Radio Onda on 6140 kHz: Brazilian community radio from Junglinster, Luxembourg

What you hear

Radio Onda speaks Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, to Brazilians living in Europe. The programme is community radio in the plain sense: Brazilian music across the styles, from sertanejo and pagode to MPB and gospel, talk and announcements for the community, greetings, and religious content at some hours. The feel is of a station that knows its listeners personally, and if you have ever heard a small domestic Brazilian station on the tropical bands, the tone will be familiar, transplanted to the middle of Western Europe. Identifications give the name Radio Onda. Precise programme times and the balance between music and talk are not well documented outside the station's own channels, so expect variety rather than a fixed grid.

The 6140 kHz signal is low-power AM with reasonable audio. The other three outlets, 9530, 15190 and 25850 kHz, run only 100 watts and are for the curious and the patient.

Who transmits and why

The station is Belgian in origin and serves the Brazilian diaspora in Belgium and neighbouring countries, a community large enough to want radio of its own. Since 2025 its shortwave transmissions have come from Junglinster in Luxembourg, a name with history: the Junglinster site is where Radio Luxembourg's famous transmitters stood, and it now hosts, among other things, small transmitters for private stations. The main outlet is 1 kW on 6140 kHz. The low-power frequencies are a hobbyist's touch: 25850 kHz lies in the 11 metre band, the highest broadcast band of all, which almost nobody uses any more and which only opens when the sun is active, so a 100 watt signal there is as much an experiment as a service. Why shortwave for a diaspora station? It covers Belgium, Luxembourg and the surrounding regions from one transmitter, and Brazilians know the sound of shortwave from home.

When and where to listen

6140 kHz lies in the 49 metre band. By day the 1 kW signal covers Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, western Germany and north-eastern France; after dark it stretches across much of Western and Central Europe, best in winter. The station's own hours are not fixed in this catalogue, so the practical approach is to listen at different times of the day and note when the carrier is there. 9530 kHz in the 31 metre band and 15190 kHz in the 19 metre band are daytime frequencies and at 100 watts will be faint beyond a few hundred kilometres. 25850 kHz is a special case: in years of high solar activity the 11 metre band can carry a signal thousands of kilometres by day, and a 100 watt station being heard across the Atlantic would not be impossible, but near the transmitter it is often inaudible because the band skips over short distances.

The catalogue mode is AM. For the weak outlets, upper or lower sideband with a narrow filter is the better choice.

In ShackDeck

The entry sits under Station catalogue → Shortwave broadcast → Radio Onda 6140 (Luxembourg). ShackDeck picks a public receiver whose range covers 6140 kHz, tunes it and sets AM from the catalogue, so you need no receiver, antenna or account of your own. A receiver in Benelux or the Rhineland is the one to start with; the other frequencies can be typed into the receiver by hand.