It was back in the mid 1920s that shortwave radio broadcasting stations located in several different countries began to appear on the radio dial. Back in that era, these stations were quite experimental, and in many cases the programming was taken on relay from the parent mediumwave station. In other cases, special programming was produced for the benefit of listeners in distant countries.
Way back then, when the extent of the coverage area was largely unknown, the operators of these shortwave stations encouraged listeners to send in reception reports, for which a QSL card would be issued. You can imagine just how pleased the staff at a shortwave station was to receive a flow of mail from distant listeners, and you can imagine even more so, how pleased the listener was to receive a QSL card in acknowledgement of his reception report.
The earliest shortwave QSL cards in the Indianapolis Collection date back to the year 1928 and they are from shortwave broadcasting stations in Australia, not the United States.
Our very oldest shortwave QSL card verifies a reception report dated December 15, in that year, 1928. This card was issued by the New South Wales Broadcasting Company Limited who owned and operated mediumwave stations 2FC & 2BL at the time, even before the formation of the ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
This 81 year old shortwave QSL card states quite clearly in the pre-printed text that 2FC can be heard on shortwave at intervals, on 28.5 metres, which corresponds to 10525 kHz. It was issued to a listener living in Auckland, New Zealand, and the postage stamp is missing. Apparently it was removed and placed into a Stamp Album.
Another card from Australia, dated in the following year 1929, verifies the reception of the Melbourne shortwave station 3LO. This card shows the very large shortwave transmitter which was located at Braybrook and installed behind a wire cage for safety.
Our earliest QSL card from the well known Australian shortwave station in that era, VK2ME, is dated in 1930. This card is not the more familiar card showing the map of Australia in yellow with the Kookaburra superimposed. Instead, this card is printed in red and black and it shows a map of the Pacific Rim.
A careful examination of the VK2ME QSL cards showing the yellow map and Kookaburra, reveals that there were at least seven different printings of this particular design.
Our earliest QSL card from an American shortwave station is dated in 1930, and it was issued by W9XAA in Chicago, at the time when the transmitter was located on the Navy Pier on the edge of Lake Michigan. This 79 year old card does show its age; the ink has faded and the card is torn.
Other early American cards verify the reception of, for example:-
1930 W9XQ, also in Chicago
1934 The famous KDKA shortwave outlet W8XK in Pittsburgh
1934 W1XAZ in Boston
1934 W3XAU in Philadelphia Pennsylvania
1935 And the Schenectady twins, W2XAD & W2XAF.
Our earliest QSL card from a shortwave broadcasting station in New Zealand is dated in 1931. This card was from station ZL3CW, in the city of Greymouth, which was on the air with a program relay from the mediumwave station 3ZR. During this era, there were half a dozen shortwave relay stations in New Zealand, all on the air with very low power.
Interestingly, back in the year 1931, the BBC in England was issuing QSL cards verifying their broadcasts from the shortwave station G5SW. At the time, experimental shortwave transmitter G5SW was owned and operated by the Marconi Company in Chelmsford England and it was on loan to the BBC for a relay from the famous London station 2LO.
Our earliest Canadian shortwave card is also dated in 1931 and it was issued by station VE9GW which was located at Bowmanville in Ontario. This was in the era when the station was owned by the commercial company Gooderham & Worts, before it was taken over by the Canadian Radio Commission, the fore-runner to CBC Canada.
Other very early QSL cards during this long-ago era, are from:-
1935 HJ4ABE Colombia
1935 PMA & PLK Island of Java
1935 EAQ Spain
1935 HAS & HAT Hungary
1936 VPD Fiji
1936 TFJ Iceland
(NWS46 via Adrian Peterson/AWR)