dxers guide

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Wavescan NWS267

* 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 new shortwave WRMI

Program outline

1. Titanic Anniversary: Wireless to the Rescue - Shipping Disasters Before the Titanic

2. Tribute to Dr. Robert Bowman FEBC

3. Japan DX Report

* Titanic Anniversary:

Wireless to the Rescue - Shipping Disasters Before the Titanic - 01:02

It was at 2:20 am on Monday April 15, 1912 that the mighty ship "Titanic" sank into the cold waters of the North Atlantic, 375 miles south of Newfoundland. On Tuesday next week, many people throughout the world will be honoring the 102^nd anniversary of this tragic event that sent more than 1,500 people to their doom, a death toll that still stands as one of the worst ever in the history of maritime disasters.

This week here in Wavescan, we look at the long list of seagoing disasters in which wireless was used from the beginning up to the Titanic event itself, covering a period of nearly 14 years, from 1899 to 1912.

The first occasion when the new wireless was in use to bring aid in a shipping disaster occurred during the month of January in the year 1899. During those nearly 14 years, stretching from 1899 - 1912, there were 153 major shipping disasters around the world resulting in 14,000 deaths, according to the thick book by Jay Robert Nash, "Darkest Hours". However, during that same time period we have discovered more than 30 shipping accidents and distress events that were reported to the authorities by wireless.

During the year 1899, that is the first year in which distress signals were sent by wireless, there were three shipping emergencies. In early January, a gale damaged the "East Goodwin" Lightship at anchor in the English Channel, and this information was wirelessed to the South Foreland Lighthouse near Dover in county Kent. This would be the world's first wireless call from a ship in distress. Help was dispatched from the shore.

The second occasion when wireless was called to bring aid in a maritime mishap was on March 11, when the German cargo vessel "Elbe" ran ashore on the Goodwin Sands in the shallow English Channel at 2:00 in the morning. This ship was laden with heavy slate from Nantes, close to the Atlantic coast of France, and heading home to Hamburg in Germany. Some 8 hours after the "Elbe" was grounded, the tug "Shamrock" aided in pulling the stranded vessel back into open waters.

On April 28, the steamer "R. F. Matthew" rammed the same "East Goodwin" Lightship during a dense fog and as a result of the Morsed message to the South Foreland Lighthouse, lifeboats were sent out from Ramsgate. At the time, the coal-laden "R. F. Matthew" was outward bound from London. This would be the third occasion in history of a wireless message from a distressed ship.

At the end of April in the following year 1900, the Russian navy vessel "General-Admiral Apraksin" was carrying personnel for the installation of a wireless station on the island of Hogland, but it became stranded in the frozen waters of the Gulf of Bothnia. A rescue ship was summoned by wireless, the icebreaker "Yermak", which came and freed the ice bound "Apraksin".

Over in European waters at the very beginning of the next year, on New Year's Day 1901 to[1] be exact, the "Medora" got waterlogged on Ratel Bank in the English Channel. The "Princesse Clementine" happened to be passing nearby and a message was Morsed back to La Panne in Belgium for assistance. Strangely, the "Princesse Celementine" itself inadvertently ran ashore at Mariakerke in coastal Belgium 18 days later and this message was Morsed to Ostend, also in Belgium.

The first distress signal from an American ship was Morsed from the SS "Kroonland" out in the Atlantic 130 miles west of Fastnet Rock, the most southerly point in Ireland, on December 9, 1903. During a moderate gale, the steam tiller and steering gear were damaged and the ship was towed back to Queenstown in Ireland for repairs.

Up until this time, there was no generally accepted distress call in Morse Code, and the usual procedure was to simply call for help; sometimes just a HELP call.

In the maritime scene, the "Lightship Nantucket No. 58" which sprang a leak at South Shoals, Massachusetts, sent the HELP distress signal in Morse Code and this is sometimes listed as the 1^st wireless distress signal from an American ship. The "Nantucket Lightship" sank on December 10, 1905, but the distress signal from another American ship, the "Kroonland" was exactly two years and one day earlier.

However, the distress signal from the "Nantucket Lightship" was indeed the 1^st from an American ship in American waters. The navy vessel "Azalea" rushed to the rescue of the lightship, taking off all personnel before it sank.

