Quite
simultaneously more than 100 years ago, two 50 kW spark wireless stations were
under construction in New Zealand, one at the northern tip of the North Island
and the other at the southern tip of the South Island. Both of these stations, with identical
equipment, were installed by German personnel who were working with the
Telefunken company in Germany under contract with the Australasian Wireless
Company in Sydney, Australia.
The second of these two wireless
stations, at least in alphabetic order, was located on
the Awarua Plain near The Bluff, right at the very bottom of the South Island
of New Zealand. The triangular mild
steel antenna tower for this new wireless station weighed 120 tons and it stood
at 410 ft high, resting on a ball and socket joint on a glass insulator. 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 and it was taken into regular service at the end of
the same year, December 18. It is
probable that the first and temporary callsign for this new station was ZLB,
that is station B in New Zealand, indicating the second of these two new
stations, and also the station at the Bluff.
Soon afterwards, the callsign was modified to VLB, due to new international
wireless regulations.
Somewhere around the year 1924, the electrical
equipment at station VLB was changed from spark gap operation to electronic
valve or tube operation. Then in 1927
the callsign was again amended, this time from VLB to ZLB, due again to a
change in international radio regulations.
The station was closed on August 30, 1991 at the end of its ¾ century
of illustrious service when its communication capability was no longer needed.
In the mid 1930s, the callsign VLB
was taken over for usage with a small communication station located at the
lighthouse on Maatsuyker Island at the very southern coast of the
Australian island of Tasmania.
Maatsuyker is a small uninhabited island which looks on the map like a
tortoise sitting upright; it is just 1½ miles long by ¾ mile
wide. The Maatsuyker Lighthouse is the
most southerly lighthouse in Australia.
A few years later, the callsign VLB
was removed from the little communication radio station on Maatsuyker
Island and it was 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 original planned allocation of
callsigns was VLA, VLC & VLM.
The driver and preliminary stages
for the new VLB transmitter were constructed in Australia by AWA, and the
modulator and final stages were constructed by STC, Standard Telephones and
Cables, both in suburban Sydney. The VLB
transmitter, with its two channel input allowing for quick frequency change,
was activated in May 1946, and it was taken into scheduled service with test
broadcasts and regular programming soon afterwards.
A postfix number after the callsign,
such as VLB3 VLB6 or VLB8, 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.
During the year 1960, work was
underway to bifurcate the two 100 kW transmitters and one of the 50 kW
transmitters took over the VLB service.
For example, the PMG Schedule dated September 4 1960 shows both VLA
& VLB shown as 50 kW each.
In 1961, the modifications were
completed, the VLB transmitter was now bifurcated into two units, and with the
insertion of additional electronic equipment, a complete new transmitter became
available. This new unit was given the
callsign VLE. The original VLB
transmitter was finally withdrawn from service in 1983.
At the end of the same year in which
VLB was bifurcated, Radio Australia dropped the usage of official callsigns,
and instead the callsign VLB identified a specific program line from the
Melbourne studios to the transmitter site at Shepparton. To this day, the identification B or VLB
still refers to the specific program line that runs to Shepparton, though not
necessarily a specific transmitter.
Radio Australia was usually a
prolific verifier of reception reports and literally thousands of QSL cards
under the callsign VLB 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
printing 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 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 VLB together with the frequency and transmitter
location as Shepparton.
(AWR/Wavescan-NWS 311)