*
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.
The Story of the Good Ship Radio Scotland
2. Ancient
DX Report 1909
3.
Japan DX Report
4.
International DX News
5. SQOTW18: The Long
Wait
* The Story of
the Good Ship Radio Scotland - 00:54
The story of the Good Ship “Radio Scotland” begins back in
the year 1904. That was the year in
which the John Brown Shipyards on the Clyde in Scotland built the 90 ft long,
500 ton, motorless barge LV “Comet”. The “Comet” was constructed
under contract to the Commissioner of Irish Lights in Eire for service as a
lightship in Dublin Bay.
At the end of some 60 years of
service at anchorage as a lightship near the city of Dublin, the “Comet” was
decommissioned and towed to St. Peter Port on the island of Guernsey in the
Channel Islands. Here it was, now under
the ownership of entrepreneur Tommy Shields, that the ship was fitted out as a
mobile radio station, with studio, transmitters and additional electronic
equipment.
The studio was prefabricated at the
RCA facility at Sunbury on Thames and two RCA Ampliphase transmitters, Model
BTA10 at 10 kW, were shipped from the United States. All of the radio equipment was assembled in a
warehouse on Guernsey and readied for installation into the ship. A mobile crane was used to lower the
preassembled equipment into the “Comet”
The studio was installed in what had
previously been the Captain’s Cabin when the ship was operating in Irish
waters; a 30 kW Deutz power generator was installed; and an aluminium mast 200
feet tall was attached to the stub of the previous wooden mast. One of the main problems associated with the
mobile crane and its task of transferring the heavy equipment from the dock
into the ship was that the tidal movement at this location at the island of
Guernsey varies as much as 30 feet each day.
The “Comet” , still as a motorless barge, was
towed from Guernsey up into Scottish waters via
the east coast of England. On the
way, the tow rope broke and it took two days to reattach the rope.
The new stationary location for the “Comet” was 3½ miles off the
Scottish coast near Dunbar, approximately 25 miles from Edinburgh. The target date for the initial broadcast
from the “Comet” under the
identification slogan “Radio
Scotland” was scheduled
for the last day in December 1965. This
advertised time was barely achieved, only just 10 minutes before midnight,
though this inaugural broadcast was on the air at reduced power.
Audio Insert
Radio Scotland, ID, Radio Scotland
Song
The inaugural broadcast was heard at
a good level in nearby Edinburgh and across the open waters in Scandinavia,
though the signal into Glasgow and the west of Scotland was quite poor. The signal into all of the mainland areas was
improved significantly a couple of weeks later, on January 16, when a special
part from the United States was installed, thus enabling full power operation.
The initial mediumwave channel was
1241 kHz, though this was modified to 1259 kHz after the specialized American
part was installed in 1966. Though there
were two mediumwave transmitters at 10 kW each aboard the “Comet”, and a locally
made combining unit had been installed, yet usually only one transmitter was on
the air at any one time.
On February 10, still in the same
year 1966, the radio ship “Comet” was flooded during a storm. A Coast Guard ship came to the rescue with a
bilge pump that removed this undesired intrusion.
As with so many of the pirate radio
ships around the British Isles and associated areas back then, Radio Scotland
aboard the LV “Comet” underwent its
share of troubles. Due to a poor signal
in the more heavily populated areas of Glasgow, arrangements were made for the
motorless ship to be towed to the western side of Scotland.
Again, this motorless ship was towed
for the 1,000 mile voyage around the northern coast of Scotland, from its
stationary location off the east coast of Scotland (Edinburgh side) to a new
location off the west coast of Scotland (Glasgow side). This voyage took a few weeks and initially
they were on the air as they travelled.
However, due to the difficulty in replenishing the slowly traveling
mini-convoy, radio transmissions were discontinued halfway through the journey.
When they arrived at their new anchorage
off the coast at Troon, Radio Scotland returned to the air, and a survey showed
that almost half of the total population of Scotland listened to the pirate
programming from the good ship “Comet”.
However, due to a misunderstanding as to the boundary between the legal
coastal waters of Scotland and the open seas, Radio Scotland was taken to court
and fined for illegal broadcasting from Scottish waters.
