AUSTRALIAN RADIO ANNIVERSARY - VLQ IN BRISBANE
(By Dr Adrian Peterson,
AWR, IN, USA <COPYRIGHT RAGUSA MEDIA GROUP>, and reproduced
with permission This story may not be further reproduced or quoted
without the specific consent of the author)
The regional home service
shortwave station VLQ at Bald Hills near Brisbane in Queensland
would have celebrated its 61st anniversary in February 2004, that
is, if the station were still on the air today. However, station
VLQ and its sister unit VLM have been off the air now for more
than 10 years. This is the story.
The callsigns VLQ & VLM were originally allocated to two ships
in the registry of neighbouring New Zealand, and in more recent
time, the callsign VLM was in use as a line callsign for one of
the transmitters at the temporary Carnarvon site in Western Australia.
We might also add that the callsign VLM was also in use for a
10 kW communication transmitter located at Pennant Hills in the
pre-war days, and the callsign VLQ was also in use at the same
site for international broadcasting beginning in the year 1939.
During the year 1941, work commenced at Bald Hills, twelve miles
north of Brisbane, on a new radio base for the two ABC mediumwave
stations 4QG and 4QR. One of the major reasons for moving the
antennas from the city into the country during the Pacific War
was so that the horizon as seen from the ocean would be considerably
lower.
The location at Bald Hills is flat and swampy and it was previously
in use as a commercial jam factory. In May 1942, station 4QG was
transferred from the top of a city building to the new country
location.
The first test broadcasts from the new 10 kW STC transmitter were
heard on February 14, 1943, and strangely, the test announcement
gave the location as Sydney. Three days later, shortwave VLQ at
Bald Hills was officially inaugurated and it carried the ABC programming
for outback areas.
In 1945, the ABC began a 15 minute daily news bulletin from VLQ
for listeners in Papua New Guinea. Some 30 years later, Radio
Australia also took the same station, VLQ, into daily usage for
a regular five hour service to Papua New Guinea. The channel for
this external broadcast was 11885 kHz though no callsign was allocated
for this transmission. The Radio Australia usage of VLQ for the
service to Papua New Guinea was terminated in 1976 when the new
though temporary station was inaugurated at Carnarvon in Western
Australia
A temporary additional unit was installed at Bald Hills for use
on a lower frequency for coverage in the skip zone of the higher
frequency unit VLQ. This temporary unit was rated at 200 watts
and it was opened without ceremony as VLM on September 7, 1949.
Two years later, a new 10 kW transmitter was installed and it
took over the VLM service.
Back during the pre-satellite era, the shortwave service from
the two transmitters VLQ & VLM served a double purpose. It
was in use as a direct broadcast service for people living in
isolated outback areas, and it was also considered essential as
an emergency backup for outages in the tenuous landline feeds
to distant mediumwave stations. The VLQ relay service was heard
at times from several of the distant ABC stations in Queensland,
and also from station 5DR at Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Over the years, a total of four different shortwave transmitters
were on the air at Bald Hills, three at 10 kW and one at 200 Watts.
The three larger units were on the air as VLQ and VLM, and also
for the Radio Australia service to Papua New Guinea. The antenna
system was made up of two concentric rhombics, two half wave dipoles,
and an experimental folded dipole.
The last broadcast from this shortwave station was heard on December
16, 1993 and the newest transmitter was sold a few months later
to the ChronoHertz station VNG in Llandilo in New South Wales.
However, station VNG has also subsequently gone silent.
Several different QSL cards have been issued for VLQ and VLM during
the station's 60 year existence, including the original PMG card,
and four different styles of cards showing maps of Australia and
Queensland. For Radio Australia programming, the colourful picture
cards showing animals, birds and flowers were issued.