Monthly Archives: February 2013

Trevor Baylis in the Vintage Vault

Earlier this week, I posted an article about wind-up (clockwork) radio inventor, Trevor Baylis.

I recently discovered a 1995 episode of RNW’s Media Network, which featured Baylis–and the clockwork radio–in the context of inventions that would carry us beyond the new millenium:

(Source: Media Network Vintage Vault)

Remember Trevor Baylis and the wind-up radio? I organised a conference for Radio Netherlands at the International Broadcasting Convention IBC between September 11-14th 1995. We decided to celebrate the fact that we were 5 years away from a new Millennium by looking at the technologies that would carry us forward. That included a look at different codings for DAB, a reality check on radio by Sri Lankan broadcaster Victor Goonetilleke and a special performance about the Clockwork Radio from Trevor Baylis, the British inventor who turned up in Amsterdam and charmed the audience with his frank, funny and brilliant introduction to the concept of wind-up radios. A few weeks after the conference we produced a special CD for those who took part. This is a copy for those who missed it. It’s double the length of a normal Media Network, just over an hour.

You can download this archive episode of Media Network on the Vintage Vault website.

By the way, Jonathan Mark’s Media Network Vintage Vault has many, many audio treasures from the radio past. Certainly worth bookmarking!

Spread the radio love

History of WWV and the NIST Time Stations

Leave a reply

WWV building in Fort Collins, Colorado (photo courtesy: NIST)

Many readers know that I’m a bit of a WWV geek, so you can imagine how happy I was when my buddy, Mike, and the Southgate ARC made me aware of this 152 page history of the NIST time station family. At first glance, this looks to be an authoritative and thorough history indeed.

I have already sent this to my Kindle Fire and look forward to reading it (at least, starting it) tonight. Click here to download the NIST time station history as a PDF.

Incidentally, if you have an affinity for the NIST time stations, be sure to check out my previous post on Myke’s audio history of WWV, “At The Tone.”

Spread the radio love

RNW radio equipment for sale

Leave a reply

mixing_board (Source: Andy Sennitt via Facebook)

From the Dutch website (my translation):

The disappearance of a number of tasks of Radio Netherlands Worldwide means some of the technical equipment is now available for sale. This includes a fully equipped Network Operations Centre with a network matrix of NTP, a complete Studer system with four presentation cells and and a master console, six Studer ‘WPM’s’, all of the type ‘On-Air’ 3000 or ‘On-Air’ 2500. In addition, many peripherals are offered, including Airtools voice processors.

Are you interested in these assets? Respond by March 15, 2013 by sending an e-mail to roland.hiltermann [a t] rnw.nl

Spread the radio love

Massive sunspots appear, solar flares could follow

Leave a reply

(Source: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center via CSM)

(Source: Christian Science Monitor)

A colossal sunspot on the surface of the sun is large enough to swallow six Earths whole, and could trigger solar flares this week, NASA scientists say.

The giant sunspot was captured on camera by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory as it swelled to enormous proportions over the 48 hours spanning Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 19 and 20).[…]

“It has grown to over six Earth diameters across, but its full extent is hard to judge since the spot lies on a sphere, not a flat disk,” wrote NASA spokeswomanKaren Fox, of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in an image description.

[S]ome of the intense magnetic fields in the sunspot region are pointing in opposite directions, making it ripe for solar activity.

“This is a fairly unstable configuration that scientists know can lead to eruptions of radiation on the sun called solar flares,” Fox explained.

Propagation in the higher portions of the HF band could be very interesting over the course of the next few days. If a solar flare erupts, however, it could make shortwave listening quite difficult.

Thanks for the tip, Bill!

Spread the radio love

Zimbabwe: are shortwave radios now illegal?

2 Replies

According to SW Radio Africa, it appears that shortwave radios could now be considered “illegal communicating devices” in Zimbabwe:

Police have announced a ban on ‘specially designed radios’ that are ‘not compatible with state owned stations’, claiming the devices would be used to communicate hate speech ahead of polls scheduled for this year.

In a move seen as an attempt to silence external radio stations, such as SW Radio Africa and VOA’s Studio 7, broadcasting to Zimbabwe via shortwave and medium wave, police spokesperson Charity Charamba threatened to deal with organizations that helped to distribute portable radios, saying recipients would also be arrested.

She told journalists at a press conference in Harare on Tuesday: “We have information that some people or political parties are engaging in illegal activities, that is to say they are distributing illegal communicating devices to unsuspecting members of the public.

“We strongly believe that the intentions of such people are not holy but meant to create and sow seeds of disharmony within the country, especially now that the country is about to embark on the referendum and harmonised elections.”

The shocking news comes as police upped their onslaught on civil society organization looking for subversive material, gadgets and recordings.

[…]Co-Home Affairs Minister Teresa Makoni revealed [..]that […] receivers only, without ability to transmit, are perfectly legal and that there is no law at present which disallows anyone donating radios to the public.

However the minister said she held lengthy discussions with Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, who said he is concerned that NGOs always intensify distribution just before elections.

Makon[i] said: “I was very clear that airwaves are still restricted to other parties, that is why my party is distributing radios to our poor rural members…in the meantime he will have his engineers verify that the radios are simple receivers.”

Observers say this response ignores the fact that there is likely to be massive intimidation as the average police officer will not know the difference between a receiver and two-way radio communicators.

Click here to read Violet Ganda’s full report on SW Radio Africa.

Thanks, Rich, for bringing this to my attention.

Spread the radio love

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Australia, Jazz Notes

2 Replies

This Jazz Notes starts with a performance of "evidence" by Thelonius Monk

This week’s Jazz Notes starts with the Thelonious Monk song”Evidence” interpreted by the Blaine Whitaker Group (Photo source: Ohio University)

This morning at 13:30 UTC, I enjoyed listening to 11,945 kHz, home of Radio Australia and their Wednesday music show, Jazz Notes. I recently posted a recording of Jazz Notes and described my fondness for this particular show. Moreover, I find that the sonic texture of the shortwave ether enhances the nostalgic character of one my very favorite music genres.

As on most mornings, the signal out of Shepparton, Australia, on 11,945 kHz was very strong; the audio fidelity was, in consequence, very impressive for a transmission emanating from some 9,800 miles away.

Click here to download the full recording of Jazz Notes as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Spread the radio love

Pirate Radio Recordings: WMPR

Leave a reply

“Mama, they’re playing your favorite dance music!”

For your listening pleasure: 32 minutes of pirate radio station, WMPR.

I recorded this broadcast of WMPR on 6.925MHz AM on February 17th, 2013 at 10:00 UTC. You’ll note that this recording sounds a little “brighter” than a typical shortwave radio recording. This is due to the fact that I widened the AM filter to match the bandwidth of WMPR’s signal (about 17 kHz!).

Click here to download the MP3 of the recording of WMPR, or simply listen below:

Spread the radio love