Category Archives: What’s On Shortwave

Listen to the The Melbourne Cup on Radio Australia

John Figliozzi writes:

“Radio Australia will preempt its regular programming beginning at 0400 UT Tuesday to provide live coverage of the running of the 2013 Melbourne Cup horse race. RA will have special programming at 0400 and 0530, before and after the race. It will join the national sports program Grandstand beginning at 0430. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s greatest and most loved horse race and is run annually on the first Tuesday in November. It is known as “the Race that stops a Nation!”

Listeners can access the coverage via shortwave [9660, 12080, 15160, 15240, 15415, 15515, 17750, 17840, 21725; and 13630 after 0500 ] and the internet [http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/] and [http://www.radioaustralia.net.au].”

KVOH re-launches this weekend on 9,975 kHz

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(Source: KVOH)

The Voice of Hope, KVOH, is re-launching this weekend with a daily schedule on 9975 kHz, from 01:00-04:00 UTC, beginning on Saturday, 2nd November, 2013 (Friday evening in the Americas).

From Monday, 4th November (Sunday evening in the Americas), the schedule will be one hour later, from 02:00-05:00 UTC.

Programs will be in Spanish for the first two hours, and English for the third hour. This initial schedule will be expanded in the months to come, as airtime sales allow.

Click here to download the KVOH broadcasting schedule.

Radio Northern Star test broadcast: Thursday, Oct 31

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Many thanks to Svenn Martinsen for the tip! Sven writes:

“LKB/LLE is on the air with new test broadcasts this week from LLE-2 (1314 kHz) and LLE-3 (5895 kHz)[.]

Morning Broadcast today Wednesday @0615-0900 UTC, and afternoon broadcast Thursday @1530-1730 UTC. […]

Our QSL card has arrived, and are being sent out, but still reports are welcome!

Address:
Box 100
N5331 RONG
NORWAY

or [via email] [email protected].

I didn’t get this tip in time to tune to the first broadcast (today, 6:15-09:00 UTC), but I hope some of you can try listening on 5,895 kHz between 15:30-17:30 UTC tomorrow (Thursday, Oct 31).

Solomon Islands Broadcasting adds to shortwave

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SIBC-Solomon-Islands-Broadcasting-Corporation Many thanks to David Ricquish of the Radio Heritage Foundation for this tip.

David writes:

“Solomon Islands Broadcasting has reactivated its daytime shortwave transmitter on 9,545 from 20:00-05:00 UTC daily for those who like to chase rare shortwave radio stations.”

Indeed, this will be challenging DX for much of the world. I imagine the maximum output power will “only” be 10 kilowatts or so–enough power to cover the Solomon Islands, but not enough for reliable global coverage. Still, this is the type of DX station I love to chase.

For a list of SIBC AM/FM and Shortwave frequencies, click here.

Radio Paisano QSL

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Last week, I listened to and recorded the pirate radio station, Radio Paisano. Three days ago, I received this message along with a QSL card:

Radio Paisano is a novelty shortwave pirate station that celebrates Columbus Day, and features the music of Lou Monte and the comedy of Pat Cooper. This was the eighth year that we were on the air.

Attached is your e-QSL.

Grazie,
Luigi

Many thanks for the note and QSL card, Luigi!

I look forward to catching Radio Paisano next year.

AM sync lessens noise in this The Voice of Greece broadcast

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Sometimes, the Voice of Greece plays very little Greek music; October 10th was one of those occasions. Nonetheless, I recorded that evening’s broadcast.

Using AM sync for sideband noise

In the first hour of the 10/10 VOG broadcast, you’ll hear a pulsating noise from an unknown origin (possibly a jammer?). The noise was centered about 20 kHz above VOG.

Fortunately, most of the noise was in the upper side band of the VOG signal, so I was able to mitigate it by using an AM sync lock on the lower side band. Without AM sync, this VOG broadcast––and its music mix––was almost inaudible.

If you have a synchronous detector on your receiver and tune in a station with interference, always try turning on sync lock and locking it on either the upper or lower sideband. If most of the noise resides in one of the sidebands, the lock can help tremendously. I often use this method while listening to AM pirate radio stations in noisy conditions.

A confession…

I have no idea what she’s talking about–it could be something absolutely mundane–but I love this radio host’s voice as she speaks and Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb begins. (Start listening around 26:00)

Click here to download more than two hours of the Voice of Greece, recorded on October 10, 2013, starting around 03:15 UTC on 9,420 kHz, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Most of the noise disappears around 00:21:

Data shows pirate radio activity nearly doubles during shutdown

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SWLing Post reader, Chris Smolinski of the HF Underground, has shared data he has collected from listener-submitted pirate radio logs prior to and following the US government shutdown. The results are intriguing.

Chris writes:

“I have some concrete data for you here:
http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,13187.0.html

As you can see by the graph, activity is almost double.”

Many thanks for collecting, analyzing, and sharing this data, Chris!

Readers, if you’re into shortwave pirate radio, the HF Underground is my favorite place to view live pirate radio logs. Check them out! You can create an account to submit your own pirate logs.