AmateurRadio.com

Following the recent suspension of Voice of America (VOA) shortwave and medium-wave (AM) transmitters, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is orchestrating a gradual return to the airwaves.

Starting next week, USAGM will begin testing shortwave transmissions from the historic Lampertheim site in Hesse, Germany, which formerly served as a primary broadcasting node for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). This reactivation indicates that USAGM is working to restore its global broadcast capacity after surviving a period of severe operational cuts and the near-abandonment of its legacy transmission centers.

Lampertheim joins a growing list of international USAGM transmitting stations seeing renewed activity, including sites in Marathon (Florida), Greenville (North Carolina), Kuwait, the Philippines, Botswana, and Thailand. The permanent commissioning of these shortwave sites will depend heavily on the results of ongoing signal testing. The Lampertheim reactivation may ultimately serve as a temporary measure while USAGM awaits the completion of a major transmitter installation and upgrade project currently underway at the Kuwait Transmitting Station.

Built in the early 1950s during the height of the Cold War, the Lampertheim site was an RF (radio frequency) powerhouse, ruling the airwaves with eight massive 100 kW shortwave transmitters designed to pierce the Iron Curtain. Following the corporate merger of RFE and RL in 1976, the station broadcasted both services simultaneously. In 1995, under the newly formed Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG–the predecessor to USAGM–the station became a consolidated hub for American international broadcasting.

The fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of Eastern European satellite states drastically altered the station’s mission. The target areas for Lampertheim’s massive curtain antennas were no longer geopolitical priorities, and direct shortwave programming was shrunk to almost nothing.

Instead, Lampertheim’s primary mission shifted toward technical, administrative, and logistical support. It became a vital satellite uplink and distribution gateway, beaming TV and radio programming to relay stations across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It also functioned as the remote-control nerve center for USAGM’s global network of transmitters, which included the medium-wave transmitter in Cape Greco, Cyprus (installed at the former RMC Middle East Transmitter Center), the strategic relay station in Djibouti, the massive 1,000 kW medium-wave transmitter in Orzu, Tajikistan, and, Technical oversight for nearly a hundred USAGM-affiliated FM transmitters globally.

During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lampertheim saw a brief resurgence in direct broadcasting as antennas were reconfigured to target the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia, filling coverage gaps left by the Kuwait transmitters.

Today, radio enthusiasts and DXers can track the ongoing progress of USAGM’s shortwave broadcasts by consulting the HFCC A26 (Summer 2026) seasonal schedules here: HFCC A26 Schedule: https://new.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=A26&broadc=AGM