Yesterday, while traveling near Oklahoma City, I stopped by Lake Thunderbird State Park for lunch and a little shortwave listening.
Blue sky above, sparkling water below, and a tasty homemade lunch in an RFI-free environment were ideal conditions for portable SWLing. I used my little Tecsun R1212A which was easily packed in the picnic bag. Many broadcasters in the higher bands; most notably, Deutsche Welle’s Hausa service, which was quite strong.
As always, my motto: “Have radio, will travel!”
Yesterday, John Figliozzi (editor of The Worldwide Listening Guide) followed Radio Australia schedule changes as he heard them online and over the air:
“Listening in now (1415 GMT/UTC) on 12065 kHz. and via the internet, the scheduled program (up to now) “Late Night Live” is missing with alternative rock music from Triple J taking its place at this time. On the RA web page, there is a notice stating:
“Schedule update
We are in the process of updating our radio schedule. We’re introducing some new shows and some existing ones have moved to new time slots. Please stay tuned, we’ll be publishing the full new schedule soon.”LNL is a Radio National-sourced program, so I gather this means it’s either being moved to a new time slot or (hopefully not) dropped altogether. No doubt a bit of confusion wrought by the thoroughly precipitous manner in which the ABC has had to adjust to the government budget cut that prompted that all this, a budget cut the Coalition had claimed prior to its election that it was in no way contemplating.”
Three hours later:
“At this point, it appears that Radio Australia shortwave frequencies and online is just relaying Triple J Unearthed, one of the ABC’s all digital networks, that plays new Australian music 24/7 with occasional IDs but no DJ commentary.
Then four hours later:
“A more normalized schedule appears back in place as “Pacific Beat” was heard via the RA internet stream from just past 1900 until 2100 GMT. This is the two hour morning edition of the program which carried a very nice tribute to the “retiring” Sean Dorney, the ABC’s and RA’s Pacific correspondent, after 40 years with the organization. There was a reminder at the end of the program for listeners to tune into the afternoon edition of the program later in the day, which if memory serves is a shortened compilation of some of the morning content. Perhaps the earlier relay of Triple J Unearthed is just a temporary placeholder or is intended as overnight programming (Australian time)?
Listening now (2100) via shortwave. 17860 putting in a steady listenable signal peaking at S8 albeit with the usual local late afternoon QRN. “ABC News for Radio Australia” followed by “AM”, morning news program at 2110.”
Be sure to check out John Figliozzi’s book, The Worldwide Listening Guide online–click here for my most recent review.
Thanks for sharing this, John!
One of my favorite shortwave stations for music, besides ERT Open (former Voice of Greece), is All India Radio (AIR).
Since their broadcasts originate on the other side of the planet (from my North American location), their signal bounces off the ionosphere many times before I ever hear it. I actually like the result of this; the static of space makes their already beautiful music sound even more textured, enhancing the distance of its source, and heightening the music’s sense of mystery and nostalgia.
I recorded this AIR broadcast on August 14th, 2014–around 20:45 UTC–on 9,445 kHz. You can download the MP3 by clicking here, or simply listen in the embedded player below. Enjoy!
Alcaravan Radio’s antenna site and transmitter house.
Yesterday, August 8, I was able to record Alcaravan Radio out of Puerto Lleras, Columbia. Alcaravan Radio broadcasts domestically on medium wave and also on 5.91 MHZ shortwave, from 23:30-12:00 UTC.
Though typical summer conditions meant for a higher noise levels, Alcaravan’s 1 kW signal still punched through the static and made for pleasant listening. In this recording, I was using the WinRadio Excalibur, but I listened for a couple of hours on the Elad FDM-S2 as well–both did an equally good job while connected to my large sky loop antenna.
To be clear, 1 kW is low output power by international broadcasting standards. Alcaravan Radio was not audible on the Tecsun PL-660 nor the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, though I have heard them on portables in the past during the late fall and winter months. Still, you might be able to snag them on a portable when summer conditions are favorable!
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Click here to view an Alcaravan Radio QSL and transmitter site images.
[STF Radio QSL card front (above) back (below). Original scans by Steve Yothment]
SWLing Post reader, Steve Yothment (WD0HGB), writes:
“I received an “audio QSL” card from STF Radio International a few days ago. Have you heard about it? [The QSL] actually has grooves on the card that you can play on a phonograph. I had a friend play the audio on his phonograph and he converted the audio to MP3 format. Then, I decoded the digital info in the file.”
Click here to download or listen below:
Steve decoded the digital data from the audio QSL card and documented the contents on a PDF document. Click here to download.
Steve: this is brilliant! Thank you not only for sharing the QSL card images, but for the audio and your excellent documentation of the digital decode!
Readers: What’s the most interesting QSL card you’ve ever received?
For your listening pleasure: twenty minutes of Radio Santa Cruz.
I recorded Radio Santa Cruz early this morning around 10:00 UTC on 6,135 kHz using my WinRadio Excalibur.
As you’ll hear in the recording, Radio Santa Cruz‘s 10 kW signal from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was very much audible here in North America–even punching through typical noisy summer band conditions (static crashes, etc.).
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Sunday at 00:00-02:00 UTC, I tuned to 9,925 kHz to listen to The Mighty KBC.
KBC’s signal was clean and blowtorch strength into North America. Though I used my WinRadio Excalibur to record the broadcast, I stepped outside with my recently acquired RadioShack DX-402 (above) and heard KBC as if were a local station.
As we’ve come to expect, The Mighty KBC’s Giant Jukebox of music has a lot of rock-n-roll and Euro-pop variety, spanning the decades.
This broadcast begins with a tribute to Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 which had a large number of passengers from the Netherlands, where The Mighty KBC is produced.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy: