Sainte-Assise transmitter

[2] The secondary coil was connected to the overhead wire aerial system, over 1 mile (1.6 km) long, supported on sixteen 850-foot (260 m) high towers, which radiated the radio waves.

[2] The inductance of the secondary coil resonated with the capacitance of the antenna to form the tank circuit of the transmitter in order to control the output frequency.

[2] The spiral shape of the coils reduced resistive losses at radio frequency due to proximity effect.

As part of the broadcast, opera singer Yvonne Brothier performed La Marseillaise, a song from Mireille, and an aria from The Barber of Seville.

FR-1's mission objective was to study the composition and structure of the ionosphere, plasmasphere, and magnetosphere by measuring the propagation of VLF waves and the local electron density of plasma in those atmospheric layers.

[7][8][9] For the VLF wave experiments, the Sainte-Assise transmitter and another ground station in Balboa, Panama, transmitted signals at 16.8 kHz and 24 kHz, respectively, while the satellite's magnetic and electric sensors orbiting about 750 kilometres (470 mi) away analyzed the magnetic field of the received wave.