Author Archives: Thomas

ABC will stand by decision to axe NT shortwave service

(Source: ABC News via Trevor R)

The ABC has defended the axing of its Northern Territory’s long-distance radio service, despite calls from federal representatives to reverse the decision.

This month the broadcaster announced its HF shortwave radio transmitters at Katherine, Tennant Creek and Roe Creek (Alice Springs) would be switched off on January 31, ceasing ABC Radio coverage across the long distance radio transmission platform.

The decision has attracted criticism from cattle station owners, Indigenous ranger groups and fishermen, who argue it was done without community consultation and would deprive people in remote areas of vital emergency warnings.

On Monday Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and Lingiari MP Warren Snowdon met with ABC management in a bid to have the decision reversed.

“The result of that meeting is that they still stand by that decision. We did find the meeting quite disappointing really,” Senator McCarthy told 105.7 ABC Darwin on Monday.

“There really hasn’t been any decency in terms of respect and consideration for the usage of shortwave, which has been a vital service and is a vital service across the Northern Territory.

Cutting NT shortwave service saves $1.2m

On Tuesday ABC spokesman Ian Mannix told 105.7 ABC Darwin the decision to axe shortwave services “will only affect a very, very small amount of people”.

However, he conceded a formal survey had not been done about how many people would be impacted.[…]

It costs $1.2 million to run the shortwave service, which Mr Mannix said would now be reinvested in the ABC’s expansion of its digital radio services in Darwin and Hobart.

ABC unlikely to reinvest in expanded AM service

Listeners to 105.7 ABC Darwin said Mr Mannix underestimated the remote realities of the Territory, a place six times the size of Britain with a population of 240,000.

“There’s about 150 boats in the cyclone season across the Top End of Australia. Every one of those is listening to shortwave,” a North East Arnhem-based fisherman said.

“The local radio is much more comprehensive than what BOM does.”

Mark Crocombe from the Thamarrurr Rangers in Wadeye has previously said his group’s VAST service did not work during cloudy weather, especially during monsoons and cyclones.

He said he had previously found out about cyclone warnings through the ABC shortwave radio, without which he would have had no notice.

On Tuesday Mr Crocombe added that apart from his ongoing emergency weather concerns, the decision would also further isolate people working remotely out bush.

“We’ve used shortwave to listen to the Olympic Games, the AFL grand final, rugby union World Cup. We’ve listened to it all on shortwave.”[…]

Click here to read full article at ABC News.

This is a reasonably in-depth article and I would encourage you to read it in its entirety at the ABC News website.

NPR: “almost certainly, the tiniest radio receiver in the world”

(Source: NPR)

Physicists at Harvard have built a radio receiver out of building blocks the size of two atoms. It is, almost certainly, the tiniest radio receiver in the world.

And since it’s a radio, it can play whatever you want to send its way, including Christmas music, as this video by the Harvard team that designed it makes clear:

Click here to view on YouTube.

NPR then quotes from The Harvard Gazette where Leah Burrows, of Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, explains how the tiny radio works:

Radios have five basic components: a power source, a receiver, a transducer to convert the high-frequency electromagnetic signal in the air to a low-frequency current, a tuner, and a speaker or headphones to convert the current to sound.

In the Harvard device, electrons in diamond NV centers are powered, or pumped, by green light emitted from a laser. These electrons are sensitive to electromagnetic fields, including the waves used in FM radio. When NV center receives radio waves. it converts them and emits the audio signal as red light. A common photodiode converts that light into a current, which is then converted to sound through a simple speaker or headphone.

An electromagnet creates a strong magnetic field around the diamond, which can be used to change the radio station, tuning the receiving frequency of the NV centers.

Shao and Lon?ar used billions of NV centers to boost the signal, but the radio works with a single NV center, emitting one photon at a time, rather than a stream of light.

The radio is extremely resilient, thanks to the inherent strength of diamond. The team successfully played music at 350 degrees Celsius — about 660 Fahrenheit.[…]

Click here to read the full article on NPR’s website.

Winners of our holiday radio memories contest!

