Category Archives: What’s On Shortwave

Catching a USAF HF-GCS transmission in Morocco

My buddy, @K7al_L3afta (on Twitter), posted this interesting recording of the US Air Force High Frequency Global Communications System on 15,016 kHz USB at 18:01 UTC yesterday:

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard or noticed this type of USAF HF-GCS transmission before. Sounds almost like a numbers station.

Update: SWLing Post reader, Daniele, comments:

It’s an EAM, “Emergency Action Message”:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Action_Message

http://mt-milcom.blogspot.it/p/what-is-emergency-action-message-or-eam.html

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/eam.html

Thanks, Daniele!

As I’ve mentioned before, @K7al_L3afta lives in an urban area of Morocco and his shortwave radio listening is plagued with radio interference (RFI). Still, he seems to snag some interesting catches on the shortwaves just like this one which he said he caught by “turning the tuning knob randomly.”

Serendipity is, indeed, the best type of SWLing!

You can follow @K7al_L3afta on Twitter by clicking here.

Shortwave Radio Recording: beHAVior Night via WBCQ

Alex updates shortwave frequency charts for winter season

Happy World Radio Day 2015: several ways you can celebrate

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Today is World Radio Day, a time “to remember the unique power of radio to touch lives and bring people together across every corner of the globe,” UNESCO reminds us. As shortwave radio listeners, we understand this power of information without borders.

Here are a few ways you can celebrate World Radio Day 2015…

Ears To Our World (ETOW)

In Belieze, ETOW works with visually impaired children through our partner and friends at the Belieze Council for the Visually Impaired. Photo by ETOW volunteer/supporter, David Korchin K2WNW

In Belize, ETOW works with visually impaired children through our partner and friends at the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired. Photo by ETOW volunteer/supporter, David Korchin (K2WNW). Click to enlarge.

Of course, at my non-profit, Ears To Our World, we celebrate the unique power of radio everyday as well.

Indeed, we’re in the process of preparing at least another 100 radios for Sierra Leone, where children are receiving education over the airwaves as schools have been closed in an effort to stop the spread of Ebola.

If you would like to help us, please consider a donation of any amount. Certainly a meaningful way to give the gift of radio and education.

On air events

If you can get on the air today, there are a few events happening around the world you might be able to catch:

Alexanderson Alternator Station SAQ

Alexanderson alternator in the SAQ Grimeton VLF transmitter.

SWLing Post reader, Greg (VA7BC), passes along this announcement from the ARRL:

“The World Heritage Grimeton Radio SAQ in Sweden plans to fire up its Alexanderson alternator on 17.2 kHz on the occasion of UNESCO World Radio Day, Friday, February 13. The station will begin tuning at 1430 UTC, and a message will be transmitted at 1500 UTC.

A message with a theme of “peace” has been put together by more than 200 citizens of Varberg, Sweden, via the “Varberg Calling for Peace” project.

SAQ will not be issuing QSL cards nor post a list of reports, but it will accept brief listener reports. The Grimeton site’s Amateur Radio station SK6SAQ will be active, using a special event World Radio Day call sign — 7S6WRD. Frequencies: 7035 kHz or 14,035 khz, CW, and 3755 kHz SSB. QSL to 7S6WRD via SM bureau.“

Read the full article at the ARRL website. I will certainly attempt to hear this broadcast on 14,035 kHz CW.

If any SWLing Post readers are able to record the SSB transmission on 3,755 kHz, I would love to add the audio to our audio archive.

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union relay

The Southgate ARC reports that ABU members will particiapte in a round-the-world broadcast relay:

“On Friday 13 February 2015, participating broadcasters around the globe will devote at least half-an-hour of their programming to the WRD 2015 themes “Innovation and youth in radio”.

The main organisers, the European Broadcasting Union, in partnership with the ABU and other broadcasting unions, will also offer three short optional pre-recorded radio features devoted to Radio and Youth, Radio and Innovation and the History of Humanitarian Use of Radio: UN Radio.

The segments can be used whole or in part in a time slot of each station’s choice. Most of the features will also be available with scripts in French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese, thanks to the UN.

Speeches by UN personalities will also be available ready to use on air, plus a one-hour rights-free concert live from Geneva by the UN Jazz Orchestra will be made available.

Organisers say that, as this will be a relay following the world’s time zones, there will be a succession of radio stations each handing over to the next participant throughout the day.

To give listeners around the world the chance to follow this special WRD program, the broadcasts will be put on an Internet stream, coordinated via the EBU in Geneva.

http://www.abu.org.my/Latest_News-@-World_Radio_Day_relays_round_the_world.aspx“

4U0ITU on-air for World Radio Day

Again, the Southgate ARC reports via the ARRL:

“The ITU International Amateur Radio Club station in Geneva will use the special call 4U0ITO to mark World Radio Day on Friday, February 13

The ARRL report this event also marks the kickoff for the International Telecommunication Union 150th anniversary.

International Amateur Radio Union President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, will inaugurate special call sign 4U0ITU at 0900 UT. He will be accompanied by ITU Secretary General Houlin Zhao, other elected officials and VIPs.

