RNZ New Zealand summer Schedule

 

requested by contributor, Rod Pearson - the summer schedule for RZ Pacific - New Zealand

classic QSL

New Zealand, RNZ Pacific - A26 Summer schedule

29 Mar 2026 - 24 Oct 2026

All times UTC/kHz/Target Area to Pacific regions

**********************************

00:00-04:58 17675 Pacific Daily

04:59-06:58 13690 Pacific Daily

06:59-10:58 11725 Pacific Daily

10:59-12:58  9700 Solomon Islands, PNG Mon - Fri

10:59-12:58  9700 Pacific Sat-Sun

12:59-16:50  7440 Pacific Daily

16:51-18:58  9700 Pacific Sat

18:59-19:58 13690 Pacific Sat

19:59-20:58 15720 Pacific Sat

20:59-23:59 17675 Pacific Daily

DRM

16:51-18:58  9700 AM 9780 DRM Pacific/Cook Is, Samoa, Tonga Sun-Fri

18:59-19:58 13690 AM 11690 DRM Pacific/Cook Is, Samoa, Tonga Sun-Fri

19:59-20:58 15720 13840 DRM Pacific/Cook Is, Samoa, Tonga Sun-Fri

QSL- Reception Reports

RNZ welcomes QSL reports from listeners using this form  :

https://www.rnz.co.nz/qsl

(RNZ Pacific)

 https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/listen

New Zealand's RNZ Pacific, winter schedule

 

New Zealand, RNZ Pacific

Effective: 27 Oct 2024 - 28 Mar 2025

UTC kHz Target Days

00:00 - 06:58 17.675 Pacific Daily

06:59 - 09:58 13755 Pacific Daily

06:59 - 12:58 13755 Pacific Sat Sun

09:59 - 12:58 13755 Solomon Isl , PNG  Mon - Fri

12:59 - 16:50 7390 Pacific Sun - Fri

12:59 - 16:58 7390 Pacific Sat

16:51 - 17:58 11725 Pacific Sat

17:59 - 21:58 15720 Pacific Sat

20:59 - 21:58 15720 Pacific Daily

21:59 - 00:00 17675 Pacific Daily

DRM

16:51 - 17:58 11725 AM 9780 DRM Tonga Fiji Samoa Cook Isl Sun - Fri

17:59 - 18:58 15720 AM 13840 DRM Pacific Sun - Fri

18:59 - 20:58 15720 AM 13840 DRM Tonga Fiji Samoa Cook Isl Sun - Fri

(RNZ website/22 Oct 2024)

Radio New Zealand's new DRM Shortwave Transmitter now operating

 

Radio New Zealand’s new 100 kW shortwave DRM transmitter has been installed at Rangitaiki Transmitter Centre and is now fully operated by the New Zealand public broadcaster. Tests on the antennas have already been carried out by Swiss technicians at Ampegon. The first tests were broadcast without audio with BF signals of different frequencies. DRM is also tested with “test messages” at 17900 kHz.

RNZ targets Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga, but the broadcasts are widely received as far as Europe.

For full description go to: https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/technical.

RNZ Pacific schedule update

 

New Zealand  

RNZ Pacific has updated its shortwave schedule with an extended use of 9700 kHz replacing 13690 and 11725 in the morning period from 0700-1300 UTC:

All times UTC

0000-0458 17675 Daily 0459-0658 13690 Daily

0659-1258 9700 Daily 1259-1650 7440 Daily

1651-1758 7425 DRM Sun-Fri 1651-1758 9700 Sat

1759-1858 9655 DRM Sun-Fri 1759-1958 11725 Sat

1859-2058 13840 DRM Sun-Fri 1959-2358 15720 Sat

2059-2358 15720 Sun – Fri (RNZ web site 30 June)

RNZ Pacific has started testing its new 100 kW Amplion transmitter. It was reported on 13 June with short tests on 17900 kHz.

(BDXC/July 2024)

RNZ Pacific - A24 Summer Schedule

 

New Zealand, RNZ Pacific -  A24 Summer

31 March - 26 October 2024

All target areas to Pacific regions. Programming daily unless otherwise indicated.

All times UTC

0000-0100 17675

0100-0200 17675

0200-0300 17675

0300-0400 17675

0400-0500 17675

0500-0558 17675

0559-0600 13690

0600-0700 13690

0700-0800 13690

0800-0858 13690

0859-0900  Mon-Sat  11725

0900-1000  Mon-Sat  11725

1000-1100  Mon-Sat  11725

1100-1200  Mon-Sat  11725

1200-1258  Mon-Sat  11725

1259-1300 7440

1300-1400 7440

1400-1500 7440

1500-1600 7440

1600-1650 7440

1959-2000  Sat  15720

2000-2100  Sat  15720

2059-2100  Sun-Fri  15720

2100-2200  Sun-Fri  15720

2200-2300  Sun-Fri 15720

2300-2358  Sat  15720

DRM

1651-1700  Sun-Fri  9655

1700-1758  Sun-Fri  9655

1759-1800  Sun-Fri  11690

1800-1858  Sun-Fri  11690

1859-1900  Sun-Fri  13840

1900-2000  Sun-Fri  13840

2000-2058  Sun-Fri  13840

(R NZ Pacific)

RNZ Pacific transmitter back on-the air

RNZ Pacific's transmitter 2 is back on air, after fault repairs have been completed.

