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| Sydney, Australia |
Thank you to Ray Robinson, Dr Adrian Peterson, and Jeff White for this week's special on ABC Sydney.
Jeff: In the Christmas edition of Wavescan each year, it is our custom to relate the story of a radio station that has some connection with Christmas. This year we chose a shortwave station that was inaugurated during the Christmas season many years ago – VLI in Sydney, Australia. Here’s Ray Robinson with that story.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff, and a Merry Christmas to one and all. For many years, the ABC in Australia employed domestic shortwave transmitters to relay programming to audiences beyond the range of their medium wave signals. Three 50 kW units were famously located in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine to provide complete coverage of the Northern Territory, although in practice the area they serviced was much larger, including parts of Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia. We remember the sad decision to close those services on January 31st, 2017.
But we should also remember another similar, although lower-powered, station – VLI – that once operated from Sydney, New South Wales. This station was actually the fourth to be designated with the callsign VLI:
• The first use of VLI was by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand for a ship built for them in Scotland called the SS Aorangi. That ship was deliberately scuttled in the Scapa Flow anchorage in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland in 1915 to deter enemy submarines from entering the waterway. Five years later the ship was refloated but soon afterwards sold for scrap in Europe.
• The second ship to be given the callsign VLI was the SS Ladywood, which was built in England in 1907. After World War I, she was also bought by Union Steamship of New Zealand, and in 1919 was renamed the SS Kai-tan-gata. That ship was later sold to Hong Kong and in 1937 it was destroyed by a fire in the South China Sea while carrying a load of gasoline.
• The third usage of the callsign VLI was for a couple of years during World War 2. Four shortwave transmitters, each rated at 10 kW, were being used to broadcast the programming of Australia Calling from the AWA station in Pennant Hills, Sydney. The primary callsigns for each of these transmitters were VK2ME, VLK, VLM and VLN. But from January 1943 to November 1944, the announced callsign was VLI (for the programming), rather than the individual callsigns for each transmitter. After that, usage of the station at Pennant Hills for Australia Calling / Radio Australia was dropped in favor of Shepparton, Victoria, and the callsign VLI was deleted.
So now we come to the fourth usage of the shortwave callsign VLI, and our topic for today. In November 1948, a small 2 kW transmitter built by STC, Model No 4SU148, was installed in the ABC-PMG radio facility located near Liverpool, a southern suburb of Sydney.
A large radio facility had been established at that location in 1938 to provide medium wave coverage of Australia’s largest metropolis, Sydney. At the time, two medium wave stations operated from Liverpool:
• 2FC, on 610 kHz with 10 kW, and
• 2BL on 740 kHz with 3 kW.
These days, both of those stations operate with 50 kW; although 2FC was moved to 576 kHz and the callsign replaced with the generic 2RN for Radio National, and 2BL was moved to 702 kHz, now carrying the New South Wales State Program.
Other stations have since joined them at Liverpool, including 2JJ, which is now identified as ‘Triple J’ on FM, and 2PB, which carries parliamentary broadcasts and news/talk programming.
But in late 1948, that small 2 kW shortwave transmitter was installed at the same location to provide coverage of coastal areas more than 200 miles north and south of Sydney, where medium wave coverage was poor at the time. And for this small transmitter, the now vacant callsign VLI was once again assigned.
The long open-wire twin feeder line from the transmitter was supported on short wooden poles all painted a gleaming white, and the antenna system was a half-wave dipole aimed at 20 and 200 degrees.
The first test broadcasts from VLI were observed in November 1948, though no specific announcements identifying the unit were noted. At the time, PMG personnel took field strength measurements in the two main target areas, north and south of Sydney, and were happy with the results.
The opening ceremony for VLI took place 77 years ago tomorrow, at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, December 22, 1948, with official speeches and messages of welcome.
Initially, two shortwave channels were used,
• VLI2 on 6090 kHz during the early morning and evening hours, and
• VLI3 on 9500 kHz during the daytime.
On June 1, 1951, the call signs were adjusted to reflect the MHz band used:
• VLI2 on 6090 kHz was amended to VLI6, and
• VLI3 is now on 9540 kHz and became VLI9.
However, use of the 9 MHz channel was dropped in October 1952, and the transmitter was then used on the 6 MHz channel, 6090 kHz, full-time.
Programming on VLI was a composite relay of both the national and state stations, 2FC and 2BL, and the little transmitter provided reliable service, with coverage well beyond just the coastal areas, for nearly 35 years. In many respects, its purpose was very similar to the way the CBC in Canada used small 1 kW shortwave transmitters to relay programming from its major stations in cities like Toronto and Vancouver to audiences in the north.
But then quite suddenly and unexpectedly, at 1402 UTC on October 7, 1983, VLI left the air abruptly. The official cause was said to be the failure of the main transmitting valve. Soon afterwards, the transmitter was removed, as were the line feed poles and the antenna system.
Over the years, many QSL cards were issued to confirm reception of VLI, but they were always just whatever regular ABC QSL cards were in use at the time.
The small 2 kW shortwave transmitter, VLI, was never replaced, but instead ABC announced that six new medium stations would be installed in the areas previously covered by the shortwave signal. However, that expectation was never completely fulfilled either. Instead, over a period of time, several local FM stations were installed in coastal areas previously served by VLI, but of course a lot of territory, particularly inland, is still without coverage to this day.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Ray Robinson/Wavescan)
