Category Archives: Broadcasters

VORW Radio International updated schedule

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John from VORW Radio International, who writes:

Hello Thomas, the broadcasting schedule of VORW Radio International has changed somewhat so I would like to provide an updated schedule for your readers!

Each broadcast features a mixture of my commentary and listener requested music. It’s the listeners who choose the playlist in every show, so you are guaranteed to hear a great variety of music! Hope you can tune in!

Thursday 2200 UTC – 9955 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – South America
Friday 0000 UTC (Thu 8 PM Eastern) – 9395 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Friday 0000 UTC – 9455 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Central America
Friday 0000 UTC – 7730 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North America
Friday 0000 UTC – 7490 kHz – WBCQ 50 kW – North America
Sunday 2000 UTC – 9395 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Sunday 2200 UTC – 7490 kHz – WBCQ 50 kW – North America

Questions, comments, reception reports and music requests may be sent to vorwinfo@gmail.com

Reception reports will receive a QSL!

Thanks for the update John and keep up the good work!

Brilliant hard-core DX with the USB-powered Bonito MegActive MA305 antenna

 

Hi there, you might remember my post from last month focussing on the Bonito MegActive MA305 E-field antenna, kindly supplied to me for testing, by Bonito themselves. That post was essentially a report on my experiences travelling to Crete with the MA305, navigating through security at London Gatwick and Heraklion airports (mostly with relative ease), but more importantly, how well it worked with the equally excellent Eton Satellit portable receiver. Whilst in Crete I managed to copy a number of personal firsts, including CRI on 7295 kHz, via their relay in Bamako, Mali, The Voice of Beibu Radio on 5050 kHz, Nanning, XSL ‘Slot Machine’ on 6251 kHz USB, Ichihara, Japan, S32 ‘The Squeaky Wheel’ on 3828 kHz and NHK World Radio Japan, 11910 kHz. I also copied RTM Wai/Limbang FM on 11665 kHz from Kajang, Myanmar Radio on 5985 kHz and AIR Bhopal on 4810 kHz, amongst others – all of which I would certainly consider to be difficult catches in Europe.

 The USB-powered MegActive MA305 is perfect for DXing on the move…

Despite excellent all-round results from the ultra-portable USB powered MA305, there was one signal I copied, which more than any other, demonstrated the DXing credentials of this antenna; Radio Tarma from Peru on 4775 kHz. With a TX power of 1 kW, this is a very difficult station to hear in Western Europe, even with a longwire. To catch this station in Crete, with a 22 cm antenna was incredible and it was at that point during my trip that I realised E-field antennas really can work superbly well for hard-core DXers on the move.

Upon my return to Oxford, I immediately started thinking about a DXpedition to the local woods I use for what I consider serious DXing. For obvious reasons, E-field antennas require an electrically quiet environment to ensure maximum SNR performance. In noisy environments, these types of antennas amplify the signal of interest and the background ‘electro-smog’, thus increasing signal levels but critically, not signal-to-noise. Fortunately, the Oxfordshire wood I have been using for a couple of years is only a 10 minute drive from my QTH as I sort of live in the countryside anyway and the QRM levels there are just about zero. Now, given that this was essentially an experiment to determine the best possible performance from the MA305, I decided to use my best portable radio. It was quite tempting to pack up the Elad FDM DUO which running on a home-brew battery pack has proven itself to be my best (pseudo) portable radio. However, this is supposed to be a real-world test and in this type of scenario, DXpeditions with the Bonito antenna are much more likely to be undertaken with a portable radio. For these reasons I decided to conduct the test with the venerable Sony ICF-2001D. Having proven to be a superb receiver over many, many dxpeditions (check out the evidence on my YouTube Channel Oxford Shortwave Log) and still regarded by DXers as one of the best ever portable radios – possibly the best – it was the obvious choice.

 My portable DXing kit comprising the Bonito MegActive MA305 antenna and the Sony ICF-2001D…a bit of a legend in DXing circles…

I ventured out in early June around 23:00 hrs BST (22:00 hrs UTC), parked the car on the edge of the wood and proceeded to set up my cheap camera tripod, slightly modified to accept a 2 metre-long stainless steel tube, into which a slightly thinner 1 metre tube was mounted, topped off with my partially disassembled ‘Selfie Stick’ – which made it back from Crete lol. The antenna was set up in less than 5 minutes and approximately 4 metres above the ground – much quicker and easier than de-spooling 100 metres of wire! With fresh batteries in the Sony and the MA305 powered up using the USB power brick supplied by Bonito, I was ready to start listening. Almost immediately I heard and recorded a personal first; Lao National Radio, Laos, signing on 6130 kHz, with an excellent signal. Hearing them in the UK was only made possible by the annual two week shut down of the PBS Xizang transmitter in Lhasa, Tibet, but hey, I’ll take it. A brilliant start to my listening session.

