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| A classic card from Guam |
Thank you to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's feature on Guam.
Jeff: Last month, we learned the sad news that Trans World Radio’s flagship shortwave station, KTWR on the U.S. overseas territory of Guam in the western Pacific, will be closing down at the end of October. So, we thought it would be appropriate to review the nearly 50 year history of that very storied station that’s had such an impact on the shortwave radio scene in Asia. Here’s Ray Robinson, in Los Angeles.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. The Australian monthly magazine Radio & Hobbies for October 1975 gave the first notification that Trans World Radio (TWR) was planning to establish a twin broadcasting facility on the island of Guam. The highly honored international radio monitor in New Zealand, the late Arthur Cushen, stated in his monthly column, Listening Around the World, that TWR had already received a license for this new station which would operate with 10 kW on 770 kHz medium wave and with two shortwave transmitters at 100 kW for coverage into Asia.
At the time, Trans World Radio was in an era of expansive growth, and Arthur Cushen went on to state that this new Guam station would be their fifth radio broadcasting facility, after Monte Carlo in Europe, Bonaire in the Caribbean, Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and Swaziland (now Eswatini) in Africa. At this stage, TWR had already established an office facility in Agana, the commercial center and seat of government on Guam. TWR planned that their first unit in Guam would be their new medium wave station, serving the local population which is now about 170,000.
The new shortwave station was constructed just a little inland from the town of Merizo in the southwest corner of the island. Two years after the first announcement, in June 1977,
the new KTWR shortwave station was ready to go on the air with test transmissions,
and at that stage the programming consisted entirely of test tones and test announcements. Trans World Radio issued a special QSL card acknowledging those initial transmitter tests.
Regular program broadcasting began three months later on September 4, 1977, and by then, two 100 kW Harris transmitters, model SW100, were in use, with two TCI wide band curtain antennas. Transmitter KTWR1 was hard wired to Antenna 1 which had a beam of 285?, and KTWR2 was hard wired to Antenna 2 which had a beam of 315?.
Three years later, in 1980, Trans World Radio received FCC approval for the installation of two more 100 kW shortwave transmitters, the same model Harris SW100. At the same time, the transmitter building was enlarged to accommodate the two additional units,
and three new curtain antennas were also installed. Test broadcasts from the new transmitters and antennas took place during the following year, 1981.
In April 1999, a fifth transmitter and a sixth curtain antenna were installed; however, the 100 kW transmitter on this occasion was manufactured by the HCJB facility located at Elkhart in Indiana. Then, two years later, in 2001, the two early curtain antennas were replaced by two similar units with reflectors.
Also beginning around that time, the two early 100 kW transmitters were removed
and replaced by two higher powered 250 kW units, each with digital DRM capability.
During the installation of the new high powered transmitters, there was a rearrangement of transmitter locations within the building, and the earlier KTWR3 was removed for sale.
In December 2002, one of the most devastating typhoons ever to hit the island of Guam, Typhoon Pongsona, unleashed its fury for a period of around ten hours on Sunday evening, December 8. All of the wind speed indicators were destroyed by the high winds, though it is estimated that wind gusts reached as high as 190 miles per hour.
This sustained and aggressive storm destroyed and damaged a huge number of houses and other buildings, and it completely interrupted the normal flow of business and other activities throughout the island. Schools were closed, radio stations left the air, highway traffic was completely suspended, and ships could not enter the harbor. At the beginning of the stormy events, an explosion started a fire at the oil storage tanks near the harbor, a fire which burned for six days before it could be extinguished.
The roof was torn off the Micronesia Mall; long rows of concrete electrical poles were snapped at the base and overlaid the roadways; the island-wide telephone service was inoperative; the rain was so heavy that it was described as a white out; heavy furniture was sucked out of houses; motor vehicles were flipped; and so the story went on.
