Evening star., 1922-09-03
BY COMMANDER STANFORD c.
HOOPER. United States Navy, head
OF the Radio Division In the Bureau
of Engineering, Navy Department..
, 1922. All rights reserIved.)

|
of Engineering. Navy Department.
Copyright. 1922. All rights reserved)
Powerful ether waves. 23,450 meters
in length. pass through the atmos-
phere enveloping the United States
as they daily encompass the globe.
They are the longest waves in use
in the world for practical radio pur-
poses, being nearly $4,000 meters
longer than the average radiophone
broadcasting waves.
They are created by monster radio
station located at the small village
of Croix d'Hins. in France. whose sig
nals' are audible on land and sea all
over the world when suitable receiv-
ing equipment is used
The establishment of this station
was undertaken by the Navy follow
ing our entrance into the world war.
Its mission in war was to combat
the submarine by insuring the MAIN
tenance of facilities for the rapid eX-
change of communications between
the United States and the America n
expeditionary forces in France.
! The continued functioning OF the
then existing reliable communication
1acllltleS, the transatlantic cables,
was seriously threatened by subma-
rlnes If these cables We're cut our
armies overseas would have been ef-
fectually isolated from home. in so
far as the exchange of rapid COM
! munications was concerned, and we
would likewise have been isola re
from the associated poweIs.
obviously 1t was essential to guard
against this danger. and radio was the
only agency which could be made eff
| fectiVe for this purpose.
The morale of our people would
| likely have been seriously affected If,
after sending more than a million
young men overseas. contact between
them and the United States should
be suddenly cut off and not re-estab-
ished except at infrequent intervals.
Inextricable confusion would also
have resulted in the management of
our eXpeditionary forces and the
prosecution of the war
me establishment of super
hfgh-power radio station on the At
lantic coast of the United States was
promptly decided upon. therefore. nd
this station was quickly gotten under
way at Annapolis. Md
! Shortly afterward the construction
OF corresponding station, but of
| twice the power of the ANNAPOLIS sta
| tion. or 1000 kilowatts, was started
at Criox-d Hins. France z small VIII
Iase about twenty miles inland from
| Bordeaux
This station was given the name If
| of Gen. Lafayette
atmospheric or static disturbances
! along the Atlantic coast of the CniteI
! states are relatively very much more
| severe than in Europe. hence a more
! powerful station was REQUIRED in
France to transmit signals to Amer
| lea than the corresponding stution in
! the United States "
Ihe Lafayette station was not COM
pleteo IN tlme to take an active part
| IN .ne war. 1t being about three
I quarters finished when the armistjce
was signed. at which time all work
on the station was stopped
Subsequently, the Navy completed
the station as a postwar project at
the solicitation of the French gov
|. ernment, the French agreeing to as
sumo the entire costs of construction.
Ihe outstanding features of the La
i fayette station are eight self-sup-
/ porting steel towers. each $50 feet
! IN height, and each weighing $50
tons, representing a total weight of
AGO tons of American fabricated
steel.
The steel was manufactured and
fabricated in the United States. and
shipped through the submarine-in-
rested waters TO France without the
loss of a. single piece.
The towers are arranged lin two
rows of four towers each. The rows
are spaced 1920 feet. and the towers
in each row are likewise spaced
1920 feet. providing for an antenna
area over the earth's surface of S.
227.20O square feet. and the largest
antenna system in the world.
From the tower tops are suspended
huge insulators. steel triatics, and
copper wires. comprising the over
head part of the antenna system, hav-
ing a dead weight of three and one
half tons. This heavy strain in no
way endangers the safety of the
towers because they are of sufficient
strength to withstand a horizontal
pull al the tops of eleven tons.
From the overhead antenna wires,
other wires lead downward to the
operating building. nearly 500 feet
below, where they connect to a radio
transmitter of 1000 kilowatt power,
and thence to the buried network
of wires of the underground part of
the antenna system.
Duplicate 1,000-kilowatt transmit
ters were installed so that repairs
could be made to one unit while the
other was functioning into the an
tenna. The continuous operation of