Jen's Special: The Music of Alt-Punk Music Fest on August 9

 

Get ready and tune in to Jen's August 9 program at 1700-2100 UTC+

Jen's Special: The Music of Alt-Punk Music Fest in Blackpool, GB.

http://uk4-vn.mixstream.net:8104/index.html 

For your contact pleasure

Jenur@proton.me

Jen In The Rad

Throwback Thursday - American Navy Station NAA

 

Welcome to Throwback Thursday. This week's edition originally broadcast on February 4, 2001  

The huge wireless station NAA in Arlington, Virginia, was one of the most celebrated wireless stations in the world, according to the American radio magazine Popular Communications back a few years ago.  It was also a very old station; it was established before World War I under the original callsign NAV.

Station NAV-NAA was located at Fort Myers on the edge of Virginia, and the super-tall towers were visible for many years, overshadowing Arlington 

National Cemetery where Presidents William H. Taft and John F. Kennedy lie buried.  Many different postcards from the era before and after World War I picture the huge antenna system at NAA from different angles.

NAA was in use as a massive spark gap transmitter communicating by Morse code with naval vessels at sea, with other American wireless stations at widely separated locations, and with similar stations in Europe.  One of the major stations in Europe that was in frequent communication with NAA was station FL on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 

It was through the use of radio signals between FL in Paris and NAA near Washington, DC that the exact distance between Europe and the United States was measured with an accuracy of just a few yards.  Station NAA was also famous for the accuracy of its time signals, which were broadcast at hourly intervals, and these time signals were used to establish the exact boundary between two states down under, South Australia and Western Australia.

During the early part of World War II, station NAA was also in voice communication with FL in Paris as one of the earliest regular forms of voice communication by wireless.

One of the massive towers at NAA Arlington stood 600 feet tall, and the two others were 450 feet high.  The transmitter building was located in the middle of the triangle of towers, and several feed lines went up to the antennas suspended between the towers.

During World War II, the usage of station NAA as a naval communication station was phased out and taken over by NSS at Annapolis in Maryland.  The antennas were dismantled, the callsign was taken over by a station in Maine that is used for communication with submarines, and the property is now in use by the Defense Communications Agency.

Thus all that is left of the huge NAA facility is a few postcards that depict the station from various angles.  You can often see some of these cards at postcard exhibits, and you might want to buy one or two as a perpetual reminder of this famous and historic old wireless station.

(Adrian Peterson, AWR Wavescan 04 Feb 2001) 

NAA photo via Wikipedia

A closer look at Collins Radio

     

Thank you to the staff from Wavescan for this week's feature on Collins Radio Company.

Jeff:  For four decades, Collins Radio Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa set the absolute standard for American communications engineering.  No other manufacturer in the country came close to what Collins built, or how reliably they built it.  One of their communications receivers, the R390-A, was well-known to DXers of a certain age, but the Collins brand disappeared and hasn’t been heard of for decades.  So, what happened?  Here's Ray Robinson in Los Angeles to tell us the story.

Ray:  Thanks, Jeff.  When I first became a shortwave listener around 1970 or so, I avidly devoured information from club magazines and DX shows that then were carried by various international broadcasters.  I was awed by the range of communication receivers some listeners detailed along with their DX catches, which were way beyond my meagre budget at the time.  Two receivers that stand out in my mind from back then were the American-made Collins R-390A, and the British-made Eddystone EC-10, banks of which could be seen in photos of the BBC Monitoring Service at Caversham Park near Reading, England.  (What an amazing job that must have been – they actually paid people to sit at state-of-the-art communications receivers and seek out distant shortwave signals!)  Anyway, my mind got to thinking recently about the R-390A, and why we don’t hear of Collins Radio anymore these days.  So, I did some research, and here’s what I found.

At one time, Collins Radio was regarded as being the best communications equipment company in the world.  The United States Military trusted it for their bombers.  NASA trusted it for the moon.  And for four decades, it earned every bit of that trust.

So, why did it collapse?  It wasn’t because of competition or bad engineering.  It turns out the founder of the company, Arthur A. Collins, ended up destroying the company by being right about the future, but at exactly the wrong time.

In the basement of his family home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 22-year-old Arthur Collins began building radio transmitters by hand in 1931.  He founded the company two years later on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids with a single obsession – to build the most reliable, most precise communications equipment that American engineering could produce, with no shortcuts, no mass-market compromises – just performance, tested to its limits.

In that same year, 1933, Admiral Richard E. Byrd selected Collins Radio to supply communications gear for his second Antarctic Expedition.  The challenge was brutal.  The equipment had to survive sub-zero temperatures on the Ross Ice Shelf, mechanical punishment during transport across Antarctic terrain, and the unpredictable atmospheric interference of the auroral zone at the bottom of the world.

Collins supplied a complete shortwave broadcasting station built around a massive 20-B transmitter.  On February 3, 1934, from a base camp called Little America, the team successfully transmitted the first live voice radio broadcast from Antarctica to the United States.  Battling gale-force winds and temperatures below -20F, Collins Radio equipment kept the signal clear, carrying Byrd’s voice across thousands of miles to New York, from where CBS carried it to a national audience.

The equipment had been built in a Cedar Rapids factory that had existed for less than a year, but word spread fast.  Military and commercial broadcasting contracts followed, and by the start of World War II, Collins was a respected regional manufacturer.  By the end of the war, it was an industrial power house.

The war transformed Collins because of one specific problem it solved:  frequency changing under fire.  Aerial warfare required radio operators aboard bombers to switch communication frequencies rapidly.  In a B-29 

Super Fortress at 25,000 feet over the Pacific with enemy fighters on the wing, the traditional process of manually tuning variable capacitors across multiple amplifier stages took minutes – minutes that crews did not have.  Collins solved this with the ‘Autotune System’.  It was an electro-mechanical assembly of motors, cams, slip clutches and limit switches that physically rotated every tuning element in the transmitter to a preset position with absolute mechanical repeatability.  A radio operator selected one of ten preset channels on the ART-13 airborne transmitter, and the machine retuned itself across its oscillator, multiplier and power amplifier stages in under 25 seconds.  The system even automatically reduced output power by 50% above 25,000 feet to prevent the risk of high-voltage arcing in thin air.

By the end of the war, 90,000 ART-13 units had been manufactured

But with the close of the war, Collins pivoted hard into the commercial and amateur markets.  The equipment they produced in the late 1940’s and 1950’s became known collectively as ‘the black boxes’, named for their stark utilitarian cabinets with black crinkle-finish paint.  They were not glamorous products, but they were precise ones, and precision, as it turned out, was exactly what Cold War intelligence required.

