Country transmitter Sottens

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Country transmitter Sottens
Image of the object
The reserve antenna still preserved today as well as the transmitter building of the state transmitter
Basic data
Place: Sottens ( Jorat-Menthue )
Canton: Vaud
Country: Switzerland
Altitude : 777  m
Coordinates: 46 ° 39 '21.8 "  N , 6 ° 43' 44.4"  E ; CH1903:  five hundred forty-five thousand six hundred and eighty-two  /  one hundred and sixty-seven thousand four hundred forty-nine
Use: Broadcasting station
Accessibility: Transmission tower not open to the public
Owner : Jorat-Menthue municipality
Tower data
Construction time : 1931
Building material : steel
Operating time: 1931-2010
Total height : 125  m
Data on the transmission system
Waveband : AM station
Radio : MW broadcasting
Shutdown : December 31, 2010
Position map
State transmitter Sottens (Canton of Vaud)
Country transmitter Sottens
Country transmitter Sottens
Localization of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland

The national broadcaster Sottens was founded as a national broadcaster for French-speaking Switzerland . It is located in the locality of Sottens in the Vaudois municipality of Jorat-Menthue and started operations in 1931. The French-language program Option Musique with an output of 170 kW (until 2009: 600 kW) was broadcast on the medium wave frequency 765 kHz with the transmitter until December 3, 2010 , which meant that the transmitter could be heard in large parts of Europe during the night. Until December 31, 2010, a message loop with alternative reception options for the Option Musique program ran.

After that, the transmitter was used by radio amateurs from January 28, 2011 to March 5, 2011.

history

Medium wave transmitter

The transmitter began operating in 1931 on the frequency 677 kHz (443.1 meters) with an output of 25 kilowatts. The transmission power was increased in 1934 (100 kilowatts), 1950 (200 kilowatts), 1970 (500 kilowatts) and 1988 (600 kilowatts), for which new transmitters were installed in the respective years. Until 1947 a T-antenna was used, which was stretched between two 125-meter-high steel truss masts. The T antenna was dismantled in 1958, one of the two masts dismantled and rebuilt as a television broadcast tower in La Dôle . The other tower, which is isolated from the earth, remained in Sottens, was converted into a self-radiating transmission tower and last served as a reserve antenna. From 1947 to 1989 a 190 meter high self-radiating steel lattice tower, which was designed as a shrinkage-reducing antenna , was used as a transmitting antenna, which was similar to the Blosenberg tower in Beromünster . On September 21, 1989 at 4:04 p.m. local time, the 190-meter-high transmission tower was blown up because it required more maintenance due to the onset of rust . In the same year, a 188 meter high freestanding steel lattice tower with a trap antenna with central feed was built to replace the blown up transmission tower. Until 1994 the first program of the radio of the French-speaking Switzerland Radio Suisse Romande (today Radio Télévision Suisse ) was broadcast, since 1994 the program of the then restarted Option Musique has been running on the station . Since the transmitter had not complied with the stricter limit values ​​in Switzerland for non-ionizing radiation and a renovation would result in a further reduction in output and thus a drop in range, the transmitter should be switched off on December 3, 2010. In fact, until December 31, 2010, there was a loop that indicated alternative reception options for Option Musique.

After it was switched off, the transmitter was used by radio amateurs from January 28 to March 5, 2011 inclusive. On February 13 and 20, 2011, DRM was also broadcast.

On August 20, 2014 at 2 p.m., the 188 meter high main transmission tower in Sottens was blown up, as maintaining it would have been uneconomical. The 125-meter-high reserve transmission tower, however, remains standing, as it is a cultural asset of national importance and must therefore not be demolished.

In autumn 2014, the municipality of Jorat-Menthue , on whose territory the state transmitter Sottens is located, took over the entire transmitter site, including the reserve transmitter tower and the transmitter building, from Swisscom .

Shortwave transmitter

In 1971 a shortwave transmission system for Schweizer Radio International was set up in Sottens . It consisted of a rotating stand antenna and a 500 kilowatt transmitter from Brown, Boveri & Cie. In 1988 the transmitter installed in 1971 was beaten against the last by Brown, Boveri & Cie. developed model exchanged. After the short-wave transmitters in Schwarzenburg , Lenk and Beromünster were shut down in 1998, the short-wave transmitter in Sottens was shut down on October 31, 2004. The entire short-wave transmission system was dismantled shortly thereafter.

photos

  • Former main antenna (left) and reserve antenna still preserved today (right)

  • Main antenna from further away

  • Reserve antenna from further away

  • Former swivel antenna for shortwave in Sottens

  • Aerial 1952

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ biennophone.ch: The medium wave transmitters in Switzerland
  2. ↑ [ Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ], Federal Administration notification about the planned shutdown @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.news.admin.ch
  3. ↑ a b dxaktuell.de: Radio amateurs use Sottens transmitters - also digitally
  4. ↑ a b biennophone.ch: Documentation of the PTT about the transmitter from 1990
  5. ↑ news.admin.ch: Switching off the medium wave in French-speaking Switzerland
  6. ↑ hb9mm.com: Operation sottens HE3OM
  7. ^ Kai Ludwig: Sottens MW antenna is blown up. (No longer available online.) Radioeins Medienmagazin, July 26, 2014, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; accessed on August 2, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radioeins.de
  8. ↑ A – Objects VD 2018 . Swiss inventory of cultural assets of national importance. In: babs.admin.ch / kulturgueterschutz.ch. Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP - Department of Cultural Property Protection, January 1, 2018, accessed on December 26, 2017 (PDF; 166 kB, 35 pages, updated annually, the changes for 2018 are marked in blue).
  9. ↑ Swisscom: The main tower of the former national transmitter in Sottens is blown up. August 19, 2014, accessed August 22, 2014 .