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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.
Time and standard frequency stations have been around for a long time. In my early years of DXing, there were more than 20 of them scattered all over the globe. These two pages from the 1972 World Radio TV Handbook show what could be heard back then, along with the frequencies used.
A page from the 1975 WRTVH indicates the arrival of BPM.
I managed to log at least ten of them from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada. They are listed below, some of them including links to recordings I made, have survived for over half a century.
A half-century ago, long before the internet, e-mail, and SDRs, I was fortunate to visit the islands of Bermuda. In addition to meeting up with a fellow amateur radio operator, whom I had contacted from my home QTH in Ontario, Canada, I was able to do some listening on the AM broadcast band, as well as FM, on an inexpensive portable receiver from Radio Shack that I had brought along with me. To this day, I still have the recordings of a few medium wave “catches” that I made, a few from the Caribbean, and a few from the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.
As well, I recorded station ID’s of all the AM (3) and FM (2) local radio stations in Bermuda.
According to the 1975 World Radio TV Handbook, there were only 4 FM outlets, as the 94.9 FM outlet is not listed. Here is the link to these on the Internet Archive.
Today, I can DX from another country without leaving home (through the use of various worldwide SDR’s), though I have to admit that some of the magic is missing.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
Judging by the 60 dB over S9 signal strength on a Kiwi SDR receiver in South Korea, I would say the Voice of America is getting into its target area very well.
They have a Korean language broadcast on 9310 kHz beginning at 1530 hours UTC using their Tinang transmitter in the Philippines. I made a couple of recordings, which are as follows:
April 29, 2026, leading up to 1600 hours UTC (programming in progress), presumed news about King Charles’ visit, “VOA” heard a few times around 3:04 and 3:10:
April 30, 2026, starting at 1527 UTC, open carrier with tone, carrier off after 40 seconds. carrier back on around the 1:44 mark with English ID and Yankee Doodle briefly, then off, Yankee Doodle resumes at the 2:03 mark, then programming in Korean:
Since my original post on March 9, I’ve noticed the Voice of America is no longer using 7500 kHz for its 2200 UTC broadcast in Mandarin Chinese. According to short-wave.info, they are now using 9625 and 11590 kHz from 2200 to 2230 UTC. Shortwave.live has them here as well, but in recent checks using remote SDRs, I have been coming up empty on 9625, and a bit of a mess on 11590. Other listed times and frequencies checked for the Mandarin service have not been heard either.
Back in the early 1970’s, Radio Voice of the Gospel, station ETLF, in Addis Ababa was the best way to hear this country, though it was by no means an everyday occurrence here in southern Ontario, Canada. Their distinctive drum interval signal was the first 4 notes of “A Mighty Fortress.” Or perhaps you would be lucky to hear “Elizabethan Serenade” being played prior to the start of their broadcast. Two recordings I have managed to save can be found at the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/etlf-ethiopia-1971
In 1977, the station was nationalized by the Provisional Military Governing Council of Ethiopia and renamed the Radio Voice of Revolutionary Ethiopia.
Later, in the late 1990’s, a couple of Ethiopian stations could readily be heard thanks to their out of band frequencies. The Voice of Tigray Revolution used 5500 kHz and I recorded their signal on February 21, 1999 while at a DX Camp in Coe Hill, Ontario.
Today, a few stations are still listed as broadcasting on shortwave from Ethiopia, namely Radio Oromiya on 6030, Amhara State Radio on 6090, and Radio Fana on 6110 kHz.
When active, they all seem to suffer from low modulation levels and co-channel interference (primarily from Chinese stations). Recently, I was able to discover that Radio Fana is still using the same interval signal as they did in 1999, by listening on a Kiwi SDR in Mombasa, Kenya.
Here is a recording of their sign on at 0300 UTC on April 26, 2026 on 6110 kHz.
They now seem to ID as Fana Media Corporation, even though programming is not in English.
Listen at the 3:05 mark for this. Also, the modulation level jumps up significantly about the 3:28 mark.
Additionally, I have included a recording of their sign off on April 1, 2026 beginning at 2053 UTC and concluding with the Ethiopian national anthem.
The low-powered Australian, Radio 567 from Wee Waa, NSW, seems to be back on the air after several months’ absence.
I heard them with a good signal on April 22, 2026, beginning around 4970 kHz at 1717 UTC tune-in, using Kiwi SDR’s in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. The signal was even audible using the Kiwi in Perth, Western Australia.
Their format is oldies music from the !950’s, 60’s and 70’s, and here is a recording I made where they play a few commercials and give a station ID.
Here is another recording made tonight, April 24, 2026 at 0018 UTC on 4970 kHz. Huge signal on the VK3SOL SDR in Strathbogie, Victoria.
I am now hearing RTM regularly on shortwave on both 11885 kHz and 15295 kHz through Kiwi SDR’s located in Southeast Asia and Australia. As Timm Breyel pointed out, programming seems to be in Chinese on 11885 with IDs noted as “Sabah V FM” at the 52-second and one-minute mark of the attached recording. Voice announcements on 15295 continue to be in presumed Malaysian, but identification can be heard as Nasional FM at the 6:05, 6:14, and 6:20 marks of the second recording. These are both coming from the Kajang Transmitting Station near Kuala Lumpur. It will be interesting to see how far afield their signal can be heard.
Sabah V FM April 2, 2026 on 11885 kHz at 0128 UTC:
Nasional FM April 2, 2026 on 15295 kHz at 0255 UTC:
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.
