Home | Back to Wavescan Index

"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.


Wavescan N573, February 16, 2020

Uruguay on Shortwave: After the Second Great War

In our program today, we pick up the shortwave radio scene in the South American country of Uruguay around the middle of last century. Back in the year 1942, there were half a dozen shortwave transmitters on the air in Uruguay, and each was carrying a program relay from the parent mediumwave station.

In Uruguay, mediumwave callsigns begin with two letters, either CW or CX, followed by a number; and on shortwave, callsigns begin with the three letters CXA, followed by a number. However, even though the government licensing agency requires that every radio broadcasting station and every shortwave frequency in Uruguay should be registered with an identifying callsign, yet, as far as the listening public is concerned, stations are known better by their identifying slogan or station name.

A study of all of the shortwave broadcasting stations in Uruguay during the past eighty years, from the middle of last century right up to today, indicates that this entire radio era has been fraught with difficulty, problem, and change. Even though the government licensing agency has kept a firm control on all of the changes and variations, yet the only evidence of consistency in the shortwave scene in Uruguay is in itself inconsistency.

The shortwave broadcasting stations in Uruguay have always encountered many problems, some of which are quite serious. The South American nation of Uruguay is a small country with a small population, and therefore there has always been a shortage of government funding, even for the government-owned shortwave service.

Very few of the mediumwave stations receive an adequate income from advertising, and even though there is value in operating a parallel shortwave service, yet the shortwave outlets usually suffer because of a low station income. Thus many stations have survived only with the usage of volunteer and part-time staffing.

The high cost of electricity, as well as expensive technical equipment and parts, has contributed to the financial constraints at most stations; and then too, there is generally insufficient technical training for station engineers. When a mediumwave station has undergone a change in ownership, the shortwave station experiences the same change. Sometimes one mediumwave station will rent time on another station's shortwave frequency, which obviously adds to the confusion for the listeners.

In addition, and as far as the listener is concerned, it would have been far better if all of the shortwave stations in their country had clustered themselves together in one, or perhaps two, shortwave bands. Then, with stations on more or less adjacent frequencies, listeners could choose far more easily, and thus choose which particular station they would prefer to hear.

However, the increase of strong signals on all shortwave bands from other parts of the world has made listening to low-power local shortwave stations in Uruguay more difficult to hear. Then too, a multitude of shortwave listeners have migrated to other growing forms of entertainment and information, such as FM radio, watching television, and communication via the ever-increasing usage of social media.

Anyway, let's look now at some of the interesting events and information associated with shortwave broadcasting in Uruguay since around the middle of last century.

For example, international radio monitors in the United States, in April 1943, stated that the shortwave broadcasts from Radio Belgrano were jammed by a wobbly carrier which was producing a wobbly heterodyne signal. The only shortwave station in Uruguay that was carrying a relay from Radio Belgrano-LR3 in nearby Buenos Aires during that era was Radio Real de San Carlos in Colonia, on the southern coast of Uruguay. Radio Real was on the air with 5 kW as CXA8 on 9640 kHz or as CXA14 on 11825 kHz, and apparently the government of Uruguay disapproved this wartime relay from Buenos Aires.

During the past three-quarters of a century, there have been several shortwave stations on the air in country areas of Uruguay, though they were all low powered, and were in service for only a short period of time. In addition to Radio Real, as was just mentioned, there was Radio Internacional at Rivera with just 150 watts on 4910 kHz in 1975. Rivera in Uruguay is actually a suburb of the city of Santana do Livramento in Brazil.

Radio La Voz de Artigas in Artigas on the border with Brazil was on the air 30 years ago with its 2.5 kW on 4945 kHz. Radio Paysando at Paysando on the border with Argentina with its 2 kW on 4990 kHz was on the air nearly half a century ago. Radio Universo, with its 20 watts on 6055 kHz, was located on the Atlantic coast and it was on the air some ten years ago.

There were also two other shortwave stations on the air five year ago, and these were Banda Oriental at Zarandee with 2 kW on 6154 kHz, and the unofficial Emisora Chana at Tacuarembo with 30 watts on 5688 kHz. These two stations were located towards the center of the country.

Back in 1946, Radio El Espectador in Montevideo was licensed for 5 kW on 11835 kHz. However, because of international interference on that channel, they moved unofficially to 11735 kHz, and then sought official approval which was never granted to them. Subsequently, Radio Oriental was granted that channel.

Fifteen years ago, Radio La Voz de Artigas was on the air with 5 kW on 6075 kHz, though the modulation level was only 50%. Their other shortwave channel, 4945 kHz, was in use as a program link from the studios to the out of town transmitters.

In 1961, the well-known South American Gospel station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador purchased a radio station in Montevideo, station CX42 with 2.5 kW on 1370 kHz. This station was known as Radio del Pueblo, with an address at 1805 Mercedes, Montevideo. However, available information (or more likely a lack of follow-up information) would indicate that the intended purchase of this mediumwave station, together with the subsequent installation of the projected shortwave transmitter, was never accomplished.

The New Zealand DX Times for February 2004 stated that 17 radio stations in Uruguay were for sale, apparently all mediumwave stations, and therefore plus a few additional shortwave stations as well. This indicated, states NZDXT, the financial situation for most of the radio broadcasting stations in Uruguay.