Category Archives: Schedules and Frequencies

Radio Australia: transmitter maintenance will lead to disruption of service for some listeners

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(Source: Radio Australia via Keith Perron)

Details of an interruption to our shortwave services to Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia and the south west Pacific for Thursday April 19th.

This is an important announcement for shortwave listeners.

Due to essential transmitter maintenance, some broadcasts to Indonesia, PNG and the Western Pacific will not be available TODAY Thursday April 19th .

This will affect short wave broadcasts to: East Indonesia; French broadcasts to the south-west Pacific and numerous broadcasts to PNG and the central Pacific region.

The work will commence at 5am Jakarta time, 8am in Port Moresby, 9am in Port Vila, 10am in Suva, and is expected to take up to eight hours.

Some Pacific listeners will still be able to hear us 9660, or 12080 kHz.

Radio Australia’s FM, satellite and web streaming services will continue as normal. So you can still hear us on FM and the web.

The following shortwave frequencies will be suspended between 0800-1600 Melbourne time (2200-0600 UT):

  • 13630, 15515, 17715 & 17795 kHz to the south Pacific;
  • 13690 & 21725 kHz to PNG,
  • 15240 kHz to Solomons & Vanuatu
  • 11695, 15415 & 17750 kHz to east Indonesia (in Indonesian & English).

DXing With Cumbre Episodes 717-721

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DXing with Cumbre programs 717-721 are now available as mp3 downloads.

Here are the links:

DXing with Cumbre, for those of you who are not familiar, is an excellent program for anyone interested in the shortwave radio listening hobby. Best of all, it’s free to everyone!

ShortwaveSchedule.com: An up-to-date online frequency/broadcaster database for shortwave radio

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ShortwaveSchedule.com's interface is easy to use and read. (Click to enlarge)

There are a number of online shortwave frequency databases out there, but until recently, I was never satisfied with any one single site. Some of the more user-friendly sites are horribly out-of-date and many of the up-to-date sites are difficult to navigate when you’re in a hurry. After all, it’s one thing to view schedules in a book like WRTH or the Worldwide Listening Guide, where you can touch the page and make notes; it’s a much different experience to scroll down frequency listings on your computer monitor.

I’ve been using a new shortwave schedule database recently called ShortwaveSchedule.com, and I must say, I’m very pleased with it. This site combines several useful features into one shortwave schedule database that have previously not belonged to any one site.

This site makes it easy to search by frequency for quick ID and for a full listing of what is broadcasting at that moment.

This site’s database allows you to search:

  • By broadcaster
  • By frequency
  • By what’s on the air “now”

These are the most common searches I use when I need a quick identification. The site is basically an online version of Aoki’s Bi Newsletter shortwave transmission database.

Best yet, the site’s owner, VAXXi, tries to continuously improve the site and is even open to suggestions from users. I made a suggestion recently and received a quick response.  The site author also created a very helpful online user guide and updates the homepage with version notes.

Anyway, check out the site and feel free to comment, to note your favorite online schedule site, or make suggestions.

World Radio TV Handbook 2012 contest

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This beautiful book could be yours!

UPDATE: This contest is now closed and the winner will be announced soon. Thank you so much to all who participated! We will do more contests in the future as we occasionally have extra shortwave radio supplies/books. We’re thinking of “name that interval signal” contests and other fun events. If you have any suggestions, or if you are a retailer who would like to contribute a prize, please contact us.  Thanks!  -Thomas

We just so happen to have an extra copy of the 2012 WRTH (World Radio and TV Handbook) here at the SWLing Post HQ.  So, we’ve decided it would be fun to share it with a SWLing Post reader who would like a copy of this excellent resource–which also happens to be a great read, featuring many articles that we’re sure you’ll enjoy.

And since the SWLing Post recently opened a Facebook account, this little contest will be a great way to spark some interest there.

How can you win?  Simply “like” us on Facebook–before 12:00 UTC on April 11, 2012–and you will automatically be entered to win the 2012 WRTH. We’ll pick a reader at random and notify the winner via Facebook.

Then, simply send us your postal address, and we’ll pop this in the mail to you. And though we may regret the postage (this is a heavy book!) this contest  is open to anyone on the planet!

If you’re not familiar with the newest edition of the WRTH, check out our recent review.

Click here to go to our Facebook page now!

WWVB conducting tests on air now through March 10

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WWV building in Fort Collins, Colorado (photo courtesy: NIST)

(Source: NIST)

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR WWVB RADIO STATION USERS
Radio Station WWVB will be conducting a test of a new broadcast format from Monday, March 5th, 2012 at 5 p.m. MST through Saturday, March 10th at noon MST.

During the test, Station WWVB will be broadcasting amplitude modulation and phase modulation simultaneously.

This test may affect WWVB timing equipment, but consumer radio-controlled clocks should work fine during this test.

You are encouraged to direct your questions to the Broadcast Manager John Lowe: 303-497-5453 or [email protected]

NIST radio station, WWVB, is located on the same site as WWV near Fort Collins, Colorado. WWVB broadcasts are used by consumer electronic products like wall clocks, clock radios, and wristwatches which sync to its unique time code broadcast stream. WWVB is also used for high level applications such as network time synchronization and frequency calibrations.

Though the tests are being conducted over 5 days, timing may be less than desirable considering the pending solar flare.

Updates to the WRTH B11 schedules are now available for download

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The World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) B11 schedules updates file is now available to download, free of charge, from the WRTH website. This is a comprehensive update and supplement to the printed 2012 WRTH.

Scandinavian Weekend Radio–catch it on shortwave

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SWR (Scandinavian Weekend Radio) is one hip shortwave broadcaster–they’re grass-roots, people-driven and format-free. SWR has been on the air since 2000 and they were, at the time, Scandinavia’s first and only privately owned shortwave radio station.

SWR is not an easy catch for those of us outside of Europe, but with propagation better than it has been in the past few years, it certainly makes for fun DX.

When can you catch SWR? They typically broadcast on the first Saturday of every month for 24 hours, starting 2:00 UTC.

They are scheduled to operate on the following dates:

January 13th-14th 2012,
February 3rd-4th 2012
March 2nd-3rd 2012

You’ll find SWR on the following shortwave frequencies: 11,720 kHz, 11,690 kHz, 5,980 kHz and 6,170 kHz.

Let us know if you hear them! We’d like to thank Alokesh Gupta for the tip.