Category Archives: QSL Gallery

Don Moore’s Photo Album: Guatemala (Part Three)- Guatemala City Continued

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Don Moore–noted author, traveler, and DXer–for the latest installment of his Photo Album guest post series:

Photo Source: Dennis Sylvester Hurd via Wikimedia Commons

Don Moore’s Photo Album:
Guatemala (Part Three) – Guatemala City continued

by Don Moore

More of Don’s traveling DX stories can be found in his book Tales of a Vagabond DXer [SWLing Post affiliate link]. If you’ve already read his book and enjoyed it, do Don a favor and leave a review on Amazon.

When I started DXing in 1971, and for several decades afterwards, the most widely logged Guatemalan shortwave station by DXers was Radio Cultural on 3300 kHz. It was also known as TGNA, the call letters of that 90-meter-band frequency. The medium wave outlet on 730 kHz was TGN. The station also used 5955 kHz and 9505 kHz, but those frequencies were always harder to hear because of interference from more powerful international broadcasters.

Back then this Evangelical broadcaster was owned and operated by the Central American Mission of Dallas, Texas, but only received a portion of its funding from the CAM. Additional funding came from local donations in Guatemala and another important source was selling time to American Evangelical preachers to air their prerecorded English language religious programs. These programs were broadcast late at night, when propagation into North America and Europe was best, and were always preceded by an English station identification. That made it an easier log for DXers who didn’t understand Spanish.

TGNA was the station I most wanted to visit when I arrived in Guatemala City in June 1983. But Guatemala DX Club members informed me that the station had been temporarily closed down because of “philosophical disagreements” with the government. They were off the air and would remain so for several weeks. I made four more visits to Guatemala City over the next year but somehow never found the time to visit the station. It wasn’t until my visit in December 1987 that I finally stepped inside their front door. That visit became the subject of the first article I wrote for Monitoring Times magazine in June 1988.

Wayne Berger, station manager and chief engineer, and missionary Bob Rice gave us a very long tour of the station. Wayne and Bob had built or rebuilt most of the station’s technical equipment and even some of the infrastructure. On the day we arrived they were welding a broken door back on its hinges. Wayne had built the 3300 kHz transmitter, shown in the next picture, out of spare parts.

Main studio control room at TGNA in 1987.

At the time of my visit, TGNA had two pennants. The larger one was mostly reserved for local listeners. The smaller one was sometimes included with QSLs to lucky DXers.

But neither of those compared with these traditional handmade weavings given by listeners for the station’s 37th anniversary in August, 1987. (I just wish my color photos had survived.)

English ID from Radio Cultural, 3300 kHz, as heard in Pennsylvania 23 November 1979 at 0427 UTC:

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Radio Cultural, 3300 kHz, as heard in Michigan 23 March 1989 at 1101 UTC:

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Easter in Guatemala

Of all the things I’ve seen in my travels, the Easter processions of Guatemala certainly rank near the top. I am fortunate to have been in Guatemala twice for the holiday, in 1982 and 1984, and I plan a return trip in the next few years. Processions take place all over Guatemala during Easter week, but the most elaborate take place on Easter Thursday and Good Friday in Guatemala City and, especially, in Antigua, the old capital twenty kilometers to the west. There are several processions both days in each city and each procession takes several hours. Continue reading →

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Don Moore’s Photo Album: Guatemala (Part Two) – Guatemala City

by Don Moore

Guatemala City, the country’s capital, is the political, economic, and social hub of the country. The next largest city, Quetzaltenango, is less than a fifth as big. Guatemala City also forms a pivot point dividing the country. The departments to the west and the Verapaz region to the north are heavily indigenous. Quiché department is named after the country’s largest Mayan group. The Pacific departments to the south and those to the east are mostly populated by Spanish-speaking ladinos, which is what mestizos of mixed Spanish and indigenous heritage are called in Guatemala. It’s the ladinos and Guatemala’s small European-descended upper class who rule the country. Although the Mayans and a few smaller groups represent half of Guatemala’s population, the country has never had an indigenous president. That’s not where the power lies.

