Category Archives: Radio History

100 Years Ago: A Teenager in Iowa Reaches Greenland by Radio

Collins QSL Card via the Collins Bookshop

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia, who shares this fascinating article from The Gazette:

Arthur A. Collins Legacy Association celebrates 100th anniversary of major radio breakthrough in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — Years before the first trans-Atlantic phone call, and decades before international direct dialing would become available, a Cedar Rapids teenager had a direct line to one of the most remote places on earth.

And decades before companies like Collins Radio and Rockwell Collins became multibillion dollar enterprises, a 15-year-old’s ham radio was connecting Arctic explorers with the world from an attic on Fairview Drive.

On Aug. 3, 1925, Arthur A. Collins made headlines as the first person to communicate with MacMillan scientific explorers in Etah, Greenland on short-length radio waves — what The Evening Gazette in Cedar Rapids hailed as “a new chapter into the history of radio.”[…]

Explore the full story on The Gazette.

HCJB Quito, Ecuador – Then and Now

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

In the 1970s, the powerful signal from radio station HCJB, the Voice of the Andes, in Quito, Ecuador, could be heard with station identifications (similar to this one circa 1971) being given between programs.

I am led to believe that they were made by the late Bob Beukema (1928-2001), since his resonant radio voice was often referred to as the “Voice of the Andes”. My listening post at the time was Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.

Today, the station can still be heard broadcasting from Ecuador, albeit with much lower power, perhaps 10 kW at the most, and a much simpler antenna arrangement.

The accompanying recording was made July 30, 2025 on 6050 kHz around 0200 hours UTC using a Kiwi SDR located in Lima, Peru. Even though programming is only in Spanish and indigenous languages, some of that wonderful Andean music can still be found here.

73
Dan Greenall, Ontario, Canada

Click here to download a bit of HCJB ephemera (PDF).

Dan Unearths Radio Memories: A 1990s Treasure Trove of Broadcast Ephemera

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

Hi Thomas

Before the days of the internet and e-mail, handwritten or typed reception reports mailed out to broadcast stations would often net the lucky DXer other goodies, including station brochures, program schedules, frequency guides, station stickers, blank reception report forms, pennants, booklets, and other items in addition to that coveted QSL verification.

The QSLs were stored carefully away in albums or shoe boxes, while much of the other paper ephemera eventually (over the years) made its way into a recycle bin. Recently, while cleaning out some storage boxes in the basement, I came across a number of envelopes containing some of the aforementioned items from the early to mid-1990s. To preserve these newly discovered pieces of radio history, I have scanned much of the material and included it here.

Here’s a sampling:

There are 39 JPEG and 7 PDF files to view: https://archive.org/details/radio-finland-program-guide-1992-3-page-2

Dan Greenall VE3HLC, Ontario, Canada

Thank you so much for archiving and sharing these, Dan! Pure radio nostalgia.

History of the Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Mike, who writes:

Good afternoon, Thomas. Recalling that there have been a few postings on the SWLing Post over time on the FCC’s Radio Intelligence Division, I thought this might interest you and some readers. I just came across this (I don’t even remember what linked me to it) and have only briefly looked reviewed it, but the manuscript appears to be pretty interesting. https://www.qsl.net/w3df/sterling/ridhist.pdf

Additional history can be found here: https://www.qsl.net/w3df/sterling/dfh1.html.

An interesting local (to me) tidbit on page 19: “It [RID] patrolled the outside of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee installation, the scene of the Manhattan Project but without the personnel knowing what atomic developments were being made inside.“

73,
Mike in Knoxville,
KW1ND

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this, Mike.

Podcast Explores History of Parque do Rodeador

SAQ at 100: Celebrating a Century of Global VLF Communication

Grimeton SAQ turns 100!

On July 2, 2025, the SAQ Grimeton Radio Station in Sweden celebrates its centennial — a hundred years of quiet transmissions that have bridged continents and eras.

Built in 1925, this UNESCO-listed radio station still transmits Morse code using a pre-electronic VLF generator.

A silent voice of peace across the globe.

SAQ to air at 100th anniversary on July 2nd 2025: https://alexander.n.se/en/celebrate-100-years-with-saq-grimeton/

English program: https://alexander.n.se/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Jubileumsdagen_Grimeton100_en.pdf

SAQ transmits telegrams worldwide on 17,2 kHz at 11.00 CEST (09.00 UTC) and 15.00 CEST (13.00 UTC). The startups begin at 10.30 CEST (08.30 UTC) and 14.30 CEST (12.30 UTC).

Learn more:

WA2XMN Revives Armstrong’s Legacy with 90th Anniversary Broadcast on 42.8 MHz

42.8 MHz WA2XMN FM Goes On The Air!

6/19/2025

By Conrad Trautmann, N2YCH

Stephen Hemphill, WA3ZAE, the owner of Solid Electronics Laboratories, fired up a vintage FM tube Phasitron transmitter on 42.8 MHz to put WA2XMN on the air at exactly 12:30 pm EDT today from the famous Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. “W2XMN” was the call sign of Edwin Howard Armstrong’s experimental FM station that went on the air in 1936. “WA2XMN” is the official FCC call sign for the station Hemphill constructed with the cooperation of the tower site owners to commemorate Armstrong’s contribution to radio, Frequency Modulation.

W2XMN building at the Alpine Tower site

Hemphill explained that he attended a Society of Broadcast Engineers meeting that was celebrating Armstrong’s accomplishments, which sparked the idea of going on the air again on that original frequency. He thought it would be perfect to aim for the 70th anniversary of the first public broadcast of wideband FM. That anniversary celebration and broadcast was held on June 11, 2005. Today’s broadcast marks 90 years since that first FM Broadcast and 20 years since the commemorative event.

Hemphill built a transmitter based on the design of a General Electric BT-1-B, but on the lower frequency than what we now know as the standard FM band. Once turned on, the transmitter made 250 watts with no problem with a little headroom to spare and after warming up and settling in, had less than one watt reflected into 400+ feet of 1 ¼” transmission line into a vertical “ringo” antenna on the top, Western facing arm of the famous tower.

Stephen Hemphill poses with his Phasitron FM transmitter tuned to 42.8 MHz

Dual Eimac 4-250a power amplifier tubes

Armstrong Tower in Alpine, NJ (the vertical antenna is up there, trust me)

The audio broadcast today was mostly replays of the 70th anniversary event recordings. A temporary studio was set up in the tower site office building. The event was also streamed live over the internet.

WA2XMN temporary studio and audio processing.

Stephen Hemphill at the controls

The main audio mixing console used was a Gately Electronics Attache Case six channel mixer. Audio processing was done with a vintage Orban Optimod 8100A.

Gately Electronics Attache Case Mixer (apologies to all audio engineers for the pinned meters)

During the event, a web site address for enthusiasts to provide reception reports was given out. While we don’t have those reports yet, I contacted an amateur radio friend who was able to hear the station clearly 61 miles away in Ronkonkoma, NY on the eastern end of Long Island. That’s pretty good coverage for 250 watts!

Coupled with the special event broadcast was the annual picnic gathering of the New York Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, Chapter 15. Roughly 45 people attended and in addition to seeing the WA2XMN transmitter, they also got a first hand look at a few of the old Empire State Building FM Master antenna elements. Here’s a photo of your author standing next to one for perspective. I’m 6’ 5”.

To read more about this antenna and its history, visit this page researched and written by Paul Thurst, KH2R, owner of the “Engineering Radio” blog.