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CivilingenjörCARL-HENRIK WALDE

Civilingenjör Carl-Henrik Walde arbetade under åren1958-2003 inom marinförvaltningen, senare Försvaretsmaterielverk. Han var 1974-1982 chef för den marinaSambandsbyrån och 1982-1989 för den gemensammaRadiobyrån. Efter pensionsavgång är han idag en av dedrivande krafterna inom den Svenska Nationalkommitténför RadioVetenskap (SNRV), ett expertorgan under Kungl.Vetenskapsakademien. Han är radioamatör medanropssignalen SM5BF.

Swedish submarine communication during 100years, the role of Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, and howthe Royal Swedish Navy helped Varberg radio atGrimeton (SAQ) to world heritage status.

AbstractSubmarine technology as well as that ofradio, ”wireless” at the time, started inthe 1890’s. This paper will give an over-view of the development over a hundredyears concentrating on the two most im-portant submarine communication tech-niques, viz. the ”longwaves” (VLF andLF) to a submerged sub and the ”short-waves” (HF) from a sub on or just belowthe water surface.

VLF was introduced during the Se-cond World War (WWII) using alreadyavailable systems for public correspon-dence, soon followed by establishmentsdedicated to submarine use. HF bursttransmission was introduced in WWII bythe German Navy, in Sweden during the1960’s.

Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, a Swedishemigrant to the United States of Ameri-ca working with General Electric at

Schenectay, N.Y., designed radio equip-ment and antenna systems for world-wide use. From late 1924, the Alexander-son VLF alternator and multiple tunedantenna system at the Swedish Telecomradio station Grimeton, were used forpublic communication from SAQ toUSA.

During WWII and for some years af-ter that, the Royal Swedish Navy usedSAQ for traffic to submarines, in retro-spect crucial for the survival of the sta-tion, still in perfect working order. SAQis the only remaining pre-electronictransmitter for transatlantic work andwas put on the Unesco World HeritageList in 2004.

IntroductionOn July 2nd 2004, Unesco put VarbergRadio at Grimeton (SAQ), on the WorldHeritage List, declaring:

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”The Varberg Radio Station at Grime-ton in southern Sweden (built in 1922-1924) is an exceptionally well preservedmonument to early wireless transatlanticcommunication. It consists of the trans-mitter equipment, including the aerial sys-tem of six 127-m high steel towers. Thoughno longer in regular use, the equipmenthas been maintained in operating condi-tion. The 109.9-ha site comprises build-ings housing the original Alexandersontransmitter, including the towers with theirantennae, short-wave transmitters withtheir antennae, and a residential area withstaff housing. The architect Carl Åkerbladdesigned the main buildings in the neo-classical style and the structural engineerHenrik Kreüger was responsible for theantenna towers, the tallest built structures

in Sweden at that time. The site is an out-standing example of the development oftelecommunications and is the only survi-ving example of a major transmitting sta-tion based on pre-electronic technology.”

Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, the fore-most one to be honoured, was unfortu-nately not credited with his full name inthe Unesco declaration. Without Alexan-derson, designer of the radio equipmentand the antenna system, SAQ had neversucceeded in attaining world heritagestatus; this paper will show his role. SAQis unique in another way being the onlyworld heritage object to be visited faraway by DX radio reception.

With one exception or two, the navalofficers in the references and in the textwere/are fellows of Kungl. Örlogsmanna-

Grimeton in the 1920’s (Foto: Gustaf Björkström, Länsmuseet Varberg)

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sällskapet (KÖMS, the Swedish RoyalAcademy of Naval Sciences). The refe-rences are in chronological order, ofthem a few are of a general nature anddifficult to assign to any particular part ofthe paper. The article is public domainand based on an SAQ conference contri-bution17) and on the communicationschapter of Captain Roderick Klintebo’sbook celebrating the Swedish submarinecentenary14). Those wanting to dig moredeeply into the topic are recommendedto read the book.

Some people have questioned my ear-lier articles as including classified matt-ers, but all contents are of a general natu-re. The ”disclosed” facts are known toeverybody in the field – let us thus inclu-de the general public.

