I am researching the use of shortwave radio for a story. The character
in this story is in Mexico around the end of WWII. He operates or
broadcast from his home. People in the neighborhood find his station
and tune into it.

I've come across a bunch of 'ham' operator information. Most of the
information is on the receiving end. These people are listening to the
broadcast from overseas or off the coast during wartime, etc.

What I want to know is, what would it have taken for a man to
broadcast from his garage, (a voice signal not morse code) in Mexico,
in the 1940's. Was it possible? Please allude to his equipment setup.
His range is really just within the countryside, maybe 200 square
miles.

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Request for Question Clarification by hedgie-ga on 07 Nov 2006 04:41 PST

You have to decide if he has a HAM licence, or is broadcasting illegaly,
or has special (military) equipment.

Portable hardware was available

 http://www.laud.no/ww2/

and in Europe it was  use routinely to connect underground with London. 

Looks like Mexico was similar


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border-blaster
http://www.usswashington.com/dl24ma42.htm

Not much has changed since early 1945, except equipment and parts were
in short supply in early 1945. About 3 megahertz = low end of the
shortwave band might be best to get most frequent coverage out to 8
miles with a 100 watt transmitter. Reliable coverage requires high
power = thousands of watts on lower frequencies, such as 0.55
megahertz which is the low end of the broadcast band which is medium
wave rather than short wave. 50,000 watt, perhaps 100,000 watt
transmitters were available as used items, in Mexico, but very costly,
and big. In any case a licence to broadcast was required and still is.
Without a licence, much more than 100 watts would have resulted in
confication of your equipment in just a few days, unless you had the
equipment in a truck and changed locations frequently. An efficient
transmitting antenna is difficult in a truck mount at much less than 3
megahertz. In 1945, only about 10% of the USA homes had a working
shortwave radio. But this was because USA stations generally did not
(and still don't) broadcast on short wave. Mexico may have had as many
shortwave broadcast stations as medium wave transmitting stations.  
Neil

Thank you Neil