Shortwave broadcasts were temporarily interrupted, but our satellite internet and streaming services were unaffected.

The repair work on transmitter 2 was carried out by RNZ's Transmission Engineer Specialist Steve White.

Last year, RNZ Pacific's short-wave transmitter 1 was decommissioned, and work on installing a new Ampegon transmitter started in January. This has temporarily reduced our capacity to manage faults, without a short break in service.

We apologize to our short-wave listeners around the world, for any inconvenience this may have caused.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific/509488/rnz-pacific-transmitter-back-on-air

Previous article

RNZ Pacific's transmitter 1 replacement project begins at: 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/503431/rnz-pacific-s-transmitter-1-replacement-project-begins

(Photo/RNZ)

Peeps and pips: RNZ’s top of hour bird call turns 50

 

6 February 2024 · News

The ABC might have deemed the top-of-hour pips irrelevant in the digital age but in New Zealand, if the beloved bird call that precedes the 7 and 9am news on RNZ was removed, there would be an uproar. Or perhaps an up-squawk.

The many birds that have sounded out the top of the hour before the Morning Report mark their 50th anniversary this week. The concept’s beginnings were less auspicious.

Read more at: https://radioinfo.com.au/news/peeps-and-pips-rnzs-top-of-hour-bird-call-turns-50/ © RadioInfo Australia

AWR Wavescan on Early Wireless in New Zealand

 

New Zealand - Early Wireless before Marconi!

Jeff: There has been much interest lately in the installation of a new Ampegon analog/DRM SW transmitter for Radio New Zealand Pacific, which is currently planned to be on the air by May 2024.  We hope that installation goes well, and congratulate the authorities in New Zealand for reinforcing their investment in DRM technology for digital radio broadcasting to the Pacific.  We thought it might be opportune to go back and review the very early history of wireless development in New Zealand when that country also led the world!  Ray Robinson has more.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  Yes, strange as it may seem, way back at the beginning of the wireless era, little New Zealand way down south was actually ahead of the experimental activities in Europe, with more people on the inventive scene than any other country in the world at the time. So, let’s return to the year 1888, seven years before Marconi came onto the scene in northern Italy.

Because, 1888 was the year in which George Kemp began his wireless experiments in the areas around Gisborne, in the central east coast of the north island.  At the time, Kemp was working for the New Zealand Post & Telegraph Department.  He was familiar with the workings of the telegraph and telephone, with its usage of electricity to convey a message along a long connecting wire.  He attempted to communicate with distant places by using long antenna wires for both the transmitter and the receiver, and by submerging them in the waters of the nearby river.  

In another experiment, he dipped the ends of the transmitting and receiving wires into the waters of two different wells. During the year 1894, at the time when the young Marconi was beginning to tinker with the idea of sending wireless messages through space, Ernest Rutherford at Canterbury University in Dunedin, South Island New Zealand, had already accomplished this.  Rutherford was successful in transmitting a signal a distance of 25 feet through several intervening walls.

Subsequently, Rutherford successfully transmitted a wireless signal over a distance of half a mile at Cambridge University in England.  This was a world distance record at the time.  Rutherford went on to a distinguished career in nuclear physics, for which he was ultimately knighted with the title ‘Sir’, and he was also awarded a Nobel Prize.

In the late 1890’s also down in Dunedin, several university students began their own experiments with wireless equipment.  In the year 1899, by which time Marconi had arrived on the scene over in England, one of the students, John Cooper, successfully demonstrated wireless transmissions at the university.  During the following year, three more students successfully transmitted a wireless signal from one room to another; and as a sequel, they hooked up their equipment in such a way that the receiver rang a bell at a distance of two hundred yards.

After these events, several more New Zealanders got into the act, with further successes in wireless transmissions.  James Logan sent a Morse Code message across Wellington Harbour; and seventeen-year-old Mr. J. L. Passmore built his own set of wireless equipment, and subsequently transmitted a Morse Code signal over a distance of six miles. Passmore Crescent, in the Dunedin suburb of Maori Hill, is named in honor of the Passmore family.

In the very early years of the 20th century, wireless events were under development in several countries of Europe as well as in Australia and New Zealand.  The Marconi Company at Chelmsford in England sent out a batch of electrical equipment for installation in New Zealand.  For the first time in the history of the Dominion, ‘wireless’ was given a public demonstration, and the event occurred at the Christchurch International Exhibition.

