Thank you to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's script of Wavescan, for our readers.
Jeff: In the field of shortwave broadcasting, there are many heroic stories of how stations were established in far-flung corners of the globe. I think of Alaska, Madagascar, Guam, Palau, the Northern Territory of Australia, Zambia, etc. and we just heard in our program immediately before Christmas that it took chief engineer Doug Garlinger no less than 37 trips to the Big Island of Hawaii to establish KHBN in the 1990’s. But, none of those situations come close to the challenges that were experienced in setting up wireless stations across China in the years immediately following World War I. Here’s Ray Robinson in Los Angeles with the story.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. Telegraphy first entered China in 1871 when a newly laid cable between Shanghai and Hong Kong linked Qing-era China to the British-dominated international telegraph system. But by the 19-teens, there were still significant gaps in the telegraph network in the interior of China. The Marconi Company in England agreed to extend the network wirelessly, and as soon as the hostilities of World War I ended in November 1918, they signed a contract to erect three wireless stations in remote but important commercial centers in northern and western China. These three stations were planned for installation at Urga, Urumchi and Kashgar. As an additional part of the contract, Marconi would provide 600 portable wireless stations for local and regional communication in the areas between these three main stations.
• Urga means "Residence" in the Mongolian language and it was the old name for Ulaan Baatar, the modern capital of what is now Mongolia.
• Urumchi is located in north west China; the name means "Beautiful Pasture" in the Mongolian language and it was a major hub along the famous ancient trade route between Asia and Europe, the Silk Road.
• Kashgar means "Mount Kash" in the old Persian language and it is located in the far west of China close to the borders of Kyrgystan and Tajikistan; it was an oasis along the same famous Silk Road.
In 1919, Major S. T. Dockray was commissioned by the Marconi company to install the three wireless stations, each with a power of 25 kW, in the three remote locations. The first station was intended for installation at Urga (Ulaan Baatar). The immediate challenge was how to get the equipment there, which included three steel towers each 100 ft. long and weighing more than 300 tons. The Trans-Siberian Railway had just been completed in 1916, but then in 1917 the Russian Revolution occurred, and it was considered too dangerous and unreliable to try to transport the equipment via that route. So instead, it was sent by ship from England to Shanghai on the coast of China.
The huge consignment of wireless equipment was then taken by rail to Kalgan (which means "Frontier Gate") in Chinese Inner Mongolia and then by camel and bullock cart across the Gobi Desert to Outer Mongolia, a distance of 800 miles. Ultimately, this new wireless station was installed, tested and taken into regular service, and Dockray journeyed back into China, to Peking, or Beijing as it is known today.
However, when he got to Peking, Dockray discovered that the Mongolian station was silent, so he made an arduous return journey back to Urga, only to discover that the area was in the midst of a local war. He re-activated the wireless station, which was then badly damaged by artillery fire. He was arrested as an English spy, he escaped, was subsequently quarantined during a raging epidemic of Bubonic Plague, and ultimately returned to Peking.
When the local war in Mongolia ended and the area was taken over again by the central government, Dockray returned to Urga for a third time and re-activated the station once more. However, there were still two more stations to be installed, one at Urumchi and the other at Kashgar.
Dockray journeyed to inland Fengchen where he arranged an enormous caravan to convey the massive pile of wireless equipment to distant Urumchi. This caravan, considered to be the world's largest ever, was made up of 1,200 camels, 468 horses and 117 bullock carts.
When everything arrived at Urumchi, the local army general at first resisted the installation of the station. However, when all obstacles were finally overcome, this new station was activated in August 1922.
It took another journey of two months’ duration to continue on from Urumchi to Kashgar, across rugged mountain ranges and swift flowing rivers. This station, the third in the Marconi wireless network in China, was completed and activated in May 1923, five years since the beginning of the project way back in 1918.
The project director, Major S. T. Dockray, returned to Peking from Kashgar, via the Mintaka Pass in the high Himalaya south into Kashmir, then to Calcutta, and finally by ship once again back to coastal China. When he finally arrived in Peking, he discovered to his delight that all three stations, in Urga, Urumchi and Kashgar, were still active and on the air, and communicating successfully with many of the portable stations that had been distributed throughout the country.
Back to you, Jeff.
Jeff: Thanks, Ray. Next week’s feature will also have a Chinese feel, as Ray looks at the shortwave broadcast scene in Shanghai during the period from the mid-1930’s up until the Communist Revolution in 1949.
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