Monthly Archives: July 2018

FTIOM & UBMP, August 5-11

From the Isle of Music, August 5-11, 2018:
Part 1 of 2 parts. Our special guest this week and next is Yasek Manzano, one of the young lions in both Jazz and Electronic Music in Cuba today.
Four options to listen to the transmission:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in most of the Eastern Hemisphere (including parts of East Asia and Oceania) with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US). This has been audible in parts of NW, Central and Southern Europe with an excellent skip to Italy recently.
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Also recommended:
1. Jetzt geht’s los!, an excellent program of early German Jazz produced by Radio Ohne Nahmen, comes on right before FTIOM on Tuesdays from 1800-1900 UTC on Channel 292.

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Sunday, August 5 & Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Episode 74 features some spectacular Bluegrass. If you think you that don’t like Bluegrass, we think that this episode will convert you.
The broadcasts take place:
1. Sundays 2200-2230 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on
WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesdays 2000-2030 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe. If current propagation conditions hold, the broadcast should reach from Iceland to Western Russia, Scandinavia down to North Africa and the Middle East, AND a long bounce to parts of New Zealand.
Also recommended:
Marion’s Attic, a unique program produced and hosted by Marion Webster featuring early 20th Century records, Edison cylinders etc played on the original equipment, comes on immediately before UBMP on Sundays from 2100-2200 UTC on WBCQ 7490 Khz.

 

 

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Gary seeks information about radio recordings by the Judica Cordiglia brothers

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gary Wise (W4EEY), who writes with the following inquiry:

Have you (or your subscribers) ever investigated the supposed radio recordings of the Judica Cordiglia brothers of Italy back in the 1960’s?

Two YouTube videos just crossed my path which sparked the question.

The brothers allegedly recorded transmissions from failed Russian Manned Space flights before the successful flight of Yuri Gagarin. I remember reading about these when I was growing up. The second video contains a snippet of a voice recording from a supposed female cosmonaut as she reports rising cockpit temperatures before she died.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Spooky and sad if true – but certainly a part of radio history if it can be documented.

Wow–I have never heard of these recordings and as you say, Gary, this is quite sad if true.

Post readers: Does anyone have more insight about the Judica Cordiglia brothers recordings?  Please comment!

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SDRplay RSP1A Aluminum Metal Case kit now available on eBay

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Ladd, who notes that the SDRplay RSP1A aluminum metal enclosure kit is now available on eBay.

The price is $29.95 shipped and the kit includes:

  • 1x Black aluminum metal enclosure with two labelled side panels
  • 1x Black semi-hardshell carry case
  • 1x Thermal pad to keep the RSP1A cool and mechanically stable inside the enclosure
  • 1x Accessory set including enclosure screws, GND lug bolt set and 3M anti-slip rubber feet
  • 1x Tecsun AN03-L seven meter long wire antenna + 1x Matching SMA Adapter
  • 1x 11cm to 48cm portable SMA telescopic antenna

Click here to view on eBay.

Thanks for the tip, Mike. I’m definitely pulling the trigger. What a great upgrade and price!

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The Shipping Forecast featured on 99% Invisible

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), who notes that one of my favorite podcasts, 99% Invisible, has featured The Shipping Forecast in their latest episode:

Four times every day, on radios all across the British Isles, a BBC announcer begins reading from a seemingly indecipherable script. “And now the Shipping Forecast issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency,” says the voice over the wire. “Viking, North Utsire; southwesterly five to seven; occasionally gale eight; rain or showers; moderate or good, occasionally poor.” Cryptic and mesmerizing, this is the UK’s nautical weather report.

The Shipping Forecast is “part of the culture here,” muses Charlie Connolly, author of Attention All Shipping: A Journey ‘Round the Shipping Forecast. “It’s a much loved institution. People regard it as poetry.” Connolly grew up listening to the forecast. Even now, as an adult, he sets his alarm so he can tune into the early morning forecast.

The story of this radio program starts (well before the BBC itself) in the 1850s with a man named Admiral Robert FitzRoy. He was the captain of the Beagle, the ship that brought Charles Darwin to the Galapagos.

FitzRoy had a long, sometimes controversial career, but later in his life he became fascinated with the study of weather prediction.[…]

Continue reading and listen to this episode at 99PI.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of The Shipping Forecast and have featured it in past posts. Thanks for the tip, Eric!

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HFCC Announces the Passing of its Founder, Oldrich Cip

(Source: WRMI & HFCC)

HFCC Announces the Passing of its Founder Oldrich Cip

Oldrich Cip, founder and Vice Chairman of the High Frequency Coordination Conference, known as the HFCC, passed away on 27 July following a sudden illness.

Oldrich was involved in radio since he was a child — first as an amateur radio hobbyist and later as a staff member of Czechoslovak and then Czech Radio in the international broadcasting departments. A college graduate in the field of Humanities, he spent most of his working life as a frequency manager and schedule planner. For a number of years he hosted a DX program on Radio Prague under the pen name Peter Skala.

After the end of the Cold War, he believed that broadcasters from both sides of the conflict should come together and develop a new system of planning and coordination for shortwave broadcasting. This led to the establishment of the HFCC in 1991. Oldrich was Chairman of the HFCC until 2015. Since then, he was a Vice Chairman of the group.

Oldrich lived in Prague, although he frequently spent time in his country house, where he enjoyed woodworking, guitar and country music, vintage graphics, photography and time with his family. His son Vladislav said he spent his last day there: “He enjoyed a quiet evening in the country house, with our families, all four grandchildren around, no symptoms of anything bad coming. All of a sudden, he suffered probably a heart attack or stroke. An ambulance arrived immediately but he died a few hours later.”

