Cook Island update

Radio Cook Island QSL (Gayle Van Horn Collection)

Back three years ago, we presented a series of topics here in Wavescan on the radio scene in the South Pacific Cook Islands.  OK, now fast forward to the current era, and we find that the two latest editions of the New Zealand DX Times provide us with an update on the current radio scene in the Cook Islands, and that is what we present here in Wavescan today.  This interesting information is also available on the Cook Islands website.

The 350 feet tall medium wave mast at the Matavera transmitter site has been in use for many years, and due to the salt water atmosphere, it has become quite rusted, particularly in the mid section.  As a safety factor, it was necessary to demolish this tall radio tower. 

Radio broadcasting came to the Cook Islands in 1954 under Percy Henderson, who constructed the first two low power transmitters, mediumwave and shortwave, with used equipment provided by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service.  The original transmitter location was at Blackrock, on the western edge of Avarua on Rarotonga Island.

Fourteen years later (1968), a new Marconi transmitter with 10 kW on 630 kHz was installed in the grounds of the Takitumu School at Matavera, on the eastern coastline of Rarotonga Island.  The older Blackrock station was then relegated to backup status.  In preparation for the demolition of the radio mast, the activities of the Takitumu School were transferred off campus to a temporary location.

At midnight on Wednesday August 7, (2019), the medium wave transmitter was turned off for the last time, thus ending the usage of mediumwave in the Cook Islands, and the radio tower has since been demolished.  The shortwave service came to an end more than a quarter of a century earlier, back in 1993, due to a malfunction in the transmitter itself.

A low power FM transmitter on 101 MHz had already been on the air in parallel with what was the medium wave service, thus providing radio coverage to much of the capital island, Raratonga.   Portable FM receivers can tune this 101 MHz channel, though the FM radio receivers in motor vehicles imported into these islands from Japan tune only the Japanese FM Band 1, and not the standard American FM Band 2, and they don’t tune up as far as 101 MHz.

In addition, the low power FM relay stations in the southern group of the Cook Islands are currently inactive due to technical faults, though the low power FM stations in the northern group of islands are all currently on the air with a relay from Rarotonga via the internet.  Work is underway to upgrade the entire FM network, and to change the operating frequency of all of the low power FM relay stations from current 88.8 MHz to the new 101 MHz.

In case of any form of nationwide emergency in the Cook Islands, such as hurricanes and tsunamis, it is currently possible to obtain rapid nationwide coverage via the internet, as well as by FM radio, and also by nationwide low power TV.  However, with local shortwave and now mediumwave off the air, as well as the earlier closure of Radio Australia, it is considered that the Cook Islands really need a more adequate single source for the rapid dissemination of emergency information throughout  their twelve populated islands. 

It is considered that reactivation and upgrading of the old Blackrock station is unadvisable, and a current investigation is looking into the possibility of a new mediumwave station at another suitable site.
(Adrian Peterson/AWR-Wavescan 552)

New Zealand's Radio DX League celebrates 60th anniversary

October 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the birth of the New Zealand Radio DX League (NZRDXL), and to mark the occasion a special 48-page anniversary supplement to the club’s excellent magazine DX Times has been produced. While shortwave listening has declined in many parts of the world, and a lot of listeners’ clubs have disappeared, the NZRDXL has survived, though its current membership of around 200 is less than a tenth of what it was at its peak.
The late Arthur Cushen was probably the highest profile member of the club, through his work on Radio New Zealand International and our own Media Network programme. One of the highlights of my career was the opportunity to spend some time with Arthur and his devoted wife Ralda when they attended an EDXC Conference, the first time they had travelled to Europe.
The special supplement, which contains a history of Radio New Zealand International and a reproduction of the very first issue of DX Times in October 1948, is available for everyone to download in a PDF file. There are two versions, one standard quality and one high quality, which can be downloaded here.
Our warmest greetings to our friends on the other side of the globe, and here’s to many more birthdays.
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

New Zealand DX Times

The winds of change continue to buffet our world of radio. Last month, Martin Hadlow noted an article in The Economist that reported an upturn in SW listening in Africa and India, and reports that the BBC plans to upgrade its SW transmitter
facility on Ascension to be powered by a wind farm.

North American SW Broadcasters have decided to conduct research into current SW listening patterns in North America, digital HD radio receivers are dropping from radio shop inventories in the USA, and even American AM stations with IBOC
capability are choosing in some cases not to use it because of interference issues.
At the same time, Mexico has approved digital HD facilities for many of its border AM stations, and Australian and New Zealand AM and FM networks appear slow to adopt digital radio systems as the economic conditions tighten and no real benefit from introducing new channels seems clear. Austria still plans to closedown its SW broadcasts at the end of the year, Singapore has just gone silent.

In China, greater prosperity and availability of low cost radios is leading to the growth of a new hobby – DXing. Chinese DXers are now actively reporting local stations on SW, AM and FM and the stations are responding with detailed confirmations
and issuing QSL cards. As most of this activity occurs within the bounds of China and the Chinese language, it’s hard to gauge how big the phenomenon really is, but it has potential to introduce millions of new SW listeners and/or DXers to the hobby. Already, western SW broadcasters are noting a greater flow of reception reports from inside China, despite current jamming of a wide range of foreign broadcasts.

We also underestimate the fascination that SW radio continues to hold for listeners in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Although technology jumping occurs to hear new commercial and community FM signals on mobile phones, AM and SW radio continues to provide the backbone for national radio services here and will continue to
do so for decades. International broadcasters still support local listeners clubs, thousands of newlocal FM community stations are planned across India, and again, SW listening and/or DXing is more popular than we give credit for.

Meanwhile, Anker Petersen’s Trends in Tropical Bands Broadcasting released recently, traces adecline from 1,106 stations in 1973 to just 258 in 2008.
[August Mailbag Commentary by this months
editor, David Ricquish/Aug 2008]
(ODXA/Listening-In, Sept. 08)