HAPPY 250th AMERICA

 

SAQ broadcast slated for July 5 on Alexanderson Day

 

                            The only remaining, and still fully functional, Alexanderson Alternator

The SAQ is scheduled to air on Alexanderson Day, July 5th, 2026.

The only remaining, and still fully functional, Alexanderson Alternator.

Experience the wings of history where they are really heard!

On the 5th of July 2026, the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station and the Alexander Grimeton Friendship Association invite you to the Alexanderson Day – a unique and lively family day filled with technology, culture, and world-class experiences.

During the day, the radio station is brought to life with the legendary Alexanderson Alternator (SAQ), the only one of its kind in the world that still works.

The unique Alexanderson alternator from 1924, with the call sign SAQ, is scheduled for two transmissions over the antenna on VLF 17.2 kHz CW.

To attend one of the transmissions in the transmitter hall, a ticket will be required.

You can book you ticket here already now (recommended).

A full program of all activities on the 2026 Alexanderson Day will soon be available on grimeton.org.

SAQ transmission schedule

First transmission:

10:25 CEST (08:25 UTC) Introduction.

10:30 CEST (08:30 UTC) Start-up of the Alternator begins.

10:45 CEST (08:45 UTC) SAQ in the air VVV VVV VVV de SAQ SAQ SAQ (approx. time)

11:00 CEST (09:00 UTC) Transmission of a message.

Second transmission:

14:25 CEST (12:25 UTC) Introduction.

14:30 CEST (12:30 UTC) Start-up of the Alternator begins.

14:45 CEST (12:45 UTC) SAQ in the air VVV VVV VVV de SAQ SAQ SAQ (approx. time)

15:00 CEST (13:00 UTC) Transmission of a message.

Live Video from World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station

On this Alexanderson Day, there will be no live video from the transmissions due to staffing difficulties. Instead, the Alexander association team will fully focus on bringing SAQ out in the ether.

We ask for your understanding.

Test Transmissions

We are planning for some test transmissions, preliminary on July 2nd or 3rd between 13:00 - 16:00 CEST (we will confirm as soon as we can). During the tests, SAQ will be on air shorter periods of time, when we will be carrying out some tests and measurements.

QSL Reports to SAQ

Your QSL reports to SAQ are, as usual, most welcome and much appreciated!

For guaranteed E-QSL from us,

please report using our 

ONLINE QSL FORM.

We can not guarantee that reports by Email/mail/bureau will be confirmed.

The online form will be open from July 5thd until July 26th.

Amateur Radio Station SK6SAQ

The Amateur Radio Station with the call “SK6SAQ” will be QRV during the day on the following frequencies:

– 3 517.2 kHz CW

– 7 017.2 kHz CW

– 14 017.2 KHz CW

– 3 755 kHz SSB

– 7 140 kHz SSB

https://alexander.n.se/en/the-alexander-association/kontact/

The End of an Era: NHK Leaves Nauen

 

NHK World Japan is expected to conclude its remaining shortwave relay broadcasts from the MBR transmission facility at Nauen, Germany, on June 28, marking the end of the broadcaster's final use of the historic German relay site.

The broadcasts affected by the closure are:

UTC/frequency

Japanese to the Middle East, 0100–0300 on 9440 

Japanese to the Middle East, 0300–0400 on 11960 

Japanese to the Middle East, 0400–0500 on 13750 

Russian to Eastern Europe, 0430–0450  on 6165 

For many years, Nauen has served as an important relay facility for international broadcasters seeking coverage across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. With the departure of NHK World Japan, another chapter in the long history of shortwave broadcasting from Nauen comes to a close.

It remains unclear whether NHK will continue these services through alternative transmission facilities. Some observers have suggested that replacement broadcasts could originate directly from Japan, though no official announcement has been made regarding future frequencies or schedules.

For DXers, the period immediately following June 28 will be worth watching. Monitoring the traditional NHK frequencies, as well as nearby channels in the 16- and 19-meter bands, may provide clues as to whether the broadcaster plans to maintain service to these target areas through other transmission sites.

As always, reports from listeners will help determine what changes, if any, appear on the bands after the Nauen transmissions fall silent.

Throwback Thursday-Voice of America, Hicksville, Long Island, New York

The weekly "Wavescan," when it was produced by highly regarded DXer and radio historian Dr Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio, carried a series of very interesting features containing much original research on radio history. We have added a similar series of current feature articles, "Reminiscing With A Radio," now being written by Adrian for New Zealand's "Radio Heritage" website. Thank you to Adrian Peterson and the Radio Heritage Foundation for their permission to include this material here.

