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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan N502, October 7, 2018
Widespread Drought in Australia: Kangaroos in Canberra - The Mediumwave Scene
Quite recently here in Wavescan, Jeff White, WRMI, and Jerry Plummer, WWCR, at the HFCC meetings in Slovakia were commenting on the fact that the water level in the Beautiful Blue Danube, as it flows through the city of Bratislava, was quite low, due to drought conditions in continental Europe. Another country that is undergoing a widespread drought is Australia, and in particular the state of New South Wales, together with neighboring areas in adjoining states.
So severe is the Australian drought that some farmers are feeding their flocks and herds, cattle and sheep and pigs, with fruits and seeds in an endeavor to keep them alive. In addition, multiple truckloads of hay at up to $3,000 a load have been driven 2,000 miles across the continent from Western Australia to the drought stricken areas in the east.
Some historians are stating that the current drought in Australia is the worst since the beginning of European settlement. Some small towns, under enforced strict rationing, are now trucking in water for local usage.
There is a danger now that hydroelectric power in some areas will soon fail due to an insufficient flow of water. The water levels for the mighty Snowy River Hydroelectric Scheme are so low that electricity rationing is predicted for this coming (southern) summer.
A strange situation has developed in the city of Canberra, the national capital, which is located in the Australian Capital Territory, midway in the east between Sydney and Melbourne. Mobs of hungry and thirsty kangaroos have invaded the city and they are feeding on the grass they can forage in parks, home front lawns, roadway verges and sports grounds. Some sympathetic householders have even been offering food and water to the invading kangaroos that almost seem to feel at home in their new surroundings. Kangaroos in Canberra!
A map of the area shows that motorists can enter Canberra on any of half a dozen major highways. However, regardless of the direction of entry into Canberra, the most prominent tourist attraction is obviously Black Mountain Tower, or Telstra Tower, as it is known these days. The Black Mountain Nature Park is home to a 100 different bird species, 500 different plant species, and 5,000 different insect species.
Telstra Tower was officially opened in 1980, and these days there are several TV and FM stations broadcasting from this elevated position. In fact, there is so much radio frequency energy in the nearby area from all of the FM, TV and communication transmitters that a prominent sign warns motorists that they may have difficulty opening their cars and starting the engine with the usage of the wireless key fob.
An elderly man may sometimes be seen assisting stricken motorists. The car door can be opened by removing the manually operated key from inside the key fob. Then, a sheet of aluminium foil is placed on three of the car windows to restrict the flow of radio frequency energy, and voila, the car engine can then be started.
The first mediumwave station in Canberra was 2CA which began as a small 50 watt experimental operation on 1050 kHz back in 1930. This new radio broadcasting station was installed by Jack Ryan in the back room of his electrical and radio shop at 42 Giles Street in the suburb of Kingston.
As a commercial station, 2CA was then transferred three years later (1933) to Radio Hill in the southern corner of suburban Fyshwick. A few isolated remnants from this old 2CA installation are still in place in the small tree covered area, though they are almost hidden from view by sand, debris and vegetation.
Then later again, a few months before the beginning of World War 2 in 1939, a new 2 kW transmitter was installed for 2CA adjacent to the PMG-ABC radio station on Bellenden Street, between the suburbs of Mitchell and Kaleen. A new 2 kW transmitter was installed at this location, and it is stated that their famous Blaw-Knox aerial tower was the first in Australia.
Another mediumwave commercial station on the air in Canberra is 2CC which, was inaugurated in 1975, 45 years subsequent to the original 2CA. This second station 2CC was independent from the original 2CA station, with separate offices and staff personnel. However, the two stations have always operated from a combined transmitter facility adjacent to the ABC-PMG transmitter station at Gungahlin.
During the years in between the inauguration of the two commercial mediumwave stations (1931 and 1975), two government operated mediumwave stations were launched for coverage of Canberra city and the Australian Capital Territory. These were stations 2CY in 1938 with 10 kW on 850 kHz, and 2CN in 1953 with 2 kW on 1540 kHz.
Both of these ABC stations are still heard today on mediumwave; 2CN with 5 kW on 666 kHz and 2CY with 10 kW on 846 kHz, though 2CY was granted a change of callsign to the generic 2RN in 1990. Interestingly, as last noted by an experienced radio tourist, both stations provide an excellent signal on their initial harmonics in the mediumwave band, 1332 and 1692 kHz respectively.
In addition to the two older mediumwave stations, the ABC brought out a half century old mediumwave transmitter from retirement and activated it in 1994 as 2PB. Programming was made up entirely from the proceedings of Federal Parliament and subsequently regularly updated bulletins of international, national and regional news were added.
Station 2PB in Canberra these days is heard only on FM. The only transmitter site for the three ABC mediumwave stations in Canberra is on Bellenden Street, Gungahlin, between the suburbs of Mitchell and Kaleen.
