Wavescan NWS283

* Theme - 00:00

            “Birthday Serenade” - Willi Glahe

* Opening Announcement - 00:17

            Welcome to “Wavescan”, international DX program from Adventist World Radio

            Researched and written in Indianapolis, produced in studios of shortwave WRMI

            Program outline

                        1. The Story of Radio Broadcasting in Pakistan: On the Air in Peshawar

                        2. International DX News

                        3. Australian DX Report

* Focus on Asia

            The Story of Radio Broadcasting in Pakistan: On the Air in Peshawar - 00:49

            The city of Peshawar in Pakistan is located right up against the edge of the Khyber Pass in what used to be the North West Frontier in British India.  The name Peshawar comes from an old Sanskrit word which is translated as “City of Men”, perhaps meaning a city with a lot of people, or a city where the men were dominant and powerful.

            The original inhabitants were tribals of Indo-Iranian heritage who moved into the area in ancient times.  In the year 326 BC, Alexander the Great moved his armies through the area in their onward march towards mainland India; and it is stated that doubting Thomas of Biblical fame passed through the area in his trek towards south India in the year 52 AD.

            By the year 100, historians tell us that Peshawar was the 7^th most populous city in the world; and it was around that era that descendants of the left over soldiers from Alexander’s army became rulers in Peshawar itself.  The Buddhist era began soon afterwards with missionaries coming in from the plains of India. 

            The Buddhists constructed a stupa, a rounded mound, that was 400 feet high and it is thought that this was the tallest building on Earth at the time.  On several occasions, the stupa was damaged and destroyed by lightning, and though it was again repaired and rebuilt, these days only the ruins of the base remain.

            Islam came to Peshawar a thousand years ago; the territory was absorbed into British India in 1849; and the monumental Bab-i-Khyber, the Khyber Gateway, was constructed over the highway in 1964.  During the 1980s with the Russian presence in Afghanistan, around four million refugees came into Peshawar, though the official population for Peshawar stands around 2½ million. 

            Wireless came to Peshawar in 1919 with the establishment of station VWP, quite close to the Bala Hissar Fort and the nearby railway line.  An early postcard shows all three in the one photograph: the Fort, the railway line and the wireless station. 

            When wireless became radio and spark gave way to voice communication, the station identification was changed from VWP to VVP.  A station list in 1933 showed station VVP on 34.28 m, or as we would say today, 8750 kHz.

            It was in 1934 that the Marconi radio company in England offered equipment for a new radio broadcasting station to the government of the North West Frontier Province.  The agreement provided that if the project was successful, the provincial government would purchase the equipment.

            This new broadcasting station was inaugurated with local programming on March 6, 1935 and soon afterwards it was allocated the callsign VUP, with these letters indicating India Peshawar.  This small radio station emitted just 250 watts on 1500 kHz which gave it little more than just quite local coverage.  Back at that time there was a promise that the station would be upgraded to 2 kW, though this prediction was never fulfilled.

            During the following year, the provincial government took over the control of the station, and during the next year again, the station was taken over by the Indian national government in Delhi.  Then, in March 1939, station VUP Peshawar was converted into a relay station, taking its programming on a telephone line from the national station VUD in Delhi.

            However, a totally new broadcasting station, with new studios and new technical equipment, was constructed at the old wireless location in Peshawar soon afterwards, and this was inaugurated on December 1, 1942.  This new station with its new RCA transmitter was assigned the mediumwave channel 629 kHz with an output power of 10 kW.

            Thus, it is true, there were really two different radio broadcasting stations in Peshawar in the era before partition; the Marconi station on 1500 kHz, followed by the government station on 629 kHz, both of which were on the air, consecutively, under the same callsign, VUP.

            Back about 1½ years before the epic events of Freedom at Midnight, there was a man from Pilibhit up near the border with Nepal, by the name of Tahir Husain.  He owned a radio shop in Delhi and he agreed to assemble a radio transmitter together with a power supply.  This radio broadcasting equipment was smuggled in three large fruit baskets into a house in Peshawar occupied by Sardar Abdur Rab.

            On April 24, 1946, this new clandestine radio broadcasting station was activated in the 70 metre band (approx 4285 kHz) in another home in Peshawar.  The programming that was broadcast over this mini radio station was intended to influence the vote in a coming local political election.  The station was moved several times within Peshawar itself in order to avoid detection, and its short life span ended as soon as the elections were over, shortly afterwards.

