The Fernmeldeturm Berlin (Telecommunications Tower Berlin) is a

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

located atop the Schäferberg hill in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Wannsee Wannsee () is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger '' Großer Wannsee'' (Greater Wannsee) and the '' Kleiner Wannse ...

. The tower was built between 1961 and 1964, and is not open to the public. Owner and operator of the site is Deutsche Funkturm (DFMG), a subsidiary of

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

. The Fernmeldeturm Berlin is tall, and its

steel-reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

shaft extends to a height of . Between in elevation, the tower houses six floors for technical equipment. This currently consists of transmitters for

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Fe ...

digital television, analog FM radio, and newer DAB and

DMB DMB may refer to: * " D.M.B.", a song by ASAP Rocky * DMB Development, a Limited Liability Corporation based in Scottsdale, Arizona * DaMarcus Beasley, nicknamed DMB, an American soccer player * Dave Matthews Band, a U.S. rock band * Del McCoury B ...

digital radio. From 1964 to the early nineties, the tower was used to implement two over-the-horizon radio links to the rest of

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. The city of Berlin was geographically isolated, so unusual means were necessary to bridge the distance. One such link used bundled arrays of

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

s mounted near the top to establish a near-line-of sight connection at 250 MHz and 400 MHz to the tower at

Gartow Gartow is a municipality in the district Lüchow-Dannenberg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the easternmost tip of Lower Saxony, not far from the river Elbe, approx. 30 km northeast of Salzwedel, and 20 km west of Wittenberg ...

. The other used

tropospheric scatter Tropospheric scatter, also known as troposcatter, is a method of communicating with microwave radio signals over considerable distances – often up to and further depending on frequency of operation, equipment type, terrain, and climate fact ...

at 2 GHz to establish a non-line-of-sight link to

Torfhaus Torfhaus is a village in the borough of the mining town of Altenau in the Harz mountains of Germany and lies at a height of about . It is the highest settlement in Lower Saxony. This small settlement consists mainly of restaurants, youth hostels, ...

.Der deutsche Fernsehturm, Rudolf Pospischil, 2009, pages 40-47 To that end the tower was equipped with two

Parabolic reflector A parabolic (or paraboloid or paraboloidal) reflector (or dish or mirror) is a Mirror, reflective surface used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is part of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface ge ...

antennas, each in diameter, which were mounted on the lower portion of the tower. They were removed in 1996. Because of these aerials, the Fernmeldeturm Berlin had to be designed to withstand triple the

wind loading Wind engineering is a subset of mechanical engineering, structural engineering, meteorology, and applied physics that analyzes the effects of wind in the natural and the built environment and studies the possible damage, inconvenience or benefit ...

of the comparably sized TV tower in Stuttgart. The concrete shaft is thus in diameter at the bottom, with a wall thickness of . At the mark, the shaft is only in diameter. Directly adjacent to the Fernmeldeturm Berlin is a free standing steel framework tower. Formerly it supported two diameter parabolic aerials for an over-the-horizon radio link, also to Torfhaus. These have since been removed. It is now predominantly used for

cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless network, wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called ''cells'', each served by at least one fixed-locatio ...

aerials. Since 2001, the Fernmeldeturm Berlin is also used for transmissions in the

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...

range on 1485 kHz in

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militair ...

mode. Since the tower was not designed to accommodate this frequency range, a long wire aerial was installed for this purpose.

Gallery

Image:Fernmeldeturm_Berlin-Schaeferberg.jpg, The Fernmeldeturm viewed from the Belvedere Palace in Potsdam Image:Berlin Fernmeldeturm Schaeferberg.jpg, The Fernmeldeturm viewed from Große Steinlanke Image:Pohlesee_und_Fernmeldeturm_(2009).jpg, Tower viewed across Pohlesee Image:DBPB 1965 264 Fernmeldeturm Schäferberg.jpg, Commemorative Berlin postage stamp from 1965 Image:Fernmeldeturm Berlin line drawing.PNG, Line drawing of the Fernmeldeturm showing its 1975 state Image:Fernmeldeturm Array.jpg, The Fernmeldeturm sporting its former array of directional antennas pointing to Gartow

References

External links

*
Picture on Google-Maps

"Over the Top" describes Fernmeldeturm's role in the Cold War
{{Portal bar, Germany, Architecture Buildings and structures in Steglitz-Zehlendorf Towers completed in 1964 Towers in Berlin

Gallery

See also

References

External links