Sender Zehlendorf

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The Sender Zehlendorf is a transmission facility, existing since 1936. At that time in Zehlendorf a short wave transmitter was built for firm radio services. This plant, which was called until the end of World War II "radio transmission center Rehmate", had 26 different antennas. In 1945 the radio transmission center Rehmate was dismantled of Soviet crew power as reparation. Ar this some radio towers built of wood were not dismantled. They supplied the building material for a 100 meter tall transmitting tower at Golm, which was built in 1948 and until 1979 in use.

In 1952 it was decided to build at the location of the former radio transmission center Rehmate the central long wave transmitter of the GDR. For this between 1956 and 1958 a triangle plane aerial, which was hung up on three 150 meters high guyed masts of lattice steel, which were insulated against ground was built. A second transmitting antenna, which should become the main antenna, was built between 1960 and 1962. It consisted of a 351 meters high, lattice steel framework mast, at which a conical cage aerial was mounted. This mast was between 1962 and 1964 the highest building in Europe! With this antenna a transmitting power of 750 kilowatts in the long-wave range on a frequency, which was reduced in course of the time gradually for the reduction by interference disturbances from 185 kHz to 177 kHz, was possible. The maximum transmitting power, which is possible over the triangle plane aerial, is 500 kilowatts.

On 18 May 1979 the main mast collapsed after a collision with a Russian airplane of the type Mig-21. After the cause of the collapse was certain, the Soviet Union promised to supply a new mast and to rebuild this. In order not to stop the progress of the construction work by the stricter German safety regulations, for the duration of the construction work the area in the radius of 300 metres was explained as Soviet exclave. In August 1979 the new mast with a height of 359.7 meters was finished.

In 1990 the plant was taken over by the German Telekom AG. At first it was planned to shut down the facility: so the cage aerial at the 359.7 meters high main mast was dismantled and the transmitting power of the long wave transmitter was reduced occasionally to 100 kilowatts. In the second half of the 1990s a reorientation occurred. The long wave transmitter was modernized and the main antenna tower received a new cage aerial. Also the transmitting power of the long wave transmitter was increased again to 500 kW. In the year 2000 a 120 meter high, guyed, grounded mast of lattice steel carrying a cage aerial for medium wave was built. He takes over the function of the former Transmitter Berlin-Koepenick and served apart from the spreading of the program of MEGARADIO also for transmitting of programs of the Voice of Russia, partly in the Simulcast mode. The long wave transmitter changed over on 29 August 2005 as first German large transmitter to Digital Radio Mondiale.