Who built the station?
Certainly it was designed by the Marconi Company but at the time of writing further information is not available.
We do know that the buildings at the Bodmin Station were constructed by the Foundation Company of London and that the masts were supplied and erected by The Armstrong Construction Company. The building of these stations must have been quite specialised work, therefore there is a likelihood that the same contractors were involved with all stations.
Precise alignment of the masts was of vital importance and had to be carried out with great care. They had to be at right angles to the shortest great circle route to the destination. As compass bearings were insufficiently accurate, the installation engineers had to be instructed to take fixes from the sun or certain stars to provide the correct orientation.
For transmission to Australia only one wavelength was used - 25.096 metres. Because this wave length is above 20 metres it travels better in the dark. As Australia is roughly half-way round the earth from Britain the beam was directed either eastwards or westwards according to which was the darkest side of the earth's surface. In practice this was west in the morning and east in the evening. The westward path covered approximately 12,000 nautical miles and the eastward path was 9,000 nautical miles.
For transmission to India two wavelengths were used - 35 metres and 16 metres. Again one was used for short path communication and the other for long path.
The call signs of the transmitter were GBH for Australia and GBI for India.
The transmitter used approximately 20kW power as opposed to the lOOOkW required by a similar longwave station.