It started in the 19th centuryFirst, a bit of early radio history for theyounger generations: In the 1860’s JamesClerk Maxwell, then at King’s College inLondon, wrote a letter to his cousin say-ing: ”I have a paper afloat which, til con-vinced to the contrary, I hold to be greatguns.” In the 1870’s, he published his the-ory on electromagnetic waves which wasconfirmed experimentally by HeinrichHertz ten years later. Nikola Tesla’s workon AC for power and light applicationsincluded high frequency alternators andalready in the early 1890’s he foresawtransatlantic wireless telegraphy employ-ing continuous waves (CW). In May1895, Alexander Popov demonstrated areceiver to predict arriving thunder-storms. It is rumoured and may well betrue that he also had sent wireless signalsto ships, a fact then concealed by the Im-perial Russian Navy. In September 1895,Guglielmo Marconi made his first expe-

riments. Being an engineer and entrepre-neur, he was the first person to under-stand that these waves could be used forwireless communication and, in 1901, hecovered the Atlantic. He became regard-ed by everybody, including Popov, as thefather of radio, and was awarded the1909 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared withKarl Ferdinand Braun, ”in recognition oftheir contributions to the developmentof wireless telegraphy.”

In the beginning, emissions were ge-nerated by electric sparks producingdamped waves, i. e. the signal amplitudedecreased with time until the next sparkoccurred. This system was restricted tomorse telegraphy and had a wide radiospectrum limiting the number of stationson the air. At the turn of the century,constant amplitude and CW became pos-sible with the Poulsen electric arc conver-ter and the Goldschmidt, Arco-Slaby,Béthenod-Latour and Alexanderson ty-pes of rotary machinery. In the 1920’s,transmitting tubes had arrived and thefamous Rugby station used these from itsstart in 1925.

Ernst F. W. AlexandersonErnst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson(1878-1975) was born in Uppsala, Swe-den, graduated at the Royal Technical In-stitute (KTH) in Stockholm in 1900 andthen spent some time at the TechnicalUniversity in Berlin-Charlottenburgwhere he got a good basic knowledge of”radio”. His future was decided very ear-ly by his reading Charles P. Steinmetz’sbook on the ”Theory and Calculation ofAlternating Current Phenomena.” Alex-anderson went to the United States in1901 and after a while Steinmetz recom-mended him for a job at General Electric

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(GE) in Schenectady, New York. Therehe stayed for the rest of his long and cre-ative life working with practically every-thing in electricity from AC and DC totelevision and transistors.

neers); they merged in 1963 to becomeIEEE. Alexanderson was elected a mem-ber of the Royal Swedish Academy ofEngineering Sciences in 1924 and of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences in1934. He was awarded many decorations,honorary doctorates from the Universityof Uppsala and the Royal Institute ofTechnology in Stockholm and, at 94, his345th patent was registered.

The alternator and themultiple tuned antennaJust after the turn of the century, Alexan-derson began to design HF alternatorsbased on an idea of Reginald A. Fessen-den who used one for his broadcastingexperiment on Christmas Eve 1906 whenvoice, singing and music bewildered theradio officers of ships along the US eastcoast.1) The design of the 200 kW alterna-tors for VLF was ready in 1918. Includingthe very impressive multiple tuned an-tenna, they were manufactured by Gene-ral Electric and sold by the Radio Corpo-ration of America (RCA) around theworld. The network included 18 trans-mitters in continental USA, Hawaii, Wa-les, Poland and Sweden (two for SAQ,owned by the Royal Swedish TelegraphBoard, Swedish Telecom).

Two alternators with an output powerof 200 kW could be used one at a time orin parallel. The rotating disc of the mo-tor-generator was 1.6 m in diameter andthe air gap 1 mm. At 2 100 rpm, the rotorperipheral velocity was 180 m/s illustra-ting the seriousness of the mechanicalproblems. The towers carried twelve2 200 m long wires that connected the sixvertical antenna elements from the topof each tower.10)

In October 1924, the first message

In 1919 he received the Medal of Ho-nor from IRE (Institute of Radio Engi-neers, 1921 serving as its president) andin 1944 the Edison Medal from AIEE(American Institute of Electrical Engi-

Alexandersson as a young engineer atGeneral Electric (Foto: Telemuseum)

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from SAQ, i. e. ”Varberg Radio” at Gri-meton on the Swedish west coast, wassent to the ”Radio Central” of RCA atRocky Point, Long Island, USA. The wave-length was about 18 000 m, soon changedto a frequency of 17.2 kHz. The commer-cial service ”via RCA” started December1st 1924. On July 2nd 1925, the station wasinaugurated by King Gustaf V sending atelegram to Calvin Coolidge, Presidentof the United States, praising the newlink to America. He also praised ”the demo-cratic shelter under which millions ofSwedes had found new homes.”