The Marconi Company successfully transmitted signals from the Exhibition in Hagly Park to the Islington Freezing Works, a distance of seven miles. This exhibition was opened on November 1, 1906, and it was open to the public continuously well into the new year 1907.

During the year 1908, three young men constructed their own wireless equipment, and they sent a goodwill message to the New Zealand Parliament in session, and also to the Postmaster General.  Using the initial letters of their last names, these three young men linked themselves together as the SHB Wireless Company of Dunedin.

Attempts at long-distance international communications then began, and the first successful transmission was made on February 3, 1908, when three Royal Navy vessels, Pioneer, Powerful and Psyche, relayed a message of goodwill between the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia. One year later, a return message was sent between the two countries, this time direct from Sydney to New Zealand without an intervening relay ship in the middle of the Tasman Sea.

And, the George Kemp we mentioned earlier – the one who had been experimenting with receiving and transmitting wires as aerials submerged in water - succeeded in contacting a passing ship, the Ophir, with his electrical equipment.  The Ophir had been equipped for wireless telegraphy, and the ship's wireless officer observed activity on the equipment, but he was unaware someone was trying to send him a message!

After the Great War, New Zealand continued to lead the way by featuring prominently in the very early experimentation with radio broadcasting.  Just one year after the famous KDKA was launched in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the first radio broadcast was made in New Zealand.

The now historic figure, Dr. Robert Jack, was Professor of Physics at the Otago University in Dunedin at the time.  He assembled his own radio transmitter and formed the Otago Radio Association, first going to air with music recordings on October 4, 1922.

The music was on gramophone records on loan from a local music shop.  The only known item of content in this historic first program was a recording of the popular song, "Hello My Dearie".

The first broadcast from this first radio station in New Zealand was heard as far away as Wellington, 500 miles to the north of Dunedin. Programming from this new station was on the air for two hours, twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday evenings.

This radio station received the first transmitting license in New Zealand with the original callsign being simply DN for ‘Dunedin’.  In fact the station claims to have been the first in the southern hemisphere, and the fifth oldest in the world, five weeks older even than the BBC.  Subsequent callsigns allocated to the station were 4AB and 4ZB, and from 1948 until the 1980s, it was 4XD, on 1431 kHz.

Here’s a clip of announcer Ivor Fennessy on 4XD on 2nd July 1982:

Today, the station just identifies as ‘Radio Dunedin’ without using a callsign.  Their frequency has changed too, but they are still on the air on medium wave with 2½ kW on 1305 kHz, as well as being on a couple of FM frequencies and streaming via the Internet.

On shortwave, Radio New Zealand Pacific is regularly heard in both analog and DRM modes across the Pacific and in western North America.  Until recently, the station utilized a pair of 100 kW transmitters at Rangitaiki in the center of the North Island – one being a hybrid analog and DRM unit, and the other an older analog-only unit.  That older analog-only one was decommissioned a few weeks ago and is now being disassembled and removed, to make way for the new Ampegon analog/DRM transmitter currently being shipped from Europe.  Installation and testing is expected in the Feb/Mar/Apr timeframe, with a planned on-air date of May 1st, 2024.

(Ray Robinson/AWR)

RNZ Pacific updates DRM frequency

 

Revision from 19 July, 2023

Reported changes from 16:51 - 18:58 (Sun-Fri) 9700 AM 7285 DRM to Tonga Niue Samoa Cook Islands 

Frequency schedule available at: https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/listen

American Radio Stations in New Zealand

 

Just three weeks ago here in Wavescan, we presented the story of a mediumwave station in New Zealand (1ZM in Auckland with 1 kW on 1250 kHz) that was on loan in 1944 to United States personnel for the broadcast of their own American-style programming.  Before station 1ZM became available, American programming was carried by both government radio networks in New Zealand via stations with callsigns in the YA and ZB series.  Among the programs noted by local listeners were news, sports and musical programs, including the American Command Performance, and the local New Zealand version of the same program under the name Kiwi Command Performance.

Right, and now in Wavescan today, we present the additional interesting information about American radio stations in New Zealand, back during that same World War 2 era, and also subsequently.

It was in May 1942 that the first contingent of American servicemen, navy personnel, arrived in New Zealand and their first responsibility was to build an American naval base in Auckland, together with a shortwave communication station.  Back at that stage, with the rapid increase of Japanese victories in the islands of the Western Pacific, American strategy called for an American naval base in New Zealand to serve as their naval headquarters in the South Pacific.

Initially, the American navy was granted shared usage of Auckland Radio ZLD, up until work was completed on their own shortwave communication radio station which was granted a New Zealand callsign ZLK.  The ZLK transmitter station was built at the junction of St. John's and St. Heliers Bay Roads at Mt Roskill, some four miles south of downtown Auckland.  

