Category Archives: Broadcasters

Deutsche Welle to close Kigali relay March 28, 2015

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DW's relay station in Kigali (Source: Deutsche Welle)

DW’s relay station in Kigali (Source: Deutsche Welle)

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mike, who writes:

“I wanted to pass on a quick (and unfortunate) word that Deutsche Welle will be closing its Kigali, Rwanda relay on March 28th. This word came from the Wavescan program on WRMI. I would highly recommend that anyone who would like a QSL response from DW should get their correspondences in as soon as possible. It seems that the site will be dismantled shortly afterward. In addition it seems that tests are ongoing at RFI’s Issoudun site by DW to replace some of the broadcasts that used to originate from their Kigali relay.

I find the closing of another landmark relay a greatly displeasing event especially due to the short time frame between the announcement of the closure and the actual closure date. I find it surprising as well due to the lack of mention of any recent budget cuts at Deutsche Welle.”

As Mike mentions, the relay is scheduled to close on March 28, 2015–if you’d like to log this site, you’ll need to do so very soon. Click here for current schedules. Kigali is Deutsche Welle’s only remaining relay station.

RadioWorld magazine also posted a short news item about the Kigali closure–click here to read.

Latest addition to the RNI Mailbag archive

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DanLewisDan Lewis, from RNI’s Mailbag show, describes the latest addition to his audio archive:

You can’t keep a good pirate down. Another snow-filled weekend in NYC seems like a good time to go back in time to November 11, 1990. Al Gore had not yet invented the internet, but somehow Dan Lewis was able to talk to the world on international shortwave — despite almost not being able to board a flight home from Paris. And this was before the TSA!
Give a listen over at the blog.

Enjoy the snow and enjoy the show!

Dan also commented on the SWLing Post:

We haven’t posted any new (old) content lately, but I’m going through some old, unlabeled, reel-to-reel tapes and have discovered a few RNI Mailbag shows from 1990. One has been posted and another will follow next week.

Next week’s show features letters from noted piratologists Andy Yoder and George Zeller and noted DXers Jerry Berg and Rich D’Angelo.

Andy Yoder and George Zeller?  That’s certainly going to be a good show! Let us know when it’s posted, Dan!

Click here to go to Dan Lewis’ website.

Radio Vanuatu back on the air

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Radio-Vanuatu

My friend and fellow DXer, Rob Wagner, writes:

R. Vanuatu has been off the air for ages. It has suddenly come back on in the last hour or so on 7259.95 kHz and 3945 kHz with post-cyclone assistance and information. There is also a report from a visiting R. New Zealand transmission engineer talking about the SW and MW txers at Port Vila; interviewed on RA – quite interesting. Just thought I’d let you know. details at MEDXR:

http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/station-news-and-log-book-march-20-2015.html

Many thanks for the information, Rob! Very good news indeed!

On a side note, SRAA contributor, Julie (also based in Australia) has done a fantastic job posting cyclone coverage recordings from Solomon Islands Broadcasting. She’s also posted pre-cyclone Vanuatu recordings as well. Click here to browse her contributions on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

BBC Bush House desk on eBay

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BBC-BushHouse-Desk

Want to own an bit of shortwave radio broadcasting history? Many thanks to Mike Barraclough who shares this listing on eBay: a BBC World Service Broadcast Radio Studio Desk from the Bush house in London.

Starting bid is £999–yep, that’s some serious money–and you’ll need to travel to Bristol, England to pick it up.

Here’s the full item description:

This is a genuine BBC World Service Studio from Bush House. I bought this when the BBC moved out of Bush House in July 2012. Unfortunately I have no room for it and so sadly I must sell it. All the components are still original as seen in the images.

Just think of the famous people who were interviewed at this desk. The whole desk is bespoke, beautifully made and crafted by BBC engineers, there is nothing quite like it. It still has all the detail such as the panic button underneath the desk, stands for computer monitors, telephone, the professional CD player and cassette desk player. Also original mixing desk, router board and switches – all you need to start your own radio station! The desk is mono as used by the BBC World Service.

Original Revox Professional Series CD player C-221
Original Kenwood Stereo Cassette Deck KX-4520
The original ElectroVoice RE20 Microphone with adjustable stand is NOT included and will be sold separately on eBay
BBC speaker will be sold separately.

The lucky winner will have to ship this from my home in South Bristol at their own expense. It will require a medium sized van and two people to lift it.

More pictures to follow including accurate measurements. Approx 8ft wide, 3 feet deep and 3.5 feet high.

Click here to view on eBay.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Australia Bureau Of Meteorology

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Australia-BureauOfMeteorologyThis morning, I re-discovered a recording I made in the early morning hours of January 25, 2015 on 6,230 kHz SSB: the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s marine weather radio service.

This was actually a new station for me and, no doubt, decent DX (though I’m sure the broadcast is quite audible when conditions are favorable). While I prefer old-school recorded voice for shipping forecasts, this nonetheless has a catchy cadence.

Click here to download the audio as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

RAI may face reform

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RAI-ItalyMany thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bill Patalon, for sharing this article about potential reform at Italy state broadcaster, RAI:

(Source: The Economist)

“SELDOM has an organisational chart prompted a defamation trial. Yet judges in Milan recently heard a case involving a colour-coded table published by Libero, a newspaper. The chart listed 900 executives of Italy’s public television and radio network, RAI, and the political parties to which they supposedly owed their appointment. Dismissing charges of libel, the judges said it was well known that, in RAI, “even the most meritorious individuals are favoured by their acquaintanceships in political circles”.

Italian commentators call RAI the “mirror of the nation”: an institution so permeated by competing interests that it sometimes anticipates political shifts even before they surface. Once, this was not unhealthy. Instead of being in thrall to the government of the day, RAI offered contrasting viewpoints. The Christian Democrats controlled the first television channel, the Socialists the second and, from 1979, the Communists a third. All three parties disintegrated in the 1990s, but the idea that politicians were entitled to meddle in RAI survived. The number of newsrooms grew to 11, as did a spirit of fierce internal rivalry.

[Continue reading at The Economist…]

BBC plans North Korean news service

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NorthKorea-Map (2)Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, for sharing this news from The Telegraph:

BBC-WorldService“The BBC is planning a new North Korea service to give the totalitarian state’s 25 million people an alternative to Kim Jong-un’s propaganda.

In a move that could plunge the corporation into confrontation with the North Korean dictator, the World Service is examining how to set up a special news channel that will get around Pyongyang’s ban on foreign media broadcasts.

The plan has echoes of Western broadcasts into the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War, when the BBC, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America all broadcasted to listeners behind the Iron Curtain.

However, it is likely to spark fury from Pyongyang’s volatile leadership, and could lead to the British embassy in Pyongyang being targeted for protests or being shut down altogether.

It could also put Britain in the firing line for North Korean-led cyberattacks, such as the one that targeted Sony Pictures last year over its film “The Interview”, which lampooned Kim Jong-un.”[…]

[Continue reading at The Telegraph...]