We will now put the history of SAQon standby giving submarine communi-cation a break-in.

Submarine communicationbefore the Second World War”Wireless” was introduced in our navy in1899, the driving force being Lieutenant(later Admiral) Charles Léon de Champs.After some years, he was accompaniedby Ragnar Rendahl, a brilliant Swedishengineer working at AEG/Telefunken inGermany, who became the first ”electroengineer” of the Royal Swedish Navy.After the first decade, the merchant ma-rine followed suit and Karlskrona Radioopened for public correspondence onJuly 15th 1910, its callsign SAA still keptfor the communication center of ournavy.16)

The twin altenators in 1951 supervised by Albert Nilsson, Swedish Telecom(Foto: Telemuseum)

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In TiS Rendahl wrote the first ”Års-berättelse (yearly report) i radiotelegra-fi.”2) For Karlsborg Radio, the main Swe-dish Telecom transmitter facility beforeGrimeton, he advocated an LF transmit-ter similar to Alexanderson’s, but of hisown design. The organizations involveddisputed on the most suitable techniqueand Swedish Telecom installed a sparktransmitter (the ”alarm clock of Euro-pe”). According to Gösta Brigge, Ren-dahl took on a formidable job which heperformed in excellence.4)

In 1914 or 1915, HMS Svärdfisken(the Swordfish) was the first submarineto get wireless. Using LF spark transmitt-ers for morse telegraphy on wavelengthsof 300, 450 and 600 m, submarine radiotraffic did not differ much from ordinarymeans of communication. Thermionicvalves (electronic tubes) were inventedin the 1910’s and with them, HF telepho-ny became possible. The submarineswere the first Swedish units to get tubeequipment, the SRA (Svenska Radioak-tiebolaget) transmitter AU-200-II andreceiver SMU.4) As antennas, the subma-rines used insulated wires forward andaft of the conning tower with the usualartillery people conflict. The loop for D/F(direction finding) navigation was usedalso for radio communication, sometimeswith better performance than the wires,sometimes not. For good reception, theantenna could not be lower than a fewmetres below the surface.

Admiral Erik Anderberg’s personalnotes (still kept with his sons) say that hewas in Varberg in 1925 commandingHMS Rigel. He went to Grimeton toagree upon a test from SAQ to submerg-ed HMS Illern (the Polecat), command-ed by Lieutenant Commander (laterCaptain) Sten Gustaf Weinberg. Ander-

berg, who had installed the receivingequipment in Illern, said that he convinc-ed Weinberg that such reception was pos-sible. The Illern logbooks of July 11th-12th

1925 do not mention radio, but they con-firm that the tests were made as the sub-marine dived and surfaced a few timesoutside Varberg. We hope to find docu-ments giving more details of the resultwhich were not mentioned in the last”Årsberättelse i radiotelegrafi”, writtenby Anderberg and printed in TiS in1928.3)

If, besides tests, VLF was used to sub-merged submarines before WWII is notknown; this will continue to be an impor-tant research area where help will bemost welcome.

Submarine communication inthe Second World WarSubmarine communication in WWII wasvastly improved by the great sea powersbeginning to use VLF, the Royal Navyfrom Rugby and the Kriegsmarine fromNauen, later followed by ”Goliath” inKalbe an der Milde about 130 kms westof Berlin. Goliath, biggest in the world,was built in great haste 1941-43, had anoutput power of 1 MW and a large, high-ly efficient antenna, based on the princip-les of the Alexanderson multiple tunedsystem. It had global coverage with anantenna depth in the South Atlantic of10 m below the surface. The HF returnchannel was ordinary morse, the GermanNavy later introducing a primitive bursttransmission system called ”Kurier” inwhich the 0.43 second message was dis-played on an oscilloscope, photographedand evaluated in ”Koralle”, the bunkerof Admiral Dönitz in Bernau 30 kmsnortheast of Berlin.

