Photo: TWR Africa

SPOTLIGHT:
TRANS WORLD RADIO AFRICA

The global media enterprise, Trans World Radio (TWR), has for decades made intensive use of the shortwave and mediumwave bands to broadcast its Christian message to the world. Such is its global spread that we can find regional divisions known as TWR India, TWR Asia, TWR Europe, plus broadcasting facilities at Bonaire (in the Caribbean), Benin and Guam.

The Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) sits near the southeastern coast of Africa, a landlocked country bounded by borders with South Africa and Mozambique. It is home to Trans World Radio Africa, with regional headquarters in Manzini, one of the country’s largest cities.

According to their website, the first shortwave broadcast began on November 1, 1974, from a 25 kW transmitter. Initial programmes went out in English, Afrikaans, German, Zulu, and Portuguese throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

The transmitter site is located northeast of Manzini, some 37 km away at Mpangela Ranch. The site is on the Mbuluzane River in a clearing around what appears to be a heavily forested part of the country.

Do a Google search by inputting the geographic coordinates of 26 20 21 S and 31 36 03 E. Zoom in on the Google Map, and you will see the towers that support the curtain array antennas.

Today, this TWR site houses three 100 kW shortwave transmitters and a 100 kW mediumwave transmitter on 1170 kHz.

Transmitter Hall at TWR Manzini

The transmitter site has a technical team of about 12 people. These people work in the areas of transmitter operation and maintenance, audio recording and playout, and studio and information technology.

TWR Africa broadcasts English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Somali, Arabic, Amharic, Oromo, Shona, and various local southern African languages. The station responds to correct reception reports with either an eQSL or a folding QSL card. DXers appear to have had success by sending their reports to info@twrafrica.org.

The schedule is too extensive to list all the daily variations in the timetabled languages, but here is a summary of frequencies utilized:

3240 at 0330-0415 and 1630-1645

6100 at 1700-1730

6130 at 1820-2005

9380 at 1745-1830

9500 at 1630-1902

9575 at 1802-1902

9585 at 1400-1525

9655 at 0330-0345

9940 at 1905-2005

11780 at 1500-1545

13580 at 1530-1627

The English service can be heard at the following frequencies and times:

9380 at 1745-1840 on Saturdays

9500 at 1802-1902 on Saturdays and Sundays

To further complicate matters, TWR uses transmitter sites in other regions of the globe to cover parts of northern and eastern Africa, currently including sites at Ascension Island, United Arab Emirates (Dhabayya), and Pridnestrovie (Kishinev).

More information at https://twrafrica.org

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

Radio stations featured in the Spotlight series

Note: This series covers more than ten years, so the frequencies and times mentioned in some of the articles may be out-of-date. Refer to the latest schedule information for current operating times.

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SPOTLIGHT: TAJIKISTAN ON SHORTWAVE

SPOTLIGHT: TRANS WORLD RADIO AFRICA

SPOTLIGHT: BBC ASCENSION ISLAND RELAY STATION

SPOTLIGHT: JAPAN’S PRIVATE SHORTWAVE STATION

SPOTLIGHT: VOICE OF BEIBU BAY RADIO

SPOTLIGHT: WONDERFUL WOOFFERTON

SPOTLIGHT: RADIO MIRAYA - THE SOUND OF SUDAN! (Sadly, this station no longer operates on shortwave)

SPOTLIGHT: RADIO VANUATU

SPOTLIGHT: KYRGYZSTAN ON SHORTWAVE