THE HISTORY OF SHORTWAVE RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

1945 - Radio Australia - DXers Calling

Home
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
phumfray1969.jpg
1969 - Peter Humfray recording DXers Calling Edit Picture

DXERS CALLING
On July 9 1946, the first edition of Radiio Australai's "DXers Calling" went to air. It was hosted by well-known shortwave enthusiasts of the era, including Ern Suffolk (SA) and Ted Tinning (Vic).

Later, it was managed bty Graham Hutchins (Melbourne) who had been the driving force behind the first Australian DX Club at the time.

Graham authored and hosted the shows until his untimely passing in 1965, when the ABC's DIrector of Overseas Services, Mt Peter Homfray, assumed hosting duties. At that time, Mr Gordon Cairns, Senior Administrator at RA, was writing the scripts. Later in 1965 I was then approached by Radio Australia to take over authoring of the programs, which I did until the shows were discontinued in October 1977. From 1965 until 1977, the programs were read by Peter Humfrays.

In 1975, the programs were being written by various members of the Australian Radio DX Club, chosen, trained and coordinated by myself.

There were several releases of DXers Calling, for each main target area - Europe, Africa, the Pacific, North America, and Asia, broadcast from the Shepparton transmitters.

The programs were also broadcast over the ABC's Domestic SW services from Lyndhurst (Victoria) at 8am on Sundays, from VLR and VLH, using 6150 and 11880 Khz. These transmissions were primarly directed to listeners in the outback and the islands.

The 30th anniversary of DXers Calling in 1976 was marked by special commemorative QSLs issued by Radio Australia and the ARDXC. The RA QSL showed a view of the Carnavon transmitting site in WA. The ARDXC QSLs were issued for all correct reports received at RA for DXers Calling during 1976. These reports were forwarded to ARDXC by RA, processed by ARDXC Committee members in Melbourne, and the ARDXC QSLs were than sent to RA here they were sent out to listeners.

We received several hundred reports for the ARDXC QSL!

The final edition of DXers Calling was on October 30, 1977.

DXers Calling was also translated into Japanese and broadcast each Sunday night, under the title "DX Time", in the Japanese service.

When the English DXers Calling was terminated, the ARDXC, through myself as coordinator, continued to write the programs for the Japanese Section.

DX Time had a massive following of several million listeners, mainly Japanese children who had become involved in what was known at the time as "BCL" (meaning "Shortwave Listening".

We continued with these tasks until the closure of the Japanese service. Edit Text

1969 - Radio Australia studio
1969 - Radio Australia studio Edit Picture

mail1969.jpg
1969 - Radio Australia mail room! Edit Picture

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