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| USA VOA Honolulu QSL (swlqsl.com-w1amf@aol.com) |
On
Monday January 21, 1946, I was in the home of Ern Suffolk who lived a half hour
bicycle ride from my home in a small country town in South Australia. Ern was a prominent international radio
monitor who had assembled a large collection of QSL cards in those days, and in
subsequent time, he was the DX editor for Radio Australia.
On that auspicious summer day, I was
tuning his elaborate shortwave receiver, and I heard the familiar sign off
routine from the Voice of America, loud and clear. In mentioning this item of shortwave
reception, I asked Ern, in my teenage naivity, should I send a reception
report. He stated: Well, you can only
try. I asked where should I send the
report, and he suggested I try both locations, VOA in Hawaii and VOA-OWI in San
Francisco.
I did indeed send to both locations
a reception report on this brief ½ minute transmission
from VOA Honolulu, in the hopes that at least one of these addresses would
respond with a QSL card. Imagine my
surprise when, in due course, I received two QSL cards, each of which was
postmarked, Honolulu and San Francisco, on the same date, March 5. 1946
The
Honolulu QSL card shows a brief typed QSL text, listing the date, January
21,1946, and the frequency 6120 kHz. The
card shows an artistic representation of the Pacific Ocean, and the station
identification The VOA Voice of America KRHO Honolulu TH, Territory of Hawaii,
in large red and blue ink.
The
California QSL card was their regular QSL card with the large red white and
blue areas,
or blocks. However, the large white
panel that usually shows a callsign in large letters is left blank, and a
typewriter in blue ink shows the callsign KRHO and the frequency 6120 kHz. Also typed onto this card is the time of
reception, 1000-1000½ GMT.
Unique
is the fact that such a short reception report, just half a minute, was
verified with two QSL cards from different locations, and the fact that both
were postmarked at their vastly separated locations on the same date. By the way, we do not recommend that you send
such short reception reports.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS314)