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On April 7 2002, Mick Ogrizek and I
visited the site of the former HF beam wireless transmitting station,
some 80 km west of Melbourne, just south of the town of Ballan.
The 154 Hectare site (450 acres) is now used by the Victorian
Country Fire Authority for training and hospitality purposes.
The facility commenced transmissions on April 8, 1927, as the
Australian transmitting station for the Australia-England beam
wireless service, and was given rhe name Fiskville in 1933 in
honour of its founder, Mr Fisk.
The beam wireless network povioded hith speed telegraphy and "radio
pictures" between the UK and Australia, and a Canadian link
was added in later years. The receiving station was at Rockbank,
about 60 km west of Melbourne, and landline and wireless links
were used interconnecting the main offices in Melbourne and Sydney
with the transmitting and receiving stations.
The Fiskville centre still has many of the original buildings,
which have been preserved and are now used for convention accommodation
for visitors. The main entrance is in the form of a high brick
archway, with the date of completion (1926) shown prominently
in Roman numerals.
There is a small bronze plaque outside
the entrance, commemorating the Beam Wireless service, and advising
that the last transmission was on 31 May 1969. The CFA took over
the site in 1971.
At its peak, the station had three 25 KW HF transmitters, with
94 antennas. There were three steel lattice masts, 75 metres high,
195 metres apart, each weighing 50 tons. The guy wires were supported
by concrete blocks, 33 metres from the base of each tower. The
entire antenna structure ran in an east west direction, and supported
crossarms of 27 metres in length. The azimuth was about 330 degrees,
which was short path to Europe. The same antennas were used at
about
120 degrees, for longpath.
The operating frequency was in the 12 MHz region, using some interesting
circuit designs! The generator actually produced the carrier,
at around 12 MHz - there were no crystal controlled devices. The
thing was essentially a huge AC generator.
Historical notes indicate that it had been originally proposed
to set up the service on long-wave, as had been the practice in
Europe and North America at the time, but that was abandoned due
to constraints of space and power! The beam wireless was one of
the first services to exploit HF propagation commercially, as
SW had been thought to be unsuitable for global communications.
The number one transmitter continued ins service right up to 1969.
At its inception, the station used two
25 kW transmitters, with the call-signs VIZ and VIY. A third transmitter
was added at a later stage, and the station continued broadcast
high-speed telegraphy until its closure in 1969. In its later
years, it was used also for carrying scanned "radio pictures".
One transmitter and antenna was used for broadcasting to the UK
- the other for Canada. The English stations were located at Grimsby
(transmitter) and Skegness (receiver). The transmitting station
in Canada was at Drummondville, and at Yamachiche, for the receiver.
The Ballan station used three towers to support two curtain antennas
with reflectors. Each transmitter consisted of a three-stage power
amplifier, driven by a master oscillator. The transmitters were
keyed from a control room in the Melbourne Central business district
(Queen Street), via "landlines". Plate voltage was a
mere 20,000 Volts!
Transmission speeds of up to 2000 words per minute were achieved,
using automated signalling, and controlled by punched tape.
Commercial (mains) power was not connected to the Ballan site
until 1941, and prior to that, power was generated locally by
three 165 HP oil-engines coupled to direct-current dynamos. One
generator supplied filament power, presumed to be AC. There were
no batteries.
The receiving station at Rockbank also had three antenna masts,
with two 16 HP oil engines for power, coupled to 110 Volts, 90
Amp DC generators, which were used to charge a bank of accumulators.
The bank consisted of 60 230 amp-hour accumulators. There were
two additional generator sets - one to charge the "A"
batteries, the other for the "B" batteries. The "B"
battery generator delivered 6 Amps at 300 Volts.
The actual operating frequency appeared to be around 12 MHz, for
both transmitters, and output would have been a form of "narrowband"
CW.
Incoming signals from Canada and the UK were converted to 8 kHz,
and then modulated to a 1 kHz audio tone, and then sent on their
way to the control centre via telephone lines.
The Ballan station was huge by the standards of the day, and the
antenna towers were visible up to many km across the surrounding
plains.
The technology was the best available at the time, and was the
first commercial exploitation of HF DX work! The system was not
designed for voice, and it's interesting to recall that the first
HF voice transmission from Victoria was later in 1927, from a
transmitter co-located at the site of the original 3LO mediumwave
station, in the western suburb of Braybrook. This transmitter
also operated around 12 MHz, and was very similar in design to
the Ballan CW station, with the addition of a modulator. This
transmitter took the callsign VK3ME and continued to operate (along
with a sister station in Sydney - VK2ME) - until the start of
World War 11, when it was taken over by the Government.
The Amalgamated Wireless of Australia company (AWA) was responsible
for setting up the Ballan, Rockbank, and Braybrook stations.
Our visit revealed that the concrete blocks are still there protruding
about 1 metre above the ground, and there were still the heavy
iron rings attahed, which were used for the guy wires. The original
transmitter hall remains, and has been extended with office facilities
for the CFA. I have a photo taken in 1928 of that building, and
it's interesting to compare it now, 75 years later!
The concrete foundations are in fact now part of the centre's
golf course, and there is nothing else remaining of the feeder
system or maintenance blocks. Neither was any trace to be found
of the steel masts or guys, which I was told were dismantled by
the CFA in 1971.
The Australian Beam Wireless service has been widely researched
by many technical historians, and it has great historical importance
to anyone in Australia having an interest in the development of
radio in this country. There are interesting articles with pictures
of the station and original antennas, and some of the antenna
circuitry, both in Ballan and in the UK, at:
http://oldkevspage.tripod.com/awa/page_3.html
https://www.angelfire.com/de/vk3kcm/Fiskville3.html
Fiskville may be visited without appointment: it's about 5 km
south of Ballan on the main road to Geelong, and one may enter
via the 75 year old driveway under the arch, or via a side-road,
which is well marked.
There were special experimental transmissions arranged by UK amateurs
to commemorate the 75th anniversary. The British Radio Amateur
Old Timers' Association organised a special event station at the
site of the old Marconi station at Tetney, Lincolnshire, between
the 5th and 8th of April, with the callsign GB75GBH.
Beam wireless technology was phased out in the 1960s due to the
introduction of undersea cables and satellite circuits, and as
far as I know, Fiskville never operated in voice mode.
The receiving station at Rockbank was closed down in 1969, and
had been jointly used by the Australian Military for some time
prior to that.
I acknowledge several articles and stories which had been published
in the Melbourne weekly radio newspaper "The Listener In",
in the 1920s and 1930's, and these may be viewed at the Melbourne
Public Library. (BP)
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