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    Clipperton Oceanic and Radio History

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    WT Foundation
    Operations at Clipperton Oceanic ended in 1958, as the HF service offered by Tahiti Radio was seen as sufficeint, and funding provided by American, French, and British governments was stopped. AFTN circuits were disconnected, and the ICAO code NPCX assigned to Clipperton Flight Information Region was withdrawn from use. Staff at the Oceanic Facility were reassigned to Birdlip, in the UK – later to become Shanwick Aeradio.

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    Public Domain
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    Clipperton Oceanic and Radio History

    Uploaded by

    WT Foundation
    134 views5 pages
    Operations at Clipperton Oceanic ended in 1958, as the HF service offered by Tahiti Radio was seen as sufficeint, and funding provided by American, French, and British governments was stopped. AFTN circuits were disconnected, and the ICAO code NPCX assigned to Clipperton Flight Information Region was withdrawn from use. Staff at the Oceanic Facility were reassigned to Birdlip, in the UK – later to become Shanwick Aeradio.

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    Operations at Clipperton Oceanic ended in 1958, as the HF service offered by Tahiti Radio was seen as sufficeint, and funding provided by American, French, and British governments was stopped. AFTN circuits were disconnected, and the ICAO code NPCX assigned to Clipperton Flight Information Region was withdrawn from use. Staff at the Oceanic Facility were reassigned to Birdlip, in the UK – later to become Shanwick Aeradio.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    134 views5 pages

    Clipperton Oceanic and Radio History

    Uploaded by

    WT Foundation
    Operations at Clipperton Oceanic ended in 1958, as the HF service offered by Tahiti Radio was seen as sufficeint, and funding provided by American, French, and British governments was stopped. AFTN circuits were disconnected, and the ICAO code NPCX assigned to Clipperton Flight Information Region was withdrawn from use. Staff at the Oceanic Facility were reassigned to Birdlip, in the UK – later to become Shanwick Aeradio.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
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    of 5

    CLIPPERTON

    Clipperton Oceanic, and Clipperton Radio – a Brief History


    by P.G. Welkins, 1971.

    The log book reads:

    “Passed over S.F. Bay Bridge, along Embarcadero, Marina, Presidio,


    etc. Just after passing over Golden Gate Bridge encountered low
    cumulus clouds on the coast. “On top ” from there on over “snowy
    desert. ” Later clear & broken —smooth air. Early morning,
    “detoured ” to south to avoid several storm areas. Arrived Honolulu
    (Pearl City) after passing over “Diamond Head ” & Waikiki Beach.
    Very elaborate “Hawaiian welcome. ”

    These brief observations, written by Richard F. Bradley on October


    21–22, 1936, hardly hint at the enormity of the occasion. The
    aviation manager for the San Francisco office of Standard Oil,
    Bradley was one of seven lucky people to acquire a ticket to fly
    that day on Pan American Airways’ Hawaii Clipper . Bradley, in
    fact, held Ticket No. 1 for that inaugural passenger flight to
    Hawaii.

    Bradley’s flight on the Hawaii Clipper marked the beginning of


    transpacific air travel and followed years of planning and
    preparation. Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh had scouted a
    great circle route to the Orient for Pan Am that followed the
    North Pacific rim. But obtaining operating rights in Asia proved
    problematic, so Juan Trippe decided to create a route across the
    Central Pacific via Hawaii and other U.S. possessions. Pan Am had
    to plan and survey the route, establish bases on islands across the
    Pacific, and build hotels and other facilities for passengers on
    remote Midway Island, uninhabited Wake Island, and the territory
    of Guam.

    Pan Am also needed a new seaplane large enough and powerful


    enough to carry a load big enough and far enough to make the whole
    enterprise feasible. The airline worked with the Glen L. Martin
    Company of Baltimore to develop such an aircraft. While Pan Am
    surveyed the route and built the bases, Martin designed and built
    the three largest air transports yet created: the Martin M-130
    clippers. The China Clipper gained lasting fame on November 22,
    1935, when it left San Francisco Bay to inaugurate regularly
    scheduled transpacific air service. For the next year, while
    passenger accommodations were being completed, the China
    Clipper and its sister ships, the Philippine Clipper and Hawaii
    Clipper, carried cargo and mail back and forth across the Pacific.

    By October 1936, the route was finally ready for passenger service.
    The Martins were huge planes for their time, but even so, the extra
    fuel needed for the flight from California to Hawaii, the longest
    hop on the transpacific route, limited the number of passengers
    they could carry. Richard Bradley shared the spacious cabin with
    only six other passengers. Future flights would carry as many as
    13, but more often the crew would outnumber the passengers.

    For the eastern South Pacific Routes, connecting Hawaii with


    Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti, an en-route Oceanic Center to
    pass weather information, and later, traffic, was essential.

