Radio Venceremos (Image source: Biblioteca UTEC)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce Atchison, who who shares this short video from the early 1980s showing a glimpse inside Radio Venceremos:
Click here to view on YouTube.
From Wikipedia:
Radio Venceremos (Spanish; in English, “‘We Shall Overcome’ Radio”) was an ‘underground’ radio network of the anti-government Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the Salvadoran Civil War. The station “specialized in ideological propaganda, acerbic commentary, and pointed ridicule of the government”. The radio station was founded by Carlos Henríquez Consalvi (Santiago).
Despite the end of the war in 1992, the network continues to broadcast. The war years of the station and its national and international influence were documented in the Spanish-language book Las mil y una historias de radio Venceremos and its English translation, Rebel radio: the story of El Salvador’s Radio Venceremos, by the author José Ignacio López Vigil (translator: Mark Fried), a book recorded by the American Library of Congress. An exhibit honoring Radio Venceremos, including a studio room with original equipment, forms a prominent part of the Museum of the Revolution in Perquín, Morazán, El Salvador.
I also found this film on YouTube (The Radio Venceremos Story) which sheds a little more light on the station. The recording is low-resolution, but the subtitles are legible:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Have any DXers logged and confirmed Radio Venceremos? Please comment!
“documentary – style program on the history of radio venceremos heard on the 15 th of august from 02:00 utc on the bbc world service with interviews, recordings etc program ended at 02:45 utc, very informative to listen to but at times can be a bit harrowing so beware!!!
The discovery of the signal from the underground station Radio Venceremos is one of my best memories. Indeed, when the propagation was good, I also found the fake station serving as jammer.
Many years later, I visited in San Salvador the legal station Radio Venceremos. I remember not having had time to visit the museum on the other side of the country to see the transmitter used during the time of the underground.
I remember very well listening to RV many times here in Europe during the night. It started my interest in clandestine stations and soon I became a member of The ACE (https://sites.google.com/site/napiratehof/a-c-e-history). Reading through the bulletin I also became aware of US pirates around 6950 kHz & 7420 kHz and I have many QSLs in my collection. It was a most fascinating time on shortwave.
The thing I remember most about RV was the unique and entertaining cat -n- mouse game the station would play with the Salvadorean military. I recall I would find them around 6500 to 6800 kHz. Though their transmit frequency was a wildcard to avoid jamming, their air time schedule was a little more dependable. In ye ole pre-internet days the A*C*E Newsletter with listeners logs and observations was a good place to get started for info. Once RV was on the air for 5 to 10 minutes another station that was either playing music or a sound alike jamming station would transmit on top of RV’s frequency. All the sudden RV would spin the dial of their transmitter and you would have to looking for them on a new near by clean frequency. Usually less than 100 kHz away. It was never boring.