A dozen tall masts were erected to support the shortwave antenna system at station ZLK, which was the only communication station in New Zealand that was operated by American personnel during World War 2.  The receiver station was installed at St. Helier's Bay, about ten miles distant.

However, subsequent war history demonstrates that fortunately, the Americans did not need a naval base in New Zealand after all, so they abandoned it in 1944 and donated it to the New Zealand government.  Station ZLK was soon afterward taken into various forms of government communication usage.

Interestingly two years later (1946), the young international radio monitor Jim Burfield at Strathalbyn in South Australia heard this same station with official messages on behalf of the Auckland Central Police.  He received a brief QSL letter acknowledging his reception of the station as heard on 1680 kHz under the callsign ZLK2.

However some thirty of forty years later, there was another American communication station at another location in New Zealand that was noted on the air under the same callsign ZLK.  That new ZLK was located near the airport in Christchurch in the South Island, adjacent to the local airport communication station at suburban Weedons.  The receiver station was seven mile distant, quite near the airport itself.

The second ZLK was constructed under the American project in Antarctica that was identified as Operation Deep Freeze Antarctica, in order to provide shortwave communication between North America and the Antarctic mainland.  This ZLK contained half a dozen 10 kW shortwave transmitters that were in operation at about 4 kW due to their age.  This station was no longer needed when satellite communication became available.

Some twenty years ago, the Americans installed two very large radar stations in the South Pacific, one in Tasmania and another in New Zealand. These two radar stations were launched under the project name Tiger Radio and they were established for the security of the southern areas of the South Pacific.  The Tasmanian station is located off the east coast on the small Bruny Island, and the New Zealand station is located near Invercargill at the southern tip of the South Island.

(NWS/AWR Wavescan 705)

Schedule updates

 All times UTC

India

The present A22 monitored schedule of AIR External Services is at:

https://qsl.net/vu2jos/es/time.htm

This differs slightly than what is given in AIR official website.

[MW frequencies are 594 kHz Chinsurah (Kolkata) and 1071 kHz Rajkot / Ed]

Jose Jacob, VU2JOS to dxindia iog (2022-09-01)

New Zealand

RNZ Pacific

The extra AM services in UTC are Sunday to Friday:

1651-1755 7425 kHz

1756-1955 9700 kHz

1956-2058 11725 kHz

The full schedule is at 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/listen

As was first noted by John Hoad on 21 August, RNZ Pacific is using its new, second SW transmitter in order to resume AM services at the above times.

(NASWA)

RNZ Pacific schedule update

 

RNZ Pacific (RNZI) broadcasts at the following frequencies and times to different parts of the Pacific Region.

Expect schedule changes from time to time to take account of propagation to our target audience.

NB: Every month on the first Wednesday is Maintenance day at our transmitter site from 2230 - 0600 UTC. ( Thursdays 1030 - 1800 NZST) During this period there may be interruptions to our programs..

27 Mar 2022 - 29 Oct 2022

UTC KHZ TARGET DAYS

00:00 - 05:58 15720 Updated 22 Aug Pacific Daily

05:59 - 07:58 9700 Pacific Daily

07:59 - 10:58 7245 Pacific Mon - Fri

10:59 - 12:58 7245 NW Pacific PNG Mon - Fri

10:59 - 13:58 7245 Pacific Sat Sun

12:59 - 16:50 5980 Pacific Sun to Fri

12:59 - 18:58 5980 Pacific Sat

16:51 - 17:55 6135 DRM 7425 AM from 1 Sep Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga Sun to Fri

17:56 - 19:55 9655 DRM 9700 AM Tonga Niue Samoa Cook Islands Sun - Fri

18:59 - 19:58 9700 Pacific Sat

19:56 - 20:58 11690 DRM 11725 AM Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga Sun to Fri

19:59 - 20:58 15720 Pacific Sat

20:59 - 00:00 15720 Pacific Daily

Satellite

RNZI is available on Satellite, courtesy of TVNZ Pacific Service.

The coverage area extends from Singapore, and eastward to the Cook Islands, which includes Fiji, Tonga, Niue, and Samoa.

(RNZ)

RNZ Pacific, frequency update

 

New Zealand

RNZ Pacific, frequency update in AM/DRM mode:

All times UTC

AM mode Daily

2059-2358 NF 13840 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 15720 kHz

AM mode Saturday

1959-2058 NF 13840 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 11725 kHz

DRM mode Sun-Fri

1651-1835 NF  9780 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg to Tonga/Samoa English, ex  7330 kHz

1959-2058 NF 13840 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg to Tonga/Samoa English, ex 15720 kHz

(DXB 17 Dec 2021)

RNZ Pacific schedule update

 

New Zealand, RNZ Pacific

Effective: 25 September 2021

All times UTC

AM mode Saturday

1859-1958 on 11725 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex till 2058