The acceptance of a standard distress signal in Morse Code extended over a period of several years. The delegates attending the 1^st Wireless Conference in Berlin in 1903 discussed the matter though no firm resolution resulted. The Marconi Company in England issued a directive requiring all of its wireless operators to signal CQD as a distress signal, effective February 1, 1904.

At the 2^nd Wireless Conference in Berlin in 1906, the now familiar SOS was approved, replacing the usage of CQD. However, the general implementation of the new SOS extended over a period of years, and it was not until six years later, that the United States formally adopted the usage of the new SOS distress signal for its wireless stations.

It is stated that the first known usage of the CQD distress signal from an American ship took place on February 2, 1908 when the ship "Santa Rosa" was in distress off the coast of California. A newspaper reporter on board the "Cymric" observed the event and he sent his news item to the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

The most notable shipping disaster in association with the usage of the CQD distress signal took place on January 24, 1909 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 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.

During this same era, several maritime mishaps occurred also in the North American Great Lakes and many personnel were rescued when relief ships arrived as a result of wireless distress calls.

On December 10, 1910, the ship "North Western" was bound from Seattle to Valdez in Alaska, along the western coast of North America, when it struck a rock. Due to a wireless distress call, all passengers and crew were rescued and taken back to Seattle.

A few days later, seven of the rescued passengers from the "North Western" boarded another ship, the "Olympia", in a second attempt to travel to Valdez. This ship struck a reef near Bligh Island and a wireless distress call brought another ship and all 177 were rescued, including the seven men who underwent these two shipping disasters within a few days.

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. However, the most notable usage of the double calls CQD & SOS was three years later in the tragic story of the "Titanic". That's our story next week.

* Program Announcement - 09:02

Allen Graham HCJB

* Japan DX Report - 10:42

Yukiko Tsuji

* Tribute to Dr. Robert Bowman FEBC - 16:19

News has just been received that the founder of FEBC, the Far East Broadcasting Company, has passed to his rest. Dr. Robert Bowman died just before midnight on Tuesday March 11 following a brief illness at the age of 98.

Robert H. Bowman was born in California on March 16, 1915, the youngest of five children, and he gained his higher education at Vanguard University in Pasadena. At the age of 22, he married Eleanor, and together they had two children.

In his earlier years, he was interested in cars, and winning the Indianapolis 500 was one of his highest ideals. However, his life soon took a very different turn and during the era prior to World War 2, he joined a men's quartet singing with the radio program, Haven of Rest. Thus was born in him a desire to use radio for the promulgation of the gospel, and immediately after the end of World War 2, he partnered with his friend John Broger with the intent of introducing gospel radio programming in the Far East.

Their initial project was the broadcast of programming over radio station XLAW in Nanjing China, though due to the many difficulties they encountered in China, they transferred their interest to the Philippine Islands. In 1945, they incorporated their organization, as the Far East Broadcasting Company; and their very first radio station was inaugurated in 1948, the mediumwave unit, KZAS with 1 kW on 680 kHz. This station is still on the air to this day, though it now radiates 50 kW on 702 kHz under the adjusted callsign DZAS.

On the shortwave scene, their first transmitter was a 10 kW unit that was inaugurated during the following year (1949) under the callsign DZH6. Over the intervening years, FEBC grew into a mighty network of AM FM and shortwave transmitters, both within the Philippines and beyond. In 1960, they procured the famous General Electric shortwave station KGEI located near San Francisco in California.

Dr. Robert Bowman has left behind a mighty legacy of local radio broadcasting stations in Asia and beyond that serve their audiences in their local languages, together with their shortwave facilities that are also speaking in many different languages. Dr. Bowman is mourned by Eleanor, his wife of 76 years, their two sons, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Audio Insert:

FEBC Video: Tribute to Dr. Robert Bowman FEBC

* Music of the World - 27:07

Titanic Song, folk style

* Closing Announcement - 27:34

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

Researched and written in Indianapolis

Next week:-

1. Titanic Anniversary: Wireless Signals from the Titanic

2. Match Box Radio

3. Philippine 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 - 28:34

* Program Ends - 28:55

Monday, March 31, 2014

Wavescan NWS266

* Theme - 00:00

“Birthday Serenade” - Willi Glahe

* Opening Announcement - 00:15

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

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

Program outline

1. Focus on Asia: On the Air Shortwave from India’s First Capital City - 2

The Calcutta Story

2. The Beginnings of Early Shortwave Broadcasting

3. Indian DX Report

* Focus on Asia: On the Air Shortwave from India’s First Capital City - 2 - 00:51