    Clipperton Oceanic was inaugurated on November 17 th , 1937, working


    the Pan American China Clipper as its first contact, and operated
    from a small wooden building on the main part of the island.
    Antennas were constructed at Lae Beach and by all reports from
    early crews, easily readable in most conditions.
    Over the next few years communications changed from Morse code
    (wireless telegraphy) to voice (radio telephony). RTTY (radio
    teletype) also replaced Morse code for station to station working.

    Medium wave transmitters were used mainly for meteorological


    data and for communicating with aircraft crossing the Pacific. In
    1938/9, forty six flying boats crossed the Pacific during the
    flying boat season between November and March.

    After the Second World War, the rapid development in land planes
    made the flying boat uncompetitive. In 1946, flying boats ceased
    operations and land planes commenced the routes.

    Some, however, continued to operated, even making it to Clipperton


    Island itself. Taken from Flight International, March 10th, 1949:

    On the date in question the Catalma was moored, unmanned, off


    Clipperton Island, when a hurricane approached. The preliminary
    squall blew the aircraft towards the island, and while it was
    precariously held by one anchor, which caught in a coral reef, W/O.
    Hicks rowed 50yd in a dinghy, boarded the aircraft, and dropped
    another anchor. When the full force of the hurricane struck two
    hours later, and the Catalina was in danger of being blown on to
    the reef and destroyed, he started both engines single-handed and
    taxied out to open water, where he could hold the aircraft with the
    engines. W/O. Hicks then remained at the controls for five hours,
    keeping the Catalina into wind, and away from rocks. The wind was
    blowing at over 50 m.p.h. with squalls exceeding 100 m.p.h.

    In 1952, the original timber hut buildings at Clipperton were


    replaced by the a more permanent building to cater for the
    expected increase in trans-Pacific aviation.
    In 1957, engineers from the Birdlip Radio station in the UK visited
    to upgrade the HF system.

    The type of antenna connection used on aircraft radios in the 30s


    and 40s was, almost universally, a type of "push-post" or spring-
    loaded binding post, which also had a ceramic feed through
    insulator passing through the radio's case or panel. Screw-on
    fittings were not in general use until years later.
    Coaxial cable was not used to interconnect most airborne radio
    gear until the advent of VHF communications, when designers
    settled on making everything work into a fixed impedance,
    standardized at 50 ohms. HF gear fell under the same design
    philosophy at the same time, and any antenna tuners or loading
    networks were consequently designed to match a complex impedance
    like an aircraft antenna to that value. This came about after
    World War II.

    Up until that time, aircraft radios were designed to work into a


    wide range of antennas, over a broad impedance range. Use of
    coaxial cable would have caused many problems in such a design
    environment. High radio frequency voltages developed when
    working a transmitter into a high impedance load (several hundred
    or several thousand ohms) which might not be completely matched at
    the frequency, would cause the cable to heat up or arc over.
    Therefore, open-wire leads insulated with ceramic beads were in
    general use. The receiver connection might be as simple as a
    length of cloth insulated heavy wire between the receiver and the
    terminal on the transmit-receive (antenna) relay.

    Coaxial cables were, however, used to interconnect components


    where shielding of the leads was important, or where high radio
    frequency voltages were not involved. One specific instance is the
    lead from the sense antenna to the antenna input of a DF receiver,
    and Bendix coaxial input with screw-on fittings. A reason to use
    shielded cable at the lower frequencies used for DF (200-1500 KHz)
    is to keep out electrical noises generated inside the aircraft.

    Operations at Clipperton Oceanic ended in 1958, as the HF service


    offered by Tahiti Radio was seen as sufficeint, and funding
    provided by American, French, and British governments was
    stopped. AFTN circuits were disconnected, and the ICAO code NPCX
    assigned to Clipperton Flight Information Region was withdrawn
    from use. Staff at the Oceanic Facility were reassigned to Birdlip,
    in the UK – later to become Shanwick Aeradio.

    The last transmission from Clipperton Radio was made on August


    28 th , 1958:

    ALL AIRCRAFT
    THIS IS
    CLIPPERTON RADIO CLIPPERTON RADIO CLIPPERTON RADIO
    THIS IS THE LAST BROADCAST FROM CLIPPERTON RADIO. FOR 21 YEARS
    WE HAVE SERVED THE AVIATION COMMUNITY. WE SAY THANK YOU TO ALL
    WHO HAVE SUPPORTED AND USED OUR STATION. WE ARE PROUD TO HAVE
    BEEN PART OF A HISTORIC ERA IN PACIFIC DISCOVERY.
    THE MANAGER AND RADIO OFFICERS WISH YOU FAREWELL FROM
    CLIPPERTON RADIO/CTX

    After this, the Clipperton FIR was decommissioned, and renamed


    XX00 (NO FIR) – essentially creating a Black Hole in the Pacific
    with no Radio or Air Traffic Control service.In 1967, the Soviet
    Union made strong advances at United Nations level to take
    control of the Clipperton FIR, offering to install Primary and
    Secondary Surveillance radars on the island. It was unclear what
    benefit this would bring the Soviets, but as of writing in December
    1971, this has not materialised.

    - END -

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