 

by Dr Adrian M Peterson

Classic VOA QSL from Cold War Radio Museum

Back in those days, we were surprised, and literally amazed, at the rapid increase in the number of shortwave stations that began to carry the programming of the Voice of America.  At the time, the only shortwave receiver I owned at our family home in country South Australia was a small home-constructed battery-operated uncalibrated set that utilised the old bulbous English Cossor valves.  Thus it was that on Sunday afternoons I would sometimes cycle the three-mile distance and go over to the home of my mentor, Ern Suffolk.  He lived in a country house near Lobethal, a Bavarian migrant town with a name in German meaning "Valley of Praise."  Officially, this town was re-designated during the war years as Tweedvale, honouring its large woollen mill factory, but we as locals, always called it Lobethal.

Ern Suffolk was the guiding light for the South Australian Branch of the old Australian DX Radio Club with its headquarters in Melbourne, Victoria.  On his powerful shortwave receiver, I would often tune in to the escalating number of VOA shortwave transmitters and send reception reports to their two addresses, one in California and the other in New York.  Most of my reports were acknowledged; some with QSL card, some with QSL letter, some with a letter stating that it was against policy to verify, and the rest were ignored.

During those years of international crisis, the American stations that we would listen to were located mostly in California, though we would also hear the Eastern stations as well; and yes, we held QSL cards to prove it.  One of the major transmitter bases that was pressed quickly into VOA service was located at Hicksville, on Long Island in New York state.  This massive electronic complex was in some ways the largest communication station that was commandeered by VOA.  Well, OK, VOA did not just walk in and take the facility over, but they did arrange for the usage of many transmitters at this location to carry their programming, with who knows, maybe a score of different callsigns.

It was Press Wireless International, PWI, that constructed the Hicksville radio station for the purpose of increasing the flow of intentional news reports.  Work on the station was commenced in 1932 at two different locations, Little Neck and Hicksville.  Initially, it would seem from the available information that the smaller property at coastal Little Neck was developed as a temporary transmitter base with a couple of shortwave transmitters, and maybe even up to four.  The official 1933 list for Little Neck shows half a dozen call signs in use; five in the WJ series, such as WJO, WJP and WJQ, and also one four-letter call, WRDK.  When PWI Hicksville became functional, it would be presumed that the transmitters were transferred, and Little Neck then became their Receiver Station.

The larger PWI property on Long Island was situated in Hicksville, quite close to where the offices of the radio magazine, "Popular Communications," are now located.  The 500-acre property for Press Wireless Hicksville was developed as a massive shortwave communication radio station with, at its height of activity, 47 shortwave transmitters and 70 antennas.  It seems that the largest transmitters were rated at the time at 40 kw., though these days the power rating would likely be given as 20 kw.  The many additional transmitters were rated at lower power values, varying from 10 kw. to 5 kw. to a few hundred watts.

The Hicksville station became operational initially in 1933 with the original complement of transmitters, and these were augmented progressively during the next several years.  The purpose for establishing this station was to enable the free flow of press reports to and from overseas news bureaus and newspaper offices throughout the United States.  However, as was the custom in those days, PWI Hicksville also went on the air spasmodically with experimental program broadcasting in the shortwave bands.

During the year 1935, mediumwave station WOR in New York announced that they planned to establish its own shortwave transmitter to carry the same program feed in parallel with its mediumwave unit.  In fact, work commenced on the construction of the shortwave transmitter, which was already licensed as W2XHI.  However, before the new transmitter was completed, station WOR announced that it had abandoned its shortwave project.  Now, it so happened that around this same time period, Press Wireless inaugurated its own program service on shortwave over the transmitter W2XGB.  On many occasions, this unit carried a tandem relay from the mediumwave WOR.

A year or two before the commencement of the European Conflict, Press Wireless Hicksville became more active in the area of program broadcasting, and they began a daily two-hour service on shortwave from W2XGB.  The programming consisted of recorded music, relays from New York's WOR, and news bulletins from their own Press Wireless sources.  On Saturday afternoons, their program schedule showed opera broadcasts on relay to Latin America.  In addition, the Hicksville transmitters were noted by American shortwave monitors on several occasions with program relays on behalf of the national networks.  For example, Hicksville was heard with NBC programming beamed to local stations COCX and CMAS in Cuba in mid 1938; and East coast relays beamed to California around the same time period.  A few QSL letters and cards were issued to verify listener reports on these program relays.  The QSL cards showed photographs of their transmitter building and antenna systems, and also the operating positions at their receiver station.

