Kraków 2013-01-12
Transatlantic Radio Station Babice.
Another name for the Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Center. Coordinates: 52 ° 15’59 "N 20 ° 52’47" E.
In 1918, after the Republic of Poland regained its independence as a result of the Great World War, the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs started to create a state radio-telegraph network, which consisted of radio stations with European coverage in Grudziądz, Kraków and Poznań, and an intercontinental radio station, which was located near Warsaw, on a marshy area of an artillery and engineer training ground, next to Fort Babice. The area between the villages of Babice Stare, Gać, Klaudyn and Wawrzyszew.
The plans were made in 1920. Construction began in 1922. All facilities are located in a strip nearly 4 km long, stretching from today’s ul. Majora Henryk Hubal-Dobrzański in Latchorzewa (Warsaw) north-east to Wawrzyszew.
The American company "Radio Corporation of America" ordered two high-frequency alternators, each 200 kilowatts, designed by Swedish engineer Ernest Frederik Werner Alexanderson working in the USA.
The radio station received the callsigns AXL and AXO and the operating frequencies of 16.4 kHz and 14.29 kHz, i.e. very long waves (VLF). At the same time, an antenna system was built, consisting of ten steel masts 127 meters high, arranged along a straight line over a distance of four kilometers. These masts supported the main antenna, which was 3,700 m long. 1,770,000 kg of steel were used to build the masts. A road was marked out along the line of masts and concrete sentry posts were set up. Numerous warning notices appeared, "Beware". The masts were made by the Warsaw company "Towarzystwo Przemysłu Metalowego K. Rudzki i Ska". A concrete radio station building was erected and an earthing system was made. The transmitter was a set of generators of the Alexanderson system 2 x 200 kW. Power supply: own power plant with a diesel engine and 500 kW generator. Later (1926), power was supplied from the district power plant in Pruszków.
The radio station was launched on October 1, 1923. The ceremonial opening of the Babice Transatlantic Broadcasting Radio Station took place on November 17, 1923, in the presence of the President of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Wojciechowski (on the day of its launch, President Wojciechowski exchanged cables with the President of the United States of America). "Poland was able to communicate freely with the whole world," reported Gazeta Poranna of November 18, 1923. Ten towers, each 128 meters high, rise proudly upwards – the fruit of the work of a Polish worker and a Polish engineer. "
Written by Karol Placha Hetman