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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 N596, July 26, 2020

Who Owns These Islands?

Around our world, there are many geographic and political anomalies, where international boundaries are not clear and are in dispute. These local irregularities form a topic of interest, and they make fascinating reading.

For example, there is a small 20 acre uninhabited island lying in the waterways at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, between the American state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. This island, Machias Seal Island, has little political or commercial importance, though early treaties between England, Canada and the United States never satisfactorily resolved the issue of national ownership.

Canada maintains a lighthouse on Machias Seal Island which is manned by two men on four week shifts as an attempted demonstration of ownership, and the United States sends its Coast Guard there occasionally as their attempted demonstration of ownership. Both Canada and the United States permit limited tourism to the island.

In the year 1918, during World War I, a small detachment of United States Marines was stationed on Machias Seal Island as a precaution against the possibility of German submarines entering the Bay of Fundy. The marines installed a wireless communication station on the island. These days the Canadian Lighthouse personnel on Machias Seal Island use shortwave radio to communicate with Halifax Radio.

Over in continental Europe, there is another interesting geographic anomaly. Situated in the Bidasoa River between France and Spain is a small uninhabited 1-1/2 acre sandy island known in English as Pheasant Island. Each six months the ownership of this island is switched between Spain and France.

Another valueless island is located in Bass Strait between Victoria on the Australian mainland and the island state of Tasmania. Little Boundary Islet, with all of its 5 acres, is little more than an unshapely cluster of rocks poking out above the ocean level, and it straddles the official boundary between the two states, Victoria and Tasmania. This unimportant island is listed simply as a Nature Reserve.

Two other uninhabited and almost valueless islands lie in the South Pacific, and these days both Vanuatu and New Caledonia claim allegiance to them both. These two islands, both volcanic and without any fresh water, are identified as Matthew and Hunter, and they lie 43 miles apart.

Each island is the same one quarter acre in area, they were both discovered by English explorers, both were claimed by France and then England, followed later by Vanuatu, and then by New Caledonia. In spite of the claims and counter claims over the years, both islands are currently administered by New Caledonia, under cooperation from France.

In 1979, France established an automatic radio-operated weather station on one of these islands, and we would suggest that it is probably on Matthew Island, due to the fact that Matthew is easily accessible, and Hunter is not. In September 2014, two amateur radio operators from the United States and Canada conducted a three-day DXpedition on Matthew Island under the rare callsign TX4A.

The only radio events associated with Hunter Island have been the normal usage of maritime radio stations aboard nearby ships.

In view of the fact that this topic today in Wavescan is the final topic in the ten-part mini-series on the islands of the New Hebrides/Vanuatu in the South Pacific, let's look at some interesting items of information on other islands in this nation that we have not mentioned thus far: