Category Archives: International Broadcasting

Skywave Radio Schedules now on the Google Play store

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Skywave Schedules App will allow you to search a comprehensive, regularly updated, database of shortwave radio broadcasts.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Cap, who has just notified me that his shortwave radio schedules app for Android–Skywave Radio Schedules–is now available via the Google Play store.

You might recall that Cap first shared this app in Beta form and invited us to share feedback and comments. Cap has spent weeks incorporating our suggestions and making changes in the background–Skywave Radio Schedules feels refined and responsive. Best yet?  It’s free and has no ads. Amazing.

Cap does note that you should uninstall any previous versions of this app before installing it from the Google Play store.

Thank you, Cap! Great job making this app a reality.

Click here to view Skywave Radio Schedules on the Google Play store.

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North Korea “aggressively” jams new BBC broadcasts

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(Source: The Telegraph)

The BBC’s new Korean-language service is being “aggressively targeted” by North Korean jamming of its broadcasts.

The service was launched on Monday and delivers a mixture of global news, sport and radio features to the whole of the Korean Peninsula for a three-hour window that starts at midnight local time.

Broadcasts are going out on two shortwave frequencies, from Taiwan and Tashkent, while the hour-long segment from 1am is relayed on medium wave from Mongolia, according to a report on the 38 North web site, operated by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

“As listening to foreign radio is illegal, the government makes a great effort to prevent people from doing so”, the report states. “At the most basic level, it modifies radios so they cannot be tuned to anything but state-run channels, although that can be later reverse engineered.

[…]The BBC broadcasts are going out after midnight, which will make it easier for listeners with access to short wave to tune in secretly.

Read the full article at The Telegraph…

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New Korean language service from the BBC

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(Source: BBC Media Centre)

BBC News launches Korean language service

The new Korean language service announced in November 2016 by the BBC World Service began broadcasting today. Audiences in the Korean peninsula and Korean speakers around the world can now hear radio broadcasts and access the latest news online at BBC.com/Korean.
BBC News Korean is one of 12 new language service launches now underway as part of the biggest expansion of the BBC World Service since the 1940s, funded through a £291 million grant in aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Director of the BBC World Service Francesca Unsworth says: “BBC News Korean will build on the long-standing reputation for fairness and impartiality the BBC World Service has earned all over the world.”

BBC News Korean features a daily 30-minute radio news programme broadcast at 15.30 GMT on Shortwave (SW) and 16.30 GMT Medium wave (MW). The service will also feature a digital offer with written stories, videos and radio programmes which can be downloaded and shared. The new service features a wide range of news, sport, business, culture, in-depth reports and English language learning.

BBC News Korean journalists will be based in Seoul, London and Washington and will draw on the full extent of the BBC’s global network of correspondents.

Notes to Editors
Service to launch on Monday 25 September at 15.30 GMT (Tuesday 26 September in Korea):

  • Shortwave service to broadcast for three hours, 15.30 – 18.30 GMT (0030 – 0330 GMT local time Seoul; 00.00 – 03.00 local time, PYT)
  • Medium wave service transmission for 1 hour 16.30 – 17.30 GMT (0130-0230 local time Seoul; 01.00 – 02.00 local time, PYT)
  • All transmissions to be 7 days a week
  • Medium wave (MW) Frequency: 1431KHz
  • Shortwave (SW) Frequencies: 5810 kHz & 9940 kHz (from launch to 28 October 2017) then; 5810 kHz & 5830 kHz (from 29 October 2017 to 24 March 2018)
  • The BBC News Korean website will be available at BBC.com/Korean

The BBC World Service is currently launching in 12 new languages – Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Serbian, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba.

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Photos of WRMI antenna field damage

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Since we’ve been following WRMI in the wake of Hurricane Irma, I’ve posted a few photos below that WRMI shared on their Facebook page. These photos give us an idea about the magnitude of damage to their antenna farm.

Amazingly, Jeff White confirmed a few days ago that WRMI is back up to full power on all of their frequencies.

All of the caption below were noted by WRMI:

One of the towers holding our 44-degree antenna to Europe was folded in the middle by the hurricane.

