Relay Madness!

By Gerry Dexter

Once upon a time the use of relay stations to improve and extend signal coverage was largely the province of the big guys. The Voice of America, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands and perhaps one or two others were the only broadcasters who had big enough resources to set up and operate huge 250 kW transmitters and massive antenna systems in some far off third world country. (Sometimes they were even lost during civil war, as happened to the VOA and its Liberian relay, and to Deutsche Welle in Rwanda — twice!) DXers who paid attention to such things could usually keep pretty accurate track of what was what and who was operating where, and when. Even better, some stations even dropped in local transmitter site IDs at sign on and sign off. But now, when the relay situation is vastly more fluid and complicated they don’t bother, never mind that computers, non-existent back then, could make such insertions a simple matter.

Alternate Approaches

Over time other broadcasters discovered alternative approaches. They arranged time swaps with friendly governments. Or they got the other government to agree to let them build a relay station by allowing the national broadcaster to use the planned facility during what otherwise would be down time. (The Voice of America has such arrangements with Sri Lanka, Greece, Thailand, and likely others.) Thus, during the Vietnam War we had the Voice of Vietnam beaming a strong signal into the U.S. via Radio Havana’s facilities. Communist China and Albania had a cozy exchange relationship until the two countries fell out over the proper interpretation of Marx and Engles and company.

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