Radio Scene on a French Island in the Indian Ocean - Part 2
In
our program today, we conclude the story of radio broadcasting on Reunion
Island in the Indian Ocean. On the previous occasion three weeks back, we
covered the era of wireless transmissions beginning nearly 100 years ago,
followed by the era of radio broadcasting on shortwave and mediumwave, up to
the present time. Today, we look at QSL
cards from Reunion, and also the brief story of a projected large shortwave
station for the island.
According to the entries for Reunion
in the World Radio TV Handbook, the government radio station on the island has
always responded to reception reports from listeners, though usually this has
been by letter. However, beginning in
1980, these entries show that a QSL card was available from RFO Reunion, right
up until the early years in this century.
We must admit though that as far as
we can remember, we have never seen one of these QSL cards from RFO, the
government radio broadcasting station on Reunion Island. However, Dan Robinson in Maryland in the United States,
reports that he did receive a colorful QSL card from ORF Reunion for a
reception report dated back in the year 1973.
Reproductions of QSL cards from
amateur radio stations and also CB stations on Reunion are readily shown on the
internet, including one from station FR8VX in 1936. This amateur station was operated by Prince
Vinh San who was exiled from French Indo China (Vietnam) to Reunion by the
French colonial government back in the years before World War 2.
The Marine Communication Station FUX
at St Marie on the northern coast of the island has been a ready verifier of
reception reports, and these are sometimes reproduced in various radio
magazines. The FUX QSL card appears like
a very large rubber stamp, with an outline map of the island together with the QSL text.
The FUX card in the Indianapolis
Heritage Collection is dated for reception on March 26, 1987 at 5 kW on 8475
kHz. A more recent card dated in 2011
shows an aerial photo of the station in color.
Back around 1984, Radio France
International gave consideration to establishing several shortwave relay
stations in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific.
One of the locations under consideration was the island of Reunion for
coverage of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
It is reported that the station for
Reunion would contain four transmitters, rated at 100 kW each, we would presume. Five years later, RFI announced that the
location for this station had been transferred from Reunion to Djibouti in
Africa. However, the Djibouti station
was never erected either.
Reunion was on the air with low
power shortwave at St Denis from 1935 to 1975; and a temporary low power
shortwave station was on the air at St Andre in 1975. Currently, Reunion is on the air with just
two stations on mediumwave, St
Denis at 20 kW on 666 kHz, and St Andre at 5 kW on 1215 kHz, as well as an
additional 100 FM outlets scattered throughout the island.
Before we leave the radio scene on
Reunion Island, we should greet the two radio brothers, Bernard and Rene
Grondin. Their monitoring endeavors in
the international radio broadcasting scene are a real credit to their homeland,
Reunion Island.
(AWR Wavescan.NWS 348)