The Calcutta Story

You will remember that Jose Jacob VU2JOS at Hyderabad in India alerted us a while back to the fact that the shortwave transmitter VUC in Calcutta is likely to close some time soon, and that there is a distinct possibility that all of the other regional shortwave stations in India are likely to close in favor of DRM coverage. Because of this information, we began the long and fascinating story of radio broadcasting in Calcutta here in Wavescan two weeks back. Thus, in our program today, we pick up this story again, this time with the era of experimental broadcasting.

It was back in the year 1923 that the Marconi company in England exported a radio transmitter into India and installed it temporarily in Calcutta for the purpose of making a public demonstration of radio broadcasting. The initial test broadcasts consisted of music recordings which were received at Chowring Lea some three miles distant.

Soon afterwards another demonstration was staged with this same transmitter installed in a newspaper office in Calcutta and the receiver at the Kharagpur Golf Course, a distance of 72 miles. On this occasion speech was transmitted, which was heard quite clearly at the receiver location.

Then, in November this same transmitter was loaned to the newly formed Calcutta Radio Club and they went on the air with experimental programming under the callsign 2BZ. This transmitter, rated with a power of ½ kW, radiated on 800 metres (375 kHz) in what we would now call the longwave band.

The callsign 2BZ followed the already accepted system in use in England, with a number followed by two letters. It is not known if there was any real significance in this callsign, unless perhaps the B may have stood for Bengal, the Indian province in which Calcutta is located.

Somewhat simultaneously, another Marconi transmitter was made available to the West Bengal government. The ownership of this station is listed as the Indian States & Eastern Agency in Calcutta.

This second transmitter was rated at 1½ kW, it radiated on 425 meters (705 kHz) in what we now call the standard mediumwave broadcast band, and it was on the air under the callsign 5AF. This station is known to have been on the air in 1925, and probably somewhat earlier. It is not known if there was any significance to the actual callsign 5AF.

Back on November 27, 1923, the manager of the BBC in London, Mr. J. C. W. Reith, made an entry in his diary, stating “I should like to organise Indian broadcasting from here”.

A little less than four years later (1927), a regular radio broadcasting station was established in the city of Calcutta. In the initial stages, it was installed at the Calcutta High Court, with the studios in a tent and the transmitter in the Temple Chamber.

This new radio broadcasting station was launched under the callsign 7CA and it was on the air with a transmitter rated at 1½ kW on the mediumwave channel 370.4 meters (810 kHz). The two letters in the callsign 7CA suggested rather obviously Calcutta, but why the 7? I guess we will never know!

At the time when this new government-owned radio station was inaugurated, the two previous experimental stations, 2BZ & 5AF were closed and we would suggest that the original 5AF transmitter was then taken over for use by the Indian Broadcasting Company as 7CA.

Soon after station 7CA was launched, the equipment was transferred from the High Court to a new location at 1 Garstin Place in Calcutta. The first two floors were rented for a period of five years.

A special inauguration ceremony was staged at this new location on August 26, 1927 and the British governor of Bengal, Sir Stanley Jackson, took part in the ceremony. This ceremony was broadcast over 7CA and it was heard quite widely by the few radio listeners who owned a radio receiver at the time, even as far as Rangoon in distant Burma.

Two years later, the 7CA mediumwave transmitter was installed at Cossipore, apparently a new unit, and the callsign was regularized to the now familiar VUC. At the same time, a new radio magazine began publication under the title Betar Jagat.

Around the time when the European War began, 1939, All India Radio Calcutta VUC took over the whole building at Garstin Place for use as offices and studios, and new equipment was installed for a total of six studios.

The first shortwave transmitter at VUC Calcutta was an experimental unit rated at just 700 watts and this was installed, we would suggest, at Cossipore, co-sited with the mediumwave unit, in mid 1932. The operating channel was 6110 kHz.

