Ray Robinson and Jeff White bring you this week's Wavescan, with a closer look at Papua New Guinea, which leaves all of us wondering, " Will Papua New Guinea return to shortwave?"
Jeff: In May this year, the government of Papua New Guinea announced “Medium Term Development Plan IV”, which included a goal of achieving 100% broadcast coverage of the country by 2030. The Minister for Communications asked the state broadcaster, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) for their recommendations, and in response, NBC suggested reintroducing the use of shortwave radio – a possibility which is now being explored with manufacturers and funding partners. In light of this, we thought it might be interesting to review what we know of the history of broadcasting in PNG, and in particular, their previous use of shortwave. Ray Robinson in Los Angeles has been sifting through the records. Ray?
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. As recently as the late 20-teens, NBC was operating a network of about 20 regional shortwave transmitters, all with 10 kW, on various frequencies mostly in the 60 and 90 meter tropical bands. And if listings in the WRTH are to be believed, it appears the last shortwave transmitters were not switched off until sometime in 2022. So it’s somewhat surprising now to hear that use of shortwave is being seriously reconsidered. The transmitters in use previously were mostly NEC HFB-7840 models manufactured in the early 1990’s, and they apparently went silent when parts failed and knowledgeable engineers were not available to service them. Now it seems that parts have already been purchased for at least one transmitter on the island of New Britain, and are awaiting installation.
A Radio New Zealand broadcast on June 13 of this year included a discussion program in which it was stated that NBC in Papua New Guinea had approached Radio New Zealand for technical assistance in reestablishing their shortwave broadcasts within the next year. Such a request to RNZI, the most successful shortwave operator in the neighborhood (bar the Chinese) makes perfect sense, although it’s unclear what shape such assistance might take. So, let’s look at why shortwave has historically been so important to PNG, and why its reintroduction now is a practical necessity.
The island of New Guinea lying to the north of Australia has generally been considered to be the second largest island in the world, after Greenland, about 1,500 miles long. However, it was recently established that if the Greenland icecap were to melt, we would see that Greenland is actually three islands, not one, so New Guinea really is the largest. It’s part of the continent of Australasia, which includes the Australian landmass, New Zealand and New Guinea.
The western half of New Guinea, known as Irian Jaya, was administered historically by the Dutch, and in 1949, it was claimed by the newly independent country of Indonesia. It is now administered as six provinces within that country.
The eastern half of the island was split in the 1880’s between German New Guinea in the north and British Papua in the south. ‘Papua,’ by the way, is a Malay word which means ‘frizzy hair’, and it has been used for the island at least as far back as 1526. All of present-day Papua New Guinea came under Australian control at the end of World War I, although the different parts were still administered separately. The former German and British territories were united as Papua New Guinea after World War II (along with about 100 other islands, the largest being New Britain), and then the country gained full independence as a member of the British Commonwealth in 1975. Since then, the form of government has been a constitutional monarchy, now with King Charles III as the monarch, represented by a Governor-General. There is a legislature in the form of a national parliament, with a Prime Minister and members who are also provincial leaders.
PNG is a very mountainous country, mostly covered by thick tropical vegetation, with almost impenetrable jungle in the low-lying areas. There is a spinal mountain range running east-west for over 1,000 miles, with the tallest peak reaching 16,023 feet. The tree line is at around 13,000 feet, and some of the peaks above that contain rare equatorial glaciers.
The last official population estimate in 2021 was 11.8 million, but that number is unreliable because the population is highly rural, with only 14% living in urban centers. The capital, Port Moresby, has a population of less than 400,000, although that still makes it the largest city in the southwestern Pacific outside Australia or New Zealand. Unofficial estimates of the total population of PNG made using satellite imagery put the number closer to 18 million. The majority of that population lives in mountain villages where there are no roads or other infrastructure (no electricity, no running water), and they can only be reached by very arduous multi-day hikes on foot from the nearest provincial towns. Some villages have airstrips (often created by missionary groups), but most do not. Because of the isolation of these people groups, PNG is the most linguistically diverse country in the world, with 840 known spoken languages – not just dialects, separate languages. Each one has developed among people living in clusters of isolated mountain villages, sometimes numbering no more than about 20-30,000 speakers of each language.
