Category Archives: News

Today is World Radio Day: Support a Cause via Shortwave Radio

Shortwave Radio Listeners may occasionally feel that their hobby is a passive one–one of simply listening. I’m here to tell you that it is not.

SWLers are among the more enlightened of media hobbyists, and here’s why: 1) they tend to be intensely curious about the world, 2) they tend to cultivate a nostalgic appreciation of the past, of the world’s history and what it teaches, and 3) as a result, they understand the power that radio still holds for much of our world today, especially those the not-so-world-wide internet has forgotten or overlooked, and those that political strife oppresses.

This World Radio Day, you can change that false label of “passive” to active, and create change by contributing to a charity near and dear to my heart–Ears To Our World (ETOW).

ETOW is a shortwave radio charity that sends self-powered shortwave radios to schools and communities in third world countries. This is because ETOW believes that access to information is access to education.

In other words, every day is World Radio Day at ETOW.

Children in South Sudan listening to music on their self-powered shortwave radio supplied by Ears To Our World.

Click here to donate to Ears To Our World, and make World Radio Day a lasting reality for needy schools throughout our world.

Happy World Radio Day! To quote ETOW’s tagline: Listen and learn.

More power to you, SWLers.

The Guardian on World Radio Day: celebrating an unsung hero

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(Source: The Guardian)

Radio is the predominant source of information in areas of the world that are sometimes too remote to get a newspaper delivered, let alone access the internet. This is why Unesco has noted that radio is a “low-cost medium, specifically suited to reach remote communities and vulnerable people”.

Attention given to technology for information communications has recently been captivated by web-based applications, especially “new” or “social media”. But about 65% of the world’s 7 billion people do not use the internet. In addition to those who are offline due to lack of access, there are also those who are unaware, unable or simply do not want to use social media.

People listen to the radio in their cars, on the move and at work. Radios don’t require large amounts of electricity, and wind-up radios don’t need an electrical source at all. Moreover, radio reaches large groups of people, being easily shared among families or listener groups. It is a medium often used as a focal point for community discussion on subjects including politics, elections and service provision. Radio efficiently reaches large audiences in real time. [continue reading…]

This will be filed under our ever-growing category, “Why Radio?”

Read the full article at The Guardian.

New shortwave radio station, Madagascar World Voice Radio, to begin testing this year

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An update on the Madagascar World Voice Radio station via Glenn Hauser and the DX Listening Digest:

(Source: DX Listening Digest)

Gayle Crowe, the VP of Programming, World Christian Broadcasting [see our previous post] via DX Listening Digest: “The transmitters are sitting on the dock in Houston awaiting the ship that will take them to the west side of Madagascar. Best estimates are that the trip will take between 60 and 90 days. Once they make it through customs (which sometimes has been a lengthy, uncertain process) and are in place at the station, a technician will have to come from Continental Electronics to install them. Best case scenario for the beginning of testing is probably June 1.”

(Source: FinnDXer)

A new short wave radio wills start this spring or next summer in the Indian Ocean, “Madagascar World Voice Radio” broadcasting from Mahajanga on seven frequencies:
7355, 9565, 9585, 11870, 13630, 13635 and 13650 kHz.
Madagascar World Voice (MWV) is a member of World Christian Broadcasting Corporation (WCBC) in Nashville Tennessee (USA).

TEST SCHEDULE FREQUENCIES 2012
06H00-06H30 UT 7355
06H30-07H00 UT 9565
07H00-07H30 UT 11870
07H30-08H00 UT 13635
08H00-08H30 UT 9565
08H30-09H00 UT 11870
09H00-09H30 UT 13630
10H30-11H00 UT 9585
11H00-11H30 UT 11870
11H30-12H00 UT 13650
(Bernard Grondin via dxld)

Guardian article on “the rise and rise of radio”

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(Source: Susanna Rustin, The Guardian)

What is it about radio that has made it so durable, and able to coexist not only through the age of television, but the age of new media too? As social networking giant Facebook prepares to float itself and raise an astonishing £5bn, what has enabled radio to stand its ground?

[…]Radio can be made at a fraction of the cost of television, meaning that programme-makers, DJs and entrepreneurs can all have a crack at it. Commercial broadcasters as well as the BBC value it as an incubator for future TV talent. Added to which, radios themselves are cheap, and all over the place: by people’s beds, in the bathroom, in the car.