While I was working in Honduras, all of my visits to Guatemala included a few days in Guatemala City. It wouldn’t make anyone’s lists of Latin America’s best capitals but I always enjoyed returning. It felt like a city. Honduras’ capital of Tegucigalpa felt like an overgrown small town.

Guatemala City had a very diverse radio scene with stations programming for all the segments of the population. You could tune in everything from Guatemalan marimba music to English-language rock to Spanish-language romantic pop to Mexican ranchera to Argentine tango. There was even a commercial classical music station on medium wave. Several of the stations – Radio Nuevo Mundo comes to mind – had very professional news departments. And three of Guatemala City’s radio stations broadcast on shortwave.

But for me the best part of visiting Guatemala City wasn’t the shopping or the museums or even visiting the radio stations. It was getting to see my friends in the Guatemala DX Club.

Guatemala DX Club

In early 1983 I connected with the Guatemala DX Club through Radio Netherlands’ Spanish language DX program, Radio Enlace. I first got together with them on my second visit to Guatemala in June 1983 and then made a point of visiting them every time I came to the city. The GDXC had several dozen members, mostly in Guatemala City. Only about eight or ten regularly participated in club events and those are the ones I met. The club had occasional meetings, sometimes organized visits to radio stations, and published an annual newsletter. They also produced a weekly fifteen-minute DX program on La Voz de Guatemala.

This photo was taken during my last visit in December 1987. In the back row are Carlos Zipfel Valencia, Jorge Luis Álvarez, and Edgar Oliva. Me and Ralf Gruner are seated in front.

Edgar was an official monitor for Deutsche Welle and had a beautiful huge Grundig receiver that the station had gifted to him. It had been sent by diplomatic pouch to the West German embassy where he had picked it up in person.

Carlos’ father, Carlos Zipfel y García, was a well-known Guatemalan writer but Carlos was more interested in the spoken word of radio. After getting a communications degree he received professional training through programs run by Radio Netherlands and Deutsche Welle and pursued a career in broadcast journalism and management. At different times he’s served as a producer for La Voz de Guatemala, director of Radio Universidad de San Carlos, and in various roles for several public and non-government organizations such as the Federation of Guatemalan Radio Schools.

I’ve always liked the GDXC pennant. It was intentionally designed to point left so that it would easily fit on the wall between the usual right-pointing radio station pennants. Only a DXer would think of doing that! The design features Guatemala’s national bird, the quetzal, which is known for its long tail feathers.

La Voz de Guatemala

During my first visit with the club, Carlos used his day off to take me to visit the radio station he was working at plus several more medium wave and FM stations. He already had many professional contacts so I had some very memorable station tours. Carlos also used his press credentials to get me a private tour of part of the Palacio Verde, or presidential palace.

The station I was most interested in seeing was the official government radio station, TGW La Voz de Guatemala, also sometimes called Radio Nacional de Guatemala. I had a very long visit there as Carlos, of course, had connections. It was he who produced the club’s weekly DX program on TGW.

The Estudio Maya was a spacious room where live marimba music concerts were broadcast each week. The station even had its own handmade marimba. The use of the name Estudio Maya is interesting. Guatemala embraces the historical image and importance of the Mayans while at the same time ignoring the present-day Mayan population. Half of Guatemala’s population speak Mayan languages but the national radio station only broadcast in Spanish.

Visiting radio stations usually includes collecting souvenirs and TGW didn’t disappoint. Here are several items from the station’s 50th anniversary in 1980. I also picked up several QSLs signed and sealed not just by the head station producer but also by Carlos on behalf of the Guatemala DX Club.

