Radio Robinson Crusoe

Daniel DeFoe was inspired to write Robinson Crusoe was an account of the Scottish  sailor Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was marooned on an uninhabited island known as Más a Tierra located in the uninhabited Juan Fernandez archipelago in 1704.  The 18.5 square mile island lies 315 miles from the Chilean coast. Selkirk lived there alone for a period of four years and four months. 

1708 Selkirk was rescued by a pirate ship from his self-imposed exile. they returned him to England, where he published an account of his misadventure. Daniel Defoe read that account and was inspired by the narrative to write Robinson Crusoe. it's widely considered to be the first English novel in history. 

The Juan Fernandez archipelago was discovered in 1574, by the Spanish sailor Juan Fernández. He called the three primary islands Más Afuera, Más a Tierra, and Santa Clara. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the islands were used as a port by pirates and was used as a penal colony by the Republic of Chile from 1829 to 1854, then again from 1909 to 1913.

Fast forward to 1922 and the Chilean government was maintaining a radio station on Más a Tierra to better communicate with the coastal city of Valparaiso. The radio station was located 1000 ft above sea level and was operated by the Chilean navy. Some references refer to it as "Radio Faro" which indicate there was also a radio beacon for navigation. But contemporary sources state that even in 1922 they already were planning to replace the 1.5 Kw "chispa" spark transmitter with something more modern and powerful. 

It's long gone now. Today tourism powers the island. The Chilean government renamed the island Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. Due in part to it's book-related fame; it's now the most populous island in the once uninhabited archipelago. Robinson Crusoe had an estimated population of 843 in 2012.  Vacation travelers can book hiking tours of Cerro Centinela (Centinela  Hill). At its summit are the ruins of the old Navy Radio Station. But the view is nice. It overlooks From there you have a beautiful panoramic view of the entire Cumberland bay.  Getlost magazine published images of the radio station ruins in 2016. There was little more left than a wall and some rubble in the grass.

In 2002 the Juan Fernández Branch of the Chilean Society of History and Geography proposed to the Chief of the First Naval Zone, Rear Admiral Francisco Martínez Villarroel, to consider the place and the collapsed building of the old Radio Station, to turn them into an open-air museum. That's not exactly what happened.

Interestingly it was the CTBTO (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization ) which brought radio back to Róbinson Crusoe Island. In 2003 they constructed the the IS14 Infrasonic Station in the area of ​​the Centinela hill. In 2010 it w2as destroyed by a tsunami. This was replaced by Hydroacoustic station HA03, a four year project that cost over $20 million USD. It powers part of this interactive map [LINK]