Please join me in congratulating Renaud Hardy and Bill Murray (AF7WM) who were picked at random out of the 45 entries in our Holiday Radio Memories contest!

I have notified both winners by email and Universal Radio will soon dispatch their prize: the Eton Grundig Edition Mini portable shortwave radio!

Thank you, Universal Radio, for sponsoring our December contest!

I’m going to format a large selection of responses and post them by December 24th here on the SWLing Post. And trust me–you’re in for a treat! Many of us can relate to these memories!  Stay tuned!

PINA calls for ABC to review closure of shortwave service

(Source: Pasifik via SWLing Post contributor Trevor R)

[The] Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) is concerned with the decision of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to shut down its Shortwave Radio Services to the Pacific by the end of January next year.

PINA joins the growing voices opposed to the ABC’s plan to close this ‘valuable and vital source of information’ to people and communities in the Pacific that have relied on Radio Australia for almost eight decades.

More so now with most Pacific Island Countries in the middle of their cyclone season, said PINA President Moses Stevens, who laments the impact of the service will have on the peoples in the Pacific who rely on the service after it is closed in January.

“PINA is concerned because it would mean the end of an era in regional broadcasting and a service that Pacific people have been reliant on for news, information and entertainment for over many years to date,” he said.

“Given the geographical landscape of the Pacific region, radio is still the most effective and efficient means of communication and source for information.

“The fact that most islands in the region are under resourced with regards to sustaining their broadcast stations, most of our people rely on Radio Australia and Radio New Zealand to acquire news and information, including cyclone warnings.”

Mr Stevens said for almost 80 years, Radio Australia’s Shortwave Service has been the lifeline for many rural communities in the Pacific who rely on it for vital emergency service information.

Continue reading the full article on the Pasifik news site….

Labor MPs want to protect ABC Northern Territory shortwave service

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ian P, who comments with this link to an article in News.com.au:

Shortwave radio cuts risk NT lives: Labor

Two federal Labor MPs have demanded the national broadcaster reverse a decision to switch off its radio shortwave service in the Northern Territory, which they say could be life threatening.

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon have expressed “deep disappointment” about the ABC’s plan to cut the transmitters from the end of January.

They insist it is a crucial platform which allows listeners in indigenous communities, pastoral stations and other remote areas to access radio during emergencies.

“In times of natural disaster – such as flood, cyclones or fire – it can quite literally mean the difference between life and death,” they said in a joint statement on Monday.

“ABC management must stop treating Territorians in remote areas like second-class citizens.”

The ABC will still broadcast via FM and AM frequencies, the viewer access satellite television (VAST) service and online.

“To claim VAST satellite and mobile phone technology will fill the gap created is simply not true because these services are not mobile. As we were told today, they are only now trialling mobile antennas,” Ms McCarthy and Mr Snowdon said.

Continue reading at News.com.au…

Guest Post: Roland Raven-Hart’s reception of a U.S. broadcaster in South America made headlines in 1923

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Horacio Nigro (CX3BZ) who shares the following guest post which was originally published in his blog “La Galena del Sur” (in Spanish). Horacio recently translated his article into English for us:


1923: The first reception of a U.S. broadcaster in South America.

by Horacio A. Nigro, CX3BZ,
Montevideo, Uruguay, “La Galena del Sur”

On the night of October 30-31, 1923, Engineer Roland Raven-Hart, a British Army Major located in the Andes mountains on the Argentina-Chile frontier, heard  a U.S. broadcast station (and thus an overseas station) for the first time in South America, an event that made the headlines in the specialized press of that time.

It was the first time that the famous KDKA, Pittsburgh, USA, was heard in South America.

Major Roland Raven-Hart was born in Glenalla, Ireland.  He was trained as an engineer, and at the outbreak of World War I he enlisted in the the British Army.  He was assigned to the General Staff, and served on sensitive missions in France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, etc.  At one point he installed an antenna on one of the pyramids of Egypt that allowed him to quickly communicate with the staff.

