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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 375, March 3, 2002
Calling Bermuda
The islands of Bermuda are located out in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 miles off the coastline of the United States. There are some 300 islands in the Bermuda group, mostly smaller coral atolls, and these are the most northerly coral islands in the world.
Just 20 of the islands of Bermuda are inhabited, with a population less than 100,000, though more than 100,000 people visit the islands each year as tourists. The capital city is Hamilton, which is located on the main island, Bermuda.
The first European explorer to visit these islands was a Spanish voyager, Juan de Bermudez, in the early 1500's, and the first settlers came from England 100 years later. Bermuda is a British dependency with a governor appointed by the monarchy in England.
The first radio station in Bermuda was erected in the early 1930's. This station was located in Hamilton, and it was on the air with communication traffic under the callsign ZFA, and with experimental broadcasting on shortwave as ZFD. Around the same era, the tourist ship, "Monarch of Bermuda," was also on the air with occasional broadcasting under the callsign VQJM.
During the era of World War II, American AFRS stations were on the air in Bermuda; ZFA3 on shortwave, and WXLQ on mediumwave. Regular local radio broadcasting began in the era soon after the end of World War II.
The AWR collection in Indianapolis contains two QSLs from Bermuda. One is a QSL card showing the waterfront at Hamilton, and it verifies reception of the communication station ZFD. The other is a QSL letter from the maritme station, ZBM. This station can be heard with weather reports on 2582 kHz.
More News about EKKO Radio Stamps
On several occasions here in Wavescan we have referred to the ever-popular and quite valuable EKKO QSL stamps. They were issued in 1924 by the EKKO company in Chicago to verify listener reception.
Back in 1977, Adventist World Radio in India issued a set of somewhat similar QSL stamps, and again a new set in 1996. A sample of each of these three QSL stamps was pictured on an AWR QSL card two years ago.
Originals of the EKKO stamps sell at auction on eBay for around $10 each, with stamps from specially wanted stations even higher. We decided to take another look at the EKKO QSL stamps in the AWR collection in Indianapolis, and this is what we discovered.
There are now 26 EKKO QSL stamps in the AWR collection, together with a few additional similar items. Probably the most valuable is the stamp that was issued for the station WEMC at Berrien Springs in Michigan. This was the first Adventist radio station in the world.
Other loose stamps are endorsed in black print for well-known mediumwave stations in the United States, such as:
The EKKO stamps for American stations feature a picture of the American Eagle on a pedestal. The stamps printed by the EKKO company for Canadian stations show a beaver at work, chewing the trunk of a tree. All stamps are printed in one color per stamp, though many different colors were used for the entire range of EKKO QSL stamps.
The AWR collection contains just four of the Canadian QSL stamps, and these were issued for stations:
Two EKKO stamps have been stuck onto QSL cards, and these are from stations KFPY in Spokane, Washington and from KLS in Oakland, California. Two QSL cards have a different type of QSL stamp stuck onto them. Station KDYL in Salt Lake City, Utah, printed its own QSL stamp, which shows a globe of the world; and the QSL card from station KGU in Honolulu bears a stamp stating, "Aloha from Hawaii". Just one QSL letter contains a QSL stamp, and this is from station KQW in San Jose, California.
Perhaps the strangest of all is a small copper plate, just the same size as a QSL stamp. The copper plate is embossed as KMOX, "The Voice of St Louis", and it is actually glued onto the QSL letter.
On his web site, ontheshortwaves.com, Jerry Berg has placed a brief item about another type of QSL stamp and QSL album from the same era around the 1920's. These were not printed by the EKKO company, but by the Bryant company. The stamps were also printed in a range of colors, and each stamp depicts a globe of the world.
This Week in Radio History - Marconi in England, February 23, 1920
The experimental work of Marconi, the young Italian inventor, is well known. He began his wireless experiments in northern Italy back in the year 1894.
Two years later, in 1897, Marconi established his own company at Chelmsford in England, the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, for the purpose of manufacturing and installing wireless apparatus in lighthouses, ships and coastal facilities.
On February 23, 1920, a series of spasmodic test broadcasts were made from the factory at Chelmsford. On important occasions the content of these broadcasts was announced in the newspapers in advance.
One of these special broadcasts from the Marconi transmitter at the factory in Chelmsford presented a live musical recital by the Australian contralto, Dame Nellie Melba. News about this broadcast was printed in advance in the newspapers, and the actual broadcast itself generated a lot of public interest, in England and beyond.
This famous Melba program was broadcast on June 15, 1920, and it was heard far and wide. Reception reports were received from many areas of England and the Continent, and also from Newfoundland and Persia. This Melba broadcast achieved the status as the first radio program in history that was advertised in advance.
Over there at Chelmsford in England, they are remembering the 81st anniversary of the beginning of these test broadcasts from a new and experimental wireless transmitter.