Is this a Fessenden alternator, a unique mechanical long-wave radio transmitter from those amazing times, when there were no radio tubes yet? Are such transmitters still preserved somewhere? . How long have I been looking for such a video and how glad I am that I finally found it. Many thanks to the author
Believe it or not this is a big ULF transmitter that generates the carrier using electromechanical methods. Literally is a big alternator with lots of poles and a big disk in the middle. Modulation is by varying power to the electromagnets. ❤
Its an old AC-DC Converter 😉 An alternator delivering the required form of electricity is driven by an electric motor supplied by the mail line. Traction currendt was created by this way for a long time, in some areas still today.
Передавач для радіостанції на наддовгих хвилях потужністю 200 кВт. Довжина хвилі 17,4км. Використовувався для зв'язку між Європою (Швеція) та США телеграфом. Transmitter for a radio station on ultra-long waves with a power of 200 kW. The wavelength is 17.4 km. It was used to communicate between Europe (Sweden) and the USA by telegraph.
i wonder what the power output is. and what station it powered. you can see the shaft rotation speed increase at the begining of spool up. it's interesting to listen to the whine of the high frequency output go out of hearing range as the gear whine of the speed increaser over comes the drive motor hum.
The alternator produces 200 kW at 17,2 kHz AC being transmitted via a 2,2 km long antenna. See Wikipedia at e.g en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimeton_Radio_Station
Sounds more like a big industrial machine than telecommunication equipment. broadcasted long wave radio before vacuum tubes came out (pre 1920s). Motor at left, generator at right. Such a generator was called an Alexanderson unit. MacKay Radio and Rocky Point had such installations on Long Island.
Yes, This station is pointing towards just that station and was an important transatlantic link at that time. The receive antenna, Beverage type was several miles long, and was also pointing to New York
I was thinking of the Alexanderson generators. There was one at the Schenectady museum (courtesy GE) when I was a kid. Weren't they also used for induction heating?
Been there on a tour 35y ago amazing place and antenna system were you need a car to see it all, they used to activate it once a year to send a keymess to us, don't know if it still active but very very cool electromechanical device and solution to a transmitter. Definetly you get the mad scientist feeling walking around fluid resistors cells and 2 hand switches and motors and alternators big as small house and smells of oil and ozone, like a time machine back in good old times🙂
Would have been nice if consideration had been made for deaf people wanting to know what is being said… too many people refuse to enable closed captions on their videos.
Rest assured, not a single human word was spoken for the video, if the folks in the backgroud had spoken it was 110% droned out by the noise of the equipment.
17,200hz AC output? I guess that's how huge amounts of high frequency AC was generated before we had power electronics(like vacuum tubes and solidstate semiconductor transistors)
Fascinating to see this as mechanical work of art built over 100 years ago. So organic to see this in action vs pure electronic of conversion of AC to DC these days.
Love you videos!! They are transmitting it directly the antenna is enormous, I can see it from my kitchen 😊, ther was 2 transmitting generators from the beginning only one left. The antenna is 1.2 miles long supported by 8 125meters high towers
the original receiver was in Long Island New York, this site was only transmitting the signal, the receiver was located in Kungsbacka about 50km north of Varberg
Directly. They use similar frequency for communicating with submarines. The antennas for transmission are giant, while the receiver antennas are big coils of wire usually with a ferrite core.
What is the driven motor starting method? Wound rotor with a couple of different rotor resistances? I didn't see brushes on the drive motor so I'm assuming it's AC driven, 3000 RPM 2 pole?
Actually, no. AC motor driven by the power line on the left, speed increasing gearbox in the center between the brass couplings, and the 17.2 kHz generator on the right.
@@coastersaganot that either, frequency booster. used to boost line frequency AC to an AC frequency high enough to be used as a radio transmission power source. Google Alexandeson Alternator to see what this machine does and Google Radio to see why it has to create AC.
@@CATech1138 The drive is a 2200V DC slip ring motor, not AC. The nearest set of equipment cabinets in the background are the motor speed controller, using mercury rheostats and frequency feedback to adjust ~150A of current.
Imagine living your life I'm the countryside, and the seeing, and hearing something this "high-tech". Truly the stuff of Jules Verne. So good this history is preserved for all to experience.
I would like to put my hand on that casting, to feel its vibrations. I know about Grimeton transmitter since i was teen, maybe one day i would meet it in person. Just wondering would i be able to hear it on my receiver (with converter, lowest my receivers go is 30KHz) where i live in south of Europe since antenna is pointed towards US.
