SS Talune |
During World War 1, the Talune
served as a troop carrier for New Zealand military personnel, and after the war was over, the Talune
returned to its former duty with cargo/passenger traffic in the South Pacific. Unfortunately in 1919, some of the crew and passengers
came down with the early stages of the horrendous Spanish Flu and this epidemic
was carried to other islands in the South Pacific, with deadly results.
The callsign VLL was applied to the
SS Talune somewhere around the year 1912, and it was in use until the ship was
withdrawn from service nine years later, in 1921. Four years later, the Talune was filled with
rock and scuttled in shallow water at Waikokopu in upper Hawkes Bay on the
eastern edge of the North Island of New Zealand.
This stricken ship served as a
breakwater for many years, and these days the broken up wreckage can still be
easily viewed on Google Earth. The town
of Waikokopu no longer serves as a small country port, though it is now no more
than a few scattered country dwellings.
The next known usage of the callsign
VLL was applied to the transmissions from the now silent shortwave station that
was located a little inland from the coastal town of Carnarvon in Western
Australia. This station was originally
intended to be a temporary fill-in station for Radio Australia after the Darwin
station was disabled due to Cyclone Tracy at Christmas time in December 1974,
and it remained in service for a little over 20 years.
Radio Australia took over the empty
America NASA Space Station at Carnarvon and the second transmitter that was
installed there was an American made Harris SW100. Some time earlier, three Harris 100 kW
transmitters had been obtained from the United States and these had been held
in storage at the new ABC mediumwave station located at Pimpala on the coast
south of Adelaide in South Australia.
It was originally intended that
these three shortwave transmitters would be installed at suitable though yet
undecided locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory, as a
regional shortwave service for dwellers in Australia’s outback. Among the locations that had been given
preliminary consideration were for example, somewhere on the outskirts of
suburban Adelaide, Alice Springs in Central Australia, and Darwin at Cox
Peninsula in the Northern Territory.
However, as changing circumstances
would have it, one of these Harris 100s was taken to Carnarvon and installed as
Transmitter VLL, while the two other units were ultimately taken to Shepparton
in Victoria and installed for Radio Australia.
Test broadcasts from Carnarvon VLL began on February 15, 1975, though it
was removed from service during the next month due to frequent troublesome
transmitter problems. Design engineers
flew out from the states to correct the problems.
When VLL was taken into regular on
air service, the program feed from the Melbourne studios of Radio Australia was
provided by a 2,000 mile microwave link to Perth and thence by telephone line
to Carnarvon. In addition, there was a
VLL program feed from a 30 kW transmitter located at Lyndhurst which operated
as an ISB independent side band unit on 12290 kHz.
Then too, a 100 kW transmitter at
Shepparton carried a parallel relay of the VLL service in the Indonesian
language and this could be utilized as a back up program feeder if needed. The Shepparton VLL service was on the air for
eight years, from 1976 - 1984. At that
stage, the Indonesian service was transferred to the revived Radio Australia
shortwave station near Darwin. Two years
later, (1986) the program feed to Carnarvon was carried by satellite and it was
no longer necessary to receive the VLL service via Lyndhurst or
Shepparton.
The shortwave service from Radio
Australia Carnarvon ended on July 31, 1996, at which time transmitter VLL was removed and sold locally
for scrap.
During its 20 years of on air
service, transmitter VLL was verified by Radio Australia in Melbourne with a
multitude of colorful QSL cards, and for a few years at one stage by Form
Letters indicating the callsign and station location.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 411)