One of these secret shortwave
stations, the larger of the two, was installed at a somewhat isolated country
location near the west coast of South Africa.
The location of the other station, the smaller of the two, has never
been revealed, though we could guess that it might have been somewhere up towards
the north east of South Africa. It was
back during the year 1989 that work began on both of these secret shortwave
stations.
The west coast station was installed
at Langefontein, a large hilly farm property with a small river meandering
through it. It appears that this
property was named way back in the colonial era for its original Dutch settler
with the family name Lange. The
Dutch-Afrikaans name, Langefontein, can be translated into English as Long
Fountain.
The Langefontein Farm forms part of
a military enclave about an hour north of the provincial capital,
Capetown. A small town with the same
name has since grown up as somewhat of an annex to the military site.
The original plans for this large
radio broadcasting station at Langefontein called for 11 shortwave transmitters
at 100 kW each, together with the installation of a bevy of antenna systems to
enable complete nationwide coverage as well as coverage of major target areas
in Africa and beyond. Initially, 9
transmitters were intended for installation in this phase of this electronic
project.
However as events turned out, only 8
of the planned transmitters were actually installed, and a ninth still in its
original crates, was never installed.
All 8 of these shortwave units, Thomson Model Number SK51C3-3P from
Europe were installed during the year 1991.
All 8 transmitters were activated
and tested into a dummy load, so that none were ever detected on air by any
international radio monitors anywhere in the world. They were never tested into any of the
regular antenna systems that had been erected on the Langefontein Farm.
The entire project was pretty well
completed by 1992 but then it was stalled.
With the unwinding of apartheid through negotiations between opposing
parties, the station was no longer necessary.
Consequently, the South African government contracted with Sentech to
dismantle the station and to dispose of the equipment.
Some of the transmitters were
installed elsewhere in South Africa, the still crated transmitter was
transferred to Meyerton for intended installation at one of their twin
shortwave bases on the air with the programming of Radio South Africa, and 4 of
the transmitters at Langefontein were uninstalled and shipped to the island of
Guam. In addition, the still crated
transmitter at Meyerton was also shipped to Guam.
The military shortwave station at
Langefontein is no more. Quite recently
the government has been studying the possibility of establishing a Wind Farm on
the Langefontein property, for the generation of electricity. However, the government is currently also
placing the ex-radio property on the market for sale.
What happened to the subsidiary
smaller military radio station that was constructed at an undisclosed location
simultaneously with the station on the Langefontein Farm? This secondary station was intended to
fulfill the same purposes as the larger station near the west coast, but its
role was intended to be more that of an emergency station to fill in as needed
if interruptions occurred at Langefontein.
Work was well underway on this
additional station which would accommodate four transmitters at 100 kW each;
they had been procured but never installed.
Where this station was located and what happened to it afterwards, we just
don’t know. But there are some people out there who do
know, and perhaps one of these days they will fill in the picture and provide
the missing details of this another mystery shortwave radio broadcasting
station also.
And what about the 5 transmitters
that were shipped to the island of Guam?
Well, that’s a
story for another occasion here in Wavescan.