So again, the “Comet” was towed to a
new location, this time off the coast of Northern Ireland near Ballywater. On April 9, 1967, the station returned to the
air as Radio Scotland & Ireland, though briefly at one stage the
identification announcement stated Radio 242.
That didn’t work
financially, so again the ship was towed to another location this time the more
then 1,00 mile voyage back to its original location at Dunbar, off the east
coast of Scotland for improved coverage of Edinburgh and its surroundings. That
was in May of the same year,1967.
However, the end was on the horizon,
and advertising revenues did not cover expenses. Thus, the final epic broadcast of the very
popular Radio Scotland ended in the evening of Monday August 14, 1967. The ship was then towed to Dunbar on the
coast and offered for sale. When a sale
did not materialize, the ship was towed to Methill Harbour in the Fife and all
of the electronic equipment was removed.
The “Comet”’ was then towed to Holland where it
was in use for a while as a house boat.
Then two year later, (1969) it was taken to Ouwerkerk and broken up.
In addition to its shipboard
facility, Radio Scotland also maintained an office in Scotland, on Cranworth
Street, just off Byres Road in West Glasgow.
At one stage, an advertising office was in use in Royalty House on Dean
Street in London.
At the end, listeners by the
thousand signed a petition to save Radio Scotland, with a request to grant a
legal license for a land based station.
The petition with 2½ million signatures was presented to
the government licensing agency in London, but the request was denied.
A few short years later,
entrepreneur Tommy Shields was hospitalized with a kidney problem, from which
he never recovered. He died at the young
age of 49, with his lifelong dream unrealized.
* Program
Announcement - 10:37
Allen Graham
* Ancient DX Report 1909 - 11:26
We begin our Ancient DX Report for the
year 1909 with wireless reports about several shipping disasters in various
parts of the world.
The most notable shipping disaster in
association with the usage of the CQD distress signal took place early in the
year 1909, on January 24, when the Italian liner “Florida” struck the White
Star liner “Republic” out
in the Atlantic off the American east coast near the Nantucket Lightship. Jack Binns was the wireless operator at
station MKC aboard the stricken “Republic” and
over the course of time he transmitted some 200 emergency messages in Morse
Code.
Two other ships came to the scene of
this maritime accident; another White Star liner the “Baltic”,
and a Revenue Cutter the “Gresham”. A total of 1500 people were successfully
transferred, with the loss of only six people in the collision itself. The “Baltic” sank
at sea, and the “Florida” limped
into port at New York.
On June 10 the Cunard liner “Slavonia”,
callsign MVA, became stranded near the Azores Islands off the edge of Africa
when she struck the rocks off Flores Island.
Two German ships, the “Princess Irene” and
the “Batavia” heeded
the call and rescued all 597 people off the “Slavonia” before
she sank. Some of the wreckage of the “Slavonia” is
still visible to this day at the islet, Lower Rasa.
It is reported that the first double
usage of the distress signals, both CQD & SOS, was sent by the American
ship “Arapoe” in
August 1909 when it lost its propeller near Diamond Shoals off the American
Atlantic Coast.
Two other ships lost a propeller
during this year 1909, and aid was summoned by Morse Code telegraphy. These ships were the “City
of Racine”,
callsign JC, out from Chicago on Lake Michigan and the “Georgia” GC
also on Lake Michigan.
The coastal steamer “Ohio” struck
a submerged rock off the coast of Alaska on August 9, and Operator George
Eccles at the ship transmitter AO continued sending out a Morse call for help
even as the ship was sinking. Eccles
lost his life, though two nearby ships came to the rescue and picked up the
nearly 200 passengers and crew.
Down in the South Pacific, the
Norwegian freight and passenger steamer “Ocean Queen’ was
on a voyage from Tahiti to the small phosphate mining island of Makatea. As the ship was entering the bay at Makatea,
the engines broke down and the ship was driven onto the coral reef. The passenger liner “Mariposa” HK
heard the emergency call and took off all personnel before the “Ocean
Queen” slid
off the reef and sank.
During the early part of the year
1909, explorer Robert Peary led an expedition to visit the North Pole. On the return journey back to the United
States, his ship called in to Indian Harbour in Labrador, Canada. He had a message sent to
the newspaper New York Times from the Marconi wireless station NR at Indian
Harbour, stating “I have found the Pole”. He claimed to have located the North Pole
earlier, on April 6.
