On December 1st, 1924, the VLF transmitter, with call sign "SAQ" at Grimeton Radio Station, was put into commercial operation, with transmissions across the Atlantic ocean, to the receiving station at Riverhead and the replying transmitter station at Rocky Point, both on Long Island, NY, USA.
On December 1st 2024, one hundred years later, SAQ will air to commemorate this event. The unique Alexanderson alternator from 1924, with the call sign SAQ, is scheduled for one transmission over the antenna on VLF 17.2 kHz CW.
Program & transmission schedule:
10:00 CET (09:00 UTC) The doors to the transmitter hall will open.
10:20 CET (09:20 UTC) Live YouTube broadcast begins.
10:30 CET (09:30 UTC) Start-up of the Alternator.
11:00 CET (10:00 UTC) Transmission of a message
Background: In 1895 the Italian physicist and later Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) had realised wireless telegraphy, i.e. the possibility of transmitting information with the help of radio waves.
The communication across the Atlantic did not function well during World War I and the need of telegram traffic with America was great. The Swedish Parliament therefore decided in 1920 that a Swedish long wave transmitting station and a receiving station should be built under the direction of the “Telegrafverket”.
Important for the location of the establishment was that the wave propagation path was run across open waters – south of Norway and north of Denmark and Scotland. In Grimeton, east of Varberg, the open landscape gave free way for the radio waves out towards the Western Sea and besides, the name was easy to pronounce for Americans.
The Great Radio Station was built during the years 1922-1924.
More info at: https://grimeton.org/en/100-years-of-communication/
