*
Theme
- 00:00
“Birthday
Serenade” - Willi Glahe
*
Opening Announcement - 00:18
Welcome
to “Wavescan”, international DX program from Adventist World Radio
Researched
and written in Indianapolis, produced in studios of shortwave WRMI
Program
outline
*
Daylight Saving Time begins in USA
1.
Radio Broadcasting in Albania
2.
Canadian Radio Panorama- 4: The Intervening Years
3.
International DX News
4.
Philippine DX Report
*
Radio Broadcasting in Albania - 01:03
Radio Tirana feature for Wavescan
Information
from Drito Cico, head of monitoring center and shortwave frequency manager of
Radio Tirana; presented by Jeff White
[AUDIO
–
Albanian national anthem]
Tirana
became the capital of Albania in 1920. The area occupied by Tirana has been
populated since Paleolithic times dating back many thousands
of years ago. Tirana was founded as an Ottoman
town in 1614 with nearly 7.000 inhabitants. Today it has about a million.
Tirana is on the same parallel as Naples- Italy, Madrid
- Spain, Istanbul Turkey, and New York, and on the same
meridian as Budapest-Hungary
and Kraków-Poland…
AUDIO – Radio Tirana
interval signal
Radio
Tirana International, founded on Nov 28, 1938 during the rule of self-declared
King Ahmed Zog I, became a World Wide Broadcast Empire during the Enver Hoxha
regime (from 1944-1990) with the help of the Chinese. It had daily radio
programs in 22 languages with Marxist-Leninst propaganda up to 1990…
In
Albania, broadcasting started in the year 1937 with the installation of a
medium wave transmitter with a power of 10 Watts as well as studio apparatus,
and all of these were installed in the city of Tirana.
On
November 28th 1938 a short wave transmitter with a power of 3 kW was
put into operation at Tirana and intended mainly for communication, but it was
also used to transmit 3 hours of broadcast programmes per day.
In
the year 1940 a medium wave transmitter was installed with a power of 1 kW in
the old building of Radio Tirana together with studio equipment. Later on
several medium wave transmitters were installed with powers of around 60-300
Watts at Gjirokastra, Kucova, Shkodra, Korca and Vlora which transmitted local
programs.
After
the liberation of Albania after World War II, and with the help of the Albanian
Communist Party, there were important steps in the development of broadcasting
in Albania. In March 1952, at the outset of the second Congress of the Party, a
medium wave transmitter was inaugurated with a power of 50 kW at Tirana, which
at that time brought about a noticeable improvement in the coverage of the
country.
In
November of the year 1961, at the time of the 20th anniversary of the Party,
the Radiocenter in Durres (or Shijak) was opened with 3 transmitters, 2 of them
on short wave with a power of 50 kW each (with the possibility of combining
them to produce 100 kW). These were for broadcasting external service
transmissions outside of Albania, and there was 1 medium wave transmitter with
a power of 150 kW which was proposed to broadcast transmissions outside of
Albania, but from the beginning it was used for the transmission of the
internal program of Radio Tirana.
Radio
Tirana was heard far beyond the Albanian borders. There were even a few popular
songs written about the station in Italian, like this one by Franco Battiato
called “Eh Radio Tirana Transmette.”
AUDIO – Song: Eh Radio
Tirana Transmette
In
fact, the place of installation of this transmitter (in Shijak) was not so
appropriate to cover inside Albania, but it was installed there because it was
proposed in the project to work with a directional antenna towards the Middle
East for transmissions outside of Albania. Instead of the directional antenna,
an omnidirectional antenna was installed with a 129 meter tall mast and the
transmitter was used to broadcast the domestic programmes of Radio Tirana.
The
new building of Radio Tirana was inaugurated in December 1965 with 8
transmitting studios, 5 recording studios, 5 montage studios, and a large music
studio.
In
October 1966 at Durres (or Fllaka) a medium wave transmitter was installed with
a power of 500 kW, and 5 years later a second transmitter of 500kW was
installed nearby with the combine the two at 1000 kW. Both transmitters
broadcast the programs of Radio Tirana external services.
In October 1967 the radio center at
Elbasan (Cerrik) was opened with 16 short-wave transmitters , of which
10 had a power of 50 kW each ( with the possibility to combine them in pairs of
100 kW ) and 6 with a power of 15 or 25 kW each.
Via this shortwave center the
programs of Radio Tirana International were broadcast to world wide target
areas.
In 1987 Radio Tirana International
broadcast 66 hours of programs per day in 20 to 22 foreign languages on medium
& short wave -- a worldwide broadcast Empire.
AUDIO
–
Radio Tirana: end of press review
A
rental agreement between the Albanian Radiotelevision and the Chinese Film and
Radio Television was signed in Tirana on December 16, 2003 that leased the
shortwave Radio Center in Elbasan (Cerrik) to the Chinese for at least 15 years
and this may be extended, depending upon the requirements of the two parties.
