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| (via JSWC) |
In our program today, we pick up the
story of this clockwise radio tour around Turkey, and we begin in the city of
Hakkari which is located right in the south east corner of Turkey, quite close
to the international borders with Iran and Iraq. This city, Hakkari, is a quite smaller city
with a population of around 60,000, and it is located in a ruggedly beautiful
majestic mountain area. It is a little
known fact that this area was the original home of the beautiful tulip
flower. The tulip was transplanted to
Holland in the 1500s, where it has become a world famous icon of florid beauty.
A radio station was installed in
Hakkari in 1973, a shortwave facility of just 1 kW operating just above the 41
meter band on 7650 kHz, and available information would suggest that it was on
the air for a little over a half dozen years.
There was no high powered mediumwave station in this city to serve as a
replacement for the then defunct shortwave transmitter.
We move next to the city of
Diyarbakir which is located on the banks of the historic River Tigris, a little
north of the border with the country of Iraq.
The name of this city is derived from its association with copper which
has been mined in this area for centuries.
Diyarbakir is famous also for silver
artifacts, and also for its huge watermelons that can weigh as much as 80
pounds.
In the radio scene at Diyarbakir, there was a shortwave station
that began as a low power facility of just 300 watts around 1962. The introductory channel was 9760 kHz, though
half a dozen years later when the power was increased to 1 kW, a new channel
was chosen, 7650 kHz.
This regional shortwave station was
on the air for a little over a dozen years, and it was replaced by a high
powered 300 kW mediumwave station on 1062 kHz.
Mediumwave Diyarbakir
is still on the air to this day.
Location number 8 in our circular
radio tour around the Middle Eastern nation of Turkey is Iskenderun which was established by
the famous Greek army general, Alexander the Great of ancient Macedonia in the
year 333. The current name of this city
is derived from the original name of its founder, Alexander. This city, Iskenderun, is located in a narrow
peninsula-like section of Turkish territory that juts down into coastal Syria.
The records inform us that there was
a shortwave station here, and it was on the air for half a dozen years during
the 1960s. This station was also a low
power operation, with just 300 watts on 9770 kHz.
Near the eastern edge of Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline is the
almost twin city complex of Mersin and Tarsus, an area that is also rich in
Biblical backgrounds. The Old Testament
Scriptures inform us that God called the Prophet Jonah to visit the city of
Nineveh, and warn its inhabitants of impending doom.
However, Jonah became overwhelmed
with the magnitude of the task and he decided instead to board a ship and flee
to Tarsus. Although the Bible does not
inform us of the exact location of this Tarsus, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus
states that Tarsus was located in Cilicia, that is modern day Turkey. In those ancient times, there was another
city with a similar name, Tarshish, on the Mediterranean coast of what is
modern day Spain.
The
early Christian traveling evangelist, St Paul is also associated with the city
of Tarsus, his birth location when the city was a Free City under the Roman
occupation government.
The nearby city Mersin is named
after the Myrtle Tree, or the Mersin Tree as they call it in their language. There is currently another high powered 300 kW
mediumwave station giving coverage to these areas, and its operating channel is
630 kHz.
The city of Anatalya is located on
the edge of the Mediterranean about half way along the south coast of
Turkey. This city is a major tourist
location, with a resident population of one million, and a tourist influx of 12
million each year. It is recorded in the
New Testament Scriptures that Paul and Barnabas traversed through Anatalya on
their way homeward from Europe to Jerusalem.
The
high powered mediumwave station giving coverage to Anatalya and its environs is
a 300 kW unit operating on 891 kHz.
Our final visit in this circular
radio tour of 11 locations in Turkey is the city of Izmir which is located at
the center of the very irregular western coastline. The chief export from this city has been
myrrh, from which the city received its name.
Likewise, Izmir is mentioned in the
New Testament of the Holy Bible as Smyrna and the Prophet John, who was named
as one of the brothers of our Lord, wrote a short epistle to the Christians
living in this city. It is contained in
the Book of Revelation as one of the 7 cities on a circular travel route in
western Turkey.
Izmir was the first regional city in
Turkey in which a shortwave transmitter was installed, and it was also allotted
a callsign. This station, a 1 kW unit on
7650 kHz under the callsign TAZ, was inaugurated in the early 1950s.
This regional shortwave station was
in operation for the longest period of time, nearly a score of years. Some time after its demise, a new high
powered mediumwave station was installed and this unit, still on the air to
this day, emits 200 kW on 927 kHz.
And so we come to the end of this
our double program as a circular radio tour of Turkey, a visit to 11 different
locations in two programs here in Wavescan.
During this circular journey around Turkey, we discovered that there
were seven low powered shortwave stations on the air from regional locations
during a 30 year period in the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s. We discovered also that these days there are
now six high powered mediumwave stations on the air in Turkey. Just two locations have hosted both an
earlier low powered shortwave station and a subsequent high powered mediumwave
station, and these were the cities of Diyarbakir and Izmir.
More on the Turkish radio scene here
in a coming edition of Wavescan.
(AWR/Wavescan/NWS 380)