Bisamberg transmitter

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Bisamberg transmitter
Image of the object
Transmission system in 2006 before the end of operation
Basic data
Place: Bisamberg mountain near Floridsdorf
State: Vienna
Country: Austria
Altitude : 308  m above sea level A.
Coordinates: 48 ° 18 '40.3 "  N , 16 ° 23' 2.4"  E
Use: Broadcasting station
Owner : Austrian radio station
Demolition : February 24, 2010
Data on the transmission system
Tower / mast 1
Height: 265 m
Construction time: 1959
Operating time: 1959-2008


Tower / mast 2
Height: 120 m
Construction time: 1959
Operating time: 1959-2008
Waveband : AM station
Radio : MW broadcasting
Shutdown : Late 2008
Position map
Transmitter Bisamberg (Vienna)
Bisamberg transmitter
Bisamberg transmitter
Localization of Vienna in Austria

The transmitter Bisamberg was a transmitter for medium wave (MW) on the Bisamberg at the boundary between Vienna and Lower Austria . He was at an altitude of 308  m above sea level. A. The first transmitter was built in 1933, but was destroyed at the end of the Second World War. The second transmitter - taken over by Kronstorf , Upper Austria - was newly built here in 1959 and was in operation until 1995. Between 1997 and 2008 the transmitter was used again in part. On February 24, 2010, both transmission masts were blown up because maintaining them would have been too costly.

With a height of 265 m, one of the two transmission masts of this system was considered to be the tallest structure in Austria and the City of Vienna until 2010 (and 274 m at the Kronstorf site ) , and in the early years all of Europe . When the tall transmitter mast fell, the Danube Tower (252 m), completed in 1964, became Austria's tallest structure for the first time.

history

First transmitter

The Bisamberg was chosen as the location of the transmitter based on previous dispersion measurements with a portable transmitter. The first transmitter went into operation on May 28, 1933 and transmitted until it was destroyed on April 13, 1945 by the withdrawing SS troops .

The transmitter at that time was a directional antenna with the main beam direction to the west, which consisted of two diamond-shaped transmission masts , so-called Blaw-Knox transmission masts , isolated from earth . Since there were hardly any publications about this type of transmitter mast, Radio Verkehrs AG (RAVAG) initially carried out tests at Seyring .

A quarter of the operating wavelength, i.e. around 130 meters, was chosen as the mast height. In the construction of the two identical masts, however, the possibility was included of adding a 5-meter-high additional mast section with a steel tube that can be moved up to 15 meters on the top of the mast, in order to be able to take into account any changes in the wavelength.

The high-frequency systems of the 100 kW transmitter were supplied by the Telefunken company . The transmitter mast was built by Ignaz Gridl jun. and the erecting mast made by Waagner-Biro , with the plans being drawn up jointly by the two companies. The guy ropes for the transmitter mast were supplied by Felten & Guilleaume , those for the erection mast by the Sankt Egyder Eisen- und Stahl-Industrie-Gesellschaft in Vienna. Ernst Melan checked the plans and calculations for Ravag as the client .

The transmission mast was erected by the Gridl company in the winter of 1932/1933, the directional mast was installed by Waagner-Biro in autumn 1933. This work could only be carried out during the breaks in transmission, otherwise life was in danger. During the radio broadcasts, it had to be isolated from earth in order not to impair the broadcast quality.

Since the transmitter was not yet sufficiently connected to the public power grid, two 420 kVA and one 335 kVA generator from Siemens-Schuckert with diesel engines from the Grazer Waggonfabrik were used as an independent power supply. Thanks to the intervention of employees, the machines built in 1932 were prevented from being blown up in 1945 and they are still there today, even if they are no longer in use. However, the transmitter building and the antenna system were destroyed.

The transmitter's power supply system: two five-cylinder and one four-cylinder diesel engines from the Grazer Waggonfabrik with generators from Siemens-Schuckert . 500 PS resp. 400 HP power.

After RAVAG was dissolved in 1938, the transmission system was taken over by the Deutsche Reichspost .

Second transmission system

Bisamberg transmitter - transmitter building

Immediately after the Second World War, makeshift broadcasting operations with a 10 kW transmitter each in the radio building on Argentinierstraße and one in the tobacco control room were started, until 1950 on Bisamberg another transmitter with 35 kW output built by the company Czeija & Nissel was received remaining staircase went into operation. A 65 meter high lightweight mast was used as the antenna. After a 100 kW transmitter had been installed on Wilhelminenberg , this temporary arrangement could be dismantled.

In 1954, the Kronstorf transmitter , which was set up by the American occupation forces in Upper Austria between 1950 and 1952 and primarily broadcasts eastwards, into the Soviet occupation zone, was handed over to Austria. After the withdrawal of US troops in 1955, the strongest transmitter in the country was in an unfavorable position and with an unfavorable beam direction. In 1956, the 274 m high and one of the two 137 m high transmission masts were dismantled and adapted to the new frequencies again on the Bisamberg.