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In 1941 and with considerable fore-sight, the signals department of the Swe-dish Navy drew up a plan for submarinecommunication settling for SAQ with itslow frequency and high power as themain VLF station to the Swedish subma-rines. HF communication from the sub-marines was considered ”unsolvable”,here interpreted as possible only for sub-marines on the surface.

In neutral Sweden, SAQ at Grimetoncontinued to be used for public cor-respondence that was increasingly im-portant as one of the few possible com-munications links with belligerents aswell as non-belligerents. It was also usedto our submarines, e.g. for messages tothe downed HMS Ulven (the Wolf), sentfrom ”Per-Albins ledningsvagn” (the mo-bile communication center of the Swedishpremier), the reception confirmed by theradioman of HMS Delfinen (the Dolphin)which took part in the search.

Submarine communicationafter WWIIIn studies and notes of meetings in theyears following the war, the Swedish Na-val Staff showed continued excellentforesight in submarine communication.Lieutenant Commander Bengt Lundvall(later Admiral) reported from his visit tothe Admiralty that, in addition to VLFRugby, the Royal Navy had 40 kW LFtransmitters (frequency range 40-50kHz) giving very limited depth of recep-tion, but quite suitable in low saline wa-ters like the Baltic. He also said that theBritish had removed the D/F loop andall wire antennas and installed two cros-sed coils, possibly with ferrite cores, with areception depth of 20 m (most probablyfrom Rugby). He added that a periscope-

like retractable HF antenna mast shouldimprove our existing HF transmittingsystem. No document mentioned bursttransmission, an area possibly regardedtoo secret to be includ-ed in notes, notcovered at all or discuss-ed only in asmaller circle of people.

HMS Sjöormen – Swedishsubmarine communicationimprovesThe Sjöormen (Sea Serpent) class, deliv-ered the 1960’s, regarded as a milestonefor Swedish submarine developmentwith better radio communications includ-ing radically improved VLF/LF recep-tion, burst transmission on HF and newprinciples of system design. This systemstep created a powerful submarine com-munications system along the principle”standards above all” that has been un-changed. Our policy facilitated installa-tion, maintenance and upcoming modifi-cations as well as retrofitting the Hajenand Draken series and using well-triedequipment for newbuildings.

With few exceptions, the Sjöormenequipment were new, either designed forthe purpose or available as COTS. Thetransistor had been invented in the mid1940’s, a technology step comparable tothat of the thermionic valve. It took sometime for this technology to mature andonly the burst transmission system wasfully solid state with discrete transistorsand core memory. Satellite systems weredisregarded; as an independent nation,we could not "control" them. In a recentTiS, Commander Håkan Nilsson andCaptain Anders Järn, gave their views onunderwater communications calling forsystems not available today and thus out-side the scope of my article.18, 19)

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Longwave to the submergedsubmarineIn principle, the depth of VLF/LF recep-tion depends on

• water salinity• transmitter radio frequency• transmitter power• transmitter antenna efficiency• distance to transmitter• modulation method and signal

processing efficiency• data transfer rate• sensitivity and selectivity of sub an-

tenna and receiver system

Three parameters, viz. water salinity,transmitter radio frequency and trans-mitter antenna efficiency, interact. Forthe first two a lower frequency is better,

for the latter a higher one. In the Katte-gat, VLF is needed; in the Baltic LF isoptimum. The signal from the longwavetransmitter goes along the ground andover the water surface and then almostvertically down to the submarine. Thedominating attenuation is in the waterand the locality of the transmitter is ofless significance.

As mentioned earlier, the Royal Swe-dish Navy needed to supplement SAQwith an LF transmitter of its own, opti-mized for the Baltic. It was to be installednear the small town of Trosa. However,the location was regarded as vulnerableand was changed to the village of Rudawest of Oskarshamn. Swedish Philips de-livered a 40 kW LF transmitter, JuchoGmbH in Germany the 200 meter umbrel-

HMS Sjöormen at sea. The HF transmitting antenna is the mast with the horisontal disc;the VLF receiving antenna radome is at the top of the conning tower, aft. (Foto: Kockums)

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la mast, i. e. with toploading wires. RudaRadio opened for traffic on December 1st

1959; plans for a second installation didnot materialize.