In 1954, Collins introduced the R-390A receiver, designed for military and government intelligence use.  It became one of the finest tube-based radio receivers ever built, even if it was the very definition of a ‘boat anchor’ radio.  The secret was the mechanical filter technology embedded in its intermediate frequency chain.  Instead of relying on electrical components to achieve selectivity, Collins engineers discovered that they could convert radio signals into physical vibrations, pass those vibrations through precision-machined metal discs made from a nickel alloy called Ni-Span-C and convert them back into electrical signals, because mechanical resonance achieves quality factors far higher than electrical circuits.  The result was what engineers called ‘brick wall selectivity’.

With this technology, the R-390A could isolate one shortwave signal from an adjacent jamming transmission with a sharpness that competing designs simply couldn’t match.  That was the kind of capability that made signals intelligence analysts very happy.  As a result, the U.S. Military contracted not just Collins, but also Motorola, Electronic Assistance Corporation, Stewart Warner, and several others, all to build R-390A receivers to Collins exact specifications.  Over 55,000 units were manufactured across a production run that lasted 30 years.

By 1958, Collins was ready to bring the same engineering philosophy to the civilian amateur market.  The result was the S-Line – a series of transmitters and receivers finished in light grey enamel.  And in the fall of 1959, Collins released the KWM-2 transceiver – a single chassis integrating the full capability of the S-Line transmitter and receiver, with a central tuning knob and signal meter.  It weighed just over 18 lbs, and covered from 3.4 to 30 MHz in 14 segments of 200 kHz each.

In the 1960’s, the U.S. Military used these models under very challenging conditions in Vietnam, where the operators reported that they simply ‘worked’.  When NASA was preparing to go to the moon, Collins became an indispensable partner in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.  Every astronaut’s voice from space in those programs passed through Collins equipment.  For the lunar missions specifically, they developed a ‘Unified S-Band System’ - a single unified radio link that could carry voice, television, telemetry, command signals and precision ranging data across 240,000 miles of space on one carrier frequency in the microwave S-band, around 2.2 GHz.  That, along with the ground-based tracking stations they built for the system in California, Spain and Australia, was no doubt the pinnacle of Collins’ achievement.  But unfortunately, it was then in the late 60’s and early 70’s that the company began to fall apart.  In the space of just two years, Collins Radio Company became functionally bankrupt.

The reason was a project called the C-System.  Starting in the mid-1960’s, Arthur Collins had become consumed by a vision for a fully integrated communication, computation and control network, one that would connect distributed computers – much as local area networking and the Internet does today.  He was right about where the world was going, but wrong about when it would get there!  The computer hardware of the 1960’s was too expensive, too physically large, and too slow to make the C-System viable.  But Collins poured thousands of engineering hours and increasingly desperate capital into its development.

At the same time, government contracts that had been plentiful during the Vietnam War and Apollo moonshot programs began to dry up, and competitors were releasing solid state equipment.  Collins couldn’t keep pace.  In the fiscal year ending August 3, 1971, Collins made a net loss of US $46.6 million.  Between 1969 and 1971, Collins had cut 40% of its workforce, but it wasn’t enough.  A few weeks later on September 2, 1971, North American Rockwell bought the company, and Arthur Collins was forced to leave the board.  By November 1973, Collins Radio had been fully absorbed into Rockwell International.

Arthur Collins died in 1987.  Today, more than 60 years after they were built, surviving examples of the R-390A receiver and KWM-2 transceiver still perform to their original specifications and they command serious money on the collector market.  And my budget still doesn’t extend to one, even now!

Back to you, Jeff.

Audio for Jen's Instrumental Madness Surf Show now available

 

Surf's up !!!!!   Audio now available for the August 2 broadcast. 

Jen's Instrumental Madness Surf Show is all about the Twang, Fuzz, & Reverb, 

a little non- instrumental goodies to shimmy & shake -it from around the world, Like Girl Group.

 

Jen's Instrumental Madness Surf Show For 08-02 heard on Unique, is up & ready for listening and downloading.

Jen's Instrumental Madness Surf Show Link.

Long.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/irst02un9gztds70mhscc/Jen-s-Instrumental-Madness-Surf-Show-For-Sun.-Aug.-2nd-17-21-heard-on-Unique.mp3?rlkey=9jbb7hk4udus4uj6j24hj4p2o&dl=0

Jen's Instrumental Madness Surf Show Link.

Short.

https://tinyurl.com/2ws2fp3v

For your contact pleasure

Jenur@proton.me

Jen In The Rad

Listener Survey from KBS World Radio

Classic KBS QSL card

 South Korea

KBS World Radio is encouraging listeners to take part in its 2026 Listener Survey.

The survey invites listeners to share their listening habits, interests, and overall experiences with KBS World Radio. Participants can also provide feedback on current programming and suggest what they would like to hear in future broadcasts.

As an added bonus, those who complete the survey will be entered for a chance to win a prize.

Survey available at: https://world.kbs.co.kr/special/survey/2026/question/que_fr.php

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

 Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

:Issued: 2026 Aug 03 0413 UTC

# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

# Product description and SWPC contact on the Web

# https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

#

#                Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

#

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity

27 July - 02 August 2026

Solar activity reached Moderate levels during the period, with a

total of 35 C-class flares and 2 R1 (Minor) radio blackout events.

Region 4494 (S05, L=88) produced an M1.0/Sf peaking at 27/0243 UTC

and Region 4492 (N=15, L=107, class/area Cko/310 on 26 July)

produced the largest flare of the week, a long-duration M1.9/Sf that

peaked at 30/1700 UTC. This event was accompanied by a partial-halo

CME and a simultaneous eight-degree-long filament eruption, centered

near N20W67. Associated with these 30 Jul events, two Type II radio

sweeps were observed at 30/1627 UTC and 30/1645 UTC, with estimated

shock speeds of 843 km/s and 1,681 km/s, respectively. Other radio

events included a Type IV sweep at 30/1631 UTC and a 17-minute-long

Tenflare (190 sfu) that peaked at 30/1643 UTC. 

Analysis of the CME propagation indicated an Earth-directed

component with estimated velocity of 878 km/s that was anticipated

to disturb the Geospace on Aug 02, which was later confirmed by a

Sudden Impulse observed on 02/1229 UTC (with deviation of 27 nT) and

further geomagnetic activity enhancement. 

The greater than 10 MeV proton flux crossed the S1 (Minor) solar

radiation event threshold twice during the period: first at 30/1845

UTC (reaching a peak of 18 pfu at 30/2055 UTC); and, after returning

to levels below S1 around 30/0715 UTC, the flux got elevated again

and crossed the threshold of 10pfu at 31/1335 UTC. Additionally, the

greater than 100 MeV proton flux briefly exceeded 1pfu at 30/1835.

All proton flux enhancements were likely associated with the M1.9/Sf

flare mentioned above. 

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached

high levels on 27 Jul and 01 Aug, with the maximum value of the

period (1,379 pfu) observed at 27/1630 UTC. 

