An ex South African navy personel tells me that the old radio premises were still used in the 1980s as he was stationed there back then,it would be worth a historical visit to find out its use today,here is a map with Wireless Road marked on it.
Mr Arthur Fairman taking down a morse coded telegram from a ship at sea.
The late father Arthur Fairman was one of the operators in the station and often worked the distress calls that were monitored by Cape Town radio. It was quite sad during the war years when CT Radio monitored the airwaves and heard ships calling for help after being attacked by enemy submarines. As CT Radio had to maintain radio silence all they could do was advise the authorities of the attacks.
Many funny incidents happened at the station over the years. The station had a car which was used to transport staff members to and from Kommetjie to go on duty. One day one of the men who had his lunch in a small suitcase was driving to office when the case fell off the seat next to him and landed under the car's brake pedal. As he could not stop the car he drove it into the parking garage and ended up hitting the rear wall to stop the car. Suffice to say his lunch was flattened.
Wireless Road,a picture taken from the Turtle Tours webb site.http://www.turtlesa.com/ezine77.html
While checking the pre programed channels in an old but serviceable Icom M-700 SSB,I note many channels were designated to US stations such as WOM,Florida,USA,a station I have used myself while cruising in Venezuala,many stations no longer exist,one is GKA,Portishead Radio,Bristol,in the UK,which closed aftre eighty one years in 2000,I have also used them to pass a link call message while returning to Cape Town from Brasil.This is the history (very interesting) on Cape Towns own station ZSC.
Roy
CAPE TOWN RADIO
(A Short History)
Rolf, DL9CM
e-mail: dl9cm@t-online.de
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Cape Town Radio was established in 1910 at the old lighthouse site at Kommetjie on the western seaboard of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
The first call-sign allocated was VNC and the station operated on the 400 kHz frequency using Spark transmitters. The operators had to work with the windows of the station wide open to the elements, summer and winter, to release the sulfurous odors created by the apparatus. In 1928 the call sign ZSC was allocated and is still in use today.
During World War Two, Cape Town Radio played a valuable role intercepting distress messages from Allied ships under Axis submarine attack or being shelled by a German pocket battleship. It is recorded that on one occasion the station monitored eight distress calls in ten minutes. Towards the middle of the war, the station moved to Wireless Road, in Kommetjie where it shared premises with the Royal Navy until 1960. In September 1965 the station moved to its present location in Koeberg Road, Milnerton, to premises that had recently been vacated by the South African Broadcasting Corp. The main operations room is in the only sound studio. Nearby is the building in which Marconi established the Wireless and Telegraph Company in 1919.
Cape Town Radio established itself on the world maritime map from June 1965 when the Suez Canal was closed by the Arab/Israeli conflict. The station played a vital role in the controlling communication traffic for the thousands of ships that diverted to the Cape route. Congestion on the airways was chronic at times with as many as 27 ships waiting in turn on the various circuits for service. (QRY)
Congestion was just as bad at the ports. Frequently there were more than 100 ships at anchor in Table Bay roadstead seeking bunkers, stores and water. The reputation earned by Cape Town Radio during the eight years that Suez was closed has been maintained to this day. It is common practice for ships passing through the Suez Canal to communicate with Europe via Cape Town Radio.
The station is today manned by an operating staff of 41, plus technicians maintaining the transmitters at Klipheuwel 50 km north east of the station. Klipheuwel has long been the preferred site for radio transmitter. On relatively high ground clear of mountains, it is far enough from the Milnerton operations center to prevent transmitted signals interfering with reception at Milnerton. Marconi erected 245 meter high radio masts at Klipheuwel in 1923.
This was part of a plan to establish long-wave radio links between London and the entire British Empire. These high masts were never used, because in 1924 Marconi introduced short-wave radio which cost 1/20th of the longwave system, used only 1/50th of the power and trebled the transmission capability. It‘s been a long walk from those sulphur-laden rooms and the Spark transmitters. Today‘s Cape Town Radio operator sits at his computer console and works morse, telex and radio-telephone from the one position.
