The final chapter of Radio Scene on the Islands of Macau

Hon Kong Zhuhai-Macau Bridge

Our opening topic here in Wavescan today is the Radio Scene on the Islands of Macau Part 4, and this is the final topic in this mini-series on Macau, the one time Portuguese colony in coastal China.  On this occasion, we pick up the story of Radio Vila Verde, the second radio broadcasting station in Macau. 

According to the American radio journal Radio News, commercial Radio Vila Verde in Macau was inaugurated in 1951, and they were on the air temporarily in March and April on shortwave 9500 kHz.  This new radio broadcasting service had borrowed the use of a 1 kW shortwave transmitter from Radio Club Macau while they were awaiting the arrival of a new mediumwave transmitter from overseas.

The new Radio Vila Verde was initially located in the private dwelling of Pedro Jose Lobo in Macau and when they finally inaugurated their anticipated medium wave facility, two transmitters were in use.  These two units were noted with separate programming and they were allotted separate callsigns, both of which looked like amateur radio call signs, though they were indeed two legitimate radio program broadcasting services.  Station CR9XM with ¼ kW on 1200 kHz carried Home Service programming, and station CR9XL with 3 kW on 1005 kHz carried their Foreign Service.

Seven years later in September 1958, Radio Vila Verde again experimented with radio program broadcasting on shortwave with what they called a new Foreign Service.  On this occasion, Arthur Cushen in Invercargill in South New Zealand, stated that the transmitter was rated at just 300 watts, and the frequency was 17785 kHz. 

The WR(TV)HB for 1959 states that the callsign in use for this experimental Foreign Service was CR9XM, with programming in Portuguese, parallel with medium wave 1250 kHz.  This second exploratory venture into shortwave broadcasting by Radio Vila Verde turned out to be their last.

Three years later (1962), Radio Vila Verde installed a 10 kW medium wave transmitter on 735 kHz, and the previously active low power transmitter continued in service on 1005 kHz.  The new triangular tower for the 10 kW transmitter stood at 250 feet and it provided excellent coverage over a very wide area.  However, at this stage, the usage of callsigns was dropped; and in addition, Radio Vila Verde introduced a new broadcasting service on FM, with just 5 watts on 89.0 MHz.

In 1968, the use of the low power transmitter on 1005 kHz was terminated; and in 1981 an additional new medium wave channel was activated on 858 kHz, though this also was terminated just five years later.  Then in 1994, Radio Vila Verde suspended all operations due to insufficient financial income.  Three years later in January 1997, Anker Petersen of Denmark visited the station and he described it as basically inactive, and so did Nolan Stephany of New York in April.

However, in 2002, Radio Vila Verde was re-inaugurated, by the Tourism Department, though now entirely on FM, on 99.5 MHz.  The studios and transmitters are located in the Hipodromo da Taipa, the Macau Jockey Club, on Taipa Island. 

However, the latest edition of the WRTVHB informs us, that once again, Radio Vila Verde lies inactive and silent.  Thus, the only radio station on the air in Macau these days is the now privately operated Radio TV Macau on FM with Portuguese on 98.0 MHz and Chinese on 100.7 MHz.  However, it should be remembered that there are now five different TV services on the air in Macau, with five main transmitters and two additional repeaters.

Both Radio Club Macau and Radio Vila Verde issued QSL cards during their earlier years while they were still operating on mediumwave and shortwave.  Any international radio monitor who still owns  a Macau QSL card does indeed hold a historically valuable piece of real radio history.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 522/24 Feb. 2019)

The Radio Scene on the Islands of Macau

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge

After the end of the Pacific War, shortwave station CR8AA Radio Club Macau returned to the air and it was first noted in Australia on 7530 kHz with what was described as a good signal in August 1945.  Their first QSL card was a large oversized card with an artistic representation of a beach scene along the Macau coastline.

