View source for Sottens transmitter

{{Sources needed|date=April 2024}}{{Update|date=April 2024}}[[Image:Transmitter Sottens 765khz 1.jpg|thumb|]]
The '''Sottens Transmitter ''' is the nationwide transmitter for [[French language|French]]-speaking [[Switzerland]]. The transmitter is located at [[Sottens]], [[Canton of Vaud]], [[Switzerland]]. It is run on 765&nbsp;kHz with a power of 600 kilowatts and is easily receivable during the night throughout the whole of [[Europe]]. Since 1989 the [[Antenna (radio)|aerial]] used has been a [[Dipole antenna|centre-fed dipole]] fixed on the outside of a 188-metre-high grounded freestanding steel framework tower. Before 1989 a 190-metre high self-radiating, free standing steel framework tower was used as a transmission aerial.
The Sottens transmitter most recently broadcast the ''Option Musique'' radio programme from [[Radio Suisse Romande]], up until 5 December 2010.

There is also a {{convert|125|m|ft|adj=mid|-tall}} free-standing lattice tower on the site. This tower was built in 1931 as one of a pair, which until 1958 carried between them a T-antenna for medium wave broadcasting. The second tower was dismantled in that year and rebuilt in [[Transmission Tower La Dole|Dole]] as a TV transmission tower. This tower is insulated from ground to form a tower radiator and is used as backup antenna.

After the shutdown of RSR on MW, the antenna was later used for [[ham radio]] experiments in February 2011, using both standard AM and [[Digital Radio Mondiale|DRM]] in the 80 m band.

==See also==
* [[Lattice tower]]

==External links==
* [http://www.emetteurs.ch/gallery/sottens Sottens transmitter pictures] on emetteurs.ch
* {{Structurae|id=20012621|title=Sottens Radio Tower}}
* http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b44084
* http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b57952
* [http://www.giangrandi.ch/electronics/broadcast/sottens.html The Sottens transmitter] Retrieved 26 January 2006
* [http://www.biennophone.ch/MW-Sender.htm#Sottens Sottens transmitter] Sottens

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[[Category:Lattice towers]]
[[Category:Towers in Switzerland]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Vaud]]
[[Category:Broadcast transmitters]]
[[Category:1931 establishments in Switzerland]]
[[Category:Towers completed in 1931]]
[[Category:20th-century architecture in Switzerland]]


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