            At the time of partition in 1947, there were just two radio broadcasting stations on the air in the Pakistani West Wing; VUL Lahore with 5 kW on 1086 kHz and VUP Peshawar with 10 kW on 629 kHz.  When things got sorted out in the two dominions, India & Pakistan, the callsigns were regularized in Pakistan under new designation for this new country, and VUP Peshawar became APP. 

            As Nihal Ahmed tells us in his very interesting book, A History of Radio Pakistan, the transition from All India Radio Peshawar to Radio Pakistan Peshawar took place around midnight, between Thursday August 14 and Friday August 15, 1947.  At the time, the AIR relay station VUP in Peshawar was on the air with 10 kW on 1500 kHz. 

            Soon after 11:00 pm on Thursday August 14, Yunus Sethi made the final announcement on behalf of All India Radio.  This was followed soon after midnight with the opening announcement on behalf of the Pakistan Broadcasting Service in the Urdu language of Pakistan by Aftab Ahmad Bismil and then a similar announcement in the Pushto language of Afghanistan by Abdullah Jan Maghmoom  .

            Interestingly, the first series of new radio stations planned for installation in the new Pakistan were all intended to radiate on shortwave, and not mediumwave.  A few months after partition, a representative of the new Pakistani government visited England to negotiate the purchase of equipment for several new radio stations. 

            Soon afterwards, it was announced that these new radio stations would be installed in five cities in Pakistan including Peshawar, and that the transmitters at these locations would operate on shortwave with 7½ kW.  However, as the unfolding of events would demonstrate, not one of these transmitters was installed anywhere in the territory we know as Pakistan.

            Much later, in the year 1960, a fifth new shortwave station in Pakistan was installed in the frontier city, Peshawar, and it was inaugurated on October 15.  This was a 10 kW AWA transmitter from Australia and it was inaugurated at the city location and given the callsign APP2.

            However, as time went by, a new transmitter station was constructed at Chughalpura, some three miles out north east from Peshawar.  This station housed two transmitters, both mediumwave and shortwave at 10 kW each, though these days, just one mediumwave transmitter is on the air at this location, now with 100 kW on 729 kHz.  Radio Pakistan Peshawar APP shortwave left the air in 1999.

            More recently, a newer and larger transmitter station was constructed at Pabbi, a dozen miles east from Peshawar, and these days it houses two mediumwave transmitters; 100 kW on 1170 kHz and 300 kW on 540 kHz.

            Back in the late 1930s before Partition, QSL cards were printed for general use by the various stations in the federation-wide network of All India Radio.  These cards also showed entries for VUP Peshawar.

            The first known QSLs from the new Radio Pakistan are dated in the year 1949, just two years after Partition.  These cards showed the Radio Pakistan logo, the star and the crested moon, and they listed the early radio stations that were on the air at the time. 

            A subsequent QSL card gave more details about the early mediumwave stations in Pakistan.  The earliest of these cards, of which there are three or four different designs, lists the mediumwave and shortwave stations in Peshawar:- APP1 on 580 kHz & APP2 shortwave.

 * Program Announcement - 10:55

            Allen Graham

* International DX News - 11:44

            Jeff White

* Australian DX Report - 16:39

            Bob Padula

* Music of the World - 26:29

            Nicaragua: The Nicaragua Song, instrumental & female vocal

* Closing Announcement - 26:57

            Thanks for listening to “Wavescan”, international DX program from Adventist World Radio

            Researched and written in Indianapolis

            Next week:-

                        1. A Blast from the Past: Mediumwave Broadcasting Stations on High Power

                        2. WRMI Insert

                        3. Japan DX Report

            Several QSL cards available.  Send your AWR & KSDA reception reports for Wavescan to the                            AWR address in Indianapolis; and also to the station your radio is tuned to: WRMI or                                 WWCR or KVOH, or to the AWR relay stations that carry Wavescan.

            Wavescan address:-

                        Box 29235

                        Indianapolis

                        Indiana 46229 USA

            Wavescan @ AWR.org

            Jeff White, shortwave WRMI

* Music Outrun - 28:20

* Program Ends - 28:55

Commonwealth Games coverage in AIR

The following stations of AIR was noted with extended broadcast with live commentary on opening of Commonwealth Games, Glasgow last night at around 2030 UTC (2.00 am IST) alternately in English and Hindi

 

4810 Bhopal

4835 Gangtok

4910 Jaipur

 

MW:

 

576 Alappuzha

603 Ajmer

612 Bengaluru

621 Patna

666 Delhi

774 Shimla

846 Ahmedabad

864 Shillong

873 Jalandhar

882 Imphal

972 Cuttack

1044 Mumbai

1143 Ratnagiri /Rohtak ?

1377 Hyderabad

1566 Nagpur

1594 Bhopal

 

I must have missed some more stations.

