Adventist World Radio

Wavescan program #509 -- 41/1

10/3/2004

Main Script for Wavescan, Edition number 509 for airing on Sunday10/3/2004.

Host 2	From the studios of Adventist World Radio, This is Wavescan.
Host 1	Our programme for shortwave listeners and radio hobbyists from around the world. I’m ___________ (Host 1).
Host 2	And I’m ____________ (Host 2).
	Bring music up and then down.
Host 1	In today’s edition of Wavescan we take a look at unusual QSL cards.
Travelogue	What does God and a small library in South Africa have in Common?
IC DX report	We get the latest DX news and tips from Dr Floyd Layer in the USA
2^nd DX report	And welcome the regular monthly report of the Japan Shortwave Club.
Feature	Spiritual meals on wheels? Spreading the gospel on a motorcycle.
	PAUSE HERE . . . with music fade in.
Host 2	So let’s start in with our Wavescan topic for this week. Just recently, we received two QSL cards that are very different indeed. They are made out of shiny tin-plate. This got us thinking, and we began a search to discover what other materials have been used for the production of QSL cards. You will be quite surprised at the variety that we discovered. Here’s Steve Hamstra to share his findings.

WAVESCAN TOPIC (5 minutes) Normally read by Student Volunteer

	Play Wavescan topic: Now, we are all well aware of what we would call a standard QSL card. These are printed QSL cards, and they are printed on what we would call a thin cardboard. This style of QSL card is so numerous that it is hardly necessary to give an example. However, at random, we did pull out a QSL of this style and it is from Radio Lara YVMO in Barquisimento in Venezuela, a shortwave station with 10 kW on 4800 kHz, as it was back in the year 1975. Less common is a QSL card that is printed on thick cardboard. A QSL card in this style comes from station 4XD in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1960, with 250 watts on 1430 kHz. Station 4XD lays a valid claim as the oldest independent radio station in the British Commonwealth. A few other stations in Australia and the United States also printed their QSLs on thick cardboard and this was somewhat of a necessity during the war years due to the fact that standard thin cardboard was not readily available. Going to the other extreme is a QSL card printed on paper, an oxymoron if you please. Several well known examples come from Radio Tirana in Albania. Our example is dated in 1995 with Radio Tirana on the air with 100 kW from their shortwave base located in Cerrik. A very unusual QSL card comes from a station with a very appropriate callsign, station KICY in Nome, Alaska. This QSL card is dated in 1992 with KICY on 850 kHz with 10 kW, and the QSL text is actually stamped onto a three ply tourist postcard. This wooden QSL postcard came through the post in a damaged condition and it is contained in a small plastic bag on which is printed an apology from the postal system. It is understood that there have been a few QSL cards printed on plastic, soft thin plastic sheeting, and hard ribbed plastic. Memory would suggest that QSL cards of this nature have been manufactured in Japan, though we don’t hold any of this style in our collection. At least three different mediumwave stations in the United Sates have issued QSL cards that are embossed into sheet copper. The stations that we know about are all in Montana, which must be a copper producing state, and they are:- KGIR Butte 1 kW 1340 kHz KPFA Helena .25 1210 KRBM Bozeman .25 1420 All three of these copper plate QSL cards show an embossed tourist picture in relief and they are all dated in the early 1940s. Several mediumwave DXers in New Zealand heard these stations some 60 years ago and added a very unusual QSL card into their collections. These three examples are all lodged with the large QSL collection in the Hocken Library in Dunedin, New Zealand. The noted Arthur Cushen in New Zealand also received one of these copper QSL cards from station KGIR back around that era and this QSL was listed as one of the items in his entry into our 1995 annual DX contest. At that time, we were searching for the Five Best QSL Cards and Arthur’s entry was the world winner for that year. In our QSL collection, we do not have a copper QSL card, though we do have a copper QSL stamp. Back in 1940, station KMOX in St Louis Missouri was issuing a QSL letter to verify listener’s reception reports. Attached to the letter is a QSL stamp made out of copper that was somewhat similar in design and size to the old EKKO QSL stamps that we have referred to on several occasions here in Wavescan. The copper QSL stamp on the letter from KMOX is now quite dark from age. Now for the tin plate QSL. Recently, several tin plate QSLs were offered for sale on e-bay, so we procured a couple. This card is more than twice the size of a regular postcard; it is printed in red and black on both sides; and it advertises the products of the manufacturer, National Steel Corporation in Weirton, West Virginia. This company is now out of business. However, it is indeed a genuine QSL card. On the side with a map of the continental United States is a radio antenna and the QSL text, left blank, to be filled in by an amateur radio operator after he has completed his QSO contact with another amateur radio operator. However, I guess you need some good quality permanent marker pen to write on a tin plate to fill in the QSL details. I wonder if they were so easily available in the days when these Tin QSL’s were produced?
Host 1	Thanks Steve, an interesting look at some of the quirkier QSL’s to be found in the AWR collection. Of course, you might also have an unusual AWR QSL from the days when our European Headquarters were in Portugal and we were transmitting from the Deutsch Welle station in Sines. I have a memory of us issuing a postcard sized cork QSL card at some point during that period – cork being one of the main exports from Portugal.
Host 2	You’re listening to Wavescan and if you’d like to write or comment – or if you have any unusual or special QSL cards you’d like to mention, here’s our address: AWR, 39 Brendon St . . . Or e-mail letters@awr.org. Those details again at the end of the programme.