Ing. Roland Raven-Hart. (1889-1971). Major of the British Army. He was member of the Institute of Radio Engineers and the American Institute of Electric Engineers.

As a consequence of his outstanding performance, several allied governments gave him merit awards, such as Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Croix de Guerre from France, Order of St. Stanislaus of Russia, etc.

When peace was restored, and with the rank of major, he asked to be released to travel for rest and study in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the Pacific Railroad Administration allowed him to study wireless.  This continued after the Trans-Andean railway arrived in the mountain village of Los Andes, where he had installed his famous amateur radio station 9TC.

He had good DX, and on this date, achieved a distance record for broadcast reception between North and South.

In fact, the Argentinian “Revista Telegráfica”, a magazine edited in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reported the following news in its October 1923 edition:

REMARKABLE RECORD

At press time, we get the following report.  The news could not be more sensational.  It has been possible to receive a North American broadcasting station at a distance of approximately 8,300 kilometers!.

It is an event that marks a new era in our modern history of radio.  Using the pseudonym “John English” is a distinguished engineer who deserves our absolute faith.

Indeed, “John English”, pseudonym of Roland Raven-Hart, reported:

Radiotelephony up to 8,300 kilometers. – Reception tests in Los Andes (Chile) and Puente del Inca (Mendoza). – Interesting observations.

In Los Andes (Chile) on the night of October 30-31 I received a complete program from a station announcing as “KDKA – Pittsburg ‘classical music, jazz and comedy, all in English.  I think this must be a record, being a distance of more or less 8,300 kilometers.

The apparatus used is a “Western Electric”, with a high [frequency] amplification, detector and low [frequency]amplification, with a phone of the same brand.

The antenna was 20 meters long and 5 meters high on a zinc roof”.

He does not mention the frequency or wavelength.  The Westinghouse station was operating on the frequency of 920 kHz at that time , but it is also likely that he received it on shortwave via station 8XS, which began simulcasting KDKA mediumwave in July 1923 on the 60 meter band.

KDKA

Raven-Hart was enjoying reception at the time, but from local stations:

During the month of October I have heard the following stations, and will have much pleasure in giving news about the reception quality, etc.  My address for letters:  Supte. [abreviation of Super Intendent], Telégrafos F. C. T. Los Andes (Chile).

Buenos Aires ……. Radio Cultura, Radio Sud América

Montevideo ……… Paradizábal, R. Sudamérica

Tucumán ………….. Radio Club, San Pablo, « R. P. F. »

Rosario ……………. Radio Club

San Juan ………….. “340” , Pekam

Villa Maria ………… Radio Coen .

Bahia Blanca ……… Dr. Cattaneo ( CW . Telegrafía ) .

As promised, I detail the results of my tests at my facilities for October 17- 21 from Puente del Inca ( Mendoza ), with a “Western Electric” receiver, one tube for high frequency reception, detector, and one tube for low frequencies.

The weather was variable, cloudy and snowing on the 21st.  Static was relatively strong on days 17-19, but there was little static on the 20th and 21st.

Radio Cultura and Radio Sudamérica [Buenos Aires] were also heard during the day, the first with the headphones on the table.

Sociedad Radio Argentina, 1100 kilometers away, was received well at night.

From Montevideo, 1300 kilometers, I got Paradizábal and Radio Sudamérica, and also the following:

Radio Club of Villa María (Cordoba ), 650 kilometers;

Radio Club de Tucumán, 850 km;

Station 340, San Juan, 200 kilometers, daytime, and Radio Pekam;

Station 394, Rio Cuarto (Cordoba), (initial number somewhat dubious ), 550 km

Radio Club of Rosario de Santa Fe, 900 km;

Radio Chilena de Santiago de Chile, with headphones on the table and at a distance of 120 meters [sic](1) ;

A. B. C., Viña del Mar (Chile).

My antenna is too long, allowing me to listen to only a few amateurs, but I will try again.

As always, during their conversations various radioamateurs did not give their names.

I think it is interesting to make three observations:  1) there are stations on the frequencies of Radio Sud América, Radio Cultura and Paradizábal, causing heterodynes, so it is impossible to receive one station without the other; 2) several of th smaller stations produce noise from the generator, or the rectified AC, that is louder than the music they broadcast, with horrible results; and 3) several stations produce carrier waves equal to or stronger than that of Radio Cultura, but the modulation is so low that the voice is barely heard.

In my view, there are stations that could double their transmission range if they paid more attention to their modulation than to the current at the antenna.

I do not mention the stations, but I’ll be glad to answer directly to the abovementioned amateur stations if they contact me at:  “Superintendent of Telegraphs. F. C. Transandino. Mendoza.”

 -John English

Broadcasting station HA9, Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina. “one of the best of the countryside”. (1925).

Mr. Raven-Hart, was in fact an active chronicler of the pioneering radio activity that had been developed at that time in the Southern Cone of America.

By the end of May 1926, he returned to Europe, spending some time in Spain and Italy. Then, he travelled to the U.S., where he was received by the organized amateur radio community in this country as a representative of the South American hams, in recognition of the 9TC success.  He returned to Buenos Aires in 1927.

It is worth mentioning his impressions on his European tour.  He summarized the status of radio in Europe in two words:  “Little news”.   However, he commented  on the “new” Loewe brand of vacuum tubes, which he had the opportunity to test, “as detector and dual audio frequency amplification at the same time”, with results that he described as wonderful.  He also found good broadcast programming.  As to the receiving apparatus in use, he considered that it was“inferior to that used in the U.S. and Argentina and much more complicated”.

In 1932 he retired from his engineering profession, and traveled to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to do canoeing.  Actually, he navigated more than 15,000 miles of the rivers in the world, using a folding canoe.

One of the books authored by R. Raven-Hart

During World War II, Roland James Raven-Hart was one of the 766 Argentine volunteers serving the Allied cause.

Roland’s life was undoubtedly an exciting global adventure.  It is said that he was a friend of Colonel T. E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”) working for the Intelligence Department, and he seems to have been at least partly responsible for convincing the famous writer Arthur C. Clarke (author of “2001 A Space Odyssey”), a communications engineer colleague, to settle and live in Ceylon:

En route from Australia the ship docked in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), where Clarke met Major R. Raven-Hart, OBE.  “A remarkable linguist and lover of exotic places, cultures and customs,” said Clarke.  “It was my first introduction to the fabulous Orient.  I’ve been here, more or less, ever since”.

He was the author of several books, especially about his canoeing activities, and he wrote an article in collaboration with composer Lennox Berkeley entitled “Wireless Music”.

In December 1923 KDKA would be rebroadcast in Great Britain, and had even been received in Hawaii, and later, on March 25, 1924, KDKA broadcast entirely in Castilian for the South American nations .

In early 1924 it would be heard for the first time in Uruguay.

Sources:

-Originally published in my blog “La Galena del Sur”, (in Spanish).

-Special acknowledgment goes to Mr. Jerry S. Berg, USA,  for helping with the best translation of the original article.


Amazing story, Horacio! Thank you for taking the time to translate this fine article into English!

December 24: Tune in NDR’s annual Christmas greetings program on shortwave

Hammarlund-HQ-120X-DialLight

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Harald Kuhl, who notes times and frequencies of NRD’s annual Christmas greetings:

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) program “Gruss an Bord” on shortwave on 24 December 2016:

19.00 UTC till 21.00 Uhr UTC

6.125 kHz Atlantic – North
11.650 kHz Atlantic – South
9.800 kHz Atlantic / Indian Ocean (South Africa)
9.740 kHz Indian Ocean – West
9.790 kHz Indian Ocean – East
6.145 kHz Europe

21.00 UTC till 23.00 Uhr UTC

5.930 kHz Atlantic – North
9.830 kHz Atlantic – South
9.590 kHz Atlantic / Indian Ocean (South Africa)
9.765 kHz Indian Ocean – West
9.650 kHz Indian Ocean – East
6.145 kHz Europe

contact: gruss-an-bord@ndr.de

vy73

Harald

Here’s the press release from NDR (in German):

