Category Archives: Guest Posts

You’d catch ’em surfin’ in the library

Greetings to all SWLing Post community, Imaginary Stations have got a couple of treats for you this week.

There’s more surfboard madness with SURF 3 on Saturday 26th July 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 27th July 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).

Propagation may be choppy of late but there will be waves you can jump on to enjoy another hour of tunes about wearing fullsuits, watching out for corduroy approaching (that’s not the trousers and jacket combo, we mean “a series of swells marching in from the horizon”) and hopping on those party waves. Tune in and get surfing without getting soaked to the skin.

And we’ve a new episode of the interesting The Shortwave Music Library on Wednesday 30th July 2025 at 0200 hrs UTC via WRMI. Chief music librarian DJ Frederick is behind the reception desk picking out some eclectic tunes from his  collection. Expect all sorts of musical goodness from across all genres and we’d appreciated it if you could keep noise down to a minimum during the broadcast as it is a library after all.

Here’s more about the show.

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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More shortwave surfing with COOL

Greetings to all SWLing Post community, here’s this week’s shortwave transmissions from the Imaginary Stations crew.

There’s more “get on that board” madness with SURF 2 on Saturday 19th July 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 20th July 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).

Get that convertible out of the garage, load it up with your surfboard then leave it out on the drive. Turn on your receiver indoors, make sure those (short)waves are active and enjoy an hour of the best surf related tunes. Remember “Let’s go surfing now, turn on your radio, that’s how, join us on the high frequent seas” and hang loose!

And we’ve got another episode of COOL on Wednesday 23rd July 2025 at 0200 hrs UTC via WRMI. Think sunshine vibes and chilling out on a deserted beach somewhere with a shortwave wind up portable. Enjoy the summer with COOL!

Here’s a trailer about riding the shortwave SURF to get you in the mood.

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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Sand, Sea and Shortwave

Greetings to all SWLing Post community, here’s our shows we’ve lined up for you this week.

We bring you SURF on Saturday 12th July 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 13th July 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold). As they say, “Let’s go surfing now, turn on your radio, that’s how, join us on the high frequent seas”. Join the dawn patrol (if it’s early morning where you are) and jump on your board and go surfing with the shortwave radio dial and you’ll be riding those (air)waves before you know it.

And we’ve got an episode of COOL on Wednesday 16th July 2025 at 0200 hrs UTC via WRMI. Think summer vibes galore and tunes to listen to whilst chilling on the beach. Towels, deckchairs and sunblock at the ready please!

Here’s a trailer about riding the shortwave SURF to get you in the mood.

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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Shortwave on the big screen

Greetings to all SWLing Post community, here’s a couple of programmes we’ve lined up for you this week.

We bring you Downbeat on Shortwave on Saturday 5th July 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 6th July 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold). Guest DJs Jesse Yuen and One Deck Pete bring you two 15 minute downtempo mixes each of some ambient and downtempo vibes to help you drift away. Expect some blissful vibes for a Sunday.

And we’ve got an episode of the SkyBird Drive in Radio on Wednesday 9th July 2025 via WRMI.

Make yourself a tasty snack (hot dogs, tacos, ice cream or burgers) and turn on that in-car shortwave AM radio for the full sound experience. Imagine you’re in a big cadillac, tilt your seat back (but not too far) and enjoy all sorts of cinema related tunes as you would in an outdoor experience (unless you are listening to the radio outdoors). Enjoy our evening’s programming.

Here’s a trailer about the Skybird Drive in to get you in that cinematic mood.

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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Radio Lavalamp reimagined

Greetings to all SWLing Post community, here’s a couple of programmes we’ve lined up for you this week.

We bring you a double dose of Radio Lavalamp, inspired by a low powered community and internet radio station from Osaka, Japan now reimagined by Imaginary Stations. Expect some way out sounds from all genres from the groovy to ethereal.

We’ve got programme one on Saturday 28th June 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 20th June 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).

And programme two of Radio Lavalamp on Wednesday 2nd July 2025 via WRMI. It’s going to be a groovy trip via the ionosphere so tune in and turn on as many times as you like next week.