Marconi would have been very proud indeed.
More stuff,taken from a page credited to Turtle Tours,use them when in this area if possible?
Cape Town Radio is a maritime station with its main task being that of communication with ships at sea. The station began its days in Kommetjie way back in 1910 when it was housed in a building near to the Slangkop lighthouse. The building is built of rock with a tiled roof and is still there today.
In those days life was difficult for the staff as they had to contend with sulphorous fumes from the radio equipmment they used. So much so that the windows of the building were kept open day and night 365 days of the year to allow the fumes to escape.
It was Cape Town Radio's job to monitor shipping around the Cape Coast and to work any distress calls that might occur. The call sign for the radio was VNC.
In 1928 however the call sign was changed to ZSC and remains the same to this day. During the second world war the station was moved from its position on the coast next to the lighthouse in Kommetjie to Wireless Road north east of its position in Lighthouse road. The reason for the move was the poor reception they had at the site under the Slangkop mountain. The mountain contains manganese deposits which disturbed reception at the station.
The new building was much larger and was shared with the Royal Navy. It maintained close links with the navy in Simonstown. The new station building was situated in the middle of a deserted area surrounded by bush about three kilometres from Kommetjie. The area was rich in wildlife, meerkats, snakes such as the Cape Cobra, Puff Adder and very large mole snakes. Some of them measured up to two metres in length.
As a child one learned quickly how to avoid the snakes and one always kept a look out for puff adders which loved to lie in the sun in the pathways through the bush. Being very lazy snakes they don't move when they hear you coming.Should you step on one its bite can be fatal.
Living in the station grounds I often visited the radio station and rode my bike around the building which was surrounded by a concrete wall of about 2 metres in height. It never occurred to me then but the wall was probably to protect the building from being bombed from the air during the war years.
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CAPE TOWN RADIO - ZSC
Frequencies and Operating Modes as of 1995
FREQ IN
kHz MODE SERVICE EQUIPMENT POWER ANTENNA
2182 H3E R/T Distress Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
2191 H3E R/T Distress Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
4125 J3E R/T Distress, call and answer Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
4214 F1B TOR Traffic reply to 4176 kHz SPT 5 kw Cone
4291 A1 W/T weather, TFC List, Time Signal Collins 5 kw Quad
4317 A1 W/T Primary Traffic Plessey 5 kw Quad
4369 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
4417 J3E R/T Call, reply to 4125 traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
4426 J3E R/T Traffic, Autolink Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
4435 J3E R/T Traffic, Weather Bulletins Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
8428.5 F1B TOR Traffic reply to 8388.5 kHz Collins 5 kw Quad
8461 A1 W/T Weather , TFC List, Time Signal Marconi 4 kw Cone
8688.5 A1 W/T Primary Traffic Marconi 4kw Cone
8719 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
8725 J3E R/T Traffic, Autolink Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
8731 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
8779 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
12601 F1B TOR Traffic reply to 12488.5 Plessey 5 kw Quad
12698 A1 W/T Primary Traffic Marconi 5 kw Cone
12724 A1 W/T Secondary Traffic Plessey 5 kw Quad
12722.5 A1 W/T Weather , TFC List, Time Signal Marconi 5 kw Cone
13101 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
13137 J3E R/T reply to 12290 kHz Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
16816 F1B TOR Traffic reply to 16692.5 kHz Plessey 5 kw Quad
17018 A1 W/T Weather , TFC List, Time Signal Marconi 5 kw Cone
17164.75 A1 W/T Primary Traffic Plessey 5 kw Cone
17263 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
17302 J3E R/T Reply to 16420 kHz Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
17338 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
22705 J3E R/T Traffic Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
22756 J3E R/T reply to 22060 kHz Marconi 5 kw W/B 2-30 MHz CSA Cone
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