All flights to the island were cancelled or diverted, and due to the fire at the oil storage tanks, gasoline was rationed, with at one stage only government vehicles being permitted to buy gasoline. The cost estimate for the damage sustained at the international airport was US$100 million.
The sustained high winds caused considerable damage to both of the shortwave stations that were then on the island – KTWR, and KSDA (which first went on the air in 1987).
At KTWR, the typhoon completely destroyed three of the curtain antennas and severely damaged the other two. The transmitter building also sustained a certain amount of damage, with salt water getting into two of the transmitters, KTWR2 and KTWR4.
Among the immediate results of the extremely strong typhoon winds was that the roadway leading to the site was covered with debris and made impassible, there was no water at the transmitter site, and no electricity. The cost estimate for all of the damage to the buildings and equipment at KTWR was at least US$100,000, which was also the deducible amount for their insurance policy, meaning Trans World Radio had to raise that money themselves for the repairs.
Amazingly, KTWR was off the air completely for only three days while antennas and feed lines were repaired. The first transmitter to be re-activated was KTWR5, feeding into curtain antenna 5. Then towards the end of the same week, KTWR2 was re-activated, feeding into antenna 4.
Transmitters KTWR1 and 3 were also ready to go back on air, but it would take several weeks before new antenna parts arrived from the United States and the antennas were re-built. For the initial return to the air, the transmitters were powered solely by TWR’s emergency generators. So for a temporary period well into 2003, until all five transmitters and antennas could be reactivated, KTWR broadcast a modified schedule of composite programming, with major segments chosen from each of their language services.
Incidentally, Trans World Radio’s medium wave station, KTWG, which had been operating on 801 kHz with 10 kW, had been sold, shortly before the typhoon hit, to a Christian businessman.
Over the years, many medium wave DXers in Australia and New Zealand received QSL cards from KTWG, while it was still under the ownership of Trans World Radio. Those cards are now considered to have real historic value.
Friday November 11, 2011 was an auspicious day for KTWR. On that date, a special dedication ceremony honored the installation of new digital transmission equipment at the station, and a special quarter hour program in DRM mode marked the occasion.
That first DRM broadcast was on 17640 kHz at 0900 UTC. The entire dedication ceremony was broadcast live from KTWR, and in addition, that special event programming was relayed throughout the United States via the several hundred FM and medium wave stations of the nationwide Moody Bible Radio Network.
In more recent times, KTWR was involved in two interesting and significant radio experiments, in addition to the transmission of shortwave programming in DRM mode. Starting in 2013, Trans World Radio began installing three huge solar arrays for the generation of electricity at the rate of 60 kW hours per day from each array. It is estimated that the energy production from that equipment has saved the station around $50,000 per year on electricity bills.
Then, in June 2016, one of the 250 kW
transmitters at KTWR was used to beam an experimental digital Internet signal
to Thailand, that allowed the download of a complete Bible on a smart phone. Innovative uses of DRM like that have been a
hallmark of KTWR in recent years, and it has been a source of significant
frustration to them that the take up of manufacturing and distribution of DRM
receivers has been so slow. KTWR
currently broadcasts four half hour weekly programs in DRM mode, in English and
Tamil to India, in Mandarin to China, and in Japanese to Japan – three
countries where DRM receivers are now plentiful. TWR has said that their intention is to
transfer all the current shortwave programming on KTWR to other broadcasters in
the region, but what the fate of those DRM transmissions will be, we don’t
know. We do know that Mike Sabin from
KTWR has been in Tashkent the past few weeks, trying to improve the equipment
there for the DRM transmissions to India.
As soon as we get details of how the TWR programming will be
redistributed, we will, of course, let you know.
Trans World Radio’s KTWR on Guam has always been a reliable verifier of listener reception reports from their office in Agana, and also directly from the station at its Merizo address. Over the past nearly fifty years, KTWR has issued a host of colorful QSL cards, mostly in English but also at times in Japanese. Their QSL cards often depicted delightful island scenes in full color.
Back to you, Jeff.