Adrian Peterson’s Diary, May 1996
This month we welcome Dr. Adrian M. Peterson of Adventist World Radio as a regular NASWA editorial contributor. Adrian Peterson’s name will be well-known to many members as the producer of AWR’s “Wavescan” DX program. Born in Australia, he has developed a great breadth of DX experience since starting in radio in 1938. He has visited many stations over the years, and has collected over 20,000 QSLs since 1944. He was the director of AWR-Asia in Poona, India for 10 years, and host of the popular “Radio Monitors International” DX program broadcast from Sri Lanka from 1975 to 1987. He has a Ph.D. in international radio broadcasting, and is AWR’s Coordinator for International Relations and a member of the AWR Controlling Board. We look forward to many future entries in Adrian Peterson’s Diary. –Jerry Berg
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This is the story of All India Radio near Bangalore, as visited by a group of 20 amateur radio operators of the Bangalore Amateur Radio Club who arranged an educational trip to the SW transmitting station located at Doddaballapur, near Bangalore in South India. This was one of the best trips of its kind in recent years.
Forty-two club members loaded themselves into six cars, jeeps, and vans which were also loaded with South Indian delicacies, such as ravakesari, potato chips, pickles and oranges, and, of course, huge water cans containing drinking water. They set off from Bangalore at 9:30 am on Sunday morning, driving out towards Doddaballapur.
As the motorcade was approaching Doddaballapur, it was thrilling to see the massive array of tall antenna towers that seemed to reach up into the skies. Later on, they learned that the shortest of these towers is 60 meters tall, and that the other seven are 125 meters tall. Work on this project began back in 1986, and the first two transmitters were commissioned in 1988. They are named “Ganga” and “Cauvery.” All six transmitters are rated at 500 kw., and all are named after large rivers in India.
These transmitters utilize what is known as a digital system of pulse modulation, which ensures a high degree of efficiency and an excellent level of sound quality. The programs that are broadcast are produced in studios in New Delhi, and are carried to Doddaballapur by satellite link, coaxial cable and microwave relay. The cluster of antennas, which is at a considerable distance from the transmitters for reasons associated with the concentrated intensity of RF energy, is reached by car.
The antenna system is enclosed in a protected area. Before any transmitter is switched on, a warning siren is sounded three times at an interval of three minutes. This is for the safety of staff or visitors who may be in the area of the antennas. On some occasions, birds have become prey to the high energy fields.
Altogether there are 27 antennas in the antenna farm, four of which are curtains. These are indeed an impressive sight. Each tower is protected against lightning strikes. An interlocking system offers safety to the staff and to the equipment as well. The transmitters are on the air 20 hours a day, nonstop. The rest period is between 11 am and 3 pm local time daily. It takes only 40 seconds for a transmitter to come up to full power once it is switched on. The 300 ohm feeder lines are 75 mm in diameter.
Currently, the transmitters are on the air in 24 languages, including Swahili to Africa, Chinese and Japanese to Asia, as well as Hindi and English. All India Radio plans to increase the number of languages to 34. The programs from this station are beamed towards Africa, East Asia, the South Pacific, Europe, and the Gulf countries. These programs can be heard throughout the night in the standard SW bands, ranging from 9 to 16 MHz. The radio visitors were wonderstruck at the giant size of the valves which cost around Rs 500,000 each. They are manufactured in Switzerland by Brown Boveri, and the average life of a valve is around one and a half years. Orders for new valves must be placed at least one year in advance.
The 30 ton air conditioning plant itself cost one third of the total cost of the project. The cooling system includes water purification and air purification. The monthly bill for electricity is about Rs 300,000, since the voltage requirement is around 66,000. The local electricity company has established a special sub-station at the site.
There are nearly 100 staff members working at this huge transmitting station, many of whom are highly qualified engineers. All of them stay at the quarters provided at Yelahanka, and they have their own bus system for transportation to and from the site.
Since the group of visitors was quite large, it was divided into three smaller groups, and each group was led by an engineer, who gave them a guided tour. They were fortunate to be present when the transmitters were switched on. This is a rare opportunity, as vistors normally are not allowed at this time. At any given time, two transmitters are working in two different directions. While the visiting group was there, transmitters “Krishna” and “Cauvery” were switched on. The other four transmitters, “Narmada,” “Yamuna,” “Ganga” and “Godavari,” were to be switched on at later times. The entire transmitter building is designed and constructed in the shape of a huge hammer. The architect was granted a special award for this unique design.
