Beam telegraph traffic
The highest speed at which commercial telegraph traffic had been handled over the Australia-England circuit was 325 words per minute, and this limit was imposed by the mechanical restrictions of the automatic sending and recording instruments at each end. However, under normal conditions, the circuit operated at speeds between 150 and 200 words per minute, and increased capacity was usually handled by additional transmitters.
Communication with London and Montreal, which provide the outlets for the exchange of messages with Europe and the American Continent respectively, was conducted alternately over the long or short portion of the great circles connecting Melbourne with those points, according to which portion of the route was in darkness.
The short route over each of the great circles approximates 9,000 nautical miles, and the long route a little more than 12,000 nautical miles. The average number of hours per day suitable for high speed duplex communication between Melbourne and London was about 17, the period being longest in the winter, when on many days it was practically continuous.
Communication with London was supplemented by working through automatic repeaters at Montreal over the Canadian-Australian Beam linked with the Anglo-Canadian Atlantic Beam, and this channel during the Australian summer season extended communication in each direction by two or three hours daily. Also, during the same season further direct communication was obtained by the use of lower signalling frequencies, which gave a further extension of from two to three hours daily.
Although normally the messages from various States were transmitted to beam stations over landline system, highspeed wireless feeder stations were also provided at each of the capital cities for the reticulation of messages. As about half of the telegraph business in Australia originated in Sydney and was provided with an operating room directly linked, both by radio and landline channels, to the transmitters and receivers situated in Victoria, and for a considerable period of the day, direct working to London and Canada was controlled in Sydney, over 600 miles from the radio equipment.
The Beam Wireless Service carried about 15,000,000 words a year, which includes 80% of the total telegraph business between United Kingdom and Australia, and it was estimated that the two stations had an ultimate capacity of nearly 250,000,000 words per annum.
The Beam Picturegram service.
The Beam Wireless Picturegram Service between Melbourne and London was opened in 1934, and over 50,000 square centimetres of pictures had been transmitted by this service. The principle employed in this service is to interrupt the energy in the picture scanning equipment at a uniform rate, and apply the light from the picture being scanned to cause the duration of each impulse to vary according to the light value of that portion of the picture. At the receiving end, light tones are therefore recorded as a series of extremely fine dots, whilst dark tones are produced by the same number of dots to the inch but each elongated so that they almost join together. The receiving equipment is of course provided with suitable signal strength limiting devices so that each dot recorded is of uniform light value, although varying in length. The scanning frequency is little more than 100 lines per inch, and the time occupied in transmitting picture approximately 10 in. x 8 in. varies from 20 to 40 minutes according to the speed of scanning which communication conditions will permit. It is estimated, that if small dots and dashes corresponding in size to those constituting the screen of a transmitted picture and arranged in accordance with the Morse code were transmitted and recorded by this method, a speed of approximately 600 five letter words per minute would be possible.
In January 1946, the first colour picture was transmitted from London to Australia.
The close of an Era…
As the Beam Wireless Service expanded and technology advanced, the Fiskville station grew with a series of modernisation programs. The original aerials were replaced by ones of a more modern design and a workshop was opened to allow new parts to be manufactured on site.
In 1933, the Number 3 transmitter was converted to 20 kw by installing CAT 2 valves. By 1939, all the original Marconi type glass valves were replaced by Radiotron types, and transmission tests were conducted to Sydney using three frequencies on a 24 hour basis.
In May 1941, the auxiliary power plant was abandoned in favour of mains power which supplied the station quarters, lighting and auxiliary functions. In December the same year, the 3 V.E. diesel engines were closed and transmitters were operated off mains power.
With the onset of World War II, the Ballan workshop was expanded to make high speed telegraph apparatus for both the Beam Service and the armed forces. Five instrument makers were employed. In 1946, the buildings were further altered. Changes were made to the interior and the equipment after OTC took over the station in 1947, but the historic No 1 transmitter continued in service until November 1960.
The OTC connection
In post-war years, until the era of the satellite communications rendered such equipment obsolete, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) operated the site.
The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (Australia) was formed by Act of Parliament on August 7, 1946, its responsibility being the maintenance and operation of Australia’s overseas telecommunications services as well as communications with ships.
On October 1st 1946 OTC and AWA Ltd signed a caretaker and Management agreement under which AWA continued to control and operate radio services until such time as the Commission had the resources to assume full control. At that time the acquisition began of the communications assets of AWA and of Cable and Wireless overseas telegraph facilities, with C&W retaining ownership of the cables themselves, while the cable stations in Australia and Norfolk Island came under the ownership of OTC.
On February 1st 1947 OTC assumed full control of Radio services from AWA Ltd. In November of that same year the Beam Messenger service was discontinued. In post-war years, until the era of the satellite communications rendered such equipment obsolete, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) operated the site at Fiskville.
When OTC vacated the Fiskville site in 1968 there were 94 aerials on the property.
The Fiskville station closed on 31 May 1969.
The CFA bought the property in late 1971.
CFA Training Complex - Fiskville
By the early 1970's, the CFA's role as a fire service had grown in size and complexity and they purchased the Fiskville site for a specalised training facility. By 1972, the CFA had begun to transform Fiskville. The massive masts were dismantled and existing buildings progressively converted and upgraded to perform training tasks. Some of the original Californian architectural style administration buildings have been retained and give Fiskville an interesting character.
My thanks to:
The AWA Veterans Association
Noel Dennis
John McIlwaine
Colin MacKinnon
CFA Fiskville
REFERENCES.
AWA Archives, courtesy of Mrs. Margaret White, AWA Librarian.
(Many of these items are now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney)
Australian Archives.
Collection of C. MacKinnon, VK2DYM.
OTC publication: The Beamers
[1] Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921
[2] Admiralty Handbook of Wireless Telegraphy,
Vol 2, Wireless Telegraphy Theory, 1938
On Saturday April 7th,2002, shortwave correspondent, Bob Padula visited the Australian end of the beam wireless link.
Here's Bob's account.
On Saturday April 7th, 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 is now used by the Victorian Country Fire Authority for training and hospitality purposes.
The facility commenced transmissions on April 8th, 1927, as the Australian transmitting station for the Australia-England beam wireless service, and was given the name Fiskville in 1933 in honour of its founder, Mr Ernest Fisk.
The beam wireless network provided high speed telegraphy and "radio pictures" between the UK and Australia, with a Canadian link being 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, advising that the last transmission was on 31st 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, and 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 the 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 RF oscillators or crystal controlled devices. The system 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 short wave had been thought to be unsuitable for global communications.
From 1927, power was generated locally by diesel generators and mains power was connected in 1941. The number one transmitter continued in service right up to 1969.
Our visit revealed that the concrete blocks are still there, protruding about 1 metre above the ground, and there are still the heavy iron rings attached, 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 1927 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 areas. Neither was any trace to be found of the steel masts or guys, which I was told, were dismantled by the CFA in 1971.
As mentioned in an earlier article, 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 the URLs provided on our online editions.
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.
Beam wireless technology was phased out in the 1960 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 also closed down in 1969, and had been jointly used by the Australian Military for some time prior to that.
My own photos show what the Ballan site looks like now, 75 years later, and I will put them on to a Web page in due course.
Many thanks to Bob Padula for that very comprehensive report on the former Beam Wireless Station.
Pictures: Wireless progress in Australia - Beam wireless
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