QSL of the Week - DW Kigali When the Station Was New

Deutsche Welle QSL (Gayle Van Horn Collection)

In recent time, the attention of the international radio world has been focused on the closure of the  Deutsche Well shortwave relay station located north of Kigali in the land-locked African nation of Rwanda.  Our QSL of the week was issued by Deutsche Welle verifying the reception of their Kigali relay station, not at the time when it was closing, but rather at the time when it had just been opened and taken into service, in 1963.

            Norbert Reiner of Karlsruhe in Germany recently sent us a reception report of an AWR program in the French language that was on relay from Deutsche Well Kigali.  His recent report was one of the last AWR broadcasts from Kigali, and it was heard on the frequency 17800 kHz just before the station was closed.

            In his recent reception report addressed to the AWR office in Indianapolis, Norbert Reiner states: In my QSL collection there is a verification for my reception of the inauguration broadcast of the Deutsche Welle Kigali relay station.  The date for that memorable broadcast was way back more than half a century ago.

AWR-Wavescan/NWS 325)