Category Archives: News

Kyodo News Radiofax: Japanese Disaster FM Stations and a Lack of Personnel

Oku-Noto: No temporary disaster FM stations opened due to lack of personnel, challenges in disseminating support information

In four cities and towns in the Oku-Noto region of Wajima, Suzu, Noto, and Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, which suffered severe damage from the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, local governments have set up ‘Temporary Disaster Broadcasting Stations” (Disaster FM) to disseminate support information to residents. Interviews with local governments revealed on the 20th that the government has not done so. The lack of personnel is said to be a contributing factor, and it has become clear that there are still issues with the way administrative information is communicated, such as procedures for restoring water outages and setting up temporary housing.

Disaster FM was institutionalized in 1995 based on the experience of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. If a local government applies to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and obtains permission, they can be temporarily installed. In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, 28 municipalities opened and operated them. It was also opened during the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake and the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake.

Disaster FM broadcasts on the radio about the safety of residents, evacuation information, and the status of restoration of lifelines such as electricity and gas. It also provides administrative information on the reopening of roads, supermarkets, gas stations, etc., as well as disaster victim certification and donation procedures, and plays a role in supplementing disaster prevention administrative radio.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in the wake of the Noto earthquake, employees of the ministry’s Hokuriku General Communications Bureau visited city halls and appealed for the establishment of such systems.

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Patrizio receives detailed information about the Woofferton test transmission he confirmed

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Woofferton Transmitting Station (Photo by Shirokazan via Wikimedia Commons.)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Patrizio Cardelli, who shares the following background story (via our friend, Dave Porter) about a Woofferton test transmission received at his QTH in Italy:

Hi Patrizio,

Thank you for your report and I confirm the details for 9885 kHz are correct. These transmissions were to fault-find on a 250/300 kW sender at the UK HF transmitter station at Woofferton in England.

These duration of these tests can be variable as the engineers can sometimes need a long time to establish a fault or they may interrupt the test, make an adjustment and resume. This is particularly so if the fault is of an intermittent nature.

Encompass Digital Media, Woofferton is the only remaining UK HF sender broadcast station and also is the only one with this transmission test audio and email address.

The audio is contained in a file play-out system and incorporates non-copyright music and voice announcements from one of the engineers, Martin, 2E1EKX at the transmitter site.

There is a Club amateur radio station on site with the callsign M0WOF and the operators are Matt G8XYJ, Dave M0MYA, Gillian M0OVW, John G1JOD and Martin 2E1EKX.

The amateur radio repeater GB3VM that was on site has recently been moved and the history of it is here https://hbrg.co.uk/gb3vm/

Woofferton has recently celebrated 80 years on the air and there was much publicity in the broadcast media.

My son Matt, G8XYJ was the Transmitter Engineer on duty running the 9885 tests.

He features it in the following Youtube video:

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Guest Post: Pre-Internet Sources of Shortwave Information

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:

Sources of SWL Information “Pre-Internet”

by Dan Greenall

When I first discovered the world of shortwave listening, many years before the internet, access to hobby related information was mostly available through over-the-air DX programs, monthly DX club bulletins, as well as a number of books and electronics magazines. I joined a few clubs including the Midwest DX Club, SPEEDX, and the Ontario DX Association, and eagerly awaited each issue of Electronics Illustrated and Popular Electronics (early 1970’s) on the news stand. Later, in the 1980’s, Popular Communications and Monitoring Times came along, though these were not always easy to find here in Canada.

Ironically, nearly all issues of these magazines can be read today, over 30, 40 and even 50 years later, thanks to David Gleason’s not-for-profit, free online library

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm

You can also find the semi-annual (and eventually annual) Communications World (1971-81) which contained the popular White’s Radio Log.

As well, five issues of the Communications Handbook can be found; 1963, 1966, 1967, 1974 and 1977. It only came out once a year but was still a favourite of mine, so much so, that I still have my copies from 1971 and 1972.

I have scanned parts of these and put them on the Internet Archive. You can find them here:

Communications Handbook 1971: https://archive.org/details/page-09

Communications Handbook 1972: https://archive.org/details/page-20

Here are links that will lead to some of the other magazines:

As a bonus, all of the issues of the monthly SPEEDX bulletin (1971-95) have been made available here

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Speedx.htm

And finally, a good read is Shortwave Voices of the World by the late Dr. Richard E. Wood written in 1969. I still have my copy of it, but you can find it online here

https://archive.org/details/shortwave-voices-of-the-world-richard-wood-ed-1-pr-1-1969

WDX SWL registration program

My link to the 1971 Communications Handbook contains pages regarding the old WDX SWL registration program. I have found my old certificate from December 1971:

Wonder how many others still have theirs, or even the WPE ones from the 1960’s?

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No birds do sing

New Podcast from the Wireless Innovation Forum

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who shares the following news item from EIN Presswire:

Wireless Innovation Forum Launches “Beyond the Radio Dial” Highlighting the Role Radio Spectrum Plays in Daily Life

Weather forecasting, climate, radar, GPS and more to be explored with industry experts in new video podcast

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, March 27, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnForum) is pleased to announce the launch of a new video podcast about spectrum, titled “Beyond the Radio Dial.” The series addresses the role that the radio spectrum plays in everyday life. The title alludes to the familiar FM or AM radio dial and what lies beyond either end of the frequencies on that dial, although frequencies within the dial may occasionally be addressed too. [Continue reading…]

Checkout the new podcast episodes here: https://www.wirelessinnovation.org/Beyond-the-Radio-Dial

Episode 1

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RNZ changes its pips!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia, who shares the following news from Radio New Zealand:

RNZ’s pips are changing – Can you hear the difference? (RNZ)

RNZ National is changing the pips – the beeps that mark the start of each hour which play immediately before the news bulletin broadcast.

The pips were last changed in 2013 when a lightning strike damaged the clock which sent signals from the Measurement Standards Laboratory’s atomic clock.

The replacement sound was a little higher. (Continue reading…)

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Rich’s propagation observations during the total solar eclipse

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rich Stahl, who writes:

In Ocean View NJ, our eclipse started at 2:08, 3:23 totality, and ended 4:35. We have a daytimer here on 1020, WWAC, at 1900 watts, and I was curious if KDKA, at 50kw, also on 1020, would have any presence during the event. I used my Tecsun PL330, on the internal ferrite antenna, and did a band scan 530-1710 every fifteen minutes to see what it would capture. From 2:15 up to the 3:45 scan, the radio captured between eight and ten signals per scan. Up to this point, the sun still had the D layer fully ionized. But after the mid point, the 4:00 scan had 19 captures, the 4:15 scan had 38, and the 4:30 scan had 36. The D layer had obviously de-ionized considerably. The very next scan, at 4:45, captures back down to 9. The sun was back in business. And never did I hear a peep out of KDKA.

Rich Stahl
WR3V
Ocean View, NJ

Thank you for sharing your findings, Rich! Perhaps others can comment with their observations as well.

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