The
encyclopedias inform us that the largest coral island in the world is Christmas
Island; that is, the Christmas Island that is located in the Central
Pacific. This particular Christmas
Island is the largest island in the scattered nation of Kiribati and it lies
1200 miles directly south of Hawaii.
The name for their national entity
in their national Gilbertise language is spelled as Kiribati
K
I R I B A T I, where the T & the I at the end of the word is pronounced as
the standard letter S in English.
Likewise, Christmas is spelled K I R I T I M A T I, but it is pronounced
as KIRISMAS, which is very close to the standard English pronunciation
Christmas.
This very large coral island has a
total circumference of 100 miles, and on the map its shape is that of a
convoluted square with a handle. It is a
low scrubby island and it is located 2,000 miles east from the capital city of
their nation, Tarawa. The entire nation
of Kiribati is made up of 34 islands, atolls and reefs widely spread along
the equator.
In the era before European
exploration, this Christmas Island was uninhabited, though it was
visited
occasionally by wandering seafarers in their early primitive seacraft. The first European explorer to sight this
island was the Spanish captain Hernando de Grijalva in 1537. In 1777, the famous English explorer Captain
James Cook visited the island on Christmas Eve, December 24, hence the name
Christmas Island.
During the era when the United
Kingdom administered the island as part of the Gilbert & Ellice islands,
both England and the United States claimed this territory. However, when England granted
independence to Christmas Island on July
12, 1979, the American claim also lapsed.
The first settlement on Christmas
Island was established in 1882, with a few fishermen and plantation workers,
though 23 years later, the island was abandoned when a drought killed off most
of the coconut trees. Seven years later,
a second attempt at colonization took place when a group of settlers was
brought in from other colonial islands.
During World War 2, American and
Australian forces occupied the island, and the Americans built up an
infrastructure made up of accommodations, an airport with a long runway,
dockage for shipping, a weather reporting station and recreational facilities.
In
1957, the British began a series of nuclear tests in the area under the
technical eponym Operation Grapple; and five years later, the Americans
conducted a series of 36 similar nuclear tests, under their working
designation, Operation Dominic.
These days, the island contains a
total population of local residents numbering a little more than 5500 and they utilize twin currencies, the Kiribati
dollar and the Australian dollar. The International Date Line actually
splits the scattered islands into two different calendar days. However, Christmas Island has adopted a
strange time zone, UTC + 14 hours, and this provides them with the same working
day as all the other islands in their scattered nation.
General Douglas MacArthur was
evacuated from the Philippines to Australia in March 1942 and quite quickly he
ordered the development of an army radio communication network across the
Pacific. A radio communication station was
installed on this Christmas Island and it was taken into service in July 1942
under the callsign WVHW. This event
occurred soon after the Americans began to swarm onto the island for the
Pacific War.
Two years later, in June 1944, the
first entertainment radio station on Christmas Island was inaugurated under the
callsign WVUU with 75 watts on 1480 kHz
The callsign WVUU was previously in use a quarter century earlier for a
communication transmitter on board the seafaring vessel “Kanakee”. This AFRS, the American Forces Radio Service,
entertainment station was installed by the American Air Force and it was heard
occasionally in New Zealand and Australia.
According to Theodore DeLay in his
memorable volume on the history of AFRS radio, station WVUU was closed on
February 1 of the following year, 1945.
However, the station was still listed in radio magazines in Australian
and New Zealand for two years more, and it was shown as a member station of the
AFRS Pacific Ocean Network.
The next radio broadcasting station
on Christmas Island was installed by the British during their nuclear tests in
the area which ran from 1957 to 1964.
Volunteer members of the Royal Air Force installed a small mediumwave
station on the island and we would presume that it was located within the
buildings associated with the Cassidy Air Field near the main settlement areas
on the western edge of the island.
This British radio broadcasting
station was on the air with 50 watts on 1450 kHz and it was listed in the WRTVHB in the early 1960s
simply as BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service. This station was on the air with local
programming, and it also carried relay programming from the BBC London, and
also from BFBS in London.
The schedule of service from BFBS
Christmas Island showed five hours daily, with twelve hours on Saturday and
Sunday. The station was closed in 1964
when the British forces departed after the conclusion of their series of
nuclear tests.
Probably the most exotic of all of the radio
services on Christmas Island was the rebroadcast on mediumwave of a shortwave
relay from Radio Kiribati on Betio Island, part of the national capital city
atoll Tarawa some 2000 miles distant. This relay service was first noted
in 1980 and it was in use for a couple of years until a transmitter malfunction
rendered the Christmas Island station inoperable.
This
shortwave service was transmitted from Tarawa-Betio with a 1 kW communication
transmitter on any of three different frequencies: 9825 kHz, 14802 kHz, or
16433 kHz. It was in use for only two
full years at the most, though it was shown as an entry in the WRTVHB for half
a dozen more years.
We would presume that the mediumwave
transmitter on Christmas Island, a 1 kW unit on 1115 kHz, was co-installed with
the Telecom facility near the settlement of London, on the western coast of
Christmas Island. Apparently a projected
move to 845 kHz was never implemented.
The fourth radio broadcasting
station on Christmas Island was constructed and installed by Australian personnel
in late 1998. Preliminary plans called
for the station to be located quite close to the Telecom facility, but due to fears of mutual interference
between the electronics in the two facilities, it was actually installed at
another location, though still near to London.
This new station was claimed by its
founders as the first on the island. It
was the first privately operated station, though in actual reality, it was their fourth radio broadcasting
station. It operated with 500 watts on
93.5 FM and it was on the air for six program hours daily.
But unfortunately due to lack of
funding, the station fell into disuse and it was taken over by the island
government at the end of the following year, 1999. Eight years later again, the station was
re-opened under the national government, with a program feed from the distant
national capital at Tarawa via satellite.
It is still on the air to this
day, with 500 watts on 93.5 FM.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 356)