The self- radiating transmission masts, which were isolated at the base, each guyed on three levels and designed as half-wave dipoles , were now 265 m (north mast for 585 kHz) and 120 m (south mast for 1476 kHz) high. The north mast was the tallest structure in Austria until 2010 . The masts were under high voltage during operation . In the area of ​​the central platform of the north mast there was a separating insulator so that the upper part could be used simultaneously for the 1476 kHz frequency. The isolator was later dismantled and simultaneous operation was made possible through a complex adjustment in the antenna house. Both transmitter masts were located in the city of Vienna in the Floridsdorf district , whereas the transmitter building, which is now under monument protection, is largely in the municipality of Langenzersdorf and thus in Lower Austria.

On August 17, 1959, the transmitter with the new masts and four tube transmitters with a maximum output of 120 kW each (150 kW according to other sources) went into regular operation. Two each were tuned for one frequency and could transmit in parallel with 240 kW. The power could also be throttled to 60 kW. The two 150 kW transmitters and the antenna house equipment were supplied by Brown Boveri . On May 1, 1975, a 600 kW transmitter went into operation, which also worked with electron tubes. This could be switched between 585 kHz and 1476 kHz. The types CQS400 with an anode power loss of 400 kW and an anode voltage of 14 kV were used as transmitter tubes .

On September 6, 1994, the main transmitter control for all television and radio programs in Austria was relocated to the Kahlenberg transmitter and on January 1, 1995 broadcasting operations were discontinued. On March 21, 1997, the 120 kW transmitter went back into operation with a power reduced to 60 kW on the frequency of 1476 kHz. A mixed program from Ö1 , Radio Austria International and programs from various groups from Germany and abroad was broadcast. On May 3, 1999, the 600 kW transmitter was reactivated for about 3 months in order to be able to broadcast information programs such as the ORF program neighbor in need in the direction of the Balkans in the course of the breakup of Yugoslavia .

At the end of 2000, all tube transmitters were taken out of service and instead a fully transistorized 100 kW medium wave transmitter on the frequency of 1476 kHz was put into operation. However, the station only broadcast with a reduced output of 60 kW and broadcast the program “ Radio 1476 ” every day . The transistor transmitter consists of 80 individual HF output stages, each of which has a maximum of 3 kW.

At the end of 2008, the operating company ORS stopped operating the transmitter. The "Radio 1476" program can no longer be received terrestrially and has been replaced by the " oe1campus " web radio .

According to broadcast technician Jürgen Conrad, the station had the internal name "Alice". (All MW stations of the ORF have female names, shortwave stations male.) Instead of switching off the station on January 1, 1995 at exactly midnight, it still broadcast the Blue Danube Waltz - and would have been willing to pay the electricity costs for these eleven minutes privately.

and display information about the image
Transmitter Bisamberg broadcasting hall

Demolition

Demolition of the north mast

The two transmission masts were to be blown up on February 24, 2010 at 12 noon (lower transmission mast) and 3 p.m. (high transmission mast). The first mast could only be blown up at 12:42 p.m. due to a delay caused by a resident who did not want to leave his house in the security zone. The second tower followed on schedule at 3:00 p.m. Preserving the transmitter masts as a memorial was not possible due to the associated costs. The listed building with the transmission room, which is to be made accessible to the public, will be retained.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sender Bisamberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Sender Bisamberg  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Google and the medium wave monster , ORF Futurezone, May 30, 2008, accessed on February 24, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Hans Kikinger: The large broadcast system on Bisamberg , in: Erich Gusel (Red.): Around the Bisamberg. Ein Heimatbuch , Volume 2, Lang-Enzersdorf 1961
  3. ↑ The radio transmitter United Bisamberg (with photo). In:  People's Post. Social democratic weekly paper for the districts of Schwechat, Hainburg and Bruck ad L. / Volkspost. Social democratic weekly paper for the districts of Schwechat, Hainburg and Bruck ad L. The red mockingbird. Journal for Criticism and Humor , December 23, 1932, p. 9 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / vpt
  4. ↑ ANNO, Radio Vienna, 1933-05-26. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Erich Moechel: Transmitter masts on the Bisamberg fall , futurezone.orf.at, February 24, 2010
  6. ↑ Medium waves Harald Chmela: Transmission system Bisamberg . http://www.hcrs.at - transmitter measurement technician on the medium wave transmission system Bisamberg
  7. ↑ Peter: Modernization of the main transmitter control on Kahlenberg , blog.ors.at, 23 September 2008. Not available on 18 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Shutdown of the DAB pilot project and medium wave , blog.ors.at. Unavailable on February 18, 2016.
  9. ↑ The transmission mast on Bisamberg is blown up , orf.at, February 24, 2010.
  10. ^ Bisamberg: Both transmitter masts blown up , January 22nd, 2010. Unavailable on Feb. 18, 2016.
  11. ^ Bisamberg: First mast blown up. Austria , February 24, 2010, accessed on July 2, 2020 . .
  12. ↑ Hannes Uhl, Kurier, January 22, 2010: Sender Bisamberg: A landmark falls ( Memento of January 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )