Clarence Jones. Call of the Andes blog.

We’ve previously shared the history of HCJB,

the missionary radio station in Quito, Ecuador. We noted that the station had its real start as a force on the shortwave bands in 1940, when it signed on with its new 10 kW transmitter. But as we noted, the staton really started in 1931 by American missionary Clarence W. Jones with a 200 watt transmitter in his own residence to a wire antenna.

This early QSL card from the station confirms reception of a program on February 7, 1934. The card notes that the station was then on 73 meters running 150 watts. The card bears Jones’ signature, and the illustration suggests that the station was still in his residence and using a wire antenna. The card was addressed to J.B.L. Hinds of New York, shown in the illustration at left. He presumably pulled in the 150 watt signal with the set shown here. Hinds was the editor of the “Foreign Station Department” of Short Wave Radio magazine, and the card and this illustration appeared in the magazine’s September 1934 issue.

The listing of shortwave stations in the same magazine lists HCJB at 73.0 meters, 4.11 MHz.