TGW La Voz de Guatemala, 640 kHz, as recorded in Guatemala City in June 1983:

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A Musical Interlude

The marimba is Guatemala’s national musical instrument and if you ever heard one of Guatemala’s shortwave stations you surely heard the music. Like the banjo, the marimba is an instrument that always sounds happy. It’s impossible to play a sad song on one. The instrument is like a xylophone but is made of wood. Although smaller ones do exist, a true marimba requires seven musicians playing in unison. A live concert is an amazing sight. Continue reading →

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Radio Waves: 35 Years of RNZ and Bulgarian National Radio’s New QSL cards

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Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia for the following tips:

RNZ Pacific – 35 years of broadcasting to the region (RNZ)

January 24, 1990, the same day the Auckland Commonwealth Games opened, RNZ International (RNZI) began broadcasting to the Pacific region.

Its news bulletins and programmes were carried by a brand new 100kW transmitter. The service was rebranded as RNZ Pacific in 2017. However its mission remains unchanged, to provide news of the highest quality and be a trusted service to local broadcasters in the Pacific region.

Although RNZ had been broadcasting to the Pacific since 1948, in the late 1980s the New Zealand Government saw the benefit of upgrading the service. Thus RNZI was born, with a small dedicated team.

The first RNZI manager was Ian Johnstone. He believed that the service should have a strong cultural connection to the people of the Pacific. To that end, it was important that some of the staff reflected parts of the region where RNZ Pacific broadcasted. He hired the first Pacific woman sports reporter at RNZ, the late Elma Ma’ua. [Continue reading…]

The BNR’s QSL cards for 2025 present the beauty of Bulgaria (BNR)

Dear friends, we are happy to announce that the Bulgarian National Radio’s QSL cards for 2025 are now available. The two series – one with 6 postcards and the other with 12 postcards – are entitled “The Beauty of Bulgaria.”

The series of 6 cards confirms that you have listened to Radio Bulgaria’s programming in any of its languages.

To receive this series, you need to send reports, indicating the date and the language of the programme you have listened to, as well as content details. QSL cards are sent upon receipt of the necessary number of reports, irrespective of the language in which the programmes were heard on our website. [Continue reading…]

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From NDBs to TIS: A DXer’s Journey Across 1610-1700 kHz

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post and asks, “Wonder who can add to this list?“:

A Look Back – DXing between 1610 and 1700 kHz

by Dan Greenall

1. The Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla West Indies 1610 kHz (1985 QSL)

2. NDB stations (non-directional beacons)

transmitted call letters on CW, mostly from airports, heard in the 1970’s
examples: MDE Medellin, Colombia 1690 kHz and RAB Rabinal, Guatemala 1613 kHz

3. U.S. Army Broadcasting Service KTRK 1670 Fort Meade, MD Feb 1996 articles and recordings

https://www.radioheritage.com/ktrk-k-truck-1670-khz/

4. FCC Part 15 Radio Stations

Example: WDKW 1630 “the Klaw” Dundalk High School near Baltimore, MD

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Link to my recording made at a DX camp in Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada on April 20, 1997: https://archive.org/details/wdkw-the-klaw-1630

An internet search revealed the following;

Part 15 of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules allows some low-powered radio devices to operate without a license on the AM and FM radio broadcast bands. These devices are subject to certain restrictions, including:

Range: On FM frequencies, the effective service range is limited to about 200 feet (61 meters).
Field strength: The field strength should not exceed 250 ?V/m (48db) at 3 meters.
Detachable antennas: Part 15 rules prohibit detachable antennas on all Part 15 transmitters.

Some examples of Part 15 radio stations include:

Microbroadcasting

Often used by hobbyists, drive-in theaters, or on college or high school campuses.

Talking roadsigns, talking houses, or talking billboards

These transmitters air a repeating loop of information, such as traffic or highway construction. They typically operate on empty channels on the AM broadcast band.

InfOspot

A custom product that can include special audio systems, USB / internet connectivity, cabinets, and antenna mounting styles.

Free-radiate AM radio stations

Educational institutions can use a transmitter without a license if the signal coverage is limited to their property.

5. TIS (Travellers Information Stations)

1610 kHz with low power, usually around 10 watts, such as the one I hear near the Blue Water Bridge between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan

6. Expanded AM broadcast band

Over a quarter century ago, these frequencies began to be used in the U.S. by BCB stations. I still have recordings of a half dozen of these from the early days.

WTDY 1670:

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