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46RADIO BROADCASTING IN GOA by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, AWREmissora Radio in Goa India: The Early YearsThe one-time Portuguese territory of Goa, located on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent,is listed as the smallest state in the Union. The coastline of Goa is just 63 miles long,and the total area is just 1500 square miles. The small capital city of Goa is Panaji though inPortuguese days, it was known as Panjim, and the official language is Konkani written in theIndian Devanagri script. Tourism is given as one of their chief industries, with some two milliontourists visiting the area each year.The history of Goa can be traced way back to the earliest days of pre-history in India, when theKonkan people moved into the area from the north. It is known that Middle Eastern tradersfrom Sumeria traded with the Goan people more than 4,000 years ago; and around 1775 BC,the area was also settled by Phoenician seafarers from the eastern Mediterranean.The earliest reference in Indian writings to the territory of Goa is found in the Bhishma Parvaaround 800 BC, when the people were known as cattle herdsmen and land farmers. Over the years, Goa has beenrecognized under many different names, such as Sibo by the Greeks, and Sindabur by the early Arabs.Portuguese influence in the area began in 1498 when Vasco da Gama reached nearby Calicut on the Malabar coast; andover a period of time, the Portuguese established more than twenty small colonies in the coastal areas of the Indian subcontinent,with Goa as the largest and most important.During World War 2, Portugal remained neutral, and thus Goa remained neutral also, though surrounded by British India.It is known however that three German trading vessels took shelter in the Mormugao Harbor, and in 1943 one of them wassunk by British forces due to the fact that a radio transmitter aboard the vessel was alerting lurking nearby Germansubmarines about the movement of British shipping.During the middle of last century, the Indian government made several requests to Portugal to release their distant colonyof Goa so that it could be absorbed into the Indian Union; and ultimately, on December 19, 1961, Indian forces moved intothe area and took over. Goa was subsequently incorporated into India as a state, and the other remaining Portugueseterritory known as Daman & Diu was taken over as a Union territory.In 1938, cable communication was established between Goa and the mother country of Portugal, and we would suggest thatthis was via the cable terminal operated by Cable & Wireless in Bombay. Eight years later, the resident engineer for the cablecompany in Goa, Victor Carvalho, gave technical assistance to the newly formed Radio Clube, and a new radio broadcastingservice was instituted with the use of a small amateur transmitter that was donated by Jose Ferriera.The date of this first radio transmission from this small new facility was May 28, 1946, and the territorial Governor-Generalissued a postage stamp on the same day to commemorate the event. The first improvised microphone was encased in acoconut shell.It is not known exactly where this small radio broadcasting station was located, nor what power and frequency were in use.However, it would be presumed that it was installed into an already existing building somewhere in what we might callsuburban Goa. It is probable also that the low power amateur transmitter was tuned to a shortwave channel, (perhaps 7MHz?) due to the fact that the channel that was chosen for the subsequent more substantial radio station was in theshortwave broadcast bands.Two years later, a substantial radio broadcasting station was erected on the rise of a hill at Althino in Nova Goa (New Goa),Panjim. Both studios and transmitter were installed here, and this early transmitter was an American unit made by theAmerican Federal Telephone & Radio Corporation of Clifton, New Jersey in the United States.This new transmitter was rated at ½ kW, and a locally made power amplifier raised the aerial power up to 1 kW. The originalshortwave channel was 7230 kHz in the 41 metre band, though soon afterwards, the operating frequency was moved to themore familiar 9610 kHz in the 31 metre band. This station was widely reported in several countries of Europe, as well asin he United States and the South Pacific, and numerous QSL letters and cards were issued in confirmation of listenerreception reports.Two years later again, that is in 1950, a mediumwave transmitter was installed at the studio location and this operated with2½ kW on 557 kHz. At this stage, regular callsigns were allocated to this radio broadcasting service, though the callssounded like amateur callsigns. The call for the mediumwave outlet was listed as CR8AA, and the shortwave outlet wasidentified as CR8AB.