Category Archives: Nostalgia

Shortwave Memories — Who’s Out There?

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by Karl D. Forth

I can remember very early in my shortwave listening wondering how many people were tuned in to a particular broadcast at the same time I was. I was listening to Radio Portugal on a warm evening in June 1971 when I first had this thought. How many others in North America were listening to Radio Portugal, the Voice of The West, and their evening English service at 9 p.m. CDT in the summer of 1971?

The BBC, Radio Canada International, and Radio Nederland probably had a decent audience. And Radio Moscow and Radio Havana Cuba always drew some curious listeners.

What about a smaller broadcaster with an English transmission to North America? How many were listening to any international shortwave broadcaster?

How many were watching Gunsmoke or Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In compared to a feature on Portuguese oilseed production and chestnut exports?

There was no Arbitron ratings book as there was for AM and FM stations in the United States, but it’s fun to think about having a listening diary for shortwave stations, sent not to ARB’s headquarters in Beltsville, Maryland, but somewhere like Geneva, Switzerland, for tabulation.

The stations themselves didn’t know either, but they made audience estimates based on listener mail. Some stations that you may have listened to only a few times and wrote to get a QSL continued to send schedules for years after, counting you as a regular listener. When seeking funding, the stations pointed out that they sent schedules to 5,000 listeners, for example, every few months. (I’m looking at you, RAI.)

I’ve also read stories of shortwave schedules still coming to the house of parents of the listener many years after the listener moved away and started a separate life. (He or she probably picked up the schedules when they visited Mom and Dad, I figure.) Today, I’m still asking the same questions about how many are listening. The stations remaining on shortwave are, too. I’ve read some of the estimates for a major broadcaster’s over-the-air and digital audience that seem extremely optimistic.

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

Please note: all Amazon links are affiliate links that support the SWLing Post at no cost to you.

90 Years of Radio Prague: Founded to Fight Nazi Propaganda

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia for sharing the first installment of a fascinating look at how Radio Prague became a powerful weapon against Nazi propaganda in the years leading up to World War II.

You can read the full article here, and/or listen to the Radio Prague Episode below:

Snail Mail QSL’s – A few stories from a bygone era

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by Dan Greenall

Before the days of the internet and e-mail, the most common way for the listener to contact a radio station was to mail them a letter. This would include requests for a QSL card or letter, which would “officially” verify that reception took place and the details heard were accurate.

Waiting for a reply was part of the SWL experience. A few weeks would go by, sometimes months, and the anticipation would build. I would arrive home from school or work each day in hopes of finding an envelope bearing exotic-looking stamps from halfway around the globe in my mailbox. This was the ultimate reward! Although I didn’t realize it at the time, many of these QSL’s would one day bear historical significance.

Today, I have to admit, much of that magic is gone. With the advent of online streaming and the availability of remote SDR’s, broadcasters are understandably less enthusiastic about receiving a report from a distant listener. Though I have one or two email QSL’s, I have not mailed out a reception report since 1999.

It was to Radio Veritas Asia in the Philippines, and their card finally arrived in 2001.

Some of my favorites were personal replies from a staff member at the station.

Examples are these 1986 letters received from FM stations KKAZ in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and KCME, Manitou Springs, Colorado, informing me that I was their most distant listener on the date of reception.

As well, B. Rudolph Paulus, the station manager at a low-powered maritime station in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, typed out a long friendly letter and even included eight colour photographs of the station, equipment, and staff members.

That was in 1988. Six years later, Rabaul suffered from a devastating volcanic eruption, and the fate of the station is unknown.

In some countries, the postal service could be irregular at best, so one could really never know if your letter got delivered. Then again, there were times when a station would fail to write my complete address on the card or envelope before mailing it. Fortunately, these managed to reach my hometown, where the folks at the local post office seemed to know who I was and added the missing information. These ones from Congo and the USSR were lucky to arrive.

As a radio amateur VE3HLC in 1978, I was thrilled to receive this beautiful postcard from a station I had contacted in the jungles of Guyana.

A few months later, I was horrified to learn of the unspeakable tragedy that had occurred at the Peoples Temple in Jonestown.

Even the postmark could prove significant, as evidenced by this card from Radio Nacional de España that came direct from their relay site at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

In 1992, the island of Palau was still being governed by the U.S. The postmark on this card from KHBN shows the old zip code they once had.

Many long-time listeners continue to keep these historical treasures tucked away in boxes or albums, waiting for their stories to be told. What is your most memorable QSL?

Shortwave Memories — Castro Calling

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RHC Radio Havana Cuba QSL Cardby Karl D. Forth

On mediumwave, Cuba was a heavyweight, with many high-powered transmitters all over the dial, exceeding the already generous allocation agreed to by the North American nations in 1941.

In 1971, Radio Havana Cuba broadcast on shortwave with Spanish to the Americas, English, French, Portuguese, and a few other languages.

Later, I saw a magazine ad from the 1960s. The ad was for Hallicrafters, a Chicago maker of shortwave radios and communications equipment. The ad showed a menacing-looking caricature of the Cuban dictator speaking and posed the question:

“Have you ever actually heard this son of a bitch?”

Fidel Castro’s understanding of radio was no accident. He studied its use in other Latin American countries and in previous coup attempts, and used it shrewdly in his own rise to power.

