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Hellissandur longwave radio mast

Radio mast in Iceland

Field	Value
name	Hellissandur longwave radio mast
native_name	Langbylgjustöðin á Gufuskálum
native_name_lang	ICE
image	HellissandurMast.jpg
caption	View of the Hellissandur masts
building_type	Mast radiator insulated against the ground
location	Hellissandur, Iceland
coordinates
status	Built
completion_date	1963
inauguration_date	1999-09-08 (Longwave transmissions)
height	412 m
main_contractor	US Coast Guard

The Hellissandur longwave radio mast ( ) is a 412 m tall guyed radio mast formerly used for longwave radio transmissions of RÚV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service). It is situated at Gufuskálar , near Hellissandur on the Snæfellsnes peninsula of West Iceland. It is currently the tallest longwave radio mast in the world and the tallest above ground structure in Western Europe.

It formed part of RÚV's longwave service. It was intended to fill in gaps of the FM radio, serve seafarers and as a critical communications facility. It previously operated in parallel with the less powerful Eiðar longwave transmitter to form nationwide longwave coverage, but Eiðar was demolished in 2023.

The mast, which is among the tallest structures in Western Europe, is insulated against the ground, and guyed at five levels by steel ropes, which are subdivided by insulators. It was built in 1963 to replace the 190.5 m tall LORAN-C mast, constructed in 1959 for the North Atlantic LORAN-C chain (GRD 7970). A second, smaller, 30 m tall tower was installed by the US Coast Guard in the autumn of 1961 as part of a LORAN-A network paired with Greenland.

The LORAN-C scheme closed in 1994. In 1991, the original RÚV 1930 longwave transmitter tower at Vatnsendi (near Reykjavík) collapsed. As the Hellissandur mast was free for use, it was converted for use by RÚV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service) for its longwave transmissions on 189 kHz at a power of 300 kilowatts in the 1997.

In 2016, there were test transmissions at low power on the former Höfn frequency of 666 kHz. The aim was to test whether medium wave could be an alternative to long wave, which is not only expensive but also increasingly unreceivable by car radios across icelands. However, this approach was not pursued further.

In 2023 RÚV announced the retirement of all its longwave transmissions by 2024, citing its inadequacy as a backup service as most vehicles and radios do not support longwave broadcasts anymore. The Hellissandur transmitter went off the air on 5 September 2024 and on 17 October it was officially announced as closed.

References

(2023-02-28). "Slökkt á langbylgjuútsendingum frá Eiðum - RÚV.is".
"Langbylgjustöðin (Útvarpshúsið) á Vatnsendahæð – Ferlir".
"Morgunblaðið - 205. tölublað (11.09.1997) - Tímarit.is".
"Langwellenrundfunk in Island ist beendet".
(2023-02-28). "Langbylgjan þagnar og kallað eftir ábendingum um hvar má bæta FM kerfi RÚV - RÚV.is".
(2023-02-28). "Third largest structure in Iceland demolished - RÚV.is".
Magnúsdóttir, Margrét. (2024-10-17). "Tilkynning um lokun langbylgju - RÚV.is".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

infrastructure-completed-in-1963 loran-c-transmitters radio-masts-and-towers-in-europe towers-in-iceland 1963-establishments-in-iceland

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