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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 N518, January 27, 2019
What is the Future for VOA on the Island of Tinian? - 1
The strongest wind storm to ever strike an American territory hit the Pacific Island of Tinian on Wednesday, October 24, last year (2018). This massive storm, with wind gusts up to 219 miles per hour and sustained winds at 180 miles per hour, was also described as Earth's strongest storm during the past year 2018. Super Typhoon Yutu, the 31st named wind storm in the Pacific during last year, passed directly over Tinian Island, rendering massive immeasurable damage, ten inches of sudden rain, and an ocean surge at 20 feet.
As a result of this horrendous impact, the twin Voice of America shortwave stations on both islands, Tinian and Saipan, sustained such massive damage that it has rendered them inoperable for six months at least or perhaps even a complete year. In fact, the damage is so great that the entire future of these two huge shortwave stations is in jeopardy.
Tinian Island is just a small island, 10 miles long and 4 miles wide, with a total area of just 39 square miles. The island lies 5 miles southwest of the better known Saipan, though it is 400 miles north of the well-known Guam.
In its early prehistory, Tinian was settled by Melanesian people from Asia; and about a thousand years ago, it was ruled by the Chamorro Chief Taga, who constructed a large home in the form of the ceremonial Latte Stones. Today the main historic tourist attraction on the island is a double row of Latte Stones in the form of truncated pyramids.
It is thought that the famous Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan sighted the island in 1521. During the next year, Shipmate Gonzalo de Vigo and two others deserted the ship Trinidad due to its unseaworthiness, and they escaped to the nearby Maug Islands. Two men were killed by the local Chamorro people, though de Vigo survived and he visited thirteen of the Marianas islands, including, it is suggested, Tinian.
The Spanish established a settlement on Tinian in 1669, and at the time it was estimated that there were 40,000 Chamorro living on the island. Half a century later, the population figure had shrunk to 1,400, due to local tribal conflicts and European diseases. The remaining survivors were relocated to Guam.
In 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States occupied Tinian; and during the next year, Spain sold the island to Germany. Then, during World War I, Japan occupied the island. During the early part of World War II, there were 13,000 Japanese civilians living on the island, together with 2,700 Koreans, and only 22 Chamorros.
Following nine days of intense fighting, the United States forces took over the island on August 1, 1944. They quickly turned the entire island into one huge air force base, the largest ever in the world, with 11 miles of runways, each runway at the width of 10 motor vehicle lanes.
At the height of its usefulness during the Asia-Pacific War, a total of 40,000 American personnel were in service on the island. Two atomic bombs were brought to Tinian by ship, and they were loaded into airplanes that dropped them over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
Obviously, with such a huge population of Americans on the island, there would have been extensive radio communication with hundreds of airplanes, a multitude of ships, and also with forces headquarters elsewhere. However, there is no indication that there was ever an AFRS American Forces entertainment radio station on the island. Maybe it was considered that the mediumwave signal from the AFRS station on nearby Saipan, station WXLD with 1 kW on 660 kHz, provided sufficient coverage for Tinian.
In our program next week, we plan to present the story of the huge Voice of America shortwave relay station that was subsequently built on the island of Tinian.
Among the many significant events during the year 1917, we learn that the United States paid $25 million in gold to Denmark for 50 of the Virgin Islands. That transaction was officialized on January 17. On April 6, the United States declared war against Germany and seized 109 German ships that had already been impounded in American ports. Czar Nicholas II in Russia abdicated, and peace talks began between Russia and Germany.
Argentina printed a wartime cartoon on toilet paper; and the British detonated 455 tons of explosives in a country area in Belgium. The massive explosion was heard in London, 200 miles distant, and in Dublin Ireland, 500 miles distant.
On the radio scene during the year 1917, we note that there was again an increase in the number of radio stations that experimented with radio program broadcasting, music and speech. Among these radio stations were the following:
Radio Stations in the United States
* Under the direction of Professor Earle Terry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, student C. J Jansky designed and constructed a 3 valve (tube) transmitter utilizing the newly available vacuum tube technology. Several test transmissions were made with the use of recorded music under the callsign 9XM. When all non-government radio stations were silenced by government decree in April (1917), station 9XM was reactivated for secret experimental transmissions. After the war ended, it was revealed that these secret experimental transmissions were for the purpose of communicating with submarines and aircraft.
The radio receiver was in use for the reception of time signals from the navy station NAA at Arlington in Virginia, and the transmitter was in use for communication with the Gruen watch company in Switzerland. When America declared war against Germany in 1917, watchmaker Gruen offered his wireless station to the American government, though there is no indication that his offer was ever accepted.
Monitoring Reports in QST Magazine
1917 January - Music broadcasts were noted from station 2XG at De Forest factory in Highbridge, NY. Monitoring report from Theodore Gaty in Morristown, NJ.
1917 January 24 - De Forest requested reception reports from listeners on post office postal cards. He received about 200 replies representing 500 listeners. It was estimated that 1,000 people were listening. Some of the replies were from lady listeners, and one lady was so enraptured with the music that the supper burned on the kitchen stove. Only 10% of the reception reports were on postal cards; the other 90% were handwritten letters.
1917 April - Music concerts were noted nightly from De Forest station 2XG; he tells stories, and he spoke with listeners over the air. In his announcements, De Forest makes the suggestion of advertising over the radio. Programming monitored by Mr. Godley, who was listening to 2XG on a receiver operated by Mr. L. D. Fisk.
And finally, an interesting story that we came across after we had presented our recent Ancient DX Report for the year 1916; and back then, there was a custom in some countries that a girl could take the initiative in a romantic proposal situation during a Leap Year.
A radio magazine reported that there was a young couple in the American state of Connecticut. They had a misunderstanding, and the young man then boarded a fruit ship that was on its way to the West Indies in the Caribbean. The girl changed her mind, and she sent a wireless message to the ship stating: I have changed my mind. This is a Leap Year. Will you marry me? The young man responded with a wireless message that stated: I will return by the next boat.
We can only presume, like the old stories used to state, that they lived happily ever after, and no doubt they were thankful ever after for the invention of wireless.