Category Archives: News

Listening across the globe: The 2019 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast

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Halley VI Research Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica (Source: British Antarctic Survey)

On Friday, 21 June 2019, the BBC World Service officially transmitted the 2019 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast–an international radio broadcast intended for a small group of scientists, technicians, and support staff who work for the British Antarctic Survey.

This is one of my favorite annual broadcasts, and I endeavor to listen every year. Once again, the SWLing Post called upon readers to make a short recording of the broadcast from their locale.

Below are the entries, roughly organized by continent and country/region. We had a total of  twenty seven recordings submitted from all seven continents this year–simply amazing!

Putting this post together takes almost a full dedicated day sorting recordings and formatting them for the Post.  If I’ve somehow missed including your entry, please contact me; I’ll amend this post.

So, without further ado we begin with a recording made in Antarctica at Germany’s Neumayer-Station III:

The 2019 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast Recordings

Antarctica

Neumayer Station III, Antarctica

SWL: Andreas Mueller, DL3LRM
Location: Neumayer-Station-III, Antarctica
Notes:

Hello Thomas,
Cheers from Antarctica, I am the radio operator and electronic
engineer of the 39th overwintering team at Germany’s Neumayer-Station
III. Thanks to your blog and post on Facebook I got aware of the
annual BBC broadcasts to Antarctica, and was able to sneak away from
the festivities to enjoy these 30 minutes. And would like to provide
a recording as requested by you.

SWL report by Andreas Mueller, DL3LRM
Location: 70°40’S, 008° 16’W, Neumayer-Station-III, Antarctica
Equipment: Yaesu-450D, Commercial Broadband Dipole 2x35m

The recording is about two minutes long, first 30 Seconds on 5875kHz,
then I switched to 7360kHz and remained there for the rest of the
show. I also have my little FT-817 running as a backup and control
unit, and it also confirmed that 7360kHz was the best frequency, with
S7 to S8 Signal strength, and some fading now and then. 5875kHz was
about S5, and I cannot remember hearing anything on 9455kHz, but I
have to admit that I checked that frequency only briefly.

Thanks again for bringing that broadcast to my attention, it really
was a special treat for me on that day.

73 de Andreas, DP0GVN/DL3LRM

Click here to download.

Asia

South Korea

SWL: Eric Young
Location: Anyang City, South Korea
Notes:

QTH: ANYANG CITY, SOUTH KOREA
FREQ: 7360kHz
ANT: ALA1530LNP
RCVR: G35DDC

Click here to view/listen.

Philippines

SWL: Vermont M. Coronel Jr.
Location: Manila, Philippines
Notes:

Recording of the 2019 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast. Signal was, I believe coming in from Ascension Island. Signal was very weak since the Sun was already above the horizon at the time of broadcast. I continued to listen for a few minutes and towards the end of the broadcast. I heard greetings from the relatives of those who are currently stationed in the Antarctic. This is a once a year special program to the scientists and support staff in the British Antarctic Survey Team. Received in Quezon City with a 45 foot antenna. -Vermont

Click here to view/listen via YouTube.

Europe

Finland

SWL: Jari Lehtinen
Location: Finland
Notes:

Reception from Ascension to day-less Antarctica in nightless Finland:

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

France

SWL: Gaétan Teyssonneau
Location: Marcheprime, France
Notes:

5875 & 7360 khz passé correctement sur mon tescun pl 310 ET mais 9455 kHz signal tres faibles voir inaudible chez moi.

7360 kHz:

5875 kHz:

Germany

SWL: Ollie (13dka)
Location: West coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Notes:

RX: Tecsun S-8800 with magmount telescopic whip on car roof. SINPO:

5875 kHz (WOF): 53554 (interference from utility station on 5870-5875 kHz)
7360 kHz (ASC): 55545 (hum on TX audio)
9455 kHz (WOF): 35534

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Italy

SWL: Giuseppe Morlè IZ0GZW
Location: Formia, Italy
Notes:

Excellent signal on all 3 frequencies used … even on the simple whip of the Tecsun 660 the listening was perfect.
Thanks and a greeting.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

SWL: Davide Borroni
Location: Saronno, Italy
Notes:

Ciao Thomas, I am Davide Borroni from Italy my city is Saronno . I send you my videos, made with my receivers: R&S EK 56, Siemens E401 and R1251. The signal on all three frequencies was excellent here in Italy. As an antenna I used a magnetic loop of 2 meters in diameter.
I hope you like my videos
73s

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

SWL: Renato IK0OZK
Location: Marta, Italy
Notes:

Hi Thomas.

