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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 N705, August 28, 2022

American Radio Stations in New Zealand – Part 3

Just three weeks ago here in Wavescan, we presented the story of a mediumwave station in New Zealand (1ZM in Auckland with 1 kW on 1250 kHz) that was on loan in 1944 to United States personnel for the broadcast of their own American-style programming. Before station 1ZM became available, American programming was carried by both government radio networks in New Zealand via stations with callsigns in the YA and ZB series. Among the programs noted by local listeners were news, sports and musical programs, including the American Command Performance, and the local New Zealand version of the same program under the name Kiwi Command Performance.

Right, and now in Wavescan today, we present additional interesting information about American radio stations in New Zealand, back during that same World War II era, and also subsequently.

It was in May 1942 that the first contingent of American servicemen, navy personnel, arrived in New Zealand, and their first responsibility was to build an American naval base in Auckland, together with a shortwave communication station. Back at that stage, with the rapid increase of Japanese victories in the islands of the Western Pacific, American strategy called for an American naval base in New Zealand to serve as their naval headquarters in the South Pacific.

Initially, the American navy was granted shared usage of Auckland Radio ZLD, up until work was completed on their own shortwave communication radio station, which was granted a New Zealand callsign, ZLK. The ZLK transmitter station was built at the junction of St. John's and St. Heliers Bay Roads at Mt. Roskill, some four miles south of downtown Auckland.

A dozen tall masts were erected to support the shortwave antenna system at station ZLK, which was the only communication station in New Zealand that was operated by American personnel during World War II. The receiver station was installed at St. Helier's Bay, about ten miles distant.

However, subsequent war history demonstrates that fortunately the Americans did not need a naval base in New Zealand after all, so they abandoned it in 1944 and donated it to the New Zealand government. Station ZLK was soon afterwards taken into various forms of government communication usage.

Interestingly, two years later (1946), the young international radio monitor Jim Burfield at Strathalbyn in South Australia heard this same station with official messages on behalf of the Auckland Central Police. He received a brief QSL letter acknowledging his reception of the station as heard on 1680 kHz under the callsign ZLK2.

However, some thirty or forty years later there was another American communication station at another location in New Zealand that was noted on the air under the same callsign ZLK. That new ZLK was located near the airport in Christchurch in the South Island, adjacent to the local airport communication station at suburban Weedons. The receiver station was seven miles distant, quite near the airport itself.

The second ZLK was constructed under the American project in Antarctica that was identified as Operation Deep Freeze Antarctica, in order to provide shortwave communication between North America and the Antarctic mainland. This ZLK contained half a dozen 10 kW shortwave transmitters that were in operation at about 4 kW due to their age. This station was no longer needed when satellite communication became available.

Some twenty years ago, the Americans installed two very large radar stations in the South Pacific, one in Tasmania and another in New Zealand. These two radar stations were launched under the project name Tiger Radio, and they were established for the security of the southern areas of the South Pacific. The Tasmanian station is located off the east coast on the small Bruny Island, and the New Zealand station is located near Invercargill, at the southern tip of the South Island.



Unusual Radio Antennas – Part 3

In our program today, we present our third batch of unusual radio receiving antennas, some of which date way back almost one hundred years. During the year 1925, for example, an unusual experiment was conducted, we presume in the United States, in which the exhaust gas from an airplane engine was used as the receiving and transmitting antenna.

As the news item in Radio News for June 1925 states: The exhaust gas from an aircraft engine is at a very high temperature, which is heavily ionized, and it can therefore be used to conduct electricity. The experiment was considered to be successful, and the procedure was granted a patent.

Over the years, there have been many tests to determine the value of an underground antenna system for the reception of radio signals. In 1927, for example, three consecutive issues of the (then) popular American radio magazine, Radio News (August, September and October), carried information regarding experiments with underground radio antennas. The purpose of these experiments was to determine the possibility of eliminating static that was often evident in the reception of mediumwave programming.

The Radio News article in 1927 suggested to dig a hole three feet in diameter and four feet deep, and to bury a coil of copper wire in the hole. A lead-covered wire connected the buried copper coil to the receiver. According to the advocate of this procedure, Professor Dr. James H. Rogers of Hyattsville, MD, unwanted static is almost completely eliminated.

Another similar procedure suggested by Dr. Rogers was to place a longwire horizontally in a shallow trench, and then place a metal screen over the antenna wire, though the metal screen does not touch the antenna wire. This experimental procedure, which was also granted a patent, also eliminates most of the static, he declared.

Two other radio men, Mr. J. A Proctor of Lexington, MA, and the well-known Frank Conrad of KDKA fame, experimented with the use of two out-of-phase receiving antennas of different heights. Both antennas were connected to the same receiver through a complicated system of transformers, and in this way, they claimed, static was reduced.

Another advocate for the reduction of static also patented his procedure, and that was to insert a resistor between the antenna and the receiver, though, as he discovered, the signal strength of the received signals was also reduced.

Then there were two men in England, G. A. Morris and B. C. Stevenson, who had a different idea, which they also patented. They suggested that the receiving set should have two earthing connections; one, the normal earth connection, and the other, an antenna, not erected above the ground, but rather buried in the ground.

We should also add, that amateur radio operator Clem Small, KR6A experimented with buried antenna systems many years later, during the year 2001. According to his information, as published in the now-inactive American radio magazine Monitoring Times (December 2001, page 78), the same variety of receiving antennas that are in use above the ground can also be designed and buried beneath ground level. Although reception levels are reduced, he states that underground antenna systems are easier to install than the above ground level variety.

Interestingly, back in the early radio era, many radio operators advocated that their antennas should be polished, preferably every week or two. In this way, it was suggested, dust and grime are removed from the aerial wire, thus granting better radio reception, they said. That quote was from another now-inactive American radio magazine, Popular Communications, September 2006, page 23.