In an unexpected and almost dramatic move, a commercially operated mediumwave radio broadcasting station in Australia has been granted a license to relay its programming in parallel over a separate shortwave transmitter. This move on the part of a commercial broadcasting station in Australia is in stark contra-distinction to the closure in recent years by the ABC and Radio Australia of their entire network of shortwave stations throughout the island continent. The manager of mediumwave station 4KZ in Innisfail North Queensland, announces that his new shortwave transmitter will be inaugurated during this month of May and it will carry parallel programming to the underpopulated areas of the outback in the northern areas of the peninsula and the gulf.
In comparatively recent times, a few
low powered shortwave stations have been inaugurated in Australia, though they
generally function as hobby stations on a spasmodic basis. Then too, in the pre-World War II era, a significant
number of amateur radio stations in Australia did broadcast their own locally
produced programming on shortwave, on very inconsistent scheduling. On a few notable occasions in early times,
the station engineer of a fully licensed radio broadcasting station would relay
the programming from his mediumwave station over his own amateur transmitter,
and as time went by, this amateur operation grew into a full powered shortwave
broadcasting station.
However, a specifically planned
shortwave function to extend the coverage area of a commercially operated
mediumwave station in Australia is very rare, and it has occurred previously
only three times in the past almost one hundred years. Let’s
take a look at this story, with all events in chronological order, and we will
begin with two projected stations that were never installed.
Back
in the year 1925, a political party, the Labour Party, announced plans to
establish its own mediumwave station in Sydney, Australia’s largest city. Three projected callsigns for this new
broadcasting station were considered, 2IC, 2TH and 2LC, though when the station
was inaugurated, the official callsign was 2KY, which is still on the air to
this day.
The new 2KY was official inaugurated
in the Trades Hall at 4 Goulburn Street in Sydney on October 31,1925. During one of the many opening speeches,
Chief Engineer Ernest Beard stated that arrangements were being made to install
an additional transmitter, on shortwave, for wide area coverage. However, due to political differences, no
license was granted for this planned parallel operation on shortwave by 2KY.
Three years later in May 1928,
another commercial radio station in Australia applied for a shortwave license
and they requested 5 kW on 70 or 80 metres for coverage into widespread country
areas in the center of the Australian continent. This commercial station was 5CL with new
studios in Hindmarsh Square Adelaide, and a new 5 kW mediumwave transmitter at
Brooklyn Park.
However, at the same time as 5CL in
Adelaide was denied a shortwave service, mediumwave 3UZ in Melbourne was
developing its own parallel shortwave service.
(Seven years later, 5CL was taken over as the South Australian
headquarters of the newly formed government owned ABC network.)
Now we come to the story of the four
occasions when a commercial mediumwave station in Australia was successfully
granted a license for a supplementary shortwave transmitter, and first up is
the aforementioned 3UZ in Melbourne.
In April 1928, Engineer L. C. Glew
with the commercial station 3UZ in Melbourne Victoria began a shortwave relay
over his own amateur transmitter in his suburban home. This procedure was a rather common practice
in both the United States and Australia back during that era.
Give two more years, and Engineer
Glew completed the construction of an additional shortwave transmitter which
this time he installed alongside the mediumwave transmitter at their studios in
45 Bourke Street in downtown Melbourne.
The original power from this new shortwave transmitter was 120 watts,
though it was subsequently increased to 500 watts. Their program relay was heard on 32 metres,
approximately 9725 kHz.
Interestingly, the well known Adelaide commercial
station, 5AD, organized its own pre-war DX radio club, and they were on the air
generally on Sundays with special programming for shortwave listeners. Initially in 1934, these special programs
were broadcast over the suburban amateur station VK5WB, though soon afterwards
the 5AD Radio Club obtained its own shortwave license and transmitter, and they
were on the air under the experimental callsign VK5DI.
Shortwave station VK5DI was
inaugurated during the year 1935 and they were on the air usually in two
different sessions on Sundays, initially in the 40 metre amateur band, though
in later years, sometimes also in the 20 metre band. The
shortwave broadcasts from 5DI were heard throughout Australia and New Zealand,
and occasionally even in the United States.
This
station also used the call of the Kookaburra bird as part of its sign on
routine, as did several other shortwave stations in Australia back during that
era. The last known broadcast from
special shortwave station 5DI was made on Sunday August 13, 1939; and during
the early part of World War 2, the small shortwave transmitter was held for
safekeeping in the city newspaper office, where
it was open to public view.
Programming
for the 5DI shortwave broadcasts on Sundays was always presented live, and it
was usually compiled from some of the highlights of the broadcasts from
mediumwave 5AD during the previous week.
Reception reports to VK5DI were verified with their own specific QSL
card, though none of these cards has ever surfaced during the past many years.
According
to the available news releases, the new commercial shortwave service from 4KZ
at Innisfail in North Queensland is scheduled for introduction during this
month of May (2017). The suggested
operating hours are from 4:00 pm to 9:00 am daily with 1½ kW on 5055 kHz. The antenna system is an inverted V, beamed a
little to the northwest.
Innisfail is a small coastal city
with a population of some 30,000 people.
The main industries are tourism, rare tropical fruits and sugar. The annual production of bananas is 9,000
tons, and the annual production of sugar cane is 3.1 million tons. Australia’s
largest sugar mill, the Victoria Mill, is located at nearby Ingham.
Radio station 4KZ was inaugurated in
Innisfail in September 1967 with 5 kW on 531 kHz, though the power has since
been increased to 10 kW. These days,
there are five radio stations in the North Queensland Radio Group; 4KZ and its
four sister stations together with eight
low power translator stations, making up a combined total of 20 mediumwave and
FM transmitters. This radio aggregate
provides widespread coverage to the Cape York Peninsula and the areas adjoining
the Gulf of Carpentaria. The current
manager for the 4KZ stations is Al Kirton, who himself is also an amateur radio
operator with the Queensland callsign VK4FFKZ.
(AWR Wavescan-NWS