Note: 1566 kHz is on regularly at this time

 

(Jose Jacob, VU2JOS Via DX India YG)

Wavescan NWS282

* Theme - 00:00

            “Birthday Serenade” - Willi Glahe

* Opening Announcement - 00:16

            Welcome to “Wavescan”, international DX program from Adventist World Radio

            Researched and written in Indianapolis, produced in studios of shortwave WRMI

            Program outline

                        1. Tribute to Shortwave WYFR-WRMI - 12: A multitude of QSL Cards

                        2. NASB 2014 Report: World Voice Madagascar

                        3. Ancient DX Report 1907

                        4. Annual DX Contest: Rare QSL Cards

                        5. International DX News

* Tribute to Shortwave WYFR-WRMI - 12: A multitude of QSL Cards - 01:01

            We continue in our series of topics on the fascinating backgrounds of the large American shortwave station, WYFR-WRMI, and on this occasion, we present the interesting information regarding the enormous amount of QSL cards issued from this station at its various locations in the state of Massachusetts.  But first though, we examine the QSL cards that were issued from New York and Mattappoisett by the forerunners of the big Boston station.

            On May 10, 1924, the noted amateur radio entrepreneur, Irving Vermilya at Mattappoisett some 50 miles south of Boston, broadcast a music program from his mediumwave station WBBG under the experimental callsign 1XAL.  He received many reception reports from listeners in surrounding states, written onto the popular Applause Cards of the day. 

            In his first radio history book, On the Shortwaves 1923 - 1945, Jerome Berg in suburban Boston refers to the fact that shortwave station 2XAL, with studios in New York and transmitter at Coytesville New Jersey, received a reception report from a listener in Australia in the year 1928, at a time when the station was running at less than 500 watts.  Station W2XAL from New Jersey was transferred to Boston and it took over the experimental callsign from WBBG at Mattappoisett and began broadcasting in Boston under the now abandoned call W1XAL in mid 1931. 

            The earliest known QSL cards from Walter Lemmon’s experimental shortwave station W1XAL in Boston were issued a few months later, in January 1932.  This first QSL card acknowledged reception reports addressed to the shortwave station, as well as to the experimental TV and Apex high fidelity stations operated by the television pioneer Hollis Baird.

            Since that time, this Boston shortwave station under its different owners and locations has issued untallied thousands of QSL cards in a multitude of different card designs and styles during its more than 40 years of on air activity.  Recent research has uncovered at least 50 different QSL card designs and styles, and it is likely that many more, perhaps even four times that number, were issued.   

            One particular card showing the callsign WRUL diagonally in large red letters was issued in 1954 and it was numbered 14,424, though it is not known when this particular numbered sequence began.

            The design on many of the earlier QSL cards featured a stylized microphone, and this motif was emblazoned on several different QSL cards, both in size and in position.  These cards usually listed the callsigns and frequencies in use at the time.

            One of the very rare QSL cards issued for the reception of experimental station W1XAR verified test transmissions on 11730 kHz on March 19, 1939.  According to an analysis of the historical events associated with this specific transmitter, this particular QSL card is the only known verification of transmitter W1XAR at its temporary location at suburban Norwood in Boston.  A picture of this card can be seen in the Canadian DX magazine, DX Ontario dated July 2006, page 13. 

            There are no known QSL cards verifying the usage of the two regularized callsigns, WSLA & WSLR, which were in temporary use for just 13 days at Hatherley Beach, Scituate from August 25, 1939 until September 6.  Both transmitters at 20 kW each had been removed from the Boston location and re-installed at the recently acquired facility at Hatherly Beach.  The two temporary callsigns were replaced by the now better known calls WRUL & WRUW.

            A QSL card printed in the Spanish language and posted in Nicaragua shows the two newly installed transmitters in the renovated transmitter building at Hatherley Beach Scituate, with a diagrammatic representation showing the scheduling for the two transmitters on five different shortwave channels.

            There are no known QSL cards verifying the reception of the callsign WRUR which was in use on the air from 1941 - 1947 approximately.  The call WRUR was apparently a subsidiary call for the 20 kW WRUW on 9700 kHz.

            On July 1, 1953, all five transmitters at Scituate, WRUA WRUL WRUS WRUW & WRUX, were redesignated as WRUL 1- 5 and the owners of the station, WWBF World Wide Broadcasting Foundation, introduced a new QSL card.  This new card shows the single call letters diagonally in large red print, WRUL.  At least four different versions of this card are known, though all are very similar.

