SYDNEY RADIO
station was built by the Australasian Wireless Company after it
won the contract to build high-powered radio stations in Sydney and
Perth.
Situated 20 kilometres to the north-west of the city centre at Pennant
Hills, the station
opened on 19 August 1912 with the brief to watch over Pacific shipping
and to communicate
with the Perth station. It issued time signals twice daily and weather
forecasts to shipping.
Sydney Radio was destined to become the centre of communications in
the Pacific as well
as being the major coastal radio station in Australia. In 1925, the
station was chosen to
conduct the first short-wave long distance ship-to-shore radio telegraphy
experiments in
Australia.
Tuning Telefunken equipment, Pennant Hills, c. 1912
(throw the switch NOW Igor!)
The station
kept in constant contact with the SS Niagara, which had been fitted with
short-
wave radio equipment, as it voyaged from Australia to Vancouver. Soon
after, Pennant Hills
was equipped with a radio telephone transmitter, and established communications
with
Sydney-based fishing trawlers. Later, several NSW fishing fleets equipped
their vessels with
radio telephones.
Engine under test, Pennant Hills, c. 1911
The Pennant
Hills station served as both a transmitting and receiving centre for the
CRS
until 1926. With the increased growth and development of short-wave services
to ships, the
receiving facilities were moved to a site at Willoughby on Sydney's North
Shore.
Meanwhile,
a new receiving facility was under construction at La Perouse, overlooking
Botany Bay. On 28 February 1927, this new site became the permanent CRS
receiving station.
The station
at Pennant Hills remained as a transmitting site, but its activities were
not just
confined to coastal radio services. By 1928, high frequency equipment
had been installed,
giving Pennant Hills direct communications with Suva and Rabaul.
Operator at La Perouse receiving station in the 1920s
As AWA continued
to upgrade and modernise its facilities, Sydney could maintain direct
contact with the remaining stations in the CRS network and, by 1931, was
in direct contact
with Port Moresby. The radio broadcasting station 2FC also transmitted
from the Pennant
Hills site.
After OTC took control, it bought two new sites in 1950; one at Doonside
and
the other at Bringelly, west of Parramatta. The transmitting functions
of Sydney
Radio were moved to Doonside, and the receiving functions to Bringelly
in
1955/56. La Perouse remained in operation using the callsign VIS. It continued
to
be the largest station in Australia's Coastal Radio Service until it's
closure in 1996.
