Mike Bird writes: The Cox Peninsula, Darwin HF transmitter station in Australia was closed on 31 January 2010. CVC a christian broadcasting company who leased the transmission equipment since 1999 after the then Howard government closed the site in 1997, have decided to drop HF broadcasting to Asia.
The original lease to use the site included a get out clause after 10 years. The land the transmitter complex is built on has since been claimed by a local Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. In the past few days the technicians have started decommissioning the equipment and lowering the antennas. This has meant Radio Australia (RA) has had to find alternative HF transmitting relays to service Asia. VT based in the UK have so far found two sites that can provide relay transmissions for RA to broadcast to Asia at Medorm (HBN) Palau in the Pacific Ocean and Dhabbaya (DHA) in the United Arab Emirates.
The schedule is as follows (all times UTC):
- 0000-0030 Indonesian to West & central Indonesia on HBN 15225 kHz
- 0100-0130 Burmese to Burma on HBN 15655 kHz
- 0400-0430 Indonesian to West & central Indonesia on HBN 15780 kHz
- 0500-0530 Indonesian to West & central Indonesia on HBN 15590 kHz
- 1300-1430 Chinese to SE China & SE Asia in general on HBN 9890 kHz
- 1600-1630 Burmese to Burma on HBN 9965 kHz
- 2200-2400 English to SE Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam) on HBN 12040 kHz
- 2200-2330 Indonesian to West & central Indonesia on DHA 5935 kHz
- 2300-2330 Burmese to Burma on DHA 5955 kHz
Discussions are currently taking place between RA, VT and the Singapore government about the possible use of the Kranji relay facility to further bolster RA’s transmissions to Asia.
(Source: Mike Bird)
on Feb 7th, 2010 at 04:08
Oh Dear. I am getting old. I can remember the opening of Darwin and the programmes about it on Radio Australia at the time.
on Feb 7th, 2010 at 12:45
To think I’ve just recently QSL’d that transmitter/RA - and that was the first time I got to hear Australia (after many attempts)..
Can’t help thinking decommissioning any equipment and lowering antennas is always a bit of a disgrace to the effort made to put those up.
Glad to learn the will to communicate is still there though.
on Feb 8th, 2010 at 00:27
So the Singapore government has veto power over what VT relays from Kranji? Why would they veto Radio Australia?
on Feb 8th, 2010 at 10:14
The word ‘veto’ does not appear in the above story, neither is it implied. But presumably the media law in Singapore requires the government’s approval for relays of foreign broadcasters. There’s nothing unusual in that.
on Feb 8th, 2010 at 15:30
Indeed. Here in Germany an approval from the Foreign Office is necessary to transmit foreign broadcasters on shortwave.
However, in the case of the ABC this approval would be just a formality. Thus it is indeed interesting that the ABC needs to “discuss” the possibilities of using transmitters in Singapore with the authorities there. This wording suggests that the matter is a bit more complicated, and this sheds an interesting light on aspects of media politics.
And in regard to the Darwin/Cox transmitter site I understand the situation to be such that
1/ closing it down and dismantling it is inavoidably, due to the station grounds being claimed by the previous or just legitimate owners (a problem caused four decades ago, when the station has been set up) and
2/ the equipment is still owned by either Broadcast Australia or an Australian authority, so it’s up to them to decide what to do with it (the three Thomson transmitters are certainly still too valuable for the scrap yard and could be sold to an interested operator).
Please correct me if necessary.
on Feb 8th, 2010 at 15:41
I wouldn’t read too much into the wording. I suspect the discussion has more to do with VT being able to negotiate a favourable price, as RA’s budget is very limited. I wouldn’t call it ‘media politics’, it’s simply business.
I cannot comment on the situation regarding Darwin as I am not a lawyer