            In 1959, a listener in Sweden received one of the new red letter QSL cards, and instead of the small stylized microphone in the top right hand corner, there is a small version of the globe, planet Earth.  This is the only known copy of this particular card, though obviously many more would have been printed.

            There is also only one known copy of the QSL card verifying the 5 kW WIOD transmitter from Miami which was re-activated at Scituate under the WWBF callsign WRUS.  This same transmitter was later re-designated as WRUX, and another QSL card was printed for the occasion with the callsign again printed diagonally in large red print. 

            During the era when the Scituate station was in service with the  Voice of America, United Nations Radio and AFRS the Armed Forces Radio Service, these parent organizations issued their own QSL cards for their relays via the WRUL transmitters.

            Metro Media in New York purchased the shortwave station at Hatherley Beach in 1960 and they owned the station for just three years.  Their QSL card showed the code letters QSL in large black print on a plain card.  At least two versions of this card are known, one in off white and the other in dark green.

            Then it was in mid 1962 that Bonneville International bought the station and they owned it for a period of eleven years.  Their QSL cards showed the letter W surrounding planet Earth, and most designs were very similar, though printed on different colored card.

            On June 1, 1966, Bonneville changed the callsign from WRUL to WYNW and they produced a commemorative QSL card to honor the occasion.  This card shows their production studios at 485 Madison Ave, New York.

            Then, early on Sunday morning April 9, 1967, a disastrous fire of suspicious origin completely destroyed the Hatherley Beach shortwave station.  As Jerome Berg tells us in his first radio book, the WNYW programming was carried by the shortwave communication stations at Brentwood and Rocky Point for a period of some four months.  There are no known QSL cards verifying this temporary fill in relay service.  

            In 1973, Bonneville sold shortwave station WNYW to Family Radio in Oakland California and they changed the callsign to WYFR and this change brought in a whole new series of new QSL cards.  We plan to present this story here in Wavescan on a coming occasion.

* NASB 2014 Greenville NC Report - 09:41

            World Voice Madagascar update

            Follow up from Madagascar

* Ancient DX Report 1907 - 17:55

            During the year 1907, the broadcast of radio programming was noted in the United States and in islandic Europe, as well as from anchored ships and ships at sea.  Even though these broadcasts were certainly still experimental in nature, yet the program content indicated the intent to entertain and to inform; thus the designation radio broadcasting.

            Soon after the beginning of the new year 1907, on February 6, Lieut. Quentin Crauford of the Royal Navy in England presented a radio broadcast over the air from the ship HMS “Andromeda”.  At the time the "Andromeda" was anchored at Chatham, an inlet off the Thames Estuary on the east coast of England.

            This broadcast was organized by Lieutenant Quentin Crauford with the approval of the naval authorities and In recounting the event, Wireless Operator Crauford stated that he adapted the spark wireless transmitter QFP on the "Andromeda" so that it could broadcast music and speech.  His historic inaugural broadcast was a patriotic concert program performed by navy personnel.  This broadcast, with the approval of the naval authorities, began with a rendition of the national anthem, God Save the King.

            This surprise broadcast was heard by wireless operators on board other navy vessels anchored nearby.  However, as a security measure, Lt Crauford was not permitted to publicize the event, neither before nor afterwards, though the event attained historic significance as the first wireless broadcast in England and the first from a ship.  It appears that another radio broadcast was subsequently presented from another British ship nearby.

            American experimenter Lee de Forest also made several radio program broadcasts from ships, both at sea and at anchorage.  On July 18, he transmitted race results from the steam yacht “Thelma” at the Lake Erie Regatta and these voice reports were received ashore on a nearby island by his assistant Frank Butler.  Subsequently, Forest and Butler constructed additional transmitters and made many experimental transmissions with voice and music content between buildings in Toledo Ohio.

            As a result of the success of these radio ventures, Forest was invited to install two transmitters on the navy vessels “Connecticut” and “Virginia”; and this led to the the installation of more than a score of transmitters on other navy vessels. 

            On December 16, Forest made a special entertainment broadcast from the ship “Dolphin” as it was moored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York.  Swedish born 34 year old opera singer Eugenia Farrar sang “I Love You Truly” and other songs during the live broadcast which was reported in a New York newspaper.  This broadcast was the send off for the round the world tour of the Great White Fleet.

            Over along the Pacific coast of the Americas, wireless operator Arthur Isbell made many wireless transmissions aboard the passenger ship “President” under the callsign V2.  The transmitter was manufactured under the Massie system and it operated on 750 kHz at 3 kW.  Several of these transmissions created new long distance records.