1959-2058 on 13840 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 11725 kHz

AM mode Daily

2059-2158 on 13840 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex till 0458

2159-0258 NF 15720 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 13840 kHz

(DXB)

RNZ Pacific frequency updates

 

New Zealand

Effective: 17 May 2021

All times UTC

AM mode daily, please note that 13840 kHz is registered in HFCC until 0500UTC

2059-2258 on 13840 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 1959-2258

2259-0558 NF 13840*RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 15720 kHz

DRM mode Sun-Fri

1836-2058 on  9760 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg to Tonga/Samoa English, ex 1836-1958

AM mode Saturday

1859-2058 on 11725 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English, ex 1859-1958

*from 0530UT 13840 MDC 250 kW / 295 deg to CeAf French NHK World Radio Japan

(DXB 18 May 2021)

RNZ Pacific summer schedule

 New Zealand, RNZ Pacific

Effective 28 March - 30 October 2021

All times UTC

AM mode Daily

1959-2258 on 13840 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

2259-0558 on 15720 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

0559-0758 on 11725 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

0759-0958 on  7245 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

1259-1650 on  6170 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

AM mode Mon-Fri ONLY

0959-1258 on  7245 RAN 100 kW / 325 deg to NWPa/PNG/As English

AM mode Sat/Sun NOT LISTED IN THERE WEB SKED

0959-1258 on  7245 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

AM mode Saturday

1651-1858 on  6170 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

1859-1958 on 11725 RAN 050 kW / 035 deg to All Pacific English

DRM mode Sun-Fri

1651-1835 on  6115 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg to Tonga/Samoa English

1836-1958 on  9760 RAN 035 kW / 035 deg to Tonga/Samoa English

(DXB/22 March 2021)

Australian Shortwave Callsign VLS

The legend of Hinemoa was passed on from generation to generation, long before any migrants from Europe settled on the islands of New Zealand, the Land of the Long White Cloud.  Princess Hinemoa was the pretty daughter of a Maori Great Chieftain, and she had fallen in love with handsome Prince Tutanekai, the son of a local Maori Chief. 

Princess Hinemoa lived near the water front of Lake Rotorua a large inland lake, and Prince Tutanekai lived on Mokaia Island in the center of the lake.  The hidden romance, forbidden by local custom, became well known, and the canoes at the water front were protected, so that Hinemoa could not paddle out to the island.

However one night, Princess Hinemoa clad herself with dry, empty Calabash Gourds, and she swam out to the island, guided in the darkness by the music that Tutanekai was playing on his own home made flute.  She arrived at the island, met her handsome prince; and like all good European legends, this Maori couple in New Zealand lived happily ever after.   

Named in honor of this princess, the small New Zealand coastal vessel, Hinemoa, just 542 tons and only 207 feet long, was built in the Scott shipyards in Greenock Scotland in 1875.  At the beginning of World War 1 (1914), the Hinemoa was listed with wireless apparatus operating under the New Zealand callsign (as it was at the time) VLS.  Due to new international radio regulations, all radio callsigns in New Zealand beginning with VL were changed to ZL on January 1, 1929, and thus the little ship NZGSS Hinemoa dropped the callsign VLS and received a new callsign.

The Australian usage of the shortwave callsign VLS was taken up by the AWA shortwave station in Pennant Hills, near Sydney and it was in use during the 1920s and 1930s for the Trawler Communication Service in both voice and Morse Code for the ships that plied along eastern coastal waters.  In addition, the long distance communication service from Pennant Hills was registered under the callsign VIS, though sometimes this was erroneously identified as VLS, due to the similarity in callsigns. 

During the year 1933, Donald Mackay, leader for the Mackey Aerial Survey Expedition in Central Australia, took mobile wireless equipment for use on the ground and in the air.  It is understood that the callsign that he used while at Docker Creek on the border between Northern and Western Australia, was VLS.

Interestingly a total of five different shortwave locations, in use by the ABC Home Service in Australia and the international service of Radio Australia, have all operated under the callsign VLS.  We look at each of these occasions in chronological order.

Soon after the end of World War II, the ABC in Australia began assessing their radio coverage throughout the continent and they observed that mediumwave coverage in the heavily populated coastal areas north and south of Sydney was insufficient.  It was determined that it would be more economical to provide a radio service to these areas on shortwave from one single location, rather than to install a network of several medium powered mediumwave stations.

The chosen location for this new shortwave station was on the western and southern edge of Sydney, just beyond suburban Liverpool.  This was already the location for all of the mediumwave transmitters that carry the two program services, ABC National and ABC Local, for coverage of Australia’s largest city. 

Interestingly, during the planning for the new 2 kW shortwave transmitter, the evidence suggests that the suggested callsign would be VLS, with the S obviously standing for Sydney.  However, when the transmitter was installed and taken into regular service in December 1948, an even more logical callsign was granted; VLI with the LI indicating Liverpool.

