by Dan Greenall

50 years ago, Voice of America broadcasts could be found all over the shortwave dial.

In addition to a number of transmitter sites located stateside, the VOA used to broadcast from a number of other facilities located in overseas countries in order to help get its signal into all corners of the globe.  Many of these “relay” stations made for challenging DX catches and there was even an award offered by NASWA to those providing sufficient proof of reception of them all.  An example of this can be found on this link: https://k5nd.net/2011/06/voice-of-america/

The familiar tune of Yankee Doodle (heard at the beginning and end of a transmission) along with station ID in English would often include the particular transmitter site in use.  Several old recordings of these can be found on my links to these on the Internet Archive.

• https://archive.org/details/voa-okinawa
• https://archive.org/details/voa-marathon

Technical staff hired to help maintain equipment at overseas facilities were often licensed amateur radio operators. See the attached scans of two QSL cards from amateurs who worked at the station near Monrovia, Liberia.

Most of the various VOA transmitter sites are listed below. Some include links that will lead to related historical information, articles and/or photographs and are well worth exploring.

VOA Greenville NC  

• https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/facilities/48-years-old-and-still-a-flamethrower
• Tour of the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station

VOA Bethany OH

VOA Dixon/Delano CA

• https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Speedx/90s/SWRT-1994-10.pdf
• https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/last-of-voas-wartime-transmitting-stations-goes-dark
• http://www.theradiohistorian.org/Dixon/Dixon1.html
• https://www.eham.net/article/14253

VOA Marathon, FL

• https://onetuberadio.com/2023/08/03/voa-marathon-fl-1963/
• https://www.fybush.com/site-20250321/
• https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/60s/63/Pop-1963-08.pdf

VOA Wooferton UK

• https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-67133389

VOA Kavala Greece

VOA Thessaloniki Greece

VOA Rhodes, Dodecanese Islands

• http://www.theradiohistorian.org/courier/courier.html

VOA Monrovia, Liberia

• https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=099870371

VOA Tangier, Morocco

VOA Okinawa, Ryuku Islands

• http://jandd.org/photo_gallery/voice_of_america_on_okinawa.htm

VOA Poro/Tinang, Philippines

• https://www.radioheritage.com/voice-of-america-relay-station-at-tinang-in-the-philippines/

VOA Udon Thani, Thailand

• https://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/viewtopic.php?t=54733

VOA, Sri Lanka

• https://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/2017/03/final-end-of-another-voa-relay-station.html

VOA Sao Tome

VOA Botswana

• https://voamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/Botswana-VOA-Relay-Station.pdf
• http://www.paws.dircon.co.uk/Bots6a.htm

A year ago, in January 2025, I made a couple of recordings, using remote SDR receivers, of some Voice of America programs being broadcast from their Botswana transmitter site.  These have been uploaded to archive.org and can be found here: https://archive.org/details/voa-africa-via-botswana-relay-january-19-2025

Since March 16, 2025, it seems the only former VOA transmitters being used are Greenville, NC (Radio Marti), Tinang, Philippines (Radyo Pilipinas world service), and Wooferton, UK (BBC and others).