Geomagnetic activity was at Quiet to G2 (Moderate) levels during the

week. Unsettled levels were observed on 27-28 Jul, followed by quiet

levels on 29 Jul to 01 Aug. On 02 Aug, active levels were observed,

with an isolated synoptic period of G2 (Moderate) storming level due

to the impact of the abovementioned CME that left the Sun on 30 Jul. 

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity

03 August - 29 August 2026

Solar activity is expected to be predominantly at low levels, with a

chance for R1-R2 (Minor-Moderate) levels throughout the outlook

period. 

No proton events (greater than 10 MeV) are expected at

geosynchronous orbit. 

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is

expected to reach high levels on 12-16 Aug and 22-23 Aug due to

recurrent high speed streams. Normal to moderate electron flux

levels are expected for the remaining days of the outlook period. 

Geomagnetic activity is expected to reach G1 (Minor) storming levels

on 03 Aug (as the ongoing CME disturbances persist and wane) and on

19 Aug (due to the anticipated effects of a High Speed Stream

originated in a negative polarity Coronal Hole). Active levels are

expected on 17-18 Aug, due to the -CH HSS previously mentioned.

Unsettled levels are expected on 04, 11-12 and 20 Aug, and Quiet

levels on the remaining days of the outlook period. 

:Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt

:Issued: 2026 Aug 03 0413 UTC

# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

#

#      27-day Space Weather Outlook Table

#                Issued 2026-08-03

#

#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest

#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index

2026 Aug 03     125          22          5

2026 Aug 04     120          10          3

2026 Aug 05     115           5          2

2026 Aug 06     110           5          2

2026 Aug 07     110           5          2

2026 Aug 08     105           5          2

2026 Aug 09     105           5          2

2026 Aug 10     105           5          2

2026 Aug 11     105           8          3

2026 Aug 12     105           8          3

2026 Aug 13     110           5          2

2026 Aug 14     115           5          2

2026 Aug 15     115           5          2

2026 Aug 16     115           5          2

2026 Aug 17     120          15          4

2026 Aug 18     120          12          4

2026 Aug 19     125          20          5

2026 Aug 20     125           8          3

2026 Aug 21     130           5          2

2026 Aug 22     135           5          2

2026 Aug 23     135           5          2

2026 Aug 24     130           5          2

2026 Aug 25     130           5          2

2026 Aug 26     125           5          2

2026 Aug 27     120           5          2

2026 Aug 28     115           5          2

2026 Aug 29     110           5          2

(NOAA)

August programming from Texas Radio Shortwave

Graphic by Gayle Van Horn

All times UTC

Frequency/Station/Target Area/Program

Aug 1, 2026

1400  6160  Shortwave Radio Gold  Eur  Michael Strah and The Music of Trini Lopez

1800  3975 + 6160    Shortwave Radio Gold  Eur Michael Strah and The Music of Trini Lopez

August 2, 2026

1200  9670  Channel 292  Eur Michael Strah and The Music of Trini Lopez

2300  9670  Channel 292  NAm   Michael Strah and The Music of Trini Lopez

August 16, 2026

1000  6070  Channel 292  Eur  The Music of Joe Ely                                                                                                   

August 20, 2026

1900  3975 + 6160  Shortwave Radio Gold  Eur  The Music of Boz Scaggs    

Unless otherwise shown, programs are one hour long.

Programs for Europe (Eur) and beyond on 3975 and 6160 kHz over Shortwave Radio Gold in Winsen, Germany, are transmitted with 1 kW into crossed dipole antennas.

Programs for Europe (Eur) and beyond on 6070 and 9670 kHz over Channel 292 in Rohrbach, Germany, are transmitted with 10 kW into an inverted V antenna.

Programs for North America (NAm) and beyond on 9670 kHz over Channel 292 are transmitted with 10 kW into a 10.5 dB gain beam antenna.

Texas Radio Shortwave uses a version of The Yellow Rose of Texas as its Interval Signal/Signature Song.

Texas Radio Shortwave verifies correct, detailed reception reports by electronic QSL. This includes reports from listeners using remote receivers (SDRs). Texas Radio

Shortwave's email is texasradioshortwave@protonmail.com.

Many TRSW programs are archived at www.mixcloud.com/texasradiosw.

Texas Radio Shortwave's Facebook page is www.facebook.com/texasradiosw.

Texas Radio Shortwave's Listeners' Group Facebook page is www.facebook.com/groups/580199276066655/.

texasradioshortwave@protonmail.com

(TRSW)

Throwback Thursday - Early Shortwave Broadcasting in Africa

 

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, following a month's pause. This week's edition originally broadcast on February 18, 2001. 

During this year, the new millennium year 2001, Adventist World Radio is celebrating its 30th anniversary.  It was back on October 1, 1971, almost 30 years ago, that the first broadcast from the fledgling Adventist World Radio went on the air from a 250 kw shortwave transmitter operated by Radio Trans Europe at Sines in Portugal.  Throughout this coming year, AWR is planning many anniversary events, and many of these will be of real interest to the international radio world.

As part of the anniversary sequence, we are planning here in Wavescan to present many features on the historical development of Adventist World Radio, and today's program is another in this series.  In this edition, we investigate the early era of shortwave broadcasts on the part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the vast continent of Africa.

       

Records from the era indicate that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been on the air on shortwave from a total of 14 different countries in Africa.  Most of these earlier broadcasts were contracted on a mediumwave station, and they were therefore also heard on the shortwave relay as well.

The first Adventist radio broadcast on shortwave in Africa went on the air in March 1950 over station ETHA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  This programming is listed in the World Radio Handbook for 1951 and 1952 as the Adventist Hour.  These broadcasts of the American Voice of Prophecy radio program were heard on Sundays at 2:45 pm on two channels, 9620 kHz with 1 kw and 15062 kHz with 7.5 kw.  Radio station ETHA was the government radio station, and at certain times of the day it carried a commercial service.

QSL from Deutsche Welle Rwanda

Historical records suggest that test broadcasts were placed on the air with the Deutsche Welle relay station in Kigali, Rwanda for a short period of time in mid-1975.  In the spring of the following year, Adventist broadcasts were placed on two shortwave stations, SLBS at Freetown in Sierra Leone, and Swazi Commercial Radio at Sandlane in Swaziland. 

For a period of nearly three years, Adventist programming in English was incorporated into the programming of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in Colombo, Sri Lanka and beamed to Africa on three shortwave channels.  These 15-minute programs were recorded as special "Test Broadcasts" in the Poona studios of Adventist World Radio and included a shortened version of the old DX program, "Radio Monitors International."

This cluster of shortwave programming all took place before the organization in 1983 of the AWR unit known as AWR-Africa.

Four years later, under the administration of Frenchman Daniel Grizier, a whole slew of new shortwave outlets were added to the schedule of Adventist broadcasting in Africa, some 15 shortwave locations in 10 different countries.  

Some of these very exotic shortwave stations were located in the Cape Verde Islands, Madagascar, Cameroon, and on the island of Mauritius.

These days, Adventist World Radio is on the air to Africa from shortwave transmitters located in Slovakia, Germany, Italy, and South Africa.  In addition, the commercial service from Radio Africa Number One in Gabon has been carrying the English language Voice of Prophecy for more than 20 years.

Angola QSL

Adventist Broadcasts on Shortwave - Africa

1987, RDTVB, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

1987, RN, Yaounde, Cameroon

1987, RN, Bertoua, Cameroon

1987, RN, Douala, Cameroon

1987, RN, Baffousam, Cameroon

1987, RN, Praia, Cape Verde Is.

1987, RDTVCAR, Bangui, Central African Rep.

1950, Mar, ETHA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (American Voice of Prophecy, 3 mos.)

1987, Eq Guinea

1983, Oct 31, Africa No. 1, Moyabi, Gabon (AWR-Africa)

1987, RTVG, Libreville, Gabon

1987, MBC, Curepipe, Mauritius

1987, RM, Antananarivo, Madagascar

1975, July 1, DW, Kigali, Rwanda (Amharic/Swahili tests)

1987, RDR, Kigali, Rwanda

Radio Senegal QSL

1987, ORTS, Dakar, Senegal (French Voice of Hope)

1987, ORTS, Ziguinchor, Senegal (French Voice of Hope)

1976, Spring, SLBS, Freetown, Sierra Leone

1978, Dec 7, SLBC, Ekala, Sri Lanka (nearly three years)

1976, Spring, SCR, Sandlane, Swaziland   

1867, RDTVT, Lome, Togo

(Adrian Peterson/AWR Wavescan 2-18-2001) 

Mini Atlantique' yacht race on shortwave

 

FRANCE  

The 'Mini Atlantique' yacht race weather radio service via TDF Issoudun, France on 7340 and 17545 kHz.

Tuned into male with French weather forecasts at 15.11UT on 7340 kHz today, Friday 24 July. At 15.20 UT, a lady in English reading weather reports took over. Voices were familiar as heard on 'Mini Atlantique' broadcasts in previous years.

After checking HFCC.org database in A-26, could also hear weaker \\ on 17545 kHz (TDF via Issoudun bcast center at 15.00-16.00 UT).

There's an event, 'Les Sables' to the Azores and back, 'Mini Atlantique ', so presume the broadcasts are for participants in that:

https:\\lessables-lesacores650.fr/   Broadcast ended around 15.55 UT.

(Alan Pennington, Cornwall-England-UK, BrDXC-UK iogr bcnews July 24)

(WWDXC top News 1660/27 July 2026)

TWR ends relays from Armenia

 

ARMENIA   1377 kHz  Since July, TWR (Trans World Radio) has ceased broadcasting in Ukrainian via its transmitter in Gavar on 1377 kHz. The radio station told me they have no plans to return to the air.

(Viktor Tsekhanovich, Kerch-RUS, via RUSdx #1404 via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews July 26)

The rental and payment of TWR via CJSC Yerevan Gavar 1377 kHz TWR relays always ran through the Moscow address and the Russian FMO organization of 'RAM'. April 2022.

The 6-Element Double Cone Skirt Antenna System designed by Kintronic Laboratories Inc., USA, financed by the TWR USA organization in February 2006 is aimed for 1000 kW of power. That special directional and steep-angle antenna was in use 16 years on TWR mediumwave outlets on MW 1377 and 1395

kHz. (ed.)

(TWR /WWDXC Top News 1660/27 July 2026)

DXing Brazil on Mediumwave

 

Thank you to Rudolf Grimm for sharing his latest loggings from Brazil

BRAZIL

..

Mediumwave

 700 kHz: Nossa Radio, São Paulo SP – July 20 at 1625-1631. Id ‘Nossa Radio’, presenting an event schedule for the International Church of the Grace of God (IIGD). S8.

.. 730 kHz: Radio Cidade, Jundiaí SP – July 20 at 1631-1636. News bulletin, mention of a risk of an in-flight accident over the Atlantic Ocean, identified days earlier., id ‘Cidade’. S7.

.. 740 kHz: Radio Trianon, São Paulo SP – July 20 at 1636-1639. Brazilian songs, ‘Trianon’. S6.

.. 810 kHz: Radio Canção Nova, São José do Rio Preto SP – July 21 at 0020-0030. Talk by a YL, id ‘Radio Canção Nova’. S4.

.. 830 kHz: Radio Novo Tempo, Campinas SP – July 20, 1639-1643. Christian song, id ‘Novo Tempo’, Seventh-day Adventist Church Station. S4.

.. 870 kHz: Radio Central, Campinas SP – July 20 at 1643-1648. Commercial announcements from Campinas, sports news (Guarani Futebol Clube, Bugre, "juntos somos mais fortes” (together we are stronger), station id ‘Rádio Central, Jornal de Esportes’. S5.

.. 920 kHz: Sistema São Paulo de Comunicações, Cotia SP – July 20 at 1649-1653. Instrumental music (For the past two years, this station has been broadcasting 24 hours a day without a fixed schedule—playing only instrumental music and, occasionally, pre-recorded newscasts from the past; it is presumed to be up for sale, awaiting a financial offer from a buyer).

Surprisingly, during the period I listened this time, the station actually identified itself: "ZYK755 Sistema São Paulo de Comunicação, 920 kHz, Cotia, São Paulo." A rare occurrence!! S7.

.. 940 kHz: Super Rede Boa Vontade de Radio, Rio de Janeiro RJ – July 20 1940-1945. Music, religious comentary. S8.

.. 980 kHz: Radio Nacional, Brasilia DF – July 20 at 2031-2036. An interview by a YL. S6.

.. 1020 kHz: Radio Educadora, Limeira SP – July 20 at 1654-1657. Instrumental music, news and commentaries, a jingle ‘Educadora’, id ‘ZYK531, Ondas médias, 1020 kHz, Radio Educadora’. S5. // 83.3 MHz Educadora FM.

.. 1040 kHz: Radio Capital, São Paulo SP – July 20 at 1659-1702. ‘Capital’, a program featuring medical advice. S9. // 77.5 Capital.

.. 1060 kHz: Classic Pan Radio, via Radio Educadora, Piracicaba SP – July 20 at 1702-1707. Pop songs, id by a YL: ‘você ouve a Classic Pan’, S5.

.. 1070 kHz: Radio Metropolitana, Mogi das Cruzes SP – July 20 at 1549-1553. Brazilian songs, a jingle ‘Metropolitana’. S7.

.. 1080 kHz: Radio da Universidade (@), Porto Alegre RS – July 20 at 2021-2026. Classical music. S6.

.. 1090 kHz: Radio Canção Nova da Divina Providência, Paulínia SP – July 20 at 1605-1612. Catholic songs, id ‘Canção Nova... Conexão Canção Nova’. S6.

