Monthly Archives: March 2016

The BBC World Service A16 shortwave broadcast schedule

(Image source: BBC)Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan H, who writes:

The A16 schedule is released for BBC World Service. Here is a link to the A16 frequency page which features additional links to regional frequency charts and transmitter details.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2x9tqt6mc05vB2S37j8MWMJ/global-short-wave-frequencies

Good news for me is the BBC World Service English language transmission on 11890 kHz from 1500-1700 UTC. Although beamed to Afghanistan and Iran this signal has been strong in northern California for the last several mornings! I must be receiving an odd lobe off of this one! Now I have BBC during breakfast in addition to 7445 kHz I use during my evenings at 0500. Here is a video I shot of 11890 reception this morning.

(Click here to view on YouTube.)

I hope this information is useful for SWL Post readers.

Indeed it is!  Thank you for sharing the schedule info and your video, Dan!

Spread the radio love

London Shortwave says farewell to Radio Belarus

london shortwave belarus

SWLing Post contributor, London Shortwave, hit his local park today with his Tecsun PL-680 and Zoom H1 in tow, then recorded the final broadcasts of Radio Belarus. He has published a post on his blog with details and two recordings of Radio Belarus.

Click here to read his post.

Many thanks to London Shortwave for also going out of his way to post both recordings on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive! If you have a recording of Radio Belarus, we can add it as well.

Spread the radio love

Any requests? Heading to the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station…

VOA-Greenville-Curtain-Antennas

I’m planning to visit the Edward R. Murrow transmitter station for a few hours on Friday (tomorrow). This will be my third trip to the station and I’ll be hanging out with the chief engineer, Macon Dail. I plan to take more photos–especially of some recent transmitter upgrades.

Any questions/requests?

If you like, I would be happy to ask Macon any technical/engineering questions you may have about the site and post his replies here on the SWLing Post next week.

Additionally, if you have something specific you’d like me to photograph, please ask and I’ll attempt to do so. The only areas I’m not allowed to photograph are those dealing with site security.

Please comment with your questions and requests no later than tomorrow morning!

In case you’re not familiar, the Edward R. Murrow transmitter site is the last BBG shortwave broadcasting site on US soil. Click here for a photo tour I posted a few ago.

Spread the radio love

Aluminum foil: Larry’s simple AN200 antenna modification

TecsunAN200

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Larry Caracciolo, who comments:

I bought the AN-200 in the spring of 2015 off of eBay. I was favorably impressed with the product. Comparing it to my old 9′ diameter tuned/shielded loop from 1992, there are some similarities and differences.

The Hallicrafters SX-96 (Image: Universal Radio)

The Hallicrafters SX-96 (Image: Universal Radio)

I live in an apartment complex so plenty of radiated electromagnetic noise is present. I use a modified [Hallicrafters] SX-96 (AVC ckt was modified for improved modulation acceptance). The AN-200 does null out local static sources, somewhat, but not well enough to dig out weak stations. The tuning range for the loop is just at the bottom of the AM band (about 535 khz) to just over 1700 kcs.

On a whim, I wrapped aluminum foil around the loop and grounded it to the SX-96 chassis – in wistful hope of achieving some shielding from the RF has. As soon as I connected the aluminum foil ground clip to the rx chassis, all RF noise ceased and signals appeared from the mud. However, the tuning range is attenuated above 1200 kcs.

My favorite frequency on the AM band is 590 kcs. During the night, as many as seven different stations rose from the noise and provided station IDs at just the right moment. My best catch here in Everett, WA is KCSJ, a 1KW station in Colorado Springs.

From time to time, stations on the low portion of the AM band are accompanied with echoes – what I took for two stations and a small time delay between the same broadcast was actually multi-path to the degree that nearly 1/2 second separated the arriving signals. Short-delayed echoes, anyone? I’ve not observed this on frequencies above 1000 kcs.

Other sources of RF noise can come from the laptop, the cable modem, and even CFBs in other rooms. For truly noise-free listening environment, I place the laptop in sleep mode and unplug the cable modem. I’m quite happy with the AN-200 loop. Affordable, easy to use, easy to tune.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with the AN200 loop antenna, Larry!

As anyone who grew up in the era of TV rabbit ears knows, aluminum foil can simply work magic in a pinch! There is no easier material to work with either!

As I pointed out in previous posts, the AN200 loop antenna is quite affordable.  I just did a quick price search:

Spread the radio love

iHeartMedia may collapse under debt

iHeartMedia(Source: MediaFire)

At first glance, iHeartMedia looks like the model 21st century media conglomerate, truly a colossus with interests across media: owner of 858 radio stations; Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world’s largest outdoor companies; Premier Networks, the top U.S. radio network; and iHeartRadio, among the nation’s top digital music services.

The radio giant has a dynamic leader, Bob Pittman, the man who created MTV and widely regarded as one of the most charismatic men in media.

And it has glam, lots of glam. Look no further than the iHeartRadio Music Festival and other live events that draw thousands upon thousands of celebrants and endless media excitement.

But for all that glam, iHeart is a deeply troubled company. In fact, iHeartMedia is teetering on collapse. It’s not a question of whether it collapses but when, and it’s likely to come sooner rather than later. It could be within months.

What’s going to sink iHeart is its huge debt, some $21 billion. That’s more than the entire radio industry generates in ad dollars in a given year, and it’s a debt iHeart appears to have zero prospects of paying off.[…]

iHeart’s ills could not come at a worse time for radio.

Cumulus, the No. 2 radio company, is struggling to work through its own debt problems and could itself slide into bankruptcy. And CBS Radio was just put on the block in what’s seen as a major vote of no confidence in radio’s future by CBS Chairman Les Moonves.

One could well imagine a scenario in which all three companies are broken up and their stations all put on the market at one time, in what would prove a major disruption for the industry.[…]

Continue reading…

Spread the radio love

Wally Crouter, Canada’s longest serving radio man, dies at 92

Wally Crouter (August 5, 1923 – March 28, 2016)

Wally Crouter (August 5, 1923 – March 28, 2016) Image: News Talk 1010

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors, Richard Langley and Bill Patalon, who note the passing of legendary Canadian radio man, Wally Crouter.

Richard Langley comments:

I fondly remember listening to him over the years, particularly when I was working (during a couple of my undergraduate degree co-op program work terms) for Philips Electronics in Toronto as a QC inspector at the end of an assembly line for car radios. Yes, these used to be made in North America in the good old days. 😉 Of course, he was on shortwave, too, via CFRX.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/wally-crouter-canadas-longest-serving-radio-man-dies-143336247.html

http://www.newstalk1010.com/news/2016/03/28/in-memoriam-wally-crouter

Like Bill and Richard, I’ve certainly head Wally Crouter on CFRX in the past–I’m sure many Post readers/SWLs have as well.

Spread the radio love

Recording the final broadcast of Radio Belarus?

CommRadio-CR-1-Zoom-H2N-BBC-AntarcticaRegarding our previous post about Radio Belarus closing down, SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, reminds me that we should try to add a recording of the final broadcast to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

If you can manage to capture the final broadcast (or any of the Belarus broadcasts between now and then), please consider submitting the recordings to the archive.

Many thanks!

Spread the radio love