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"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 N607, October 11, 2020
Radio Update: The Early Shortwave Scene in Nepal - 1
The August issue of the monthly American radio magazine NASWA Journal contains a brief item of information regarding the radio scene in the landlocked country of Nepal, over there on the edge of the high Himalaya Mountains. This news item, via the WRTVHB Monitor, states that the low power shortwave transmitter in Nepal noted on 5005 kHz has been closed as of mid-June (2020).
We would ask a double question: Which shortwave transmitter in Nepal was closed in mid-June, and at which location? In an attempt to answer this question, we investigate the entire spectrum of the shortwave scene in Nepal over the past almost one hundred years, and after that we will then be able to identify the specific old shortwave transmitter that was recently closed, together with its location.
The mountainous country of Nepal lies as a buffer state between its huge and considerably larger neighbors, China and India. The country itself is 500 miles long and 150 miles wide. The northern areas are composed of rugged and high mountain ranges, and the southern areas are made up of farmlands and villages, though in many locales it is still quite hilly. The total population of Nepal is in the range of 27 million, and their capital city is Kathmandu with around 3/4 million inhabitants.
As in other parts of the world, Nepal has undergone its share of woes due to the ravages of the coronavirus. Latest statistics from Nepal indicate that the total number of known cases is approaching 40,000, with a total of 200 known deaths.
Nepal's tourism industry, again as in so many other countries, has been hard hit by government-restricted travel and stay-at-home orders. In March, the government withdrew all trekking and climbing permits for climbing Mt. Everest, a major blow to the country's tourism-driven economy.
The story of shortwave broadcasting in Nepal began in the year 1939 when on November 20, Radio Kathmandu was noted in the United States on 14780 kHz with a program of music and announcements in both English and one of their local languages. This broadcast, in which reception reports were requested, was made from a low-powered communication transmitter, and it was the first of seven informal, irregular, unofficial and official attempts at shortwave broadcasting. Those low-powered broadcasts from Radio Kathmandu around the end of the year 1939 and into early 1940 were heard also by two or three other international radio monitors in the United States.
Five years later, the Voice of the Himalayas was noted, in the United States again, with a six hour program of broadcasting on 11790 kHz. That program service was noted in March 1945, their second attempt at shortwave broadcasting in Nepal.
During the month of December in the following year (1946), the Royal Prime Minister Padma Shamsher Rana inaugurated a radio broadcasting service with the use of a hybrid transmitter that was constructed from radio receivers that were brought in by Nepali soldiers returning home after the war. This low-powered 5 watt station, known as Nepal Broadcasting, was operated by the city electricity authorities, and it was on the air daily for one and a half hours for a few months into the new year 1947. That was Attempt No. 3.
Then a year later, in January 1948, the same Royal Prime Minister Padma Shamsher Rana reintroduced a radio broadcasting service utilizing the same hybrid transmitter with a few additional modifications. On this occasion, his station was on the air under the same city electrical authority, this time until around mid-year. That was Attempt No. 4 in our list of seven early attempts at shortwave broadcasting in Nepal.
Later that same year (August 1948), the same Prime Minister made his third attempt to establish a regular broadcasting service, this time with the use of two imported radio transmitters. Once again, success was achieved for only a short period of time. Attempt No. 5.
Then, on December 13, 1950, at 8:30 pm, a new shortwave voice was heard from Nepal, and the actual location of that station was Biratnagar in eastern Nepal, close to the border with India. That station operated with 250 watts in the 41 metre band, and it was Attempt No. 6 at establishing a shortwave broadcasting service in Nepal.
It was a successful attempt, because out of that station the real Radio Nepal was established. In fact, it is true that all of those earlier radio ventures did at least succeed in one matter; they were paving the way for what finally became a regular radio broadcasting service in Nepal.
However, a dozen years after the official Radio Nepal was inaugurated, there was an interesting attempt to introduce another shortwave service for coverage in Southern Asia, a commercially operated Voice of the Himalayas. This new shortwave commercial service in Nepal was intended to rival and outrank the widely popular Commercial Service of Radio Ceylon.
An advertisement for the projected high powered Voice of the Himalayas was printed on page 50 in the 1963 edition of the WRTVHB. This half-page advertisement indicated that a radio organization in Switzerland planned to establish a commercially operated shortwave service in Nepal that would be on the air in ten languages; that is, seven languages of Asia as well as English, French and Spanish.
Nothing culminated regarding the projected Voice of the Himalayas shortwave radio broadcasting station, nothing whatsoever. All that we can presume is that the government of Nepal simply refused to issue a broadcasting license.
That was attempt No. 7 in the story of seven attempts (informal, irregular, unofficial and official) at early shortwave broadcasting in Nepal. Next week in the radio scene in Nepal here in Wavescan: On Shortwave from Mt. Everest.