Again, because of the isolation, it is estimated that at least 40% of the population are subsistence farmers, living completely independently of the cash economy. They do not have any connection with or receive support from the capital, and they rarely have any need for money.
The official languages of the country are English, Tok Pisin (or Pidgin) and Hiri Motu (a Polynesian language spoken by about 5% of the population in the south east). The lingua franca used for commerce is Tok Pisin, an English-based creole, although standard English is used in government, higher education, and formal writing.
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| Classic QSL from Radio East New Britain |
So, how do you unite a country as linguistically diverse as PNG? How do you forge a national identity? How do you even begin to think about reaching people who never come into even a regional town, let alone the capital? How can the authorities provide health education, warnings about weather events, emergency assistance when needed, and so on?
You would think that from a radio perspective, small, compact people groups could probably best be serviced by FM transmitters right in their communities, but the problem with that is lack of infrastructure. With no electricity, the transmitters would have to be powered completely by renewable energy sources such as solar, which would limit them to very low power operation, and then only during the daytime and when it wasn’t too cloudy, which it often is. Program production in the local language would also have to be powered in the same way, and for the most part, that’s just not viable.
Medium wave doesn’t work well in the tropics for regional coverage due to atmospheric noise, so where medium wave has been deployed (and there are a few 10 kW units in use), they’re only for population centers close to the transmitters. The only real alternative for national coverage is some form of shortwave broadcast from locations where there is at least a bare minimum of services. And that’s exactly what PNG had for decades, usually broadcasting in a mixture of English, Pidgin, and perhaps the most dominant vernacular language in their area.
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| Classic QSL from NBC |
The history of radio broadcasting in Papua New Guinea dates back to 1935 when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) opened the first commercial medium wave station, 4PM, in Port Moresby, although it was closed again during World War II. In 1944, the U.S army established a radio station called 9PA, which was the first to broadcast in local languages. After the war, the ABC assumed control of 9PA and gradually expanded its broadcasting services in the territory.
In 1961 the first PNG government broadcast service was launched, the forerunner of 15 regional stations specifically for Papua New Guinea audiences. This dual system of broadcasting continued until the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was formed under the Broadcasting Commission Act of 1973. The NBC is thus Papua New Guinea's state-owned broadcaster, now operating two national radio stations and one television station.
In addition to the NBC, there are also a number of private and community radio stations operating in Papua New Guinea, all on FM. These mostly target urban youth, who find it easy to tune in on subsidised smart phones that have FM tuners built in. But, there’s little coverage of the more rural areas.
The 1970 edition of the WRTH lists eight regional stations (all government-operated), such as Radio Rabaul, Radio Wewak, Radio Western District, Radio Goroka, and so on, all on frequencies in the 90 meter tropical band, with a mix of 10 and 2 kW transmitters. Most of the regional shortwave transmitters were replaced in the early 1990s, and the 1995 edition of the WRTH shows 23 regional stations, all operating with 10 kW in the 90 meter band. There are also two 100 kW units listed in Port Moresby on 60 meters and 31 meters, which were obviously intended to provide national coverage.
FM transmitters have been deployed in town areas throughout the country, with both the BBC World Service and Radio Australia being available on FM in Port Moresby. But most of the population is well out of the reach of any FM or medium wave transmitter. So, we look forward with interest to see how the situation develops in PNG.
Will a network of regional shortwave stations be reestablished? Will the
high-power units in Port Moresby be refurbished and reactivated for national coverage? Maybe by this time next year we’ll know.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Ray Robinson/Wavescan 23 Nov 2025)To hear vintage radio recordings from Papua New Guinea in this edition, refer to:
