A story of the radio spectrum
The Air above Wellfleet
Cape Cod · 1900 to today
On the cliffs here in 1901, Marconi’s spark tapped out the letter S. Watch the air above one town fill up, from that first spark to satellites wrapping the planet, each era printed the way its own artists drew.
About four minutes · with sound · space to pause, drag to look aroundThe spectrum, 3 kHz to 300 GHz this era in the picture earlier today’s Table
VLF 3 kHzLF 30 kHzMF 300 kHzHF 3 MHzVHF 30 MHzUHF 300 MHzSHF 3 GHzEHF 30 GHz
The ground is real: Wellfleet, Cape Cod, from USGS elevation data and OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). The buildings’ ages, the ships and most towers are illustration; events, dates and frequencies are cited in “The record.” Music is synthesized in your browser. Coastlines: Natural Earth.