The thing about it is that it propagates through a mode that HF people haven't heard of, where the lowest layer of the ionosphere and the ground form a waveguide to pipe the signal long distances. The lowest ionospheric layers (A and B layers) are static, unlike the E and F layers the HF people are familiar with, so the propagation is the same day or night, but the ground impedance is even more critical than ground wave since it forms half the waveguide. So if you are in a place where it is all ocean between you and Grimeton, like New York, it is not very difficult to copy their test transmissions. But if you are in a place where there is considerable land in the way (say, Spain), you will probably not be able to hear it at all. And it's only a 31-hour train ride from Spain to Gothenburg...
There is a program called "spectrum analyzer" which was written by DL4YHF (if i am correct) which runs on personal computers....It can be used to receive this signal without any other electronics (except maybe a loop antenna). There is a lot of military activity in this frequency range used to communicate with submerged submarines and the like.
@@kludgeaudio Only water betwen me and Grimeton is Baltic sea, than it is all land for 1500km. If i find time i should make large loop antenna to find out, converter i alredy have, it works from 10,100Khz. Thanks for the advice.
@@BjarneLinetsky I have many (more than hundred) old radios and comunnication receivers. I would like to try this in old fashion way, like oldtimers did it before i was born. Communication receiver (maybe one from 1930s) and converter. I know that SDR radio have made large progress in last 10 years, but in this application it does not feel right. Many thanks for your advice.
It uses a gearbox to get the speed up on the alternator to reach the 17.2 kHz frequency and if that gearbox use an even number of gears (2-4-6 gears and so on) then the rotation direction will change.
My guess: Since they won’t run the generator at every guided tour, they emulate the sound through the speaker. Besides the generator makes too much noise to have any conversation at all.
@@BahamasRunner The matte black box with the wire with a blue connector (Speakon I assume) going into it and a carrying handle on top and a beveled corner facing down right in the middle of the machine in front of the ribbed housing next to the brass thing with a pipe.The actual elements are facing away from the camera.
Why are they "stupid"? No video means nobody else can know it even exists, and even worse if for some reason it ever closes down. Then its gone for good without a trace. Rather I thank them for taking the time to document it.
@@mysock351C Simply put, enjoy what you see trough your eyes. There is no need to film everything using a mobile phone like in restaurants, avenues, places of interest. Put the damn phone down and enjoy what is shown. Recap to others and encourage them to go see same. Fucked up phone generation simply.
@@johanea Which is all well and good but its a bit of a non-sequitur here as its a historical site few will ever see, not someone taking selfies at a table.
@@moki123g Believe me, before the mobile phone zombies, us humans still saw and survived. Plus, I am 100% sure, people were more happy and less idiots.
I love this old machines, the really let you in. You can see what is happening AND the fasination for the people who build such a machin 100 years ago No cad ore cam 🤔 they had to know it all 😊
Is this a Fessenden alternator, a unique mechanical long-wave radio transmitter from those amazing times, when there were no radio tubes yet? Are such transmitters still preserved somewhere? . How long have I been looking for such a video and how glad I am that I finally found it. Many thanks to the author
Believe it or not this is a big ULF transmitter that generates the carrier using electromechanical methods. Literally is a big alternator with lots of poles and a big disk in the middle. Modulation is by varying power to the electromagnets. ❤
VLF, not ULF....
Wish there were more of them around still. Love to copy their cw note!
A little bit of background explanation of what this does and, what's it's purpose is, would be nice.
it was a telegraph line from Sweden to USA in the early 1900
Its an old AC-DC Converter 😉 An alternator delivering the required form of electricity is driven by an electric motor supplied by the mail line. Traction currendt was created by this way for a long time, in some areas still today.
Thank You@@tobiaswittenmeier1877
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimeton_Radio_Station
@tobiaswittenmeier1877 Sorry but you're mistaken. It generates high frequency AC for transmitting Morse code long distances.
What a great looking engine, very well kept. Certainly makes a change from a standard stationary engine.
Its a radio transmitter.
😂
Don't miss the output transmit frequency display on top of the control panel, at the end of the video. :)
Absolutely awe-inspiring
My God such a thing. I never saw any thing like it. Thanks.
Very impressive machine. Are these of the salient pole type ,which passes a slotted disk though vast number of pole pairs energized with DC ?
Yup.
Ahh yes, the anty mass spectro meter is charging up calmly a resonant cascade scennerio.
Took the words right out of my whatsit.
Передавач для радіостанції на наддовгих хвилях потужністю 200 кВт. Довжина хвилі 17,4км.
Використовувався для зв'язку між Європою (Швеція) та США телеграфом.
Transmitter for a radio station on ultra-long waves with a power of 200 kW. The wavelength is 17.4 km.
