Alexanderson Day, named after the Swedish radio engineer
Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson and held either on the last Sunday in June, or on the first Sunday in July, whichever comes closer to 2 July, is the day of the open house at the Swedish government
VLF transmitter Grimeton
Grimeton Radio Station () in southern Sweden, close to Varberg in Halland, is an early longwave transatlantic wireless telegraphy station built in 1922–1924, that has been preserved as a historical site. From the 1920s through the 1940s it wa ...
, call sign SAQ, located near
Varberg
Varberg () is a locality and the seat of Varberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 35,782 inhabitants in 2019.
Varberg and all of Halland are well known for their "typical west coast" sandy beaches. In Varberg the coast changes from ...
. On Alexanderson Day, Christmas Eve, and at other times during the year, the only workable
Alexanderson alternator transmitter in the world is used to transmit short
Morse
Morse may refer to:
People
* Morse (surname)
* Morse Goodman (1917-1993), Anglican Bishop of Calgary, Canada
* Morse Robb (1902–1992), Canadian inventor and entrepreneur
Geography Antarctica
* Cape Morse, Wilkes Land
* Mount Morse, Churchi ...
messages on 17.2 kHz, which should be easily receivable in all of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. The transmitter is preserved as a historical remnant of
early radio technology and as an example of
VLF
Very low frequency or VLF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3–30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 km, respectively. The band is also known as the myriameter band or myriameter wave a ...
(Very Low Frequency) equipment.
These transmissions cannot be received by ordinary radios because of their low
frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
. Modern enthusiasts often monitor the transmissions using a PC with a coil connected to the
soundcard
A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...
input and
FFT
A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is an algorithm that computes the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of a sequence, or its inverse (IDFT). Fourier analysis converts a signal from its original domain (often time or space) to a representation in the ...
analysis software, or a short-wave receiver with an upconverter, or any of several receivers designed to receive
VLF
Very low frequency or VLF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3–30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 km, respectively. The band is also known as the myriameter band or myriameter wave a ...
transmissions directly. In recent years,
Software-defined radio receivers have proven to be very useful and effective in receiving transmissions from SAQ around the world.
References
{{reflist
External links
Alexander Friendship Association Home PageAlexanderson Day Youtubevideo of equipment in operation
History of radio
June observances
July observances
Year of establishment missing