Home | Back to Wavescan Index

"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.


Wavescan N492, July 29, 2018

Highest Powered Mediumwave Station in the Southern Hemisphere - 2YA

When it was officially opened on December 16, 1931, mediumwave station 2CO in Corowa, New South Wales, Australia, was accorded honor as the highest powered mediumwave radio broadcasting station in the Southern Hemisphere, with 7.5 kW on 560 kHz. Then, on March 15 of the following year 1932, 5CK in Crystal Brook, South Australia, was officially opened on 635 kHz, also with 7.5 kW, thus sharing honor with 2CO as equal highest-powered mediumwave radio broadcasting station in the Southern Hemisphere.

However, five years later again, a bright new mediumwave station near Wellington in New Zealand, 2YA, with a 60 kW transmitter, became the highest powered mediumwave station in the Southern Hemisphere, thus eclipsing the two Australian stations for that honor. Since that time, 2YA has always held the honor, at least as equal highest powered mediumwave station in the South Pacific.

Let's go back now to the month of February in the year 1922, which was when the first mediumwave station in Wellington commenced broadcasting. This new station was constructed and operated by Charles Forrest at the International Electric Company in Courtenay Place, Wellington, and it was on the air two evenings a week, Monday and Wednesday, for an hour and a half on each occasion.

Six months later, Forrest merged with Hope Gibbons to form Wellington Broadcasters Ltd., with their small cramped radio studio at the top of the Ford Building in Courtenay Place. This building had been constructed earlier for the assembly of American-made Model T Ford motor cars.

During the following year (1923), the New Zealand government began issuing callsigns to radio broadcasting stations, and this first station in Wellington was accorded the callsign 2YB. However, one year later again, in November 1924, this station 2YB merged with the second broadcasting station in Wellington that had been accorded the sequential callsign 2YK.

This second station in Wellington was owned and financed by a group of five interested men who operated as the Federal Telephone Company. The transmitter for this new radio station was constructed locally on information provided by Professor Robert Jack who had been experimenting with wireless for the past year or more in Dunedin on the South Island.

The new Wellington station was installed at the back of Mr. A. H. Simpson's home in suburban Wellington, quite near to the local post office, and it was launched in August 1922, when the previously mentioned first station 2YB was just six months old. The New Zealand government issued the callsign 2YK to this now second station in Wellington.

In November (1923), this station, with its staff-built new transmitter, was moved to the 5th floor in the Dominion Building on Plimmers Steps, just off Lambton Quay, hence a new company name, the Dominion Radio Company. Waterside workers cut a tree and hauled it to the roof of the building to support the antenna system. This station was on the air two or three evenings a week for a total of just a few hours altogether.

During the year 1924, the New Zealand government began to subsidize four key radio broadcasting stations in New Zealand, including 2YK in Wellington. Then In November of that same year, the first station in Wellington (2YB) was merged into the more substantial and now more successful second station 2YK.

On August 30 of the next year (1925), the government took over all four of the subsidized stations (1YA Auckland, 2YK Wellington, 3AQ Christchurch, 4YA Dunedin), though the Wellington station went silent instead. As an interim measure, the Post Office personnel provided some form of spasmodic programming for the 2YK transmitter.

Station 2YK returned to the air for the November (1925) elections, and again for special Christmas programming. Then during the following year (1926), this station began to carry a regular programming schedule. In June 1927, station 2YK was given a change in callsign, and thus 2YK became the now highly regarded and well known 2YA.

Actually, the 2YA callsign had previously been allocated to a small battery-operated station in Nelson. This small regional city of Nelson is located on the north coast of the South Island, almost opposite Wellington, and Wellington is located across the Cook Straits on the southern edge of the North Island. In 1923, Mr. D. Field established this radio station in Nelson which was allocated at that stage the callsign 2YA.

This small radio station operated without mains electricity, and it required 300 torch batteries soldered together to provide electricity for it to go on the air. This 2YA radio station broadcast from a hardware shop, Wilkins & Field Ltd., in Hardy Street, Nelson.

During the mid-1920s, a big new 2YA in the national capital city Wellington was planned as the most powerful mediumwave broadcasting station in the world. However, when it was officially opened by Prime Minister Joseph G. Coates on July 9, 1927, its power level was only 5 kW, not even as powerful as the two stations in Australia; 2CO and 5CK with 7.5 kW each.

Studios for this new 2YA were installed in the Wellesley Club Building on the corner of Waring Taylor and Featherstone Streets in Wellington. The transmitter was installed in a new building under two self-supporting towers on Mt. Victoria, towering over the city of Wellington.

However, soon afterwards, another new 2YA was built on a small promontory at Titahi Bay, Whitireia Head, and this one really did become the most powerful in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition, its single tower was also the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere, standing 700 feet high. The tower was manufactured in Australia and shipped to New Zealand in sections.

The transmitter building at Titahi Bay was constructed to withstand sustained wind speeds of 100 miles an hour, and the end roofing trussets were specially designed to retain the roof in gale force winds. The earthing system was composed of 10 miles of copper wire laid underground in a special counterpoise pattern. An emergency on-air studio was installed in the transmitter building, and subsequently, so was an emergency power generator.

The new 2YA transmitter was manufactured by AWA at their Sydneyside factory in suburban Ashfield, and it was rated at the unusual power level of 60 kW. The antenna system for this new high powered radio station was configured to provide maximum coverage of New Zealand north-south, with a minimum of skywave propagation.

