Global 24 writes:
0000 UTC on November 22 running for 24 hours we will be testing on 9465. Let us know if you can hear it and how well you can hear it.
Please send eception reports to: [email protected]
(Source: Southgate ARC)
The Chelmsford Calling World Service produced by Jim Salmon 2E0RMI has added a shortwave relay from Finland
Chelmsford Calling is currently relayed on shortwave by Radio Miami International WRMI on the 2nd Friday of each month at 2300 UT on 9955 kHz. The additional relay will be by Scandinavian Weekend Radio (SWR) which is located in Virrat city, Upper Tampere Region, Liedenpohja village, Finland.
The show will be broadcast on the first Saturday of the month starting on December 6 on a selection of the following frequencies – 1602 kHz, 5980 kHz, 6170 kHz, 11690 kHz, 11720 kHz, & 94.90 MHz.
Chelmsford Calling
Web http://www.chelmsfordcalling.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChelmsfordCallingWorldService
Twitter https://twitter.com/ChelmCalling
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, David Iurescia, for sharing this story from Radio Canada International:
“Thousands of people marched in several cities in the province of Quebec and the New Brunswick city of Moncton on Sunday to protest ongoing cuts to the public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada.
Beginning in the 1990s, successive Canadian governments cut funding to the service. The latest round will lead to 1,500 job losses by 2020. That represents almost 20 per cent of the current, total number of employees.
Cultural groups in particular are concerned about the cuts to the English-language CBC and the French-language Radio-Canada. Preserving culture is particularly sensitive issue in the French-speaking province of Quebec.
Radio Canada International has also suffered from the budget cuts and had to dismantle its international shortwave service in 2012. RCI is now only accessible by internet.”
Also check out this article on the Montreal Gazette.
BBC Seychelles Relay Station (Photo: Vijay.sc)
(Source: Seychelles News Agency via Andy Sennitt)
Tuesday November 18 marked the closure of an iconic chapter of Seychelles’ history, signalling the end of an era when information was much more difficult to come by. With much of Africa joining the internet and mobile phone revolution, the times of trying to glean information about happenings in the rest of the world on a crackly AM radio station have now passed by.
Over 25 years after its establishment, the site of the BBC’s former Indian Ocean Relay Station (IORS), located at Grand Anse, on the western side of the largest inhabited island in the archipelago, was handed back to the government of Seychelles by the country’s British High Commissioner, Lindsay Skoll.
The station transmitted BBC World Service programmes since 1988 via shortwave to listeners across East Africa in a range of languages, including the BBC’s English-language output for Africa as well as programmes in Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Somali and French.
In November 2013, the BBC announced its intention to cease all its shortwave transmission services from Seychelles due to a gradual and irreversible fall in demand for shortwave radio services, and on March 29 this year, the BBC IORS retransmission services from Seychelles were officially switched off. BBC World Service broadcasts in East Africa are still available via the internet and also via various other localised frequencies.
The handing over of the site to the Ministry of Land Use and Housing (MLUH) also included the station’s buildings and equipment, all of which are still in working order. The site is spread over a 32,000 square metre property, occupied under a lease dating back to March 27, 1985.[…]The station is equipped with 33KV high-voltage equipment and transformers which will now go into the possession of the Public Utilities Corporation, while the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) will take over three of the BBC’s four steel communications towers and the annex building.
The SCAA will use the towers to strengthen its air communication and surveillance capabilities and the annex building will be used to house a new high-frequency aviation communications radio system to help control air traffic coming in from the west of the island.
The fourth steel tower will be allocated to the local telecommunications company Cable and Wireless for mobile based telecommunications.
Read the full article on the Seychelles News Agency’s website.
(Source: Radio Dabanga via Andy Sennitt)
The Sudanese Minister of Information has admitted that attempts by the Sudanese government to prevent broadcasts by Radio Dabanga have failed.
Minister Ahmed Bilal was speaking in the Council of States on Tuesday. He pointed out the need “to create a number of radio stations to attract listeners and compete with Radio Dabanga, which incites the people”.
The Minister was facing harsh criticism of the State media from Members including Abdul Jabbar Abdul Karim. Karim accused the state media of not highlighting the facts and lacking integrity and credibility, acknowledging that Radio Dabanga and the Alrakubh website are the most popular news sources for citizens.
[…]Radio Dabanga broadcasts to Sudan from neighbouring countries via shortwave. The Sudanese censors have tried repeatedly to jam the signal, to little avail.
In May, a report to the Sudanese parliament acknowledged that that the majority of the people in Darfur and Kordofan prefer Radio Dabanga to any national broadcasting station.
MP Abdallah Ali Masar, former Media Minister, and currently chairman of the Transport Committee, commented by saying that his wife listens to Radio Dabanga “day and night. Every day, when I come home, I find her listening to Radio Dabanga.”
Read the full article on Radio Dabanga’s website.
[Bravo, Radio Dabanga!]
Doug Talely, from Pixel Antennas, writes:
We are running a Holiday Special on our highly regarded RF PRO-1B Shielded magnetic loop antenna system, between now and the end of December.
The normal price for this antenna system is $499.99 but during this sale the price has been reduced by $50.00. There is (as of today) a mail-in rebate form now posted on our web site that is available to anyone who purchases. Here is a link to the site and the offer:
Many thanks for sharing this offer, Doug!
Yesterday, I acquired another antique radio (yes, a “boat anchor”) for my modest collection of vintage receivers. I took a quick close-up photo of its backlit dial (above).
For fun, I’m curious if any SWLing Post readers can name the radio sporting this dial? If you want to give it a go, please comment below.