Deutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Deutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster was a 500 kilowatt long-wave transmitter at Herzberg/Elster, which was in service from 1939 to 1945. It used a 337 metre high guyed steel lattice mast of triangular cross section. This was used as a mast radiator and was therefore mounted on a 0.75 metre high steatite insulator. At the top of the mast there was a lens-like structure with a diameter of 25 metres and a height of 4 metres. The mast of Deutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster was the tallest construction in Europe and the second tallest in the world.

Because the mast was under high voltage during transmission, the aircraft warning lighting was realized in a very unconventional manner. On small poles near the mast multiple rotating skybeamers were mounted which illuminated the lens-like structure on the top.

It was planned to expand the facility to a circle group antenna. Therefore 10 275 metre tall masts should be built on a circle with a diametre of 1425 metres around the central mast. On the location of the planned mast 9 in 1944 construction of a backup antenna in form of a triangle antenna, carried by 3 150 metre tall masts, forming a triangle with 210 metre sidelength started. This antenna could not be completed as a result of the war.

In April 1945 the transmitter was destroyed by Allied bombing. The mast was not damaged, but it was dismantled by the Russian army after World War II. There are still some remnants of the base of the mast.