This high powered 2YA on 570 kHz in New Zealand was easily heard one thousand miles away, in Australia, particularly in the evenings with programming at a listening level, due to the saltwater pathway. In fact, on one occasion, mediumwave 2YA was heard on a car radio at a listenable level while a family was traveling up towards the center of Australia when the time at the transmitter site was already late morning.

This new 2YA was officially opened by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. Michael Savage, on January 25, 1937. The old 5 kW 2YA transmitter was retuned to 840 kHz and it returned to the air under a new callsign 2YC.

These days, the magnificent 2YA is still on the air with 50 kW on 567 kHz at Titahi Bay, and studios in Radio New Zealand House on the Terrace in Wellington. Over the years, many hundreds of QSL cards have been sent to listeners living in countries within, and beyond, the Pacific arena.



The Radio Scene in Flooded Kerala, India

In the closing announcement at the end of our program last week, we indicated that one of the topics for this week's program would be a feature on Army Radio in the Red Sea. However, currently, residents in the Indian state of Kerala are still reeling from the recent onslaught of monsoonal rains, and Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, in Hyderabad informs us that several of their major radio stations have been on the air nonstop 24 hours with relief programming. The state of Kerala, with its Malayalam language, is the original home state for Jose Jacob.

The state of Kerala is situated along the southwest coast of the Indian sub-continent. The annual monsoonal rains began there in Kerala on July 9, bringing in their wake flash flooding, landslides and fallen debris, together with massive damage to local crop production. Red Alert has been issued in several districts, in the worst flooding in more than 20 years.

As the English language Hindu newspaper reports, almost all of the land areas are under several feet of water, with commercial properties flooded at ground level and cars stationary and submerged. A total of 35,000 people have been moved temporarily into 265 relief camps throughout the state. The state government in Trivandrum has appealed to the union government in New Delhi for relief funding.

In an email alert, Jose Jacob advises that four major mediumwave stations in Kerala have been noted on air up into last weekend with special extended programming overnight, consisting of music and relief announcements. These stations are located in Trivandrum, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kozhikode.

The state of Kerala is 360 miles long, ranging from 20 miles to 70 miles wide, with a population approaching 35 million. The state capital is Trivandrum, or Thiruvananthapuram as it is known these days, with a population approaching two million.

Trivandrum, built on seven hills, is both a very ancient city, and also a quite modern city in many respects. Local historians tell us that the ships of the Biblical King Solomon in Israel landed in a port called Ophir (now Poovar) in Trivandrum in the year 1036 BC.

The first radio broadcasting station in Kerala territory, and in Trivandrum, was established in the MLA Palace Building under a standard British India callsign VUR on March 12, 1943. The transmitter was a new 5 kW STC unit from England, it operated on 658 kHz, and the transmission tower stood 250 feet tall.

Three years later, in March 1946, Travancore Radio VUR was removed from the Palace and re-installed into the YMCA facility with a new official callsign VUG, though it was also still well known as VUR. On April 1, 1950, station VUG-VUR was taken over by All India Radio and it was re-installed again, this time in the Diwan Palace in Trivandrum, where it is still located even to this day. We might add that the office for the Station Engineer was previously the palace bedroom.

In 1966, a 1 kW mediumwave transmitter was installed for the local VB Vividh Bharati program service. This transmitter was installed at the studio location and it radiated on 1140 kHz through a 90 ft. self-radiating mast. The VB service on mediumwave in Trivandrum was transferred to FM in 1999, and the small mediumwave unit, by this time on 1494 kHz, was retained for standby service.

In the early 1970s a new mediumwave transmitter site was established in a heavily wooded area near Kulathur some 8 miles from the studio location. This new facility was officially taken into service with 10 kW on February 15, 1973. A 2011 list gives the callsign for this transmitter as VUT2.

At the end of the year 2001, a 20 kW solid state Harris DX20, which can be run at 5, 10 or 20 kW, was installed at this mediumwave location; and simultaneously, a 400 foot self-radiating mast was installed. The previous 10 kW BEL transmitter was retained for standby usage, and it was briefly energized each morning for a few minutes just before the main transmitter was opened for the regular daily broadcast service.

It was back in the early 1960s that the first attempt was made to establish a shortwave transmitter in conjunction with the already existing mediumwave facility in Trivandrum. However due to rising tensions with China, the 20 kW shortwave transmitter intended for Trivandrum was quickly diverted to Kurseong in West Bengal, where it was officially inaugurated on June 2, 1962.

Two years later, All India Radio announced that a 250 watt shortwave transmitter would be installed in Trivandrum and that it would operate on 7280 kHz. However, this intended plan was never implemented either.

Then, twenty years later again, All India Radio announced that Trivandrum was again under consideration for the installation of a shortwave transmitter, a project that would be implemented under the next Five Year Plan. However, once again, and for the third time, Trivandrum missed out.

However, comes the year 1992, and a 50 kW transmitter was actually installed at a coastal location at Muttathura in suburban Trivandrum, some eight miles from the studios of All India Radio mediumwave. Test transmissions consisting mainly of test tones began in October 1992, and two years later, on November 6 (1994), the station was taken into a regular schedule of on air service.

The shortwave antenna system is readily visible on Google Earth, and the three towers can be seen in close walking distance to the beach, a little south of the sewage farm which itself is a little south of the jetty. The three self-supporting towers are in a straight line, at an angle of approximately 75 degrees, and they are supporting two simple curtain antennas. The main coverage area for AIR Trivandrum shortwave is towards the north from Trivandrum and across to the neighboring island of Sri Lanka.

According to information from Jose Jacob, the AIR shortwave station at Trivandrum is not carrying the flood emergency programming that is heard on mediumwave.

More from Kerala next week.