Tag Archives: Dan Greenall

Voice of Hope Africa Is Off the Air

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.

Bangkok Meteorological Radio: Can you name that tune?

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

Bangkok Meteorological Radio in Thailand broadcasts marine weather several times a day on 6765.1 and 8743 kHz USB in both Thai and English. An interval tune is played between the Thai and English segments that has left me trying to put a name to it for nearly a week as I play it over and over in my head. There seems to be a vague resemblance to “Love Me Tender” by the late Elvis Presley but now I’m looking for help. Can anyone “Name That Tune”?

Here is a recording made on October 9 around 1300 hours UTC using the LA6LU KiwiSDR in Thailand. Have Fun!

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.

Vatican Radio – Then and Now

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

When I began shortwave listening back in 1969, Vatican Radio was one of the first stations I came across. That same year, the late Dr. Richard E. Wood authored a book called “Shortwave Voices of the World” in which he writes some notes about the station that you can read here [PDF].

In fact, Vatican Radio was established in 1931 by none other than Guglielmo Marconi. It wasn’t until sometime after World War 2 that the present-day transmitter site was set up at Santa Maria di Galeria. A nice view of it is pictured on this 1970 QSL card.

By the early 1970’s, short English language broadcasts to North America were still included in their schedule as you can see from these pages in the 1972 World Radio TV Handbook [click to enlarge].

In 1983, Ken MacHarg, a former host of the DX Partyline on HCJB, was the author of a now out-of-print book entitled “Tune In The World”. Read Ken’s comments about Vatican Radio here.

Though their published interval signal (see WRTVH) was “Christus Vincit”, Vatican Radio could also be recognized by the bells of St. Peter’s, which you will hear in this recording from 1971 that I made from my listening post in Ontario, Canada: https://archive.org/details/vatican-radio-1971

In more recent times, I have read that shortwave broadcasts to North and South America, as well as Europe, ended in 2012. In addition, English language shortwave transmissions to Asia ended in 2017, though they could still be found online. A list of their current English language broadcasts, as found on short-wave.info is shown here:

Here is a recording made August 11, 2025 using a remote SDR in the UK, complete with “Christus Vincit” interval signal, as they began their African service on 9705 kHz.

Also included is a recording from September 30, 2025, as they ended a transmission on 15595 kHz.

TWR Swaziland / Eswatini – Then and Now

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

Much to the delight of DXers, Trans World Radio began broadcasting from the African country of Swaziland over 50 years ago. According to the 1975 World Radio TV Handbook, they had four 30 kW transmitters to conduct initial testing in the 90, 60, 49, and 41 metre bands. Their interval signal, played on hand bells, reportedly comes from the song “We’ve a Story to Tell the Nations” and has a music box feel to it. It would pause frequently for an ID in English. This recording was made on November 2, 1996, on 4750 kHz just prior to 0400 UTC sign-on: https://archive.org/details/trans-world-radio-swaziland-1996

Today, the station is still on the air and follows the same format as in years past, except for the name of their country, which changed to Eswatini in 2018.

I chose a Kiwi SDR in neighboring South Africa to make this recent recording, on August 21, 2025 around 1359 UTC on 9585 kHz, leading up to the start of a program in the Portuguese language.

Preserving Radio History in Your Community

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

I have lived in southern Ontario, Canada my entire life, have been DXing since the late 1960’s and have held the amateur radio call sign VE3HLC for over 50 years. Most of this area’s AM broadcast stations had been considered “pests” over the years as I searched for more distant targets, until recently, when many of these began quietly slipping from the airwaves. While this opened up some new frequencies to DX, I soon began to feel that I had lost some old friends, many that I had known since childhood.

When I retired in 2018, I decided to spend a little time trying to preserve some radio history of stations in southern Ontario communities that have played a part in my life. This might include audio clips, QSLs, station booklets, and other types of ephemera, and I would try to place this information where it could be easily accessed by future historians or anyone else who is interested. In the end, I chose to use the Internet Archive (archive.org), where most uploaded information can be viewed (or heard) and downloaded for free.

CFPL, London, Ontario 980 kHz (still on the air)

“Communications in the Community” is a hardcover limited edition (2000 copies) souvenir book printed in 1966 by the Special Printing Unit of The London Free Press in London, Ontario, Canada. It includes historical information about the London Free Press (newspaper) and CFPL radio and television. I was lucky to find this item at a church rummage sale nearly 20 years ago.

CFPL began its life as CJGC in 1922. I acquired one of their QSL cards from 1925 through an eBay purchase a few years ago.

The above and more can be found by clicking on this link.

https://archive.org/details/page-16

CKOC, Hamilton, Ontario 1150 kHz (still on the air)

CKOC radio in Hamilton also started up in 1922. My parents met while working at the station in the late 1940’s. My brother and I (both radio amateurs), along with a few friends were given permission to operate on “Field Day” weekend in 1985 from their old abandoned transmitter site at Elfrida, Ontario.

This area has long since been developed to build homes and shopping areas.

“This is Hamilton, Ontario and the story of broadcasting station CKOC” is an undated booklet (I am guessing circa 1950) that I was able to purchase on eBay. Also found on eBay were two verifications, one from 1931 and the other from 1983.

You can find these scans and more by following this link.

https://archive.org/details/page-13_202209

CKNX, Wingham, Ontario 920 kHz (still on the air)

This station began in 1926 using the unusual call sign 10BP. It would remain that way until 1935. I managed to secure this QSL from 1932 through eBay, signed by its founder W.T. “Doc” Cruickshank.

Interesting stories of how the station began can be found at this link.

https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=story_line&lg=English&fl=0&ex=386&sl=2541&pos=1&pf=1

CKCR, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario 1510 kHz (no longer on the air)

In 1924, this station began briefly in nearby Brantford, Ontario. It quickly moved to Kitchener-Waterloo and existed until 1965 when it became CKGL. The CKCR call sign was picked up later in 1965 by a station in Revelstoke, BC.

Another eBay purchase, I found this QSL with a not-to-scale map of southern Ontario from 1934.

More Ontario QSL’s can be found in my broadcast band gallery at this link: https://archive.org/details/ckoc-hamilton-on-1983

I would encourage others to save parts of the local radio history in their city, state, province or country and give back to the hobby that we have enjoyed for so many years. I would also be happy to hear about any efforts you have made!