Presse aktuell
Empfang auf Weltmeeren und in fernen Häfen: “Gruß an Bord” auch über Kurzwelle

Sendungen: Sonnabend, 24. Dezember, 20.05 bis 22.00 Uhr, NDR Info und NDR 90,3 / 23.05 bis 24.00 Uhr, NDR Info

Seit Weihnachten 1953 bildet die NDR Radiosendung “Gruß an Bord” eine Brücke zwischen den Seeleuten auf den Meeren und ihren Angehörigen in Deutschland: Seeleute schicken Grüße in die Heimat, ihre Familien haben die Möglichkeit, ihren Lieben auf hoher See ein frohes Fest und ein gutes, neues Jahr zu wünschen. Damit die Besatzungen die Traditionssendung auch in fernen Häfen auf den Weltmeeren empfangen können, hat der NDR eigens für Heiligabend Kurzwellen-Frequenzen angemietet.

In der Zeit von 19.00 bis 21.00 Uhr UTC (20.00 bis 22.00 Uhr MEZ) sendet die Kurzwelle am 24. Dezember über folgende Frequenzen (UTC ist die Abkürzung für die koordinierte Weltzeit, die Universal Time Coordinated):

FREQUENZ ZIELGEBIET
6.125 kHz Atlantik – Nord
11.650 kHz Atlantik – Süd
9.800 kHz Atlantik/ Indischer Ozean (Südafrika)
9.740 kHz Indischer Ozean – West
9.790 kHz Indischer Ozean – Ost
6.145 kHz Europa

In der Zeit von 21.00 bis 23.00 Uhr UTC (22.00 bis 24.00 Uhr MEZ) am 24. Dezember über folgende Frequenzen:

FREQUENZ ZIELGEBIET
5.930 kHz Atlantik – Nord
9.830 kHz Atlantik – Süd
9.590 kHz Atlantik / Indischer Ozean (Südafrika)
9.765 kHz Indischer Ozean – West
9.650 kHz Indischer Ozean – Ost
6.145 kHz Europa

NDR Info und NDR 90,3 senden “Gruß an Bord” von 20.05 Uhr bis 22.00 Uhr MEZ. Anschließend folgt auf NDR Info von 22.00 Uhr bis 23.00 Uhr MEZ die Übertragung einer evangelischen Christmette aus der St. Johanniskirche in Hamburg-Altona. Von 23.05 bis 24.00 Uhr wird “Gruß an Bord” auf NDR Info, NDR Info Spezial, online und über Kurzwelle fortgesetzt.

Die Grüße werden in der Hamburger Seemannsmission “Duckdalben” von den NDR Info Moderatoren Regina König und Ocke Bandixen übermittelt. Andrea-Christina Furrer und Andreas Kuhnt sind die Gastgeber im Kulturspeicher in Leer. Die Moderatoren erwarten u. a. Vertreter der Reedereien, Seemannspastoren und viele Familien. Außerdem werden sie Schiffe der Marine und deutsche Forschungsschiffe, die auf den Weltmeeren unterwegs sind, rufen. Für die musikalische Unterhaltung sorgen in Hamburg der Gitarrist Roland Cabezas, die Lars-Luis Linek-Band sowie die Sängerin Marion Welch, in Leer der Bingumer Shanty-Chor und das irische Trio Dara Mc Namara, Stephen Kavanagh und Dylan Vaughn.

Bis zum 17. Dezember nimmt die Redaktion Grußwünsche per E-Mail entgegen,
gruss-an-bord@ndr.de, oder per Post: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, NDR Info, Redaktion “Gruß an Bord”, Rothenbaumchaussee 132 – 134, 20149 Hamburg. Diese Grüße werden am 24. Dezember von 23.05 Uhr bis Mitternacht auf NDR Info und über die extra angemietete Kurzwellenfrequenzen verlesen.

NDR Info und NDR 90,3 sind über UKW, DAB+, DVB-S Radio und per Livestreaming im Internet, z. B. über die NDR Radio-App, zu empfangen.
18. November 2016 / RP