Halley VI Research Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica (Source: British Antarctic Survey)
Every year, the BBC broadcasts a special program to the scientists and support staff in the British Antarctic Survey Team. The BBC plays music requests and sends special messages to the small team of 40+ located at various Antarctic research stations. Each year, the thirty minute show is guaranteed to be quirky, nostalgic, and certainly a DX-worthy catch!
After successful listener events from years past, I’m once again calling on all SWLing Post readers and shortwave radio listeners to make a short recording (say, 30-60 seconds) of the BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast and share it here at the Post (frequencies and time below).
The recording can be audio-only, or even a video taken from any recording device or smart phone. It would be helpful to have a description and/or photo of your listening environment and location, if possible. Please only submit recordings made from your location–since this is all about how you’re able to receive the broadcast at your location, we would rather not include WebSDR recordings.
Audio should be in the MP3 format and videos either hosted on YouTube or Vimeo so that I can easily embed them without having to convert and upload myself.
If you submit your recording to me, I will post it here on the SWLing Post–and insure that the British Antarctic Survey receives the post, too. The recordings will be arranged by geographic location. Note that due to my schedule this year, it might take a few weeks before I can curate all of the recordings (the process typically takes 8+ hours!).
2020 Midwinter Broadcast Frequencies
The BBC Antarctica winter solstice broadcast will be on June 21, 2020 at 2130-2200 UTC.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the frequencies the BBC plan to use. Note that, in the past, the BBC has sometimes only broadcast on three of the four announced frequencies:
- 5790 kHz Woofferton
- 6170 kHz Ascension
- 7360 kHz Woofferton
- 9580 kHz Ascension
The Midwinter broadcast is one of my favorite programs of the year. I suppose, in part, this is because it happens on June 21–the Summer/Winter solstice–which also happens to be my birthday!
Recording the Midwinter Broadcast has become an SWLing Post community tradition!
