Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

Radio Waves: VOA Announces Saipan and Tinian Closures, WCBS 880 Signing Off, Hams Stepping up in Bangladesh, and New Arctic Longwave Station

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Paul, Dennis Dura, Richard Cuff, and Bake Timmons for the following tips:

Voice of America station in CNMI announces closure (Saipan Tribune)

The U.S. Agency for Global Media has announced that it will be closing its Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station in the CNMI after decades in operation.

The station broadcasts the Voice of America transmission to Asia.

In a letter form USAGM’s William S. Martin, director of operations and stations division, a big change is taking place at the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station.

“The change is a discontinuation of all shortwave radio transmissions at our Saipan and Tinian sites, the first step in closing the station,” he said.

According to Martin, on June 26, the USAGM—an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and other U.S. funded international civilian broadcasters—announced it was closing REKTS, its two shortwave radio transmission sites, on Saipan and Tinian.

[…]”While shortwave radio was an effective and popular way for people in media-deprived countries to access international news and information during WWII and the Cold War, Martin says shortwave use has fallen dramatically almost everywhere since the invention of the internet and the fall of Soviet Union in the 1990s. [Continue reading…]

WCBS 880 signing off after nearly 60 years, ESPN New York to take its place (lohud)

WCBS 880 AM, one of New York’s leading news radio channels for nearly 60 years, will be replaced with ESPN New York on Aug. 26, as 1010 WINS becomes the main radio station for real-time news coverage in the New York metro area.

Audacy, the parent company for both WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS, announced the agreement with Good Karma Brands, a sports media network, on Aug. 12. The station 880 AM will become the new home of ESPN New York and will use the call letters WHSQ-AM, pending FCC approval.[Continue reading…]

Hams Stepping up in Bangladesh (BBC Newsroom)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bake Timmons, who writes:

Hams are stepping up right now in a very busy place — Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I heard ham radio mentioned this morning on this morning’s broadcast of the BBC program “The Newsroom”. A volunteer traffic coordinator and ham described (18:55 in the podcast linked below) how every traffic hub is now connected w/ amateur radio in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in response to the absence of police, who have withdrawn from their normal duties after the ousting of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

The story begins about 17:21 into the podcast at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zbqdkb748vg

The First New Long Wave Radio Station Of This Millennium (Hackaday)

The decline of AM broadcast radio is a slow but inexorable process over much of the world, but for regions outside America there’s another parallel story happening a few hundred kilohertz further down the spectrum. The long wave band sits around the 200kHz mark and has traditionally carried national-level programming due to its increased range. Like AM it’s in decline due to competition from FM, digital, and online services, and one by one the stations that once crowded this band are going quiet. In the middle of all this it’s a surprise then to find a new long wave station in the works in the 2020s, bucking all contemporary broadcasting trends. Arctic 252 is based in Finland with programming intended to be heard across the Arctic region and aims to start testing in September. [Continue reading…]

Click here to check out Arctic 252’s website.

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A Band Aid for the XHDATA D-220

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post:

A Band Aid for the XHDATA D-220

By Bob Colegrove

In the olden days of analog radios, we would have generated a graph plotting frequency against a 0 to 100 linear bandspread scale. That permitted determination of a station’s frequency with varying degrees of accuracy.

The case of the charming little D-220 requires a simpler approach. The dial covers 5.6 MHz to 22 MHz in less than two inches. They could have cut off coverage at 18 MHz and gained a precious half inch of dial.

With the shortwave scale well below the pointer, I needed some additional guidance indicating where I was. Best not to get too fancy. I cut a strip off a sticky-back label and attached it to the dial right below the pointer. Using the left edge of the pointer as a guide, I marked off the location of each international broadcast band and a couple time stations. The width of each band isn’t much more than the point of a sharp No. 2 pencil. Any further resolution is hopeless, but at least you know what part of the spectrum you are in.

Red lettering is not part of the band aid.

