The Fernmeldeturm Berlin (Telecommunications Tower Berlin) is a
telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...
tower
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.
Towers are specifi ...
located atop the Schäferberg hill in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
-
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, "See" means lake) and the ...
. The tower was built between 1961 and 1964, and is not open to the public. Owner and operator of the site is
Deutsche Funkturm
Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to:
*''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places
*''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym
*Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...
(DFMG), a subsidiary of
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom w ...
.
The Fernmeldeturm Berlin is tall, and its
steel-reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
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 Feb ...
digital television, analog
Digital radio, DAB and
DMB 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 is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. 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 which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performan ...
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 Wittenberge ...
. 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 facto ...
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 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 generat ...
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 benefits w ...
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 nigh 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 communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically th ...
aerials.
Since 2001, the Fernmeldeturm Berlin is also used for transmissions in the
medium wave
Medium wave (MW) is the 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 dayt ...
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 militai ...
mode. Since the tower was not designed to accommodate this frequency range, a long wire
aerial
Aerial may refer to:
Music
* ''Aerial'' (album), by Kate Bush
* ''Aerials'' (song), from the album ''Toxicity'' by System of a Down
Bands
*Aerial (Canadian band)
*Aerial (Scottish band)
*Aerial (Swedish band)
Performance art
*Aerial silk, ...
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
See also
*
List of tallest towers
Several extant building fulfill the engineering definition of a tower: "a tall human structure, always taller than it is wide, for public or regular operational access by humans, but not for living in or office work, and are ''self-supporting' ...
References
External links
*
Picture on Google-Maps"Over the Top" describes Fernmeldeturm's role in the Cold War{{coord, 52, 25, 02, N, 13, 07, 39, E, region:DE-BE_type:landmark, display=title
Buildings and structures in Steglitz-Zehlendorf
Towers completed in 1964
Towers in Berlin>FM radio, and newer
Digital radio, DAB and
DMB 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 is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. 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 which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performan ...
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 Wittenberge ...
. 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 facto ...
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 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 generat ...
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 benefits w ...
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 nigh 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 communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically th ...
aerials.
Since 2001, the Fernmeldeturm Berlin is also used for transmissions in the
medium wave
Medium wave (MW) is the 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 dayt ...
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 militai ...
mode. Since the tower was not designed to accommodate this frequency range, a long wire
aerial
Aerial may refer to:
Music
* ''Aerial'' (album), by Kate Bush
* ''Aerials'' (song), from the album ''Toxicity'' by System of a Down
Bands
*Aerial (Canadian band)
*Aerial (Scottish band)
*Aerial (Swedish band)
Performance art
*Aerial silk, ...
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
See also
*
List of tallest towers
Several extant building fulfill the engineering definition of a tower: "a tall human structure, always taller than it is wide, for public or regular operational access by humans, but not for living in or office work, and are ''self-supporting' ...
References
External links
*
Picture on Google-Maps"Over the Top" describes Fernmeldeturm's role in the Cold War{{coord, 52, 25, 02, N, 13, 07, 39, E, region:DE-BE_type:landmark, display=title
Buildings and structures in Steglitz-Zehlendorf
Towers completed in 1964
Towers in Berlin