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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 N632, April 4, 2021

The Radio Scene in Brazil: The Early Wireless Years

Wireless experimentation began very early in Brazil, and in some ways it paralleled, or perhaps even preceded, the work that the famous young Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, was performing. In fact, the inventive Catholic priest, Roberto Landell de Moura, is sometimes designated as the Brazilian Marconi.

It was in the year 1893 (two years before Marconi) that Roberto Landell began experimenting with the manufacture and assembly of very early wireless equipment during his ecclesiastical appointment in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. His experiments continued during the following year (1894) also, during which he activated his electrical equipment.

Then during the year 1896, he privately conducted distance trials of his equipment in public areas, now in Sao Paulo itself. In June 1899, Landell succeeded in transmitting a wireless signal over a distance of more than four miles, but he was still not ready for a fully public demonstration.

Roberto Landell's first fully public demonstration took place at Alto de Sant Anna in Sao Paulo on June 3 of the following year 1900. Among the invited observers were newspaper reporters, local officials, and the British Consul-General Mr. C. P. Lupton, together with his wife and family. This historic first public demonstration of wireless in South America over a distance of 5 miles was indeed a remarkable success, though the transmission of the human voice was very distorted. with only a few words understandable.

During the following year (1901), Landell was issued a patent from the Patent Office in the United States for his development of what was called the Radiographone. However, parallel with Landell's pioneer wireless development in Brazil, similar developments were taking place in England, Germany, the United States, and also in other areas of Brazil.

During the year 1902, Engineer Joaquim Goncalves de Lalor applied to the state governors in Para and Amazonas in Brazil on behalf of an American, Mr. R. Madock, for approval to install wireless stations along tributary rivers associated with the mighty Amazon River. The usage of the local telegraph wire system in that area was very unreliable.

Two years later (1904), government approval was finally granted, and the concession was transferred to an American company, the Amazon Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company. During the following year (1905), two wireless stations were erected, one at Pinheira, 11 miles from Belem, and the other at Breves, 80 miles further distant. Commercially made wireless equipment, using the Fessenden system, was imported from the United States.

However, the performance of this Fessenden wireless equipment was inadequate, and the Breves and Belem stations were closed during the following year (1906). As replacements, the Amazon Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company in Brazil imported Shoemaker and Stone wireless equipment, also from the United States, which was installed at Belem, and at an additional new location, Santarem.

Five years later again (1911), three new stations were installed in the same Amazonas areas, this time with equipment from the German Telefunken company. During that same year, the national government in Brazil gave approval for the same Amazon Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company to erect wireless stations now throughout all of Brazil.

However, at the same time, as the Amazon Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company was growing and expanding throughout Brazil, the Brazilian Telegraph Administration was also experimenting with the development of wireless, and they were also installing their own stations in various areas throughout their country.

Back in 1904, the Brazilian Telegraph Administration had established two experimental wireless stations, one at Santa Cruz Fortress on the water front near Rio de Janeiro, and the other at Grande Island, 68 miles distant. The experiments at these two locations were continued for a period of 5 years.

In 1909, the Brazilian Telegraph Administration began the construction of a whole series of their own wireless stations at many locations throughout Brazil. The first station in this sequence was installed at Babylonian Hill, near the waterfront in Rio de Janeiro.

At the beginning of World War I in Europe (1914), there were a dozen coastal stations in Brazil and a score of inland stations. Back during this era, the callsigns for the wireless stations in Brazil, both on land and on ships at sea, were simply a three letter abbreviation of the station name.

More about the radio scene in Brazil next time.