I send my report to BBC Midwinter 2019.

Very good signal to all frequency + 20 Db !
Utc Time 21.30-20.00
Frequency 7.360-5.875-9.455
Setup: Rx jrc nrd 91, jrc nrd 545 dsp, WJ 8718-9, antenna loop Wellbrook ALA 1530.
Rx Marconi Marine Apollo and Zeppelin antenna 16.2 Mt.

Link to my blog with article and video of reception: https://ik0ozk-radio.blogspot.com/2019/06/bbc-midwinter-2019.html

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Gabriele Somma’s workstation

SWL: Gabriele Somma
Location: Province of Salerno, Italy
Notes:

[T]his year I send you the BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast reception on the three frequencies.

I use a Perseus SDR and Ala Antenna 1530. I am writing to you from Italy and precisely from the Province of Salerno near the mythical Amalfi Coast.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Malta

SWL: Adrian Micallef
Location: Malta
Notes:

[L]istened to the programme bbc antarctica on 5875 khz and 7360 khz sinfo 54554 both using a sangean ats 818 with a 27 metre antenna long wire. good job and wonderful broadcast. Sending mp3 recording.
Greeting from Malta
Adrian swl 9H4001SWL

Portugal

SWL: Nuno Oliveira
Location: Santarem, Portugal
Notes:

This is the video from Santarem, Portugal with the 3 frequencies.

The first video is a Tecsun PL-880 with a 1 meter aluminium rod outside and 12 meters of RG58 coax.

Click here to view on YouTube.

The second video is a Alinco R8E with horizontal wire and 15 RG58 coax.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Scotland

SWL: Steven
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Notes:

Here is a link to my youtube recording of this years BBC Antartic Midwinter broadcast.
All three signals were good readable at my location in Scotland.
The best reception I got was from Ascension Island on 7360 AM, as there was Ute QRM on 5875.
Details of my RX etc are on the youtube video.
Thanks again,
Regards and 73,
Steven

Click here to view on YouTube.

Spain

SWL: Jacinto
Location: Spain
Notes:

¡Hola Thomas!
Aqui los links de las recepciones desde España

Saludos y Feliz Cumpleaños

dx onda

1) https://youtu.be/sPEw9NizSi0 (With Antenna and without.)

2) https://youtu.be/cdLyINtHVbo

3) https://youtu.be/Ad8M7beIb9U (With Antenna and without.)

United Kingdom

SWL: Roseanna
Location: United Kingdom
Notes:

Equipment used: RTL-SDR blog v3 + 18m copper wire, location UK

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

SWL: Mark Hirst
Location: Hampshire, England

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Russia

SWL: Dmitry Elagin
Location: Saratov, Russia
Notes:

I listened at three frequencies 5875, 7360, and 9455 kHz at 21:50 UTC on Friday June 21, 2019.
The strongest signal was at a frequency of 7360 kHz.

Receiver: SDRplay RSP1
Noise Canceling Signal Enhancer:
Antenna 1: Long wire antenna 35 meters (115 ft) with MFJ-959C Antenna Tuner SWL and Preamp / MFJ-931 Artificial RF Ground
Antenna 2: Active loop antenna R2ATU
Receiver location: Saratov, Russia

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Israel

SWL: Moshe Zaharia
Location: Israel
Notes:

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Click here to view/listen on YouTube.

Saudi Arabia

SWL: Rawad Hamwi
Location: Saudi Arabia
Notes:

BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast for this year! It was amazing as usual.
The video is available on YouTube.

Date/Time: 21/6/2018 @ 21:30 UTC | 22/6/2018 @ 00:30 Arabian Standard Time (UTC+3)

Frequency: 7360 kHz

Receiver: Sony ICF-2010

Antenna: 30 LM Random Wire Antenna

Location: Turaif – Northern Borders Province – Saudi Arabia

Click here to view on YouTube.

North America

Canada

SWL: Richard Langley
Location: Hanwell, New Brunswick
Notes:
I obtained a good recording of the BAS broadcast here in New Brunswick, Canada, on 9455 kHz using a Tecsun PL-880 receiver outdoors at my house with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna strung to a nearby tree. Attached is a two-minute clip from the start of my recording. Also attached is a photo of the “listening post” at the back of my mosquito-infested backyard. Note the mosquito on the protective box housing the receiver and recorder!

You can hear my full half-hour recording, with more details on reception, on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive:

United States

SWL: Stan, WA1LOU
Location: Wolcott, CT
Notes:

https://youtu.be/3rGxxBMWiVw is “49 seconds of the 2019 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast as received at WA1LOU in Wolcott, CT, USA using an ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and Hy-Gain 18 AVT/WB-A vertical antenna. I programmed the four frequencies that were originally announced for the broadcast into the IC-R8600, but learned afterwords that only three were used (5875, 7360, 9455). I had solid copy on 9455 throughout the broadcast. 7360 had a lot of fading, but was still fair copy throughout the broadcast. 5875 was very poor copy during the last 10 minutes; there was no copy for the first 20 minutes.”

SWL: Bob (W2RWM)
Location: North Babylon, NY
Notes:

Receiving frequency was 7360 kHz. 5875 had a continuous buzz, 9455 was fading in and out too much to understand.

Location is on North Babylon, NY, USA

Equipment is a Yaesu FT-950 and an HyEndFed 80-10 meter antenna oriented North and South.

Hope this adds to the propagation summary.

Click here to download.

SWL: Don N7DCP
Location: South Africa (remotely controled from Idaho)
Notes:

This is Don, I am in southwest Idaho. Could only hear a slight carrier locally on 9455 MHz. So used a remote SDR in South Africa to record the audio file. Thanks and 73!

The GE 7-2990A (left) and Panasonic RF-B65 (right)

SWL: Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL
Location: Asheville, North Carolina
Notes:

Out of the the three Midwinter Broadcast frequencies (5875, 7360, and 9455 kHz), I could receive the 7,360 kHz signal from Ascension Island best.

Read my full report by clicking here.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Oceana

New Zealand

SWL: Chris Mackerell
Location: Marahau, New Zealand
Notes:

Here’s the first minute of the 2019 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast as heard here at my home in Marahau, New Zealand.

5875 is in USB to avoid the Stanag signal nearby, the others in Synchronous AM mode.

All three were easily readable here for the entire broadcast.

All received using the same Elad FDM-DUOr receiver & Wellbrook loop antenna.

South America

Brazil

SWL: Rodrigo de Araujo
Location: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Notes:

How are you? I’m PY4004SWL (Southeast Brazil).

For the first time I tried to listen to the BBC Solstice broadcast to Antarctica and it worked. The only problem is that I wrongly noted the 7350 frequency and with that I lost the Ascencion transmission in 7360, certainly the one that was best heard by the SWLs in my region. Still, I got “taped” 5875 and 9455, the latter with better results. I hope my recordings are useful to those who study propagation.

I have used two radios and 2 kinds of antennas that can be seen and a telescopic as well.

A) Sony SW7600GR

EF-SWL (End-fed):

9455/5875: https://youtu.be/sWgsojljqH4

9455: https://youtu.be/fJzBpiR1fS0

5875: https://youtu.be/HI4ZeNgVSQs

LOOPSTICK + Amplifier

5875: https://youtu.be/YCXdHqU2VyA

9455: https://youtu.be/mASlWRpvt5s

B) Tecsun PL310-ET

EF-SWL (End-fed)

5875: https://youtu.be/jDDu8yQ3CZc

9455: https://youtu.be/T7PsFFYMgb4

LOOPSTICK without amplifier:

9455: https://youtu.be/pctXFX4OUGA

http://youtu.be/x–Q8LvIWx0

5875: https://youtu.be/IVgezv9TE

TELESCOPIC

5875 https://youtu.be/9K6zxF0jKWo

9455: https://youtu.be/kR9NIjljSKk

Rodrigo de Araujo
Belo Horizonte
Brazil
PY4004SWL
www.ondasderadio.com.br

 

SWL: José Roberto da Silva Cunha
Location: Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Notes:
Geographical coordinates:
18 58´45´´ S
41 57´ 30´´ W
Grid locator: GH91ad

RX SONY ICF 2010
ANTENNA LONGWIRE 11 METERS

IN MY BLOG jrdxman.blogspot.com

Click here to watch on Vimeo.

Wow!

With the inclusion of Antarctica, this is the first year we’ve been sent reports from all continents!  Amazing!

Once again, many thanks to all of you who submitted your recordings of the BBC Midwinter Broadcast!

We’ll be sharing this post with both the British Antarctic Survey and the BBC World Service. And to all of you, from the SWLing Post: Happy (Belated) Midwinter! Happy Summer/Winter Solstice!

