Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan (NO2CW), who writes:
If anyone is interested in monitoring aircraft communications across HF, VHF and UHF, Thomas, N1SPY put together a demo video of what you can hear and how:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Brilliant instructional video, Tommy! Like you, I love both radio and aviation so appreciate the effort you put behind this video. Great primer!
Photo by Flickt user Shirokazan via Wikimedia Commons.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Porter, who notes:
Pleased to let you know that Woofferton Transmitting Station celebrated 75 years of continuous operation yesterday 17th October 2018.
It is now run by Encompass Digital Media to give it its full name!
Woofferton has certainly experienced and propagated a lot of world history! Thank you for sharing Dave!
If you’d like to dive deeper into the station’s history, check out this book published around the time of Woofferton’s 50th Anniversary. Also, click here to check out Dave’s video tour of the Woofferton Transmitting Station.
Spoiler Alert: As we approach the SWLing Post’s 10th Anniversary next month, Dave is generously donating a little piece of Wooferton’s history that one lucky reader will win! Interested? Stay tuned!
(Source: Radio Romania International via David Iurescia)
Dear friends, on Sunday, November 4th 2018 we invite you to Listener’s Day on Radio Romania International, to tell us about the role of radio in your life
On November 1st, 2018, we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the first official radio broadcast in Romania. We are celebrating 90 years of documenting history, when radio professionals have kept the public informed, reflecting every stage of events as they occurred, from the interwar period, World War II, the post-war period, as well as the decades of communism and Cold War.
It documented the December 1989 spectacular collapse of the communist regime, then the transition to democracy in Romania. Since then, listening to the radio in itself has changed dramatically, going from the vacuum tube wireless receiver of your grandparents to radio received on a smart-phone or a smart speaker.
Radio Romania International is the voice that has been telling the story of Romania and explained events as they occurred. This year, on Listener’s Day, we would like you to share with us and all our listeners what the role of radio is in your life, and what RRI means to you.
We will be including in our programs a selection of your answers. You can send them by e-mail at [email protected], on Facebook, or using the dedicated form on our website, www.rri.ro.
(Source: New Zealand History via Andrea Borgnino)
First trans-global radio transmission to London
From the family sheep station in Shag Valley, East Otago, amateur radio operator Frank Bell sent a groundbreaking Morse code transmission received and replied to by London-based amateur operator Cecil Goyder.
Frank and his older sister Brenda were radio pioneers. Invalided home from the Western Front in 1917, Frank revived a boyhood interest in wireless communication while recuperating. He helped pioneer the use of short radio waves to communicate over long distances, initially through Morse-code telegraphy. He achieved a number of firsts, including New Zealand’s first overseas two-way radio contact with Australia and North America. But it was his radio conversation with London that made world headlines.
When Frank turned his attention to running the family farm, his sister Brenda took over the wireless station, becoming New Zealand’s first female amateur radio operator. In 1927 she was the first New Zealander to contact South Africa by radio. After the Second World War, Brenda Bell moved into professional radio as a writer and broadcaster for Dunedin station 4YA.
Click here to view this article and a photo of Frank Bell at New Zealand History.
(Source: Tom Taylor Now)
The FCC’s busting more pirates in smaller markets.
True, the Dallas office issues two Notices of Unlicensed Operation for an 87.9 in Houston, run out of New Beginnings Fellowship Church. But agents from Dallas also found a pirate FM at 93.5 up in the smallish Texas Panhandle town of Amarillo. (That one was also operated out of a church, the Iglesia Bautista Renovacion Ministerio Internacional.) The spectrum cops from Dallas also detected a 95.9 in Port Arthur, Texas. And out in California, agents from the L.A. office ventured up to Oxnard to respond to a complaint about a 99.1 operating from a business. (It was a business run by Maria Gonzalez, who gets the NOUO.) So while the traditional pirate radio hotbeds in South Florida, the New York City area and Boston get attention, there seem to be more complaints and more investigations in smaller markets. If the “PIRATE Act” that passed the House ever makes it through the Senate and is signed into law, the FCC would be required to make twice-yearly sweeps of the five most active areas for pirates. But it seems illegal FMs may simply be popping up in less-likely places. The equipment’s cheap and you might not get caught. Though one pirate in Miami got nabbed doing something novel – operating a pirate station out of a parked RV. (Sure keeps the costs down.)
From the Isle of Music, October 21-27:
Our special guest this week is Samuel Formell, leader of the legendary Los Van Van, whose new album Legado won a Special Prize in Cubadisco 2018..
The transmissions take place:
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:
Jetzt geht’s los! (Here We Go!), 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, October 21 and 23
Instant replay: Episode 84 will feature some different types of recent music from the United States
The transmissions 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.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Hughes, who notes that Tecsun Radios Australia have announced a new DRM stand-alone receiver: the Q-3061.
When I first received Alan’s tip, I was surprised that I had not been been given some advance notice or even a hint about Tecsun developing and producing a DRM radio. Then I saw the Q-3061 product image and it looked to be a spitting image of the Gospell GR-216 DRM radio. A quick look at the radio’s back panel and the connection with the GR-216 was confirmed.
Reading through the product description, it appears they worked with Gospell to badge this for Tecsun Radios Australia’s primary markets:
“The Tecsun Radios Australia Q-3061 DRM Shortwave Radio is for experienced shortwave users. There a limited number of DRM signals available in our region although the total number of DRM broadcasts are increasing. This radio is squarely aimed at radio enthusiasts and DXers, most signals require an external antenna, experience, and patience. We recommend our Tecsun Radios Australia Q-3061 DRM Shortwave Radio be used in conjunction with our Tecsun Shortwave and AM Outdoor Antenna for the best results (this is the setup we have in our Brookvale NSW office).
The Tecsun Radios Australia Q-3061 DRM Shortwave Radio is the culmination of several years work. Tecsun Radios Australia has worked in close co-operation with the manufacturer providing testing results from locations across the Pacific, including Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji, and New Zealand. Reception of DRM signals in Australia requires many factors to be optimised, because we are outside the traditional coverage area of most broadcasters. Nevertheless, with an optimised antenna, correct selection of DRM broadcaster, schedule and good propagation conditions DRM signals can be received. New DRM broadcasters are appearing every month.”
After the product description they also include this disclaimer:
Note: This DRM radio has no association with Tecsun of China and is an exclusive initiative and product of Tecsun Radios Australia
The price is $500 AU or approximately $357 US.
To recap, this isn’t a new Tecsun DRM radio, rather it’s a rebadged GR-216 for the retailer/distributor Tecsun Radios Australia.
Click here to read about the Q-3061 at Tecsun Radios Australia.
Click here to read a review of the Gospell GR-216 DRM receiver.
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