An unidentified amateur radio operator in San Salvador, the capital city of the small Central American country of El Salvador, was the first to enter into experimentation with shortwave radio. He sent a written report of his early activities to the American amateur radio magazine QST, and they printed his remarks in their issue dated December 1922. He said that he had recently made some successful shortwave tests from his own radio transmitter, and that he planned on making further test transmissions on shortwave some time soon.
Back in the year 1922, the emphasis
in the radio world was the usage of high power on longwave rather than low
power on shortwave, and at that time shortwave experimentation was quite
rare. The amateur radio experimenter in
San Salvador identified himself simply as Sparks, seeming to indicate that he
was an unlicensed amateur radio operator, which was rather common in many
countries back in that era.
Many international radio monitors in
the United States and the South Pacific made frequent comment in the mid and
late 1930s regarding shortwave transmissions from El Salvador. It would appear that new shortwave equipment
was installed in San Salvador around the year 1935, apparently at an already
established radio communication station somewhere in the capital city
area.
Mention of new low powered shortwave
transmissions from El Salvador soon began to appear in radio magazines in the
United States and Australia, and the first known reference (Australasian Radio
World, August 1936) listed the
station as the new YSJ which was heard in Australia on 13410 kHz. Apparently this entry was for the logging of
a communication transmission, rather than for the broadcast of entertainment
radio programming.
However, during the following year
(1937), monitoring reports in radio magazines referred to the fact that the new
500 watt transmitter in San Salvador was now in use at various times of the day
with the relay of programming from mediumwave Radio Nacionales YSS (864 kHz). The Listener In radio magazine in Australia
referred to the new shortwave broadcasts as a new shortwave station in a new
shortwave country.
According to propagation conditions,
three channels and three callsigns were employed for the relay of entertainment
and informational radio programming: YSD 7894 kHz, YSH 9520 kHz, YSM 11710
kHz. However, it should be noted that
only one channel was on the air at any one time, seeming to indicate the usage
of just the one transmitter.
Some where around the middle of last
century, a new 1 kW transmitter was installed for the shortwave service of
Radio Nacionales. Then some ten years
later again, another 5 kW transmitter was in use for the program relays; and in
the mid 1980s, YSS shortwave was noted with a power of 10 kW. However, soon after this increase in power,
the government shortwave service came to an end.
It should be noted also that there
were many other double combination mediumwave/shortwave stations on the air in
El Salvador, with a maximum number of 18 around the mid 1950s, all
commercial. The final listing for a
shortwave broadcasting station in El Salvador was for Radio Imperial with 1½ kW under the callsign YSDA about a
dozen years ago.
El Salvador is geographically a
small country, and shortwave transmissions were not really necessary to ensure
nationwide coverage. Then too, the
introduction of FM broadcasting began to supersede the usage of both shortwave
and mediumwave for nationwide coverage.
In a rather strange situation, two
major clandestine shortwave stations in El Salvador were on the air
surreptitiously for many years, though more recently the government has granted
a license to each, and both are on the air in the capital city, though on FM
only. Those clandestine shortwave events
transpired during the disastrous and tragic civil war in El Salvador that
extended over a period of eleven years, stretching from 1981 to 1992.
On January 10, 1981, Radio
Venceremos made its first broadcast in El Salvador from a damp cave in an isolated hidden mountainous area
of the country, though it is claimed that they were previously on the air from
a clandestine location in Nicaragua.
Much of the programming from Radio Venceremos was pre-recorded on
cassette tapes and then broadcast over whatever shortwave equipment was
available.
Daily one hour programming began at
6:00 pm local, and the contents featured news and information about the civil
war that was not readily available from any other source. The daily news and wartime features from this
forbidden radio station were listened to avidly not only by the citizens of
this war torn country, but also by the news media and high level politicians in
other countries.
The original old transmitter,
identified in some circles as a Viking, together with a 700 watt amplifier,
carried the broadcasts of Radio Venceremos during its first era. Other electronic equipment was pressed into
service whenever and wherever it could be obtained, and of course, frequent
moves were necessary to obviate capture or destruction. When
the operation became more professional, two transmitters were employed with
simultaneous programming on nearby channels.
Radio Venceremos usually transmitted
somewhere around the 40 metre amateur band, and the actual frequency hopping
varied in order to avoid jamming. There were times also when the jamming
transmitter would come on the air with its own programming immediately Radio
Venceremos closed, on the same channel.
In
an endeavor to counter the broadcasts from Radio Venceremos, the United States
stationed two navy ships in the Caribbean off the coast of Central
America. These two navy vessels were
Spruance class destroyers, and they were located in the Gulf of Fonseca.
Programming
from the shortwave communication transmitters on these two vessels, first the
"Caron" and later the "Diego," consisted entirely of
jamming noises. The signal from these
two ships was also heard widely throughout North America and into Europe and
the South Pacific. It could be
conjectured that no QSLs were ever issued for these jamming broadcasts.
After peace talks produced some sort
of a peace keeping truce, Radio Venceremos was granted an FM license, and some
of its early equipment can be seen these days as a rebuilt display in the city
museum.
The story of the other clandestine
radio station in El Salvador, Radio Farabundo Marti, is quite similar to that
of Radio Vinceremos. Radio Farabundo
Marti made its first broadcast on January 22, 1982; and this station is now
also licensed as an FM station in San Salvador.
Just a few QSLs are known for
Vinceremos and Farabundo
Marti and these are informal cards and notes.
However, in earlier days, QSL cards were issued by Radio Nacionales YSS for
the reception of their shortwave broadcasts.
(awr wAVESCAN/NWS 246)