One program seemed to a 15-year-old to cross the line. The Voice of Vietnam was an English language program aimed at the United States that was broadcast from Havana, not Hanoi. This program seemed strident and objectionable, which may have been the goal.

Today, Cuban broadcasting is in a shambles. Hurricane Rafael flattened its largest shortwave transmitter site. Ongoing problems with the power grid and shortages of fuel have led to nationwide power outages. Many AM stations are off the air. Technicians from China who kept things running have reportedly left the country.

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

Please note: all Amazon links are affiliate links that support the SWLing Post at no cost to you.

1976 U.S. Bicentennial Callsigns

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

In 1976, amateur radio operators in the United States were allowed the option of using a special prefix in place of their regular one to celebrate the country’s bicentennial year. Many amateurs issued special QSL cards for this bearing the new prefix, making reference to the US bicentennial year on the front.

Others simply modified their existing cards. The bicentennial commissions in Massachusetts and South Dakota even made up fill-in-the-blank commemorative QSL cards.

WL1CEN was a special events station in Lexington, Massachusetts, that appears to have been operating earlier in 1975.

The American Radio Relay League also issued a bicentennial WAS award to amateurs making contacts with all 50 U.S. states during 1976.

Here is a link to more bicentennial QSL’s

https://archive.org/details/ac-2-ghk-4-front

I wonder what’s going on this year, as I am not QRV at the moment?

73

Dan Greenall, VE3HLC

Shortwave Memories — World Radio-TV Handbook

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by Karl D. Forth

Reading through the 1971 World Radio-TV Handbook only as a reference source was interesting, but as I started listening more I also realized I felt part of what was happening – I could hear many of the countries described, one way or another.

I’ve always liked directories. You can often learn more of what’s happening than you can in a textbook.

The 25th edition of the directory of international radio and television was published in 1971 in English in Hvidovre, Denmark, and printed in Great Britain.

Looking at the information, organized by continent and country, you discovered that most European countries had a domestic network of AM and FM stations, including some very high-powered AM stations, along with domestic shortwave services and a full complement of what were called foreign services, the international broadcasts.

In Africa, many listeners got their news from domestic shortwave broadcasters and some AM stations. In 1971, FM had not penetrated Africa except in a few places. Likewise, Asia had few FM broadcasters outside of Japan and a few other countries. All domestic broadcasts in Indonesia, for example, were on shortwave, there was no AM broadcasting at that time.

I counted almost 75 advertisers in the 1971 WRTH, including many shortwave stations and makers of professional recording and studio equipment.

Advertisers included Radio Moscow, Shure stereo cartridges, Voice of America, Radio RSA from South Africa, Radio Sweden, Continental Electronics, Hallicrafters, a Chicago area maker of shortwave radios, and Hammarlund Mfg. Co., a maker of top-line receivers.

WRTH also had the music signature and description of the interval signal for dozens of stations.

The United States listing in WRTH had only AM mediumwave stations with more than 10 kW, and no FM stations listed. Also included were Voice of America, and shortwave stations AFRTS, KGEI, WNYW, and WINB.

Central and South America still had a bounty of mediumwave and shortwave stations, including many smaller private stations

More than 23 countries were listed with DX programs. WRTH also listed time signal stations (almost every major country had one) and programs in Esperanto. TV had not achieved widespread coverage in many areas, although most countries had at least a few over-the-air channels.

I should mention two other publications from 1971, both well-written and informative. The first issue of Communications World in 1971, from Davis Publications, was written by Don Jensen and was a great introduction to the hobby. That same year, Communications Handbook, published by Popular Electronics, came out, with a mediumwave and shortwave DXing overview written by Richard Wood that also featured very good descriptive writing and information.

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

Please note: all Amazon links are affiliate links that support the SWLing Post at no cost to you.

Shortwave Memories — Ghana’s North American Service

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by Karl D. Forth

Many of the African nations achieved independence in the 1960s, and as they raised their new national flag they wanted to be connected to the outside world. One of the first things they often did was build an airport so they could be accessible. The second was setting up a shortwave radio station so their national voice could be heard both domestically and internationally.

Radio Ghana, an early independent country (1957), took this a step further by establishing a North American shortwave service, audible in the mid-afternoon in the eastern United States. In my early listening months, this was one of the more exotic places I could receive on my portable shortwave radio.

I sent them a letter, seeking a QSL card verifying reception, and more information. Employees at the Accra General Post Office gathered letters, rather infamously so, and a few weeks later I received a pen pal aerogram from a postal worker in Accra. At the time, this was welcome and a little bit exciting. I remember showing the first letter to my mother and father. They seemed to approve, with a reaction of “this hobby may not be so bad.”

My correspondence with the postal employee continued for a year or two, beyond the life of the North American service. He never did ask for money or anything else (many other listeners received requests for money from other postal workers), but he did dispense a bit of advice that I’ve always remembered. After learning that I was a high school student, he advised: Don’t Play With Books. That means don’t screw around with your educational opportunity.

Ghana Broadcasting Corp. had a number of frequencies for domestic broadcasts in places such as Ejura and Tema. The external service was based in the capital, Accra, and its broadcasts included two frequencies to North America from 2000 to 2100 GMT daily.

For many years after the North American service ended, Ghana could be heard on several 60 meter frequencies in the late evening and sometimes during late winter afternoons.

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

Please note: all Amazon links are affiliate links that support the SWLing Post at no cost to you.