On a sunny day with a few showers, on July 2nd 2025, SAQ celebrated its 100 Year anniversary. There was a lot of visitors from Sweden and many other countries, together with the Alexander team and employees at the radio station, at the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station.
Just this day, one hundred years ago, on July 2nd, 1925, the Grimeton radio station was officially inaugurated. Radio traffic had already begun on December 1st of the previous year, but now it was time for the official ceremony. Sweden’s King Gustav V, the inventor of the fantastic 200 kW generator and its massive multiple antenna, Ernst F.W. Alexanderson, and the head of the Radio Corporation of America, David Sarnoff, were together with several other prominent guests. The large and shiny Alexanderson generator was put into use and a message to the American President Calvin Coolidge was sent to the receiving station in Riverhead, Long Island, New York, USA. The American President responded and considered the new radio installations to be crucial for relations between Sweden and the USA. This began an era of communication from Grimeton’s radio station to the United States and other parts of the world for many decades.
Despite incredible technological developments at the station, the old Alexanderson alternator was left behind and was kept in working order by the station’s employees. Today it is the only remaining electromechanical transmitter in the world, and it is still working.
Now we were standing here, a hundred years after the inauguration, it was with great respect for the history and for the place and were very grateful to be part of all this.
A special greeting
An amazing greeting arrived from the the other side of the Atlantic…from Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson II (Rik), grandson to the inventor, conveying his greetings to us on this special day. THANK YOU Rik (and to your daughter Lauren). This was very special to us!
Alexander association crew 10:30 CEST (08:30 UTC) transmission
Superintendent & host: Fredrik Wiklund
Operator: Jan-Åke Gylling
Morse key operator: Kai Sundberg
Mobile camera: Thomas Alexandersson
Camera assistant: Bengt Örnegren
YouTube technician: Janne Severinsson
Visitor hosts: Ola Hernvall, Anders Börjesson, Ingvar Lund, Roger Nilsson and Lasse Håkansson
Swedish speaker: Staffan Rudholm
Startup and transmission
SAQ was well prepared for its duties this day and started without any glitches, however it was a rather warm day resulting in that the oil pressure for the alternator bearings was not building up as usual, but did not cause any alarms.
YouTube livestream
Some 1 000 simultaneous viewers could follow the startup and the following transmission of a message.
THANK YOU ALL VIEWERS! Is there anything we can do better of different next time? Please let us know.
100-Year Anniversary Telegram 11:00 CEST (09:00 UTC)
CQ CQ CQ DE SAQ SAQ SAQ =
THIS IS GRIMETON RADIO STATION/SAQ IN A TRANSMISSION USING THE ALEXANDERSON 200 KW ALTERNATOR FROM 1924 ON 17.2 KHZ. =
ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON, GRIMETON’S VOICE STILL ECHOES – CLEAR AND FULL OF HOPE.
A LIVING MONUMENT TO TRANSATLANTIC RADIO TRANSMISSIONS, IT EMBODIES UNESCO’S COMMITMENT TO THE FREE FLOW OF IDEAS ACROSS CONTINENTS, TIME AND GENERATIONS. HAPPY 100TH ANNIVERSARY GRIMETON UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE!=
SIGNED: UNESCO DIRECTOR GENERAL, AUDREY AZOULEY, WORLD HERITAGE GRIMETON RADIO STATION AND THE ALEXANDER GRIMETON FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION. =
FOR QSL INFO PLEASE READ OUR WEBSITE ALEXANDER.N.SE +
DE SAQ SAQ SAQ @
Alexander association crew 14:30 CEST (12:30 UTC transmission
Superintendent & host: Robert Petersson
Operator: Staffan Rudholm
Morse key operator: Kai Sundberg
Mobile camera: Thomas Alexandersson
Camera assistant: Bengt Örnegren
YouTube technician: Janne Severinsson
Visitor hosts: Ola Hernvall, Ingvar Lund, Roger Nilsson and Lasse Håkansson
Swedish speaker: Anders Börjesson
Startup and transmission
SAQ did a great job in the second transmission. The lower oil pressure was not a problem.
YouTube livestream
100-Year Anniversary Telegram 11:00 CEST (09:00 UTC)
CQ CQ CQ DE SAQ SAQ SAQ =
THIS IS GRIMETON RADIO STATION/SAQ IN A TRANSMISSION USING THE ALEXANDERSON 200 KW ALTERNATOR FROM 1924 ON 17.2 KHZ. =
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD: PEACE BEGINS WITH US.
BY LISTENING, CARING, AND STANDING TOGETHER,
WE CAN END HATRED AND RACISM; TO CREATE A FUTURE WHERE EVERYONE BELONGS.
LET’S MAKE PEACE OUR SHARED MISSION, TOGETHER WE STAND STRONG!=
SIGNED: STUDENTS OF CLASS 8A AT ALMERS SCHOOL IN VARBERG SWEDEN,
WORLD HERITAGE GRIMETON RADIO STATION AND
THE ALEXANDER GRIMETON FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION. =
FOR QSL INFO PLEASE READ OUR WEBSITE ALEXANDER.N.SE +
DE SAQ SAQ SAQ @
SAQ signal
Peter Newton GM0EZR in Fife Scotland has sent us this plot of the SAQ signal. It looks as the signal was somewhat stronger compared to the previous transmission on December 1st. Thanks Peter!
Listener reports
We love to receive your reports, no matter if you heard us, or not. You story is important input to us and it is also a receipt of the work we put down to transmit, and you to receive.
Already after 24h, we have received over 400 reports – fantastic!.
A big THANK YOU! to all of you who take your time to compile all those amazing reports, sometimes with pictures, video clips and sound files. We read all of them.
For guaranteed E-QSL from us, please report using our ONLINE QSL FORM.
We do receive an increasing amount of emails with your reports but we can not guarantee that reports by Email / mail / bureau will be confirmed. Please consider using our online form (link above) instead.
Interactive listener reports map
Explore our interactive map with all received listener reports from our recent transmissions.
The map is manually updated every few days, so it may take a few days until your report will show on the map. Reports by email may take a bit longer to be displayed.
Click the colored dots to display each received report.
Join the Alexander association
We welcome you as a member of the Alexander Grimeton Friendship Association, to support our non-profit activities in preserving, documenting and bringing to life the unique Alexanderson alternator from 1924.
As member, you have 10% discount on the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station gift shop and café (not ice cream) and free entrance to the evening tours and the Alexanderson Day event, by showing your membership card. Four times per year, you will receive our online magazine “Alternatorn”, exclusively available only to our members.
Members also has access to our on-line library with lots of unique historical documents about SAQ and the Alexanderson alternator.
NEW! Our library now also includes several SAQ educational videos.
Alexander members also have free admission to the Radio Museum in Gothenburg.
Membership costs SEK 125 / year.