It was a surprise to hear the Southern Command Network from the Canal Zone in Panama on 1420 kHz for the first time on the 11th June 1987 (The station was received on a few previous occasions on 790 kHz).
The 5 kw signal made it through across the Atlantic to Fish Hoek over a distance of 11 290 km and was heard with the FRG7 and 25 metre longwire antenna.
A glance at my radio logbook confirms that SCN was noted with fair to good peaks at 0445 UTC that morning with the "East Of Midnite" show. Station identification was announced as " SCN AM Radio 7-90 Pacific and 14-20 Atlantic ".
Senior Broadcaster Sergeant Kenneth Fries kindly verified my reception report with a letter and SCN sticker (Click onto the image of the verification letter for a higher resolution).
SCN Canal Zone station identification announcement and jingle.
Another view of SCN building 209 (Photographed in November 2007 by Alan Hawkins - with kind permission from Thom Whetston whose interesting website is available here).
THE END OF A BROADCASTING ERA
The official closing ceremonies for SCN occurred on July 1st, 1999. The station continued to broadcast from a mobile van on top of Ancon hill until the last of the American forces departed on December 31st, 1999.
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