Monthly Archives: March 2019

Broadcasts of VORW Radio International this Weekend

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Hello readers! Here is an updated schedule for the latest broadcasts of VORW Radio International.

For new listeners – VORW Radio International is an hour long show featuring listener requested music. It’s a very diverse show where you are guaranteed to hear music of many genres and eras and some interesting facts about the songs played! Here’s when you can listen:

Friday:
2100 UTC – 5 PM Eastern – 9955 kHz WRMI – Targeting South America

Saturday:
2200 UTC – 6 PM Eastern – 9395 kHz WRMI – Targeting North America
2200 UTC – 6 PM Eastern – 7780 kHz WRMI – Targeting Europe

Sunday:
0100 UTC – 9 PM Eastern Saturday – 5850 kHz WRMI – Targeting North America
2200 UTC – 6 PM Eastern – 7570 kHz WRMI – Targeting Western North America

QSL Reports are encouraged and will be swiftly verified at [email protected]

Happy listening!

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Building a 20 meter self-tuning magnetic loop antenna

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Magnetic Mag Loop Antenna Eric Sorensen

I’m often asked about what’s involved with building a home brew magnetic loop antenna.

If you’re considering building a passive loop antenna–one designed to both transmit and receive without any sort of receiver amplification–it’s a simple project. With basic DIY skills, a little math, a good variable capacitor, some copper tubing or coax, and a few inexpensive parts, it’s easy to make a passive antenna designed to operate on a given portion of the HF spectrum. It can be an easy two hour build as long as you have all of the parts. There are a number of tutorials for doing this on the web and several books on the topic (one of my favorites is Joe Carr’s Loop Antenna Handbook).

The compromise with a passive loop design is that they tend to have a very narrow bandwidth. In other words, you might have to re-tune the antenna via the variable capacitor even if you only move the frequency 5-10 kHz or so.

Via Hackaday, I recently discovered this innovative self-tuning passive loop antenna design by Eric Sorensen. Eric implements a stepper motor to make tuning adjustments. Not necessarily a beginner’s project, but the principles are straight-forward. He even includes a link to his printed components.

Click here to view Eric’s 20 meter loop antenna project.

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Amanda to combine art with HAARP

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden, who notes this piece in the Southgate ARC newsletter about our friend Amanda Dawn Christie who is doing a HAARP experiment like no other:

Concordia transmission artist Amanda Dawn Christie will use the world’s most capable high-power, high-frequency transmitter HAARP in Alaska to send art around the world and into outer space using Slow Scan TV

Concordia News reports:

In the shadow of Mount Sanford, surrounded by Alaskan wilderness, you’ll find the most powerful radio transmitter on earth.

On this remote site, scientists use a unique tool called the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI) to create radio-induced aurora, also known as airglow. But it’s never been used by a Canadian artist to transmit art — until now.

The IRI’s human-made northern lights inspired interdisciplinary artist Amanda Dawn Christie to create Ghosts in the Air Glow: an upcoming transmission art project that will use the IRI to play with the liminal boundaries of outer space.

“I was so fascinated by these airglow experiments — and the relationship between the ionosphere and radio communications — I felt compelled to create an artwork specific to the site and its history,” says Christie, assistant professor in Concordia’s Department of Studio Arts.

She will be embedding her own encoded SSTV images, audio compositions and propagation tests into IRI experiments from March 25 to 28.

Read the full story at
https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2019/03/21/concordia-transmission-artist-launches-a-high-frequency-project-in-alaska.html

Artist made a radio out of a kitchen sink
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2018/december/artist-made-a-radio-out-of-a-kitchen-sink.htm

Amanda Dawn Christie
http://www.
amandadawnchristie.ca/
https://twitter.com/magnet_mountain

For further info on HAARP HF experiments follow Chris Fallen KL3WX
https://twitter.com/ctfallen

Note that Amanda will share the frequencies and times with us as soon as they are made public. Stay tuned!

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FTIOM & UBMP, March 24-30

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From the Isle of Music, March 24-30, 2019
This week, our special guest is pianist/composer/bandleader Alejandro Falcón, who will share some of the recording Rompiendo la Rutina by
Alejandro Falcón y Charanga Rubalcalba, a 2018 Cubadisco nominee. Part 2 of the program features some excellent music by Orquesta Estrellas Cubanas.
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 0000-0100 UTC (New UTC) on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US).
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, March 24 and 26, 2019:
Episode 105 takes us to Benin, which consistently produces some of the funkiest music in all of Africa.
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.
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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Canada: Individual causing malicious interference triggers parliament petition

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(Source: Radio Amateurs of Canada via Bruce Atchison)

*/For immediate release:/*

https://wp.rac.ca/ised-canada-responds-to-petition-about-interference/

On June 6, 2018, Martin Bérubé of Louiseville, Quebec initiated a petition involving a radio station that was “generating interference on purpose”. The petition attracted 1,135 signatures and was presented to the House of Commons on January 30, 2019.

The Government of Canada tabled the following response on March 18, 2019.

“Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada <http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/home> (ISED) was informed of the individual’s conduct in December 2015 by a group of Amateur Radio operators from Quebec. The individual was operating an Amateur Radio station without proper authorization and was known to insult, threaten and impersonate other Amateur operators.

As the individual disregarded ISED’s written and verbal warnings, the department took action to enforce the /Act/. Due to repeated offences, ISED carried out three searches of the individual’s residences and issued seven notices of violation totalling $2,500 plus fees.

On October 17, 2018, the individual was found guilty of these seven violations of subsection 4(1) of the /Radiocommunication Act/, pursuant to subsection 10(1) of the /Act/, by Justice of the Peace Annie Vanasse at the Trois-Rivières Courthouse.

ISED also called upon a federal prosecutor to obtain an injunction against the individual. This injunction is currently at the interlocutory stage. ISED understands that the individual has not been heard on Amateur Radio since August 8, 2018. ISED is closely following this case.”

The text of the petition and the Government Response can be found at the following link:

https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-1631

*Alan Griffin
RAC MarCom Director*

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