Referring to my obsession with the BBC Countdown, Jonathan writes:
“You may like to play with the Infinite Juke box at the bottom of this post. You can make the countdown theme go on for hours!”
What an amazing web application! Here’s Jonathan’s version of the BBC News 24 theme on the Infinite Jukebox.
Many thanks, Jonathan!
(Click to enlarge)
If you live in Newfoundland, Canada, you might want to take part in the Signals To Santa event at the Signal Hill National Historic Site Visitor Centre, which is sponsored by Parks Canada and the Newfoundland Radio Amateurs (SONRA).
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Tom Ally, for the tip. Tom did some research to find the HF frequency of the event, so it could be monitored. The response from the event coordinators was 146.520 MHz. Not exactly shortwave (ahem, not even by a long shot!).
Still, I love the idea behind the event and think the Parks Canada poster is brilliant!
I believe an amateur radio club organizes a “talk to Santa” type on-the-air event each year. If anyone knows the frequency or details, please comment.
Last week, we posted the following recording on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive; our website and podcast of current and historic shortwave radio recordings.
Indeed, our podcast is absolutely free and by subscribing (via iTunes or RSS feed), you can also help preserve these recordings. Read about the archive by clicking here.
Though I post recordings on the SWLing Post, we post many more on the shortwave archive as many of our recordings are sent in by contributors (like you!).
Pyongyang Metro Station (Original: Wikimedia Commons)
Indeed, I owe thanks to SWRAA contributor, Frank, for this recording of the Voice of Korea‘s English language service.
Frank recorded this broadcast from his home in Europe on November 13, 2013, on 11,645 kHz, starting at 16:00 UTC. Frank used a Kenwood R-5000 receiver and a Wellbrook ALA 1530+ antenna.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Click here to view David Korchin’s photography
A truly rewarding experience I am privileged to enjoy as the director of Ears To Our World is to work directly with kids and teachers in the countries where we extend our mission.
This year, photographer/SWLer/radio amateur–and good friend–David Korchin (KC2WNW) accompanied me on an ETOW distribution trip to inner Belize City. Besides grabbing a few moments to enjoy a little SWLing, we worked with ETOW partner organization, The Belize Council for the Visually Impaired, to place radios with some of the children attending their annual summer camp. This was the third year we’ve worked with the BCVI, and it’s been a very rewarding journey.
Can you imagine what impact a self-powered shortwave radio might have on a child who is visually-impaired, but whose family can’t readily afford batteries? If you can fill in the answer, you’ll know why I do this.
Today, David posted his photos from the trip, documenting these truly inspirational children. The photos are nothing short of amazing. Click here to view the photos on his website: davidkorchin.com
You might recognize the radios we’re distributing; they were generously donated by Eton Corporation and are shortwave versions of their clever little wind-up workhorse, the Rover. Eton, incidentally, is celebrating their 27th anniversary today.
And, David–many, many thanks!
Last week, I visited my friend and fellow radio enthusiast, Dr. Kim Elliott, at the Voice of America headquarters in Washington DC. Kim gave me a tour of K3VOA, the ham radio club station of the Voice of America. K3VOA has a full ham shack, QSL card gallery, an SWLing station, some vintage gear and they even run a repeater site. Kim also took me on the roof to view the K3VOA antenna farm; not only is it impressive, but so, too, is the view of the Capitol Building.
Here is a gallery of the photos I took–click on the image to enlarge:
Our friend, Myke Dodge Weiskopf, writes with an update:
“I went through all 600+ recordings of mine and generated a highly accurate Google Earth KML file pinpointing all the transmitters (along with reception details). Lots of fun for SWL types to fly around and look at antenna farms!
http://dodgeblog.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/SWM-GoogleEarth.kml
It’s also available directly from www.myke.me/shortwavemusic/ along with the normal maps version and the comprehensive spreadsheet.”
This is fascinating–thanks, Myke!
I’ve already checked out the Google Maps version online but will certainly download the KML file and import it into Google Earth as well. It’s fun zooming around the globe and finding all of these transmitter sites; this took serious dedication to plot. (To have had tools like this when I was eight years old…)
Note that the next season of shortwavemusic starts on October 1st. Check out Myke’s website for more details!
Hat tip to Dennis Walter for sending me a link to this beautiful circa 1944 “Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations” by W.M Welch Scientific Company. According to Flickr user llnl photos, it was found, “tucked away in the back of an unused office years ago, but now hangs framed in a high-traffic hallway populated by Lawrence Livermore engineers.”
Being a big fan of vintage maps and technical illustrations, I would love to dedicate a wall of my radio room to this chart.
Click on the photo above to enlarge this image to 1600 × 1113.
You can download the original, high resolution image by visiting llnl photos’ Flickr page.