Again, going by the old logarithmic analog dials you would expect the frequencies to be increasingly mashed together as you go higher. This is not the case with the D-220, nor do the increments appear to be very linear. At any rate, it is now relatively easy to tune from band to band.

The sensitivity and clarity of the D-220 is amazing. Perhaps it’s the green one.

Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of Adventist World Radio (August 7, 2024)

Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of NHK (August 8, 2024)

Radio Waves: Radio Apocalypse, SDRs, and Updated StarWaves DRM App

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Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dennis Dura, and Alan for the following tips:

Radio Apocalypse: HFGCS, The Backup Plan For Doomsday (Hackaday)

To the extent that you have an opinion on something like high-frequency (HF) radio, you probably associate it with amateur radio operators, hunched over their gear late at night as they try to make contact with a random stranger across the globe to talk about the fact that they’re both doing the same thing at the same time. In a world where you can reach out to almost anyone else in an instant using flashy apps on the Internet, HF radio’s reputation as somewhat old and fuddy is well-earned.

Like the general population, modern militaries have largely switched to digital networks and satellite links, using them to coordinate and command their strategic forces on a global level. But while military nets are designed to be resilient to attack, there’s only so much damage they can absorb before becoming degraded to the point of uselessness. A backup plan makes good military sense, and the properties of radio waves between 3 MHz and 30 MHz, especially the ability to bounce off the ionosphere, make HF radio a perfect fit. [Continue reading…]

SDR: The Next Level of Shortwave Radio Listening (Radio World)

Where have these things been all my life?

There is a new breed of RF receivers known as software-defined radios, and they are revolutionizing the way in which people listen to shortwave (SW) radio, or indeed any form of radio broadcast.

SDRs combine plug-in radio receiver dongles/boxes with personal computers, with the computer serving as the user interface. What makes this interface so useful is that the listener’s screen displays a wide swath of the bandwidth being tuned to, with each station’s signal shown as a visual vertical line that moves and grows/shrinks with its signal strength.

In other words, the listener can literally see what is happening across the band in real time, rather than having to turn the dial or push the Up/Down scanning buttons on a conventional shortwave radio, checking one station at a time. [Continue reading…]

New App Update: RTL-SDR V4 and HackRF Support! (StarWaves)

Long Awaited and Finally Released – RTL-SDR V4 Support!

Today the new Release 1.5.1 of STARWAVES DRM SoftRadio App has been released. The following improvements can be expected:

– Added audio output device selector in settings (cog wheel icon) / audio tab,
starting with Android 12:
default, Earpiece, Speaker, Headphones, Bluetooth, HDMI, USB
– Added support for “RTL-SDR Blog V4” Receiver Dongle (all bands)
– Added support for “HackRF” Receiver Dongle (all bands)
– Improved robustness after signal loss or reconfiguration
– Improved sync status display in tuning dialog
– Unknown image formats no longer opened in external web browser window
– Updated decoder modules

Click here for more info.

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Carlos’ Shortwave Art and Recordings of Furusato No Kaze & Nippon No Kaze il bon ue broadcasts

Furusato No Kaze

Click here to listen on YouTube.

Nippon No Kaze il bon ue

Click here to listen on YouTube.

The COOL keeps on coming on shortwave!

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Hi it’s FastRadioBurst 23 here letting you know what Imaginary Stations will be bringing the shortwave community this week. On Sunday 11th August 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz they have yet another version of COOL, this time COOL 5 via Shortwave Gold. Like the last COOL shows, it’s summer vibes galore and tunes to listen to whilst on the sun lounger. Towels and suntan lotion at the ready please!

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 14th August 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz we’ll be bringing you a back to school special of KMART, your “official supermarket shortwave radio station”. Expect voucher give-aways, extended opening hours and the best blue light specials on the planet (*All subject to availability of course). Tune in and enjoy an alternative to shopping on the shortwave dial.