It was a wonderful Christmas Eve morning at World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station with a bit of snow and 4 degrees below freezing. The transmitter hall opened at 8:00 local time and soon was filled with expectant visitors, well over 100 persons, who was offered coffea, Christmas buns and Ginger snaps as they were waiting for the transmitter start. Before the start, everyone was handed a set of headphones to protect from the noice, but also to be able to hear the superintendent when he was leading the transmission.
Alexander assocation crew :
Superintendent & host: Robert Petersson
Operator: Jan-Åke Gylling
Morse key operator: Kai Sundberg
Mobile camera: Bengt Örnegren
YouTube technicians: Beatrice & Thomas Alexandersson
Visitor host: Anders Törblad
Supervisor: Fredrik Wiklund
Startup and transmission
The Alexanderson alternator did perform well and the frequency was a lot more stable ths time compared to the previous transmission on UN-Dy in October 2023. The team managed to get a clear stable signal, output power was however maybe not as strong as at the tests on Friday.
Report from Peter DF3LP
From Peter DF3LP, Kiel longwave monitor, we have received plots from the test on Friday Dec 22nd and from the transmission on Dec 24th. Peter writes that there is a 8-10dB difference, which could be due to the difference in time for the transmissions, VLF signals seem to drop a bit at sunset, or just different output from the transmitter to the antenna. Thanks Peter!
If you have any other suggestions, send us your feedback here.
Report from Peter GM0EZR
We also receieved an amplitude & frequency plot from Peter GM0EZR, as well as a waterfall plot of the whole message. Thanks Peter!
Report from Daniel Kiper
Daniel Kiper in Poland has recorded both the test on Dec 22nd, as well as the transmission on Dec 24th:
https://www.net-space.pl/radio/saq/saq_202312/
Here the leakage from the transmitter to the antenna at key-up can be seen very clearly. Thanks Daniel!
The magnetic amplifier is part of the antenna resonance circuit. Here the carrier wave from the Alexanderson alternator is amplified from 100V to some 2000V. Located in between the primary and secondary winding is a third DC winding. At key-up, a relatively small DC current is flowing in this winding, reducing the amplification. At key-down the DC current is blocked and the signal can be amplified to the antenna. Additionally there is also a variable inductance, called “transductor” that can alter the antenna resonance frequency, so that the antenna will get distuned at key-up. Thereby, it receives even less current.
In this way the antenna current can be brought down to less than 10% at key-up compared to the current at key-down. Thus, the magnetic amplifier is leaking a little carrier wave at key-up, someting that Daniel Kiper in Poland managed to detect.
YouTube livestream
Our YouTube livestream was very popular and well over 1 300 viewers watched the transmitted being started up and the message was being sent to the World. That’s a new record -THANK YOU all viewers!
Since then, the clip has been viewed over 15 000 times – amazing!
Any suggestions on things we could add or improve until next time can be sent to us here.
Christmas Eve morning 2023 telegram
CQ CQ CQ DE SAQ SAQ SAQ =
THIS IS GRIMETON RADIO STATION/SAQ IN A TRANSMISSION USING
THE ALEXANDERSON 200KW ALTERNATOR FROM 1924 ON 17.2 KHZ. =
FROM A WINTERY NORTHERN AND GRIMETON RADIO STATION WE WANT TO SEND
A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE WITH A WISH FOR LOVE, COMMUNITY AND PEACE.
WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. =
SIGNED: WORLD HERITAGE GRIMETON RADIO STATION AND
ALEXANDER GRIMETON FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION. =
FOR QSL INFO PLEASE SEE OUR WEBSITE ALEXANDER.N.SE +
DE SAQ SAQ SAQ @
Listener reports
Realtime report summary:
The online report form is now closed. In total we received 508 reports from all over the World.
THANK YOU all for your interesting and inspiring reports!
Interactive listener reports map
Explore our interactive map with all received listener reports from our recent transmissions.
The map may differ from the report summary above as the map is manually updated.
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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.