Print

Radio Memories


By Erling Kjær Knudsen

Telegraph manager Erling Kjær Knudsen, head of Lyngby Radio for many years, recollects the work behind the scenes in the old days in connection with broadcasting of news from the foreign correspondents of Radio Denmark.


Lyngby Radio is best known as a costal radio station with connection to ships all over the world, but before the transatlantic cables were laid down and before the satellites took over, radio transmission for the State Broadcasting Service (as Radio Denmark was called until 1959) was a daily phenomenon. The participation of PTT began already in the infancy of broadcasting at the receiving station "Radio West Front" which was situated in Glostrup.

From 1931, the service was transferred to Lyngby Radio which at that time had become a receiving station for foreign radio telegraph connections. Two receivers had been installed, intended for broadcasting purposes and with two transmission wires in the cable via Lyngby Exchange to the Broadcasting House. The broadcasts were, accordingly, received by radio and transmitted by wire. It was exciting work, not least because many transmissions were direct and it was therefore important to have the receivers tuned in as perfectly as possible and with the correct antenna.

Complaints to the Lord
Let us take some examples from the end of the period when Lyngby Radio served as a re-transmission station. Christian Winther in New York delivered daily reports from the UN head quarter during session periods. The short wave area tends to be rather unstable and so-called "black-outs" may sometimes last for several days during which it is impossible to get transmissions through, especially from the north and from the west. It could be difficult for the Radio News staff to understand this when they were ready to record the broadcast or let it go directly on the air. In such cases the technical skills of the staff of Lyngby Radio were always questioned.

Radio News editor Niels Grunnet once said that he would file his complaint at a higher level. He was then told that when it was a matter of short wave diffusion conditions, a complaint would have to be filed really high up! We heard no more about it this way round.

1956: Crises …
Collaboration with the State Broadcasting Service brought us close to events, and in this respect 1956 was a very special year. There were crises in Hungary and at Suez with interference from England and France and with threats from the Soviet Union. Sometimes two receivers were not enough when Budapest, Moscow, Tel Aviv, and Cairo had to be picked up and transmitted.

One night at about 21 hrs, after ceasefire between Israel and Egypt had supervened, we were told that a message from Tel Aviv would come in. It came at 21.55 hrs in a transmission meant for USA during which it was announced that a Danish ship from the Lauritzen line would be the first to sail past the Egyptian positions into the Bay of Aqabah. It became the first news item on the Radio News 5 minutes later.

A couple of days later, at 5 o’clock in the morning, we had contact with the ship when it sailed into the bay without any problems. Apparently, the daily Politiken had taken this for granted as it was mentioned in the newspaper that had been produced a couple of hours earlier.

… and the Olympics
1956 also featured the Olympic Games in Melbourne and the only possibility of direct transmission was the short wave radio. Television was, of course, not an option. Normally, there was one daily broadcast at 11 o’clock and that is not the best time for short wave connection to Australia. At that time the radio waves are often reflected the "wrong" way around the earth and, consequently, the connection was best on an antenna pointing towards South America.

One morning it was my turn to be in charge of the transmission from the Olympics. I had prepared the receiver and the antenna. It was about 5 minutes before the broadcasting should start, but I heard nothing from Australia. I had tuned in a receiver in the room on Kalundborg long wave transmitter and I could hear the speaker say: "In two minutes there will be a transmission from Melbourne". I sweated and thought "I wonder what will happen!"

I thought that all possibilities were exhausted, but managed to make the newest receiver operational – it was intended for Tórshavn. The radio pause signal sounded and I knew it would sound four times in two minutes so time was running out. Suddenly I heard reporter Gunnar Hansen say: "If you are ready in Lyngby, I will start in 10 seconds". I was there and the broadcast went off as if nothing had happened.

If someone had told me at the time that eight years later there would be direct transmissions of sound and pictures from the Olympics in Tokyo, I would probably have thought that he was a bit off his head.

The Sputnik
A new development began when the Russians launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, and Lyngby Radio got the assignment of picking up signals from the satellite. Normally we could count on a certain degree of steadiness in the direction the signals came from, but the Sputnik had a period of revolution of 94 minutes so in order to pick up the best signal we had to change direction all the time. The satellite transmitted on 20005 kHz, a frequency that constituted no problem to our receivers, and it should also be mentioned that the people at the radio newsdesk were very grateful for the beep-beep sounds we delivered for demonstration of the sensation.

During the following years Lyngby Radio got involved every time something happened within space travelling; for instance when the Russians sent a rocket around the moon to photograph the back of it. It turned out to be excellent pictures although we were not used to receive that kind of things by radio.

The sensations soon became everyday phenomena and eventually the launching of telecommunication satellites ousted Lyngby Radio as far as broadcasting transmissions were concerned.


Print

All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or ortherwise, whitout the prior written permission of the publisher.