In January 1942, just a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, irregular test broadcasts commenced from Hicksville under the callsign WCW.  In those days, a separate callsign was issued by the FCC for each shortwave channel, and thus it was that PWI Hicksville was noted with maybe a score of different callsigns during this era.  Programming for these broadcasts was taken from the local networks, such as NBC and Mutual, and they were relayed for example to Press Wireless KJE9 in California.  Test broadcasts were also beamed to continental and islandic Europe.

A few months after the series of test broadcasts began, station WCW Hicksville New York, began to carry official OWI-VOA and AFRS programming beamed to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  Over a period of more than four years, Hicksville was noted with this relay programming in many languages and under as many as a score of different callsigns.  Program relays were taken from the VOA studios in New York, from the studios of the nationwide networks, and from the studios of station WLW-WLWO in Cincinnati, Ohio.  In fact, wartime pilot John Willmott states that he heard about the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in April 1942 from a VOA broadcast over the Hicksville station while he was ferrying a plane to the Russian Air Force in Iraq.

In March 1943, Hicksville began the usage of regularised four-letter callsigns instead of the usual three-letter callsigns.  For example, callsign WKRX was noted on 7820 kHz. with a parallel relay from WGEO Schenectady.  The callsign on this Hicksville channel, WKRX, was previously noted as WBM4.  The internationally regarded Arthur Cushen MBE in New Zealand reported that he received three QSLs from Hicksville during this era.  His QSLs were two cards verifying WKRD and WKTM and one letter verifying WKTS.  It is not known at this stage specifically what cards Cushen received in acknowledgement for his reception reports.

It was on April 20, 1942, that station WCW Hicksville New York began the official relay of programming on behalf of OWI-VOA.  Two years later, in January 1944, the new shortwave station WOOP and WOOO was activated at Wayne, New Jersey, with the result that PWI Hicksville was no longer needed at the same level.  The usage of the lower powered and older station at Hicksville was thus diminished in the regular VOA and AFRS services to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  The final listing of Hicksville with VOA programming occurred in the VOA scheduling in January 1945, though occasional point-to-point relays were noted subsequently.

In March 1945, WJQ Hicksville was reported in the American radio journal "Radio News," with a special program relay to SHAEF Paris on 10010 kHz.  The station known as SHAEF Paris was in reality a new and temporary Press Wireless station located out in the country near Paris.  In fact, Robert Knight of Lisbon, Connecticut, tells us that he received his technical training on the 40 kw. transmitter at Press Wireless Hicksville and that he worked on the same model transmitter that was reinstalled near Paris in France.  That's the story for next time in "Reminiscing with a Radio."

In 1965, Press Wireless was acquired by ITT World Communications and a few years later the station was dismantled.  The multitude of tall towers no longer hovered over the landscape near Canitague Lane.  What an illustrious and interesting history for such a large and magnificent shortwave station that performed so admirably, and yet was so little known during the era of its usefulness.

(Dr Adrian M Peterson/AWR Wavescan for New Zealand Radio Heritage)

Radio Taiwan International plans a test broadcast from Taiwan

 

Dear listener,

The French Service wishes to inform you that during August 2026 (August 7–30), RTI will conduct direct broadcasts from the Tamsui transmission center in northern Taiwan, targeting Europe and North Africa.

To select the most suitable frequencies, we are planning a test broadcast on Sunday, June 21. The frequencies and times for this broadcast are as follows:

Frequency 15145 kHz, 17:00–17:10 UTC

Frequency 11995 kHz, 17:15–17:25 UTC

Frequency 11995 kHz, 17:30–17:40 UTC

Frequency 9545 kHz, 17:45–17:55 UTC

The two most suitable frequencies will be selected for this summer's broadcast.

A special QSL card will be sent to confirm your reception reports, which you can submit to the French Service via email or through the station's online form.

Thank you for listening and for your continued loyalty.

(RTI French service)

Throwback Thursday - BBC Malaysia

 This week's nostalgic episode from Wavescan, originally broadcast by Adrian Peterson on October 29, 2000

BBC Malaysia

Back in the year 1976,  I took a two-week vacation in Singapore to spend time with my schoolboy son, who was attending an academy located on the edge of the populated areas.  Quite early one Sunday morning, we took a bus and a taxi out from suburban Singapore along the well-paved highway that runs north across the island. 

