PCJ International has updated their DRM test transmission scheduled for October 13th to include Europe.
Click here for their press release with frequencies and times.
PCJ adds Europe to DRM test
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Category Archives: What’s On Shortwave
US international broadcasting: affected by the government shutdown?
View of the Capitol Building from the roof of VOA
At least for now, it would appear, “programming of the U.S. international media networks will continue for overseas audiences” according to the BBG website and CNN.
I expect many VOA listener entertainment programs (those focused on music, arts and culture) will play archived material during the furlough. News programs should continue to deliver up-to-date information.
However, the shutdown will unfortunately have some affect on VOA Radiograms, as producer/presenter Dr. Kim Elliott will be on furlough as of 15:00 UTC today. In an email to the VOA Radiogram community, Elliott states:
You probably have heard the news about the US government shutdown. Congress has not sent to the White House an appropriations resolution that would allow continued funding of US government operations.
While VOA will remain on the air to provide news in its 42 languages, I will be on furlough during the shutdown and may not be able to produce a new VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 5-6 October. If the shutdown continues through the weekend, the transmitters, if they are on the air during the four half-hours of VOA Radiogram, will probably broadcast last weekend’s program, number 28, again.
After about 1500 UTC today, 1 October 2013, I will not be able to use this email account to send or receive emails until the shutdown ends.
My personal website, www.kimandrewelliott.com, will continue to be updated during the shutdown, and you can correspond with me using the email address [posted on kimelliott.com].
The VOA Radiogram website, voaradiogram.net, will remain online during the shutdown, but I will not be able to update it after 1500 UTC today. I have already posted on that website some interesting results from the past weekend’s program.
Thanks to all of you who sent reception reports for VOA Radiogram during the weekend of 28-29 September. I will respond to all of your emails but will not be able to do so until after the shutdown.
The BBG website has detailed information for employees, including this BBG plan for operations in the event of appropriations lapse.
If the shutdown continues beyond a few weeks, then I imagine it could have broader implications for US international broadcasting. We’ll post updates with the tag “Shutdown.“
The Secret Sound: Borderhunter QSL
Many thanks to Europirate Borderhunter for this QSL. It’s not often that I can hear a pirate across the Atlantic so very well. Click here for the original recording of this broadcast.
Starting tonight, Radio Progreso on shortwave
According to Arnie Coro at Radio Havana Cuba, the Cuban medium wave broadcaster Radio Progreso will begin an “experimental” shortwave broadcast on 4,765 kHz from 00:30 till 04:00 UTC on October 1st, 2013. For those of us living in North America, this broadcast will begin at 08:30 PM EDT tonight.
I will attempt to listen and record the broadcast tonight.
Many thanks to David Goren for the tip and for Bryan Mangawhai’s original report to DX lists.
Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Exterior de España
Plaza de Cibeles–MAdrid, Spain (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
For your listening pleasure: one hour, fifty minutes of Radio Exterior de España.
Recorded on September 16, 2013, starting at 00:00 UTC on 9,535 kHz.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Cuban Numbers Station HM01: serving up a little confusion
On occasion, I hear the Cuban numbers station HM01 on 5,855 kHz on weekday mornings.
It seems that many of the mornings as I listen, I hear HM01 making mistakes or at least experiencing “technical difficulties” (click here for a recent case in point).
Though I don’t often record HM01, I did record it on the morning of September 20, 2013––and, yet again, I heard what seemed to be HM01 tripping over its own tongue.
Instead of the broadcast starting with numbers to identify the transmission, then implementing intermittent RDFT data bursts as per usual, this broadcast begins in the middle of a data burst, then shuffles awkwardly into a “normal” broadcast. I imagine an operative in the field scratching his or her head…
But hear this for yourself. Either click here to download an MP3 of the recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Shortwave Radio Recordings: Worldwide All-Ireland GAA finals via RTÉ
22 September 2002; A general view of Croke Park at 3.29pm, a minute before the start of the game. Kerry v Armagh, All Ireland Football Final, Croke Park, Dublin. (Photo credit; Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE)
Sunday afternoon, I was at home to catch a bit of the GAA finals via RTÉ on 17,725 kHz, starting around 15:00 UTC.
I enjoy hearing sporting events broadcast over shortwave–perhaps it’s my imagination filling in the gaps from the live coverage or the washy sound of the crowds roaring. Regardless, RTÉ has a long-standing track record of broadcasting the GAA finals on every medium possible.
As I listened to the live broadcast, Sunday, I read Norman Freeman’s account of listening to the GAA finals from a ship in the Indian Ocean, back in 1956. He writes:
“Almost 50 years ago, listening to the All-Ireland by radio was uncertain and frustrating.
In 1956, RTÉ knew how much the All-Ireland meant to the Irish diaspora. Arrangements were made with the authorities in the then French Congo to have the match rebroadcast the following evening, on the powerful short-wave transmitter in Brazzaville.
The time and frequencies were published in the Irish newspapers. This information was sent by letter to the Irish on oil rigs off the coast of Borneo, to round-the-year painters on Brooklyn Bridge, and to missionaries within sight of Mount Kilimanjaro.
I had noted the time and frequencies before I was sent out to Mumbai to join my first ship, the Amra, as second radio officer. The hurling final was between two giants, Cork and Wexford.”
[Continue reading…]
While Freeman doesn’t miss the uncertainty and fickle nature of shortwave radio as the messenger of his favorite sporting event, his look back is certainly nostalgic. After all, Radio Brazzaville transported Freeman and his boss back to Ireland for the length of the game. And to RTÉ’s credit, they continue to broadcast to the Irish diaspora on shortwave radio, if only for this event.
If you would like to hear my recording of the GAA Finals, click here to download the MP3 recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below: