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| 4VEH QSL |
Special thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's Wavescan feature on Haiti ... a country we wish was still on shortwave !!
Jeff: The small independent nation of Haiti in the Caribbean regularly features in news stories, but not for good reasons. It’s one of the poorest countries on Earth, has a high crime rate, and seems to lurch from one crisis to another – be it earthquake, hurricane, or political upheavals of their own making. Some have called it the “Basket Case of the Caribbean.” But, on this occasion here in Wavescan, we thought we’d take a look back at shortwave broadcasting in that country, in years gone by. Here’s Ray Robinson in Los Angeles to tell us more.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. The country of Haiti occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola which is located in the Caribbean between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Haiti is French and Creole-speaking, and the Dominican Republic, in the central and eastern side of the island, is Spanish-speaking.
The total area of Haiti is a little over 10,000 square miles, roughly in a horseshoe shape, with the arms pointing to the west. The total population is around 11½ million, and the capital city is Port-au-Prince.
The radio scene in Haiti began a little over 100 years ago when the US Navy established a wireless communication station in Port-au-Prince with the callsign NSC. Subsequent communication stations were erected by the Haitian government and these were given the callsigns HHM, HHW and HHZ.
The first radio broadcasting station in Haiti appeared on the radio dial in 1927 with the callsign HHK, and this station was also located in the capital city. Station HHK was a government facility, and it was licensed with 1 kW on 830 kHz AM.
Shortwave broadcasting began in Haiti eight years later in 1935, when the Haitian Automobile Association established a station that was given three different callsigns, one for each of the three licensed channels. This station was heard in North America and Europe under the callsigns HH2R, HH2S and HH2T. However, the first Haitian shortwave station that was heard in the South Pacific was HH3W, which was noted five years later, in 1940.
In the year 1946, ambitious plans were announced by a commercial organization in France for the establishment of a powerful station in Haiti that would give radio coverage to almost the entire planet. This station, with a commercial world service, was planned with three transmitters at 50 kW each. However, that august announcement was the last that was ever heard of this project.
Over the years, a large number of small shortwave stations were established in Haiti, and these have been on the air with programming mainly in French, Spanish and English. Each of these small stations was usually a shortwave relay from a regular medium wave station, though on occasions a truly international service was heard from a few stations. The target areas for an international service were usually other island nations in the Caribbean basin.
The power output of the shortwave stations in Haiti was usually around 1 kW or less, though a couple of stations were on the air at times with 10 kW. Some of these stations also issued QSL cards which these days are quite rare.
It was at the beginning of the year 1950 that the callsigns of all radio stations in Haiti were changed from the original prefix HH to the new prefix 4V. Thus, for example, the station mentioned earlier, HH2S, became 4V2S.
Over the years, more than 60 different callsigns have been noted on shortwave in Haiti, but the era with the greatest number of shortwave stations was in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with more than 20 on the air at that time. The second longest running shortwave station was 4VWA, which operated for more than half a century as Radio Citadelle. This station finally closed in 1992.
But, the station with the longest tenure, and the one that is by far the best known beyond the borders of Haiti, is the gospel station 4VEH. Situated in the perennially difficult political climate of Haiti is this small and exotic radio station which began its days as a shortwave station and is today still heard on medium wave and FM.
It was on the northern coast of Haiti, at Cap Haitien, that Haiti's best known shortwave station was first established more than 70 years ago. This station, 4VEH, with the slogan “La Voix Évangélique d’Haiti” or, "The Evangelical Voice of Haiti", was founded in 1950 specifically as a shortwave station by Rev. G.T. Bustin. This unique station made its first broadcast on June 2, 1950 and at the time it used a small transmitter radiating just 400 watts on the unusual channel 9884 kHz.
Both the studios and transmitter for this new station were located at first in the back rooms of the church building of the “East and West Indies Bible Mission” at Vaudreuil in northern Haiti. At the time, there were several other shortwave stations located in Haiti, though most operated from the capital city area, Port-au-Prince.
Subsequent to its inauguration, and with the evidence of success for this bold new venture, new studios were established and a new transmitter building was constructed for 4VEH. The transmitter base was located seven miles away in the salt flats at Petite Anse, across the bay from Cap Haitien. A 10 watt FM link between the studios in Vaudreuil and the transmitter at Petite Anse came into service in 1965.
To celebrate their 5th anniversary and to honor the 25th anniversary of the International Shortwave Club in London, 4VEH made a series of special DX broadcasts on May 21 and 22, 1955. Three different channels in the 31 metre band were used, and attempts were made also to use two other shortwave transmitters for the occasion.
In 1958, just eight years after its inauguration, station 4VEH was taken over by the missionary organization OMS International, with its world headquarters in Indianapolis. The station, originally established to broadcast the Gospel to the Caribbean, continued under its new ownership with regular programming in French, Spanish and English to Haiti and neighboring islands.
At its peak of operations, 4VEH was on the air with a total of eight transmitters radiating on allocated frequencies in the shortwave, medium wave and FM bands. These were generally lower powered units, though for many years they operated two 10 kW units simultaneously. During its era as a shortwave broadcaster, reception reports were received from all areas in the United States, as well as from many other countries in Europe, the Americas and the Pacific. Two shortwave antennas were in use: a simple dipole, and a two element delta beamed towards Florida.
Gospel station 4VEH left the international shortwave bands in 1982, but continued to use the 60 metre tropical band. Here’s a clip of the station on 4930 kHz at 0730 Eastern on Sunday, September 2nd, 1984.
< Audio Clip - 1984 09 02 Sun 0728-0730 - R 4VEH (Cap Haitien, Haiti 4930kHz) >
Then in 1992, like Radio Citadelle, 4VEH also left the shortwaves. But unlike Radio Citadelle, that wasn’t the end of 4VEH. The station continued to be heard locally on medium wave and FM. And although it continued to use “4VEH” as its name, that call sign was actually only ever assigned to their shortwave transmitter, which of course it was no longer using. For some years, it was affectionately known as “The Right Station with the Wrong Callsign.” But eventually, they switched to using the call sign for their medium wave transmitter, “4VEF”, as their name instead.
Currently, the American headquarters for radio station 4VEF are located in Florida. So what is probably the most famous radio station in Haiti can still be heard on the air today, with 10 kW on 840 kHz AM, and on 94.7 MHz FM. In fact, 4VEF’s medium wave transmitter is one of half a dozen Haitian medium wave stations still listed as active in the 2024 WRTH.
And before we leave Haiti, we should also mention that the Adventist radio station in Haiti, together with the Adventist university and the Adventist hospital, all found it necessary to modify their activities due to the social unrest in the country. The Adventist radio station, 4VVE (Voix de L’Esperance), began operation on 1560 kHz AM with 10 kW in 1988, and also had an FM outlet in parallel on 89.7 MHz from 2001. But, the medium wave transmitter closed in 2010, and the last listing for the FM was in 2022.
Gospel station 4VEH was indeed an exotic shortwave station in an exotic tropical location. In bygone years it was much sought after by distant international radio monitors who wanted a picturesque QSL card from this fascinating island nation in the blue Caribbean.
Back to you, Jeff.
(AWR/Wavescan)