In addition to the three ABC stations and two commercial stations, there have been more than half a dozen other mediumwave broadcasting stations on the air in Canberra and its suburban areas during the past many years. These additional mediumwave stations have each served a smaller clientele with programming for varied interests, such as in various European and Asian languages, major sports games, and short term major events.
These days, there are currently four major mediumwave stations on the air in Canberra (ABC 2CN and 2RN, commercial 2CA and 2CC), together with half a dozen other stations, each with a specialized listenership. There is no word as to which station is preferred by the kangaroos!
Ancient DX Report 1915
During the year 1915 we find that World War 1 (as it is now called) was in full swing over in Europe, with its vicious animosities and hostilities. Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare against shipping approaching the British Isles, England and its allies were defeated at the Gallipoli Peninsula, and both sides used poison gas as a weapon of war, with widespread death and destruction.
On January 19, the German forces made their first zeppelin air raid against the east coast of England. Zeppelins L3, L4 and L6 set off from their base at Fuhlsbüttel near Hamburg, though L6 encountered technical problems on the way and returned to base. The other two zeppelins made their way across the North Sea with the intent of dropping their bombs on a military target. However, due to bad weather, instead they dropped their bombs on civilian locations near the coast in East Anglia, resulting in four deaths and damage to some residential housing and other structures.
A German submarine U28 sank the British passenger vessel RMS Falaba on March 28 at a location south of Ireland and 40 miles west of the coast of Wales, and among the many dead was an American citizen, Leon Chester Thrasher. The submarine U48, the RMS Falaba, and another British ship, the trawler Eileen Emma, nearby were intercommunicating in Morse Code, with the submarine, warning the trawler to remain clear.
Less than six weeks later, the British ship RMS Lusitania was sunk at almost the same location by another German submarine U20 with the death of 1198 passengers and crew, though with 764 survivors. Before this Cunard liner left New York Harbor six days earlier, the German Embassy in Washington, DC placed advertisements in 50 American newspapers warning intended passengers of the possible danger in traveling across the Atlantic on the Lusitania.
The attack against the Falaba on March 28 (known in the United States as the Thrasher Incident) and the sinking of the Lusitania just 40 days later in a somewhat similar circumstance near the same location, brought the United States close to the brink of war.
On April 22, German forces made the first major poison gas attack in the Great War against the Canadian sector in France. Five months later, on September 15, the British took their turn at the usage of poison gas, though with disastrous results; shifting winds caused 60,000 British casualties.
On April 25 ANZAC forces, the combined armies of Australia and New Zealand, landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the edge of the waterway between Europe and Asia, and they took part in disastrous fighting against the Ottoman Empire. The fighting was so fierce that two bullets, one from each side, collided in mid-air, one penetrating the other. ANZAC Day, April 25 every year in both Australia and New Zealand, commemorates their participation.
On the radio scene in 1915 set against that background, voice communication across the continental United States was first achieved on September 29 when AT&T President Theodore Vail spoke from the navy station NAA at Arlington, Virginia and was heard by station NPG at Mare Island in California. This epic moment was also noted loud and clear at station UC in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Three weeks later the same station NAA was heard clearly at station FL on the Eiffel Tower in Paris when Engineer B. B. Webb spoke into the microphone. The NAA transmitter in use for this epic occasion, the first voice across the Atlantic, incorporated 300 valves (tubes) in its circuitry.
Earlier, on July 9, the United States ordered the closure of the German Telefunken wireless station at Sayville on Long Island, New York, due to the alleged transmission of belligerent messages. The United States navy took over the station and closed it, leaving a contingent of marines to guard it. Soon afterwards, though, station WSL was reopened and placed under stricter control.
During the year (1915), 11 year old Charles Litton set up his own amateur radio station in Redwood City; and Hiram Percy Maxim published the first issue of the amateur radio magazine QST. The three letters QST is a Morse Code abbreviation meaning "calling all stations". The Department of Commerce published the first issue of the Radio Service Bulletin in January.
Three important callsigns were issued during the year 1915: Charles Herrold in San Diego was allotted the callsign 6XF for his Special Land Station; Hiram Percy Maxim was accorded the callsign 1ZM for his Special Land Station; and General Electric was granted the callsign 2XI for their experimental shortwave station located on Van Slyck Island in New York state.
Four new experimental radio broadcasting stations were launched during this particular year, 1915. These stations were:
In other parts of the world, the United States navy reported that they had already constructed a series of high powered wireless stations at many different locations, and that they were ready for active service. These new wireless stations were located in the Panama Canal Zone, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cavite in the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa.
On September 16, a Marconi wireless station was opened for service at Mt. Pearl in St. John's, Newfoundland. This station, with the callsign BZM, was powered by generators attached to two six-cylinder diesel Gardiner engines, and the transmitter emitted 30 kW under the Poulsen arc system.