The
old Chinese short wave transmitters of Radio Tirana in Cerrik were dismantled
and the Chinese, in a record period,
transformed the building and surroundings at Cerrik by installing 6 new short
wave transmitters with a power of 150 kW.
CRI
– China Radio International started its transmissions on short wave via Cerrik
on the 28th of November 2004.
Radio
Tirana on short wave via Cerrik was closed at the end of July 2004 and on
August 6, 2004 Radio Tirana started its broadcasts on short wave via Shijak, by
inaugurating the 2 new Chinese Continental clone short wave transmitters with a
power of 100 kW. The operational staff at Shijak is Albanian plus 3 Chinese
specialists.
AUDIO – Radio Tirana:
Program open and schedule announcement
[During
the years 1980-1983, there were medium wave transmitters installed with a power
of 50 kW at:
Kukes
(1980 on 648 KHz) ,
Korca
(1981 on 1260 KHz),
Gjirokastra
(1983 on 909 KHz),
Shkodra
(1983 on 693 KHz) and,
at
Saranda (1982 on 864 KHz) with a power of 30 kW.
(All
of these medium transmitters were switched off in 2001 or 2002).
Through
these transmitters and the ones at Shijak (150 kW on 1089 KHz) and at Kashar
(50 kW on 1359 KHz) the domestic program of Radio Tirana was broadcast.
Also put into operation in the year
1980 was an FM transmitter with a power of 10 kW on Dajt mountain (at an
altitude of 1613 m) on 99.5 MHz. Its FM signal serves two purposes, as a
primary signal to feed the medium wave transmitters in Kukes, Korca,
Gjirokastra, Shkodra and Saranda and for listeners of Radio Tirana who had FM
capable receivers and lived within range of the transmitter.
After the year 1987 it was predicted
that a network of FM transmitters would be installed to broadcast in stereo the
second program of Radio Tirana.
The very mountainous terrain of
Albania and its bad conductivity causes considerable absorption of the ground
wave. This is the reason that in such terrain the powerful transmitters do not
have the required coverage and therefore the installation of a network of
medium wave transmitters was recommended instead.
The
small surface of the territory of Albania does not favor the use of short wave
for its coverage.
The
sky wave propagates much farther than the ground wave reaching maximum
distances of 300-450 km away from the transmitter. Because the surface of
Albania is small, it is not possible to use the sky wave efficiently for its
coverage. Therefore the coverage of Albania was based on ground wave
propagation.
Because
in the mountainous part of Albania the ground wave undergoes considerable
absorption the Fading Belt appears relatively close to the transmitters.
Because the coverage of Albania day and night is based on the ground wave, a
vertical antenna was selected for the transmitter. This is a mast that is
supported on a ceramic isolator where the mast itself plays the role of
vertical radiator.
The
Shijak medium wave transmitter on 1089 KHz radiating a power of 150 kW achieved
the desired coverage for the Radio Tirana domestic program during the day in
about 65% of the territory, and during the night hours about 31.9%.
On
February 3, 2006 at around 0800 UTC the medium wave transmitter on 1089 KHz at
Shijak (on the air since 1961) was switched off.]
*
Program Announcement - 10:58
Allen Graham
*
Canadian Radio Panorama: The Intervening Years - 14:31
In
this our next episode in the series, Canadian Radio Panorama, we cover the
intervening years from the wireless era into the beginning of mediumwave radio
broadcasting, a period of around twenty years.
The
earliest wireless experiments attributable to Canada took place in the year
1898. The experimenter was the noted 32
year old Canadian born Reginald Aubrey Fessenden. However, his earliest wireless experiments
did not take place in Canada, but rather in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the
neighboring United States where he was employed by the University of Pittsburgh.
The
1898 Fessenden experiments involved the usage of the simple telephone equipment
that was available back then, and his experimentation was an attempt to devise
workable procedures for the transmission of the human voice. During the following year, 1899, he succeeded
in making voice transmissions, though quite garbled, between Pittsburgh and
Allegheny City, which is now a northern suburb of Pittsburgh itself.
Two
years later, there was a remarkable development in the long distance reception
of a wireless signal and this took place on December 11 & 12, 1901. The notable experimenter was Guglielmo
Marconi, and the location was Signal Hill, near St John’s in Newfoundland; but
this event took place before Newfoundland was federated into the Dominion of
Canada (1949). This first wireless
signal across the Atlantic, the letter S in Morse Code, was transmitted from
Poldhu in England.
Wireless
history in Canada really began a couple of weeks later, on the day after
Christmas actually, when Marconi arrived at Sydney, Nova Scotia, on the steamer
“Bruce” with the intent of searching for a suitable location to establish a
large wireless station. This large new
facility at coastal Table Head was four times larger than the Marconi station
at Poldhu in England, and it made its first test transmission on November 19,
1902 with 75 kW on 82 kHz longwave.
