Monthly Archives: August 2024

Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of NHK World (August 14, 2024)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent NHK broadcast.


Carlos notes:

Part of NHK shortwave radio news bulletin about typhoon n° 7 “Ampil” approaching Japan. Listened yesterday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Click here to view on YouTube.

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More shortwave solutions for the summer

Hi it’s FastRadioBurst 23 here letting you know what Imaginary Stations will be bringing to you via the shortwaves this week, sunspots permitting of course. On Sunday 18th August 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz they have COOL 6 via Shortwave Gold. More summer vibes from the Imaginary Stations crew from the comfort of their sun lounger.

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 21st August 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz we’ll be bringing you a back to school special of KMART, your “official supermarket shortwave radio station”. Expect voucher give-aways, extended opening hours and the best blue light specials on the planet (*All subject to availability of course). Tune in and enjoy an alternative to shopping on the shortwave dial.

We now have a Patreon page for our regular listeners here. Monthly memberships are available for exclusive audio and zines.

For more information on all our shows, please send  to [email protected] and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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CHML: The latest mainstay AM radio station to close

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Richard Cuff and Markku Koskinen who share the following (sad) news:

900 CHML closes, ending nearly a century of local radio in Hamilton (Toronto Star)

Station pointed to financial losses as major reason behind closure

A mainstay of Hamilton’s airwaves for almost a century has gone off the air.

900 CHML announced on social media on Wednesday that the radio station would be closing after many years of providing the city and surrounding area with local talk-radio programming.

“This decision, though incredibly difficult, has been made after careful consideration and is necessary following years of financial loss,” read the post.

“The shift of advertising revenues to unregulated foreign platforms, combined with the difficult regulatory and competitive landscape, has forced us to make the difficult decision to close,” added the post. [Continue read at the Star…]

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XHDATA D-220 Portable

Discount Update XHDATA D-220

Hi Folks,

Just an update on the 40% discount event for the XHDATA D-220. That promotion is over (many thanks to XHDATA for offering us this exclusive discount!), however, Amazon has a 15% discount for the radio, and the Black version is a couple dollars less than the Orange, which brings it back down close to the 40% discount we had.

Personally, even at full price, I think the radio is a steal, but that’s just me.

Looking forward to the contest this weekend (thanks Jock!) – should be a lot of fun!

Cheers! Robert K4PKM

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Texas Radio Shortwave adds additional broadcast

Many thanks to Texas Radio Shortwave for the following update:

We added an additional broadcast of our monthly program over Channel 292 in Rohrbach, Germany. We’re working to cover Western NAm with a broadcast on 9670 kHz at 0300 UTC. Listeners in the South Pacific have also reported a listenable signal.

We want folks worldwide to hear us and welcome reception reports from listeners using remote receivers (SDRs).

73.

trsw

Texas Radio Shortwave
Back to our roots on Channel 292

www.facebook.com/texasradiosw
www.channel292.de

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Radio Waves: VOA Announces Saipan and Tinian Closures, WCBS 880 Signing Off, Hams Stepping up in Bangladesh, and New Arctic Longwave Station

Radio Waves:  Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Paul, Dennis Dura, Richard Cuff, and Bake Timmons for the following tips:


Voice of America station in CNMI announces closure (Saipan Tribune)

The U.S. Agency for Global Media has announced that it will be closing its Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station in the CNMI after decades in operation.

The station broadcasts the Voice of America transmission to Asia.

In a letter form USAGM’s William S. Martin, director of operations and stations division, a big change is taking place at the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station.

“The change is a discontinuation of all shortwave radio transmissions at our Saipan and Tinian sites, the first step in closing the station,” he said.

According to Martin, on June 26, the USAGM—an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and other U.S. funded international civilian broadcasters—announced it was closing REKTS, its two shortwave radio transmission sites, on Saipan and Tinian.

[…]”While shortwave radio was an effective and popular way for people in media-deprived countries to access international news and information during WWII and the Cold War, Martin says shortwave use has fallen dramatically almost everywhere since the invention of the internet and the fall of Soviet Union in the 1990s. [Continue reading…]

WCBS 880 signing off after nearly 60 years, ESPN New York to take its place (lohud)

WCBS 880 AM, one of New York’s leading news radio channels for nearly 60 years, will be replaced with ESPN New York on Aug. 26, as 1010 WINS becomes the main radio station for real-time news coverage in the New York metro area.

Audacy, the parent company for both WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS, announced the agreement with Good Karma Brands, a sports media network, on Aug. 12. The station 880 AM will become the new home of ESPN New York and will use the call letters WHSQ-AM, pending FCC approval.[Continue reading…]

Hams Stepping up in Bangladesh (BBC Newsroom)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bake Timmons, who writes:

Hams are stepping up right now in a very busy place — Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I heard ham radio mentioned this morning on this morning’s broadcast of the BBC program “The Newsroom”. A volunteer traffic coordinator and ham described (18:55 in the podcast linked below) how every traffic hub is now connected w/ amateur radio in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in response to the absence of police, who have withdrawn from their normal duties after the ousting of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

The story begins about 17:21 into the podcast at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zbqdkb748vg

The First New Long Wave Radio Station Of This Millennium (Hackaday)

The decline of AM broadcast radio is a slow but inexorable process over much of the world, but for regions outside America there’s another parallel story happening a few hundred kilohertz further down the spectrum. The long wave band sits around the 200kHz mark and has traditionally carried national-level programming due to its increased range. Like AM it’s in decline due to competition from FM, digital, and online services, and one by one the stations that once crowded this band are going quiet. In the middle of all this it’s a surprise then to find a new long wave station in the works in the 2020s, bucking all contemporary broadcasting trends. Arctic 252 is based in Finland with programming intended to be heard across the Arctic region and aims to start testing in September. [Continue reading…]

Click here to check out Arctic 252’s website.


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Friday is the day for the Nutty Idea XHDATA D-220 DX Contest

XHDATA D-220 available in three colorsby Jock Elliott, KB2GOM

Here are the rules:

  • You must use a D-220 with native (built-in) antenna (no hooking it up to your two-mile-long Beverage antenna)
  • No use of other radios or SDRs as “spotter” radios.
  • You must ID off the air.
  • Any band the D-220 receives.
  • Any location.
  • Contest starts 6 pm your local time on Friday, August 16, 2024 and it ends at 6 pm your local time on Sunday, August 18, 2024.
  • Log the time, the estimated frequency, the station ID and what you heard. In addition, provide the total number of stations you logged on each band, as well as the distance to your longest logging on each band.

There are no prizes, just bragging rights.

Feel free to report in lavish detail on your experience during the contest . . . especially if you had fun!

There are two ways to report your results.

1. If you simply want to report your total number of logged stations on each band the D-220 receives, as well as the distance to your longest logging on each band, do it in the comments section of this post. (This will save some bandwidth for Thomas.)

2. If you want to report your detailed loggings for each band, you can post them in response to this message on the SWLing Post Message Board: https://swling.net/viewtopic.php?t=206

Finally, if you find any of the above confusing or unclear, please let me know immediately. You can post here in the comments or reach out to me here: [email protected]

Remember, the whole point of this is to have fun!

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