Over the next two hours I was amazed at what could be heard using this 22 cm amplified antenna. Bearing in mind I have spent many hours at the woods previously, listening via various 100 metre longwires and a 200 metre Beverage, my expectations were, I thought, realistic in that the MA305 coupled to the Sony would catch some very good DX. However, I did believe there might be an absence of at least some of the more exotic low power stations on the Tropical Band – afterall the MA305 is a very short antenna. Clearly I was wrong, because what transpired during the session surpassed anything I thought possible with this set-up. A list of reception videos follows below and further below, a selection of embedded videos. Some of the entries on this list simply stunned me at the time. Rádio Educação Rural for starters is such an incredibly difficult signal to hear in Europe, even with a very large antenna. Thus, to hear them on an ultra-compact set-up felt very special. Radio Mali is another station that is very difficult to catch with any modulation, except on a large antenna and yet there they were – at the first time of trying. Similarly, Rádio Nacional de Angola and Alcaravan Radio are exotics that at best deliver very weak audio – and most of the time no audio. Furthermore, the signals from Emisoras Pio XIIMyanmar Radio and Rádio Clube do Pará were verging on what I would call superb…I’d never heard anything like it previously except via 100 (or more) metres of wire.

 The ICF-2001D and MegActive MA305              Rádio Educação Rural transmitter site in Tefé, Brazil

So what’s next? Well it would certainly be an interesting experiment to compare the performance of the MegActive antenna with the Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop in a similar environment. I have used the Wellbrook on DXpeditions several times, with often excellent results, however, it’s not designed to be portable and if SNR performance could be demonstrated as similar between these two products, given a very favourable price delta, the Bonito antenna would add up to be a very compelling purchase decision. More on that to come. In the meantime, thank you very much for reading/watching/listening and I wish you all excellent DX.

Please click on the links below for the reception videos on the Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel.


Selected embedded reception videos from the list above:

Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.

Médi 1 Radio may have left the shortwaves

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, who forwarded a message from The Bulgarian DX blog which notes that Médi 1 Radio (Radio Méditerranée) has stopped broadcasting on shortwave:

“MOROCCO According to Jean-Michel Aubier France and a mail sent by Abdellah El-Atmami from transmitting station Nador, Radio Medi 1 (Mediterranee) has stopped shortwaves forever: 24 hours on 9575 NAD 250 kW / 110 deg to NoAf Arabic/French”

I’ll miss Médi 1 Radio on shortwave because they always broadcast a splendid variety of music. Sure, I’ll probably listen to them over WiFi radio, but it’s just not the same–I love the way music sounds over the shortwaves.

Voice of Croatia expanding online content

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who writes:

The Voice of Croatia is no longer on the shortwave, but it still has programs in German, English, Spanish and Croatian in the Web:

http://voiceofcroatia.hrt.hr/

They are announcing “Soon a new, more modern Voice of Croatia, with more content” in a Youtube video, in which you can take a look at the inside of the radio:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Many thanks for the tip, David!

GfK survey concludes radio “most trusted media” in Australia

(Source: Radio Info via Nigel Holmes)

Radio leads the way as the most trusted media in Australia and is seen as the most credible source of news, according to a new survey by global research firm GfK.

The GfK Radio Insights study found 42% of respondents surveyed consider radio trustworthy, with a wide gap to TV (24%), online (18%) and newspapers/magazines (15%).

GfK’s General Manager Media, Dr Morten Boyer, said the results reflected high levels of trust in radio presenters and the live and human nature of radio, which made it a credible source of information for news, traffic information and emergency updates.

Click here to read full article.

BBC Radio 4: BBC Monitoring’s move from Caversham Park

Caversham Park (Photo source: BBC)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Kris Partridge (G8AUU) who writes:

BBC Monitoring is leaving it’s home of over 70 years and moving to Central London. On BBC Radio 4 yesterday I was listening as I drove home from a ‘Breakfast’ shift, 04h30 – 16h30 local ..!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wqp00

It looks like it will be repeated tomorrow, Saturday, 08.July at 06h07. So via BBC iPlayer radio it should be possible to receive this programme.

Here is a link that will help your readers get the app for both iPhone or Android devices: https://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/radio/download_availability

Programmes are usually available for 30 days after transmission, so if tomorrow’s broadcast is missed …

Enjoy a programme that tells the ‘history’ of BBC Monitoring from WW2, thru the ‘Cold War’ to the present day.

Here also is an additional link of interest https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/login and if you don’t want to register straight away try the ‘preview’ facility https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/?preview=true With the G20 taking place in Hamburg at this time, there will be some interesting commentary there.

Thank you so much for the tip, Kris!

I wish I could have had an opportunity to tour BBC Monitoring prior to the move from Caversham Park. Have any SWLing Post been there?

Sputnik Radio moves to the DC FM radio market

(Source: Sputnik News via Sheldon Harvey)

“Sputnik Radio begins broadcasting in Washington DC on the FM bandwidth, bringing its programming to FM listeners across the metropolitan area for the very first time.

Sputnik Radio broadcasts, ranging from news programs to talk shows and financial analysis, are now available on 105.5 FM, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Thanks for the tip, Sheldon!

This isn’t the first time Russian state media has moved to the DC market.

Does anyone remember back in 2011 when the Voice of Russia started broadcasting to the DC audience?

Click here to read about it in our archives.