December 1995

To South America this month for two of the more interesting stations there. HJ1ABE was operated by Antonio and Rafael Fuentes. During the time that "Tony and Rafa" went to the Univ. of Pennsyslvania in Philadelphia, and St Luke's in Wayne, New Jersey, they spent about six months at WEAF where they were known as the "Spanish Duet."" Perhaps it was there that they learned good QSLing practice. Their station was widely heard in the mid-1930's, and was reportedly a very good verifier.

An even better known station was Emisora "El Prado." A very nice history of this station can be found in Rich McVicar's outstanding article, "It's In the Family: Ecuador on Short Wave," in the 1992-93 volume of Proceedings. After earning an engineering degree at Yale and working as an engineer for RCA in the United States, Carlos Cordovez returned to the family business in the El Prado mill in Riobamba. At the suggestion of a teacher in the local high school, Cordovez built a small, 25-watt transmitter at the mill, putting Ecuador on shortwave in the very early year of 1925. The station became "official" in 1929 and operated for the next 10 years. Carlos Cordovez was also well known on the ham bands as "Amigo Carlos," HC1FG.