When I was a kid, HCJB from Quito Ecuador was a station heard worldwide. One of their QSL cards celebrated a new hydro power station to boost their output even more!
“Project Outreach”
HCJB QSL, circa 1965
That power station is now part of the Ecuadoran national electric grid. Reach Beyond Australia in Kununurra in far north Western Australia carries on the HCJB legacy internationally.1
HCJB itself continues to broadcast locally in Ecuador on FM and in several indigenous languages from its Pico Pichincha volcano site near Quito using a solid state 1 kW transmitter.2 The HCJB website says:
Programas en idioma Kichwa, los sábados y domingos de 05:00 a 06:00 por HCJB FM y en forma diaria por HCJB Onda Corta 6050 KHz.
I picked up this broadcast in the Cofán language (according to EiBiSpace.de) around sunset local time, 00:17 UTC on 6050 kHz. It was outside on the patio here in central Virginia with my Grundig G4000A receiver and the world-renowned 20-foot Wire Up a Tree (WUT) antenna.
Update: I tried again at 00:00 on May 21 UTC and the station was there. I listened for around 35 minutes. This is what I assume is “gray line” propagation. At least it was sunset at my location and into the night time in Ecuador. At first there was pop orchestral music, vocal jazz and vocal guitar music. Following that was a long talk in an unrecognized language. Finally just before 00:30 a small group sang something accompanied by guitar to the tune I recognize as the Christian hymn, “Lord, I Life Your Name Up High.” At 00:30 there was a brief whistling theme, followed by a long chanting song in an indigenous language. Finally at about 00:33 the announcer switched to Spanish.
I heard the whistling sound at exactly 00:30 on two occasions. I think it is either an interval signal or a program introduction.
For more on the history of HCJB, visit “HCJB – Our Story.”
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