Background
April 21 2012 commemorated the 76^th anniversary of the first shortwave broadcast from the MS “Kanimbla”.

April 26 1936
This was the date on whjich the ship was officially launched. It operated in Australian waters as a passenger liner and had a shortwave radio station on board. It was the only ship in history in which a commercial shortwave radio broadcasting station was constructed into the vessel at the time of building.

The 11,000 ton passenger liner was built at Belfast in Northern Ireland, by the famous ship building company, Harland and Wolff. The electronic equipment was manufactured by AWA in Australia and shipped to Ireland for installation while the ship was still under construction.

The ship was named for the Kanimbla Valley, west of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

A radio broadcasting license with the experimental callsign VK9MI, was granted to the "Kanimbla" by the PMG’s Department in Australia.

The station consisted of two studios - one for group broadcasts, and the other for announcer presentation. The crystal controlled transmitter was rated at 1.5 kW.

The original AWA transmitter could operate on any frequency between 20 and 50 metres. The first test broadcast from 9MI was made on April 21, 1936 during sea trials in the Firth of Clyde.

The ship began its delivery voyage from Northern Ireland to Australia April 26, 1936 and is reported that the radio station 9MI made four test broadcasts each day during this 25,000 km journey.

The official inauguration of the new radio broadcasting station VK9MI was made in a special broadcast to Australia while the ship was south of the continent in the Great Australian Bight, 1500 km from Sydney. At 8:00 pm Eastern Australian Standard Time, VK9MI went on the air shortwave and the program was picked up and relayed throughout Australia over the ABC mediumwave network.

This inaugural broadcast from 9MI was made on 11720 kHz, though subsequently the regular channel was 6005 kHz, which was later changed in April 1939 to 6055 kHz. The schedule was irregular, usually half an hour or an hour a few evenings a week. The announcer and manager was Eileen Foley.

The "Kanimbla" carried passenger traffic backwards and forwards on the southern route between Western Australia and Queensland, and the ports of call in this shuttle service were Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Mackay.

The local AWA mediumwave stations on land in each of these areas frequently relayed the shortwave programming from VK9MI to the local audience. Among these stations were 2AY in Albury New South Wales, 3BO in Bendigo Victoria, and 4CA in Cairns Queensland.

On many occasions, radio station VK9MI was heard on shortwave throughout Australia and New Zealand, and many QSL cards were signed by the famous woman announcer, Eileen Foley. As time went by, the transmitter began to malfunction and it produced a noisy wide signal in the 49 meter band.