by Hans van de Groenendaal, features editor, EngineerIT
Shortwave is where radio communication began. Once a powerful voice to tell the story of South Africa to the world, this voice has gone silent as Sentech closed down its shortwave broadcasting facility at Bloemendal near Meyerton on 30 March 2019.
Sentech inherited South Africa’s Bloemendal shortwave radio station near Meyerton when Radio RSA was closed down. Radio RSA started its broadcast on 1 May 1966 and by 1976 the station transmitted for 36 hours a week in twelve languages including English, French, Portuguese, and Afrikaans. The service was discontinued in 1992. The only transmission that survived the close down was a broadcast into Africa, renamed Channel Africa which has daily programmes in Chinyanja, Silozi, Portuguese, Swahili, and English. The SABC also transmits Radio Sonder Grense (RSG) on shortwave to the Northern Cape.
Additional story at: https://www.ee.co.za/article/south-africas-voice-on-shortwave-goes-silent.html