.. 1200 kHz: Radio Cultura Brasil, São Paulo SP – July 20 at 1707-1712. Communication by an OM ‘...você ouve a Cultura, a seleção do ouvinte’. Time check. S8.

.. 1210 kHz: Radio Deus é Amor, Curitiba PR – July 20 2003-2008. Program ‘A Voz da Libertação’, advertisements on State of Paraná. S6.

.. 1240 kHz: Radio Iracema, Cunha Porã SC – July 21 at 0040-0045. Id, song in a ‘gaucho’-style. S4.

.. 1270 kHz: Radio Brasil, Campinas SP – July 20 at 1712-1714. A Brazilian song, id ‘Radio Brasil’. S3.

.. 1300 kHz: Rádio Deus é Amor, São Paulo SP – July 20 at 1714-1718. A commentary by a YL on the good action of the Holy Spirit. S6.

.. 1300 kHz: Radio Regional (@), Santo Cristo RS – July 21 at 0028-0033. A studio discussion by various commentators regarding the day's events in Rio Grande do Sul. S3.

.. 1400 kHz: Radio Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro RJ – July 20 at 2027-2031. Commentaries by a YL, ‘Rio de Janeiro’. S6.

.. 1490 kHz: Radio Imaculada, São Bernardo SP – July 20 at 1718-1722. A Catholic broadcast, commentary. S4.

.. 1520 kHz: Rede Aleluia, Sorocaba SP – July 20 at 1722-1726. A broadcast from IURD Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God). S7.

.. 1530 kHz: Radio Sulina, Dom Pedrito RS – July 20 at 2353-2359. A Brazilian song, ‘Prefeitura Municipal de Dom Pedrito’. S6.

.. 1570 kHz: Radio ABC, Santo André SP – July 20 1726-1731. A pop song, a jingle ‘ABC’, advertisements. S4. // 81.9 kHz Radio ABC.

.. 9290 kHz: Radio Araucaria (a Brazilian pirate station) – in Portuguese, July 13 at 1610-1620. Talk by a YL, a song in ‘gaucho’-style, time check by OM, ID. S4.

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

 :Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

:Issued: 2026 Jul 27 0325 UTC

# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

#

#                Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

#

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity

20 - 26 July 2026

Solar activity was at low to R1 (Minor) levels this period. A total

of 54 C-class and 6 R1 (Minor) events were observed. The largest,

and most complex spot group, was Region 4493 (N06, L=158, class/area

Eki/440 on 23 Jul). This region produced a total of 42 C-class and 5

M-class events, the largest an M3.6 at 22/0635 UTC. A 200 sfu 10 cm

Burst was associated with this event. Region 4494 (S04, L=088,

class/area Dac/120 on 26 Jul) produced the other R1 (Minor) event,

an M3.2 at 26/1528 UTC. Associated with this event was a Type II

Sweep with an estimated shock velocity of 1,057 km/s. No other

significant activity was observed. 

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at

high levels on 20 and 26 Jul with the high value of 1,300 pfu

observed at 20/1645 UTC. 

Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet to G1 (Minor) levels. Quiet

levels were observed on 20 Jul. Levels increased to unsettled to

active on 21 Jul to early on 24 Jul, with isolated G1 (Minor) levels

observed late on 23 Jul. This activity was due to effects from a

negative polarity CH HSS. Quiet conditions were observed most of 24

Jul and 25-26 Jul. 

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity

27 July - 22 August 2026

Solar activity is expected to be at mostly low levels with a chance

for moderate R1 (Minor) levels throughout the outlook period. 

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is

expected to reach high levels on 27 Jul, 02-03 Aug, 06-09 Aug, 12-16

Aug, and 22 Aug. The remainder of the outlook period is expected to

be at normal to moderate levels. 

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at unsettled to active

levels on 27-28 Jul due to potential weak CME effects. Unsettled to

active levels are expected on 29-31 Jul, 04-07 Aug, 11-12 Aug, and

17-20 Aug with isolated G1 (Minor) levels possible on 19 Aug. This

level of activity is due to recurrent CH HSS effects. Mostly quiet

levels are expected for the remainder of the outlook period. 

Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt

:Issued: 2026 Jul 27 0325 UTC

# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center

# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

#

#      27-day Space Weather Outlook Table

#                Issued 2026-07-27

#

#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest

#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index

2026 Jul 27     150          18          4

2026 Jul 28     150          15          3

2026 Jul 29     145           8          3

2026 Jul 30     140           8          3

2026 Jul 31     135           8          3

2026 Aug 01     130           5          2

2026 Aug 02     125           5          2

2026 Aug 03     125           5          2

2026 Aug 04     125          12          4

2026 Aug 05     120          15          3

2026 Aug 06     125          10          3

2026 Aug 07     130           7          2

2026 Aug 08     130           5          2

2026 Aug 09     130           5          2

2026 Aug 10     135           5          2

2026 Aug 11     130           8          3

2026 Aug 12     125           8          3

2026 Aug 13     125           5          2

2026 Aug 14     130           5          2

2026 Aug 15     135           5          2

2026 Aug 16     135           4          2

2026 Aug 17     135          14          3

2026 Aug 18     140          12          3

2026 Aug 19     135          22          5

2026 Aug 20     135           8          3

2026 Aug 21     130           5          2

2026 Aug 22     130           5          2

(NOAA)

99 Years of Indian Broadcasting / AIR / Akashvani, part 2

 

Thank you to the Wavescan staff for Part 2 on the history of AIR/Akashvani

Part 2 – 1936-Today

Jeff:  Today, Ray Robinson continues our feature on the 99th anniversary of broadcasting in India, and the 90th anniversary of Akashvani in particular, with grateful thanks to the Indian DX Club International and their Asian DX Review.

Ray:  Thanks, Jeff.  So the Indian Broadcasting Company began broadcasting 99 years ago on July 23, 1927, initially with a single station in Bombay.  Just over a month later, a second station was added in Calcutta.  But the company faced financial difficulties, and less than three years after its launch, in March 1930, it collapsed and entered liquidation.  A few weeks later, on April 1, 1930, the Government stepped in and relaunched the stations as the Indian State Broadcasting Service.  And that service was duly renamed ‘All India Radio’ on June 8, 1936 – 90 years ago.

Walter Kaufman was a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia.  He was an accomplished violinist who fled Europe to avoid being captured by Hitler’s Gestapo, and he lived in Bombay until after the war, when he returned to his homeland.  In 1936, he composed the signature tune for All India Radio, which became the wake-up alarm for a nation.

 Audio Clip - All India Radio - Original Signature Tune available at: : https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wavescan

The late 1930’s transformed broadcasting in India.  A station was opened in New Delhi.  News bulletins became a regular feature.  External broadcasts began reaching audiences beyond India's borders.  Engineers worked tirelessly to expand transmitter networks and improve reception.

Then came the Second World War.  The conflict dramatically increased the importance of radio.  Governments around the world relied upon broadcasting to communicate information, maintain morale and reach distant populations.  India was no exception.