Do you enjoy the SWLing Post?

Please consider supporting us via Patreon or our Coffee Fund!

Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!

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TX Factor Episode 23

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(Source: TX Factor)

In episode 23 of TX factor we explore the process of music audio mastering at Mike Marsh G1IAR’s studio in south Devon. Mike shows us how the latest TX Factor theme tune was mixed and mastered, and demonstrates the process of cutting the audio onto vinyl disc – such nostalgia.

Nick Bennett 2E0FGQ visits the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park where Noel Matthews G8GTZ and Graham Shirville G3VZV demonstrate how set up and operate over the new geostationary satellite, Oscar 100. Plus, Bob McCreadie G0FGX visits the folks at Icom UK with a full review of Icom’s long-awaited VHF / UHF all-mode transceiver the IC-9700.

Click here to view Episode 23 on TX Factor’s website, or click here to watch on YouTube.

Thanks team for yet another excellent and informative episode, TX Factor!

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FTIOM & UBMP, July 28-August 3

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From the Isle of Music, July 28-August 3:
This week, our special guest is Athanai, whose album Regresar was the winner of the Contemporary Song category of Cubadisco 2019. .
The broadcasts take place:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in most of the Eastern Hemisphere (including parts of East Asia and Oceania) with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Sofia, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
If you don’t have a shortwave radio or are out of range, you can listen live to an uplink from a listening radio in the Netherlands during the broadcast at
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/?tune=9400am
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC (New UTC) on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US).
If you don’t have a shortwave or are out of range, you can listen to a live stream from the WBCQ website here (choose 7490)
http://www.wbcq.com/?page_id=7
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
If you don’t have a shortwave radio or are out of range, you can listen live to an uplink from a listening radio in the Netherlands during the broadcast at
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/?tune=6070am

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, July 28 and 30, 2019:
Episode 123 brings you some beautiful music from Mali.
The transmissions take place:
1.Sundays 2200-2230 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
If you don’t have a shortwave or are out of range, you can listen to a live stream from the WBCQ website here (choose 7490)
http://www.wbcq.com/?page_id=7
2. Tuesdays 2000-2030 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe.
If you don’t have a shortwave radio or are out of range, you can listen live to an uplink from a listening radio in the Netherlands during the broadcast at
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/?tune=6070am

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Review of the C.Crane CC Buds Solo In-Ear Single Earbud (and a chance to win one!)

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A few weeks ago, C. Crane sent me one of their newest radio accessories: the CC Buds Solo Single Earbud.

Here’s the description from the C.Crane product page:

Single Earbud Optimized For Voice

The CC Buds™ Solo single earpiece provides a unique advantage over traditional earbuds because it allows you to interact better with others while listening to radio, podcasts or audiobooks (your boss will love you). The integrated stereo to mono plug works with smartphones, radios, tablets, and most other audio devices.

The Solo can give you a safety advantage when running, biking, or walking because you are more likely to hear if danger approaches. The cable is Kevlar™ reinforced for maximum durability. It is perfect for scanner radio listening. Can work well for law enforcement when greater awareness is needed.

Audio is tuned for superior voice clarity. Included are three silicone and three compressible foam covers––sized small, medium, and large. The small covers usually fits a small ear comfortably. Standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. Cord Length 48″.

At first blush, the idea of a single earpiece smacks of vintage solid-state radios. I’ve a number of classic portables that were designed around a hard-plastic single earpiece–anyone else remember those?

In fact, my Sony ICF-5500W (above) even has a little compartment to house its custom earpiece.

The Sony ICF-550W’s unforgiving 1970s era earpiece.

In my youth, I carried a hard plastic single earpiece with me everywhere, especially at school, because it made listening to the radio and still having some situational awareness possible. [Unfortunately, I was known to listen to the radio during classes…what a renegade I was back then!]

If you, too, used those hard plastic earpieces, I doubt you’d have ever described them as “comfortable.” I never found them even remotely so. Those earpieces were functional, but the audio they produced was tinny and it was always difficult to keep them in my ear.

Think of the CC Buds Solo as the earpiece we all wish we could have had back then!

The Solo includes numerous earpiece options, a carry bag and owner’s manual.

Here are some of the CC Buds Solo pros:

  • The audio quality is superb for spoken word
  • The earpiece is very comfortable (see notes below)
  • The audio plug allows for mono listening on stereo devices (obviously a must in 2019)
  • Features a super-strong Kevlar-reinforced cord
  • Includes a clothing clip that acts as strain relief
  • Ships with a small, soft carry bag

So does the Solo deliver what it promises? Yes, it does.