            Subsequently, Arthur Isbell established a wireless station in San Francisco with antenna masts 200 ft tall.  This station adopted the callsign IAA, a reversal of the operators initials.

            Many newspapers covered the story of Lee de Forest’s radio broadcasts from the Tellharmonic Hall at 38th and Broadway in New York, both before and after the events.  This program, the first in a short series, presented music from the Harmonium, and listeners were invited to make request for special selections of music.  Test broadcasts between the Tellharmonic Hall and the passenger liner “Normandie" began a week in advance of the main broadcasts. 

            In Canada, the Canadian Meteorological Service began the broadcast of time signals on a regular basis, the first in the world.  The time signal was generated at the Dominion Observatory at St. John New Brunswick; it was on the air daily around 10:00 am; and it was broadcast by the Marconi coastal station HX at Camperdown near Halifax Nova Scotia. 

            Over in continental Europe, crystal radio receivers were developed by Tissot and Pelin in France; and Robert Goldschmidt in Belgium conducted wireless experiments between the Palace of Justice in Brussels and two cooperating locations, the Namur Citadel and the Liege Observatory.

            The Christchurch Exhibition in New Zealand, at which wireless transmission and reception was demonstrated, ended on April 15; and a huge Marconi wireless station was inaugurated at Cliffden in Ireland for trans-Atlantic service on October 17.

            Right towards the end of the year 1907, the Great White Fleet began its triumphal world tour and more than 20 American naval vessels were equipped with the new Forest wireless equipment.  That story will come on another occasion here in Wavescan.

* Program Announcement - 22:52

            Allen Graham

* Contest Information - 23:32

            You should remember to participate in our big annual DX contest in September which comes to you under the title, “Rare, Unusual, Unique QSLs”  -  AWR “Focus on Asia” 2014 Annual DX Contest.  In brief, you are invited to:-

     * Provide information about your rare, unusual and unique QSLs, up to five in number.

     * Describe these QSLs in one brief paragraph each.

     * Provide reception reports for three AWR Asian broadcasts.

     * Provide a photograph of an Adventist unit in your country.

     * Send three radio cards.

            As an example of a rare QSL card . . . .  Early one Sunday morning back in the year 1961, my wife and I were relaxing in our home in Launceston on the island of Tasmania.  I switched on the radio and listened to the programming from mediumwave station 7LA on 1100 kHz and we heard the announcer state that they were broadcasting temporarily from their 100 watt emergency transmitter which was installed at their studio location.  The subsequent QSL card verified this low powered transmitter, perhaps the only verification ever issued for this unit. 

* International DX News - 24:58

            NEW TIME FOR WAVESCAN ON KVOH:  And as you know, Wavescan is broadcast each week on KVOH shortwave in Los Angeles.  Ray Robinson at the station tells us “we made some changes to our English schedule on 9975 kHz last weekend.  Those changes impact the airing of Wavescan on Sunday evening (UT Monday).  Previously, we have run Wavescan from 0200-0230 UTC (10:00-10:30 pm Eastern Time).  Effective immediately, Wavescan will now be heard half an hour earlier, from 0130-0200 UTC (9:30-10:00pm Eastern), still on 9975 kHz”.

            AMELIA EARHART:  A quick update:  You may remember back on June 8 we told you here in Wavescan about the planned around-the-world flight of 31-year-old Amelia Earhart to replicate and complete the feat that her namesake predecessor attempted back in 1937.  Well, on July 11, Amelia Rose Earhart  landed at Oakland International Airport, making her the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine airplane.  Her mission even included a ceremonial flyover of remote Howland Island in the Pacific where many believe the original Amelia Earhart disappeared.

* Music of the World - 25:36

            Greece, folk music, instrumental

* Closing Announcement - 25:39

            Thanks for listening to “Wavescan”, international DX program from Adventist World Radio

            Researched and written in Indianapolis

            Next week:-

                        1. Focus on Asia: The Story of Radio Broadcasting in Pakistan: On the Air in Peshawar   

                        2. WRMI Insert

                        3. Australian DX Report

            Several QSL cards available.  Send your AWR & KSDA reception reports for Wavescan to the                            AWR address in Indianapolis; and also to the station your radio is tuned to: WRMI or                                 WWCR or KVOH, or to the AWR relay stations that carry Wavescan.

            Wavescan address:-

                        Box 29235

                        Indianapolis

                        Indiana 46229 USA

            Wavescan @ AWR.org

            Jeff White, shortwave WRMI

* Music Outrun - 27:06

* Program Ends - 28:55

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