Two years later (1947), Radio News in the United States reported that the station was on the air daily with regular programming on 9500 kHz with a power output of just 200 watts.  The programming content was in three languages; Portuguese, Chinese and English.  At this stage, it was stated, Radio Macau was planning a power increase up to 1 kW.

Two years later again (1949), Radio Macau was off the air shortwave, though a new mediumwave channel was in use, 1270 kHz with again an output power of only 200 watts.  Apparently the shortwave transmitter had been re-engineered for use on a mediumwave channel.  At this stage, they were promising a power increase on shortwave up to 5 kW. 

After another two years, now 1951, a monitoring observation in the United States indicated that a 1 kW transmitter was on the air from Macau on 9500 kHz though it was not carrying the programming of Radio Macau but rather Radio Vila Verde.  This shortwave relay was heard during the months of April and May only, and the news report stated that this shortwave relay was simply a temporary fill in while they were awaiting a new mediumwave transmitter.  This shortwave transmitter actually belonged to Radio Macau, not Radio Vila Verde, and apparently its normal usage was for international communication.

Would you believe it?  Again, after another two years, this time during the year 1953, it was stated that no shortwave transmitter in Macau was active with the broadcast of radio programming, and that Radio Club Macau may some time soon take into usage its 1 kW communication transmitter for the relay of their own mediumwave programming.  However, that never eventuated either.  At that stage, a 250 watt mediumwave transmitter was in use on 900 kHz.

Back then, the call signs in use by Radio Club Macau were rather unusual; the shortwave call sign was CR8AA and the medium wave callsign was CR9AA.  The international radio prefix CR8 belonged officially to Goa the Portuguese colony in India; and the international radio prefix CR9 belonged officially to Macau, the Portuguese colony in China.

In the 1960s, the 250 watt mediumwave transmitter was retuned to 1200 kHz, and a new 1 kW mediumwave transmitter took over the 900 kHz channel.  Both channels carried the same programming in parallel in both Cantonese and English.

In 1976, the Radio Macau broadcasting service was reorganized under the auspices of the Information and Tourism Center with programming in just two languages, Chinese and Portuguese.

Interestingly in 1983, two European countries, France and Portugal, announced that they planned to install a jointly operated shortwave broadcast station in Macau, though that project was never implemented either.  The usage of medium wave in Macau was dropped in favor of FM during the 1990s.

With the 1999 re-integration of the Portuguese colony Macau into China looming up on the horizon, Radio Macau again announced that they would re-introduce a shortwave service that would continue on air after the high profile political changeover took place.  However, due to the growth of FM radio broadcasting throughout the world as well as in Macau, the usage of both medium wave and shortwave was dropped entirely.  Thus, over nearly half a century, Radio Macau indicated its intention to increase the power of its international shortwave service on five separate occasions, all without fulfillment. 

These days, Radio TV Macau is on the air via two FM transmitters, each rated at 2½ kW, and they are both on the air 24 hours daily.  The FM channel 100.7 MHz carries Cantonese and Mandarin programming, and the other FM channel 98.0 MHz carries Portuguese programming with occasional inserts in Indonesian and Tagalog.

Coming soon here in Wavescan will be the story of the other radio station in Macau, Radio Vila Verde.
(AWR-Wavescan-NWS 520-10 Feb 2019)

The Radio Scene in Portuguese Macau

Here in Wavescan last month, we presented Part 1 of the Radio Scene on Portuguese Macau and we covered the story of their early wireless and radio broadcasting stations during the prewar years.  The main radio transmitter back then was in use for both international communication as well as for the broadcast of radio programming under the consecutive callsigns CQN CRY9 and CR8AA. 

In our program today, we pick up the Macau story again at the time when the war in Asia, Japan versus China, was well under way, and it was soon to explode into the dramatic Pacific War running from 1941 to 1945.  On the same day, Sunday December 7 in Hawaii and Monday December 8 on the western side of the International Date Line, Japanese forces made a surprise attack on several strategic locations in the Pacific, including Honolulu in Hawaii, and the island of Luzon in the Philippines, and also the British colonial territory of Hong Kong on coastal China. 

