Or maybe more accurately, from two lighthouses to two ships, with a detour in between. The earliest known usage of the international callsign VLC can be traced back to the year 1913 at the time when the coastal radio station in the Chatham Islands was opened for maritime traffic and for contact with New Zealand. … Read more
On two previous occasions, we have presented stories about the luxuriant French passenger liner, the “Normandie“. On this occasion we return to the story of the “Normandie”, and this time the story of its demise. Construction work on the “Normandie” began at St. Nazaire on coastal France in the year 1929. It was intended that … Read more
The August issue of the American magazine, “Short Wave Craft”, in the year 1935 tells a very interesting story about a unique radio broadcast from the Statue of Liberty. It happened this way. The French passenger liner Normandie began its maiden voyage from Le Havre in France just 68 years ago, on May 29, 1935. … Read more
A recent reception report from Robert Chester in Adelaide, South Australia, tells an interesting story regarding his involvement with a special once-in-a-lifetime radio broadcast from a ship. Robert was commenting on a previous edition of Wavescan in which we presented the story of “Radio Broadcasting from Ships in Australian Waters”. It was back around the … Read more
During the 1920s and 1930s, a multitude of small radio broadcasting stations (some formal, though most were informal) took to the air throughout Belgium, rather like what was happening in many other countries throughout the world. The stations in Belgium were installed in private homes, business locations, church buildings, and even out in the fields; … Read more
Our opening story about a radio wedding in this edition of Wavescan took place during the year 1920, more than one hundred years ago. It was a long distance novelty proxy wedding, it was conducted over the air by wireless operators, and it was conducted in Morse Code, probably the only Morse Code wedding in … Read more
In our brief mini-series of topics here in Wavescan about the VOA Voice of America radio stations in the Philippines, we have presented the story about their first relay station, which began as a submarine operation under the callsign KZSO which subsequently morphed into a landbased station as KZFM in Manila city. We move on … Read more
The Voice of America radio stations in the Philippine Islands, that subsequently became so well known throughout the international radio world, underwent a very small though very interesting beginning towards the end of the Pacific War in the middle of last century. In order to understand those early origins way back then, let’s go back … Read more
The story of the Good Ship “Radio Scotland” begins back in the year 1904. That was the year in which the John Brown Shipyards on the Clyde in Scotland built the 90 ft. long, 500 ton, motorless barge LV “Comet“. The “Comet” was constructed under contract to the Commissioner of Irish Lights in Eire for … Read more
Back during the concentrated events in the Pacific in the middle of last century, there was a whole host of radio ships on the air with varying forms of local and international radio communication. The Americans used somewhere around 50 different vessels as radio communication ships over a period of time, and the Australians used … Read more