|
|
- |
|
Elsa
and I sped through the spacious yards of Misión Josefina, where
La Voz del Napo resides, and wandered onto the lazy streets of Tena with
one place in mind: Radio Oriental. "Let's see the Cuevas Jumandy,"
Elsa whined. "Maybe the guy at Oriental can take us to see the antenna,
which has got to be near the caves and the Cuevas Jumandy!"
We tripped upon the station's building and went
right in. Lilian Velín, Oriental's secretary, met us at the
door and insisted that we wait for the owner and station director, Luis
Enrique Espín Espinoza. "But he came all the from Washington,"
Elsa told her. "Sit down," she grumbled. Yeah, sit down and
take your number. The caves would have to wait, too.
After
an interminable wait Luis came in and gave me an incredulous look.
"What do you want to see?" he asked me. "Radio Oriental," I said
as enthusiastically as I could. He frowned and then led us to his
office a few doors down from the entrance. "There's not much to the
station," he told us. "Just this office and the on-air studio...
I've got to tell you that we've got a satellite dish on the roof though!"
Elsa perked up and, thinking I'm obsessed with antennas, asked him if we
could see the dipole - just as long as it is near the Jumandy Caves.
"No, I'm sorry it's not. It's about seven kilometers outside of town."
We
went to see the studio in all its glory: eight-channel mixer, cassette
decks, turntables, and a single microphone. Like the other stations,
the announcers sit in a separate cabin from the producer.
Radio Oriental, unlike La Voz del Napo, is a commercial
venture. It has been on MW for 20 years and began its SW service for 4780
kHz on February 12, 1987. Luis said that about five letters are received
monthly and he responds to each with a nice green QSL card. In a few weeks,
he plans on sending collectible photos of Indians and 200 sucre notes to
listeners.
The main problem for Radio Oriental - and the
reason for Luis' lack of enthusiasm for my visit - is that the station
isn’t generating much revenue with its SW outlet. However, although
he has no plans to close it down he’s also not happy with interference
"from Brazil" that listeners apparently report about. I suggested that
he lobby the Ecuadorian government to change Oriental’s frequency to a
clear channel above 5.1 MHz, which he quickly wrote down to do. Maybe
my trip wasn't such a waste after all!
Elsa and I thanked Luis and his secretary for
their time and generosity. We then took a three-hour walk through Tena
and returned to La Voz del Napo at 8 o’clock. What a gorgeous sight! Under
the Southern Cross constellation, the parrot painted on the front of the
building was lit up like a star in the jungle. The music of crickets was
so overwhelming that we could even hear them from inside the station’s
studio.
Ramiro ushered us into the tiny studio since he
was on duty and the news was about to begin. He turned on a television
and proceeded to place a microphone in front of the speaker. Sometimes
ingenuity is better than modern science, I guess. At the top of hour
were dire headlines about massive riots and student shootings in Jakarta,
Indonesia, a city where I have many friends and colleagues. Tena's
isolation hit me in the face at that moment since had I been in Washington,
I could have communicated with my close friends and associates over there
through telephone, fax or e-mail. Yet there I was at La Voz del Napo
in the middle of the Amazon and in need of a proper shower. I felt
so sick at that moment I headed straight for the station's bathroom and,
just like street people do everyday, I took a "bath" in the sink to refreshen
myself. Now how many radio amateurs can attest to that? (Actually,
how many people would admit to such a demeaning act?) Nevertheless,
I felt a little better and didn't smell so much like clove cigarettes and
Ecuador's disgusting brand "Lark."
After the news, Ramiro popped in a religious cassette
to play over the air and we jumped into his expensive landcrusier and went
to the bus station, where Elsa and I planned to take a night bus to Ecuador's
remote oil town, Lago Agrio.
Visiting La Voz del Napo and Radio Oriental raised
an interesting point about SW and Ecuador in general. Two obscure
radio stations in the middle of nowhere, however, one clearly had a budget
- a budget large enough to include the cost of an imported Landcruiser:
La Voz del Napo. As Ecuadorians say, it comes down to the Company
- the Church. Either that or Ramiro sure did get "a couple hundred
dollars" from short wave listeners. |