The IARC will use the 4U0ITU call sign until the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015, November 2-27.

World Radio Day commemorates the first broadcasts of UN Radio in 1946.”

Send listener reports to your favorite shortwave broadcasters

Many of your favorite shortwave broadcasters will dedicate a portion of their programming to World Radio Day.

This is the perfect day, as a listener, to let your favorite broadcasters know you’re listening! Send in a proper QSL report–mention the time, frequency and type of programming you heard. Give the broadcaster a proper signal report as well (click here to read about the universally accepted SINPO code). Broadcasters love to hear about any insight you pulled from their news items or reports–the more detail, the better. And thank them for broadcasting over shortwave.

You can typically find contact information on the broadcaster’s website. If you have any difficulty, please comment and I, or another reader/contributor, will try to help.

Happy World Radio Day!

It’s been fun to see how World Radio Day has grown over the years. I believe it’s a wonderful reason to celebrate all that we love about radio.

To celebrate World Radio Day 2013, UNESCO asked me to record why I believe radio is relevant today. Here was my response:

Click here to read more about World Radio Day.

Radio Australia antenna azimuth settings

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SWLing Post reader, George, recently asked about the new Radio Australia antenna settings accompanying the modified (trimmed) broadcast schedule.

The following are the new azimuth settings for the antennas at the Shepparton transmitter site:

9,580 kHz: 070 degrees 0900-2100 UTC
12,065 kHz: 355 degrees 0900-2100 UTC
12,085 kHz: 030 degrees 0900-2100 UTC
15,240 kHz: 030 degrees 2100-0900 UTC
15,415 kHz: 355 degrees 2100-0900 UTC
17,840 kHz: 070 degrees 2100-0900 UTC

Pulling Radio Santa Cruz out of the interference

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I recorded Radio Santa Cruz early this morning around 05:00 UTC on 6,135 kHz using the TitanSDR I currently have under review.

Radio Santa Cruz‘s 10 kW signal from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was very much audible here in North America, though RSC was competing with another station on-frequency at the time. Actually, Radio Santa Cruz was broadcasting slightly off-frequency–6134.8 kHz instead of 6,135 kHz. In this case, the fact that RSC was slightly below frequency helped me delineate the station’s audio from that of a competing station.

In the screen-grab of the narrowband channel from the Titan SDR (above–click to enlarge) you can see two distinct carriers spaced only .2 kHz apart (represented by the two peaks in the spectrum display and two parallel vertical lines in the waterfall display).

Here is what the audio sounds like in normal AM mode when we center on the Radio Santa Cruz frequency of 6,134.8 kHz:

You hear a hetrodyne and garbled noise from a competing station. Not pleasant audio.

If we change from the AM mode to eLSB mode (essentially, the TitanSDR’s version of synchronous detection on the lower sideband) we are ignoring all of the noise in the upper sideband, allowing the desired signal of RSC to pop out.

You can see in the screen-grab above that now only the lower sideband of the RSC signal is highlighted. Here’s a 21 minute recording:

Makes quite a difference!

It’s easy to see competing signals and interference on an SDR’s spectrum display, but if you hear something similar on your portable, try the techniques above to see if it clears up the signal.

If your receiver lacks a selectable synchronous detector, much of the same results can be gained by zero-beating (tuning in) the desired signal in lower sideband mode. Of course, if you have a receiver that lacks SSB mode, the best you can do is tune slightly below frequency in AM, in which case the results will not be as dramatic.

Conclusion? Listening in single-sideband or with a selectable sync detector might be all you need to dig a signal out of the interference.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Detecting Radio Guyana/Voice of Guyana

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Yesterday I learned that Voice of Guyana (a.k.a. Radio Guyana) is back on the shortwaves after being off-air for many years. Evidently, the station repaired some of its transmitters and antennas with the assistance of station supporter and technician Jamie Labadia. At this point the station is only capable of a 1,000 watt AM signal.

To be clear, 1 kW AM is not an easy catch for most of us in North America unless propagation is in our favor.

Last night while testing a new military-grade SDR (the Enablia TitanSDR) that I’m reviewing, I decided that Voice of Guyana might make for a good weak-signal test.

And so, last night at 21:00 EST (02:00 UTC) I tuned the TitanSDR to 3,290 kHz; I could see a faint carrier on frequency, but the audio was lost in the noise. I could detect talking and music, but I couldn’t base an ID from it. I set the TitanSDR to record a wideband chunk of spectrum throughout the night. This morning, I played the spectrum recording and found that the signal was at its best around 0945 UTC.

Above you can see Radio Guyana’s AM signal on the TitanSDR narrowband spectrum display (click to enlarge). While still quite weak, I could make out station IDs and music quite easily. It was wonderful to hear Voice of Guyana on the air again!

Note: the TitanSDR was exceptional at pulling the audio out of the static. More about this SDR to come…

Here’s a 27 minute recording I made with the TitanSDR, using its eUSB mode (ECSS), beginning around 0945 UTC: