The early days of wireless telegraphy in Singapore

The first wireless station on the island of Singapore was given the callsign VPW, and this unit was an Arc transmitter.  It was a commercial W/T station.  The earliest known listing for VPW is in the year 1919, and the original allotted channel was 3,400 metres, corresponding to about 88 kHz in the LF band.

Subsequent callsigns for this maritime commercial communication station, which was located towards the centre of the island, were VPS (mid 1930s) {Malta commercial, if you can remember, was VPT}, and then GXM.

Two years after the coastal wireless station was established, the British Admiralty built a navy base near Seletar on the northern edge of Singapore Island. A new spark gap wireless station was installed quite close to the already established maritime wireless station, VPW, and this new facility was given the callsign BXW.  In subsequent years, the callsigns in use at this station were GYL and GYS.
 

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