The First Radio Broadcasts From Ships

Parts 31, 32 and 33

[Taken from: Adventist World Radio's "Wavescan" - (DX Programs 466, 467, 471, 477 and 497). Many thanks to Dr. Adrian Peterson]

31. The Boat under the Bridge

A while back, we presented a story here in Wavescan about the New Zealand passenger vessel, "Awatea" (AH-wa-TEE-a), that made many voyages across the Tasman between Australia and New Zealand. This ship was also on the air at times with radio broadcast programming for which QSL cards were issued and these days these cards are quite rare.

Down in the island of Tasmania, Rex Arnott came across the radio script containing our feature item on the "Awatea" on the Pacific Heritage website in New Zealand. Rex tells an interesting story of earlier years, back in 1939.

At the time, a high profile radio comedian on the air in Australia was the New Zealander Jack Davey who was heard in the evenings on nationwide relay with quiz programs and other similar audience participation programs. During the day he was on the air over the mediumwave station 2GB in Sydney.

It so happened that Jack Davey's father, Captain A. H. Davey, was the Master of the passenger vessel "Awatea". Now, it was the pride of the passenger liner "Awatea" to pass under the Sydney Harbor Bridge at exactly 8:00 am on arrival day and then tie up at the wharf at Darling Harbour half an hour later.

Rex Arnott states that he remembers on many occasions listening to 2GB on arrival day and he would hear Jack Davey in 2GB talking on the radio with his father on the "Awatea". In true comedian fashion, if per chance his father was ever late, this provoked a season of verbal sparring over the air.

32. Another Recycled Callsign - From a Lighthouse to a Ship

Or maybe more accurately, From two Lighthouses to two Ships, with a detour in between.

The earliest known usage of the international callsign VLC can be traced back to the year 1913 at the time when the coastal radio station in the Chatham (CHAT-am) Islands was opened for maritime traffic and for contact with New Zealand. There was a strong light on one of the antenna towers and this was used as a beacon for ships traversing the coastal areas.

In 1929, the callsign of Chatham Radio was changed from VLC to ZLC, and the next usage of this re-cycled callsign was at the lighthouse on Tasman Island, out from Hobart off the coast of Tasmania.

It was in 1941 that a 50 kW RCA transmitter was installed at Shepparton in Victoria for use by "Australia Calling" in its international shortwave service and it was allotted the callsign, VLC. These days though, the Radio Australia usage of the call VLC is not for a transmitter but rather it is the identification for a line feed from the studios in Melbourne to a 100 kW transmitter at the same radio base in Shepparton.

It is very interesting to note that the Australian callsign, VLC, was incorporated into an American callsign for a radio broadcasting station built into a renovated old ship. The American vessel, "Apache" was taken to Sydney Harbour in 1944 where two transmitters were installed; one for mediumwave & one for shortwave, and both at 10 kW. This ship made its first broadcasts off the coast of the Philippine Islands on October 20, 1944, under the callsign, WVLC.

There is a reason for this unusual, as it were, double callsign. The American transmitter that was installed at Shepparton was made available to Australia on a "lendlease " basis with the understanding that this unit, VLC, would relay "Voice of America" programming to the Philippines for one and a half hours each day. Thus it was that "Australia Calling" acted as a part time relay station for the "Voice of America", specifically with the program, "The Philippine Hour". 

When the radio ship, "Apache" was off the coast of the Philippines, the relay of this "Voice of America" radio program was transferred from VLC in Australia to the "Apache" under the American callsign, WVLC. 

However, a few months later another radio ship from America, the "Spindle Eye", arrived in the western Pacific and the WVLC callsign was transferred from the "Apache" to the "Spindle Eye". A few months later again, the "Spindle Eye" returned to the California coast and the usage of the WVLC callsign was dropped. 

These days, there are many known QSL cards identifying the VLC callsign as used by Radio Australia, and at least a dozen QSL letters confirming reception of WVLC on the "Apache" are known to exist However, there are no other known QSLs for the other usages of the recycled callsign VLC.

Just as a matter of interest, the Australian callsign VLC does not seem to be in use these days, and the American callsign WVLC is held by a 25 kW FM station on 99.9 MHz in Louisville Kentucky.

33. Early Radio Broadcasting in Denmark

Just a little over a week ago, the shortwave service from Radio Denmark signed off for the last time. Their era of international broadcasting began with experimental transmitters at two different locations in Denmark, it spanned three quarters of a century, and then ended with the use of transmitters at two different locations in a neighbouring Scandinavian country. 

Our opening feature in Wavescan this week, and next week also, will honor the memory of Radio Denmark, and on this occasion, we look at the very early story of local radio broadcasting in Denmark.