Oldrich was married with two adult sons, Oldrich Jr. and Vladislav. Vladislav is the HFCC Secretary who manages the day-to-day operations of the organization.

From 1953 until 1997 Oldrich was an employee of Czechoslovak and later Czech Radio in Prague. He worked as a technical consultant for Czech Radio from 1998 to 2010. He specialized in planning schedules and frequencies, international coordination and distribution of shortwave radio programs for foreign countries.

Beginning in 1959 and for more than 25 years, Oldrich produced a weekly English-language program “Radio Prague Calling All Radio Hobbyists,” using the nom de plume Peter Skala. In the program, he answered questions from shortwave listeners in many countries and covered a variety of scientific and other topics from the radio industry.

During the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Oldrich used his technical expertise to aid the “free Czechoslovak Radio,” putting himself in danger in an effort to provide factual news and information about the events taking place. Thanks to the large number of smaller facilities of Czechoslovak Radio scattered all over Prague and complicated infrastructure that connected them, they were able to continue broadcasting for quite some time.

In the period of reforms around the year 1968, he established secret contacts with his colleagues from Western radio stations. He re-established the contacts after the fall of communism and started an initiative to eliminate interference on shortwave. He became the Chairman of the HFCC, which has continued to meet twice each year in different parts of the world for shortwave stations to coordinate their frequency schedules for the coming broadcast season, thus eliminating interference before each season begins. The principles of international coordination were incorporated into the ITU’s International Radio Regulations during the 1997 World Radio Conference.

Oldrich was also an adviser to the Government of the Czechoslovak Republic in the preparation of the first Radio and Television Broadcasting Act after 1990, as well as a member of several EBU and ITU radiocommunication working groups. At the HFCC, he spearheaded the International Radio for Disaster Relief project whereby shortwave stations have allocated specific frequencies in each band for the transmission of emergency information in the event of natural disasters around the world.

Jeff White, Oldrich’s successor as HFCC Chairman, said: “The shortwave broadcasting and listening communities have lost one of our most important proponents. The contributions of Oldrich over the years are simply unequalled. He was a humble man, but people in this industry realized the importance of his work. And he has left us a lasting legacy — an organization which has largely eliminated interference on the shortwave bands, and it has enabled stations to use less power to reach their target areas with a good signal. For that, he will always be remembered.”

Oldrich Cip was also a frequency consultant for WRMI. His assistance was greatly appreciated.

For more information, contact Jeff White, HFCC Chairman, at [email protected].

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Kenwood R-2000: Luke’s simple fix for a frozen encoder

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Luke Perry, who writes:

Hi Thomas, I thought I would share with the people on the SWLing Post my new radio purchase.

I needed a receiver with a noise blanker as you might (or might not) recall my issue that I was having with electrical noise at my listening location. So I saw this on the local Craigslist for $50 and called right away and I was lucky to be the first one to respond.

The seller was the original owner and he had bought it back in the 80’s after coming back from Saudi Arabia so he could listen to the BBC. It was fully working but when I got home I noticed that tuning dial was not working and this set does not have direct frequency input for some reason.

I went online and scoured the internet for a possible fix and found a old posting that said to adjust the pots on the encoder board behind the main tuning knob. I found a service manual online and located the position of the board and thankfully that was the fix. But for some reason the position that they both were in was not the correct position so I don’t know if someone had been in there before but I doubt it.

Anyway, I am very happy with the purchase and the noise blanker seems to really work as I could not listen to any frequencies above 5 MHz on my old radio due to RFI. Also, the R-2000 seems to be very sensitive just from the small wire antenna that I have been using so I plan to get a better antenna and I am hoping to get some good DX catches.

Anyway, I thought I would share the news of my new purchase and hopefully the fix for the tuning knob might be of some use to others down the road.

I’m so glad you found the fix for the encoder function, Luke. Thank you for sharing because, no doubt, others will be searching for this solution. Sounds like it was a simple enough fix and certainly did the trick. If you ever need to re-cap the R-2000, you can find kits like this one to make the process easier. If you don’t want to do the work yourself, my friend Vlado recaps radios for a very reasonable price.

I’m sure you know you really snagged a deal grabbing that R-2000 for $50! Wow!

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Repeat repeater offender proposed $18,000 FCC fine

(Source: ARRL News)

The FCC has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) proposing to fine Jerry W. Materne, KC5CSG, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, $18,000 “for apparently causing intentional interference and for apparently failing to provide station identification on amateur radio frequencies,” the FCC said.

“Mr. Materne was previously warned regarding this behavior in writing by the Enforcement Bureau and, given his history as a repeat offender, these apparent violations warrant a significant penalty,” the FCC said in the NAL, released on July 25.

In 2017, the FCC received numerous complaints alleging that Materne was causing interference to the W5BII repeater, preventing other amateur licensees from using it. In March 2017, the repeater trustee banned Materne from using the repeater.

Responding to some of the complaints, the Enforcement Bureau issued a Letter of Inquiry (LOI), advising Materne of the allegations and directing him to address them. Materne denied causing interference but admitted to operating simplex on the repeater’s output frequency. In June 2017, the FCC received an additional complaint alleging that Materne had repeatedly interfered with an attempted emergency net that was called up as Tropical Storm Cindy was about to make landfall. The complaint maintained that Materne “repeatedly transmitted on the repeater’s input frequency, hindering the local emergency net’s ability to coordinate weather warnings and alerts on behalf of the National Weather Service,” the FCC said in the NAL.

Local amateurs were able to track the interfering signal to Materne’s residence and confirmed their findings to the FCC, prompting a Warning Letter advising Materne of the complaint and pointing out that his behavior “as described in the complaint would be a violation of Section 97.101(d) of the Commission’s rules.”[…]

Click here to read full story at the ARRL.

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