The good ship Tofua was built in
England for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand in 1908 and it was named
after a dormant volcano island in the Tonga group in the South Pacific. Wireless was installed on this ship around
the beginning of World War 1 and the callsign VLF identified this ship for
nearly ten years.
For a total of nearly a quarter
century, the Tofua plied its trade among the many South Pacific island
dependencies associated with New Zealand.
The ship was withdrawn from service in 1932 and it was sold for scrap
and broken up in Osaka in Japan in 1934.
Somewhere
around the mid 1920s, the callsign VLF was reallocated to a shore based coastal
wireless station that was installed on the island of Aitutaki in the Cook
Islands. This exotic island with a
population of some 2,000 is a popular tourist destination for holiday seekers
who desire a locale that still retains the flavor of the nostalgic South
Pacific.
It was in 1942 that the callsign VLF
was reallocated to a major shortwave station that was located on the
continental Australian mainland. During
the era of World War 2, international radio monitors in the South Pacific,
North America and Europe occasionally noted the transmitter with communication
traffic with the United States.
It is probable that the callsign VLF
was not the primary callsign for a specific transmitter but rather a subsidiary
callsign for a new 10 kW transmitter that was allocated the primary callsign
VLN. This new VLN replaced an earlier 5
kW unit that had been on the air previously with the same callsign VLN.
The callsign VLF3 for example, was
noted in 1942 with traffic for San Francisco on the frequency 19300 kHz. During the years 1940 - 1944, this same
channel 19300 kHz, was also on the air quite frequently under the callsign
VLN3. The transmitters with the
callsigns VLN & VLN-VLF were located at the well known pre-war shortwave
station operated by AWA at Pennant Hills, near Sydney in Australia.
The next occasion for the usage of
the callsign VLF was with the Radio Australia shortwave base at Shepparton in
Victoria. In the early part of the year
1961, the 100 kW AWA-STC transmitter VLA was bifurcated, and with the insertion
of additional electronic equipment another 100 kW transmitter was spawned. This new unit, model number 4SU3A with the
sequential callsign VLF, was taken into service in September of the same year
1961.
However, during the next month,
October, Radio Australia dropped the usage of all callsigns, and thus the
callsign VLF as a specific transmitter was in use for only a few weeks at the
very most. From that time onwards, the
callsign VLF, or just F, indicated a 50 kW transmitter located at the
Shepparton shortwave base. During the
following year, 1962, the F line programming was switched to a 10 kW
transmitter at the same location and beamed to various areas of the Pacific.
There must have been a few QSL cards
issued by Radio Australia to verify the short term usage of the 100 kW
transmitter VLF, though the whereabouts of any such cards is unknown. However, many Form Letter QSLs were issued to
verify the broadcast of programing from a 50 kW transmitter under the line callsign
VLF.
The final occasion for the usage of
the callsign VLF was applied to an American communication station located at
North West Cape in Western Australia.
The callsign VLF can also be read as an acronym meaning Very Low
Frequency.
In 1967, a huge radio station was
constructed for the American navy on North West Cape, nearly 800 miles north of
the state capital Perth. This radio
station is in reality a double facility with two sets of radio
transmitters.
A huge longwave facility for
communication with underwater submarines contained two Continental transmitters
operating in the longwave range of 14 - 28.5 kHz. Another nearby and separate site contained
four shortwave transmitters rated at 40 kW PEP for use in international
communication.
Interestingly two different
callsigns have been associated with this massive American radio facility. One callsign was NWC, which can be read as an
American navy callsign and also as an abbreviation for North West Cape. The other callsign is VLF, which can be read
as an Australian shortwave callsign, and also as the acronym for Very Low
Frequency.
In summary, six different usages of
the callsign VLF:-
VLF New Zealand Ship SS “Tofua” LP 1914 - 1924 Approx
VLF Aitutaki Cook
Islands LP 1924
- 1928 Approx
VLF Pennant
Hills Australia 10 kW 1942 Subsidiary
call for VLN?
VLF Shepparton
Victoria 100 kW 1961 Bifurcated
from VLA
VLF Shepparton Victoria 50/10 1961
- 1999+ Line
callsign
VLF NW
Cape Western Australia 1 MW 1967
- 1974 American
facility
(AWR/Wavescan-NWS 358)