In Denmark, Einer Dessau
communicated with a government wireless station six miles distant on March 18;
and in England the PMG Department took over all of the Marconi wireless
stations on September 29. In Australia
there were just two active licensees on the air; Mr. L. C. Jones in suburban
Adelaide and Mr. C. P. Bartholomew in suburban Sydney. In New Zealand, the government complained
that local amateur wireless operators were interfering with shipping
communications.
In the United States, the Junior
Wireless Club was formed in New York on January 2. Many more wireless clubs were formed
throughout the country during the year, though this New York club, which later
widened its activities as the Radio Club of America, claims to be the very
first in the world.
In 1909 the famous maritime wireless
station PH moved its operations from Russian Hill in South San Francisco to
Hillcrest, which became known as Radio Ridge.
During the transfer, station CH in the Chronicle Building filled in and
operated the maritime service.
In February, Dr. Lee de Forest
installed his new Arcphone radio transmitter in the Terminal Building and a
receiver in the Metropolitan Life Building, both in New York City. His mother-in-law, Harriet Stanton Blatch,
made a broadcast promoting Women’s Rights which was heard by an
audience of senior students from two nearby schools.
In April, the now famous Doc Herrold
began a regular broadcasting service over his spark wireless station in San
Jose, California. This station was
located at his College of Engineering and Wireless in the Garden City Bank
Building on 1st & West San Fernando Streets and the antenna system consisted
of more than two miles of bronze wire stretched out over four city
buildings. The 15 watt transmitter, with
a microphone and a battery, operated on long wave at 40 kHz.
On June 21, William Dubilier made a
public demonstration of radio broadcasting at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific
Exposition in Seattle WA in which he transmitted both music and speech. He was the first to use small sheets of mica
to provide a stable capacitance in the radio transmitter.
We should also mention that the
Great White Fleet, the American naval flotilla, made further radio broadcasts
in January and February, in the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic.
By the end of the year 1909, there
were close to a thousand wireless stations on the air in 70 countries throughout
the world, on land and on ship. Amateur
wireless operators were on the air in many different countries, including the
world’s
number one radio amateur Don Wallace in Los Angeles, who made his earliest
beginnings in 1909 with a Model T spark coil and his own self-assigned callsign
WU.
*
Japan DX Report - 17:58
Yukiko
Tsuji
*
International DX News - 23:35
KJES
closed
*
SQOTW18 Special QSL of the Week: Another Long Wait! -
24:46
Our special QSL of the week features
the Long Wait; in fact another long wait extending over a period of 23 years
from the time of the original reception to the arrival of the envelope
containing the verifications. Jerome
Berg in suburban Boston, the author of the four authoritative volumes
containing the entire history of shortwave broadcasting and listening, tells
how he ultimately received a QSL from another regional shortwave station in
Russia.
In 1979, Jerry Berg heard the
programming from a regional shortwave station located at Petrozavodsk in the
extreme western edge of European Russia.
At that time, he recorded his reception with the use of on an old
reel-to-reel tape recorder.
It so happened that he was going
through some of these old recordings a dozen years ago and he came across the
old recording of his reception of the station in Petrozavodsk. He copied the recorded programming onto a CD
and posted it off to the station, together with a letter of explanation and a
prepared do-it-yourself QSL card in the Russian language.
A month later, he received a friendly
letter in English from the officer at the Petrozavodsk
radio
station, together with the prepared QSL card duly signed and rubber
stamped. A second long wait of 23
years!
*
Music of the World - 26:18
Karelia:
Symphonic electronic orchestral
*
Closing Announcement - 26:46
Thanks for listening to “Wavescan”,
international DX program from Adventist World Radio
Researched and written in
Indianapolis
Next week:-
1.
Christmas Feature: Christmas Island Adventure
2.
WRMI Insert
3.
Philippine 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. Remember too, you can send a reception report to each
of the DX reporters when their segment is on the
air here in Wavescan: Japan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Australia &
India. They will verify with a colorful QSL card. Return postage and an address label are
always appreciated.
Wavescan address:-
Box 29235
Indianapolis
Indiana 46229 USA
Wavescan @ AWR.org
Jeff White, shortwave WRMI
*
Music Outrun - 28:17
*
Program Ends - 28:55