Because Portugal over in Europe remained neutral during World War II, and because Macau was a Portuguese colony in coastal China, this small Asian territory was spared much of the devastation that overtook the Asia-Pacific arena.  However during this tragic war, Macau became a refugee center with an estimated half million refugees flowing in from other areas of Asia. 

The main influx of refugees came from mainland China, with an additional 9,000 flowing in from Hong Kong.  These large migrations produced drastic shortages of food and accommodation in Macau.

Initially the Japanese authorities accepted and respected Macau’s stance of neutrality during the Asia-Pacific War.  However in August 1943, Japanese troops seized a British cargo steamer at Macau, the Sian (X’ian), and this event led to the installation of Japanese advisors over the colony.

Towards the end of the Pacific War during the year 1945, American planes bombed Macau three times, for which the United States made a reparations payment of $20 million to Portugal five years later.  The first American air raid took place on Tuesday January 16 during the South China Sea Raids as part of Operation Gratitude. 

At the time, United States navy vessels were passing nearby during heavy stormy weather and their planes bombed the Naval Aviation Center on coastal Macau, and destroyed the reserve tanks of aviation fuel.  In addition, they also bombed a radio station on the main Macau Island.  Next day, Tokyo Rose announced in English on Radio Tokio shortwave: We don’t know how you got into the area; but now, how will you get out?

We turn now to the radio scene in Portuguese Macau beginning just before the middle of last century.  It was during the year 1941 that Radio Clube Macao was formed and they inherited all of the equipment and installations of the former radio station that had been on the air under the consecutive callsigns CQN and CRY9.  At this stage, their operating frequency was 6070 kHz, and they were then identified with a new callsign, CR8AA.

This new callsign CR8AA gives the appearance that it was an amateur radio callsign, though in actual reality, this call identified the station when it was on the air for the broadcast of news and entertainment programming.  Interestingly, the international prefix CR8 would identify another Portuguese colony, Goa in India rather than Macau in China.  However during that era, with Asian tensions rising high, we would suggest that the Portuguese government in Europe required their shortwave station in Macau China to identify with a callsign relevant to Goa India in order to add a touch of combined psychological strength to their distant colonies.

The studios for this pre-war shortwave station were always located on the top floor of the Post Office building in downtown Macau, and the transmitter was always located at Dona Maria Fort, Fortaleza da Dona Maria 2.  This fort was constructed by the Portuguese authorities in 1852 at an isolated location on a small peninsula jutting out into the bay from the main island of Macau.  The 500 watt shortwave transmitter was constructed in three separate units; the low power driver transmitter, a 500 watt amplifier, and a separate rectifier. 

A photograph in a radio magazine in 1935 shows three tall masts at Fort Dona Maria, two of which were identified as supporting the zeppelin antenna that was in use for the shortwave transmissions from station CR8AA.  A third mast in the photograph was not specifically identified, though we would suggest that it was in use as a receiving antenna for two way communication traffic.

There seems to be no indication that shortwave CR8AA was ever on the air with program broadcasting during the Pacific War.  After the bombing of Hong Kong on December 8, 1941 there are no known monitoring observations until the station was reactivated again with program broadcasting in August 1945.

The radio station that the American planes bombed on January 16, 1945 was this historic low powered shortwave station CR8AA at Fort Dona Maria.  However apparently the damage to the transmitter facility was not too great, because in August, the station was heard again, at good strength by Mr. R. Clack in Australia on 7530 kHz.  In a monitoring report published in the Australasian Radio World, DX Editor Lawrence J. Keast commented: Radio Club Macau has made a welcome re-appearance after its long silence.

An oversized QSL card issued to a listener in Sweden for reception in December (1945) shows an artistic representation of coastal scenery in Macau.  The English text on this QSL card verifies reception on 7505 kHz, though subsequently they moved again to 9300 kHz.
More about the radio scene in Macau another time.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 16)