Sunday, June 19, 2011

Interesting memorial to 2FC transmitter

A busy ham radio day here at 'chez vk2tpm'. A few weeks back, when I'd built the "shambles" 80m transceiver, I emailed a very strong local station, Malcolm VK2BMS, asking to arrange a contact so I could get a signal report. Here's the transceiver (double side band tx, direct conversion receive):

Shambles tx

Malcolm replied to my email some months after I sent it - apparently his cat uses the computer, presumably to upload cat videos to YouTube, and he's only just got it back. We had a contact today after the WIA broadcast and he says I sound pretty good if I don't over-drive.

He, and Robert, VK2ZNZ mentioned a plaque in the pavement at the corner of Edinburgh road and Eastern Valley Way, not far from the home QTH, and we headed off to take a look:

2FC memorial

"Radio Broadcasting Station 2FC

2FC began broadcasting on 5/12/1923. Farmer and Company Limited Broadcasting Service leased land from the corner of Edinburgh Road and Lyle Street (now part of Eastern Valley Way) to halfway to Sugarloaf Creek. Powered by 5,000 watts, it was 'the world's largest broadcasting station' (1923 Willoughby Municipal Council Annual Report). Two steel lattice towers 200 feet high and 600 feet apart supported a squirrel type cage aerial. The main operating room and staff quarters were directly below. The studios in Pitt Street were linked to Willoughby by landline. In 1929 the transmitter, by then out of date, was dismantled and moved to Homebush Bay."

In the time when 2FC transmitted from here you had to get to the transmitter by ferry and tram.

VK2ZNZ has been busy while I've been away with a new valve receiver built in the perspex style:

Valve receiver

And it has a battery high voltage supply made from 9V cells:

High voltage battery

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