Two
years later, the Table Head station was dismantled and rebuilt at a new
location 3½ miles distant where it was opened with an official ceremony five
years later on October 17, 1907. The receiver
station was located at Louisbourg, 25 miles distant from Glace Bay.
In
the meantime, the Marconi company in Canada established a multitude of regional
maritime wireless stations along the eastern and western seaboards, the
Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, as well as nearby to many waterways, including
the Great Lakes. It is understood that
the first of these lower powered regional maritime stations was installed at
Heath Point on Anticosti Island, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway in
1904. This station was on the air under
the callsign VCI. At one stage in its
history, Anticosti Island was the world’s largest privately owned island, 135
miles long.
Amateur
wireless stations were first licensed in Canada in 1911, and callsigns
consisted of three letters beginning with XA.
However, after the end of World War 1, when amateur radio stations were
again permitted in Canada, the callsign structure was modified, still with
three digits, but with a number, 1 through 9, followed by two letters.
At
this stage, experimental radio broadcasting stations were allocated callsigns
with four digits, the number 10 followed by two letters. However, quite soon afterwards, radio
broadcasting callsigns were regularized into four letters beginning with the
letter C.
The
first radio broadcasting station in Canada, or in the world as some people
would suggest, was established by the Canadian Marconi company in Montreal in
1919. The callsign XWA was taken into
usage for this new experimental broadcasting station, though in reality this
callsign was already in use with the Marconi Company at least four years
earlier.
An
official report from the Naval Service dated March 31, 1915, lists a Marconi
station under the callsign XWA, and it states also that this was the only radio
telephone station on the air in Canada at the time. The three call letters XWA stood for Experimental
Wireless Apparatus.
Four
years later, a series of test broadcasts was made, in the early part of the
year 1919, to determine the viability of establishing an experimental radio
broadcasting station in the Montreal area.
During
the Spring of the year 1919, the Marconi company installed a 500 watt
transmitter on a truck with the antenna attached to the roof. This transmitter model was known as the
“Captain Round” transmitter, it was designed and constructed at the Marconi
factory in Chelmsford, England, and it was housed in a self contained wooden
cabinet. A series of telephony tests
around Montreal indicated a modest coverage area of just three or four miles.
However,
the transmitter was then installed on Tarte Pier in Montreal Harbour for a
series of subsequent test transmissions that produced a much wider coverage
area. The wireless operator on board the
icebreaker “Lady Grey” reported good reception at a distance of 30 miles.
This
same 500 watt transmitter was then installed on the top floor in the Marconi
Building in William Street Montreal during the summer of the same year
1919. This transmitter was licensed in
November with the callsign XWA, and it made its first program broadcast from a
temporary studio at the same location on December 1 (1919).
At
the time, programming was made up quite spontaneously with station
announcements, news bulletins read from the local newspapers, and music from
locally available 78 disc records.
Station XWA was also in use at other hours for communication traffic and
experimental transmissions.
Regular
program broadcasting from station XWA began on May 20 of the following year,
1920, and the first program was a remote broadcast from the Chateau Laurier
Hotel in Ottawa. The occasion was a
special meeting of the Royal Society of Canada, and the evening program was a
musical concert with orchestra and soloist Dorothy Lutton. At this stage, the 500 watt transmitter was
radiating on the longwave channel 1200 m, 250 kHz.
As
the radio historians tell us, the callsign for the Marconi experimental station
in Montreal was regularized a year later, and XWA became CFCF, on May 15,
1922. The allocation of callsigns at the
time required four letter calls beginning with CF, and it is suggested that the
Marconi company chose the double callsign CFCF, thus providing the slogan,
“Canada’s First, Canada’s Finest”.
A
multitude of radio broadcasting stations proliferated throughout Canada quite
quickly soon afterwards.
*
International DX News - 11:45
DSWCI
on Shortwave
Ukraine
Radio & TV
*
Philippine DX Report - 22:05
Henry Umadhay
*
Music of the World
- 27:26
Albania: From Radio Tirana, folk music,
orchestral & vocal
*
Closing Announcement - 27:41
Thanks
for listening to “Wavescan”, international DX program from Adventist World
Radio
Researched
and written in Indianapolis
Next
week:-
1.
BBC Indian Ocean Relay Stations: Five in a Row!
2.
Radio Broadcasting in India’s First Capital City
3.
European Perspective
4.
Bangladesh DX Report
Two
QSL cards available - AWR & WRMI
Wavescan
address:-
Box
29235
Indianapolis
Indiana
46229 USA
Wavescan
@ AWR.org
Jeff
White, shortwave WRMI
* Music Outrun - 28:44
* Program Ends - 28:55
