Category Archives: What’s On Shortwave

We know our groceries daddy-oh

Greetings to all SWLing Post community from the Imaginary Stations crew. This week we are dropping out from the normal world man and bringing you a show called From Beatles to Beatniks.

Don’t be a shortwave square, get yourself a radio or an SDR that picks up some of the shortwave spectrum. Spin that dial on Saturday 17th May 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again for Sunday 18th May 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold). You won’t be needing any bread for this transmission either, it’s all free via the ionosphere!

The experience won’t be dullsville, it’ll be a mop-top beatnik hootenanny. Expect some cool poetry read straight from a battered notebook, covers of the Fab Four’s greatest tunes and general beat madness.

On Wednesday 21st May 2025 via WRMI at 0200 UTC we’re bringing you a retail relay station in the form of KMRT. In the words of our (aisle) controller, it’s “Your official shortwave supermarket station” and it truly is, loyal shopping fans! Tune in for blue light specials and tunes about shopping. There may be the odd refund, a reduction for something that looks a bit battered and bruised but remember our show is fully guaranteed to cheer you up (*normal T+Cs apply).

More international shortwave radio sounds

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Greetings to all SWLing Post readers from all the Imaginary Stations crew. This week we bring you more programmes featuring the international onshore/offshore pirate radio sounds of Skybird Radio International.

Get your shortwave radio ready for an audio journey on Saturday 10th May 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again for Sunday 11th May 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz via the services of Shortwave Gold.

There are no passports, travel documents or holiday protection needed for the broadcasts that feature sounds from around this glorious globe of ours. Expect all sorts of musical goodness and tunes you may not be familiar with, but ones that’ll bring a smile to your face and possible be future earworms. Tune in and enjoy what this musical world offers us.

On Wednesday 14th May 2025 via WRMI at 0200 UTC we’ve more of the international musical business from Skybird Radio International again with a show pulled out from our extensive archives kept in a digital leather suitcase with stickers on it.

More on the Skybird Radio International here:

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

FastRadioBurst 23

Destination Earth

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Good day all SWLing Post readers from us here at Imaginary Stations. Here’s our transmission schedule for the forthcoming week. The first programme is a return of the onshore/offshore pirate radio sound of Skybird Radio International. It goes out on Saturday 3rd May 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then repeated on Sunday 4th May 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold.

Take a shortwave flight around the globe and treat yourself to various music genres from all points around this spinning ball we call Earth that orbits around the sun at a speed of over 67,000 miles per hour. Tickets are not needed; there’s no booking of a taxi to the airport nor any room reservations to be completed via a form on the internet. All you do is tune your shortwave set in at the allotted time to enjoy all sorts of worldwide sounds.

We’ve another transmission on Wednesday 7th May 2025 via WRMI at our new time of 0200 UTC. It’s Skybird Radio International again but a completely different show chosen from our archives. Expect some top-quality sounds from around the globe.

More on the Skybird Radio International here:

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mix cloud page here.

FastRadioBurst 23

More atmospheric phenomena predictions on shortwave

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Hi to all the SWLing community worldwide. Imaginary Stations have a couple of programmes on the shortwaves this week for your listening pleasure. The first is on Saturday 26th April 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then repeated on Sunday 27th April 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold.

It’s another episode of The Weather Channel where we bring you “All weather, all the time”. Expect an avalanche of tunes that feature mentions of atmospheric phenomena all the way from Isobars to Icicles, some classics of a high- and low-pressure nature and some heavy “Weather rock” to play your air barometer to. Tune in and enjoy!

Recently we found some bad news on the internet where it mentioned that “TV test cards are now only rarely seen outside of television studios, post-production, and distribution facilities. They are no longer intended to assist viewers in calibration of television sets”.

That made us feel very sad here at Imaginary Stations, so on Wednesday 30th April 2025 at our new time of 0200 UTC via WRMI we bring you another episode of Test Cards on Radio. We want to bring back the good times where it was all about screen calibration, test tones and adjusting that TV antenna on the roof with a bit of the good old “left a bit, right a bit” technique.

Tune into a golden time when the standard resolution was 525 and 625 lines and bring back some vertical and horizontal hold back into your life.

Three Useful References in PDF Format

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Guest Post by Robert Gulley K4PKM

I wanted to pass along three useful references I came across from several posts in the Utility DXers Forum posted by Steve Handler.

The first is:

“Radio Aids to Marine Navigation 2025 (Atlantic, St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Arctic and Pacific”

(Both English and French versions are available, published by the Canadian Coast Guard)

The second is:

WORLDWIDE MARINE RADIOFACSIMILE BROADCAST SCHEDULES published by the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (WEFAX Weather Broadcasts, March 2025 edition)

The Third is:

US DOD / National Geospatial Agency Flight Information Handbook (March 2018, 273 pages) containing frequencies and other interesting info

I suspect many SWLing readers are also on the Utility DXers Forum, but for those who may not be, or who might have missed these posts, I hope you find them useful!

Cheers! Robert K4PKM

Whatever the weather

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Hi to all of the SWLing community worldwide. Imaginary Stations are at it again transmitting over those airwaves this week with a couple of programmes for your listening pleasure. The first is on Saturday 19th April 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and on Sunday 20th April 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz.

The programme (weather permitting of course), features the joys of meteorology. We have all our weather stations at the ready for our transmission that will bring you tunes about the weather, a bit of sunshine and rain and other atmospheric phenomena. So have your weathervane wired up as your antenna and keep a look out for strange cloud formations. If you love the weather, you’ll love The Weather Channel.

On Wednesday 23rd April 2025 at our new time of 0200 UTC via WRMI we hoist the sails on the pirate ship MV Skybird again and bring you another audio voyage in the Free Radio Skybird series. Tune in and enjoy some “Music, speech and atmospheric effects”.

Jim’s travelling on a flying carpet this week

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A big hello to the SWLing community far and wide. Here’s what Imaginary Stations are transmitting over the airwaves this weekend. The first is on Saturday 12th April 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and on Sunday 13th April 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz. It’s another James, Jamie, Jimi, Jimmie, Jimmy, Jimbo and Jacob special. Tune in at the allotted time and enjoy KJIM 2.

On Wednesday 16th April 2025 at our new time of 0200 UTC via WRMI we bring you Flying Carpet Radio. The show is an exotic journey through the skies on what looks like a common floor covering made from thick woven fabric or even on a flying raft made from a collection of carpet tiles (depending on how fast you want to travel). Expect all sorts of exotica and underlaid with some good vibes as ever.