Raszyn radio transmitter

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The longwave transmitter Raszyn is a longwave broadcasting transmitter near Raszyn, Poland. It was built in 1949. Its radio mast was until 1962 with a height of 335 metres the tallest structure in Europe.

The longwave transmitter Raszyn was until the inauguration of Warsaw radio mast in Konstantynów the central longwave broadcasting of Poland. Since 1978 from this facility during daytime a second program in the longwave range is transmitted on 198 kHz (currently the frequency is used by Radio Parliament). After the collapse of Warsaw radio mast in 1991 this facility was used until the inauguration of the new longwave-transmitter Solec Kujawski for transmissions of the first program of the Polish Broadcasting Service on 225 kHz. Because it is not possible to transmit from Raszyn on both longwave frequencies of the Polish Broadcasting Company simultaneously, no transmissions on the second longwave frequency of the Polish Broadcasting Company (198 kHz) took place between 1991 and 1999. The radio mast of the longwave transmitter Raszyn is since the collapse of the Warsaw radio mast the sixth tallest structure in Poland.

The place was actually used for transmitting purposes from 1931 when the then Polish Radio Co. opened their new, modern 120 kW transmitter that was using two 280 m tall guyed steel lattice masts to support a T-shaped antenna. In the late 1930s works started to increase the output power to 600 kW but the works were not completed before start of the World War II. One of the masts was destroyed by the Polish Army engineers to prevent the Germans from using the station.

Trivia: for a very short time after opening their new transmitting facility in 1931 the official Polish Radio Co. announcement was 'Halo, tu Polskie Radio Raszyn' ('This is the Polish Radio Raszyn'), but because Polish pronunciation of 'Raszyn' is nearly identical to English pronunciation of 'Russian' and therefore was confusing foreign listeners, the announcement was promptly changed back to 'Halo, tu Polskie Radio Warszawa' ('This is the Polish Radio Warsaw') (source: Maciej Józef Kwiatkowski 'Tu Polskie Radio Warszawa', Warsaw 1980).