Twenty years later (1960s and 1970s), another well established ABC/Radio Australia shortwave station was already on the air at Lyndhurst in Victoria with programming beamed to the Great Outback, the Pacific and South East Asia.  During each summer season, one of the 10 kW transmitters at Lyndhurst was placed into service for the broadcast of live commentaries on the ever popular sport, cricket. 

The Lyndhurst transmitter that beamed the cricket commentaries to New Zealand and the Pacific was given the unannounced callsign VLS.  Then for example during the next decade in December 1980, a 10 kW transmitter at the larger shortwave station at Shepparton also in Victoria, took over the VLS cricket broadcast for New Zealand and the Pacific.

A new and temporary shortwave facility was installed for Radio Australia at Brandon near Townsville in Queensland in 1989.  The original intent was ultimately for a much larger station, and initially only three transmitters at 10 kW each we installed.  However, only two antenna systems were erected, and thus only two transmitters could be activated at any one time. 

The third transmitter, which was originally intended to carry its own separate programming, thus operated instead as a fill in for the other two.  That third transmitter was originally allocated the callsign VLS.

During the 1990s, one of the 250 kW transmitters at the Darwin relay station of Radio Australia was allocated the line callsign S, as in VLS, as a program service to Asia and beyond.  Back at that time, Radio Australia was issuing QSLs in the form of a Form Letter, and the verification text gave the callsign as VLS.

And for the final application of the Australian shortwave callsign VLS, we mention the shortwave Aeradio station that carries aviation communications with passenger aircraft in the vicinity of the Kingsford Smith Airport at Mascot, Sydney.   Several shortwave transmitters have been in use at this location during the past half century and more, and they are rated at 3 kW, 5 kW and 10 kW.  QSL cards from Sydney Aeradio and also Sydney Volmet, identify this station under the callsign VLS.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 558)

The Radio Scene on a Volcanic Island in the South Pacific: The recent tragecdy on New Zealand's White Island

People around the world have been saddened by the news of several tragic deaths as a result  of a sudden volcanic eruption on White Island off the coast of New Zealand.  The White Island volcano erupted suddenly and unexpectedly at 2:11 pm on Monday December 9 (2019), at a time when 47 tourists were making a tour of the island.

The uninhabited White Island is located in the wide Bay of Plenty, some 30 miles off the north east coast of the North Island of New Zealand.  It is a submarine volcano, rising a mile off the seafloor,  the top 1,000 feet of which is above sea level. 

The island is roughly circular in shape with a total area of almost one square mile.  In the Maori language of New Zealand, White Island is known as Te Puia o Wakakaari), which can be translated into English as the Dramatic Volcano.
White Island was discovered by Captain James Cook aboard his good ship HMS Endeavour on October 1, 1769.  He named the island White due to the intensive cloud of white steam emanating from the island, though he did not specifically state that the island was actually an active volcano. 

The island has never had a permanent population, and there is little vegetation on the island.  Even the scrubby vegetation is diminishing due to the effects of volcanic activity.  A population of Australasian Gannets was numbered five years ago at around 5,300 pairs, though this number has subsequently diminished due to the harsh life for the birds on this island.

In 1867, ownership of the island was granted to Retireti and his sister Katherine Simpkins who were the adult children of a Danish sailor and a high ranking Maori woman.  Ownership was passed on to the French born Judge John Wilson a few years later, and he began the commercial mining of the sulfur deposits in the mid 1880s.  This first era of sulfur mining on White Island ended in 1901.

A second era of sulfur mining on White Island began in 1913, but ended a year later when the collapse of the crater wall resulted in the death of ten miners.  Their bodies were never found.  The only survivor was a cat which was given the nickname Peter the Great.

There was a third era of sulfur mining on White Island and this began in 1923.  Workers were housed in temporary huts that were erected near the Gannet colony and they commuted daily by small boat, or if the sea was rough, by walking a narrow and rubbly pathway.  Heavy machinery aided the mining of the sulfur, but again the project was dropped ten years later due to the poor quality of mineral content.   

In 1932, the island was bought by Auckland stockbroker George Buttle, and it has remained in the Buttle family ever since.  In 1953 the New Zealand government offered to buy the island, but the owners declined to accept, and instead the island has been declared a privately owned Scenic Reserve.  Tourism to this volcanic island is the only form of income, and each year some fifteen thousand or more tourists from all over the world come to see an active volcano close up, or to study its irregular history of volcanism, or to ponder over its nostalgic pioneer backgrounds. 

At the time of its most recent dramatic and tragic eruption, 2:11 pm on Monday December 9 (2019), a total of 47 tourists and tour guide officials were at White Island.  Another small group were on board a tour boat near the island jetty.  They quickly went back to the island and rescued those who were already standing on the jetty and waiting. 

