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| SS Hauroto |
The
callsign VLH has been shared consecutively by transmitters at three different
locations in the South Pacific; two ships and a land based facility. The two ships were plying the Pacific under
the maritime flag of New Zealand, and the land based transmitter was located
within a now historic shortwave station in Australia.
The SS Hauroto was launched for the
Union Steamship Company of New Zealand at the William Denny shipyards at
Dumbarton in Scotland in 1882. This
ship, the Hauroto, was named in the Maori language in honor of a small lake and
river in the South Island of New Zealand.
This passenger/cargo ship sailed the
waters of Australia and New Zealand, and also along coastal China. It was later sold to a Hong Kong maritime
company, and it sank during a typhoon off the coast of China in 1919.
During its latter years, the Hauroto
carried wireless equipment which was licensed by New Zealand under the callsign
VLH.
The SS Kaiapoi, a small cargo
vessel, was launched at the Osbourne
Graham shipyards in North Hylton Sunderland in England in 1906. This ship was built under the planned name
Holywood, but when it was taken over by the Union Steamship Company of New
Zealand, it was renamed Kaiapoi, another Maori name, in honor of a small town
in the South Island. The Kaiapoi was
sold to Hong Kong in 1930; and in 1939 while carrying a load of coal, it ran
aground and was wrecked at Wenchow Bay in China.
In the era when wireless became
radio, the callsign VLH was applied to this ship the Kaiapoi, during its
earlier time of service under the maritime flag of New Zealand.
The third application of the
callsign VLH refers to a 10 kW shortwave transmitter that was installed at the
ABC-PMG wireless station near Lyndhurst in Victoria.
In 1928, a small galvanized iron
shack was constructed on the brow of a small hill near Lyndhurst, and a small
600 watt experimental shortwave transmitter was installed. Over a period of many years, the power of
this transmitter was increased incrementally to 10 kW; and the callsign applied
to this unit was 3LR, and then VK3LR, and ultimately to VLR.
A second shortwave transmitter was
installed in 1941, and this new unit was identified under the callsign
VLG. This unit served under both the ABC
with programming for the outback and New Guinea, and also with the Overseas
Service of Radio Australia.
A third new transmitter at 10 kW was
inaugurated at Lyndhurst on January 21, 1946 under the consecutive callsign
VLH. At this stage, the 1935 building
was still standing, the second at that location.
This new unit VLH carried the Inland
Service from mediumwave 3LO and the intended coverage area was the Northern
Territory and outback Queensland. There
were brief periods each day when all three of these shortwave transmitters, VLG
VLH and VLR, carried the same programing.
These daily bulletins of Inland News were broadcast specifically over
the shortwave transmitters only.
In the late 1950s, a new building
was constructed over the old building at Lyndhurst, and the old was then
removed. In 1956, three new transmitters
at 10 kW were installed. These were
American made RCA units, Model ET457X, that were originally designed for
installation in battleships that were declared surplus. Ten years later again, another eight new
transmitters at 10 kW each, Australian made STC Model 4SU488, were installed.
For a period of more than three
months, the ABC-PMG transmitter VLH at Lyndhurst was also in use for the relay
of programming from Radio Australia.
Beginning on January 2, 1951 and ending on April 10, VLH5 on 15230 kHz
carried the Radio Australia French Service for Tahiti.
Then three years later, from
December 17 - 23, 1954, VLH9 carried Radio Australia in French to Tahiti on
9580 kHz, and VLH15 to French Indo-China.
This brief change in scheduling occurred during the broadcast of additional
transmissions from Radio Australia for coverage of international tennis and
cricket matches.
Interestingly, during the early
1980s, there were two 10 kW transmitters at Lyndhurst carrying the same relay
of ABC programming under the one callsign VLH.
From 0830 UTC till 0915 UTC daily, both VLH9 on 9680 kHz and VLH15 on
15230 kHz ran the same program service for a daily overlapping period of three
quarters of an hour.
The final broadcast from the
ABC-Radio Australia-PMG shortwave station at Lyndhurst ended at 1502 UTC on
Friday June 12, 1987. This last
transmission was from VLH9 on 9680 kHz; and then the station fell silent. Three transmitters from Lyndhurst were
re-installed at Brandon Queensland for the Radio Australia service to Papua New
Guinea, and four were reinstalled at Llandilo for the VNG chronohertz time
signal service.
In 1961, Radio Australia dropped the
announcement of callsigns on air, though the callsigns, or abbreviated
callsigns, were still used to identify specific program lines to the various
transmitter sites. For example, in 1977,
there were ten program lines running from the ABC and Radio Australia studios
in Melbourne to the Lyndhurst shortwave station. Radio Australia utilized at least two of
these feed lines one of which was apparently identified with the callsign VLH
or just H.
The first QSL card for the ABC usage
of the VLH transmitter was printed with red ink on a white card. Subsequent QSL cards verifying the reception
of the VLH program service were the regular ABC cards, postcard size and
subsequently larger, always depicting a map of Australia with all station
locations identified.
There are no known QSL cards
verifying the Radio Australia usage of the VLH transmitter. However, there must be at least a few out
there, maybe somewhere in New Zealand or Australia, or perhaps even over in the
United States. Do you have one? Then do let us know!
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 369)