What I really love is the number of soft silicon and foam earpieces that ship with the Solo: a total of seven options, when including the default earpiece.

If you’ve ever used in-ear earbuds, you’ll understand the importance of swapping out the soft earpieces to a size that best suits your ears––that is, to a size that makes for a comfortable seal.

The Solo might also be useful if your hearing is a bit better in one ear than the other.

Unlike single earpieces of old, it’s actually a pleasure to use the CC Buds Solo earpiece.

Before using the Solo, I would often wear only the right earpiece of my stereo earbuds when I needed to be able to hear the environment around me. This obviously isn’t ideal because the left earpiece would dangle, catch on my shirt or otherwise get in the way, and often lead to jerking out the right earpiece. Not to mention, it led to an awkward muffling (or altogether missing) of some of the sound in that other dangling earbud when stereo sound is split or processed differently for each ear. Clearly, not the best way to listen.

Note the adjustable clothing clip.

Now, when I’m driving, working, or walking, I can use the Solo clipped it to my shirt; it’s a more simple and annoyance-proof solution that allows for greater mobility and permits me to hear all of the intended sound.

I’ve only used the Solo for spoken word; primarily AM/SW broadcast band listening and for listening to podcasts.

These days, while I’ve been at work on a home renovation, podcasts have become an essential part of my day by helping me pass the time while painting, sanding, cleaning, mowing, doing yard work, or carrying out other tedious tasks. A good podcast definitely keeps it fun. The Solo makes podcast listening easy.

And of course, the Solo is also a great solution for listening to audio books, too.

I’ll admit, when I first saw the product announcement for the CC Buds Solo, I was curious if there’d still be a market for a mono earpiece. I suppose I proved it, myself, as I have found it quite useful when I don’t need the total isolation or stereo sound from two in-ear earbuds.

Well played, C.Crane!

Click here to check out the CC Buds Solo Single Earbud at C.Crane.

Win a CC Buds Solo!

C.Crane kindly sent me two samples of the CC Buds Solo at no cost to me. I’ve used one for evaluation purposes and C.Crane is kindly allowing me to give the other away to a lucky SWLing Post reader.

Here’s how you can enter our Solo giveaway!

As I mentioned, I consume a lot of podcasts these days. Here are just a few you might want to check out:

What are your favorite podcasts or radio shows?

Please leave a comment with some of your favorite podcasts or radio shows for a chance to win! Next Tuesday (July 30, 2019) I’ll pick a winner at random from the comments section and ship them a brand new CC Buds Solo single earpiece courtesy of C.Crane!

Click here to leave your comment!

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KCRW’s 24-Hour Radio Race: August 10 to 11, 2019

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Many thanks to Grace Atlee with KCRW who shares the following announcement:

KCRW’s 7th Annual 24-hour Radio Race begins at 10 a.m. PST August 10 and lasts through 10 a.m. PST August 11. The Radio Race is great way for storytellers of all experience levels to break out of their daily routines and make a four-minute audio piece overnight. Winners get a cash prize, plus other perks like a free year-long membership to AIR and PRX. You’ll have just 24 hours to write, record and edit a four-minute nonfiction radio story. You can join as an individual or as a team of your creation. KCRW will air the top three winning pieces, and this time around, one team’s piece will be chosen to air on our newest podcast Nocturne. And remember: the Radio Race is more than just an overnight competition. It’s an opportunity to produce the most original piece of radio anyone will hear in 2019. Think big, people!

Registration here: kcrw.com/radiorace

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Atlas Obscura: Time to update the Spelling Alphabet?

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Image by Annie Spratt

Photo by Annie Spratt

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors, Paul Evans and Eric McFadden, who share this article from Atlas Obscura where author Dan Nosowitz asks if it’s time to update the spelling (a.k.a. phonetic) alphabet:

WHEN SOMEONE ON THE PHONE—THE doctor’s office, the bank, the credit card company—asks for my name, I always offer to spell it out—it’s a pretty uncommon surname. So far as I know, there are somewhere between 10 and 20 Nosowitzes in the world, and they’re all closely related to me. Because it’s uncommon, and because it would be a problem if my bank writes my name down as “Moskowitz,” I err on the side of caution. “N as in Nancy, O, S as in Samuel, O, W, I, T as in Thomas, Z as in Zebra,” I chant.

