NDB / Beacon page from Walter - PE1ABR


  Here you can find some photographs taken from a few longwave beacons within a one-day travel distance from my home town.
Each country has its own preferences how to construct them.
In Holland: allmost everywhere low gain towers (construction pylon) with a resonance coil halfway.
In France : small base coil, big top coil and hughe capacitive hat: i.e. very strong signals.
In Belgium: hughe construction towers, or modern small glassfiber poles. Sometimes: very, very old clothes line construction (393 DEN Denderhoutem).
All Schiphol - Amsterdam and Zestienhoven - Rotterdam beacons look alike. Like the Teuge beacon, foto08.jpg + foto09.jpg. Also visited: 388.5 CH (Schiphol) near Buitenkaag, NV 332.0 (Schiphol) near Nieuwkoop, PS 369.0 (Zestienhoven) near Heenvliet (west of Spykenisse), RR 404.5 (Zestienhoven) near Haastrecht (Gouda). Aerial gain is very low, signals are NOT strong. Signals from France (big wheel hat) are much and much stronger.

 



Click on the images to enlarge

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MRV 404.0 - Merville (Calonne).
Aero NDB in North of France. North beacon airstrip, south beacon = MVC 327.0 Picture shows top part of the aerial with big wheel (capacitive hat) and the resonance coil. Estimated coil height: at least 1 meter.
UPDATE: The beacon has been modernized. The whole nice aerial is gone. It's now a simple pole without the big wheel! (half the original height)

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MRV 404.0 - Merville (Calonne).
Aero NDB in North of France. total view aerial and big wheel. Due to the capacitive hat construction a good aerial gain: a strong signal on a large distance. See foto01 for more info
UPDATE: The beacon has been modernized. The whole nice aerial is gone. It's now a simple pole without the big wheel! (half the original height)

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TWN 335.5 - Twenthe.
Aero NDB in east Netherlands. Detailed photo: only tower isolater, spark bridge and resonance coil construction. The radiating top part has extension wires to give it more capacitance to ground. This increases the aerial's gain.
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MRV 404.0 Merville (Calonne).
Aero NDB in North of France, total view aerial and big wheel plus more surroundings. See foto01 for more info
UPDATE: The beacon has been modernized. The whole nice aerial is gone. It's now a simple pole without the big wheel! (half the original height)

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NIK 336.5 Nicky St-Niklaas.
Aero NDB (towards Zaventem) in Belgium. Hughe construction in the middle of the town St-Niklaas.

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YM 288.5 Ymuiden in The Netherlands.
Marine beacon at harbour entrance towards Amsterdam.
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TGE 391.0 Teuge beacon (for small air strip),
near Apeldoorn East in the Netherlands.

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TGE 391.0 Teuge Beacon,
detail view of picture foto08.tif. See there for info.

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TWN 335.5 Twenthe.
Aero NDB in east of the Netherlands. See picture foto03 for more info.

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DD 352.5 Ostend Aero
South beacon of Ostend (Oostende) airstrip. Located on the west coast of Belgium near Middelkerke. Beacon located on a camping site!! Construction is a glassfiber pole with some glassfiber branches on top of it. Looks like a lightning conductor construction.

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ING 387.0 St.Inglevert. (Calais)
Another big wheel and resonance coil from France. This one is located south of Calais. Due to the capacitive hat: again a strong signal on large distance. See foto01, 02 and 05 to compare.
It probably is modernized too....

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WW 309.0 Antwerp. (=Antwerpen).
Located near Deurne. Also a glassfiber pole construction. See foto11 info.
If you look well you see a plane flying in just over the beacon: the system works.....