A decade later, the Swedish NationalDefence Reseach Institute (FOA) wasasked to study how to cover the Balticwith another LF station. Neither geo-graphical databases, nor sufficient calcu-lating power were available. Thus, thestudy was based an manual methods, asimple but ingenuous way of overlayingtwo identically scaled viewgraphs, onewith circles of transmitter field strength,one a map with curves of needed fieldstrengths for the desired depth of recep-tion. The result was very astonishing: theoptimum site was west of Oskarshamn,i. e. near Ruda; FOA then proposed twolower power transmitters.5, 6)After tryingdifferent ways to implement these, theyeventually came about, based on twodisused Air Force jamming transmitters,an idea once suggested by CommanderPercy Björling.

At a meeting in Grimeton in 2003 Iwas asked, then retired, by Captain BoRask, Commanding Officer of the Sub-marine Flotilla, to write a memorandumon longwave stations where SAQ, its lowfrequency and its large antenna systemmight be considered as possible resour-ces.13) Today, along the lines of the memo,the stations are being modernized withsolid state equipment, MSK modulationand remote control, i. e. to the generalstate-of-the-art of submarine communi-cation.

To reach depths of the order of 10 m,the VLF frequency range of 14-25 kHz isused. One station, possibly the strongestin the world, is the German NATO facil-ity of Ramsloh (Rhauderfehn), 70 kmswest of Bremen, in essence comparable

to Goliath. It comprises eight 100 kWtransmitter units, each with a 350 m mast.For depths of the order of 100 m, lowerfrequencies are needed. Systems with fre-quencies of about 80 Hz, used by USA(terminated) and Russia, need great trans-mitter powers and giant antenna systems,out of the question for a small nation.

For reception, two crossed ferriteloop antennas on the rear upper part ofthe conning tower were used. SwedishPhilips made the antenna and the solidstate aerial tuner/amplifier. It was easy tospecify: the best possible sensitivity andselectivity for weak signals and that atthe expense of everything else. This unitwas delivered before schedule, had excel-lent performance and a lower price thanestimated – a very rare situation. It got along life, eventually being replaced byNATO standard equipment from Brad-ley, UK, being recommended by Odd-bjørn Strømsnes and Henning Landbo,my Norwegian and Danish oppositenumbers at the time.

As submarine receivers, we chose Ra-cal RA117 (including VLF preselectors)which had an innovative method of fre-quency control, well suited to morse tele-graphy, the main method of communica-tion at the time. In the 1970’s, the receiv-ers were changed to the new navy stand-ard contracted jointly with the Royal Da-nish Navy. It was fully solid state and wasmanufactured by Standard Radio, Swe-den (part of the ITT group). It is easy tooperate, very reliable, and still in use.

HF and burst transmissionIn principle, a burst transmission radiosystem should

• expose the transmitter antenna overwater as little as possible

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• allow antenna tuning without trans-mitting power

• use high transmitter power• have a well structured chain of receiv-

ers with diversity and redundancy• forward messages to the combat cen-

tre in a quick and secure way• have a flexible frequency manage-

ment based on wave propagation prog-noses

• employ a data transfer rate and modu-lation suitable for the actual wavepropagation

• use efficient signal processing inclu-ding forward error correction

• avoid stereotype messages• have a quick and secure ciphering sys-

tem

It should be mentioned that a returnchannel, in this case VLF or LF, is neededto acknowledge received messages.

In the 1950’s, Marinförvaltningens”Telelab” (the electronics laboratory ofthe Navy Board), started work on a high-ly secret burst transmission system,”Snaggen”, including a better submarineHF antenna. Snaggen was tested on air,the antenna as a model scaled to a higherfrequency. Unfortunately, this was thetime when key personnel, including that ofTelelab, left for consulting firms, a trendthat was encouraged. We, the young inex-perienced engineers, had to continue thejob of aquiring the equipment.

