According to Greek mythology, the “phoenix” was a large and beautiful bird which could die in a fire and then arise as a new and young creature. Very little else is known about this mysterious bird. Almost as mysterious is the story of the radio ship “Phoenix” which was fitted out with a bevy of … Read more
Some months back, the Herald Tribune in southwest Florida reported on an important radio event that occurred more than seventy years ago. This is the story. The well-known radio promoter Powell Crosley had a palatial home built for himself at Venice in Florida. He loved fishing and he was the president of the Sarasota Angler’s … Read more
The story of the brilliant wireless inventor Guglielmo Marconi is very well known. He was born on April 25, 1874 at the family villa near Bologna in northern Italy, and just last Friday was the 128th anniversary of his birth. Marconi began his first wireless experiments on the top floor of the family home just … Read more
It is quite well known in the radio world that the Voice of America was on the air from the radio ship “Courier” while it was anchored in the harbor at the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean. However, it is not quite so well known that VOA was on the air in earlier … Read more
Quite recently, we received a surprising email message from Dr. Martin van der Ven in Germany alerting us to the fact that an internet website contains the story of an American mediumwave station that is now located on board a cargo ship. The radio station is KKOL and the ship is the “Coastal Ranger“. Mediumwave … Read more
During the era when the Voice of America was operating a radio station on board the Coast Guard vessel Courier, the BBC in London announced that they also planned on establishing a radio station on board a ship. This was also at the time when there were several pirate radio stations on board ships in … Read more
The Awatea Story Back in the days before World War II, there were two ships in Australasian waters that were quite famous in the international radio scene. One was the “Kanimbla” with its radio station VK9MI, and that was the story in Wavescan on a previous occasion. The other ship was the “Awatea” that plied … Read more
It is just 58 years this week since General Douglas MacArthur made his famous “I have returned” speech from the shortwave facilities on board three different radio ships at the beginning of the return invasion of the Philippines. The date was October 22, in the year 1944. This is how it all happened. In their … Read more
Two weeks ago, we presented the story here in Wavescan of the now famous radio broadcasting ship, the “Apache,” with its role as a relay station for AFRS radio and the “Voice of America” during the latter part of the Pacific War. At the time, we mentioned that the “Apache” had a co-traveller, a little … Read more
The South Pacific nation of New Zealand was settled first by Polynesians migrating south from the Central Pacific more than 1,000 years ago. The islands were first visited by European explorers in 1642 when Abel Jans Tasman tried unsuccessfully to make a landing. He named the islands after “Sea-Land,” a coastal province in northern Holland. … Read more