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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 N620, January 10, 2021
Another Mass Stranding of Whales at a South Pacific Island--The Radio Scene on the Island Called Chatham
On several occasions, a mass stranding of whales has occurred at Chatham Island in the lonely South Pacific. Chatham Island is the largest island in the cluster of a dozen islands that are identified with the same name, Chatham Islands, and they are located 500 miles east of New Zealand.
Just two islands in the Chatham archipelago are inhabited, Chatham Island itself and nearby Pitt Island, with a combined population of just 600. The other islands and islets have been set aside as Nature Reserves or are in use for limited farming.
These Chathams in the Pacific are not to be confused with the well-known Chatham in England (Kent), nor the Chatham in the United States (Massachusetts), nor the Chatham in Canada (Ontario). These Pacific Chathams were first occupied five hundred years ago by Maoris from the North Island of New Zealand. After years of infighting, they settled down and lived peaceful lives. They subsequently became known as the Moriori people.
More than three hundred years later (1835), another contingent of Maoris from the North Island of New Zealand traversed the ocean to Chatham Island on a hijacked ship. Even though both tribes were of Polynesian descent (similar to the original Hawaiian people) and originally spoke the same language, the newly arrived Maoris slaughtered the resident Morioris mercilessly, and celebrated by cooking and eating many of their victims. Those Morioris who survived were taken into slavery.
The first European contact with the island came in 1791 when Captain William R. Broughton, with the HMS Vancouver Expedition, landed and claimed the island cluster for England. He named the islands Chatham in honor of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord John Pitt, who was also the 2nd Earl of Chatham. In 1842, the islands were taken over by New Zealand.
The Chatham version of the Akeake Tree grows bent over because of the strong westerly winds. The Weka Birds, male and female, give a cooee call each morning and evening as a duet.
The main town on Chatham Island is Waitangi, with around 200 residents. Indeed, according to the 2018 census the population of the entire island cluster is just 663 persons. The islanders fly their own flag, though it is still unofficial. New Zealand television reports that, thus far, there has been no case of the China Virus on the Chathams.
The largest stranding of whales in the known history of the world took place in 1918 when 1,000 whales were stranded at Long Beach, Petrie Bay, on the western side of Chatham Island. The main community at Waitangi is at the southern end of Long Beach, and the dead whales posed a lengthy health hazard for the local residents.
In 1981, local history informs us that a dozen Killer Whales were stranded at Radio Station Beach, on the south west coast of the island. Their first wireless station, VLC-ZLC, was installed a little inland from the rocky cliff area, and the remains of the original building can still be seen on Google Earth.
A more recent whale stranding took place just two months back, on November 24 (2020), when 120 Pilot Whales were stranded at a northern beach on Chatham Island. Commercial photographer Sam Wild filmed this unfortunate event that occurred at isolated Mairangi Beach, where thirty or forty of the whales refloated themselves, though most of them remained stranded and died.
The Kaingaroa Elementary School, whose music you heard a short while ago, is located near the end of the beach where this recent whale stranding took place.
The original Morse Code wireless station on Chatham Island was taken into communication service on September 18, 1913. Their initial equipment included a 1.5 kW AWA transmitter from Australia, a power generator, and two tubular steel pipes as antenna supports which stood 150 feet tall and 300 feet apart. The antenna was a center-fed multiwire T type.
In the early days, a strong light was attached to the top of one of the antenna masts, and for night time approach by shipping, this served as the light of a lighthouse. Due to international wireless regulations, the last day of operation for Chatham Wireless under the original callsign VLC was December 31, 1928. Next day, New Year's Day 1929, the new callsign ZLC was implemented.
Soon after the end of the Pacific War, Chatham Radio ZLC was rebuilt with new equipment at a nearby and more easily accessible location. Four low-powered transmitters were installed, and housing for station staff was also erected on this wireless station property.
During the early 1960s, station ZLC, with 50 watts on 2196 kHz, introduced a daily bulletin of local news and information that included weather reports and shipping and airplane movements. Due to the type of transmission equipment in use, the local citizens were able to hear these news bulletins as a break through into the standard mediumwave band.
For three consecutive years, these broadcasts were listed in the WRTVHB (1960-1962) as a broadcast service. However, these Chatham broadcasts were quite similar to the local messages and items of communication information that were broadcast by the Condominium Teleradio Network in Vanuatu in an earlier era; it was not the broadcast of regular radio programming.
In 1983, new SSB radio equipment was installed for communication with local units and with headquarters in New Zealand. Then, on August 13, 1991, shortwave communication station ZLC came to an end; the station was closed, and local fishermen mourned the loss of this important radio service.