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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 N662, October 31, 2021
The Island Called Antigua in the Caribbean
The island called Antigua is the main island of the independent Commonwealth mini-country in the Caribbean that is identified under the twin title as Antigua and Barbuda. These two islands are located in the northern cluster of the curved row of islands that mark the eastern edge of the Caribbean, and their European colonial heritage was from the Spanish, followed by the English. They gained their independence from Great Britain in 1981, and English is their official language.
As has been the case with a large number of other (and smaller) countries throughout the world, amateur radio provided the first form of program broadcasting in Antigua. In May 1939, shortwave listeners in the United States reported the reception of a series of music programs on 7120 kHz from amateur station VP2AE in the national capital, St. John's. Nevertheless, in spite of their foray into program broadcasting, it is reported that station VP2AE (ex VP2AD) "refused to confirm reports of reception".
Three years later, another shortwave station was reported on the air in Antigua, and we would classify this station as a clandestine operation. Radio Antigua on 7 MHz was noted by the high profile international radio monitor Roger Legge (and others also) in the United States during the first four or five months in the year 1942. This is what happened.
During the first weekend in September 1939, war erupted on continental Europe when Germany attacked Poland, and they then attacked several countries in western Europe. France surrendered to German forces in June of the next year (1940), and the southern half of France became somewhat autonomous under the Vichy government leadership. This placed French colonies around the world in a difficult quandary: Should they be loyal to the informal Free French government in London, or to the officially independent (though in reality the collaborationist) government in Vichy?
The two major French colonies on the eastern edge of the Caribbean, Martinique and Guadeloupe, initially chose to follow the line of leadership with the Vichy government. The United States thus became increasingly concerned about the protection of the Panama Canal.
Then, to further compound these international political circumstances, the Japanese naval air force attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Next day, the United States declared war against Japan, and four days later again, on December 11, (1941), Germany announced a declaration of war against the United States.
Next month, in January 1942, a new shortwave station which identified itself on air as Radio Antigua was noted in the United States with programming in French (and occasional English) that was directed towards Martinique and Guadeloupe. Each broadcast lasted only about 20 minutes, beginning at 5:00 p.m. on a variable 7 MHz frequency, ranging between 7060 kHz and 7073 kHz.
The fact that an amateur shortwave channel was in use, and that the transmitted signal varied at times a total of at least 13 kHz, would indicate that an amateur transmitter was in use, and that this Radio Antigua was not a professionally operated shortwave station. The authoritative Roger Legge stated that the station was presumed to be located on Antigua Island, and he declared also that the station propagated a strong signal at his home in the eastern United States.
So we could ask the question: Where was this clandestine radio station, Radio Antigua, really located? On air announcements indicated, on Antigua Island. A strong propagation into the United States could indicate a saltwater pathway from Antigua, though the strong signal might also mean that it was actually located in the United States.
It would be suggested that there was no way that local resources amongst the small English speaking population on Antigua Island could assemble and broadcast a daily news bulletin in French back then. Likewise it is probable that these broadcasts did not emanate from the Spanish speaking American island of Puerto Rico. Perhaps the French broadcasts from Radio Antigua originated in the United States, with the usage of amateur equipment in a cover up pretense fashion.
Interestingly, (the late) Roger Legge was associated back then in Washington, D.C. with the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, and subsequently with the Voice of America, under the legendary George Jacobs. Roger was the international radio monitor who released the information about Radio Antigua to the radio world, so perhaps he had some inside information that has never been revealed. The French broadcasts from the station called Radio Antigua were jammed quite frequently, and we would suggest that the jamming transmitters were located on Martinique, where Radio Martinique was already a well-known shortwave operation.
As a postscript, we should mention that subsequent to the broadcasts of Radio Antigua, the United States began preparation for an invasion of Martinique as part of an overall plan to protect the Panama Canal. However, the Vichy-leaning government leadership on Martinique indicated that they were not supporting any form of European collaboration on their island, and so the planned invasion was cancelled before it was implemented.
Radio magazines printed during the year 1926 were already beginning to present lists of shortwave radio stations, together with shortwave monitoring reports from listeners around the world. Many of those listed shortwave stations were involved in international communication in speech and in Morse Code, though by now several stations were also presenting entertainment and informational programming. However, in addition, it should also be stated that listeners were complaining about wide band interference from noisy, raucous spark transmitters.
Interestingly, many of the long lists of shortwave stations were presented in reverse order (higher frequencies down to lower frequencies), a carryover from the earlier listings that were presented in meters, not kHz. A list of shortwave transmissions provided by RCA in the United States in 1926 showed more than a hundred shortwave stations in a score of different countries, as well as ships at sea.
