Category Archives: News

FTIOM & UBMP, July 7-13

From the Isle of Music, July 7-13:
This week, we listen to some of the International Prize winners of Cubadisco 2019. Some of the music is classical, and some of it is for dancing.
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 7 and 9:
Episode 120 examines US protest songs from different decades.
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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Grand Solar Minimum may lie ahead according to an article in Nature

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(Image: NASA)

(Source: ARRL News)

A juried research paper in Nature, “Oscillations of the baseline of solar magnetic field and solar irradiance on a millennial timescale,” suggests that a “grand solar minimum” — similar to the legendary “Maunder Minimum” — is approaching, starting as early as next year and lasting for three solar cycles. That would be bad news for HF enthusiasts, who are already struggling with marginal conditions.

As the paper’s abstract explains, “Recently discovered long-term oscillations of the solar background magnetic field associated with double dynamo waves generated in inner and outer layers of the Sun indicate that the solar activity is heading in the next three decades (2019–2055) to a Modern grand minimum similar to Maunder one.”

As propagation buff and contester Frank Donovan, W3LPL, observed, “It’s very uncertain if this forecast is correct, but as usual the forecasts of the next solar cycle are all over the map. Let’s hope these scientists are wrong.”

Click here to read this article via the ARRL News.

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LightSail 2 to transmit Morse Code ID on 437.025 MHz

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(Source: Southgate ARC and ARRL)

The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 CubeSat, launched on June 25, will transmit Morse code from space.

LightSail is a citizen-funded project to send a small spacecraft, propelled solely by sunlight, into Earth’s orbit. The innovative satellite is due to be deployed on July 2 from Prox-1, a Georgia Tech student-built spacecraft the size of a small washing machine.

Once deployed, LightSail 2 will automatically transmit a beacon packet every few seconds, which can be decoded into 238 lines of text telemetry describing the spacecraft’s health and status, including everything from battery status to solar sail deployment motor state. Every 45 seconds, the spacecraft will transmit “LS2” on the spacecraft’s frequency of 437.025 MHz, within the Amateur Radio 70-centimeter band.

Further details can be found online at,
http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/ .[…]

Click here to read the full article at the Southgate ARC.

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Encore – Classical Music on Shortwave on Sunday

Can you identify this Hallicrafters model onboard the Columbine III?

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The Lockheed VC-121E “Columbine III” (Image Source: USAF Museum)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Yowell, who writes:

I was visiting the US Air Force Museum [Friday] and walked through “Columbine III” which was the Lockheed Constellation used as Air Force One by President Eisenhower from 1954 until he left office. In the back of the cabin was a nice cozy area where this Hallicrafters receiver was installed – ostensibly for the passengers to listen to news or other events while in flight.

I am sure one of your readers will be able to identify which model it is.

Can you imagine flying in this gorgeous Lockheed VC-121E four prop aircraft and listening to HF radio from a built-in Hallicrafters set? Wow…

Thank you, Robert, for sharing these photos. The National Museum of the US Air Force is one of my favorite museums in the world. I bet I’ve visited it more than a dozen times over the past decade–always a treat and always something new to discover!

Post readers: Can you identify this Hallicrafters model? Please comment!

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Russia to test DRM over FM

Radio México Internacional to disappear

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tracy Wood, who writes:

Radio México Internacional will disappear (again)…web stream to sadly go away.

Tracy referenced this article (in Spanish) from El Sol de México. The following excerpt was translated to English via Google Translate:

A grim picture was presented to employees and workers of the Mexican Institute of Radio (IMER), since the budget cut would technically lead to “paralysis” and a labor liability of seven million pesos before the dismissals.

In an audio, which was obtained by El Sol de México, the workers and collaborators were explained that “the IMER does not have the capacity to hire anyone. Neither in fees nor as a freelance, ” he says.

[…]But the recount of the damages that the IMER will have for the lack of resources is that “four stations will disappear in their entirety: Radio Mexico International, World Music, HD Interference and Digital Jazz. There will be no hearing advocate, which is why article 259 of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law is not followed. “

Very sad news. While RMI hasn’t been on the shortwaves since 2004, they have maintained a web presence.

Thank you for sharing, Tracy.

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