At the border check post, our travel documents were examined briefly and we walked across the wooden causeway that leads to the Malaysian city of Johore Bahru.  Surprisingly, there was no second check of our documents on the Malay side, so we continued our walk into the center of the first town on the Malay peninsula.  Here it was that we caught another taxi and asked the driver to take us to the BBC relay station out in the nearby countryside at Tebrau.

The modern Japanese taxi whisked us quickly through the lush, verdant Malaysian countryside with its palm trees, green fields, and plantations of rubber trees.  We soon found ourselves at the huge radio station, with its mass of tall antennas, miles of long, long feed lines, and an immaculate white building surrounded by green lawns and tropical gardens.

BBC Far Eastern  Station equipment

The BBC relay station located at Tebrau, outside the city of Johore Bahru, was constructed on a huge, rolling estate of several hundred acres in the year 1953.  The original transmitters were six in number; four new units at 7.5 kw. and two 100 kw. units transferred from the old BFBS base at Jurong on Singapore island.

In the early 1960s, a modernization plan was implemented at Tebrau.  The low-powered 7.5 kw. Units were removed and six more transmitters were installed, making a total of six at 100 kw. and four at 250 kW.

When the lease at Tebrau expired, the Malaysian authorities gave approval for the BBC to continue on air until a new station was erected at Kranji on the northern edge of the island of Singapore.  The final broadcast from the BBC Tebrau took place on March 18, 1979, and the two BBC relay stations located at Kranji on Singapore and at Masirah in Oman took over.

At the height of it power, BBC Tebrau was on the air with a total output of 1.6 megawatts, using 10 transmitters and a bevy of more than 20 curtain antennas.  The long, long feed lines exited the transmitter building and ran down into the valley and across the green fields for more than a quarter mile, the longest known feed lines in the history of shortwave broadcasting.

At the end of our guided tour, my son and I marvelled at the magnitude of this electronic wonder, and we knew that this, our first visit, would be the last time we would see the station this way.  A total of eight transmitters from Tebrau were reinstalled at the new BBC base at Kranji on Singapore, and they are still in active service today as a BBC relay into all areas of Asia.

BBC Far Eastern Relay transmitters

And what happened to the BBC Tebrau after it was closed?  The two old transmitters of 100 kW. were abandoned, the antennas removed, and the building swept clean.  The huge estate of several hundred acres is now a plantation area again, with very little to remind anyone of its one time grandeur as a powerful shortwave relay station.  The AWR Historic Collection contains two dozen BBC QSL cards verifying the reception of transmissions from the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station, the station that was once BBC Tebrau.

(Wavescan 305/Adrian Peterson)

Texas Radio Shortwave, June 18, 21-2026

 

UTC/kHz

Thursday, June 18, 2026

1900-2000, 3975, 6160  Shortwave Radio Gold to Europe - The Music of Koe Wetzel

(music requested by Roman Sass, Rostock, Germany)

Sunday, June 21, 2026

1000-1100, 6070 Channel 292 to Europe - The Music of Townes Van Zandt

(music requested by Eric Cottrell, Lynn, Massachusetts, USA)

This schedule is subject to change based on listener requests for specific Texas artists or music genres, propagation conditions, and other things beyond our control.

Texas Radio Shortwave is an independent producer of musical and topical shows, usually about Texas.

Unless otherwise shown, programs are one hour long.

Programs for Europe (Eur) and beyond on 3975 and 6160 kHz over Shortwave Radio Gold in Winsen, Germany, are transmitted with 1 kW into crossed dipole antennas.

Programs for Europe (Eur) and beyond on 6070 and 9670 kHz over Channel 292 in Rohrbach, Germany, are transmitted with 10 kiloWatts into an inverted V antenna.

Programs for North America (NAm) and beyond on 9670 kHz over Channel 292 are transmitted with 10 kW into a 10.5 dB gain beam antenna.

Texas Radio Shortwave uses a version of The Yellow Rose of Texas as its Interval Signal/Signature Song.

Texas Radio Shortwave verifies correct, detailed reception reports by electronic QSL. This includes reports from listeners using remote receivers (SDRs). Texas Radio

Shortwave's email is texasradioshortwave@protonmail.com.

Many TRSW programs are archived at www.mixcloud.com/texasradiosw.

Texas Radio Shortwave's Facebook page is www.facebook.com/texasradiosw.

Texas Radio Shortwave's Listeners' Group Facebook page is www.facebook.com/groups/580199276066655/.

(TRSW) 

(Koe Wetzel photo via Audacy.com)

(Townes Van Zandt photo by TVZ Records)

(TRS graphic by Gayle Van Horn)