ULTRA-SHORT-WAVE RADIO AT VATICAN (May, 1933)
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1933
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ULTRA-SHORT-WAVE RADIO AT VATICAN
An ultra-short-wave radio station has been installed at Vatican City, Italy, for communication between the Vatican and the summer residence of Pope Pius XI at Castel Gandolfo, twenty miles away. The set uses waves only fifty-seven centimeters (about twenty-one inches) in length. According to its noted designer, Gugleilmo Marconi, it represents the ”first practical application of microwaves.” Marconi has been endeavoring for more than thirty years to harness these waves, which are a minute fraction of the length of those used in ordinary broadcasting. Such waves may be focused directly at the receiving station, like a beam of light, using a parabolic antenna as a mirror. Messages may be transmitted in this way with economy of power and comparative secrecy. Until recently it was supposed that ultra-short waves could not be used for long-distance transmission because they would not follow the curvature of the earth’s surface. In a test last year, however, Marconi succeeded in sending a one-way message 167 miles on a twenty-one inch wave.
Wouldn’t the people in between those two points end up being “cooked”?
Comment by Caya — April 26, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
Only when someone other than the Pope is speaking. His microwaves are infallible.
Comment by Charlie — April 26, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
And when he’s wearing his mitre the rays are channelled away to the earth.
Comment by Stannous — April 26, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
Vatican Radio exceeding Italian laws on radiation and of being a health hazard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1269572.stm
Comment by latente — April 27, 2007 @ 2:20 am
What is that wavelength in mHz?
Can it pass through the Heavyside Layer and reach Heaven?
Comment by jayessell — April 27, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
Wiki says: A microwave oven works by passing microwave radiation, usually at a frequency of 2.45 GHz (a wavelength of 12.24 cm), through the food.
Dang! Now I’m confused.
My dad had a CB in the 1960s-70s.
If 10 meter was 30 mhz then
1 meter = .3 GHz
1/8 meter = 2.4 GHz
So 0.57 meter should be near 526 MHz.
(Assuming a speed of light of 3 million meters per second.)
Comment by jayessell — April 27, 2007 @ 12:27 pm
This is actually UHF broadcasting. In 1933!
Comment by Blurgle — April 28, 2007 @ 6:22 am
The frequency in Hertz or cycles per second is 5259516.807 or 5.26 Megahertz – nowhere near UHF, which starts at 328.6 Mhz. The 5.26 Megahertz frequency is just below the current 60 Meter Amateur Band, which is the High Frequency (HF) portion of the radio spectrum.
Comment by Juan Koopermann — February 22, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
57 cm converts to about 526MHz Freq(in MHz)=300/wavelength (in meters) thus:
F= 300/.57
F=526.315 MHz
For 1933, that is certainly “micro-” enough.
Comment by KDS — March 3, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
This is part of the the UHF band as already described by many.
Whoever calculated it to be 5.26 mhz is wrong.
Comment by john — January 12, 2009 @ 5:57 pm