On October 1, 1939, the External Service began with a broadcast in Pashto, intended to counter German radio propaganda targeted to Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier province.  Other broadcasts in Dari, Persian and Arabic were soon added for regions that were then British protectorates.

AIR expanded its news operations and foreign-language services.  Broadcasting became an essential instrument of communication.  In February 1943, a new ‘Broadcasting House’ was opened at Parliament Street in New Delhi, and by the end of the war, radio had become firmly established in public life.

Every institution has moments that define its legacy.  For All India Radio, one such moment arrived at midnight on August 15, 1947 – the date of Indian independence from Great Britain.  Across the country, listeners gathered around radio receivers.  

Some listened in homes.  Others listened in public spaces.  Many remained awake through the night.  Through the microphones of All India Radio, India heard the voices that announced the birth of an independent nation.

The airwaves carried speeches, celebrations and history itself.  In that moment, radio was not merely reporting events.  It was helping create a shared national experience.  The country was listening together.

And yet, on that momentous occasion of Independence, AIR's reach remained surprisingly limited.  The network operated only a handful of stations and transmitters.  Much of rural India remained beyond effective coverage.  The decades that followed changed that dramatically.  New transmitters rose across the country, and power levels were increased.  Coverage was expanded into previously unreachable regions.  Engineers transported equipment through mountains, forests and deserts to bring broadcasting to remote communities.

The results were remarkable.  What had once covered only a small fraction of India gradually evolved into a network reaching nearly the entire population.  For millions, radio became the most accessible source of information, education and entertainment.

If the 1930’s and 1940’s were about building infrastructure, the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s became the golden age of programming.  Radio entered Indian homes in a way no other medium had before.  The National Programme of Music introduced listeners to the finest classical performers in the country.  Farm broadcasts delivered practical information to rural communities.  Educational programs supported literacy and development.  Children's programs became beloved family traditions.

In 1956, All India Radio was officially renamed Akashvani, which means ‘Voice from the Sky’ in Sanskrit.  

But the arrival of Radio Ceylon had challenged All India Radio’s dominance in entertainment broadcasting.  So in response, the Vividh Bharati channel was launched on October 3, 1957, and it transformed Indian radio.  Film songs, light entertainment, listener requests and celebrity presentations captured the imagination of millions.  For an entire generation, the sound of radio became inseparable from daily life.  The radio accompanied breakfast.  It played during work.  It entertained families after dinner.  It became a member of the household.

 Audio Clip - Vividh Bharati, Simla available at: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wavescan

One of Akashvani's greatest achievements often receives less attention than it deserves.  It preserved much of Indian culture for posterity.  Before digital recording, before streaming platforms and before online archives, AIR was documenting the nation's cultural heritage.  Legendary musicians, poets, dramatists and scholars performed in front of AIR microphones.  Rare traditions were recorded, and regional languages found representation.  Folk music from remote villages was preserved for future generations.  The archives that emerged over decades became one of the most valuable collections of Indian cultural history ever assembled.  Without Akashvani, much of that heritage might have been lost forever.

No institution survives for ninety years without facing challenges.  AIR was often criticized for excessive bureaucracy and slow decision-making.  Questions about editorial independence surfaced from time to time.  Television created a new competitor for audience attention.

Later came private FM stations with energetic presenters and highly localized content.  Then the internet changed everything.  For many traditional broadcasters around the world, the digital revolution proved disruptive.  Akashvani faced the same challenge.  Could a public broadcaster built in the age of valves and transmitters remain relevant in the age of smartphones and streaming?  The answer required reinvention.

Today's Akashvani bears little resemblance technologically to the network inaugurated in 1936.  There are now 420 stations nationwide, covering 92% of India’s geographic area and over 99% of its population.  Programming is available in 23 languages and 179 regional dialects.  FM broadcasting began on July 23, 1977 in Madras, now known as Chennai, and DRM technology has improved audio quality still further throughout the country.  Online streaming allows global access.  Mobile applications bring programs to younger audiences.  Podcasts extend the reach of traditional radio content.  Social media platforms create new forms of engagement.  Yet despite these transformations, the essential mission remains unchanged – to inform, to educate, to entertain, and above all, to connect.

Of course, what listeners outside India remember is All India Radio’s General Overseas Service, which is heard around the world.

 Audio Clip - All India Radio General Overseas Service available  https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wavescan

Even though the network’s name was officially changed to Akashvani back in 1956, it was still frequently referred to on air both as AIR and All India Radio right up until 2023.  All India Radio was a term originally coined by Lionel Fielden in 1936, and so for some, it had connotations of India’s colonial past.  Thus, on May 3, 2023, an order was issued by the Indian government that the network should henceforth solely refer to itself as Akashvani.  Even on that date, the English morning news bulletin -- broadcast at 8.15am -- carried the ‘All India Radio’ name in its introduction.  But by the afternoon news bulletin, broadcast at 4.05pm, the announcer had switched to Akashvani.

 Audio Clip - It's Akashvani - India's public radio service is no longer called 'All India Radio' available at  https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wavescan

The story of Akashvani is one that began with engineers who built transmitters in difficult conditions, artists who enriched the airwaves, announcers whose voices became household companions, and listeners who welcomed radio into their lives. 

From the inauguration of the Indian Broadcasting Company in 1927 to today's digital broadcasts reaching audiences around the world, nearly a century has passed.  Yet the fundamental purpose of broadcasting remains the same:  to bring people together through sound.  Long before India became digitally connected, Akashvani had already created something equally remarkable — a nation listening together.  So, as India celebrates ninety years of All India Radio and honors the enduring legacy of Akashvani, we are reminded that broadcasting is not merely about transmitters, frequencies or technology.  It is about people.  It is about stories.  

And it is about a voice that, for generations, helped India hear itself.

Back to you, Jeff.

99 Years of Indian Broadcasting / AIR / Akashvani Part 1

 

Thank you to the staff of Wavescn for Part 1 of  Indian Broadcasting

Photo via India Today

Part 1 – 1920-1936

Jeff: Last month, on June 8, Akashvani in India celebrated 90 years since the official renaming of the Indian Broadcasting Company as ‘All India Radio’.  On Thursday this week, July 23, it will be 99 years since the IBC, the predecessor of AIR , was first inaugurated in Bombay.  So today, Ray Robinson takes a look back at the circumstances surrounding that historic event.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  And I must start by acknowledging that much of the material for today’s feature comes from an excellent article written by Sandipan Basu Mallick, VU3JXD, which was published in last month’s journal of the Indian DX Club International, the ‘Asian DX Review’.

The story of broadcasting in India began with a handful of curious men, homemade transmitters, experimental aerials and an almost magical belief that voices could travel through the sky.  Imagine Bombay in 1920.  The city was alive with the energy of a rapidly changing world.  Electricity was becoming more common.  Motorcars were appearing on the streets.  Wireless communication had begun transforming shipping and military operations across the globe.

