Varberg Radio Station
The Varberg Radio Station is the original station site for an ultra-longwave radiotelegraph transmitter that was used for wireless transatlantic communication in the 1920s. The site consists of the transmitter equipment, including the aerial system with six 127 m high steel towers, and a residential area with housing for the station staff.
The transmitter was constructed between 1922 and 1924 by the Swedish-American engineer Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson. Alexanderson (1878-1975) was responsible for a number of innovations in the communications field. The structural engineer Henrik Kreüger constructed the six antenna towers, the architect Carl Ĺkerblad designed the neoclassical buildings.
The Varberg station is the only one left from a global network that was planned after WWI to enhance communication between countries worldwide. It was used until the fifties for transatlantic radio telegraphy to Radio Central in Long Island, New York. It has been kept in working condition since and is still in use by the Swedish Navy.
Visit August 2008
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I didn't expect too much of this site, but the people running and conservating it have done a good job making the radio station's history come alive. A new visitor center has been constructed near the heritage objects / monuments. There's a cafe, a souvenir shop and you can buy tickets for a tour. After paying 50 Swedish kroner I was picked up promptly by an English speaking guide.
The visible parts of the site consist of the six huge masts, a pool of cooling water with fountains, the pretty main building and two lesser buildings. Signals were only sent from here - a receiving station used to exist about 30kms away. Varberg (or Grimeton, to be more precise) was part of a global network that connected with New York. In the cafe a mural shows the other locations of this ring: Poland, England, mainland USA and Hawaii. The introduction video shown at the site emphasizes the need for transatlantic communication in the early 1900's, as many Swedes had emigrated to the USA. This longwave radio station shortly filled the gap between the vulnerable underwater cables and shortwave (which was introduced widely in the year 1927).
In the surprisingly pretty Neoclassistic main building (which wouldn't look out of place in some fine Italian town), the machines that were necessary to operate the system are on show. Messages in morse code arrived here from a telegraph office in Gothenburg, where companies and the general public could deliver their messages to be sent overseas. These morse messages were then transmitted all the way to the New York via the ingenuous transmitter. The site of Grimeton was especially chosen because of its flat coastal land and because there is a clear line from here to New York bypassing Scotland, Denmark and Norway.
In all, an educating visit to one of the most orginal WHS: the only one dedicated to telecommunication so far.
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Christer Sundberg (Sweden):
 The Radio Station of Grimeton is easily accessed, slightly east of Varberg. Once, in the 1920:ies, Grimeton was part of a global network of long wave radio stations, linking the world for both business and personal telecommunication purposes. The station consists of six majestic 127-meter high steel towers and – just as majestic - transmitter equipment, housed in the station building. Today, Grimeton is the only station preserved in this global series of stations, a technology developed by Swedish-American Ernst F.W. Alexanderson. Next to the station building is a small museum and café where you can browse through the history of telecom as well as buy your tickets for the guided tours. |
| Date posted: August 2005 |
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