THE HISTORY OF SHORTWAVE RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

1930 - AWA Receiving Station at La Perouse (Sydney)

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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

laperousereceivingstation1930.jpg
1930 - La Perouse Receiving Station

AWA Receiving Centre - at La Perouse

In 1930, In Sydney, on the heights of La Perouse, overlooking Botany Bay, was located the Sydney Receiving Centre of AWA, the most important and the largest receiving station in the Southern Hemisphere at the time.

Wireless traffic was received there from a network of stations throughout the world.

This included messages from ships' stations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and from the Coastal Radio Stations on the south-eastern seaboard of Australia.
Two-way wireless telephony conversation was maintained between La Perouse and the trawlers operating off the N.S.W. coast

The latest news of the world was received from the English high power station at Rugby, as well as reception of broadcast programmes transmitted from English, American, and Continental high power Broadcasting Stations.

The enormous ranges by short-wave working was demonstrated by the reception at La Perouse of experimental communications from short-wave stations in Great Britain and Europe, the United States and Canada, Africa, Asia, and the Dutch East Indies.

The La Perouse Station maintained communication with all the shortwave stations in the Pacific, including Rabaul, New Guinea; Suva, Fiji; Noumea, New Caledonia; and San Francisco, while effective communication was also maintained with ships' stations equipped with shortwave apparatus, crossing the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The system of centralising wireless activities was conceived and developed by Mr. Fisk, Managing Director of Amalgamated Wireless (A/asia.) Ltd., which resulted in there being three large wireless centres in N.S.W.- the Transmitting Centre at Pennant Hills, the Receiving Centre at La Perouse, and the Control Centre at A.W.A. Headquarters, 47 York Street, Sydney.

The following services were  operated from La Perouse:

The Beam Feeder Service from Melbourne.

The Coastal Radio Service communicating with The Coastal Radio Stations at Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Townsville.

Radio Service with Suva, Fiji.

Island Radio Service communicating with New Guinea and Papua.

Marine Wireless Services with ships at sea.

Short-wave long distance Marine Services.

The Trawler Telephony Service for communicating with trawlers operating off the N.S.W. coast.

The reception of press messages from the British high power station at Rugby, and from stations in other parts of the world. The reception of broadcast programmes from Great Britain, the Continent of Europe and America, for re-broadcast by Australian Broadcasting Stations.

Messages from the Company's Island Radio Station at Rabaul, New Guinea; the A.W.A., Suva, Fiji, Station and the Beam Feeder Transmitting Station at Braybrook, Melbourne, were received at La Perouse and automatically relayed to Wireless House, York Street, where they were automatically recorded by mechanical means or aurally received.

The Receiving Station at La Perouse had become famous throughout the world for the many noteworthy interceptions carried out there. From the time Squadron-Leader Kingsford-Smith left San Francisco until he reached Australia, operators at La Perouse were in touch with the aircraft, and in this achieved a record in 'plane to earth communication.

During the flight of the "Southern Cross" from Australia to England messages were received at La Perouse station from the time the 'plane left Sydney until she was passing over France. On another occasion A.W.A. operators at La Perouse were in two-way communication with the German steamer "Bremen" when she was establishing a record run across the Atlantic.

Messages transmitted by Commander Byrd's Antarctic Expedition have been regularly heard by A.W.A., and, by way of reciprocity, the company transmitted a special programme to the Polar explorers.

The telephony tests between Sydney and Schenectady, New York, and between Sydney and Java, and between Sydney and London, carried out by Mr. Fisk, were made through the La Perouse station so far as concerned the reception of the voices at the Sydney end.

The whole of the modern wireless equipment at both La Perouse and Pennant Hills was designed and manufactured by Amalgamated Wireless (A/asia) Ltd.

 

la perouse 1935.jpg
La Perouse Station -1935 (from Mike VK2XZU Newcastle)

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