Two or Three Clandestine Radio Stations in Vanuatu

On two separate occasions, there was a movement for total independence on the part of some areas within the British/French Condominium of the New Hebrides, or Vanuatu as it is known these days.

Back towards the end of the 1800's, a small enclave on the main island of Efate exerted its own independence for a few months; and then more recently, just some forty years ago, the entire island of Espiritu Santo made an attempt at independence.

The first attempt at independence occurred in the Port Vila area on the island of Efate in the year 1889 when the 550 local residents (Native, French and English) set up their own separate community, with a president, a colorful flag, and government leadership. Less than a year later, the erstwhile nation of Franceville was no more, and the town instead is now known as Port Vila.

The second attempt at some form of independence in the New Hebrides/Vanuatu occurred some forty and fifty years ago on the largest island in the island chain, Espiritu Santo. At the time, independence movements were underway for all of the New Hebrides archipelagoes, but the inhabitants on Santo were upset by the political maneuvering prior to colonial independence that was leading to the new central government.

A new village,Tanafo, was established a few miles out from Luganville on Santo Island and this became the headquarters for the secession movement. The green headquarters building, now abandoned, has become somewhat of a tourist attraction for visitors to Santo.

Two or three clandestine broadcasting stations were established in the New Hebrides during the national independence era, and the first of these was installed in the head office building at Tanafo. Known as Radio Tanafo, this new though low powered shortwave station was inaugurated in January 1976.

Radio Tanafo was first noted further abroad by the well known international radio monitor in New Zealand, Arthur Cushen, on January 20 (1976). Programming was music and speech in Bislama, a Creole language, which has since become the national language for Vanuatu. Plans were announced at the time for the possibility of some future programming in both French and English.

The original transmitter was listed at just 60 watts, though with a saltwater pathway in all directions, coverage throughout the New Hebrides was generally quite reasonable. In the evenings the station could be heard quite regularly in both New Zealand and Australia. This transmitter was donated to the Tanafo political organization Nagriamel by an American resident Michael Oliver.

The new Radio Tanafo jumped around a bit on the shortwave dial, usually somewhere in the 3 MHz (90 metre tropical) band, though one other observed channel was 7125 kHz. Soon afterwards, an additional shortwave transmitter was obtained, and this was installed also in the same Tanafo building.

For somewhere around four years, this Radio Tanafo was generally on the air, though somewhat irregularly. Then in 1979, with the increase of political tensions, Radio Tanafo became Radio Vemerama, a new station with, in some ways, a new set of equipment.

And this time, the station moved around from place to place to avoid capture, though generally in the same areas of the same island, Espiritu Santo. The, shall we say, new transmitter was an old marine transceiver rated at 350 watts.

There was another clandestine radio transmitter on the air in the New Hebrides around the same time, and this one was identified as Radio Vanuaaku. This station operated on 3004 kHz, and it was said to be located on one of the islands somewhere, and perhaps moving from island to island.

The technical equipment for this station was flown in from a nearby country, and it was passed successfully through customs. The new Radio Vanuaaka was supporting the Vanuaaku political party, of which Walter Lini was the head. There are no known international loggings of this particular low power shortwave station.

With Independence Day for the New Hebrides drawing near in the Summer of 1980, army troops from Papua New Guinea were called in to quell the rebellion on Santo, and there was a brief skirmish known locally as the Coconut War. The New Hebrides was granted independence on July 30, 1980.

Just one week after Independence Day (August 6, 1980), an Australian aeroplane with direction finding equipment aboard arrived at Port Vila on the capital city island Efate. Three days later, the plane began flights over various islands of Vanuatu in an attempt to locate the two clandestine radio stations, RadioTanafo-Vemerama and Radio Vanuaaka.

A British team at the Kumul Force headquarters in the police station near the Bauerfield Airport was already on the air with a 60 watt transmitter jamming the signal from the clandestine Radio Tanafo-Vemerama. The last occasion when this station was heard in New Zealand was August 14 (1980).

The Australian plane made many flights in an attempt to locate the signals from the two clandestine radio stations, but apparently (and perhaps conveniently) without success. In any case, the army contingent from Papua New Guinea found both stations and closed them four days later, on August 18 (1980).

The elected new Prime Minister Walter Lini no longer needed his clandestine Radio Vanuaaka; he now had access to the official government station Radio Vila.

Additional readings: Radio Happy Isles:Media and Politics at Play in the Pacific
https://tinyurl.com/ycfbsmdr

And the latest on logging Radio Vanuatu
Radio Vanuatu has been broadcasting in English/Bislama on shortwave, observed on the following schedule
All times UTC
1830-0000, 3945
0000-0700, 5040
0700-1000, 3945
1000-1100, 2485.
Frequency 2485 kHz has been on Monday-Friday, irregularly, and the frequency has been vaiable.
(WRTH)