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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 271, March 5, 2000
The Lonely Voice from Down Under!
What happened to the original radio base
that carried the shortwave programming from Radio Australia?
In the western suburbs of Sydney there is a Girl's High School
standing on a spacious and attractive property. Nearly 100 years
ago, this location was in an isolated area, some 20 miles distant
from old and faraway Sydneytown. Ask the students who are attending
the high school today: "Do you know the important history
of this property?" At a guess we would probably say no, most
of them do not know the interesting background associated with
this property. This school property was at one time the site for
one of the world's largest radio stations.
It was here in Pennant Hills that the newly-formed federal government
purchased the 40 acre property quite early last century for the
purpose of establishing a large wireless station. Electrical engineers
came out from Germany to install the newly developed Telefunken
wireless apparatus, and finally on August 19, 1912, wireless station
POS was inaugurated. The original transmitter was a 25 kw spark
unit and the antenna was an omni-directional vertical radiator;
in other words, just simply a tall steel mast.
Station POS was intended to become the key station in a nationwide
network of wireless stations for the purpose of inter-communication
throughout the Commonwealth of Australia and its territories.
The callsign POS stood for "Post Office Sydney," and
the counterpart near Perth in Western Australia, some 3,000 miles
distant, was POP. However, the callsigns were soon changed to
conform to the new international regulations, and POS and POP
became VIS and VIP, as they are to this day.
A large number of radio transmitters were installed over the years
at this Pennant Hills location, many for communication traffic
and some for radio broadcasting. During the year 1927, a new building
was erected on the Pennant Hills property, specifically to house
a new 20 kw shortwave transmitter. This unit made its inaugural
broadcast under the now nostalgic callsign VK2ME on October 27,
1927, with its famous first "Empire Broadcast."
Soon afterwards, two more shortwave transmitters were installed
at Pennant Hills, and these were in use as VLK and VLM for international
communication and as VK2ME for program broadcasting.
When the climactic events of 1939 finally broke out into open
warfare, the Australian government hastily organized an international
shortwave service under the designation "Australia Calling."
At Pennant Hills, the two transmitters on the air previously as
VK2ME and VLK-VLM became VLQ and VLQ2, and they went on the air
with the inaugural broadcast of "Australia Calling"
on December 20, 1939 with programming from the studios of the
ABC in Sydney.
This shortwave station, "the lonely voice from down under,"
was on the air for six years as the main facility for Radio Australia.
However, when the new shortwave station at Shepparton in Victoria
was commissioned in 1944, the usage of Pennant Hills was terminated.
The AWA radio station at Pennant Hills then reverted back to full
time usage as a communication facility, though occasionally the
10 kw transmitter VLN was on the air with Radio Australia programming
beamed across the Pacific.
The Pennant Hills radio station was finally and forever closed
on October 31, 1955 when all services were transferred to a newly
constructed facility located at another Sydney suburb, Doonside.
The property was sold, and upon it was built the Carlingford High
School.
The only reminders left in the radio world of this once powerful
voice from down under are references in old radio magazines, and
QSL cards in old collections. The AWR historic collection in Indianapolis
contains two original QSL cards from the old VK2ME, both in color,
with a laughing Kookaburra superimposed on an outline map of Australia,
One card is dated 1932 and the other 1937.