As we move through the alphabetic list of Australian three-letter shortwave callsigns in the VL series, we come to the callsign VLT. All of these VL callsigns were allocated originally for use by the neighboring country of New Zealand, and initially they were usually applied to locally registered ships that plied the Pacific in the passenger/cargo trade.
Our Australian callsign in Wavescan today, VLT, was applied first to the New Zealand registered cargo/passenger ship the Maitai. This ship was built for Pacific service by Swan & Hunter at Newcastle-on-Tyne in England in 1892, though initially it was known as the Miowera, an Australian Aboriginal word meaning (the large flightless bird) the Emu.
During its first year, the Miowera was wrecked in Honolulu Harbor; and subsequently in a fiord in Norway; and later again it lost a propellor in the Pacific and floated aimlessly with 200 people aboard for two months. Just seven years after it was launched, the Miowera was sold to the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, where it was renamed Maitai in honor of a river in the South Island of New Zealand.
During a visit to England in 1910, wireless equipment was installed on the SS Maitai, and it was allotted the Marconi callsign MGM. This ship also carried a batch of new wireless equipment for installation by the government at various locations in New Zealand. Just before the beginning of World War I, the Maitai callsign MGM was dropped in exchange for a New Zealand allocation as it was back then, VLT.
On Christmas Day 1916, the Maitai was again wrecked, and this time permanently. This ship, with a consignment of Model T motor cars, ran aground on South Reef at Avarua in the Cook Islands.
During the following year (1917), a German raider ship, the Seeadler (Sea Eagle), under the captainship of Felix von Luckner, approached Avarua at night with the intent of shelling the main town. However, when the German sailors observed the wrecked steamship on the reef, they mistook it for an armed navy vessel, and so the Seeadler hastily departed.
Another ship that plied the Pacific on behalf of the Union Steamship of New Zealand was subsequently allotted this VLT callsign, and that was the SS Kaituna. This is what happened.
The Kaituna was a general freighter, built by Osbourne & Graham at Sunderland in England in 1904 under its original name, Needwood. During the following year (1905), the Needwood was purchased by the same Union Steam Ship Co. of New Zealand and renamed Kaituna, also in honor of a river in New Zealand, though this time in the North Island.
During the year 1914, the previously mentioned ship Maitai was requisitioned by the New Zealand navy as a troop carrier, and the VLT callsign was dropped in favor of a navy callsign. During the following year (1915), the vacant callsign VLT was then recycled and allocated to the Kaituna. This ship was sold to Hong Kong in 1931, it was captured by the Japanese during the Pacific War, and it was wrecked off the coast of Japan ten years later.
The next usage of the callsign VLT was in New Guinea under the Australian mandate. Gold was discovered at Bulolo during the Australian colonial era, and dredging was commenced in 1932. Soon afterwards, the well-known Australian radio company AWA established a wireless station at Bulolo under the irregular callsign GF, indicating Gold Field. However, during the following year (1933), the station was granted a regularized callsign, VLT. (By that time, the radio callsign prefix for New Zealand had been changed from VL to ZL, and the VL sequence had been transferred to Australia and its territories.)
In February 1940, international radio monitors in the United States noted that the new shortwave service Australia Calling (Radio Australia) was heard on several occasions under the callsign VLT. This temporary usage of the VLT callsign was from a well-known AWA transmitter at Pennant Hills, Sydney. which was on the air as a fill-in by the old VK2ME when other transmitters were under maintenance. The occasional frequencies in use were 9590 kHz, 9650 kHz, and 9610 kHz, all of which were verified accordingly. Four years later, VLT was noted again in the United States, on 11800 kHz.
Back to New Guinea again, and this time we find that the Australian shortwave callsign VLT was officially applied to a new 2 kW ABC transmitter that was installed near Port Moresby. This unit was taken into service on August 2, 1948, and it was on the air on three different frequencies: VLT5 7280 kHz, VLT6 6130 kHz, and VLT7 9520 kHz.
On October 29, 1963, a new 10 kW shortwave transmitter replaced the original 2 kW unit; and when Papua New Guinea obtained independence on December 1, 1971, the callsign VLT was changed to P2T.
Back towards the end of last century, Radio Australia operated a temporary shortwave relay station at coastal Carnarvon in Western Australia. One of the three transmitters in use in this facility was designated as VLM, at 300 kW. In the mid-1990s, this station was progressively closed and the equipment was transferred to other locations.
At that stage, Radio Australia announced that the 300 kW VLM at Carnarvon would be installed at Radio Australia, Darwin, as VLT. However, before the 300 kW VLM was removed from Carnarvon and re-installed at the Cox Peninsula, Darwin station, two brand new 250 kW Thomson units were installed, one of which took over the VLT service. But then, the Darwin station was soon afterwards sold, and subsequently unceremoniously closed and dismantled.