Please share your recording of the 2022 BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica here!

45 Replies

Halley VI: The British Antarctic Survey’s new base (Source: British Antarctic Survey)

In the comments section of this post, I’d like you to share your recording of the BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica!

In years past, I’ve created a post with all of the Midwinter recordings curated in one article. This usually takes me 12+ hours to prepare over a couple of weeks as many of the audio clips and video recordings must be formatted for the site and embedded. There is also a lot of discussions back/forth confirming details with listeners. This year once again, my travel schedule is such that if I try to piece one of these articles together I might not have it published for many, many weeks.

Last year this format worked brilliantly, so we’re doing it again…

Time and frequencies

The 2022 Midwinter Broadcast will take place from 21:30-22:00 UTC on June 21, 2022 and will be broadcast on the following four frequencies:

  • 7305 kHz from Ascension
  • 9505 kHz from Woofferton
  • 12065 kHz from Woofferton

Please comment with your recording on this post!

Listening to the 2017 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast from the back of my vehicle in Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré, Québec, Canada.

I’ve created this dedicated post where you can comment and include links to audio and video of your 2022 Midwinter Broadcast recordings. This will allow you to post your logs and recordings at your convenience without my availability becoming the bottleneck.

Here’s the format I’d like you to leave in your comment of this post:

Name:

Listening location:

Notes: (Include frequencies and any details about your receiver and antenna.)

Link to audio or video: (YouTube, Vimeo, Internet Archive, SoundCloud, etc.)

Video and Audio Recordings

There is no way to directly upload audio in your comments, however, you can link to the recordings if you upload them to the Internet Archive (which I’d highly recommend) or any of the video streaming services like YouTube and Vimeo–or audio services like SoundCloud.

If you have a photo you’d like to include in your comment, send me an email from the same address you used in your comment. I’ll manually post the image at the top of your comment when time allows.

As with each year, I’ll make sure the BAS team and the BBC receive a link with all of your recordings!

Click here to comment with your recording of the 2022 BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica!

Spread the radio love

45 thoughts on “Please share your recording of the 2022 BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica here!”

  1. Richard Langley

    I have uploaded my recording of the complete broadcast to the SRAA:
    https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/bbc-world-service-annual-antarctic-midwinter-broadcast-june-21-2022

    Here is the accompanying text:
    A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2022 beginning at 21:30 UTC. The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the 32 members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula) and King Edward Point and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were special messages from BAS personnel and others including ones from Sir David Attenborough and Maj. Tim Peake. The transmitter came on the air with a test tone (1108 Hz plus harmonics) about a minute before the program started.

    The recording is of the transmission on a frequency of 12065 kHz from the BBC’s Woofferton, England, transmitting station (300 kW rated transmitter power, antenna beam 182 degrees). The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception was quite good with little noise and fading and good signal strength, which was better than that on the parallel frequencies of 9505 kHz from Woofferton and 7305 kHz from Ascension Island.

    Reply ↓
  3. John Fitzgerald

    30miles NW of London 2130 on 7305 best 55444, 9505 35242, 12065 35544.

    Icom 7610 atu 40m loop.

    John Fitzgerald G8XTJ Buckinghamshire England

    Reply ↓
  5. klaus

    Name: klaus

    Listening location: germany, south-west

    Notes:
    7305 kHz – 43343, RSPDuo, MLA 30
    9595 kHz – 55343 and 12065 kHz – 5444, Airspy Dicovery MLA305FT

    Link to audio: 7305 kHz: https://t1p.de/1q3x8 (in the middle two minutes mute)

    73

    Reply ↓
  6. HUGO LOPEZ C.

    Greetings from Santiago de Chile, South America. My name is Hugo Lopez, call sign, CE3BBC. I share my listening to the test transmissions of June 14 and 17 as well as the one on Tuesday 21. My radio is an ICOM IC-7300 like a SONY ICF-2010. The antenna used is a Dipole “V” of 10 Mts. x 2. I remain QRV to all the friends of the short waves, 73!!!!

    14 06 2022 12.065 Khz. 21:42 UTC
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1536827401652514816
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGJU0Viv1ME

    17 06 2022 12.065 Khz. 21:35 UTC
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1537913171620466690
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUISR99h6GI

    21 06 2022 12.065 Khz. 21:31 Khz.
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1539360663952162818
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2WmkOb8rM

    21 06 2022 9.505 Khz. 21:33 UTC
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1539361381220175872
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-aj2kPr5uw

    21 06 2022 7.305 Khz. 21:36 UTC
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1539361911904489472

    Reply ↓
  10. Neil

    I did a quick video recording on 7305 with my malahit SDR and a cheap Chinese active loop that was outside, from Winchester in the UK. The signal could behead on all 3 frequencies , but 7305 was best, but I had to attenuate to separate it out from the stronger stations .
    just 30 seconds or so over here
    https://archive.org/details/20220621-223300

    Reply ↓
  11. giuseppe morlè

    Giuseppe Morlè iz0gzw
    Formia, center Italy, Tyrrenian sea.
    Loop noise cancelling and Tecsun H501.
    Loop/ Stilus box Tecsun S8800.
    Tecsun pl 660.

    Dear Thomas and Friends,
    also this year I did not miss the BBC Antartic Midwinter appointment …
    this is my contribution for SWLing Post …
    I listened on the balcony of my house in Formia, central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea, with my noise canceling loop on the Tecsun H501 which was tuned to 7.305 Ascension Isl.
    My Tecsun S8800 system with its 9.505 Woofferton tuned loop / styles.
    The tecsun pl660 tuned to 12,065 Woofferton powered by the same loop / styles system with one cable …
    I had no reception problems all the frequencies were with full signal and excellent intelligibility …
    also Ascension which was the furthest away did not give any problem … I am sending you 3 videos regarding the setup before the broadcast and the 1st and 2nd part of this legendary annual broadcast …
    thank you my friend and a fraternal greeting.
    Giuseppe Morlè iz0gzw.

    https://youtu.be/6Zgq2ZD-U5s

    https://youtu.be/iCbvUnCXQNM

    https://youtu.be/BTarEWRyMZI

    Reply ↓
  13. Mikhail Shklyarenko

    Hi! This was my first experience in such DXing. I am a newbie in SWLing, though I have communicated on VHF and HF for 33 years – I’m an airline captain, retired. So, I think it’s my new hobby. I’m glad I’ve got quite good reception. QTH – Moscow, Russia, freq. 9505 kHz, SINPO 54344. Good reception on three out of four receivers – SONY ICF 2001D, SONY ICF 4900 and XHDATA D808.
    Made some video (sorry for quality):
    https://youtu.be/6s_UT0ICUY0

    All the best!
    Mike.

    Reply ↓
  16. Andy

    Ascension Island transmission audible here in central Scotland, UK. Strength and intelligibility improved over the course of the transmission which started not long after local sunset. Received on a Sony ICF-903L four-band and a Grundig Yacht Boy 400, each with ~4m random-wire antenna. Not much to choose between them in terms of received signal strength and clarity.

    Reply ↓
  17. Rob

    Name: Roberto
    QTH: Perugia, Italy JN63EC
    RX: JRC NRD535, Airspy HF Discovery+
    ANT: Original PA0RDT Miniwhip
    SW: SDR# v.1827 with its audio recorder plugin.
    I decided to listen live with a traditional receiver while recording with a SDR. It was a pleasant and emotional experience to hear a major broadcaster committed to one of its main aims: linking isolated communities.
    7305 ASC: 34533 (o-channel QRM from what it seemed to be RCI)
    9505 WOF: 55545 (peaking S9+60)
    12065 WOF: 55544 (peaking S9+30)

    Here is the 12065 recording:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/cchmf6p5setr3qe/20220621_212913UTC_12065kHz_BBC%20Antarctic%20Midwinter%20Broadcast.mp3

    73 and good DX
    Rob

    Reply ↓
  19. 13dka

    Location: German North Sea coast, behind the dike
    Ant: 65’/20m passive loop on ground E-W orientation
    RX: IC-705