Interestingly, as was the custom back then, amateur radio stations were known to relay the programming from a local mediumwave station. Around the time when this first low powered shortwave transmitter was inaugurated, amateur stations VU2CS & VU2FR were heard in the United States carrying a relay from VUC Calcutta.

Then three years later, a 2 kW transmitter on the same channel was installed; and this was supplemented three years later again with a new 10 kW shortwave transmitter from Philips in Holland, model KFVH10. Two new channels were chosen for this 10 kW unit with the callsign VUC2, 4850 kHz & 9530 kHz and the inauguration date was August 16, 1938.

We leave the Calcutta story on this occasion in the middle of last century, with the intent of completing the information in another edition of Wavescan some time soon. In the meantime, you might be interested to know that the Calcutta time zone at this stage was an awkward GMT plus 5 hours and 54 minutes.

* Program Announcement - 08:55

Allen Graham

* The Origins of Early Shortwave Broadcasting - 08:55

So when did broadcasting on shortwave really begin? What really was the earliest history of shortwave broadcasting? The answer to these intriguing questions depends on how you look at the matter. However, let us provide an answer, as was given by W. J. Baker in his lengthy article, the Early History of the Marconi Company.

It was back in the year 1916, a time when Italy was at war in Europe, but on the English side, not the German, and the Italian navy asked Marconi to provide a procedure for short distance wireless communication. The navy wanted short range maritime communication between ships at sea and with coastal stations on the Italian peninsula; and at the same time, with no over the horizon eavesdropping at enemy wireless installations.

Marconi brought his fellow experimenter Charles Franklin with him to Italy, and together they developed apparatus for communication on the very short wavelength of 2 metres. They discovered that these transmissions gave good coverage over a short distance, the beam signal could be focused in the desired direction, and over the horizon coverage was almost non-existent due to the nature of that wavelength. At the time, no valve was available, so the two men developed a spark circuit operating in compressed air.

During the following year, Franklin conducted similar very shortwave experiments in the British Isles, first at Caernarvon in Wales, and then at Inchkeith in Scotland and Portsmouth in England. Franklin continued his experiments after the end of World War 1 in 1918 with radio experimentation between London and Birmingham using a longer wavelength of 15 metres, 20 MHz. Successful coverage was obtained over the 97 mile distance between Hendon in London and Birmingham in the Midlands with just 700 watts input.

Quite simultaneously, another Marconi employee, Captain H. J. Round conducted similar shortwave experiments between Southwold on the North Sea coast of England and a coastal location in Holland on 100 metres, 3 MHz. Similarly, these shortwave experiments also achieved good success.

In addition, amateur radio operators in England and elsewhere, who were relegated to 200 metres (1500 kHz) and beyond, were achieving sometimes spectacular success in long distance communication.

As a result of these unexpected successes in long distance communication on shortwave with relatively low power, Marconi asked Franklin to install a 12 kW shortwave transmitter capable of 97 metres (3 MHz) and beyond at their Poldhu station on the Cornwall coast.

In the meantime, Marconi had bought a wartime ship, the “Rovenska” which he renamed the “Elettra” and he converted it into an experimental radio station.

Test transmissions on shortwave from Poldhu began on April 11, 1923, and the “Elletra” picked these up as it voyaged south from Falmouth near Poldhu in Cornwall on the journey out into the Atlantic and down the coast of Africa. Good signals were heard down as far as the Cape Verde Islands in the Central Atlantic, some 2566 miles from Poldhu, even though the Poldhu output was only 1 kW at the time.

The Poldhu shortwave transmitter was rebuilt to 17 kW and successful tests were conducted with the ship “Cedric” all the way across the Atlantic to New York. These signals, now on 92 m (3260 kHz) were also heard quite clearly in Canada, and at the AWA radio station in Pennant Hills near Sydney in Australia. Similar tests were carried out successfully direct with Australia, on May 30, 1924.

In the new 2014 WRTVHB you can read the informative article by Boston’s noted shortwave historian Jerome Berg, on the History of Shortwave Broadcasting in a Nutshell. In it, he discussed what was happening at mediumwave station KDKA in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

The Westinghouse radio pioneer Frank Conrad was also experimenting with shortwave coverage from his amateur radio station in his suburban home as early as 1920. Westinghouse inaugurated their mediumwave station on the roof of their factory at East Pittsburgh on November 2, 1920, and less than 3 years later, they began simulcasting their mediumwave signal on a shortwave channel.

