Several astute
international radio monitors observed that the station was providing only
intermittent service since about the middle of the year 2015, perhaps more
often off the air than on the air.
However, the noted international radio monitor Harold Sellers stated in
the Danish bulletin, DX Window, that he heard shortwave CKZU with a strong
signal on its regular 49 m band channel 6160 kHz on September 30, 2016.
Harold Sellers lives in
retirement in the city of Vernon in the central interior of British Columbia,
which is within the main target area of shortwave CKZU. That monitoring observation last year appears
to be the last reliable logging of the signal from shortwave CBC in Vancouver,
British Columbia.
Canadian international
radio monitor Walter Salmaniw lives on Vancouver Island in the provincial
capital Victoria, which is 60 miles across the waterway from the city of
Vancouver, the home for shortwave CKZU. Quoting
Colin Newell, Walter Salminaw stated in an internet release, that the CBC in
Vancouver has declared that the old CKZU transmitter is beyond repair, and the
cost for replacement is not justified, due to the very limited number of
listeners who tune in to its shortwave signal.
Shortwave CKZU has
always been co-located with the main CBC mediumwave station in Vancouver and it
was taken into service in December 1941.
At the time, the mediumwave callsign was CBR and the shortwave callsign
was CBRX. The low power RCA transmitter
was rated at just 150 watts, and the operating channel was 6160 kHz, the only
channel ever used for CBC shortwave in Vancouver.
The
transmitter and antenna system were co-installed with mediumwave CBR on Lulu
Island, in what we would call the southern suburban areas of the city of
Vancouver. This transmitter was placed
into service for two specific purposes: as a program feed to a network of small
LPRT low power CBC mediumwave relay transmitters throughout the province of
British Columbia, and for direct reception by isolated listeners in the same
areas.
Lulu
Island is a small, low and flat island at the southern edge of Vancouver
city. It is a silt island with some
areas below both sea level and river level.
The island was named in honor of a popular entertainer Lulu Sweet,
apparently from Hawaii, who bought property on the island. Perhaps it was true that Lulu Sweet was
indeed from Hono-lulu. An elevated dyke
has been built up around the entire populated area of Lulu Island as protection
against flooding from the Fraser River and against storms coming in from the
Pacific Ocean.
The
first transmitter base for CBC mediumwave CBR and shortwave CBRX was in the
area of Lulu Island which is now built
up as suburban housing. The first
antenna system was a diamond shaped rhombic, supported on four towers 50 feet
tall and each leg was 240 feet long. The
main lobe from this antenna system was directed a little to the northwest, thus
ensuring coverage into the hilly coastal areas of British Columbia to the
north.
On
January 25, 1952, the callsign for mediumwave CBR was changed to CBU, with the
CB indicating CBC and the U indicating Vancouver. At the same time, shortwave CBRX became CBUX,
with the X indicating shortwave.
Two
years later (1954), the small 150 watt RCA transmitter was replaced by a
Marconi transmitter from England, rated at 1 kW input and ½ kW output. Then, eleven years later again (1965), the
shortwave callsign was changed once more, due to the fact that international
radio callsigns beginning with the two letters CB belonged to Chile, not
Canada. Thus CBUX became CKZU.
Give
two more years (1967), and a completely new transmitter station was constructed
for CBC Vancouver. This new facility was
still located on Lulu Island, though it is now on the water-logged ocean side
of the protective dyke surrounding the built up housing areas of the
island. Shortwave CKZU was moved into
its new location alongside 50 kW CBU.
Then,
in 1983, a new shortwave transmitter was installed for CKZU, an American made 1
kW Elcom Bauer, Model 701B, from California.
This was the third shortwave transmitter for CBC Vancouver, and the one
that has been sputtering somewhat during the last few years. The antenna system, supported on four wooden
poles, is a dipole with passive reflector, thus still providing coverage to the
north.
In
2008, it was rumored that shortwave CKZU might close; in 2013 the CKZU license
was cancelled, though soon afterwards reinstated; in 2015 the station was off
the air, though in September last year it was noted on the air again, at least
for a while. Then in February earlier
this year, shortwave CKZU was declared inoperable.
Yes,
CBC shortwave in Vancouver has now joined the mounting pile of silent shortwave
stations, though you can still see on Google Earth the wobbly antenna system,
and the old transmitter building that still houses the 50 kW mediumwave CBU on
690 kHz. You will also see a scattered
clustering of old pine tree trunks that have been washed up into the area due
to storms and flooding.
So
what then is left these days in the shortwave scene in Canada? Yes, you can still hear the CBC shortwave
station CKZN in St John’s
Newfoundland with 1 kW on 6160 kHz; and CFVP in Calgary Alberta with 100 watts
on 6030 kHz; and CFRX in Toronto Ontario with 1 kW on 6070 kHz. And don’t forget the three channel operation
of the chronohertz station CHU in Ottawa Ontario on 3330 7850 & 14670
kHz.
(AWR Wavescan)
