# What ever happened to Aussie Coast Stations?



## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Hello all

The other threads re UK CRS have prompted me to put up some info on their Aussie counterparts.

The old CRS network was closed in 1999/2000. Replaced by two stations in the Western and Eastern desert at Wiluna and Charleville. I thought that was a stupid idea then, and I still do.


Good info on the old network here:

http://coastradio.info/


*VIS - Sydney: *

VIS had 3 sites - the op centre, on Botany Bay and the tx/rx sites in western Sydney at Doonside and Bringelly.

The op centre is still there. It looks to be used as a mobile phone base station and general storage area for Telstra (who used to run the network).

It is at 33°59'10.81"S 151°14'21.85"E for those of you with Google Earth.

The rx site is deserted. All the antennas and buildings are down.

QTH: 33°54'53.95"S 150°44'24.40"E 

The tx site is the same.

QTH: 33°47'10.39"S 150°52'1.77"E


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

*VIM - Melbourne Radio*

Sold. Now a farm. Station buildings still there.

QTH: 38°27'53.12"S 144°54'48.50"E


*VIA - Adelaide Radio*

Sold off in the early 90's. Now owned by an amateur (!).

QTH: 35 13 58.82 S 138 32 03.88 E


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

*Perth Radio - VIP.*

Site was used for Globe Wireless email to/from ships up until recently.

All buildings still there. Adjacent buildings used for satcom. 

You can see the dishes and where the HF antennas were.

QTH: 31°48'14.86"S 115°53'15.94"E


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

*Darwin Radio - VID.*

Now a housing estate...

QTH: 12°25'58.40"S 130°50'28.67"E


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

*Townsville Radio - VIT*


Sold to AirServices Australia- used as a HF tx station for aircraft comms.

QTH: 19°12'1.58"S 146°46'13.96"E


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

*Brisbane Radio - VIB*

Still used for aircraft HF comms.

QTH: 27° 4'4.79"S 153° 3'35.89"E


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

I visited VID once. We were loading iron ore for Japan; I rented a Mini-moke and had a good couple of days exploring.

I found the station by plotting the lat/long from ALRS on the chart and then cross-referencing that against a street map. There were two chaps on duty, one running the flying-doctor communications and the other the marine side in separate rooms. 

The one thing that sticks in my mind is the marine operator's description of the MF transmitter: "It's very broad-band and you see that box out there?" (Points through the window to a large metal case in the middle of the aerial-farm) "It is a narrow-band filter and it tunes to either 500, 512 or 445 whichever we select with this switch (points at a rotary switch) and that's it. We call it the Jesus-box because only himself knows how it works!"

It didn't seem to be a busy station, during the couple of hours I spent there, the flying doctor chap answered one call, and the marine chap did nothing at all, apart from making a demonstration 'CQ' call on R/T.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Thanks.

He was talking about the remote ATU for the MF tx.

The rx'ers were at a separate site in a place called Shoal Bay.

It was weird to see a CRS right in the middle of suburbia - it was surrounded by houses. VIT was the same. 

All the others were relatively remote.


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Now you mention it, yes there were houses all around the station. I don't think they had television in those days; just as well as there would have been massive interference.

I've now looked at the link from Troppo's first post: interesting but no mention of VII Thursday Island!


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Yes, that site describes the network as it was just prior to closure.

VII, VIO (Broome), VIC (Carnarvon), VIE (Esperance), VIH (Hobart) and VIR (Rockhampton) had all closed about 5 years previously in a network "rationalisation"....


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Troppo said:


> Yes, that site describes the network as it was just prior to closure.
> 
> VII, VIO (Broome), VIC (Carnarvon), VIE (Esperance), VIH (Hobart) and VIR (Rockhampton) had all closed about 5 years previously in a network "rationalisation"....


Pretty sure VII and VIH went part time or RT only long before the Night of the Long Knives. I spent a fair bit of time round Cape York and don't remember ever using VII. I tried VIH once or twice on some sort of sked but they weren't home. Sorry, can't recall the details now. I believe we are at the peak of the Sun Spot Cycle just now and I blame that for my crap memory. It should improve in the next few months.

