The Voice of Tigray Revolution

by Dan Greenall

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.

Radio Fana used 6940 kHz and I made a recording of them signing on just prior to 0330 UTC also on February 21, 1999 while at the same DX Camp.

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.