Category Archives: News

VOA Expands In South/Central America

Facing a group of presidents loudly critical of Washington, the U.S. government’s Voice of America broadcast is expanding its audience in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, VOA officials say.

VOA’s Spanish-language division also will step up its use of Radio/TV Martí’s production facilities in Miami because of budget pressures on both broadcasters, the officials added.

[…]”Our focus is on the Andean region because of the upheavals that are going on there,” said Spanish division director Alberto Mascaro. “Our second priority is Central America, especially Nicaragua and Honduras.”

Read the full report via The Miami Herald.

Passport To World Band Radio No Longer In Print

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A message from Larry Magne posted on PTWBR’s website:

Thanks for your many kind and helpful comments, which have touched us greatly.

Alas, although the long-term future of IBS’ activities continues to be mulled over, there will definitely be no printed 2010 edition of Passport to World Band Radio. At this juncture it appears nearly as certain that online options aren’t going to be feasible, either. Nonetheless, the Japanese-language (only) Blue Pages for 2010 will be offered within Japan, as in the past, by [email protected] later this year.

As one comment mentioned, this is much like the passing of a good friend. PTWBR was one of the first frequency guides I used for the shortwave bands.

Fear not– the World Radio and TV Handbook (WRTH) is still very much alive and well and I use it almost daily. I wrote a post about this fine publication and how it differs from PTWBR. Their 2010 edition can be pre-ordered now.

For a good article on coping without PTWBR, check out this post by Helmuth Kump.

We’ll Miss You, Harry Helms

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Harry Helms at 13,000 feet on Wheeler Peak. Photo courtesy of Harry's Blog.

Noted author and radio enthusiast, Harry Helms (callsign W5HLH) passed away on Sunday November 15, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. He was only 57 years old.

Harry wrote numerous articles and books focusing on SWLing, amateur radio and many other technical matters. He was a mentor to many radio operators and will be sorely missed.

For more information about Harry Helms, please check out the links below:

Radio Australia Now in Burmese

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For the first time in 15 years, Radio Australia has added a new language service to better serve Burma. From the Australian Network News:

Mr [Hanh] Tran [Radio Australia’s Chief Executive] told Radio Australia’s Connect Asia program that the creation of the Burmese service expands the broadcaster’s brief to provide impartial news and information to the region.

“Our audience has always been those who are in developing countries. Their access to information is limited, for reasons of poor infrastructure, or state control, or sometimes the reasons relate to stability in the region”…

The new service went into effect Monday, November 9, 2009 and can be heard seven days a week on 12010 and 17665 kHz. Read the full story here.

New Shortwave Station in China

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It’s not often we see the launch of new shortwave radio stations. This one is a part of a the new Beibu Bay Radio–a station created by China Radio International and Guangxi People’s Radio.

Listeners around the world can hear BBR on 5050 kHz and 9820 kHz.

Thanks to RNW’s Media Network for bringing this to our attention–their full report can be found here.

Radio St. Helena Day – November 14th, 2009

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Radio St. Helena has announced that their annual Radio St. Helena Day will be held on November 14th, 2009. If you would like to try your shortwave listening skills, this is a fun event indeed. DXers around the world try to tune into the annual broadcast and snag St. Helena’s unique QSL card.

Below is the full press release from Radio St. Helena:

Radio St. Helena Day 2009 will be on Saturday, 14. November 2009.

The “Party On-The-Air” will have the following schedule.
Time in UTC Target Area(s)
20:00 – 21:00 India / Southeast Asia
21:00 – 22:00 Japan / Asia
22:00 – 23:30 Europe
23:30 – 01:00 North America / Central America / Caribbean
The transmission will be on 11092.5 KHz in Upper Side Band, as usual.

Radio St. Helena is very pleased to announce that the newly designed RSD 2009 QSL cards will be sponsored by the highly respected Japan Short Wave Club. This good news has been reported by Mr. T. Ohtake of the JSWC. It can truly be said, that without the very generous help of the JSWC, there would not have been a RSD Revival in 2006.

To get a QSL from Radio St. Helena, you must send a written and verifiable reception report
by AIRMAIL and include sufficient return postage. Email-reports will be not be verified. Recordings will not be returned. In EURO-countries, please send a 5-Euro banknote. Otherwise, please send 3 or more US dollar banknotes to cover the required return postage.
Radio St. Helena
P.O. Box 93
Jamestown , St. Helena
STHL 1ZZ
South Atlantic Ocean
—————————–
via AIRMAIL
via United Kingdom & Ascension
————————————————
The last two lines of the above address are very important and should be written as shown. Be sure to use sufficient postage on your letter to RSH. Ask at your local post office for the correct AIRMAIL postage for your letter to go all the way to St. Helena.
Emails and telephone calls from DXers everywhere are very welcome during the broadcasts.
A special email address for RSD 2009 will, probably, be announced in October.
Gary Walters and his Team at RSH wish everyone excellent listening conditions, hope that you enjoy the programming, and hope that the sunspots will be kinder to us this year.

With best 73’s,

Robert Kipp

(source: Radio St. Helena)

02 Nov 09: Note that the special email address for this event is:

radio.announcements4669 (at) msn.com

Click here to see St. Helena's remote location in the South Atlantic Ocean. (Map coutesy of Wikipedia)

Zimbabwe needs shortwave radio and text messages

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From Journalism.co.uk:

“We just need old media. We just need radio. We just need people to be allowed to listen to radio,” explains Gerry Jackson, the founder of Zimbabwean radio station SW Radio Africa (SWRA).

“Shortwave and text messages are only real way to get into Zimbabwe…[b]ecause our focus is on serving people in the country,” explains Jackson.

Read the full article here.