Signal processing had not come farthose days and the first data code, primi-tive and binary, had to be chosen by me.It indicated symbol errors, no more, andwe had to rely on the redundancy of thediversity receiver chain, the structure ofwhich has been immune to all reorgani-zations. At that time, ciphering was one-time pad and messages were recorded on

a standard teleprinter, its ”bell” functionused to alert the radio officer on watch.Since then, some refinements, not men-tioned here, have been included; otherrefinements, not mentioned here, mayawait their turn.

The HF transmitter (Ra850) was de-signed by GEC, UK (later part of theMarconi group, now Ericsson). The Eng-lish called it the ”Squash” transmitter, itsdouble meaning probably intentional.The transmitter could give 1 kW in burstmode, but had only a few fixed frequen-cies, not really acceptable. The matterwas heavily discussed, but it was decidedthat we should go on, albeit there wereless expensive frequency flexible trans-mitters on the US market. Rather soon,we had to add a syntheziser, made by El-mer SpA, Italy (later part of the Marconigroup, now Ericsson). In the 1970’s, thetransmitter was changed to the new navystandard from Standard Radio, as reli-able as the receivers.

It is difficult to get an electrically aswell as mechanically good submarine HFantenna enabling the transmitting sub-marine to stay under the surface. Com-mander (E) Sven Linder negotiated withthe US Navy, which had one or two typesof retractable antennas designed for nu-clear submarines, and a contract was sign-ed with ITT. These antennas were excel-lent, although expensive, and very effi-cient – someone asked if a new coast ra-dio station had gone on air. They turnedout to be very reliable and got a long life ;they were kept in the Challenger class inthe Republic of Singapore Navy.

Grimeton in danger, but savedSAQ was in commercial telegraph servi-ce slightly beyond the Second World War

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1939-1945. After that period, the alterna-tor and its antenna system stood a verysmall chance of surviving because inter-continental communications had been ta-ken over by HF radio. However, the RoyalSwedish Navy still needed SAQ and its an-tenna system and without being aware ofour cultural foresight, we remunerated themaintenance costs, predominantly for thepainting of the antenna towers.

Unfortunately, the naval interest de-creased as the Kattegat on the west coastof Sweden was no longer a priority area.In 1995, the Radio Services of SwedishTelecom decided to close SAQ, still verywell maintained and in perfect workingorder. As people prepared themselves tolisten to the last transmission, other peo-ple started a resistance movement. Asour first victory, we succeeded in gettinga few months of postponement.

Thus, the ”last SAQ transmission” bythe one and only remaining Alexander-son alternator could be heard in Septem-ber 1995 at the IEE London conference”A Hundred Years of Radio” as well asin the United States. Many radio ama-teurs and professionals were present atthe conference and, signals being heardin the auditorium, they took down thelive message received by courtesy ofBBC.9)

Luckily, interest to preserve the sta-tion and to maintain it in working orderincreased and after a very short time thesituation was totally reversed. The Swe-dish National Heritage Board, the Coun-ty of Halland, the town of Varberg andthe Radio Services of Swedish Telecomgave generous support, backed by veryhard pressure from radio enthusiasts, ra-dio engineers, radio officers and radioamateurs. Living in the outskirts ofStockholm, I became sort of SAQ ambas-

sador to the Royal Academy of Sciencesand similar organizations in the Swedishcapital.

Grimeton Radio was listed as a natio-nal industrial monument in October1996. A year later it was honoured as theforemost one of that year and also put onthe list of the most important sites of thecountry. Protected by Swedish law, thestation buildings, the alternator and themultiple tuned antenna of Grimeton Ra-dio will for ever be kept in working or-der.

Royal supportOn the first day of the new millennium,SAQ sent a message from the King ofSweden, H. M. Carl XVI Gustaf, the”etat” keyed by Lars Kålland SM6NM (aprofessional radio officer):

”Seventyfive years ago the first wire-less messages were sent from the radio sta-tion at Grimeton in Sweden to the UnitedStates of America. The new link was supp-lied with the ultimate in modern radiotechnology at that time, invented by theSwedish-American Ernst F. W. Alexander-son, USA.

