Swinoujscie coast radio station
For the Baltic Sea area , a coastal radio station was put into operation in Swinoujscie in 1911 . It was relocated to Glowe in 1932 under the name Rügen Radio and remained in operation until 1998 and the shortwave traffic from Rügen Radio was affiliated with Norddeich Radio.
Bern radio
Bernradio (callsign HEB) was the worldwide active coastal radio station in Switzerland . It was the only coastal radio station in the world operated by a landlocked country . Marine radio was operated in Switzerland from 1941 to 2016.
Coast station Kiel
After the Second World War , a new coastal radio station, Kiel Radio, was put into operation in 1946 to cover the German part of the Baltic Sea , which remained in operation until 1994.
Coastal radio stations Lüderitzbucht and Swakopmund
The first coastal radio station in German South West Africa was completed on February 1 and opened in Swakopmund on February 4, 1912. The Reichs-Funktelegraphenanstalt in Lüderitzbucht went into operation on June 3, 1912.
In addition to these four coastal radio stations, there were numerous remote stations that were remotely controlled from them.
End of the official coastal radio stations for public transport in Germany
With the increasing concentration of marine radio services in the nineties, among other things through the introduction of satellite communication , more and more coastal radio stations were gradually closed and all services were first combined on Norddeich Radio and then discontinued. On December 31, 1998, the official coastal radio service in Germany was finally shut down.
Today, the monitoring of marine radio frequencies, z. B. on emergency calls , perceived by the Bremen Sea Emergency Management (MRCC Bremen). The operator is the German Society for Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS), which ensures a 24-hour audio watch at its headquarters. Your radio call name is Bremen Rescue Radio . Due to the limited VHF range of approx. 30 nm (approx. 55 km), a VHF relay radio system with 19 radio stations is operated at exposed locations, which covers the entire German coast.
Private coastal radio stations for public transport
Schiffsmeldedienst GmbH Hamburg (SMD) began building a chain of private coastal radio stations in 1998, which grew to five stations by 2000. On April 1, 2000, the former managing director of SMD, Captain Reiner Dietzel, took over the coastal radio stations and their operation under the company name DP07 Maritime Radio . The coast radio stations of DP07 can still transfer marine radio calls to the telephone network and send telegrams . DP07 operates eleven coast radio stations (as of 2007). The operations center is located in Hamburg. For the North Sea there are separate stations in Accumersiel , Borkum , Bremen , Cuxhaven ("Elbe-Weser Radio") and on Pellworm ("Nordfriesland Radio"). For the Baltic Sea, the remote coastal radio stations are located in Damp ("Kiel Radio"), Flensburg , Lübeck , Rostock and in Sagard on Rügen ("Arkona Radio").
Coastal Military Stations
The telecommunications units of the German Navy continue to operate their own coastal radio stations. The plants were subject until its dissolution in 2002 the Marine Stewardship service command and since then the Command Support Group of the Fleet Command and the Command Support Group of the Admiralty . The facilities have been under the Naval Support Command since 2012 .
The following transmission systems are known:
- Long-wave transmitter DHO38 in Saterland
- Marlow naval radio station
- DHJ59 in Neuharlingersiel
- Hürup marine radio station
Lists of coast radio stations
| Station name | Callsign | country | activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Townsville Radio | VZG | Australia | Member of the GLN since 2006 |
| Darwin radio | VID | Australia | Operation stopped in 2002 |
| Ostend radio | (EAST) | Belgium | since 1930 |
| Portishead Radio | (GKB) | Great Britain | 1928 to 2000 |
| Lyngby Radio | (OXZ) | Denmark | active since 1924 |
| Bergen radio | (LGN) | Norway | Service broadcast on Rogaland Radio in 2004 |
| Rogaland Radio | (LGB, formerly LGQ) | Norway | active |
| Bern radio | HEB u. a. | Switzerland | active since 1922 |
| Stockholm radio | SDJ | Sweden | active since 1914 |
| San Francisco radio | KFS | United States | |
| Shanghai radio | XSG | People's Republic of China | active |
| KKL radio | United States | active | |
| KPH radio | KPH, KSM | United States | active |
| Isfjord Radio | Norway | active since the 1930s | |
| Taupo Maritime Radio / ZLM | New Zealand | active | |
| Bodø radio | LGP | Norway | active since 1938 |
| Scheveningen radio | (PCH) | Netherlands | 1904 to December 31, 1998 |
| Coast station | Occupation period | then remotely controlled by |
SMD from | DP07 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiel Mail | since Nov. 2000 | Kielradio GmbH | Initiator of the GLN | independently |
| Norddeich radio | 1907-1998 | |||
| Rügen radio | 1911-1998 | Norddeich radio | ? | |
| Elbe-Weser radio | 1904-1996 | Norddeich radio | ? | Apr 1, 2000 |
| Kiel radio | 1946-1994 | Rügen radio | 25th Mar 1999 | Apr 1, 2000 |
| Bremen radio | 1962 relay immediately | Elbe-Weser radio | ? | Apr 1, 2000 |
| Hamburg radio | 1959 (?) - 1961 | Elbe-Weser radio | Jan. 1, 1999 | Apr 1, 2000 |
| Eiderstedt radio | 1963 relay immediately | Elbe-Weser radio | ? | |
| Helgoland Radio | ? -? | Elbe-Weser radio | Apr 7, 1999 | |
| North Friesland Radio | 1963 relay immediately | Elbe-Weser radio | Apr 1, 2000 | |
| Flensburg radio | 1963 relay immediately | Kiel radio | ? | May 31, 2007 |
| Lübeck radio | 1963 relay immediately | Kiel radio | ? | Apr 1, 2000 |
| Rostock radio | 1963 -? | Rügen radio | ? | June 2007 |
| Wismar radio | 1971 -? | Rügen radio | ? | |
| Arkona radio | ? -? | Rügen radio | ? | Apr 1, 2000 |
| Fischland Radio | ? -? | Rügen radio | ? | |
| Finkenwerder radio | May 1998 | |||
| Cuxhaven radio | May 1998 | |||
| Borkum radio | ? | Apr 1, 2000 | ||
| Accumersiel radio | ? | ? |
See also
Web links
- The end of the coast radio stations
- DAC radio with pictures of the first coastal radio stations
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b From the “sand box” to the communication network The history of the development of the post and telegraph system in the colony of German South West Africa (1884 - 1915). Dissertation, University of Halle, December 2004.
- ↑ a b Online communication from DP07 Maritime Radio, accessed on January 12, 2008
- ^ Online communication from DP07 Maritime Radio, accessed January 12, 2008
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Hamburger radio for the sailors . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , June 11, 2005; Retrieved February 4, 2015
- ↑ a b c d e GMDSS News. maricom.de; Retrieved January 11, 2008
- ↑ a b c d R. Marschner: Elbe-Weser Radio / DAC - A historical review . Retrieved January 11, 2008
- ↑ a b Herbert Gondermann: “The coastal radio station Kiel Radio / DAO - Eine Chronik” , accessed on January 11, 2008
- ↑ a b message. DP07; Retrieved January 11, 2008
- ↑ a b Historical review on the HP von Rügen Radio; Retrieved January 11, 2008