    Here’s the link to the first 2:30 of the program:

    https://youtu.be/0XU6fVW-g64

    Note the occasional light long path echo on 12065 kHz from Woofferton (which could also be observed on Shannon VOLMET 13264 kHz later, to a much more severe extent)

    Reply ↓
  20. TomL

    I did not want to brave the near 100 degree weather out in a park, so I attempted to record this from my noisy city condominium. Weak signal strength and lots of noise. I applied copious amounts of noise reduction and equalization to get a somewhat usable mp3 file. My recording from last year was lightyears better than this (but it was fun to try). Here is the archive.org link:
    https://archive.org/details/2022-bbc-midwinter-broadcast

    Location: Northern Illinois, USA.
    Radio: AirSpy HF+ connected to Windows 10 laptop.
    Antennae: a very bent 40 meter dipole + a 20 meter wire loop mounted around condo porch about 12 feet off the ground and then phased into an NCC-2 phaser.
    Freq: 12065 kHz
    SINPO: 35233
    Audio processing: Voicemeeter “Banana” EQ software + Audacity audio editing software

    Reply ↓
    1. TomL

      Just FYI, I just discovered Voicemeeter “Banana” mixing-board software. It is quite a good program to route everything through your Windows PC and customize your sound using faders, multiple parametric EQ’s, inputs and outputs, built-in recorder, send audio to your android or ipad, etc. I will pay the “donationware” license fee since it is so cheap (10 Euro/PC). The only thing it lacks is a de-noiser circuit, but those things are expensive specialty items.

      https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/banana.htm

      Reply ↓
  21. David Elden

    David Elden, Ottawa, Canada
    Notes (freq, location, distance from Ottawa, SINPO):
    12065kHz, WOF, ~5150km, 55434
    7305kHz, ASC, ~13650km, 34343
    9505kHz, WOF, ~5150km, 55444
    Belka DX receiver, 75 circumference loop on ground antenna oriented east-west. Recorded to Zoom H1 recorder.
    Recordings:

    12065kHz, WOF
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/wg2khde0kkh9qni/12065_WOF.flac?dl=0

    7305kHz, ASC
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vczps5xusoqykp/7305_ASC.flac?dl=0

    9505kHz, WOF
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ise57b58v3t2g0m/9505_WOF.flac?dl=0

    (recordings are at Dropbox, close the login box that appears at the link then recording can be played in your browser.)

    Reply ↓
    1. David Elden

      Distance to Ottawa from ASC is actually ~8500km, not quite as far as stated above (my mistake using Google maps measure distance tool). Still counts as DX to me!
      Dave.

      Reply ↓
  23. FRANCISCO MIRANDA FUENTES

    Greetings from Santiago de Chile
    The best frequency for reception was 12065 khz. I will prepare a recording..

    Francisco
    Miranda

    Reply ↓
  24. Franco

    I am in Central England (20 km from the City of Nottingham) and set up three receivers to see which frequency gave the best transmission.
    All receivers were using the telescopic antenna only.
    I found the Ascension signal on 7305 kHz was the strongest and most consistent.

    An enjoyable show as ever!

    73’s Franco.

    Reply ↓
  25. Erik Hinnov

    Located in Exeter, near the Seacoast of New Hampshire, I was able to copy all three frequencies. I was surprised that I could hear 7305 (Ascension) fairly well; 9505 was better, and 12065 boomed in! I listened to the broadcasts on my Radiwow R-108; no need for external/additional antenna. Reminded me of the visit I had several years ago to Cambridge UK, and The Polar Museum! Must be hard for Antarctic scientists with families and young children to be away, and away for so long…the children’s messages were poignant!