In that first message from Grimetonseventyfive years ago, my great grand-father King Gustaf V expressed the hopethat better communications would strength-en the relations between peoples and na-tions. Today the only existing Alexander-son transmitter is again sending a messagearound the world.

Today the unique radio transmitter atGrimeton meets a new millennium. Mymessage today is, however, the same asthat sent by King Gustaf V seventyfiveyears ago. With modern technology andmeans of communication, the possibilitiesof deepened understanding, peace, demo-

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cracy and free exchange of opinions be-tween the peoples of the world will in-crease.

Finally, I wish A Happy New Year toall of you around the world, who are liste-ning to this transmission!”

The message was reported receivedby about a hundred listeners in Europeand in the United States, Minnesota be-ing most distant.

work, SAQ was put on the Unesco WorldHeritage List on July 2nd 2004, exactly 79years from the station inauguration.Thanks are due for intense efforts by nu-merous people all over Sweden includingthe Swedish Government, the SwedishNational Heritage Board, the county ofHalland, the town of Varberg, the RadioServices of Swedish Telecom and thesupporting non-profit society of Alexan-der. The Unesco declaration is a majorachievement for radio people and a ma-nifestation for a nation like Swedenwhich is reckoned among the foremostcountries in IT and radio communica-tions.12)

The celebrations started only a fewhours after the Unesco decision. TheHalland County Governor, Mrs. KarinStarrin, spoke to the crowd from a balco-ny at the main square in Varberg. On the2004 ”Alexander Day” two days later,1 600 people visited the station to see andhear SAQ transmitting the news. The re-turn channels were amateur radio toSA6Q, email and fax – things changewith time.

Swedish Telecom has generously do-nated SAQ to the World Heritage Foun-dation of Grimeton adding a very sub-stantial amount for further operationand maintenance. Thanks are due also tothe Royal Swedish Navy which earlierput in a lot of money. The station is in al-most mint condition and the towers haverecently been completely repainted.

The visitors’ centre, sponsored by thetown of Varberg and the Varberg SavingsBank Foundation, opened on July 2nd

2005, exactly 80 years from the SAQ in-auguration. It will contain activities tostimulate young people to show interestin natural science and technology, an”Alex’s lab” having already been created

On September 5th 2001, King CarlXVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia visitedGrimeton and sent another ”etat” fromSAQ to the People of the world, keyedby myself (not a professional, just a radioamateur). Sitting there, the royal couplestanding behind, was great. The radio-gram read: ”on july 2 1925 my greatgrandfather inaugurated grimeton radioand on jan 1 2000 saq transmitted my mil-lennium message stop today on our royaltour we send our best wishes from saq =carl gustaf rex silvia regina”

The world heritageSome of us got world heritage in mind al-ready in 1996. After eight years of heavy

Transmission of the royal message(Foto: Hans G Larsson, TeliaSonera)

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in an additional building. The station isshown at regular intervals and the alter-nator is run on dummy load about once aweek during the summer. The 2 200 mlong multiple tuned antenna is an eye-catcher from the west coast railway, fromthe E6 highway and through submarineperiscopes in the Kattegat. The SAQwebsite will tell you how and when to gothere.

SAQ still on air as a tribute to”Alex”From the spark era 1900-1920 and theelectronic tube era 1920-1960, we are inthe era of transistors and integrated cir-cuits. Over these years, we have beenable to follow the development of sub-marine communications from signal flagsup to the fully solid state radio communi-cations of our navy. In the systems of to-day, with their efficient signal processingand remote controlling of distant equip-ment, one component is unique: the pre-electronic radio station at Grimeton, oneof its foremost sponsors being the RoyalSwedish Navy.

Ernst Alexanderson was inductedposthumously into the US National In-ventors Hall of Fame in 1983. He wasvery well known in USA, less so in hisnative country. We hope that also Swe-dish people will catch up when visitingSAQ which will go on air once a year onAlexander Day in late June or early July.The cooling water fountains, the clickingrelays, the liquid variable resistors andthe rumbling 50 ton alternator will recallthe atmosphere of the 1920’s – please paytribute to ”Alex, the complete chief engi-neer.”