Among those fascinated by this new technology was a young entrepreneur named Gianchand Motwane.  Motwane was not merely a businessman.  He was an experimenter, one of those restless minds who saw possibilities where others saw impossibilities.  In 1920, he conducted what is widely regarded as the first radio transmission in India.  It was modest by modern standards — a low-powered experimental broadcast — but it demonstrated something extraordinary:  voices and sounds could travel without wires.  The future had arrived.  The transmission lasted only a short time, but it marked the beginning of Indian broadcasting history.

Over the next few years, wireless enthusiasts began gathering in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.  They were part scientists, part hobbyists and part adventurers.  They assembled receivers from imported parts, strung aerial wires across rooftops and spent evenings listening to distant signals fading in and out of the static.

In August 1921, a collaborative experiment between The Times of India and the Posts and Telegraph Department transmitted a program from Bombay. Remarkably, the signal was heard more than a hundred miles away in Poona. For those who experienced it, the achievement seemed almost miraculous. The possibilities of radio had become impossible to ignore.

The early 1920’s were the years of the radio clubs.  The Radio Club of Bombay began regular broadcasts in 1923.  In Calcutta, the Radio Club of Bengal followed with its own transmissions.  In Madras, enthusiasts established the Madras Presidency Radio Club, which soon became one of the most active centers of broadcasting experimentation in India.

These pioneers worked with limited resources and often improvised equipment.  Yet they possessed something more valuable than money:  enthusiasm.

 

In Calcutta, demonstration broadcasts conducted with Marconi equipment amazed listeners.  Music concerts and speeches travelled through the air to audiences miles away.  Newspapers reported these experiments with excitement.  Radio was still a novelty, but it was rapidly becoming a sensation.

In Madras, broadcasting owed much to the efforts of dedicated individuals such as C. V. Krishnaswamy Chettiar, who assembled transmitters from imported components and helped create a functioning radio service.  Programs included music, talks and educational content.  Loudspeakers were installed in public places so that even people without receivers could listen.

For many Indians, this was their first encounter with broadcasting.  Listening itself became a social event.  Families gathered around receivers.  Friends invited neighbors to hear distant voices.  Public demonstrations attracted curious crowds. Radio was not yet a household appliance.  It was an event.  Few realized that these modest clubs were laying the foundations for one of the world's largest broadcasting networks.

The defining moment arrived on 23 July 1927.  The Indian Broadcasting Company had been established to create a professional broadcasting service for India.  Its first station was ready in Bombay.

Newspapers across the region reported the event.  One report published in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser described the inauguration of the "Bombay Beam Radio Station" and highlighted the significance of this technological achievement.  Lord and Lady Irwin, the Viceroy and Vicereine of India, travelled to Bombay to formally inaugurate the station.  The ceremony attracted dignitaries, businessmen and wireless enthusiasts.  There was a sense that something historic was unfolding.

Speaking at the event, Lord Irwin reflected on the power of broadcasting to connect people separated by distance.  He noted that radio could provide companionship and information to those living in remote locations.  Looking back nearly a century later, his words seem remarkably prophetic.  The Bombay station began regular broadcasting on that day.  Just over a month later, Calcutta received its own station. For the first time, organized broadcasting had truly arrived in India.

Yet success was far from guaranteed.  Running a broadcasting service in India during the 1920’s was expensive.  Receivers were costly.  The audience was still relatively small.  Revenue struggled to keep pace with expenditure.  The Indian Broadcasting Company faced mounting financial difficulties.

In March 1930, barely three years after its triumphant launch, the company collapsed and entered liquidation.  The future of broadcasting in India suddenly appeared uncertain.  Had the story ended there, radio in India might have developed very differently.  Fortunately, public support for broadcasting had already grown strong enough to prevent its disappearance.  Political leaders, listeners and public figures recognized its potential importance.  So, the Government stepped in.

On 1 April 1930, broadcasting resumed under government management as the Indian State Broadcasting Service.  The patient had been saved.

Every great institution eventually encounters an individual who shapes its destiny. For Indian broadcasting, that person was Lionel Fielden.  A senior BBC producer, Fielden arrived in India in 1935 as the first Controller of Broadcasting.  He inherited a service that was financially fragile, organizationally uncertain and geographically limited.  Yet he also recognized its immense potential.  Fielden believed radio should not be merely an urban entertainment service catering to elites.  It had to speak to India in all of its diversity.  It had to reach villages as well as cities.  It had to represent Indian culture rather than simply imitate British broadcasting. 

Under his leadership, expansion accelerated.  New stations were planned.  News services were improved.  Programming became more diversified.  And most importantly, the service acquired a new identity.

On June 8, 1936, the Indian State Broadcasting Service was officially renamed All India Radio.  The name captured an ambitious vision:  a broadcasting service for the entire nation.  Few could have imagined how profoundly that vision would shape India's future.

And we’ll pick up the story again next week, with the looming War years, Independence in 1947, and beyond.

(Ray Robinson/Wavescan)

The Mystery of Radio Curom

 Thank you to the Wavescan staff for the nostalgic story from Curaçao Island

Whatever Happened to Radio Curom on Curaçao Island in the Caribbean?

Jeff: Last September, Ray Robinson presented a feature about shortwave and medium wave broadcasting on and from the Dutch island of Bonaire in the Caribbean.  Bonaire is well-known as the home of the high-powered stations of both Trans World Radio and the former Radio Netherlands relay site.  But Bonaire is just one of three islands that make up what used to be called the Netherlands Antilles, or the ‘ABC’ islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.  What is often not remembered these days is that Curaçao also has a history of broadcasting on shortwave, so here’s Ray again to tell us about that.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  Curaçao is located about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela in the central Caribbean, and is approximately 44 miles long, and 10 miles wide.  The highest point of elevation on the island is Mt. Christophelberg at 1220 ft high.  There are no rivers, and only seasonal lakes.

The island’s history began with the arrival of Amerindians from South America around 2500 BC, and the first European colony was established by the Spanish in 1499.  The Dutch took over in 1634, and during the Second World War when the Netherlands was under Nazi occupation, American and British forces provided administration temporarily as a protective measure until the war was over, when the island was returned to the Netherlands.  The American troops also built a military airport.

In 2010, Curaçao officially became its own country, a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  It is autonomous, although The Hague retains responsibility for defense and foreign policy.  The current population is about 160,000, who primarily speak Papiamentu – the creole language of the ABC islands that’s largely based on Portuguese as spoken in the 15th and 16th centuries.  But most of the population is also fluent in the official language of Dutch, and some also speak Spanish and/or English.  Curaçao is the largest of the ABC islands, both in terms of land area and population, and its capital is the port city of Willemstad.

