In our program today, we present the first topic in a series on shortwave callsigns in Australia. Each of these callsigns begins with the two letters VL followed by another letter in the English alphabet, in progressive order from A to Z. Here today, as we begin this long sequence of interesting radio information, we present the fascinating story of the callsign VLA.
Back more than one hundred years
ago, two wireless stations were under construction in New Zealand. The electrical equipment for these two
coastal communication stations was manufactured by the Telefunken company in
Germany, and German technicians were performing the installation procedures
under the auspices of the Australasian Wireless Company in Sydney Australia.
The first of these two wireless
stations, at least in alphabetic order, was located at the edge of Doubtless
Bay, near Awanui, right at the very tip of the North Island of New
Zealand. This new wireless station was
installed on a 100 acre site; the triangular mild steel antenna tower weighed
60 tons and it stood at 400 ft high, resting on a ball and socket joint on a
glass insulator; and a 70 horse power motor generated the electricity. Both the receiver and the transmitter were
installed in the same building, though in separate rooms.
This new wireless station was
activated on March 27, 1913 under the original callsign, NZA, standing for New
Zealand station A at Awanui and Auckland.
It was taken into regular service at the end of the same year, December
18, and by that time the callsign had been modified from NZA to VLA, due to new
international wireless regulations.
In 1924, the electrical equipment at station
VLA was changed from spark gap operation to electronic valve or tube
operation. Then in 1927 the callsign was
again amended, this time from VLA to ZLA, due again to a change in
international radio regulations. The
station was ultimately closed on February 10, 1930 when its communication
service was no longer needed.
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| Bruny Island Lighthouse (tripadvisor.com) |
And then a few months later, we find
the callsign VLA in use on Bruny Island, a small island located near the south
east coast of the Australian island state of Tasmania. The island is very rugged and its shape is
very irregular, and in reality, it is more like two separated islands joined by
a very narrow isthmus. Bruny Island is
named in honor of the French explorer Bruni d’Entrecasteaux.
When European explorers first came
to the area, the twin islands were inhabited by a small tribe of Tasmanian
Aborigines. The landmark Lighthouse, now
a tourist attraction, was built in 1838 at the very bottom tip of South Bruny
Island, facing Antarctica.
A small communication radio station
was installed at the lighthouse in 1930, and the first entry in the log book is
dated June 1. Eight years late, the
equipment at the radio station was updated with the installation of a pedal
wireless transmitter which was powered by a generator attached to a stationary
bicycle.
A brief report in an Australian radio
magazine, dated in August 1941, gives the callsign for this small communication
radio station at the Bruny Island Lighthouse as VLA, and it operated just above
the standard mediumwave band, as it was at the time, on 1579 kHz.
During the war, the callsign VLA was
unassigned from the small communication radio station on Bruny Island and held
in readiness for a powerful 100 kW shortwave transmitter that was under
construction for installation at Shepparton in Victoria. Three transmitters at 100 kW each were
envisaged for deployment at Shepparton, and the planned allocation of callsigns
was VLA, VLC & VLM.
The driver and preliminary stages
for the new VLA transmitter were constructed in Australia by AWA and the
modulator and final stages were constructed by STC, the Standard Telephones and
Cables, both in suburban Sydney. The VLA
transmitter, with its two channel input allowing for quick frequency change,
was activated on August 13, 1945, and it was taken into scheduled service two
days later, August 15.
A postfix number after the callsign,
such as VLA3 VLA6 or VLA8, indicated a specific frequency for on air
usage. Beginning on June 1, 1951, the
usage of the postfix numbers was modified, so that the number itself indicated
a particular megahertz band.
In 1961, the VLA transmitter was
bifurcated, and with the insertion of additional electronic equipment, a
complete new transmitter became available, and it was assigned a new callsign
VLF. The original VLA transmitter was
withdrawn from service in 1983.
Also at the end of the same year in
which VLA was bifurcated, Radio Australia dropped the usage of official
callsigns, and instead the callsign VLA identified a specific program line from
the Melbourne studios to the transmitter site at Shepparton. To this day, the identification A or VLA
still refers to the specific program line that runs to Shepparton, and not
necessarily a specific transmitter.
Radio Australia was a prolific
verifier of reception reports and literally thousands of QSL cards under the
callsign VLA were posted out to listeners all around the world. During the quarter century when this callsign
was in vogue, two different QSL cards were in use, though half a dozen slight
variations are known.
The first card was in use from 1946
- 1950 and it depicted a map of Australia in yellow with a stylized antenna;
and the second card which was in use during the 1950s, depicted a more detailed
map with the famous laughing bird, the Kookaburra. This second card had two major variations,
one with the station name, Radio Australia, in yellow and the other with the
station name in red. Form letter QSLs
were issued for a few years during the 1990s, giving the usage of the line
callsign VLA together with the frequency
and transmitter location as Shepparton.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 306)