SAQ in a peaceful worldUnesco was born on November 4th 1946.For 60 years, the organization has beenfulfilling an ambitious goal: ”to buildpeace in the minds of men.” That inclu-des the preservation of the natural andcultural objects on the World Heritagelist. Within the framework of Partnershipfor Peace (PfP), the 80 year old transmit-ting facilities of Grimeton and SAQ areready to support this Unesco goal.

AcknowledgementsI am indebted to books, journals and pro-ceedings and to my friends everywherefor support in writing this article and ear-lier papers on SAQ. Special thanks go toHans Bergfast and Karl-Gustav StridSM6FJB for their expertise in preparingthe world heritage application, to Försva-rets Historiska Telesamlingar (FHT, theSwedish Defence Historical Collections)for financial support and to KÖMS andKrigsarkivet (KrA, the Military Archivesof Sweden) for valuable help in my re-search.

I also like to mention the supportfrom Gunnar Brodin whom I first met atKTH in the 1950’s. He became a profes-sor at his alma mater and found an inter-est in Alexanderson and his work. He end-ed his career as Marshal of the Realm, i.e.royal court CEO. Coming out of thewings at the royal visit in 2001, wearinghis doctor’s hat, he substituted for ErnstAlexanderson and delivered the firstspeech, quite appropriate for our fore-most Alexanderson expert. His suddenappearance amazed his immediate su-periors, our king and queen, who had notbeen told in advance.

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References1) E. F. W. Alexanderson. ”Trans-Oceanic Ra-

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2) R. Rendahl. ”Årsberättelse i radiotelegrafi”(in Swedish), Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet, vol. 84,pp. 195-234, (1921).

3) E. Anderberg. ”Årsberättelse i radiotele-grafi” (in Swedish), Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet,vol. 91, pp. 173-195, (1928).

4) G. Brigge. ”Årsberättelse i förbindelsevä-sen 1952” (in Swedish), Tidskrift i Sjöväsen-det, vol. 116, pp. 379-420, (1953).

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6) R. Lindqvist. ”Some results in connectionwith a search for maximum underwater LF/VLF coverage”, AGARD Conference Pro-ceedings 77 on Electromagnetics of the Sea,AGARD-CP-77-70, chapter 10, (1970)

7) B. V. Nilsson. ”Ernst Fredrik Werner Alex-anderson” (in Swedish), Teleböckerna, Tele-museum and Telia AB, (1987, second prin-ting 2002); (ISBN 91-972360-6-3); Englishedition, Grimeton World Heritage Founda-tion, (2006); (ISBN 91-766294-0-5).

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12) H. Bergfast. K.-G. Strid (editors). ”Applica-tion for Inclusion on the World HeritageList”, The County Administrative Board ofHalland, (2001); (ISSN 1101-1084, ISRNLSTY-N-M-01/24-SE).

13) C.-H. Walde. ”Radiosamband till ubåt, PMom långvågsstationer för Försvarsmakten”(in Swedish), memorandum to the Submari-ne Flotilla (unregistered, deposited in theMilitary Archives of Sweden, ref. FHT),(2003).

14) R. Klintebo (editor). ”Det svenska ubåts-vapnet 1904-2004” (in Swedish), Liberatim,(2004); (ISBN 91-973075-3-X).

15) C.-H. Walde. ”Ubåtssamband och dess bak-grund” (in Swedish), Audionen (Gothen-burg radio museum, editor Krister Ljung-qvist), issue 3 (2005), (offprint 2005 and2006).

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17) C.-H. Walde. ” SAQ in Grimeton, the onlyremaining pre-electronic transmitter fortransatlantic work, now on the UnescoWorld Heritage List”, IET ConferenceIonospheric Radio Systems & Techniques(IRST), pp. 331-335, (2006); (ISBN 0-86341-659-4 & 978-0-86341-659-0).

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19) A. Järn. ”Going west – a submarine servicewith global reach”, ibid., pp. 285-293.

Websiteswhc.unesco.org(Unesco World Heritage Centre)

www.raa.se(Swedish National Heritage Board)

www.lst.n.se(County Administrative Board of Halland)

www.grimetonradio.se (SAQ)

www.alexander.n.se (Alexander Society)

www.fht.nu(Försvarets Historiska Telesamlingar)

www.radiomuseet.se(Gothenburg radio museum)