The Aeradio Station at Nhill, on the Adelaide-Melbourne air route in
western Victoria, was one of the original twelve standardised Aeradio
stations constructed by Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA) in 1938-39
for DCA. The photo above shows the
station at the time of commissioning in 1939.
The structures in the foreground are, from left to right:
-
the tower for the aerodrome's rotating light beacon, which has not yet been installed
-
the station Power House, housing two generators
-
the Aeradio office
-
the 33 Mc 'Lorenz' Radio Range antenna tower with adjacent transmitter hut
Behind
the buildings can be seen two masts supporting the station's HF radio
reciever antenna. The station's HF transmitter
and associated antenna were located about a mile away.
The photo
above shows the interior of the brand-new Nhill Aeradio office. The equipment
is completely standard, except that the usual Bellini-Tosi
MF Direction Finder consollette is missing form the operator's desk.
Click here to take a tour inside the very similar Cloncurry
Aeradio station.
The photos were taken by DCA Radio Inspector Ivan Hodder who was responsible for overseeing the installation of many of the original Aeradio Stations. As of 2009, the former Aeradio Station at Nhill is the only known survivor among these historic buildings - click here to see a photo of it today.
(Photo: CAHS/Ivan
Hodder collection)
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