Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, @UlisK3LU, who notes that New Jersey pirate radio station operator, Winston Tulloch (KC2ALN), has been fined $25,000 for operating an unlicensed station on 90.9 MHz FM. According to the FCC, the hefty penalty comes after after multiple requests to halt broadcasting starting in February 2015. The station was finally taken off the air in September 2017.
Click here to read the full FCC Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (PDF).
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Thomas Cholakov (N1SPY), who shares his latest video explaining the operation of a simple homebrew AM loop antenna:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Brilliant video, Thomas! I love the fact you included a demonstration with your SDRplay RSP1A as well. Via the spectrum display, it’s easy to see the the loop’s bandwidth and also the gain it provides when tuned to a station.
I love your AM loop antenna as well–such a simple design and ideal for demonstrating the mechanics of a passive loop antenna since all of the components are visible. I’m willing to bet you built this antenna for less than $10. Smart design as it’s both portable and effective! Keep up the excellent work, Thomas! We look forward to all of your future videos.
From the Isle of Music, April 29-May 5:
International Jazz Day is April 30, and this year the official concert site is St. Petersburg, Russia, but in 2017, Havana was the official concert site, and this week we listen to some of that 2017 concert.
Four opportunities to listen on shortwave:
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.
Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Sun, April 29 and Tues, May 1:
What better way to celebrate the addition of Channel 292 to the UBMP family than with Colombian big band dance music?
Thanks to a recent trip to Colombia, we will be featuring some of the best of it in Episode 60.
1. Sundays 2200-2230 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on
WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz shortwave 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 the Middle East, AND a long bounce to parts of New Zealand.
(Source: Keith Perron at PCJ Media)
After more than 500 shows. The final edition of Media Network Plus will air April 28, 2018.
While Media Network Plus is coming to an end this weekend. MNP will be retooled and will be returning as a 6 part television series.
I will be remaining as executive producer, but each program will have a different host. The new documentary format will be 25 minutes in length and will focus on one issue per program.
The first six programs are currently in production and will include the following topics.
Program 1 – With Chinese president Xi Jingping changing the constitution so he can remain in power for as long as he wants. What is this going to mean for the Chinese media of the future.
Program 2 – With the crisis with the Rohingya people on going. We will be examining the media’s role.
Program 3 – Robert Mugabe may no longer be the President of Zimbabwe. What will this mean for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. and independent media in the country.
Program 4 – A special program from Pyongyang, North Korea. With a visit to Voice of Korea. The first ever foreign TV crew allowed to visit the station.
Program 5 – Will look at how countries in East and Southeast Asia are trying to combat misleading news and information.
Program 6 – Pan-Pacific Special. This program will look at the changing media landscape across the Pacific and how new media has been a driving force in the changes to society across the region.
Air dates TBA
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who writes:
[Found this radio on] Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 05 Episode 03 (on a spaceship in the future):
Great catch, Balázs! Can anyone name this modern ham radio transceiver? Please comment!
I’ll add this post to our growing archive of radios in film.
(Source: Southgate ARC)
Possible ISS SSTV on Wednesday
The latest ARISS schedule notes that the 145.800 MHz FM Slow Scan Television on the International Space Station may be tested on April 25
The callsign to be used will be RS0ISS and the SSTV test will be with Kursk in Russia and is expected to start at 0835 UT on April 25.
ARISS schedule as at April 23
http://www.amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2018-April/067782.htmlWhen in range these WebSDRs can be used to receive the ISS on 145.800 MHz FM world-wide
– Farnham near London http://farnham-sdr.com/
– Russia R4UAB http://websdr.r4uab.ru/
(Source: Columbia Journalism Review)
ON SEPTEMBER 19, 2017—the day before Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico—the evening news team at WORA-TV in the coastal city of Mayagüez broadcast its final program before shutting down the station ahead of the storm.
“If Maria was going to be the monster everyone was predicting,” says Carolina Rodriguez Plaza, the news team’s production manager, “we knew the power could be cut off for a long time. We decided to shut down the station and send everyone home.”
Plaza told her team of 12 reporters not to worry, their salaries would be paid during the downtime and their jobs would be waiting for them when broadcasting resumed. Plaza retreated to her parents’ home, where she spent the night of the hurricane watching updates about the storm on cable TV. Then, as happened in homes across Puerto Rico, the lights flickered and the power went out. Hurricane Maria’s 150-mile-per-hour winds toppled power lines and torrential rains grounded out the island’s power grid.
Desperate for news about the disaster befalling her island, Plaza turned on a battery-powered radio and found that a local radio station, WKJB 710 AM, was maintaining its broadcast. The station’s managers had learned a lesson about disaster preparedness in 1998, when Hurricane Georges blew down their radio antenna and cut off the power. Since then, staff had equipped the station with a backup power generator and a reinforced antenna that could withstand hurricane-force winds.
“Maria erased the world of journalism in Puerto Rico,” Plaza says. “It reemerged in a new form, with radio playing an important role.”[…]