Our special thanks to Ray Robinson, Dr Adrian Peterson, and Jeff White for this week's focus on BBC London on Shortwave.
Jeff: Last month, we brought you a two-part feature about the large BBC Shortwave transmitting facility at Daventry in the English Midlands. Well, as the political scene in Europe became more turbulent during the late 1930’s, the BBC became concerned about having ‘all their eggs in one basket’ so to speak, and decided to ensure they could continue broadcasting even if their powerful site at Daventry was taken out during a War. Ray Robinson has the story.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. It is a little-known fact these days that, besides the major BBC shortwave station at Daventry, they also broadcast on shortwave from three other widely scattered regional locations back in the middle of the last century. These small shortwave stations were intended to diversify the BBC shortwave output in order to ensure that the radio voice from London could still be heard throughout the world, even if the large Daventry station should suddenly be silenced.
These three regional shortwave stations were located at Start Point on the south coast in the southwest corner of England, at Clevedon on the Bristol Channel coast, and at Lisnagarvey in Northern Ireland. Today, we’re looking specifically at the interesting story of the BBC shortwave station located at Start Point, on the south coast of England.
The story began in 1935, when BBC personnel began a site search for the establishment of a high-powered medium wave station to provide better coverage to southwest England. Two years later, a farmland location just half a mile or so inland from the Start Point Lighthouse was chosen; and two years later again, in April 1939, test broadcasts began on 1474 kHz from this new BBC station at Start Point.
The new station was officially inaugurated on June 14, 1939, with a 100 kW STC transmitter on 1050 kHz, and at the same time, three smaller medium wave stations that had previously covered parts of the southwest were closed. The directional antenna system consisted of two 450 ft. towers, with an active tower on the north side and a reflector tower on the south side, in order to avoid wasting signal coverage over the English Channel.
Early in 1940, this transmitter, now listed as Sender 21 in BBC records, was converted to dual usage with shortwave coverage on 41 and 49 meters during the day, and medium wave 1050 kHz at night. During this era, there were three known channels in use by the BBC in these two shortwave bands, and they were identified in this way:
Callsign GSA on 6050 kHz
Callsign GSW on 7230 kHz
Callsign GRX on 9690 kHz
At the time, the BBC followed the practice of identifying each shortwave channel with a three letter callsign, but the transmitter location was not specified. It is probable that these three channels were on the air from Start Point on scheduled occasions, but it is also probable that these three channels were in use at Daventry at other scheduled times.
It is known that Start Point was in use during this era with the relay of the BBC European Service, and this same transmitter was modified for an increase in power on medium wave up to 180 kW later in 1940 to provide an increase in coverage over continental Europe at night. However, in May 1944, the usage of the twin towers was reversed, so that the coverage area would be increased over continental Europe. At the same time, the transmitter was retuned to 583 kHz and the programming was switched over to the American SHAEF network, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
The shortwave usage of this transmitter also ended at this same time in 1944.
The two tall towers were replaced in 1957; the 100 kW transmitter was re-tuned to 1053 kHz on November 23, 1978 with a relay of BBC Radio 1; and the final entry in the World Radio TV Handbook for this historic radio broadcasting station was in the 1994 edition.
However, in addition to the shortwave usage from the 100 kW medium wave transmitter, there was an additional 100 kW Marconi shortwave transmitter on the air at this location. This unit, listed as Sender 22 in BBC records, was inaugurated on January 20, 1940.
Initially Sender 22 carried the BBC Home Service for two purposes: as a fill-in for shadow areas in medium wave coverage, and also as an emergency backup if there was a major disruption to the landline distribution network. However, nine months later the programming relay was changed to the BBC European Service, which was retained from this unit until the end of 1945.
The only channel in use from this second shortwave transmitter at Start Point was 6075 kHz which was listed in BBC schedules under the callsign GRR. This channel was often logged in Australia and New Zealand with the European Service, and it is quite probable that the programming was actually on the air from this second shortwave transmitter located at Start Point on the south coast of England.
When this transmitter was de-activated in 1945, the official record states that it was "placed under dust sheets." In view of the fact that nothing else is known about the subsequent usage of this transmitter, we could ask the question somewhat humorously: “What happened to the dust sheets?”
No, there are no known QSL cards verifying the reception of the two shortwave transmitters located at Start Point, Senders 21 and 22. The BBC was never a consistent verifier of listener reception reports.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Ray Robinson/NWS Wavescan)
