Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who notes that Radio Taiwan International will be testing a new broadcast schedule to Latin America October 27-29.
Frequencies and times are as follows:
Send your reception reports to: [email protected].
I’m having difficulty remembering who sent me a link to the ITU Monitoring Programme, but I am most grateful.
What is the monitoring programme? Here’s the description from the ITU website:
“The objective of this monitoring programme is to identify stations whose emissions in bands between 2 850 kHz and 28 000 kHz are not in conformity with the RR and to provide administrations that do not have monitoring facilities with information for frequency management purposes.
?The Bureau prepares a publication containing spectrum monitoring information in the frequency bands between 2 850 kHz and 28 000 kHz submitted by administrations in accordance with BR Circular-letter CR/159 of 9 May 2001.”
The data can be downloaded in spreadsheet format, organized by monitoring date. It’s an amazing amount of information–a decent survey of what can be found on the bands.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), for sharing information about this initiative by Radio Taiwan International:
Radio Taiwan International began broadcasting in 1928. In an era when information did not travel as quickly as today, RTI programs could be heard thousands of miles away by people like you.
If RTI has touched you in any way over the years, let us travel back in time together to look back at the voices, letters, and memorabilia of RTI’s history.
RTI invites you to take part in piecing together the history of RTI with any sounds and memorabilia you may have collected throughout the years. Your participation will help us commemorate RTI’s precious history.
[…]RTI is inviting listeners to lend/donate RTI memorabilia from 1928-1998, including QSL cards, sounds, and other items from the Central Broadcasting System, Voice of Free China, Voice of Asia, and the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC).
Items to be collected?
- Sounds: Tapes of programs, news broadcasts, and records from the above stations can be sent or e-mailed to RTI.
- Items: Station gifts to listeners, letters, QSL cards, pennants, and other souvenirs. Mailing the items is preferred. You can also send pictures of the items.
- Historical pictures or videos related to RTI.
If material is received from the 1928-1982 period, and is perceived to have historical significance to the station, there will be the following feedback:
The official station site will list those who donated and the items donated.
- RTI will send a thank you letter and souvenir.
- If the item is from 1983 or later, RTI will send a nice souvenir to thank for the item.
- If the donated item cannot be put in our archive, the station will send a thank you letter. (RTI reserves the right to make final decisions on the collection)
Full details about the archive initiative are available at Radio Taiwan International.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), for the following guest post:
by Mario Filippi
I find your SWLing Post blog a constant fountain of information on the world of shortwave listening. Having been a shortwave listener since the early 1960’s, I’ve depended mainly on shortwave radios to hear foreign broadcasts. I’ve owned more shortwave radios than shoes (hi hi)–! However, there is a not-so-well known way of receiving radio broadcasts from around the world, and this is by Free To Air Satellite (FTA).
Free To Air satellite reception requires using a minimum 30 inch Ku band satellite dish, an LNB (Low Noise Block) amplifier, a Free To Air satellite receiver, and skills to aim at a satellite carrying these broadcasts.
There are several Free To Air satellites in the Clarke Belt, and the reception is cost-free as these broadcasts are for expatriates living around the world who need to tune in to stations back home. One satellite in particular that carries many foreign radio broadcasts is Galaxy 19, located at a longitude of 97 degrees, and is readily accessible from the USA.
Now let’s start on what an FTA dish set-up looks like for this type of reception. Below is an installation of mine, consisting of a 30 inch WS International satellite dish and LNB. A 30 foot length of RG/6 coax is run into the shack and hooked to an AMIKO Mini HD SE FTA receiver. Typical cost for a dish, LNB, coax is under $200.
Below is my AMIKO Mini HD SE FTA receiver, also known as an STB (Set Top Box), which can be purchased from a number of FTA vendors. This allows one to receive international television and radio broadcasts. They run about $90.
As stated earlier, Galaxy 19 is one of the best satellites to use for international radio broadcasts–currently, it has about 90 radio channels available for listening. I did a scan today of what is available, and below are three screenshots of the stations available to the listener.
Duna World radio is from Hungary. IRIB stands for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. 3 ABN is Apostolic Bible Network. TGN is Thai Global Network.
Kuwait, Syria, and the Middle East are well represented by the radio stations above. Voice of Russia, and Congo radio are good ones.
Voice of Turkey, Polski Radio found above. Not too shabby!
[Y]ou’ll find a good how-to on FTA at the following link:
http://www.packratvhf.com/Conference/uW_Satellites.pdf
[T]his is just a little introduction to the world of international listening using satellite. I hope this is something you and SWLing Post readers might find interesting.
Indeed I do, Mario! Thanks so much for taking the time to show us how to tune in a variety of international broadcasters via satellite. Each year at the Winter SWL Fest, we have demonstrations showing what can be done via FTA satellite. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and invest in one!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), for sharing the following additional update from Radio Romania International:
Dear friends,
As of October 25th 2015 RRI broadcasts on new SW frequencies. Please check them out:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), for sharing the following from Radio Romania International:
LISTENERS’ DAY 2015 on RRI
Dear friends, on Sunday, November 1st 2015, RRI celebrates Listeners’ Day. As usual, we invite you to be an active part of our special program airing on that day. The topic of this year’s edition is refugees. We have all followed the news about the refugee crisis, and have seen that hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives leaving their native countries in search of a better life in Europe. This wave has become a big challenge for Europe, for European values, the labor market, economic growth, and the process of integration into society. However, no one can ignore that each refugee has his or her own personal story, which sometimes is very sad.
Therefore Listeners’ Day on RRI invites you to share your opinion on the refugee issue, and to tell us stories you know about refugees. We are sure that many of you know such stories, since the refugee crisis affects the whole world.
We are looking forward to receiving your pre-recorded or written contributions, which you can send by e-mail or by Facebook and of the other social networks on which RRI has a profile. Our address is RRI, 60-64 General Berthelot street, sector 1 Bucharest, PO BOX 111, postal code 010165, e-mail: [email protected]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who writes:
Yesterday, 4 October, was the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite. The launch heralded the beginning of the space age. Sputnik I’s Doppler-shifted radio transmissions on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz led to the development of the U.S. Navy Navigation Satellite System (Transit) and the equivalent Soviet system (Tsikada) and, eventually, to GPS and GLONASS and the other modern global navigation satellite systems.
The Sputnik I radio signals were picked up by many shortwave listeners. The 20 MHz signal was close to that of WWV and so was easy to find. And, apparently, WWV turned off its 20 MHz transmitter during some of Sputnik I’s passes over the U.S. so as not to interfere with reception.
There are several good sites on the Web with information about Sputnik I and its radio signals including:
(Click to enlarge)
Sometime in high school, I received a card from Radio Moscow celebrating the launch of Sputnik I [see above]. Perhaps it was issued in 1967 for the 10th anniversary of the launch.
Richard: You never cease to amaze me! Thank you so much for sharing all of this Sputnik I information and resources! That gorgeous QSL Card is perhaps my favorite design from Radio Moscow.