“Despite the fact you think we’re a visually saturated culture, there are all sorts of places where you get radio and nothing else. The technology of radio is cheap, simple and idiot-proof, and older listeners in particular are going to be very reluctant to let it go,” says [Mark] Damazer.

[…]There is a confidence among many of those who work in radio that what they do will carry on. We remain attached to radio and its rhythms, to the hum and the sound of it. And we get attached to the people who present it, when we don’t violently take against them. Radio is personal.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Another article filed under “why radio?”

Read Rustin’s full article at The Guardian website.

The Voice of America turns 70

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(Source: Diplomatic Courier)

“The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” – William Harlan Hale; February 1, 1942

Such began the first broadcast of a small team of dedicated men transmitting live from a claustrophobic New York City studio into Nazi Germany. Their group had no name, although their first broadcast was titled Stimmen aus Amerika—Voices from America. The equipment they used was borrowed. They had no direction as to what they would broadcast, except the truth. At that moment, the United States stepped into a role as guardian of the power of ideas and honest messenger of information to all corners of the world.

From the very beginning, the Voice of America has held at its core the mission to present to the world the policies and culture of the United States, while reporting on global news events accurately, clearly, and objectively. It has been one of the U.S.’s most effective public relations initiatives. All around the world, the Voice of America is highly respected as an honest and fair messenger, and in many places, as the only comprehensive source of news free from propaganda. From Nazi Germany to Communist Eastern Europe to Kim Jong Il’s North Korea, VOA has often been the only connection to the outside world that people of repressive regimes have. […]

Today, VOA broadcasts through the Internet, television, and a network of AM, FM, and shortwave radio signals. The approximately 1500 hours of programs per week include features on American culture, learning English, international news, discussion programs, and regionally focused programs to address the needs of the local populations. VOA broadcasts in 43 languages, televising programs in 26 of those, and reaches 141 million people weekly. All this makes VOA one of the largest multimedia news organizations in the world.

Read the full story at the Diplomatic Courier website.

NPR explains space weather and the CME heading our way

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(Source: SpaceWeather.com)

I think this is one of the best, simple explanations of space weather that I’ve seen lately:

(Source: NPR)

Space weather, as it is called, originates with solar magnetic activity. The sun is a giant spinning ball of charged particles. In addition to its spin, the heat released from the core through nuclear fusion eventually sets the upper layers of the sun into a kind of boiling motion called convection. All that motion — spin and convection — means lots of charged particles streaming this way and that. Since current (the flow of charges) produces magnetic fields, the outer domains of the sun are ruled by magnetism. Magnetic fields are the source of all those cool images of giant flares erupting in planet-spanning arcades of super-hot plasma. It’s also the source of so-called Coronal Mass Ejections or CMEs, which are, essentially, the space storms that space weather is all about.

CMEs are eruptions of matter and magnetism from the sun into space. A typical CME will blow 10 billion kilograms (about 22 billion pounds) of solar plasma into space along with enough energy to represent a flotilla of 220 aircraft carriers moving at 500 km/s. The fact the CME’s are quite common says a lot about the power locked up in an ordinary star like the sun.

While 1 to 3 CMEs may occur every day, we only the notice the ones that slam into the Earth on their journey across the solar system. When a CME crosses the Earth it runs into our planet’s own magnetic field. Charged particles from the CME get trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and stream down toward the planet’s surface near the poles.

When those CME particles, running down magnetic field lines, strike atmospheric gas atoms, the collisions cause the atoms to light up like Christmas tree bulbs. That is the origin of the simmering walls of color we called aurora. There was a time when pretty lights were all there was to space weather. Those days are over.

Read the full article on NPR’s website.

Large Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) to hit earth January 24th

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(Source: SpaceWeather.com)

CME‘s have a very negative effect on shortwave radio. This particular CME is the largest to hit earth in 7 years–certain high-flying airplanes may even be re-routed. On the positive note, the strong ensuing geo-magnet storms should create some beautiful aurorasin northern latitudes. More details:

(Source: Space Weather)

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft detected a CME rapidly emerging from the blast site: movie. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab say the leading edge of the CME will reach Earth on Jan. 24 at 14:18UT (+/- 7 hours). Their animated forecast track shows that Mars is in the line of fire, too; the CME will hit the Red Planet during the late hours of Jan. 25.
This is a relatively substantial and fast-moving (2200 km/s) CME. Spacecraft in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing through Earth’s ring current and auroral regions could be affected by the cloud’s arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.