Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
Noted DXer, Victor Goonetilleke, recently posted this circa 1971 QSL on Facebook and has kindly allowed me to share it here on the SWLing Post:
Click to enlarge
Victor comments:
“The Glory Days of Short Wave Radio. Can you imagine someone hand writing all this today?”
Indeed! I’m very impressed with the detail this Central African Republic broadcaster included in this QSL card–very neat handwriting! Certainly a gem and wonderful memory of hearing this domestic shortwave radio service so far outside its intended broadcast footprint! Thanks for sharing, Victor.
Many thanks to SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, who writes:
“[C]oncerning the RCI anniversary, attached are scans of a QSL card from the CBC International Service for reception on 20 April 1964 when I was in high school. That was on the Knight-Kit Span Master regenerative receiver I had built the previous Christmas.”
“About 50 years later (in 2012, actually), I did an interview with RCI’s Victor Nerenberg on GPS and the ionosphere, which appeared on the RCI program “The Link.”
The transmitter building of Radio Canada International, Sackville, NB.
I spent the summer of 2012 in an off-grid cabin on the eastern coast of Prince Edward Island, Canada. That summer, I listened as two of my favorite shortwave broadcasters left the air within weeks of each other: Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Radio Canada International.
Ironically, though I was only a geographic stone’s-throw from the RCI Sackville transmitter site, I struggled to hear any Sackville signals as my location was too close for skywave propagation and a little too far for ground wave. Though I paid a visit to the transmitter site only two days prior, I was unable to hear or record RCI’s final broadcast.
Unlike RNW’s final broadcasts, RCI’s ended without fanfare and quite abruptly. This week, I heard a recording of that final RCI broadcast for the first time. My friend, Rajdeep Das, recorded it on June 24, 2012 in Kolkata, India. Rajdeep has kindly shared his recording with the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive and here on the SWLing Post.
This is a short 10 minute recording, beginning at 1550 UTC, June 24, 2012 on 11,675 kHz. Listeners will note that the broadcast ends abruptly during the mailbag program–obviously the Sackville transmitters were turned off prematurely.
“Your recent post sent me to my archives and I’ve found my QSL from Radio Demerara, the predecessor of the Voice of Guyana. Copies of the front and back of the QSL letter I received are attached.
The QSL was for reception on 13 December 1966 at 01:00 UTC at my home in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto. This was in the same year that Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom.
In addition to a commercial for Ovaltine, I heard a program of announcements including births, birthdays, deaths, and personal messages. I used a two-tube Knight-Kit Span Master regenerative receiver, which I built a couple of years earlier when I was in Grade 10, along with a 43-foot inverted-L antenna attached to the top of my mother’s clothesline.
Along with a friend, I had established the Intercontinental DX Club, which we ran for a few years until it came time to go to university. But that’s another story.”
The Intercontinental DX Club? What a great name! You’ll have to share that story sometime, Richard!
Many thanks for scanning this QSL from Radio Demerara. I love the fact that they noted “Temporary QSL” at the top of the letter and apologized for the delay in response. What a great piece of radio history and so relevant as we hear the Voice of Guyana return to the shortwaves.