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South Africa is a varied land located at the southern tip of Africa. It is barely 1,000 miles across, and just 800 miles deep. It has two capital cities and two languages. The capital cities are Capetown for legislation and Pretoria for administration, although Johannesburg, or Jo’burg as it is known, is the largest city. The two official languages are English and Afrikaans, and many African languages are also spoken in this multi-ethnic country.
South Africa is famous for its fabulous diamond mines and gold mines, its wild animals, and its wild flowers. The diamond fields were opened when the children of a Boer farmer found a “pretty pebble” in the sandy bed of the Vaal River in 1866. The gold mines were opened in 1880, and the sale of gold has been the major factor behind South Africa’s prosperity. Wild animals abound in the country. In the Kruger National Park you will see elephants, leopards, lions and zebras, all in their natural habitat. The wild flowers, of uniform and variegated hue, can be seen stretching for miles in the wide expanses of their semi-desert areas.
South Africa established wireless transmission facilities for communication purposes just before the outbreak of World War I. The first stations were established in Capetown and Durban. These spark transmitters were identified with the non-uniform callsigns CTN for Capetown and DBN for Durban. They operated on 300 and 600 metres, corresponding to 1,000 and 500 kHz in what is now the standard MW band. They had a range of somewhere around 500 miles for communication with passing ships.
After the war, the two stations operated under regularized callsigns in the VN series: VNC for Capetown, and VND for Durban. The British Navy operated two wireless communication stations in South Africa at this stage, identified with callsigns in the BZ series. Durban identified as BZI, and Port Nolloth as BZJ.
The first wireless broadcast of an entertainment nature went on the air on the celebrated date of December 29, 1923. This was a 500 watt transmitter located at Johannesburg, operating on 450 metres, 665 kc, under the unique callsign JB. This station was owned at first by the South African Railways, but ownership was transferred during the next year, 1924, to the Associated Scientific & Technical Societies.
A similar station was established in Capetown, again with a power of 500 watts, with the channel 400 metres, 750 kc. This station operated under what we would now see as an American callsign, WAMG. The third radio station in South Africa was established in Durban on December 10, 1924.
On April 1, 1927, these three stations were amalgamated into the African Broadcasting Company, which in turn grew into the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC. When callsigns were regularized, Johannesburg became ZTJ, Capetown ZTC, and Durban ZTD.
The first SW station in South Africa was also located at Johannesburg, and it was identified variously as 4B and JP, though the programming came from station JB. With the regularization of callsigns, this unit also became ZTJ. A new SW facility with nine transmitters of 20 kw. each was officially inaugurated on July 1, 1956 at Paradys, near Bloemfontein. This station was established to give radio coverage to areas in South Africa that were not covered by local radio stations. It was located on a lonely property of 400 acres, 12 miles south of Bloemfontein. It contained nine 20 kw. transmitters, with 18 antennas for the national service and seven for external coverage.
The External SW Service from this facility was established in 1966. The station at Paradys was closed in 1969 when a larger station was constructed near Meyerton. The Meyerton Transmitting Station is located on a property of 1,250 acres in a mountainous region some 64 km. south of Johannesburg. It was officially opened in October 1965, and it began regular broadcasting in May of the following year.
The Meyerton station is actually made up of two neighboring facilities containing a total of 16 SW transmittersthree of 500 kw., four of 250 kw., and 16 of 100 kw. The Foreign Service has used mainly the higher powered units, and the Home Service and African services have used mainly the 100 kw. units. This is the station, near Meyerton in South Africa, that has been on the air in recent time as a relay service for other international and regional broadcasting stations such as the BBC, VOA, and Trans World Radio.
Currently, for reasons of economy, Radio South Africa is not broadcasting a Foreign Service, but only services to Africa, under the name “Channel Africa.” QSL cards for transmissions over the Meyerton radio station may be obtained from VOA and Trans World Radio, as well as from the RSA local address as given in the World Radio TV Handbook: SENTECH, Box X06, Honeydew, 2040, South Africa.