Author Archives: Thomas

Cancelled SAQ Christmas Eve Transmission

(Source: SAQ via Jake Brodsky, AB3A)

As a result of the prevailing circumstances in our society, we unfortunately have to inform that the traditional Christmas Eve transmission with SAQ is cancelled.

We find it sad to have to make this decision, but see it as a necessary measure to protect everyone involved. While waiting for the next transmission with SAQ, there are several YouTube clips from previous transmissions that you can watch.

We truly regret this and hope for your understanding of the situation and continued support for the business. We hope that “our old lady” can soon be heard on the air again!

Grimeton World Heritage Foundation & Alexander GVV Friends Association

Radio Northern Europe International’s Christmas Special Schedule

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:

Hei all,

After lots of work and careful song selection we have completed our Christmas special show for 2020 and we hope you get to hear it and love it!

Musical Features:

Some Norwegian cheese to open the show
Some really nice Christmas songs from artists like Eivør, Zophia, Saara Aalto
A wonderful song by My & Mats featuring loads of lovely stereo seperation (in Comb Stereo on Shortwave – Give yourself a bigger treat and set up shortwave stereo!)

Data Features:

PSK500R playlist with shortened comments in the final song of the show
HamDRM (Easypal or WinDRM decoder) 7Zip file with a HTML animation along with the full playlist tirelessly coded by Daz!
Comb Stereo – This is something you’ll really want to be using on this show for sure!!

Being a special the broadcast times are abnormal so here is a table to know when to hear it!

Norddeutscher Rundfunk Christmas Eve Broadcast 2020

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Photo by Jens Rademacher on Unsplash

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Harald Kuhl (DL1AX), who shares the following announcement from the NDR regarding the annual Gruss an Bord Christmas Eve broadcast. Harald notes:

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) published frequencies for this year’s shortwave transmission on 24 December:

————————–
1900 UTC till 2100 UTC:

Frequency target area

6080 kHz Atlantic – North

11650 kHz Atlantic – South

9800 kHz Atlantic / Indian Ocean (South Africa)

9740 kHz Indian Ocean – West

9570 kHz Indian Ocean – East

6030 kHz Europe

————————
2100 UTC till 23 UTC:

Frequency target area

6145 kHz Atlantic – North

9830 kHz Atlantic – South

9590 kHz Atlantic / Indian Ocean (South Africa)

9740 kHz Indian Ocean – West

9675 kHz Indian Ocean – East

6155 kHz Europe

Regards

Harald DL1AX

More broadcast details can be found here.

Thank you so much for the tip, Harald!

How to effectively disable transmit on the Icom IC-7300 via Settings menu

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Justin (N2UJZ), who shares the following Icom IC-7300 tip:

I was looking for a way to completely disable the TX (to share an antenna) on a IC-7300 and found this article. I didn’t get any answers saying “yes” but I just figured it out and yes it can be done.

Press ‘Menu”, then press “Set”, then “Function” to bring up a menu starting with “Beep Level.” The fourth item down is “Band Edge Beep.” You want to set that to “ON (User) & TX Limit”

Then once that is turned on, there will be a “User Band Edge” option in the Function menu. Under that select and delete all of the band edges. The radio will now not TX at all from any button on any band. To re-enable TX, change the “Band Edge Beep’ anything other than TX Limit.

[IMPORTANT] Don’t forget to save to the SD card before deleting the band edges or you might have to re-enter them.

I was just disconnecting the mic until today but this way I’m a little more at ease now with the 7300 sharing an antenna with the HackRF. 73, Justin N2UJZ.

What a brilliant tip, Justin. Thank you for sharing this!

The Music Time in Africa Archive at the University of Michigan

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(Source: Music Time in Africa Archive)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Zack Schindler (N8FNR), who writes:

If anyone wants to listen to archives of VOA’s Music Time in Africa many are now available. I received this email from the archivist at the University of Michigan

“At the present time we have roughly 600 shows online here: http://mtia.sites.uofmhosting.net/

Click on the “Listen” link to get to the streaming platform. The shows we have up now are those for which we also have printed scripts, so you can read the script and listen to the show. The dates of the shows are 1968 to 1998. There are five hosts represented in this group. Sometime in January 2021, we are planning to upload 109 more shows. These are the ones that are missing scripts so all that is there is the full show. Then, in February, we are planning to add about 400 more shows from the period between 2007 and 2017. These are programs where Matthew Lavoie or Heather Maxwell are hosts. The website contains some background information on the project.”

Here is more information about the archive project;
https://news.umich.edu/leo-sarkisians-music-time-in-africa-u-m-archivist-anthropologist-revive-popular-voice-of-america-show/

Wow! What a treasure trove of one of my favorite VOA programs! Thank you for sharing, Zack!

Click here to check out archived episodes of VOA’s Music Time in Africa.

Studio Recording of the KMTS Winter Test Transmission on December 17, 2020

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If you missed the KMTS (or is that KTMS?) test broadcast on the 17th of December 2020, you’re in luck. I’ve just discovered a studio recording of the entire broadcast on Soundcloud, via a Post reader tip.

I’ve embedded a Soundcloud audio player below, but you can also listen via Soundcloud:

I’ll admit that this broadcast had a lot of listeners scratching their heads–a bit of a mystery. Reminded me, to some degree, of the Boards Of Canada pirate radio broadcasts some years ago, and the mystery surrounding a BoC album release. Also reminded me on one of my all-time favorite pirate radio stations: Radio Strange Outpost. But, of course, this wasn’t a pirate station.

I know this: I absolutely LOVE the KMTS test broadcast! What fun! Kudos to the producer (or producers)! I’ll add this to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. If anyone was able to make a full off-air recording of the broadcast, please contact me and I’ll add that along with the studio recording.