Thus was born, the new era of shortwave broadcasting.

* Indian DX Report - 13:46

Prithwiraj Purkayastha: Date of Broadcast: 30th March 2014, Sunday

Hello friends. Namaskar and greetings from India! I am your host Prithwiraj for this edition of Indian DX Report.

All India Radio Kohima station is again heard on 4850 kHz during Indian evening hours that is around 1200 to 1500 or 1530 UTC. This is a rare Indian station which is presently transmitting irregularly from the hilly province of Nagaland in North East India.

Good news for all BBC Hindi listeners in the subcontinent first of all. From 24th March they are broadcasting live program in all the four transmission slots, that is, 0030-0100 UTC, 0230-0300 UTC, 1400-1430 UTC and 1600-1630 UTC. For past few broadcast season they were broadcasting recorded program in the second and fourth slots.

Voice of Russia is closing down all its shortwave broadcasts by 1st April, 2014. After several online stories & predictions about this closure of shortwave services by Voice of Russia, last week I received this official response from Elena Osipova of VOR Letters Department confirming this closure leaving only online broadcast of this historic station which will be available on http://voiceofrussia.com/play/.

Stations are now announcing their A-14 broadcast schedule which will be valid through 30th March till 25th October 2014. Here are some important updates of listeners in South Asia.

Deutsche Welle's only South Asian language broadcast in Urdu can be heard between 1430 to 1500 UTC on 15275, 15640 and 17860 kHz.

NHK World Radio Japan's Bengali transmission will be heard between 1300 to 1345 UTC on 11685 kHz and Hindi transmission can be heard between 1430 to 1515 UTC on 15745 kHz and between 0100 to 0130 UTC on 11590 kHz.

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in Sinhala with English and Tamil announcements can be heard on 11750 kHz between 1630-1832 on Saturday to Tuesday only. SLBC English transmission is now irregular from 0230 UTC on 11905 kHz.

PCJ Radio International from Taiwan which is transmitting via Trincomalee relay station of Sri Lanka will be using 13655 kHz between 1230 to 1330 UTC for their Sunday only transmission which has become very popular among listeners.

FEBA Radio will now use Trincomalee relay station for transmitting to India using 9720 kHz between 1330 to 1400 UTC. That gives the DXers to QSL FEBA Radio again, which for past few years stopped issuing QSL.

And here is the Vatican Radio A-14 schedule for English and South Asian language transmissions targeting this area. 0040-0200 UTC on 11730 and 15470 kHz and the same will be repeated between 0200 to 0350 UTC on 15460. Again in evening between 1430 to 1550 Vatican Radio can be heard in South Asia on 11850 and 15110 kHz. Vatican Radio's DRM transmission in English can be heard between 1530 to 1550 on 17500 kHz.

Radio Romania International has resumed it's DRM transmission in English for India during A14 season. RRI English language broadcast beaming India can be heard between 0300 to 0400 UTC on 11825 kHz in analogue mode and 15220 kHz in DRM mode.

Adventist World Radio in English can be heard in South Asia in the following timings and frequency. 1530 to 1600 UTC on 15670 kHz from Saturday to Wednesday, 1600 to 1630 UTC on 11995 and 11865 kHz on weekdays, 1630 to 1700 UTC on 15360 kHz on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.

And friends, with this I would like to conclude this edition of DX report from India and I hope liked it. For correct reception reports for this edition of IDXR we'll be issuing our special 2nd Anniversary smallest QSLs which will be world's smallest QSLs in Size till today. Please send your reception reports and feedback to:-

Indian DX Report

Prithwiraj Purkayastha

Pub Bongalpukhuri

By Lane 4

Jorhat 785001 Assam India

* International DX News - 15:38

Radio Moscow Mailbag

Common surnames in Russia

Voice of Russia leaving shortwave

Wavescan scheduling on new WRMI

* Music of the World - 23:24

Peru: Folk instrumental & singer, Peruvian African style

* Closing Announcement - 24:02

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