THE HISTORY OF SHORTWAVE RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

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Project Overview
1800s - Land Telegraphy
1874 - Guglielmo Marconi - a Tribute
1895 - Wireless Telegraphy
1901 - Wireless Telegraphy
1902 - Wireless Telegraphy in Australia
1904 - Australian Coastal Radio
1906 - Wireless Telephony
1912 - Melbourne Radio - VIM
1914 - Shortwave Wireless Telephony
1920s - Commercial Shortwave Telephony Development
1920s - Receivers
1920 - The huge RCA Longwave Station in New York
1920 - Wireless broadcasting in Australia
1920s - First shortwave stations in Victoria
1921 - Discovery of Shortwave Propagation
1921 - Koo Wee Rup (Victoria) Experimental Wireless Receiving Station
1923- Longwave Broadcasting in Australia
1923 - Evolution of Australian Domestic Radio
1924 - 3LO - Melbourne's Second Broadcaster
1924 - 3AR - Melbourne's first broadcaster
1924 - The Braybrook (Melbourne) Transmitting Site
1925 - First Shortwave Stations in Western Australia
1926 - First Shortwave Stations in New South Wales
1926 - RAAF Communications - Laverton (Vic)
1927 - Beam Wireless Worldwide
1927 - Beam Wireless from Australia
1928 - ABC Lyndhurst (Victoria)
1930 - AWA Receiving Station at La Perouse (Sydney)
1930 - AWA Radio Centre at Pennant Hills
1933 (to 1969) - Shortwave Radio Clubs in Australia
1936 - Ship Broadcaster - the MS Kanimbla
1939 - Belconnen Communications Station (Canberra)
1940 - RAAF Receiving Station at Werribee (Victoria)
1941 - RAAF Frognall (Melbourne)
1941 - ABC Brisbane
1942 - Army Wireless Chain - west of Melbourne
1942 - Dutch Stations in Australia
1943 - ABC Radio Australia - Shepparton (Victoria)
1943 - Army Shortwave HF Stations in Melbourne
1944 - ABC - Radio Australia - Looking Back
1945 - PMG Receiving Station - Highpark (Victoria)
1945 - Radio Australia - DXers Calling
1946 - Radio Australia - Communications Programs
1946 - VNG Time Signal Station
1948 - Radio Australia QSL Cards
1948 - ABC Sydney
1966 - ABC Cox Peninsula (Darwin)
1970 (to 2012) - Shortwave Radio Clubs in Australia
1975 - ABC Gnangara (Western Australia)
1975 - ABC Carnarvon (Western Australia)
1978 - Omega Navigation Station - Woodside (Victoria)
1985 - ABC Northern Territory
1989 - ABC Brandon (Queensland)
2003 - Private Shortwave Broadcasters
Timeline - Part One - 1839 to 1927
Timeline - Part Two - 1928 to 2012
SPECIAL - Licencing of Shortwave Broadcasters
SPECIAL - Radio Receivers for Shortwave
SPECIAL - Radio Monitoring as a Hobby
Epilogue
Bibliography, References and Resources
Links to the author's personal websites

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INTERNET RADIO FOR EVERYONE! (Added October 14, 2017)

Below is the portal to the on-line directory of several hundred radio stations worldwide offering streaming audio via the internet. Click the Country, then the Station and  the audio will play immediately! Radio Australia is listed!

Creative Commons License
The History of Shortwave Radio in Australia by Robert J.Padula, OAM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Welcome to my on-line Engineering Research Project "The History of Shortwave Broadcasting in Australia"

I am Robert V. J. Padula, OAM, (Bob) of Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia. I was one of the first Victorian War Babies of the Second World War, having been born on September 6, 1939, in Melbourne. On September 3, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Neville Chamberlain broadcast the announcement that the country was at war.

This History Project is a Journey, in words, pictures. videos and sound, concerning the history, evolution, and deveopment of shortwave (high frequency) radio broadcasting in Australia.

The work concerns commercial, governmental, military. and private broadcasting activity. Amateur radio and "pirate" radio is not included.

I have also included substantial material which looks at the inventions of land and radio telegraphy, and the progression through
longwave and mediumwave telephony broadcasting technologies, in Australia and elsewhere.

The Project includes articles and images from my personal visits to several shortwave broadcasting and receiving facilities in Victoria, most of which no longer exist.

My interersts ionclude activies linked to my involvement in electronics, radio technology, the cinema, photography, bushwalking, travelling, swimming, and astronomy. Much of this concerns my involvement in the monitoring of international shortwave broadcasting and research into high frequency long distance radio propagation

My hobby experiences in electronics and radio communications, which started back in the mid 1940s, ultimately paved the way for my full-time employment as a Technician, and later a Professional Engineer, in the Postmaster's General Department (now Telstra).

After 41 years with the Company, I left Telstra in 1997, having reached the ranks of senior engineering management, and since then I have provided expert professional advice and consultancy in fhe field of international broadcast engineering.

I am a Chartered Professional Engineer, and a Life Member of the Institution of Engineers Australia.

In 1955 I undertook a Vocational Guidance program when I was in Year 10 at Camberwell High School - the assessment said that I should pursue a "Technical Career" - they were spot on!

I now invite you to join me on our long journey from the middle of the 19th century to the present day!

(Bob Padula, June 2012)

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1928 - Fiskville (Victoria) Beam Wireless transmitting station

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1928 - Lyndhurst (Victoria) first SW station

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1959 - Radio Australia (ABC) Shepparton (Victoria)

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1935 - VK3ME transmitters (Braybrook, Victoria)

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IMAGES

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Please note that all images in this Project are thumbnails.
Click on any image for a full-size view! Many very old images have been digitally enhanced. Unless otherwise indicated, all images are sourced to the publc domain.

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NAVIGATION

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Navigation
This work is divided into many Chapters, all of which are shown in the Navigation Bar at the left side of each Chapter. They are generally arranged in chronological order of the year in which the event commenced, some of which span many decades.

There are some SPECIAL CHAPTERS included,which are undated

There is a Search Engine on this Home Page - enter the desired word or phrase and you will be taken to a new window where a listing, with links, of the page(s) containing your search query will be displayed. External links about your query will also be shown.

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PUBLIC DOMAIN

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This work was published June 2012, and additional content included in April 2015

This work is in the public domain, and will be of interest to anyone interested in the history, evolution, and development of shortwave broadcasting in Australia.

The Panel at the top of this page provides details about the conditions for reuse of of this work, within the Creative Commons Licencing Agreement registered by the author.

The work contains over several. hundred mages, and 60 Chapters. Many images are from the author's private albums - others are out-of-copyright material drawn from public websites and print publications.

In accordance with current journalistic practices, source attribution for out-of-copyright images and documents is not shown, except in special circumstances.
 

FACEBOOK

Bob Padula

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THE AUTHOR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Free, on-line, 70 Chapters!
The author's Autobiography chronicles his experiences and interests in radio communications and electrical technology, at the vocational and hobby levels, spanning the years 1939 to 2011.

"Looking Back - the autobiography of Robert J. Padula - 1939 to 2011"

Contact the author at this Email link