Category Archives: Recordings

Algeria on Shortwave – Then and Now

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, for sharing the following guest post:

Algeria on Shortwave – Then and Now

by Dan Greenall

In the early 1970s, Radiodiffusion-Television Algerienne ran a modest shortwave service (no English) mainly for North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. A copy of their schedule from the 1972 World Radio TV Handbook is shown.

As a fledgling DXer in 1971, I was fortunate to hear their signal on 9510 kHz from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada. Even better, they responded to my request for a QSL with this attractive card.

Fast forward a quarter century to 1996. The international service of Radio Algiers could be heard at times here in eastern North America on 15160 kHz with broadcasts that included English. Here is a brief recording from November 3 of that year that I am lucky to have saved.

In July 2022, two new 300 kW transmitters located at Ouargla and Bechar were put on the air after several years of planning. These were to be used for the Radio Coran service in Arabic, but in May 2023, Ifrikya FM (the African Voice) was born with the objective of providing a pan-African voice by broadcasting educational, informative, and cultural programming from an African perspective.

Although there is no English, they can be spotted on shortwave on 13640 and 13855 kHz after their 1900 UTC sign on. If you can hear the same programming on these two frequencies, you will know you have them.

Here are two recordings made on October 19, 2025 using a KiwiSDR near Sao Paulo, Brazil. They were made one hour apart, the first at 2000 UTC and the second at 2100 hours.

13855 was noticeably stronger than 13640 on this receiver.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Radio ELWA (October 17, 2025)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent Radio ELWA broadcast.

Carlos notes:

Radio ELWA, Monrovia, Liberia, 6050 kHz

Click here to view on YouTube.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Radio ELWA (October 16, 2025)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent Radio ELWA broadcast.

Carlos notes:

Program “Thru the Bible”, with J. Vernon McGee, Radio ELWA, Monrovia, Liberia, 6050 kHz

Click here to view on YouTube.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report, QSL, and Recording of Radio ELWA (October 14, 2025)

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Radio ELWA (October 13, 2025)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent Radio ELWA broadcast.

Carlos notes:

It’s never been easy for me to pick up the ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) radio signal on 6050 kHz in Brazil. The signal was always weak, propagation was poor, and conditions were never particularly favorable for listening to the historic evangelical radio station from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Until then, I had only listened ELWA, with great difficulty, in Porto Alegre and Guaíba, both cities in Rio Grande do Sul, and in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. Recently, while scanning shortwave frequencies during the early morning hours in Rio de Janeiro, I received the ELWA radio signal and decided to try recording the broadcast. I noticed a sort of propagation window between 6:30 and 6:50 (UTC). Even though, it took at least six days of failed attempts, the same weak signal and poor propagation, until finally today, October 13th, I got clear audio.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of CGTN (October 13, 2025)

The 90 metre band – Then and Now

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:

The 90 metre band – Then and Now

by Dan Greenall

A few decades ago, the 90 metre shortwave broadcast band used to be full of interesting and challenging-to-hear DX signals. In the 1974 edition of The Complete Shortwave Listener’s Handbook, author Hank Bennett reports on what you might expect to hear on these frequencies. There is a copy of this book on the Internet Archive. Here is a link to that specific page.

Also, this sample page from White’s Radio Log in the 1972 Communications World magazine shows a number of stations that could be logged in 90 metre band.

Here are a few links to recordings from my personal collection that have survived through the many years. These were all made between 3200 and 3400 kHz from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada.

[Note: Click on each broadcast link to open the associated Internet Archive page with more info.]

Radio Bougainville, PNG 1971

Radio Rabaul, PNG 1971

Radio Santiago, Dominican Republic 1971

Radio Libertad, Santiago, Dominican Republic 1971

Action Radio, Guyana Broadcasting Service 1972

Radio Christian Voice, Zambia 1996

Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) 1997

Radio Maya TGBA, Guatemala early 1970’s

Radio Exitos, Dominican Republic 1971

Today, it seems that only a handful of stations can be found broadcasting in the 90 metre band. These would include WWCR in Nashville, the Voice of Indonesia, KCBS Pyongyang and Radio Mosoj Chaski in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As well, the Canadian time signal station CHU still continues to use 3330 kHz.

A recent recording of Mosoj Chaski Radio, a Christian broadcaster logged using a remote SDR in Lima, Peru, is presented here.

Although not in English, listen carefully and you can hear them give their frequency of 3310 kHz in the 90 metre band as well as their location of Cochabamba, Bolivia.