A mess of crossed transmission lines in the field.

Transmission lines on the ground that should be above ground on poles.

Transmission line poles were knocked down.

A second tower holding the 44-degree antenna was snapped in the middle.

We had some requests a few days ago from listeners who wanted to see a diagram of our transmitter-antenna connections. This may blow your mind, but here goes…

For all WRMI updates, please bookmark the WRMI Facebook page.

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The Guardian: Study shows ABC cuts to shortwave & rural broadcasts “jeopardising safety of remote communities”

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(Source: The Guardian via Ian P)

Reduction of local news and station closures disastrous for people living outside Australia’s cities, researchers say

Cuts to the ABC in regional and rural Australia and the corporation’s increasing reliance on digital technologies is jeopardising the safety of remote communities and their access to emergency warnings, Deakin University research has found.

The ABC’s increasingly “digital-first” approach to emergency information and the reduction in ABC reporters’ local knowledge is causing great distress among rural populations who rely on broadcast signals because they don’t have the bandwidth or coverage for digital, researchers say.

A reduction of local news and information, centralised newsrooms in metropolitan areas, the closure of several ABC stations and the scaling back of broadcast programming has been disastrous for people outside the cities, according to a new study, Communication life line? ABC emergency broadcasting in rural/regional Australia.

But the ABC has played down the study’s significance, saying it is based on parliamentary submissions and is not an “accurate or up-to-date” summary of the corporation’s role in rural and regional Australia; and that the ABC is not funded as an emergency service.

Based on public submissions to a parliamentary inquiry, the researchers Julie Freeman, Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller found “burgeoning discontent about the corporation’s ability to fulfil its role as a designated emergency broadcaster and provide communication life lines to rural and regional communities”.[…]

Continue reading at The Guardian.

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Nick Xenophon champions review of ABC shortwave broadcasting to Pacific

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ian P, who shares the following via ABC News:

ABC shortwave broadcasting to the Pacific to be reviewed

The decision to end Australian shortwave broadcasting to the Pacific earlier this year could be revisited.

There’s to be a review of Asia Pacific broadcasting services, as part of a wide ranging package of reforms to the country’s media laws agreed to by independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

The Department of Communications and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are to conduct a review, including examining whether shortwave radio technology should be used.

The review will include public consultation and the report will be made public.

Senator Nick Xenophon has been strenuously opposed the decision by the ABC to end shortwave services, and he was a key crossbench figure in negotiations over the media reforms.

Click here to download the interview.

Click here to read and listen to the interview via ABC News.

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London Shortwave’s innovative PocketCHIP-powered field portable SDR

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, London Shortwave, who recently shared his latest SDR project: a field-portable, ultra-compact, SDR spectrum recording system based on the PocketCHIP computer.

London Shortwave has built this system from the ground up and notes that it works well but is currently limited to the FunCube Dongle Pro+ at 192 kHz bandwidth. There is no real-time monitoring of what’s being recorded, but it works efficiently and effectively–making spectrum captures from the field effortless. The following is a video London Shortwave shared via Twitter:

Click here to view via Twitter.

The PocketCHIP–the device his system is built around–is a $69 (US) handheld computer with color display:

Click here to view the PocketCHIP website.

I think this field portable SDR system is absolutely brilliant!

Homegrown innovation

London Shortwave has done all of the coding to make the FunCube Dongle Pro + work with the PocketChip computer. Even though live spectrum can’t be monitored in the field, the fact that it’s making such a clean spectrum recording is all that really matters.

All London Shortwave has to do is head to a park with his kit, deploy it, sit on a bench, read a good book, eat a sandwich, then pack it all up. Once home, he transfers the recording and enjoys tuning through relatively RFI-free radio.

A very clever way to escape the noise.

The kit is so incredibly portable, it would make DXing from any location a breeze. You could easily pack this in a carry-on item, backpack or briefcase, then take it to a park, a national forest, a lake, a remote beach–anywhere.

What I really love about this? He didn’t wait for something to be designed for him, he simply made it himself.

Thanks again, London Shortwave. We look forward to reading about your radio adventures with this cool field SDR!

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