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| 2CO Corowa transmitter and aerial |
However five years
later again, a bright new mediumwave station near Wellington in New Zealand,
2YA with a 60 kW transmitter, became the highest powered mediumwave station in
the Southern Hemisphere, thus eclipsing the two Australian stations for that
honor. Since that time, 2YA has always
held the honor, at least as equal highest powered mediumwave station in the South
Pacific.
Let’s go back now to the month of
February in the year 1922, which was when the first mediumwave station in
Wellington commenced broadcasting. This
new station was constructed and operated
by Charles Forrest at the International Electric Company in Courtenay Place,
Wellington and it was on the air two evenings a week, Monday and Wednesday, for
an hour and a half on each occasion.
Six months later,
Forrest merged with Hope Gibbons to form Wellington Broadcasters Ltd with their
small cramped radio studio at the top of the Ford Building in Courtenay
Place. This building had been
constructed earlier for the assembly of American made Model T Ford motor cars.
During the following
year (1923), the New Zealand government began issuing callsigns to radio
broadcasting stations and this first station in Wellington was accorded the
callsign 2YB. However one year later
again, in November 1924, this station 2YB merged with the second broadcasting
station in Wellington that had been accorded the sequential callsign 2YK.
This second station in
Wellington was owned and financed by a group of five interested men who
operated as the Federal Telephone Company.
The transmitter for this new radio station was constructed locally on
information provided by Professor Robert Jack who had been experimenting with
wireless for the past year or more in Dunedin on the South Island.
The new Wellington
station was installed at the back of Mr. A. H. Simpson’s home in suburban Wellington, quite
near to the local post office, and it was launched in August 1922, when the
previously mentioned first station 2YB was just six months old. The New Zealand government issued the callsign
2YK to this now second station
in Wellington.
In November (1923) this
station, with its staff-built new transmitter, was moved to the 5th floor in the Dominion Building on Plimmers Steps, just off
Lambton Quay, hence a new company name, the Dominion Radio Company. Waterside workers cut a tree and hauled it to
the roof of the building to support the antenna system. This station was on the air two or three
evenings a week for a total of just a few hours altogether.
During the year 1924,
the New Zealand
government began to subsidize four key radio broadcasting stations in New
Zealand, including 2YK in Wellington.
Then In November of that same year, the first station in Wellington
(2YB) was merged into the more substantial and now more successful second
station 2YK.
On August 30 of the
next year (1925) the government took over tall four of the subsidized stations
(1YA Auckland, 2YK Wellington, 3AQ Christchurch, 4YA Dunedin), though the
Wellington station went silent instead.
As an interim measure, the Post Office personnel provided some form of
spasmodic programming for the 2YK transmitter.
Station 2YK returned to
the air for the November (1925) elections, and again for special Christmas
programming. Then during the following
year (1926), this station began to carry a regular programming schedule. In June 1927, station 2YK was given a change
in callsign, and thus 2YK became the now highly regarded and well known 2YA.
Actually, the 2YA
callsign had previously been allocated to a small battery operated station in
Nelson. This small regional city of
Nelson is located on the north coast of the South Island almost opposite
Wellington, and Wellington is located across the Cook Straits on the southern
edge of the North Island. In 1923, Mr. D. Field established this radio station in Nelson which was allocated at that
stage the callsign 2YA.
This small radio station operated
without mains electricity, and it required 300 torch batteries soldered
together to provide electricity for it to go on the air. This 2YA radio station broadcast from a
hardware shop, Wilkins & Field Ltd., in Hardy Street, Nelson.
During the mid 1920s, a
big new 2YA in the national capital city Wellington was planned as the most
powerful mediumwave broadcasting station in the world. However when it was officially opened by
Prime Minister Joseph G. Coates on July 9, 1927, its power level was only 5 kW,
not even as powerful as the two stations in Australia; 2CO & 5CK with 7½ kW each.
Studios for this new
2YA were installed in the Wellesley Club Building on the corner of Waring Taylor & Featherstone
Streets in Wellington. The transmitter
was installed in a new building under two
self-supporting towers on Mt. Victoria, towering over the
city of Wellington.
However soon
afterwards. another new 2YA was built on a small promontory at Titahi Bay,
Whitireia Head, and this one really did become the most powerful in the
Southern Hemisphere. In addition, its
single tower was also the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere standing 700 feet
high. The tower was manufactured in
Australia and shipped to New Zealand in sections.
The transmitter
building at Titahi Bay was constructed to withstand sustained wind speeds of
100 miles an hour, and the end roofing trussets were specially designed to
retain the roof in gale force winds. The
earthing system was composed of 10 miles of copper wire laid underground in a
special counterpoise pattern. An
emergency on-air studio was installed in the transmitter building, and
subsequently, so was an emergency power generator.
The new 2YA transmitter
was manufactured by AWA at their Sydneyside factory in suburban Ashfield, and
it was rated at the unusual power level of 60 kW. The antenna system for this new high powered
radio station was configured to provide maximum coverage of New Zealand
north-south, with a minimum of skywave propagation.
This high powered 2YA
on 570 kHz in New Zealand was easily heard one thousand miles away in
Australia, particularly in the evenings with programming at a listening level,
due to the saltwater pathway. In fact,
on one occasion, mediumwave 2YA was heard on a car radio at a listenable level
while a family was traveling up towards the center of Australia when the time
at the transmitter site was already late morning.
This new 2YA was officially
opened by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr Michael Savage, on January 25,
1937. The old 5 kW 2YA transmitter was
retuned to 840 kHz and it returned to the air under a new callsign 2YC.
These days, the
magnificent 2YA is still on the air with 50 kW on 567 kHz at Titahi Bay, and
studios in Radio New Zealand House on the Terrace in Wellington. Over the years, many hundreds of QSL cards
have been sent to listeners living in countries within, and beyond, the Pacific
arena.
(AWR/Wavescan-NWS 492)
(photo/ABC Archive/Flickr)