Foremost amongst the programming highlights on radio during the year 1926 were news bulletins, weather forecasts, time signals, and music presentations. Interestingly, many of these informational programs were still presented in Morse Code, though, of course, music programming was broadcast in AM (amplitude modulation) style, on longwave, mediumwave and shortwave.
The Marconi shortwave beam stations at Bodmin and Bridgewater in England began service with corresponding stations in Montreal, Canada and Cape Town, South Africa in October 1926. At each transmitting station, ten towers at the height of 277 feet were erected, five in each row, at right angles to each other. The cross arms at the top of each tower that carried the rows of antenna wires were 90 feet long.
The regular news bulletins in Morse Code from the British Official Press Wireless were transferred from the original longwave station at Leafield near Oxford in England, to the new longwave transmitter GBR at Rugby, on 16 kHz.
Two historic wireless messages were transmitted during the month of May (1926) from northern Arctica for reception in Europe and North America. Commander Richard Byrd and Pilot Floyd Bennett, in the Fokker plane named Josephine Ford, flew from Spitzbergen Island, Norway to the North Pole where they broadcast a radio message on 44 metres. That event is claimed as the first radio message from a plane over the North Pole.
In the same month (May 1926), the noted Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen flew in an Italian-made dirigible named the Norge towards the North Pole. They sent radio messages on their way over the Arctic regions, though they lost radio contact when the antenna froze over in the frigid northern weather.
Royal Air Force Flight Lieut. R. F. Duncan conducted an official one man DXpedition to Iraq for the purpose of monitoring international radio signals in the shortwave spectrum from 15 to 100 metres. He discovered that QRN, locally observed radio noise, was at a high level in Iraq, and that QRM interference from many shortwave stations was also a problem. However, he was able to hear several stations of interest on his three valve receiver, including the Hamilton Rice Expedition in Brazil, KDKA in the United States on 66 m., and BBC radio programming on shortwave via G2NM and 5XX, and the BBC also on mediumwave.
In Hawaii, the experimental shortwave station FX1 operated by the Signal Corps was in constant communication with the ship Kaimaloa, KFUH, during its exploratory visits to many islands throughout the South Pacific.
Shortwave programming was on the air every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evening from 11:00 p.m. to midnight from mediumwave 2BL in Sydney, Australia in the 40 m. amateur band. Mediumwave stations 5DN in Adelaide and 6WF in Perth successfully relayed programming from shortwave 2XAF at Schenectady in New York state.
The Melbourne-based radio journal, Listener In, arranged for a special series of hour long program relays from KDKA shortwave in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 8:00 p.m. during three evenings in early October (1926). Generally speaking, these broadcasts were not well heard in Australia; they were described as disappointing. However, amateur station 3SW in Melbourne did successfully relay some of these broadcasts on the mediumwave channel 250 m. (1200 kHz), a signal that was heard at a good level nearly 2,000 miles away at the Methodist Mission on the island of Misima off the coast of New Guinea.
The Radio Scene on the Island of Misima
The island of Misima is a small volcanic island, mountainous and heavily forested, and it is located a hundred miles east of the tail of the much larger island of New Guinea. Misima is an irregular island, 25 miles long and 6 miles wide, and its appearance on the map could perhaps be described as a wriggling tadpole swimming eastward.
Misima Island was sighted and named by the French explorer Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768. It has a resident population of 20,000, who speak their own Misima language. The island is administered as part of the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.
Misima Island saw action during World War II during the nearby Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. In 2010, a small passenger plane crashed and burned when it slid off the unpaved muddy runway while landing during stormy weather.
In the era just before the commencement of World War I, the German colonial authorities announced that they planned to establish a communication wireless station on Misima Island, though that project was never implemented. Somewhere around the year 1922, now that the island was administered as an Australian mandate, the Australian wireless company, AWA, installed a low power Morse Code wireless transmitter on Misima, VIX, on 600 m. (500 kHz).
In 1938, the local government administration installed a 10 watt AWA voice operated radiotelephone transmitter, their famous prewar Model 3A. During the Pacific War, the AWA operator at Misima Island Radio, Mr. Les T. Young, was not repatriated to Australia, but instead he voluntarily operated the equipment as a unit in the Pacific Coastwatch Service.
These days there is just one radio broadcasting station on the air on Misima Island. This station is an FM unit with 10 watts on 98.9 MHz, and it carries a slave relay from Nau FM on mainland New Guinea.
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Audio Insert: Nau Radio, group vocal with instrumental. |