During 2010 the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the WIA, and the very start of organised amateur radio in Australia during 1910.

As a part of that celebration, in the spirit of celebrating early radio in Australia, on June 16th to 18th 2010 the Gippsland Gate Radio and Electronics Club Inc. (GGREC) is re-enacting the historically important reception of the very first direct press message sent from the UK to Australia, which was received at 5am on the 5th December 1921 by a Mr. T. W. Bearup at an AWA experimental receiving station established at Koo Wee Rup.

With the highly appreciated cooperation of the Dragon Radio Club in Wales, using the special event call sign GB2VK, it is intended that the re-enacted message be transmitted from the original Marconi MUU station buildings at the original Waunfawr location in Caernarfon, Wales, UK, to the original location of the AWA manned Experimental Station site in Koo Wee Rup, Victoria, Australia.

This first message and the many that followed it over the next six months proved that direct radio communication between the UK and Australia could be reliable and therefore commercially viable.

Inside the Original Shack at Koo Wee Rup

The reception of this message, and the hundreds of messages that followed it over the next two years, also lead to the crucial discovery of long path transmissions, and then the effect of ionospheric propagation that varied between day and night. These fundamental principles that were discovered in Koo Wee Rup are still used by radio amateurs and professionals to this day to predict the best signal paths for radio transmissions around the planet.

The GGREC will be using the special event call sign VK100WIA for the duration of the re-enactment to properly align the activity as part of the WIA celebrations.

Contacts and QSL will be made by the station at Koo Wee Rup to all callers, with a concentration on UK stations. The station will be listening and calling on several HF bands, and 145.45MHz FM, and will be coordinating activities through the 70cm repeater VK3RLP using IRLP Node 6794.

GGREC is partnering with the local Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society, the local Council, the Regional Library Service, and the Community in general, in preparations for the event, and for the execution of the event.

All local media outlets, regional media, and the amateur community in general, will be kept informed of plans for the event as it draws nearer. Media is involved in publicising the event.

A commemorative plaque will be erected near the original receiving site to mark the site and the commemorative event. The plaque will be officially unveiled in a ceremony at the KWRHS rooms at 1500 AEST on Friday 18th June 2010.

Enquiries about the re-enactment should be emailed to secretary@ggrec.org.au or by writing to P.O. Box 1098 Cranbourne, 3977, Victoria, Australia.

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Sunrise

Early Morning

Mast and HF antenna

The 'Shack'

The 'cockpit' Unveiled

The All Important First Contact

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The Plaque Unveiled

The Commemorative Plaque

The third day of operations was blessed with perfect weather for most of the day, with very little wind and no rain before sunset.

Conditions on HF were a slightly improved over Thursday, and another CW contact was made with GB2VK. VK100WIA again worked most bands and modes during the day.

The highlight of the day was the formal unveiling of the commemorative plaque at 1500AEST. A large audience gathered in the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society rooms, and addresses were given by the President of the WIA Michael Owen VK3KI, the President of the GGREC Chris Chapman VK3QB, and the Mayor of Cardinia Shire Councillor Graeme Legge.

Some of the Audience

Ample Refreshments

The members of the KWRSHS provided ample refreshments and cuppas after the formal proceedings completed.

The VK100WIA call again continued to be worked throughout the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening.

Click on any of the images for a much larger version (up to 5MB).

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Graeme VK3BXG

The second day of operations was hampered by a very violent storm front which crossed Koo Wee Rup in the morning, causing some minor damage to the antenna installation and some frayed nerves.

After that was all addressed, the station was able to continue working stations on all bands, although the propagation conditions on the HF bands were not as good as the day before, and paths to Europe and the USA were not as open. Although the noise level had reduced from the day before on all bands except 80m, no proper contact was made with GB2VK during the day. GB2VK did make contact with some Australian stations, but not with us.

Online logs of our activities can be found at http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/centenary/logbook. Select the dates that we are operational to see logging of our activities. The logs are updated as time permits.

Click on the image for a much larger version (~5MB).

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Location of the Station

Temporary antennae

The station is located at the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society Museum in Rossiter Road Koo Wee Rup, which is just a short distance from the original receiving site.

A temporary mast and antennae are erected at the rear of the KWRSHS rooms. The HF antenna is an 80m dipole with an balanced ribbon feeder, and the 2m/70cm antenna is a vertical on top of the mast. Using an antenna tuner the dipole loads nicely on all HF bands.

The operating equipment is set up at toward the rear of the rooms. The image below shows two operators, Pat VK3OZ and Chris VK3QB at the HF equipment.

Pat VK3OZ and Chris VK3QB

GB2VK at Waunfawr

The Club is working several HF bands and is listening on 145.45 simplex and on the VK3RLP repeater which can also be accessed using IRLP node 6794.

A video of Chris working GB2VK can be found here as a WMV, here as a AVI, or here as a MOV.

The first day of operations was a great success, with more than a hundred contacts made on 40m, 30m, 20m, 2m, and 70cm, including the multiple contacts with GB2VK.

Click on any of the images for a much larger version (up to 5MB).

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Red Symons

On Tuesday 15th June 2010 at 6:45am Chris VK3QB was interviewed by 774 ABC Melbourne personality Red Symons about the upcoming Centenary Activities at Woo Wee Rup.

A recording of the complete interview with Chris is available as an MP3 file here.
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Long Path Aspect

The original Marconi buildings are still present and are still in use as a climbing centre. Click on the image for a larger version.

The Dragon Radio Club will be operating from this location for the duration of the GGREC VK100WIA activities.

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Searching the paddock

On Sunday 11th April 2010 Mike VK3KTO, Graeme VK3BXG, Michael VK3GHM and Steve VK3EGD with the permission of the owner went for a wander in the back of the paddock at 406 Rossiter Road to see if we could find any trace of the original 1921 AWA shack. Michael brought a metal detector in case the original copper grounding circle was still in the ground and could be detected.

We didn't really expect to find anything, but not searching the site was unthinkable. As expected, we found nothing in the way of hard evidence. Not surprising given 80 years has passed since the shack was used.

Being on the ground at the site was useful in other ways though. Given the layout and the topology, and what we know about the nature of the aerial, its placement, and orientation, and the location of the shack with respect to the aerial, it seemed clear that the shack would have been located in an area towards the centre of the bottom 1/3 of the paddock. That part of the ground is slightly raised from the rest, as would be expected of any shack built in a "swamp". But, the the bottom line is no direct evidence.

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