Those who were nearby on the island were also rescued.  However, those who were further inland on the island perished in the cataclysm, and the helicopter that was on the ground was damaged beyond use.  An initial casualty list showed that 12 people survived unhurt, 30 were injured with superficial to serious burns, and 5 were confirmed as dead or missing.  These people were from New Zealand, Australia, United States, Germany, China, England and Malaysia. 

The volcanic upheaval sent a plume of ash and smoke more than two miles into the sky, a sight that is visible from space.  Scientific personnel stated that the event created a local radio blackout that extended for four hours.

In spite of the paucity of human activity on the island, a small though important communication radio station was in use thereon.  During the third mining era running from 1923 to 1932, this radio communication station was registered with two very different though official consecutive callsigns.

In 1928, the allotted callsign was VMDJ, and strangely it was granted an operating frequency within the 80 metre amateur band.  A four letter callsign beginning with the two letters VM is reminiscent more of a station located on a South Pacific island rather than an official New Zealand location. 

The subsequent callsign, shown in a 1933 list, was given as as ZLI.  A three letter callsign beginning with the two letters ZL indicated a communication station in New Zealand, and generally a station of significance.     

In more recent years, a whole series of small automatic transmitters were installed at various locations around the volcano on White Island.  These small transmitters can be best described as being similar to the small automatic transmitters that are used to convey weather related information to a central location.  The small units located on White Island convey various aspects of information related to volcanic changes such as land movement, gases emitted, and temperature changes. 
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 568)

Radio Vanuatu eyes upgrades in radio and TV

Radio Vanuatu QSL (Gayle Van Horn Collection)

Vanuatu Capital Development Work Begins 

With the support of the Government of Vanuatu, the Vanuatu Broadcasting & Television
Corporation (VBTC) has begun work this month on a 942 million vatu (US$8.1m)
infrastructure upgrade to improve radio and free-to-air television service throughout
Vanuatu.

The first phase involves the design, installation and commissioning of a new shortwave (HF)
and medium wave (MF) service for Radio Vanuatu, the country’s public radio service. Costing
for phase one will be in excess of 242 million vatu (US$2.2m) and is funded by the
Government of Vanuatu. Following the improvements to shortwave and medium wave
services, VBTC will also undertake technical work to strengthen the coverage and reliability
of its FM services.

A 10kw MF Nautel transmitter imported out of Canada and a 10kw HF transmitter
manufactured by Hanjin Electronics of South Korea will be installed at VBTC’s major public
service transmission site at Emten Lagoon on Efate. Both transmitters will be commissioned
before the end of 2019.

The second phase, beginning early 2020, will reopen Radio Vanuatu’s medium wave radio
transmission facilities at St Michelle in Luganville on the island of Santo. This will provide AM
service to provinces in the top half of Vanuatu at a cost in excess of 300 million vatu
(US$2.5m).

The third phase will expand the national television free-to-air service, Television Blong
Vanuatu, along with a new digital television service. This final phase will cost an estimated
400 million vatu (US$3.5m).

Prime Minister Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas launched the capital development upgrade at a
special function attended by cabinet ministers, senior members of the public service,
members of the diplomatic corps and members of Vanuatu’s business and non-profit
communities on Friday September 20 in Port Vila before he departed the country to attend
the UN General Assembly in New York.

In his address, the Prime Minister spoke at length about the importance to Vanuatu of having
a strong national public radio and television broadcasting service and announced assistance
from Vanuatu’s development partners to help achieve this objective.

The Government of Australia funded the scoping study for the radio upgrade project and is
providing funding support to implement the strategic reform programme of VBTC which the
Prime Minister said is making good progress.

“I’m also happy to announce that the New Zealand Government is keen to support the
second stage of the Radio Vanuatu technical infrastructure upgrade while China is
considering my request to support the upgrade of Television Blong Vanuatu’s technical
infrastructure.”

Meanwhile Kordia New Zealand Limited has been awarded the contract to project manage,
design, install and commission the new radio transmission facilities beginning with the
facilities at Emten Lagoon outside Port Vila.

VBTC Chief Executive Officer, Francis Herman said that “Kordia has extensive experience in
the broadcasting and telecommunications industry in the Pacific, and recently completed a
major project in Samoa for State-owned Radio 2AP funded by the Australian Government”.
“We’ve worked hard with Kordia and a number of other technical experts to investigate the
most efficient and sustainable transmission solution for Vanuatu taking into account the
inclement weather, and the need to keep operating costs affordable.”

The shortwave service, which will be commissioned before the end of this year, will provide
national radio coverage to the 82 islands spread spanning 1,300 kilometres between the
most northern and southern islands.

“Our role as Vanuatu’s national broadcasting service is centered on helping create an
informed public opinion so our people can contribute more effectively to national
development”, Herman added.