Actually, the first wireless stations in Denmark, fixed and mobile, were installed in several regional areas throughout their country in the era just before the commencement of World War 1. The fixed spark wireless stations were installed in Copenhagen and in half a dozen country locations and were on the air for maritime and national communication. The mobile stations were installed on ships and were established for maritime communication and to act as navigational beacons for nearby shipping. 

The original callsigns for these early wireless stations were single or double letters, usually an easy to understand abbreviation for the location of the station. When callsigns were regularized, these were allocated in a three letter sequence beginning with OXA.

The first experimental radio broadcast in Denmark took place on October 29, 1922, more than 80 years ago. On this special occasion, the program was broadcast from a communication transmitter on board a ship in the harbor at Copenhagen and the receiver was installed in a lecture hall in downtown Copenhagen. 

From this single and simple event has grown the entire broadcasting industry in Denmark which is on the air now from more than 100 local transmitters. These government and commercial stations are on the air almost entirely in the FM band. However, there are still two units on the air in the standard mediumwave & longwave bands and these can be heard on 243 kHz with 300 kW and on 1062 kHz with 250 kW for nationwide coverage and spill-over coverage into neighbouring countries.

During the following year after the inaugural single event transmission, two radio transmitters took to the air with radio programming. One was a radio station operated by a local radio club and the other was a military transmitter that was diverted part time for broadcast usage. As was stated at the time, these two stations provided listeners with public information and music concerts.

Two years later again, the Danish government took over all radio broadcasting throughout their country and this was organised as the Danish state broadcasting service. The inaugural date was April 1, 1925. When callsigns were regularized, the identification for the main station in Copenhagen was OXQ, with a similar range of callsigns for the network relay stations in country areas.

In the early era, these stations were on the air in the lower end of the mediumwave band and also in what has become the European longwave band. During the war, radio programming was under the Ministry of Education and the technical facilities were under the control of the Department of Public Works.

As far as QSL cards are concerned in the early years, the radio station in Denmark was quite reliable in responding to reception reports from listeners. Even though the power output of their stations was quite low, they were heard at times at great distances throughout Europe and even in North America. These days, these old QSL cards are valued collector's items. 

That was Part 1 in our two part series honoring the long history of radio broadcasting in Denmark and in our program next week you will hear the story of shortwave.

Appendix

FIRST TRANS TASMAN CONTACT

A few weeks back, one of the internet websites in New Zealand (http://www.morsecode.gen.nz) contained an interesting item regarding the first wireless contact across the Tasman Sea between New Zealand & Australia. This item stated that the Morse Code contact began on a ship in New Zealand waters and was picked up by a ship at sea and then relayed on to another ship in Australian waters. The date was given as the year 1903.

The First Trans-Tasman Wireless Message 

"The first wireless message sent from New Zealand to an overseas country was transmitted in February 1908. It was dispatched on behalf of the then Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, from H.M.S. Pioneer in Wellington to the Hon. Alfred Deakin on the H.M.S. Psyche at Port Jackson. The battleship H.M.S. Powerful acted as a repeater station from its position at sea 12 or 14 hours steaming distance from Sydney. Though the message was sent five years after the establishment of stations for the reception and transmission of wireless messages was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1903, another three years went by before New Zealand's first wireless station was built at Wellington in 1911. It operated from the tower in the G.P.O. and had a normal range of 600 miles. Two years later stations were opened at Awanui, North Auckland, at Awarua, Southland, and at the Chatham Islands. They were Government stations and began a continuous listening service for ships at sea and distress calls. All communications were in Morse code." Extract from the "N.Z. Truth", March 29, 1960, reprinted in NZART Break-In, March 1976. 
(The statement on the location of VLW (later ZLW) is possibly incorrect - I am told that Wellington Radio remained on the same site at Tinikori Hill throughout its life.) 

Australian Radio Anniversary - VLG Lyndhurst

Another nostalgic callsign during the Lyndhurst radio era in Australia was VLG, a callsign that was in use by both the ABC Home Service on shortwave as well as by Radio Australia in its external services to Asia & the Pacific. [...]

The broadcast callsign VLG was in use in the era just after World War 1 by two coastal steamers in New Zealand, the "Maunganui" (MAUN-ga-NOO-ee) and the "Mangaia" (man-GUY-a), and it was in use as a broadcast service from Lyndhurst for a period of 47 years. [...]


References
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Year      Date         Call         kW      kHz           Information                                 Reference
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1919                      VLG                                   Callsign for NZ ship, Maunganui   NZ YBWT&T 1921
1920s                    VLG                                   Callsign for NZ ship Mangaia        NZ YBWT&T 1921