Radio Zambia: 1973

Regardless of when one started in the radio listening hobby, we all like to look back at certain reception experiences — they bring back vivid memories, of what we were doing when we heard certain countries and stations, what the seasons were, even what the weather was like. For me, hearing Zambia for the first time is still one of those special memories. In the early 1970’s, I had graduated from my starter radios to a Hammarlund HQ-180 and a Drake SPR-4. These two receivers would stay with me for many years and brought me the bulk of countries are heard on shortwave.

In the 70’s some African countries actually had international services — aside from Radio RSA (South Africa) which had a well-known and powerful overseas broadcast structure, others included Mali, Zambia, Uganda, etc. One excellent article about broadcasting from Zambia can be found here. Zambia was always quite difficult to hear in its 60 meter band frequency 4,910 khz, but one day I was amazed when I heard — in the 16 meter band no less — what sounded like an African station in the middle of English news Indeed, it was “Radio Zambia, broadcasting from Lusaka” and “Zambia Broadcasting Services, this is the general service of Radio Zambia, broadcasting from Lusaka.” The frequency, as the QSL card above states, was 17,895 khz the 16 meter band, far from the lower frequencies I was used to focusing on for Africa. So, here is audio from that reception, on a HQ-180, in the winter of 1973.

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following recording