Travelogue (5 minutes)

Host 2	Radio waves are heard all over the world – and we enjoy those signals coming from far and different lands – lands where we often cannot travel ourselves. This week’s story comes to you from Africa.
Host 1	Working with teenagers in a secondary school can be quite a challenge. Bur our International Correspondent Doreen York who's currently based in South Africa found that the antics and idiosyncrasies of teenagers can indeed speak volumes!
	Play Travelogue: 1874:A Few Words from the Library: IN: "I teach, and over the years I've taught . . . " OUT: ". . If only we are willing to accept what he has to offer."
Host 1	Thank you Doreen. That was Doreen Yorke our International Correspondent from South Africa with that very graphic and meaningful Travel Log.
	P A U S E H E R E P L E A S E

DX Report (IC and/or programme hosts) (4 minutes IC and 2 minute host tips. Total 6 minutes.)

Host 2	You’re listening to Wavescan, Adventist World Radio’s programme especially for shortwave listeners and radio hobbyists. We’ll be hearing from the Japan Shortwave Club in just a moment but our first DX report this week is from Dr Floyd Layer, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA * Dr Layer informs us that he has received a new QSL card from Radio Australia honoring the 50^th anniversary of their transmitter base at Shepparton in Victoria. It was back in 1944 that a 50 kW American RCA transmitter was inaugurated for “Australia Calling” as it was known back then. These days, Shepparton is still the main transmitter base for Radio Australia and it contains half a dozen transmitters at 100 kW. The new QSL card is an oversize elongated card and it shows several pictures of the facility. This card verifies a satellite relay from Radio Australia via WRN the World Radio Network as heard over Radio Miami International WRMI. This broadcast was logged on the new WRMI frequency, 6870 kHz. World Harvest Radio in South Bend is also verifying their new relays via station WSHB at Cypress Creek in South Carolina with a sticker on their regular WHRI QSL cards. : GUAM: Dr Layer also states that he heard all three of the special transmissions from transmitter KSDA5 at AWR on Guam. This unit was on the air during the early part of September with special broadcasts for the annual Wavescan DX Contest on three different frequencies; 11975 11980 & 15235 kHz. * CANADA: The AWR broadcast in the digital mode from the RCI transmitter base at Sackville New Brunswick was noted on 11900 kHz with clear reception. The signal was quite wide taking up an extra 10 KHz each side, but there was no interference. As heard in the analog mode, this digital signal sounded like a continuous buzzing noise. * RADIO HISTORY: Dr Layer has also been digging up the past, in the radio history of his own city, Terre Haute. It had long been thought that the first radio station in Terre Haute was launched in 1927 as WRPI. The license was later transferred to another company and the call was changed to the now familiar WBOW. However, newspaper reports give the details of a previous station that was launched nearly five years earlier. This previously little known station was WEAC and it was officially inaugurated on June 8, 1922 on 833 kHz with apparently low power. The station was owned by a local business man and it was located in his shop where electrical goods were sold. However, the signal was heard at a great distance, sometimes as far as New York City. The local newspaper gave reports on the daily scheduling from station WEAC and a loud speaker was installed in the electrical shop so that customers could hear the programming from this new radio station. However, by mid August the newspaper was no longer reporting about station WEAC, and it would be presumed that it left the air abruptly due to dwindling funds. There was no advertising on radio in those days. Our own records confirm the fact that there was indeed a radio station with the callsign WEAC in Terre Haute during that era. It was on the air for no more than about three months. And with that, let’s go over to Japan and welcome our monthly report from the Japan Short Wave Club.
	DX Report
Host 2	And our thanks, a always to the Japan Short Wave Club for their report. Your listening to Wavescan.

Feature (5 minutes)

Host 1	Wanda Emm is a former member of the bike-club Satan’s Slaves. But now, she and her husband, Kevin, live a different life involved in the Christian Motorcyclist’s Association, a full-time ministry that focuses on sharing the gospel with motorcycle enthusiasts. Recently, at a church in North Wales, they shared a bit of how they’re reaching out to win others for Christ.
	Play Feature 823: Christian Motorcyclists' Association: IN: We're here to tell you about… OUT: …be able to go and reach.
Host 2 ---	Wanda Emm, spokeswoman for the Christian Motorcyclists Association, along with her husband, Kevin. The CMA is an international organization with branches in many parts of the world. For more information, you can check out their website at www.bike.org.uk or www.cmauk.net.

Ending

1 Host 2	And that brings us to an end of this week’s edition of Wavescan – a production of Adventist World Radio. Next week we will be: 1. celebrating an anniversary for one of the longest running radio programmes of all time. Tune in to find out what that is. 2. Bob Padula and Christopher Lewis will bring you the Global and European DX reports. 3. and we’ll be heading for the moonscapes of Iceland – and possibly for the moon itself.
2 Host	Your reception reports, tips and comments are always welcomed. Here’s our address:
3 Host	AWR, 39 Brendon St, London, W1, England, or e-mail us at letters@awr.org.
4 Host	That’s also the address for your Bible questions or free Bible Guides: AWR, 39 Brendon St, London, W1, England, or e-mail us at letters@awr.org.
5 Host	Wavescan is written and produced by Adrian Peterson and Steve Hamstra. You can find it on the web at: english.awr.org/Wavescan. I’m . . . (Me)
6 Host	. . . and I’m . . . (You) Thanks for joining us.