New Radio Transmitter

Abstract

ALMOST unnoticed in the unsettled international atmosphere that existed last August, an extraordinary radio transmitter was inaugurated in the pocket republic of Andorra, which bestrides a small section of the Pyrenees on the frontier between France and Spain. A brief account of this station is given in the Electricianof March 8. The President of the French Republic (as successor to the Kings of France) and the Bishop of Urgel in Spain share as co-princes the over-lordship of Andorra, a condition which has lasted since the early part of the ninth century. Radio Andorra is situated on a rocky hill at an altitude of 2,920 ft. above sea-level, but its aerial is placed at .an altitude 2,460 ft. higher and is suspended across a lake; the supports, 410 ft. high, are 820 ft. apart. The feeder cable between the station and the aerial is 2,788 ft. long and is believed to be the only case in which a distance of this order separates a transmitter and its antenna, with the exception of the Eiffel Tower, where ultra-short waves had to be considered. At Andorra transmitters for medium and short waves are installed. The energy required for the station is 350 kilowatts and is obtained from the Forces Hydro-electriques de G Andorra, a water-power undertaking, which sells the bulk of its production outside the borders of this small State.