Here’s a trailer of an old show of Radio Lavalamp to get you in the ethereal mood.

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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WA2XMN Revives Armstrong’s Legacy with 90th Anniversary Broadcast on 42.8 MHz

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Conrad Trautmann, who shares the following guest post:


42.8 MHz WA2XMN FM Goes On The Air!

6/19/2025

By Conrad Trautmann, N2YCH

Stephen Hemphill, WA3ZAE, the owner of Solid Electronics Laboratories, fired up a vintage FM tube Phasitron transmitter on 42.8 MHz to put WA2XMN on the air at exactly 12:30 pm EDT today from the famous Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. “W2XMN” was the call sign of Edwin Howard Armstrong’s experimental FM station that went on the air in 1936. “WA2XMN” is the official FCC call sign for the station Hemphill constructed with the cooperation of the tower site owners to commemorate Armstrong’s contribution to radio, Frequency Modulation.

W2XMN building at the Alpine Tower site

Hemphill explained that he attended a Society of Broadcast Engineers meeting that was celebrating Armstrong’s accomplishments, which sparked the idea of going on the air again on that original frequency. He thought it would be perfect to aim for the 70th anniversary of the first public broadcast of wideband FM. That anniversary celebration and broadcast was held on June 11, 2005. Today’s broadcast marks 90 years since that first FM Broadcast and 20 years since the commemorative event.

Hemphill built a transmitter based on the design of a General Electric BT-1-B, but on the lower frequency than what we now know as the standard FM band. Once turned on, the transmitter made 250 watts with no problem with a little headroom to spare and after warming up and settling in, had less than one watt reflected into 400+ feet of 1 ¼” transmission line into a vertical “ringo” antenna on the top, Western facing arm of the famous tower.

Stephen Hemphill poses with his Phasitron FM transmitter tuned to 42.8 MHz

Dual Eimac 4-250a power amplifier tubes

Armstrong Tower in Alpine, NJ (the vertical antenna is up there, trust me)

The audio broadcast today was mostly replays of the 70th anniversary event recordings. A temporary studio was set up in the tower site office building. The event was also streamed live over the internet.

WA2XMN temporary studio and audio processing.

Stephen Hemphill at the controls

The main audio mixing console used was a Gately Electronics Attache Case six channel mixer. Audio processing was done with a vintage Orban Optimod 8100A.

Gately Electronics Attache Case Mixer (apologies to all audio engineers for the pinned meters)

During the event, a web site address for enthusiasts to provide reception reports was given out. While we don’t have those reports yet, I contacted an amateur radio friend who was able to hear the station clearly 61 miles away in Ronkonkoma, NY on the eastern end of Long Island. That’s pretty good coverage for 250 watts!

Coupled with the special event broadcast was the annual picnic gathering of the New York Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, Chapter 15. Roughly 45 people attended and in addition to seeing the WA2XMN transmitter, they also got a first hand look at a few of the old Empire State Building FM Master antenna elements. Here’s a photo of your author standing next to one for perspective. I’m 6’ 5”.

To read more about this antenna and its history, visit this page researched and written by Paul Thurst, KH2R, owner of the “Engineering Radio” blog.

Conrad, N2YCH with an Alford antenna element from the Empire State Building

More rotations (per minute) around the earth

Greetings to all SWLing Post community, here’s what we have going up into the ionosphere and via skywave propagation this week.

Firstly we bring you the third instalment of Starship Skybird on Saturday 21st June 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 22nd June 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).

Expect more sounds from across the cosmos, a big Houston style countdown when we start the show and music from DJs wearing space suits. It’s going to be one transmission full of atmosphere!

On Wednesday 25th June 2025 via WRMI  at 0200 UTC we bring you WORK. We’ve just checked AI to find out what the concept of work is, and we’ve found out, “In general, work refers to any activity involving physical or mental effort, done to achieve a purpose or result.” Tune in on Wednesday when the manager isn’t looking and enjoy the show!

More on Starship Skybird here:

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

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