by Thomas (K4SWL)
First, a huge thank you to everyone who has submitted recordings of this year’s BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica on our recording-sharing post. It’s been a real pleasure browsing reception reports and recordings from around the globe.
If you haven’t yet shared your recording, there’s still time! Please add it to the original post here.
(Please post your recording there rather than in the comments of this post so we can keep all of the recordings together in one place.)
I thought I’d share my own recording of the broadcast because this year’s reception was especially memorable. Unlike previous years when I’ve listened from the United States or Canada, I’m in the UK this year—and the results were brilliant. Both frequencies transmitted from the Woofferton site delivered excellent audio quality.
Recording notes:
This is the BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica recorded on June 21, 2026 at 09:30 UTC in Foulden, Scotland, UK. The radio was an Elecraft KX2 connected to a 31-foot 9:1 random wire antenna in the back garden. The broadcast starts on 9460 kHz, but I then move to 12070 kHz because it had slightly less local noise.
Thank you again to everyone who has contributed recordings and reception reports.
The BBC Midwinter Broadcast remains one of my favorite SWLing events of the year. I simply love the idea that the BBC would broadcast from two different sites on three different frequencies via shortwave to a relatively small audience of British Antarctic Survey scientists wintering over in Antarctica.
It’s always a joy to listen live, knowing that they’re celebrating midwinter with parties at their stations and hearing the voices, messages, laughter, and well-wishes of loved ones carried to them over the air by shortwave radio.
In an age of instant communications, there’s still something magical about that.
Forgot to attach my recordings to my last post comment.
The link appeared to be attached to my name. Rookie error…
https://archive.org/details/img-8232_202606
Per Wikipedia:
“Cerys Elizabeth Matthews OBE is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. ” so yes, the accent is Welsh.
Thank you! I appreciate the confirmation. I did try to look her up but couldn’t quite copy her first name. Well, I guess my “ear” is better than I thought. 🙂 🙂 🙂
(I think listening to “Tracey Pritchard” (Monica Dolan) on W1A kind of got my ear tuned to a Welsh accent. “Not that I’m trying to be funny or anything.”)
This is the BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica recorded on June 21, 2026 at 09:30 UTC, listening from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
I listened to the broadcast on all designated frequencies but settled on 9460 kHz to do my recordings to compare some of the receivers I have.
Receivers: Monitored 9460 kHz and 12070 kHz from Woofferton using a Drake SPR-4, a Racal RA6790-GM, a Collins 51S-1 and a Collins 651S-1.
Antenna: T2FD Full coverage HF radio antenna in an inverted V with the apex at 15 meters.
Thank you, great to hear from a local reception.
OK, Thomas, as a “world traveler” can you identify the accent of the announcer at the beginning? Welsh, perhaps? I find UK accents confusing and the differences are often too subtle for my untrained US ear to detect. 🙂