It was used to communicate between Europe (Sweden) and the USA by telegraph.
i wonder what the power output is. and what station it powered. you can see the shaft rotation speed increase at the begining of spool up. it's interesting to listen to the whine of the high frequency output go out of hearing range as the gear whine of the speed increaser over comes the drive motor hum.
The alternator produces 200 kW at 17,2 kHz AC being transmitted via a 2,2 km long antenna.
See Wikipedia at e.g en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimeton_Radio_Station
Sounds more like a big industrial machine than telecommunication equipment. broadcasted long wave radio before vacuum tubes came out (pre 1920s). Motor at left, generator at right. Such a generator was called an Alexanderson unit. MacKay Radio and Rocky Point had such installations on Long Island.
Yes, This station is pointing towards just that station and was an important transatlantic link at that time. The receive antenna, Beverage type was several miles long, and was also pointing to New York
I was thinking of the Alexanderson generators. There was one at the Schenectady museum (courtesy GE) when I was a kid. Weren't they also used for induction heating?
Been there on a tour 35y ago amazing place and antenna system were you need a car to see it all, they used to activate it once a year to send a keymess to us, don't know if it still active but very very cool electromechanical device and solution to a transmitter. Definetly you get the mad scientist feeling walking around fluid resistors cells and 2 hand switches and motors and alternators big as small house and smells of oil and ozone, like a time machine back in good old times🙂
Would have been nice if consideration had been made for deaf people wanting to know what is being said… too many people refuse to enable closed captions on their videos.
Rest assured, not a single human word was spoken for the video, if the folks in the backgroud had spoken it was 110% droned out by the noise of the equipment.
I have heard that the rotors of these alternators had such a high tangential velocity that they were polished by friction with the air....
Yes . 800km/h.
17,200hz AC output?
I guess that's how huge amounts of high frequency AC was generated before we had power electronics(like vacuum tubes and solidstate semiconductor transistors)
One method though carbon arc transmitters and spark gap transmitters could also used.
@@markgohl2660But not for CW or audio modulated signals...
@@annaplojharova1400 carbon arc can, actually. Sparc gap, not. Completely different engineering, just looks similar on the cover
broadcasts on the frequency
Was used for communication across the pond and to ships using Morse code.
Fascinating to see this as mechanical work of art built over 100 years ago. So organic to see this in action vs pure electronic of conversion of AC to DC these days.
Did they multiply the output frequency or use it directly? It would seem difficult to make an effective antenna for that low of a frequency.
The antenna is
HUGE
From what's available it looks like its 17.2kHz CW, so it looks like they are using it directly.
Love you videos!! They are transmitting it directly the antenna is enormous, I can see it from my kitchen 😊, ther was 2 transmitting generators from the beginning only one left. The antenna is 1.2 miles long supported by 8 125meters high towers
the original receiver was in Long Island New York, this site was only transmitting the signal, the receiver was located in Kungsbacka about 50km north of Varberg
Directly. They use similar frequency for communicating with submarines. The antennas for transmission are giant, while the receiver antennas are big coils of wire usually with a ferrite core.
sounds like some serious RPM is building!
I don't think I'd be standing edge-on to that rotor !
What is the driven motor starting method? Wound rotor with a couple of different rotor resistances? I didn't see brushes on the drive motor so I'm assuming it's AC driven, 3000 RPM 2 pole?
Alexandersson Alternator. Much better sound in the headphones compared to the *cheap rotten buzzer hash* of the spark gap.
Looka like some old fat dudes in electro, retro heaven!😀😀🤪👍
Everything was so big and beautiful back in the day. When was this built.
What's 17.2 kHz used for?
They say it was invented in Africa ...
What's the usage of the speaker cabinet on the left?
wondering the same!
Before power vacuum tubes
TRES IMPRESSIONNANT OU CE TROUVE CET ENDROIT ?????
in Sweden, on the west coast in Varberg
Rotary Phase Converter
Actually, no. AC motor driven by the power line on the left, speed increasing gearbox in the center between the brass couplings, and the 17.2 kHz generator on the right.
@@francissullivan5900 Sorry, I meant a motor-generator set
@@coastersaganot that either, frequency booster. used to boost line frequency AC to an AC frequency high enough to be used as a radio transmission power source. Google Alexandeson Alternator to see what this machine does and Google Radio to see why it has to create AC.
@@CATech1138 The drive is a 2200V DC slip ring motor, not AC. The nearest set of equipment cabinets in the background are the motor speed controller, using mercury rheostats and frequency feedback to adjust ~150A of current.
Funny machines. :)
И стоит на моей стиральной машине 🚗 жутко и очень сильно хочется плакать от этого звука 😮😮😮😮😮
Imagine living your life I'm the countryside, and the seeing, and hearing something this "high-tech". Truly the stuff of Jules Verne. So good this history is preserved for all to experience.
