The Lakihegy Tower is a 314-metre-high (1,031 ft) radio mast at
Szigetszentmiklós
Szigetszentmiklós () is a city in Pest County, Hungary, with around 40,000 inhabitants.
Name
* Sziget – island: Szigetszentmiklós is a town on Csepel Island
* Szent Miklós – Saint Nicholas, who is the patron saint of Szigetszentmiklà ...
-Lakihegy in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
. The
Blaw-Knox type tower was built in 1933 and was one of Europe's tallest structures at the time of construction. It was designed to provide broadcast coverage for Hungary with a 120 kW transmitter. It was built for the purpose of transmitting the radio station "
Budapest I.", which it served until 1977.
Developed in the U.S., the diamond-shaped mast was specially designed to radiate
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
waves in such a way that reduce
fading. Thus it was able to serve the whole country.
The mast was destroyed by retreating German troops in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, but was later rebuilt in 1946. In 1968 the tower was upgraded to serve the new 300 kW transmitter (amongst others, the ceramic base insulator had to be replaced to withstand the higher voltages).
In 1977 the new 2 MW transmitter at
has replaced the Lakihegy Tower as the primary national transmitter. Subsequently, it was nearly torn down in 1981, but widespread objections saved the tower, and later it became a protected industrial monument.
This guyed mast, which is probably still the tallest structure in Hungary, is currently being used for power-distribution control data transmission at 135.6 kHz with a power of 100 kW; the data bursts are at 200
baud with +/- 170 Hz FSK (
Frequency Shift Keying
Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier signal. The technology is used for communication systems such as telemetry, weather ball ...
).
In Europe there are similar radio masts at
Lisnagarvey
Lisnagarvey or Lisnagarvy () is a townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Lisnagarvey is also an Anglicisation of the original name of Lisburn.
The townland was named after an earthen ringfort (''lios''), which was in the area of present-day ...
, Northern Ireland, at
Riga, Latvia, at
Vakarel, Bulgaria and at
Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.
There are two smaller guyed mast radiators for mediumwave at Lakihegy. They are, like the Lakihegy Tower, insulated against ground, but smaller and of conventional construction type.
A further antenna consisting of two free-standing towers is situated at . It is fed by a overhead radio frequency power line.
The medium wave frequency of 540 kHz with 150 kW was
diplexed to the Lakihegy Tower in 2006 by Bernd Waniewski.
See also
*
List of masts
The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricity ...
*
List of European medium wave transmitters
This is an incomplete list of medium wave transmitters in Europe
Active stations
Former stations
Those are former prominent AM transmitters:
See also
* MW DX
References
{{radio_spectrum
European medium wave transmitters
Radio freque ...
External links
Diplexer 135,6 and 540 kHzpublished by http://www.waniewski.de/id208.htm
published by http://www.waniewski.de/id208.htm
* http://www.antennahungaria.hu/Sajtoszoba/Sajtofotok.aspx?sc_lang=en
* for more info visit
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070223173401/http://photo.lipilee.hu/galleries/index.php?dir=.%2F2006-08-23-lakihegy
*
*
* {{Structurae, id=20018327, title=Third Lakihegy Transmission Tower
published by http://www.waniewski.de/id208.htm
Radio masts and towers in Hungary
Towers in Hungary
Industrial archaeological sites in Hungary
Towers completed in 1933
Towers completed in 1946
1933 establishments in Hungary
Szigetszentmiklós
Buildings and structures in Pest County