Tag Archives: Radio Praha

2020 Radio Prague QSL Cards

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who writes:

“These are the new 2020 QSL Cards from Radio Prague International.
The theme of this year is “Transmitters” (Antennas):”

(Source: Radio Prague)

The three letters – QSL – constitute one of the codes originally developed in the days of the telegraph. All codes consisted of three letters beginning with “Q”. Later some of these “Q” codes were adopted by radio-telegraphists and radio listeners. QSL means “contact confirmed” or “reception confirmed”.

The expression “QSL card” or just “QSL” gradually came to be used among radio-amateurs and then more broadly as radio began to develop as a mass medium. Radio stations were keen to know how well and how far away their programmes could be heard and began to send their listeners “QSL cards” in return for reception reports. The card would include letters making up the “call sign” of the station – the system still used in the United States – or the broadcasting company’s logo or some other illustration. The card would also include a text stating the frequency and the transmitter output power, and a confirmation of when the listener heard the station.

Domestic broadcasters do not tend to use QSL cards these days, but their popularity remains among radio stations broadcasting internationally. They are still keen to know how well they can be heard in the parts of the world to which they broadcast. In the era of shortwave broadcasts Radio Prague sent out QSL cards for reception reports received. After curtailing our shortwave transmissions as of February 1, 2011 we will continue issuing QSL cards for reception via the Internet.

Here you can look through our current and past series of QSL cards:

QSL 2019 – Modern architecture

QSL 2018 – Radio equipment

QSL 2017 – Means of public transport

QSL 2016 – Czech religious monuments

QSL 2015 – Czech industrial monuments

QSL 2014 – Czech landscapes

QSL 2013 – Czechoslovak airplanes

QSL 2012 – Czech painters

QSL 2011 – Czech castles and chateaus

QSL 2010 – Czech writers

QSL 2009 – Czech locomotives

QSL 2008 – Czech sportsmen

QSL 2007 – Lookout towers in the Czech Republic

QSL 2006 – Czech scientists and inventors

QSL 2005 – Spas in the Czech Republic

QSL 2004 – The Year of Czech Music 2004

QSL 2003 – Czechoslovak motor cycles

QSL 2002 – UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Czech Republic

QSL 2001 – Historical Radio Technology

QSL 2000 – Past and Present of Czech Radio

QSL 1999 – Historical Radios

QSL 1998 – Historical Czech Automobiles

QSL 1997 – Czech Cities

Historical QSL Cards – We are sorry but these QSL cards are no longer available.

Click here to view all of the new QSL cards from Radio Prague.

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Radio Prague QSL cards highlight Czech architecture

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who writes:

I send you this link about Radio Prague´s QSL Cards for the present year.

They have images of modern architecture from Czech Republic:

Check out the full set of Radio Prague QSL Cards by visiting Radio Prague online.

Thanks for the tip, David!

Note that although Radio Prague officially left the shortwaves in 2011, they can still be heard via a WRMI relay on 9955 kHz:

02:00 UTC (Monday – Friday, Sunday)
10:00 UTC (Monday – Friday)
12:00 UTC (Monday – Saturday)

For those readers in parts of the world that can’t easily tune into the WRMI relay, note that Radio Prague also sends QSL cards for Internet Radio reception reports.

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95th anniversary of Czech radio’s first broadcasts

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Czech Radio’s main headquarters in Vinohradská street in the centre of Prague, photo: Lenka Žižková

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following news items from Radio Prague regarding the 95th anniversary of Czech Radio’s first broadcasts:

Listening Sessions at a Prague Cinema: Czech Radio’s First Broadcasts Recalled, 95 Years Later

A historic moment occurred at 20:15 on Saturday May 18, 1923 when the first ever broadcast by Czechoslovak Radio was made from a tent at a military air base in Prague’s Kbely district.

After the United Kingdom, Czechoslovakia was the second country in Europe to launch regular radio broadcasting.

Zuzana Foglarová is communications manager at today’s Czech Radio. Speaking at a new exhibition of radio technology at the station, she describes the scene in May 1923.

“Above all it was very simple. There was one tent, which had been borrowed from the scouts. On the floor in the tent was a piano and stool. There was also a table for the presenter, technicians and so on. There was only one microphone, and the story goes that if somebody was playing the piano and somebody else was singing, the latter had to sit under the piano so the microphone could pick up all the sounds.”

Many of the first listeners 95 years ago were waiting to hear the signal come through at a cinema just off Prague’s Wenceslas Square.[…]

Click here to download recording.

Click here to read the full article at Radio Prague.

The spectacular Rudgers?v Palace built in the Neo-Classicist style is home to Czech Radio’s Ostrava studios, photo: Daniel Martínek, Czech Radio (Source: Radio Praha)

Past and Present: A Gallery of Czech´s Radio Buildings

Czech Radio is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year. The Czech national radio broadcaster has come a long way since its pioneering days. Today it is the biggest radio broadcaster in the country with 9 channels, manned not only by its Prague staff but 14 regional branches providing news and reports from around the country. The station’s buildings are also an important part of its history. On the occasion of Czech Radio’s 95th anniversary we have prepared a photo gallery of its buildings, some of them valuable architectural landmarks.

Click here to view the photo gallery at Radio Prague.

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Video: Radio Prague promo

Prague Spring: Radio Prague seeks listener memories

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During the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning tank in Prague. (Photo source: CIA via Wikimedia)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who notes that Radio Prague is asking listeners to share memories of the 1968 Soviet invasion:

(Source: Radio Prague)

August 1968 – share your memories

August 21, 1968 – a turning point in this country’s history. The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact soldiers crushed hopes of life in a freer society.

Please share your memories of that time with us. When and how did you first learn about the invasion? How did the media in your country report on it? Did you by any chance directly experience those events in Czechoslovakia or by the country’s borders?

Send us your recollections, photographs and other materials. Next year Radio Prague will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the events of August 1968 with a special project. Become part of it.

Czech Radio 7 – Radio Prague
Vinohradská 12
120 99 Prague 2
Czech Republic
[email protected]

Click here to read on Radio Prague’s website.

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Zach records the final episode of Radio Prague’s Mailbox program

Radio Prague: Underground agents and plots in the Cold War broadcasting war

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Many thanks to several SWLing Post readers who shared the following story from Radio Prague:

Underground agents and plots in the Cold War broadcasting war

In this week’s Czech History we look at one aspect of the Cold War, the use of secret agents to spy on and disrupt the enemy’s propaganda services. In particular, we focus on the circus that surrounded the return of a Czechoslovak double agent Pavel Mina?ík 40 years ago in 1976 which was aimed at discrediting the US financed and Munich-based broadcaster Radio Free Europe.