When the MW band opened into the Caribbean, many NZ DXers checked 780kHz for the chance of a rare new country, British Virgin Islands.
Well, chances of snaring this rarity may have improved. Thanks to Paul Rawdon who forwarded this item from the MW DX group to the NZRDXL “DX Dialog” e-mail reflector:
I’ve gotten word construction on their new 300 foot tower has begun. In fact, the tower is standing at about 160 feet.
The studios for ZBVI are in Road Town along Station Avenue near the Road Town Police Station but the tower is about 1 mile down the road at Baughers Bay. The tower is ON the beach and some of the guy wires AND some of the ground system are IN the water.At about 4:30 on the morning of Saturday March 9th, a drunk driver came went off the road, coming into contact with several things including a telephone pole and some trees. The driver also clipped some of the guy wires for ZBVI’s tower which sent it to the ground in a crumbled up mess.
The station wasn’t able to sign on for Morning transmission at 6am that morning. It took about 12 hours to lash up a temporary solution. For the last several months, ZBVI has been operating with a 60 foot long wire strung between two telephone using an AM transmitter loaned to them from the Department of Disaster Management in the BVI.
ZBVI is “licensed” for 10,000 Watts but hasn’t run that much power in years. I’m told they run between 1KW at 3KW. As far as I know, stations down there are licensed for X amount of power like the US.. but UNLIKE the USA, if they run under it.. that’s OK apparently.
I’m trying to convince the powers that be at ZBVI to run a 2 or 3 minute DX test one night before their usual 10pm sign off.I have pictures of the ZBVI tower collapse along with the tower work being done. THey’re on the Facebook group, “I Take Pictures Of Transmitter Sites.
Paul Walker