    Reply ↓
  27. Victor Goonetilleke

    It as a delight to listen to this years broadcast some minutes ago. In Sri Lanka near Colombo reception was fair to poor on 7305 and 9 and 12 were barely audible. So I resrted to the many Kivi SDRs and the best for me was from New Zealand hosted by ZL1ROI
    https://app.box.com/s/tp2yedfimkd71q3j6rheuxp62nb08arr

    IOt was so warm and good to hear the broadcasts and the greetings.
    Victor Goonetilleke 4S7VK

    Reply ↓
    1. John Zachary Alvarez

      Name: John Zachary Alvarez (JZ Alvarez)
      Listening location: Dasmariñas, Cavite (Philippines)
      Notes: on 7305 kHz was good reception but moderately adjacent interference from China stations, and on 12065 kHz was Fair signal reception earlier.
      Frequency: 7305 kHz & 12065 kHz
      Receiver: Retekess V115
      Antenna: XHDATA AN-80
      Link to audio or video:
      https://youtu.be/URT-RIzcvIk

      Reply ↓
  32. Dean Bonanno

    Excellent reception on 12065 here in Connecticut, USA. Using Tecsun PL 880 with 40 feet of long wire. Some reception on 9505 but 12065 was perhaps the best ever I received Mid-Winter. Very impressed that Sir David Attenborough gave greeting, disappointed that “Here Comes The Sun” didn’t make it (as it usually does) as a music snippet. First time I can recall catching the opening “This is the BBC calling Antarctica”

    My log on HFUnderground, first post:
    https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,98706.msg312046.html#msg312046

    Reply ↓
  35. DanH

    I’m in Northern California. I was able to see a signal peak and hear a few mostly indiscernible words on the Airspy HF+ Discovery w/83m horizontal loop during the first five minutes of the broadcast at 12065 kHz. Reception quality diminished with time. The KiwiSDR at KPH (also in N. California) with its TCI-530 provided good copy on 12065 for most of the 30 minutes.

    Foiled by a comparatively tiny antenna and suburban RFI again!

    Reply ↓
  36. Jock Elliott

    Name: Jock Elliott

    Listening Location: Troy, NY, USA

    Equipment: Grundig Satellit 800, 45-ft indoor end-fed antenna

    Comments: Was able to copy the start of the broadcast on 12065 and 9505, unable to copy on 7305. Initially, better copy was on 12065. Listened in USB; seemed to offer best copy. Heard lots of greetings and expressions of love; sometimes hard to copy because of static and fades; at 2147 UTC heard “if you listen very carefully you might be able to hear the waves.” At 2155, switched to 9505, speech was more intelligible.

    Great fun to hear this!

    No recording.

    Reply ↓
  37. Graeme Stoker

    Listened to the full broadcast form northern England, very strong reception on all frequencies on my Icom IC7300 with 40m end-fed wire, 7305 slightly stronger than the other two but all very good. Listening further on an inexpensive Tecsun R-909 with built in telescopic antenna, my wife and I were able to listen fairly comfortably to the 7305 frequency from our garden, enjoying our northern hemisphere midsummer evening. Unfortunately the broadcast on 7305 was lost at around 2158 UTC with the ident for Radio Romania preceding their 2200 broadcast being significantly stronger than the BBC programme.

    I made several recordings which I’ll add soon. 73 de Graeme, M0EUK, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

    Reply ↓
  38. Phil Ireland

    Heard at Southwest Rocks North Coast if NSW Australia while on DXpedition at 21:55 UTC. Parallel on 12065. Poor signal 2/4 to 3/5 at best with considerable flutter. Not heard on 7305.
    Using a Kenwood R-5000 connected to an EWE N/S orientation. Pleased to ar leasr hear it albeit briefly.

    Reply ↓
  40. Robert Richmond

    No recording, but I did monitor a few minutes of all three broadcast frequencies. 12065a was the best copy with SINPO 45344. Some band noise, but otherwise decent. Airspy HF+D and 31′ vertical over a radial field. Located in Florida.

    Reply ↓
  41. John Churchill

    I am listening to the midwinter Broadcast on 7305 khz and on 12065 khz, which are both 5and 9 to me in central England. The 9505khz from woofferton,was just noisy. I live about 40 miles East of the radio station.
    Its all ways great to hear the programme.

    Reply ↓
  42. William Davies

    Currently 21.40 GMT here in Galway in the West of Ireland.
    7305 is providing the best signal which is very listenable.

    9505 is audible but significantly degraded compared to the above.
    12065 is not audible.
    Sony SW7600GR with Whip Antenna and Sony wire Antenna.
    William Davies.Galway Ireland

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.