Wireless came to Curaçao very early.  In 1908, a Dutch warship, the Jacob van Heemskerck, brought the first wireless transmission equipment to Curaçao, and this was duly set up in Fort Rif at the mouth of Willemstad Harbor as a coastal wireless station.  The original callsign was CRC, though this was regularized to PJC a few years later.

That callsign, PJC on Curaçao, is reminiscent of the more familiar callsign PCJ which was the call of the well-known Dutch international shortwave broadcasting station back in the early days of radio.  In fact, in the pre-War years, it wasn’t unusual for radio journals to mix up the callsigns, with the Curaçao call sometimes being printed incorrectly as PCJ, instead of PJC.

In 1928, for the first time, a radio telegraph service between the Netherlands Antilles and Holland was established by PJC on Curaçao.  Two years later a similar wireless communication service was established between Curaçao and New York.

The first radio broadcasting service on the island was launched on 20 February 1933, and it too was installed in Fort Rif, as a function of the maritime radio station PJC.  The Dutch word for ‘broadcasting’ is ‘omroep’ – you may recall that the full Dutch name of Radio Netherlands was Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, Radio Netherlands World Broadcasting.  So in Curaçao, the new station was Curaçao Omroep, which they shortened to Radio Curom, taking the first three letters of Curaçao, and the first two of omroep.  It was officially a government radio broadcasting service, but operated by the Curaçao Radio Association, or CRV – Curaçaosche Radio Vereeniging.

The station was given the specific callsign PJC1, and emitted just 150 watts on 9091 kHz.  Reception was first reported in the USA in the club magazine of the International Short Wave Club (or, ISWC) in April 1937, and the station was heard periodically in North America.

In 1941, the same ISWC magazine proclaimed that Radio Curom would soon be upgraded to 2 kW; and in 1943, the station began relaying programming on behalf of AFRS, the American Forces Radio Service, on 5930 kHz using a new transmitter, PJC2, with a power of 3 kW.

A low-power medium wave station using the callsign KWJG was installed at the Hato airfield on Curaçao in 1943 also to relay AFRS for the American troops then based there.

A final listing during this era is found in a publication in New Zealand, which shows Radio Princess Juliana on 7250 kHz in 1946.  This apparently operated under the same PJC2 callsign previously used for the AFRS programming, and it was listed in the World Radio Handbook with 3 kW on either 7250 kHz or 5017 kHz from 1947 through 1953, though the last listing shows that the station had become inactive on shortwave.  Instead, in 1953, Radio Curom launched a medium wave service with a power of 3 kW on 722 kHz.  Subsequently, other medium wave stations, all commercially operated, were inaugurated on the island.

In 1958, Radio Curom’s 25th anniversary was celebrated with the production of an LP record of Caribbean music recorded in the Radio Curom studios – the first ever LP recorded in Curaçao.  It was published with the help of Philips in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands.

Interestingly, a report in the NASWA Journal states that Radio Curom was noted again on shortwave in the United States during 1960 with programming in the 31 metre band.

And then, in Jerry Berg’s second book ‘Broadcasting on the Shortwaves, 1945 to Today’, he states that Radio Curom was again briefly reactivated on shortwave in the 1970’s, when it was heard in the United States on 17513.5 & 20779 kHz.

The 1980 edition of the WRTH listed five medium wave radio stations in Willemstad on 850, 1010, 1230, 1500, and 1540 kHz, but as is the case in so many countries, broadcasting in Curaçao gradually migrated from the medium wave band to FM.  The last medium wave station, which closed in December 2022 after declaring bankruptcy, was the familiar Radio Curom, which then was using 10 kW on 860 kHz with the call PJZ86, and identifying on air simply as ‘Z86’.

So these days, there is no shortwave or medium wave broadcasting service left on the island of Curaçao, although a couple of dozen FM stations are listed, along with a number of online stations that webstream only.  

In its early years, Radio Curom was branded by the radio magazines of the era as being a poor verifier.  However, as time went by, that changed and many QSL cards were issued.  The highly desired QSL card from Radio Curom used to show a stylistic map of Curaçao with a tall antenna tower.

The maritime station on Curaçao, with which Radio Curom was associated, also issued QSL cards as verification of listener reports.  Two of their cards are known; one showing a map of the island, and a later one showing the figurative shield of Curaçao in color.

So, Radio Curom was indeed on the air on the shortwaves, many years ago, and apparently during three different eras, beginning in 1933 and ending in the early 1970’s.

Back to you, Jeff.

(Ray Robinson/Wavescan)

Radio Seabreeze resumes broadcasts

 

Radio Seabreeze is back in the air at 1395 kHz after a long time. The maintenance work has been completed and the antenna has been restored, allowing listeners in the Northern Netherlands to receive the transmitter again via mediumwave.

Let us know what the reception is like and leave a message in our guestbook or via our QSL page.

https://radioseabreeze.nl/2026/07/10/10-juli-2026-1395-weer-in-de-lucht/ (translated from Dutch)

1395 kHz is from the Grou Aquaverium site. It went off air at the end of January 2026 because of renovation work at the Aquaverium, including renewal of the roof where their antenna was sited. Seabreeze's other transmitter is on 1098 from Laren, further south near Utrecht.

(Alan Pennington, UK/BDXC)

FRS slated for Summer Splash July 26

 

Dear FRS Friends,

The wait is almost over... the 5th edition of the FRS Summer Splash is just around the corner!

Kick-off is this coming Sunday at 21:00 CEST.(Sunday July 26)  Full details can be found on our website. at https://frsholland.nl/  

Go to "Latest News" in the top menu and click on "FRS Summer Splash 2026".Tune in, turn on... and enjoy the show!

Following last year’s absence due to sad circumstances, we are happy to announce that we will be back with our annual Summer Splash in July. On Sunday, July 26th, August 2nd and 9th, FRS-Holland will take to the air. Three weeks in a row, each time on a Sunday evening between 19:00 UTC/ 21:00 CEST until 21:00 UTC/ 23:00 CEST. Contrary to our normal schedule, these evenings will contain themed programmes. Remember for instance (from previous editions), specials like Soul Land, Psychedelic, the Summer of Love, Made in Holland, German Underground, Travelling Sounds, Motown Classics, Summer Classics and 1990s.

The first Summer Splash edition took place in the summer of 2020, followed by editions in 2022, 2023 & 2024. We are eager to produce a total of six one-hour specials in July and August.

What brings this 2026 edition? Certainly interesting themes with a great variety of music and topics. Sometimes we really like to surprise our listening audience…so make sure you are part of our Summer Splash!

We will be on air on 7700//6400 kHz & 7400 kHz. This time no 5.8 & 9.3 MHz!

QSL, sticker and…FRS poster/ CD

Of course, another nice QSL card is waiting for you. And when writing to our PO Box, you will receive our colorful sticker with the station logo. For only 10 euros (!) we will send you a beautiful poster telling part of our history in pictures. As a bonus, we include our 45th anniversary souvenir CD.

73s  FRS team