Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Lee Reynolds, who shares these images and notes after he visited Monticello, Maine recently:
Here’re a few shots to show where the state of play of the new station setup
stands as of [six] days ago.
Thanks for sharing these shots, Lee! Looks like the station is coming along nicely.
From the Isle of Music, August 26-September 1:
Our special guest this week is José Dos Santos, one of Cuba’s foremost living experts on Jazz, the Producer of La Esquina del Jazz, a fine radio program on CMBF, and Editor in Chief of D’Cubajazz, the most important website about Jazz in Cuba.
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, Sunday, August 26 & Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Episode 77 is a musical mystery box. What’s in it? That would be telling….
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.
“Shortwave” tradmark filing by Google
(Source: The Verge via Richard Cuff and Kim Elliott)
An experimental unit within Google has been quietly developing a new app for discovering and playing podcasts. Called Shortwave, the new app was revealed by a trademark filing embedded below, which describes it as “allow[ing] users to search, access, and play digital audio files, and to share links to audio files.”
Nothing in the trademark filing specifies the kind of audio being accessed, but a Google representative said the focus of the app was on spoken word content. There is little public information about the app, although Google has played with smart captioning, translation, and other AI-assisted features in previous podcast products.[…]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor John with TheReportOfTheWeek who writes:
Hello Shortwave Listeners! A few changes to the radio schedule of VORW Radio Int. have been made, please check below and take a look. I’ve both added and deleted several transmissions.
My show is a weekly light entertainment program, featuring misc talk and commentary as well as listener requested music spanning genres and eras!
Wednesday 1100 UTC – 15670 kHz – WINB 15 kW DRM – Europe
Thursday 2000 UTC – 7780 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Eastern North America
Thursday 2200 UTC – 9955 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – South America
Friday 0000 UTC (Thu 8 PM Eastern) – 7730 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North America
Friday 0000 UTC – 9395 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Friday 0100 UTC – 7490 kHz – WBCQ 50 kW – North America
Friday 0100 UTC – 7780 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Eastern North America
Friday 0100 UTC – 5850 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Friday 0400 UTC – 7730 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North America
Friday 2200 UTC – 9955 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – South America
Sunday 2200 UTC – 7570 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North AmericaQuestions, comments, reception reports and music requests may be sent to [email protected]
Reception reports will receive a QSL!
Happy listening,
John (VORW Radio Int.)
WWV’s transmitter building in Fort Collins, Colorado (2014)
Regarding the NIST FY2019 budget which includes a request to shutdown WWV, WWVH, and WWVB, many of you have been asking if there has been an update.
We will keep you posted as this budget moves through the process, but in the meantime I’ll share the feedback and links provided by Gail Porter, Public Relations Director for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Ms. Porter writes:
We are proud of the time and frequency services we provide through our radio stations and understand that these services are important to many people.
As you likely know, the President proposes budgets for executive branch agencies and then the Congress considers that request before determining funding levels for each agency and passing an appropriations law to implement a budget for a given year.
The President’s full NIST FY 2019 budget request to the Congress is available at the link below, including a brief description of why the shutdown of the radio stations is proposed: http://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/FY19CBJ/NIST_and_NTIS_FY2019_President’s_Budget_for_508_comp.pdf. see page NIST-25.
[…]The sentence below, which appears on page NIST 25, is the best description we have available to respond to your question.
“To consolidate and focus work on NIST efforts in quantum science, while maintaining essential core capabilities in measurement science research and measurement dissemination NIST will eliminate efforts that have been replaced by newer technologies, measurement science work that lies outside of NIST’s core mission space, and programs that can no longer be supported due to facility deterioration.”
[…]Here is a link to the NIST Budget Table for the FY2019 Presidential Request.
Also, in case these are of interest, here are links to press releases issued in May and June 2018 by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate Committees’ on Appropriations about the FY2019 budget process:
Hope this information is helpful.
Many readers have been asking if all NIST stations are included in these cuts–the answer is yes.
If this budget passes as written, WWV, WWVH, and WWVB will all be closed.
If you value these NIST time stations, I would encourage you to contact your local representatives, and sign this White House petition.
All India Radio (AIR) Headquarters in Dehli, India. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
(Source: Hindustan Times via Dan Robinson)
The external services division of All India Radio (AIR) is caught in a turf war between the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB), which runs it and the ministry of external affairs (MEA), which is expected to fund it.
While the MIB wants the service to continue and even expand; MEA has been suggesting shutting down the programmes, pointing out that the service offered through short wave transmission has outlived its utility and does not attract listeners abroad, said an MIB official aware of the developments.
According to this MIB official, the service, which was started soon after the outbreak of World War II has emerged as a bone of contention between the two ministries, as the cost of running the shows is high and the MEA has been unwilling to pick the tab.
AIR is a broadcast arm of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and anchors the external services division (ESD).
[…]On the need for the service, the official said feedback from listeners’ abroad acts as “eyes and ears of the government” and allows them a peek into perceptions abroad. “The short wave transmitters are used to send content meant to popularise and propagate Indian point of view on contentious issues,” the official said.[…]
A former Prasar Bharati official who had concurred with MEA’s suggestion to shut down the service told HT: “No one outside India ever hears Akashvani external services — over short wave or medium wave. It’s a waste of public funds. A few years ago as a test case we had asked a few ambassadors to give us feedback on the popularity of the shows; at least two wrote back saying that the frequencies of the programmes in their respective countries could not be found.”
This official went on to add that maintaining short wave transmission installation is a huge drain on the exchequer as they “guzzle power” and the equipment is “expensive to maintain.”[…]
