Y3S was the

callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

of an

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

time signal A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, audi ...

station. The station was operated by the Measurements and Standards Service of the

DDR DDR or ddr may refer to: *ddr, ISO 639-3 code for the Dhudhuroa language *DDr., title for a double doctorate in Germany *DDR, station code for Dadar railway station, Mumbai, India *' (German Democratic Republic), official name of the former East ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. The transmitter was located at

Nauen Transmitter Station Nauen Transmitter Station (German: ''Grossfunkstelle Nauen'' or ''Sender Nauen'') in Nauen, Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany, is the oldest continuously operating radio transmitting installation in the world. Germany's first high power rad ...

. The station transmitted in the HF band on 4.525 MHz with 5 kW. The transmission consisted of second pulses of 100 ms duration. Minute pulses were 500 ms long. Minute and hour information was transmitted in BCD code by modifying pulses of seconds 41 to 55. The vernerl time signal was transmitted on long wave from East Berlin at 11:55 for 5 minutes

Notes and references

Defunct radio stations in East Germany Mass media in Berlin {{Germany-hist-stub