“VBTC has struggled to remain relevant over the past decade because its technical
infrastructure was obsolete and badly neglected making it challenging for us to provide an
efficient, reliable, and responsive national radio and television service.”

Alongside the infrastructure upgrade, is an extensive programme to strengthen the technical
capacity of Vanuatu’s broadcast technicians along with a long-term maintenance regime to
expand the life of the equipment.
(SWLingPost/Twitter/25 Sept 2019)

Additional story at: http://www.asiaradiotoday.com/news/radio-vanuatu-begins-upgrading-infrastructure

Australian Shortwave Callsign VLR

Throughout the entire one and a quarter centuries of wireless and radio history, there have ever been only two stations that have been allotted the callsign VLR.  The first application of the call VLR was for the communication transmitter aboard a small passenger/cargo ship in the waters off New Zealand, and the second application of the callsign VLR was for the  the internationally well known low power shortwave service operated by the ABC and Radio Australia at Lyndhurst in Victoria.

The SS Marama was built at Greenock in Scotland and it was launched in 1907.  During its 30 years of international ocean going service, it was in use for the TransTasman route between New Zealand and Australia, and in the TransPacific service between New Zealand and North America.

The normal peacetime service of the SS Marama was interrupted for a period of four years during World War 1 while it was in use as New Zealand’s second Hospital Ship for soldiers wounded on service in Europe.  On one occasion, the Marama was accosted by a German submarine in the North Atlantic, but as a hospital ship it was permitted to move on unmolested.

The Marama was laid up at Evans Bay, Wellington in 1936, and next year it was sold to China, and then sold again, this time to Japan at a nice profit.  It was broken up at Osaka in Japan during the year 1938.

During the early 1920s, the callsign aboard the Marama was VLR, and this callsign was modified to ZLR on January 1, 1929 due to new international radio regulations.  During the 1930s, there were times when a daily newspaper was published aboard the Marama with news taken from various radio sources.  This daily newspaper was given the appropriate though rather unimaginative title, Daily News.

The original VLR shortwave station in Australia was born in a galvanized iron shed on top of a low rise near Lyndhurst some 25 miles southeast of Melbourne in Victoria, in 1928.  Back then, this locally made 600 watt transmitter was operated experimentally without callsign on 5800 kHz.  However, due to the fact that the audio source for this little new shortwave transmitter was taken from the two mediumwave stations in Melbourne, 3LO & 3AR, then the shortwave unit was soon afterwards given a sort of combined call 3LR.

Due to a change in international radio regulations, amateur stations in Australia were required to add the prefix VK to their callsigns, by December 31, 1928.  In order to ensure the change of callsign throughout Australia by the effective date, the Chief Radio Inspector Mr Jim Malone authorized the usage of the new VK prefix from December 8 onwards.  That was for all amateur radio stations.

However, mediumwave broadcasting stations in Australia never did use a prefix, just a single digit number identifying the state, followed by two letters identifying an individual station.  But, the radio relay station at Lyndhurst was an anomaly, it was neither an amateur station nor a mediumwave broadcasting station.  According to the QSL cards that were issued during that era, the accepted callsign for Lyndhurst shortwave was simply 3LR.   In this way, it was treated as a broadcasting station.

During the year 1934, a new building was constructed adjacent to the old original shack at Lyndhurst, and on  March 12, shortwave 3LR began a regular relay of programming for the benefit of people living in Australia’s isolated outback areas.  At this stage, the transmitter was still operating at just 600 watts and the usual channel was 9580 kHz.  The regular broadcast antenna was a horizontal half wave doublet at 95½ degrees from true north, with a radiation lobe towards the great outback.

Back during this era, the Lyndhurst transmitter with its programming relay from 3LO and 3AR was identified officially and unofficially as both 3LR and VK3LR.  In experimental usage though, the allotted callsign was VK3XX, with the X following the American pattern identifying an experimental station.  In May 1935, the 600 watt transmitter was engineered to operate then at 1 kW.

Around June 1936, transmitter (VK)3LR began to carry an experimental 10 minute bulletin of news twice weekly in French for the benefit of French islands in the South Pacific.  This genuine overseas foreign language service, though quite short in duration, was a forerunner to the inauguration of Australia Calling/Radio Australia three years later.  The French Consul-General in Sydney made request for the continuity of this French language service. 

In 1937, the Lyndhurst transmitter was completely reconditioned and the power rating was increased to 2 kW, though still with the same original transmitter.  Soon afterwards, the power level was again increased, this time to 5 kW.

At this stage, the lonely little shortwave transmitter at Lyndhurst now radiated through two antenna systems as needed; for national coverage through the same horizontal doublet, and for international coverage, a rhombic beamed on Daventry in England.  December 1 (1937) was the official date for the regularization of the callsign from (VK)3LR to the now more familiar VLR.
More about VLR next time.
(Jeff white, Adrian Peterson-AWR Wavescan 547)