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This has a shortwave angle… One station shuttered is “Funny 1060” CKMX in Calgary. This station has the 100-watt shortwave relay CFVP on 6030 kHz.
A check of a Montana–based KiwiSDR indeed shows CFVP is carrying CKMX’s loop ID announcing the immediate end of programming on CKMX.
Who will step in to buy CKMX and save CFVP?
Great question, Tracy. This station has been on the air since 1922, originally as CFCN. These days, it has a pretty unique format and it would be a shame for it to disappear entirely. There are also so very few low-power shortwave relays left in Canada.
We will follow this story. Readers, we welcome any news tips about the future of CKMX and CFVP.
XENIA — A new attendance record was set at Hamvention this year.
This year 33,861 people flooded to the Greene County Fairground and Expo Center for the world’s biggest amateur radio show, according to a spokesperson for Hamvention.
The number surpassed the previous record by more than 1,300 people. It’s also more than 2,000 greater than last year’s attendance.
This year’s Hamvention ran May 19-21 and brought in people from across the globe.
“Things went very smoothly due to the dedication and hard work of close to 700 volunteers,” Jim Storms, Hamvention General Manager, said.
The international service of the Sri Lankan Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) recently doubled its Tamil Service airtime to two hours, on 873 kHz AM (medium wave) from Puttalam transmitter. The new schedule is 0130-0330 UTC (7.00 am to 9.00 am IST). This is partly in response to individual efforts of listeners, many in the southern part of India, in Bengaluru. Introducing this change, Colombo International Radio also announced that shortly they are going to use DRM on 1548 kHz! This will be done by is using the old transmitter of Deutsche Welle located in the north of Sri Lanka at Trincomalee. The Sri Lankan public broadcaster has started airing the DRM announcement:
The publicity for the new DRM service is in full swing. See video:
On the occasion of Czech Radio’s centenary, we asked our listeners to let us know where they heard our special programme on that day in order to map Radio Prague International’s broadcast reach today. Here are at least some of the many letters and photos which you have sent us. Thank you to all our loyal fans.
George Jolly, who was listening to our special programme over the internet, wrote from Houston, Texas:
“Thank you so much for the special program today celebrating your 100 years of radio. If I were not so far away, I would surely visit you on Saturday. It means a lot to me that you continue the tradition of the ‘radio magazine’. Hearing the opera excerpt and other recordings from the past was wonderful!
“I love old music and old technology like radio, and I love that you are keeping their spirit alive and new again for today’s world. I am so grateful to celebrate your centenary with you from afar.”
Another listener from the United States is Timothy Marecki, who wrote us from New Port Richey in Florida: Continue reading →
I started this series several months ago with pictures of Ecos del Torbes and other stations in San Cristóbal, Venezuela. This time I want to take you to the other places I visited on that trip to Andean Venezuela in January 1995.
When I started DXing in the early 1970s, Venezuelans were the most commonly heard Latin American shortwave stations. The 90- and 60-meter bands were full of them and there were more than a few to be heard in the 49- and even 31-meter bands. But the Venezuelans began abandoning shortwave before other countries in the region and by the late 1970s their numbers had been considerably thinned. Only a handful remained in the early 1990s.
This radio dial [click to enlarge] goes back to a time when Latin American stations were found all over the radio bands.
One of the last Venezuelan stations to leave shortwave in the 1990s was Radio Valera in the busy commercial city of Valera.
For decades, Radio Valera was one of the best heard and most consistent Venezuelan stations on 60 meters. Roque Torres Aguilar, waving on the left side, was station manager at the time of my visit.
I’ve found listings in DX publications for their 4840 kHz frequency as far back as 1946.
I was given this 59th anniversary key chain when I visited Radio Valera in January 1995. So the station must have begun around 1935.
Station studio in 1995.
A second shortwave station in the state of Trujillo was Radio Trujillo in the nearby town of the same name. Broadcasting on 3295 kHz, they were one of the easier catches in the 90-meter band in the early 1970s but were gone by the late 1970s. Continue reading →
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and KHKA, CBS 1500,
unveiled Hawaii’s first Primary Entry Point (PEP) emergency broadcast
facility today. The KHKA facility, located at Kahauiki Village, joins
FEMA’s National Public Warning System (NPWS), which provides critical
information to the public before, during, and after emergency incidents
and disasters.
The NPWS emergency broadcast facility, part of the Integrated Public
Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), includes improved operational
capabilities for up to two months, expanded broadcast capacity,
emergency power generation, and other resilient protective measures for
all types of hazardous events, increasing KHKA’s ability to continue
broadcasting during emergencies.
In the event of a disaster, trained staff can operate the emergency
facilities for several weeks to keep KHKA on air to broadcast messages
from the local, state, and federal governments, as well as community
organizations.
– – –
FEMA Unveils Disaster-Resistant Broadcast Studio in Hawaii KHNL-TV Honolulu, HI
As the official start of hurricane season approaches on June 1, federal
and local emergency officials introduced a critical tool Wednesday to
keep the public informed in the event of a disaster.
FEMA unveiled a brand new emergency broadcast radio studio that sits on
the grounds of Kahauiki village near Keehi Lagoon.
The facility features a full media setup designed to keep transmitting
communications through any type of threat.
“Everything from tsunamis to earthquakes to tornadoes to hurricanes,”
said FEMA national public warning system manager Manny Centeno.
– – –
Prepared for Anything: Hawaii’s Emergency Broadcast Studio KHON-TV Honolulu, HI
A new facility on Oahu is already relaying information to help recovery
efforts in Guam, even though Hawaii is almost 4,000 miles away.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave a tour of their new
emergency broadcast studio on Wednesday, May 24; but the hope is that
locals never need to use it.
The footprint of the studio itself is small, but it is quite a tank. It
is engineered to keep broadcasting before, during and after natural
emergencies like hurricanes and tsunamis. The station is even made to
withstand man-made catastrophes.
“This thing is designed to protect against high-altitude electromagnetic
pulse, EMP. So, this is EMP protected. it is also chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclear protected,” said FEMA National Public Warning
System project manager Manny Centeno.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Frans Goddijn, who writes:
I bought the Hurricane AM Modulator.
Here in my living room the hum was considerable even though I had an EARTH connection. So what I did was use a coax cable made of two different ends of coax cable, just the isolated kernel of both taped close together so the signal is transmitted on one, received on the other without the wires touching. One end in the antenna OUT of the transmitter, the other end in antenna IN of the receiver.
Now I can wirelessly send music from my laptop or telephone to the Hurricane and ‘receive’ it on the radio of my preference.
The HUM obviously does not originate from the Hurricane.
This has a shortwave angle… One station shuttered is “Funny 1060” CKMX in Calgary. This station has the 100-watt shortwave relay CFVP on 6030 kHz.
