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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Gulley, who shares this fascinating video from the Alps DX YouTube channel. In this short demonstartion, you can follow the flight path of an Airbus A320 and the signal from France Musique from Marseille as it is bounces off of the aircraft. Fascinating:
Description from YouTube: France Musique from Marseille / Grande Etoile on 94.2 received via Airscatter. I’m always amazed when I see and hear those signals coming out of nowhere when the plane crosses the path … Nothing a few seconds before, nothing right after. Radio is magic !
I find this amazing. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never attempted FM aircraft scatter. Since I have an ADS-B receiver, and several excellent FM receivers, all I really need is a decent Yagi antenna and some careful planning.
Post Readers: Please comment if you’ve logged stations from aircraft scatter! Any tips?
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following guest post:
In these days of declining activity on the shortwave bands, we don’t often enjoy the experience of hearing what we might still call “rare” stations. The new year brought an exception.
On January 1st, 2019 I was tuning around the 48 meter band, which is largely populated by European pirate stations, utilities, and weather stations, when I heard a station on 6,210.20 khz. It was very distinct in that it sounded like an African station — music, with a male DJ/MC and religious songs.
What immediately came to mind was the religious station calling itself Radio Kahuzi, which is in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The station has been heard by DX’ers in a number of countries since the mid-2000’s and because it’s management is based in the U.S. it is possible to obtain a QSL verification.
On January 1st, RK was heard from about 1730 to 1747 UTC when it shut down, playing what Richard McDonald, one of the station’s founders, says were musical pieces that are specific to RK.
On January 2nd, 2019 the station was heard again via Europe-based SDRs, signing off at approximately 1811 UTC.
Here is McDonald’s response to my report (which included an mp3) from January 1st, in which he notes that he even went so far as to give the main station announcer, Gregoire, my name and asked him to mention me in the station’s broadcast:
“I just shared with Gregoire that you had sent a recording of the last minutes of his closing musical sign-off if Radio Kahuzi and he agreed to greet you by name this evening and several days in several languages including English.
You got him saying his name at 5:54 into your recording yesterday,and the ID sign off Mountain Blue-Grass Music was unique to Best Radio Kahuzi in Bukavu!
Barbara Smith will be happy to send the QSL Card and info about us and our National Director and his family situation in case you have any suggestions
Powering off here! Our power cuts off with SNEL often — I just lost a longer reply to you !
But Keep Looking UP ! And Keep On Keeping ON !
Richard & Kathy McDonald”
By the way, according to Wikipedia, SNEL stands for Société nationale d’électricité “the national electricity company of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its head office building is located in the district of La Gombe in the capital city, Kinshasa. SNEL operates the Inga Dam facility on the Congo River, and also operates thermal power plants.”
A very interesting page containing the history of Radio Kahuzi, with information about the McDonalds, is at: http://www.besi.org/
As of the time of this writing, it’s unclear to me whether the extended broadcast times of Radio Kahuzi will be continued or if this was a one shot deal linked to the new year — we may have some clarification on this in coming days.
Here’s a video of my January 1st, 2019 reception of Radio Kahuzi:
For now, I am quite pleased to join the group of about 63 DX’ers around the world (that number comes from a link on the RK website called “Shortwave Listeners” that lists SWLs who have heard and contacted the station).
Though it is highly unlikely that Radio Kahuzi will be heard anytime soon in the United States (the station’s schedules shows it being active from 8 AM to 8 PM Bukavu time) at least using U.S.-based radios, whether SDR or traditional receivers, it’s nice to know that there is still a station out there (with 800 watts!) that is a real DX target!
Wow! What a fantastic catch, Dan! Thank you for sharing your catch and, especially, shedding light on this rare DX.
Post Readers: Please comment if you’ve logged and/or confirmed Radio Kahuzi.
From the Isle of Music, January 6-12:
Happy 2019! This week, our special guest is Wilmer Ferrán Jimenez, leader of Rumbatá, whose album Gracias a la rumba was awarded a Cubadisco in 2018 in the Tradición Afrocubana category. Also, some live folkloric music by an Arara ensemble.
The broadcasts 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 0100-0200 UTC (New 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 (New CETs) on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, January 6 and 8:
Happy 2019! Episode 95 features folkloric and modern music from Malta, whose music and language (Maltese) are quite distinctive.
1.Sunday 2300-2330 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesday 2000-2030 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe. If current propagation conditions hold, the broadcast should reach Iceland AND Western Russia due to a long skip.
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 2200-2300 UTC on WBCQ 7490 Khz.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Charlie (W4MEC), who shares this fascinating film which documents the production and calibration of crystals in 1943. I had no idea of the amount of labor and attention to detail this process required–an absolutely fascinating process:
UPDATE (08/09/2022): the YouTube account associated with this film has been deleted by the owner.
Last of the scanners: Are police security measures and new technologies killing an American obsession?
In a white house on a quiet, leafy street in Takoma Park, Md., lives a man who listens to nothing but mayhem. He is remarkable not because of his appearance — tall, thin, black hair — but for what he has around him at all times: scanners.
On this day, the scanners of Alan Henney — whose tweets of bedlam are followed by dozens of Washington journalists — were going full blast. Eleven cluttered his coffee table and living room, all tuned to different radio frequencies from across the region. There was the chirp of D.C. Fire and EMS responders. The prattle of dispatch in Prince George’s County. And the broadcast of Montgomery County officials telling of a traffic accident, which, Henney concluded solemnly, “doesn’t sound very good.”
Something else that didn’t sound very good: the garbled noise coming from one scanner, obscuring D.C. police chatter. To Henney it sounded like death — not the death caused by crime or traffic accidents, but the demise of a passion.
Across the United States, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people like Henney who listen to official communications on radio signals, sifting through a morass of chatter for interesting news. Some pester crime reporters with tips. Others, such as Henney, showcase the hard-won news items — like gem hunters would a stone — on their social media feeds. But soon, Henney fears, all of that may end. And what will become of the scanner enthusiasts when there’s nothing left to scan?
Over the past few years, an increasing number of municipalities and police departments, including the District’s, have begun encrypting their radioed communications, a trend driven in part by fear that bad guys and terrorists need to do little more nowadays than download a police-scanning app to get all the intelligence they need on what police are doing and where. Just this year, police in Las Vegas, Richmond and Knoxville, Tenn., have encrypted their radio communication.
But what police are calling a public safety measure, scanner hobbyists are describing as a blow to transparency. Now they’re asking plaintive questions about whether it portends the end of a pastime once incubated in science clubs and Scout groups.[…]
