[HCDX]: History/R Americas

["Jari Savolainen" <jari.savolainen@xxxxxxxx>]

subject: History/R Americas

THE EAGLE THAT BECAME A SWAN

In the September 1997 issue of the Electronics Now
magazine there was an interesting article about the
early days of RL/RFE. The article was written by
Stanley Leinwoll, who worked for the VOA from 1952-
1957, then joined RFE. In 1975 he became Director of
Engineering for RL/RFE. So, what he writes is "inside"
information.
In the chapter "The Eagle That Became A Swan" he tells
how in 1953 RFE put a mobile 50 kW mw transmitter,
code named Eagle, on the air. It was located in
Germany near the Czechoslovak border and operated
on 854 kHz. This frequency was earlier used by AFN
Berlin, but they moved to another frequency enabling
RFE to operate. Romanian Radio Bucharest also used this
frequency and heavily protested RFE using same channel.
Also Czech jamming on 854 was severe. So the transmitter
was closed down in 1956 and put into storage in Bremen for
several years. Later (59-60 I think), the transmitter still
inside its van was shipped by CIA to Swan Island in the
Caribbean. There it became "commercial" Radio Swan, later
Radio Americas. After eight years, in 1968, Radio Americas
left the airwaves for good and this time the transmitter
was moved to Vietnam. Broadcasting from an aeroplane, this
clandestine was called Blue Eagle.
-------------------
Radio Americas was well heard also here in Finland those
days, mw 1160v kHz and sw 6000 kHz (7.5 kW). The statistics
show a total of about 100 QSLs in Finnish collections.
-------------------
Well, maybe to the younger listeners the names Swan Island
or R Americas doesn't mean much, but those of us who scanned
the bands in the 60's surely remember this station.

Best 73
Jari Savolainen
Kuusankoski
Finland
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