This uses what is what’s called a “spelling alphabet,” or, confusingly, a “phonetic alphabet.” (The latter is confusing because it has little to do with phonemes, or a unit of sound in a language. Plus there’s the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is something else entirely.) The history of spelling alphabets is fascinating and winding, but it’s notable that there hasn’t been an official update to the most commonly used English version in about half a century. We might be in need of one. As mobile phones have replaced landlines, call quality has, strangely, gone down. The general connectivity of the world—including the ease of international video calls and the use of foreign call centers—means that spelling out a name or word is an increasingly common practice. A modern, updated, globally friendly English spelling alphabet would be pretty useful right now, but getting people to use one might be harder than you’d think.

[…]For about 80 years, governments and corporations futzed with these spelling alphabets, and learned that some stuff didn’t work—it turns out, for example, that “Lima” is also the Malay word for the number five. A tremendous amount of research, time, and money was invested into figuring out the optimal spelling alphabet—at least for the three languages that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, the United Nations agency that handles air transportation) felt significant enough to have one (English, French, and Spanish). The ICAO scrambled, using researchers across the globe on the problem, and by 1959 had finalized what is today probably the best-known spelling alphabet: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and so on. (As a side note: “Alfa” is not a typo. The whole “ph equals f” thing is confusing, and reasonably so, for non-English speakers. The same goes for the alphabet’s J—Juliett with a doubled final letter so the French won’t say “Juliay.”)

That is the now the standard alphabet for organizations including NATO (which often lends its name to the alphabet), the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, the International Amateur Radio Union, and pretty much any international group that wants or needs a standard. It’s certainly the most commonly used spelling alphabet in the world, but it is, as most of these alphabets are, exceedingly Anglocentric.[…]

Click here to continue reading the full article at Atlas Obscura.

Thanks for sharing this, Eric and Paul!

Funny story: Last week, I visited my parents and started cooking a nice dinner. Ten minutes into baking a roasted vegetable dish, the oven’s temperature started rising unexpectedly because the oven’s control board  (turns out) could no longer receive the temperature probe data. Its fail safe was to shut down the oven completely.

After a little online research, I found the parts that had most likely failed, so I pulled the oven away from the wall, disassembled the back panel, evaluated the parts, gathered the model number, and called a local appliance parts store.

When the associate answered the phone I described the problem and the parts I might need. He agreed with my diagnosis, so asked for the oven’s 16 character model number :

Me: LWZTF700…

Him: LWCDF700…???

Me: Sorry, let me try again. Lima Whiskey Zulu Tango Foxtrot…

Him: Excellent! I copy that. Say, were you in the military?

Me: Ha ha… No, I’m a ham radio operator.

Him: I am too! My call sign is….

He then proceeded to give me their best price on the parts.

I’m sure he hears variations of the spelling/phonetic alphabet multiple times a day and appreciates it when his customers use the one most widely accepted!

For your reference, here’s the standard spelling alphabet currently accepted by NATO, the FAA, and the IARU:

(Source: Wikimedia)

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Vatican Radio’s Brazilian Portuguese language programming returns

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following news via Zenit.org:

“The Brazilian program of Vatican Radio-Vatican News resumes its short-wave transmissions in the Amazon region,” announced the portal of Vatican News in Brazilian today, Monday, July 15, 2019, given the proximity of the holding of the Synod for Amazonia (October 6-27, on the theme: “New Ways for the Church and For An Integral Ecology.”

“For over 61 years, Brazil has been listening to the Pope’s voice through Vatican Radio. On August 1, after a period of absence, the Brazilian program of the papal station will return to Amazonia in short wave,” announced the same source.

And it adds: “Thus Vatican Radio-Vatican News shows its attention to an important region of Brazil, for which the radio is its main means of communication. The Pope’s voice will be listened to again on radio by more than 25 million people, who live in this lung of the planet. The decision to broadcast in short wave responds to the geographic reality of Amazonia.”

Vatican News recalls: “Created in March of 1958, twenty-seven years after the foundation of Vatican Radio, on February 12, 1931, the Brazilian program has followed seven pontificates, from Pius XII to Francis. At present, the Brazilians of Vatican Radio-Vatican News offer a wide gamut of daily programs in a multi-media style through different platforms: radio, Web and social networks.”

It also recalled: “On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, in March 2008, Benedict XVI expressed his gratitude to the said program for the inestimable service of proclaiming the Gospel and promoting communion between the Church and the people of Brazil.”

Click here to read the full article at Zenit.org.

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