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Von: BueschelW@web.de im Auftrag von Wolfgang Bueschel ...

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previously on the air at the large and historic BBC shortwave station at<br />

Daventry in England, and when Daventry was closed these two units were<br />

removed and shipped for installation on Ascension Island.<br />

The original BBC Receiver Station was installed at Butt Crater, three<br />

miles from the transmitter station, and it contained six receivers and two<br />

rhombic antennas beamed for reception from England. However, a quarter of<br />

a century later, a satellite receiving dish was installed at the English<br />

Bay transmitting station, and Butt Crater was then maintained for standby<br />

usage.<br />

In addition to the two radio stations, transmitter & receiver, the BBC<br />

also operates support facilities for its personnel, and these inclu<strong>de</strong> a<br />

school, hospital, farm, and power generators, as well as local radio<br />

broadcasting stations. Currently, it is stated, the British government<br />

owes Ascension Island more than one million pounds, and this places the<br />

entire island and all of its activities and its nine hundred <strong>im</strong>ported<br />

workers into bankruptcy.<br />

Over the years, the BBC Atlantic Relay Station has re-broadcast the<br />

programming from other well known international radio organizations. In<br />

1994, the first of these new relay services began with the programming<br />

from the Voice of America. Twenty years later, RAI Italiana took out a<br />

relay from the BBC shortwave station on Ascension Island.<br />

Since then a dozen or more other international broadcasting organizations<br />

have increased the international coverage of their programming with relays<br />

from the Ascension Island shortwave station. Among these exten<strong>de</strong>d relay<br />

services from the BBC shortwave station on Ascension are the following:-<br />

Government Stations NHK Tokyo Japan RCI Montreal Canada CRI Beijing China<br />

Radio Prague Prague Czechia RFI Paris France RTE Dublin Ireland<br />

Religious Gospel Stations HCJB Quito Ecuador FEBA England WYFR Oakland<br />

California USA<br />

During the events associated with the brief 1982 war in the South<br />

Atlantic, the usage of the Ascension shortwave station was comman<strong>de</strong>ered by<br />

the British Ministry of Defence for the relay of two different forms of<br />

programming beamed to the Falkland-Malvinas Islands.<br />

Beginning at 2300 UTC on May 19, a program service i<strong>de</strong>ntified as Radio<br />

Atlantico <strong>de</strong>l Sur was broadcast daily via Ascension Island. At t<strong>im</strong>es two<br />

channels were noted in parallel. The final broadcast of Atlantico <strong>de</strong>l Sur<br />

was a little less than a month later, on June 15.<br />

The other program service beamed to the South Atlantic during this short<br />

era was on behalf of the BFBS, the British Forces Broadcasting Service.<br />

These two program services originated in London and they were relayed to<br />

Ascension Island via communication transmitters located at Daventry.<br />

An additional BFBS program relay was on the air during the Gulf War in<br />

1990. It is known that fee<strong>de</strong>r transmitters in England relayed the<br />

programming to another transmitter location, and research would suggest<br />

that this was also located on Ascension Island.<br />

QSL cards, and at t<strong>im</strong>es letters, have been issued by many of the<br />

file:///E|/datentransfer/wwdfxc_2010/BCDX968.TXT[06.01.2011 12:39:42]

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