?
You couldn't pay me to be in that room as it ramps up!
Evryone seems to be fine
You couldn't pay me to stay outside that room as it ramps up! 🙂
Это переходная электростанция , я так понял уже музейный экспонат в рабочем состоянии .
Next time move the camera around so we could see all
I was more wonder why there was a stage speaker mounted on it.....
Why is there a loudspeaker next to the gearbox please?
why is there a large modern speaker on it? Is it for noise cancellation?
That’s me getting up in the morning
What kind of motor is driving it?
So this is used to produce a radio transmitter frequency generator?
No! It still produces transmitted power!
I would like to put my hand on that casting, to feel its vibrations. I know about Grimeton transmitter since i was teen, maybe one day i would meet it in person.
Just wondering would i be able to hear it on my receiver (with converter, lowest my receivers go is 30KHz) where i live in south of Europe since antenna is pointed towards US.
The thing about it is that it propagates through a mode that HF people haven't heard of, where the lowest layer of the ionosphere and the ground form a waveguide to pipe the signal long distances. The lowest ionospheric layers (A and B layers) are static, unlike the E and F layers the HF people are familiar with, so the propagation is the same day or night, but the ground impedance is even more critical than ground wave since it forms half the waveguide. So if you are in a place where it is all ocean between you and Grimeton, like New York, it is not very difficult to copy their test transmissions. But if you are in a place where there is considerable land in the way (say, Spain), you will probably not be able to hear it at all. And it's only a 31-hour train ride from Spain to Gothenburg...
There is a program called "spectrum analyzer" which was written by DL4YHF (if i am correct) which runs on personal computers....It can be used to receive this signal without any other electronics (except maybe a loop antenna). There is a lot of military activity in this frequency range used to communicate with submerged submarines and the like.
@@kludgeaudio Only water betwen me and Grimeton is Baltic sea, than it is all land for 1500km. If i find time i should make large loop antenna to find out, converter i alredy have, it works from 10,100Khz.
Thanks for the advice.
@@BjarneLinetsky I have many (more than hundred) old radios and comunnication receivers. I would like to try this in old fashion way, like oldtimers did it before i was born. Communication receiver (maybe one from 1930s) and converter.
I know that SDR radio have made large progress in last 10 years, but in this application it does not feel right.
Many thanks for your advice.
Why the change in shaft direction?
It uses a gearbox to get the speed up on the alternator to reach the 17.2 kHz frequency and if that gearbox use an even number of gears (2-4-6 gears and so on) then the rotation direction will change.
What's a 17.2 kHz alternator for? Early military VLF radio?
Google Grimeton radio station. It was used for trans atlantic communication.
What's the modern loudspeaker on it for?
My guess: Since they won’t run the generator at every guided tour, they emulate the sound through the speaker. Besides the generator makes too much noise to have any conversation at all.
I can't find a modern loudspeaker anywhere. Time stamp?
@@BahamasRunner The matte black box with the wire with a blue connector (Speakon I assume) going into it and a carrying handle on top and a beveled corner facing down right in the middle of the machine in front of the ribbed housing next to the brass thing with a pipe.The actual elements are facing away from the camera.
@@Murgoh found it - so big I just overlooked id :-) Definitely a SpeakOn plug. @GertStegeman is right I guess...
Interesting NASA lost all the information to put a man on the moon.
They never lost it, they lost all their funding because they don't have a big bad to compete with
That would definitely be the first time any bloated government agency lost important information for sure
I must just admire the idiots who rather admire this old machinery using a mobile phone instead of looking at it direct.
Why are they "stupid"? No video means nobody else can know it even exists, and even worse if for some reason it ever closes down. Then its gone for good without a trace. Rather I thank them for taking the time to document it.
@@mysock351C Simply put, enjoy what you see trough your eyes.
There is no need to film everything using a mobile phone like in restaurants, avenues, places of interest.
Put the damn phone down and enjoy what is shown.
Recap to others and encourage them to go see same.
Fucked up phone generation simply.
@@johanea Which is all well and good but its a bit of a non-sequitur here as its a historical site few will ever see, not someone taking selfies at a table.
If someone hadn't filmed it, you wouldn't be seeing it.
@@moki123g Believe me, before the mobile phone zombies, us humans still saw and survived.
Plus, I am 100% sure, people were more happy and less idiots.
está bien chida la maquinota 👍
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimeton_Radio_Station
Thank you for that link, very interesting. :)
How much energy does it produce ?
I love this old machines, the really let you in. You can see what is happening AND
the fasination for the people who build such a machin 100 years ago
No cad ore cam 🤔 they had to know it all 😊