John T


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## ernhelenbarrett (Sep 7, 2006)

VII was not only the CRS for that part of the world but also was the Air Traffic
Control Station for aircraft between Australia and Horn Island, both VIH (Hobart) and VIN (Geraldton) were quite busy Stations back in the 50's and 60's
VIK (Cairns) was mostly for Air Traffic but kept a RX on the distress freqs, once CRS updated their transmitters up to 2Kw from the 500 Watt jobs VIH and VIN
closed down but they still kept VIE. VIA (Adelaide) was bought out by Dr. Haro
and his wife, both amateurs but sadly Haro passed away with cancer though the Station is still running as VK5CRS and you can get him on CW on 14MHZ, best on a Tuesday morning Ozzie time.ft OTC after spells at VIS and VIG (Port Moresby) QTH of VK5CRS is 34.13.58S 138.32.08E
Ern Barrett


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Thanks for the info, mate.

Do you have any more info about Cairns Radio/VIK? It was at the airport, from what I can gather....

Poor old VIG/P2M is a mess. It is being completely replaced.


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## ernhelenbarrett (Sep 7, 2006)

As far as I can remember VIK was manned by bods from Air Traffic Control not OTC, the staff at VII had to do a course in air traffic control before being sent to VII. When sent to Port Moresby/VIG I had to do a course on International Telex with the old plug lines in and out up at Paddington but when I got to VIG they had a different type of FRXD altogether, we did a few weeks in the Town
Office on the Punchin-bangers teleprinting messages down to SOR including News Press stuff from the Newspaper Reporters then did a spell at the Receiving Station which was on the other side of the Runway at Jackson Airport
where we handled CW to big ships R/t to the coastal vessels, looked after the
Top20 Radiotelephone Channels to Sydney and onpassed frxd tapes in and out from various Govt departments in Moresby and Sydney and even took the messages when they split up PNG and what is now Indonesia. When it rained and the underground cables shorted out we used to punch up all the messages then drive out to the Receivers and send them from there, and we were al,so on Callouts if somebody just out of the pub decided he wanted to phone his wife at 2am, we had to drive out to the Receivers , start up the Transmitters which were at Boroko halfway between the town and Receivers by remote, connect the line to the local P&T wait till the call ended , close everything down then head home to be up and out again for a 7am start. Mind you there were only 6 of us R/O's doing all this!! One time during the Monsoon I was stuck out at the Receivers as the road was flooded for 10 hours and the Senior Tech got permission from the Control Tower to cross the runway between DC3's to pick
me up, we couldn't see more then 200 feet and could just make out the Aldis
signal from the Tower giving us the GO NOW QUICK!!!. THEM WERE THE DAYS!!!
Ern Barrett


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Ern,

Very interesting - thanks for posting.

Hawkey01


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Fascinating, thanks Ern.

The VIG rx station is still there, but is just about rooted.

The tx station was closed about 8 yrs ago.

I was lucky enough to get to Rabaul Radio just after the volcanic eruption...it was a mess and was closed.


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

Have you had a look at www.coastalradio.org.uk ? There are some good links to follow.

David
+


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## J. Davies (Dec 29, 2010)

Hi all.... I sailed into Port Moresby many times in the early 80's on different ships. Chengtu was one, Nimos another....small box boats with shallow drafts...in those days the coast station was P2M run by an Italian manager whose name escapes me now. We used to chat on MF CW when he was not busy and I was invited to his house for dinner with the family, and a tour of the station. They were just installing an RTT terminal. It was 1981....we also called at Lae, Wewak, Kieta, Madang and Rabaul. Great days.

I miss the Aussie stations too, although I never visited any of them. VIS would send 73 which was a very ham radio type of greeting! 

Bad cyclone off Townsville in 1981 was nearly a disaster... they sent the positional reports of the eye every 3 hours. I will never forget the phrase "seas phenomenal", meaning force 12. Scary times with no sleep for four days and greenies up to the portholes. Cook serving sandwiches because his pots and pans were all over the place...


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