HCJB
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HCJB is the flagship station of one of the most popular and far-reaching international radio ministries in the world. Its official title is "World Radio Missionary Fellowship, Inc." and together with local partners broadcasts in more than 100 countries in more than 120 languages via shortwave, and in Ecuador via mediumwave as well as FM, satellite, and internet.
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[edit] History
HCJB World Radio began in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, on Christmas Day 1931 and was founded by Clarence W. Jones [1], a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute, and Reuben Larson, and other American evangelical Christian missionaries.
[edit] What do the call letters mean?
HCJB, which the broadcaster interprets as Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings, is the actual call sign of their original station. In Spanish the call letters means Hoy Cristo Jesus Bendice. And in German it is Höre Christi Jesu Botschaft.
[edit] Broadcasting milestones and achievements
The HCJB World Radio Engineering Center began in an effort to design and build specialized, cost-effective shortwave transmitters. The first time a group of HCJB World Radio engineers accepted an offer from the Moore family to work in Elkhart, Indiana, they were tasked to build a 500,000 watt shortwave transmitter capable of overcoming any Russian jamming effort.
A special relationship existed between HCJB World Radio and Crown International via its founder, Clarence Moore, who had served with HCJB in Ecuador as chief engineer during its early days.
- "Project Outreach" began in 1975, and was completed in 1980 with the installation of the HC500 (500 kw) transmitter in Ecuador.
The Moore family (with Clarence's son, Clyde) again extended the invitation to HCJB to take up residence at Crown International, this time as the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center. The goal was to build 100,000-watt shortwave transmitters for World by 2000 ministry partners.
- In the spring of 1987, the Engineering Center was officially established under the direction of David Pasechnik.
HCJB research, development, training, and technical support for FM transmitters, radio automation systems, satellite distribution, antennas, etc ... has come into place since 1989.
In the 1940s Clarence Moore obtained a patent for the development of the cubical quad antenna. This antenna is frequently used by amateur radio operators around the world. He developed this after problems developed with his beam antenna due to the thin mountain air, the type of antenna and the power of his transmitter. The tips of the beam antenna developed strong coronal discharge which caused his antenna to melt.
[edit] Non-Radio Ministries
Although HCJB did begin as solely a radio ministry, in recent decades the range of their ministries has increased.
Currently HCJB operates a variety of education ministries. Three of these ministries are Apoyo, Christian Academy of the Air, and Christian Center of Communication. Apoyo, which means "support" in English, is a ministry that focuses on evangelism, developing the local church, and equipping Latin American church leaders to be pastors. This ministry, which began in 1992, is a cooperative ministry between both HCJB and a group called Leadership Resources International. Christian Academy of the Air is a ministry that has been functioning for more than 50 years and focuses on teaching a wide range of classes centered on the Bible, theology, and Christian ministry. The Christian Center of Communication is a three-year higher education program that teachers Spanish-speaking students about radio, television, and print media. It is a ministry that cooperates with Northwestern College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Besides radio, HCJB has also become involved in a variety of other media mediums such as television and the internet. They operate a television program production company called Televozandes which operates in several Latin American countries. The Internet ministry provides a variety of audio programs in more than ten different languages. This Internet ministry also provides a variety of other services that compliment various other HCJB departments.
HCJB is directly involved with several engineering activities such as a power station in the small Ecuadorean town of Papallacta, and an international transmitter site in Pifo, a town located 18 miles away from the nation's capital, Quito. Various other communication systems and equipment are part of the engineering efforts of this mission.
There are also a variety of health care related activities that are related to HCJB. Hospital Vozandes, a hospital in an urban section of Quito, provides numerous medical services to locals. This hospital was opened in 1955 and currently has 74 beds. Another hospital called "Hospital Vozandes del Oriente" in Shellmera has provided medical services to the people of Ecuadorean Amazon since 1958. This hospital works in close association with a mission called Mission Aviation Fellowship, which often flies patients in to the hospital from the surrounding, otherwise inaccessible, communities. HCJB is also responsible for a variety of community development projects around Ecuador. These include clean water projects which aim at ensuring rural communities have accessible pure water supplies, a medical caravan which goes to different communities once a month providing dental and health services in areas that lack them, and clinics in a variety of areas near Quito which provide affordable medical aid to the local citizens. All of these ministries attempt to provide medical aid to those who need it while also presenting the Christian gospel.
