Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Tom Ally, who informed me that WRMI is now relaying From Moscow With Love on 9,955 kHz, Mondays at 11:00 PM EDT (Tuesdays, 3:00 UTC).
Many thanks to Jeff White at WRMI for keeping one of my favorite VOR shows on the air.
You can view WRMI’s full schedule for 9,955 kHz by clicking here.
I just received word that The Mighty KBC is moving frequency from 9,925 to 7,375 kHz starting this Sunday September 7, 2014, 00:00 – 02:00 UTC.
The Mighty KBC’s Giant Jukebox is an easy catch in North America–even on a modest portable radio. Make the Giant Jukebox a part of your Saturday evening (or Sunday morning) entertainment.
In response to my recent Radio Australia post, SWLing Post reader, Tudor Vedeanu comments:
“I’ve also enjoyed listening to music on Radio Australia lately. “Saturday Night Country” is currently my favorite show on SW. Here is a recording I made during the weekend:
http://youtu.be/CHv1hu2OVH8“
“And indeed Triple J is very good too. I discovered some nice music from talented people I’ve never heard about in my part of the world.”
Tudor, it appears you (and your pup!) live in a very beautiful part of the world. The Romanian countryside certainly makes for a scenic radio listening backdrop. I, too, am a big fan of Saturday Night Country–great stuff!
Many thanks for sharing!
I’m in Keystone, Colorado at about 9,300′ (2,835 M) above sea level; mornings are crisp and chilly (38F/3C), but that doesn’t stop me from putting on a jacket, heading to the balcony and listening to Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz. Despite flaky solar conditions (flaky, frankly, is an understatement) I managed to snag RA Wednesday morning (13:58 UTC) on my Sony ICF-SW7600GR. There was a little fading, and a little local noise, but overall signal quality was quite good.
This recording starts a couple of minutes before the top of the hour; you’ll hear the TOTH news brief and then triple j—a brilliant show dedicated to new Australian music.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
If you haven’t already guessed it: yes, the mystery broadcast site I posted on Thursday was WWV/WWVB in Fort Collins, Colorado. Well done, responders! Specifically, the photo shows the southern antennas of WWVB as I departed the site on Thursday, August 28, 2014; for those of you who got that detail, extra credit–!
I’d like to thank the staff at WWV/WWVB for allowing me to visit the site for the better part of the day. WWV is not officially open to tours, so this was a particular honor for me. And this was an especially fun pilgrimage, as WWV was most likely the first shortwave broadcast I ever heard: as I’ve previously noted, when I was a kid my father used to set his watch to WWV every Sunday morning. Now I’ve seen firsthand where that famous tock, tock (and accompanying characteristic tones) originate.
When I return home from my extended travels, I’ll sort through the photos I took at WWV and WWVB, and post them here on the SWLing Post.
In the meantime, I have a few recordings to share with those who are interested in this mecca of chronology. Before leaving WWV, I pulled out my Tecsun PL-380 and my Zoom H2N digital recorder, and recorded all the WWV broadcast frequencies. I captured their 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 and even their recently reactivated 25 MHz signals.
I made these recordings in the conference room at WWVB broadcast house. As you can imagine, it was simply not at all necessary to extend the telescopic antenna. In fact, the signal was so strong, you’ll hear a slight amount of distortion in the voice audio.
Below, you can listen to the recordings of each frequency via the embedded player (click on the title to download the audio). Enjoy!
WWV on 15 MHz (includes top of the hour station ID)
Up to this point, I used the Tecsun PL-380, but quickly realized that the ‘380 wouldn’t tune to 25 MHz. A quick look at the back of the radio revealed that the ‘380 only tunes up to 21.950 MHz (!). Believe it or not, I’d never noticed this limitation of the PL-380, likely since I rarely tune above 21 MHz for broadcast listening. Learn something new every day…But I couldn’t fail to complete my recordings.
So what did I do? I turned to Matthew Deutch, Chief Engineer at WWV and WWVB, who kindly allowed me to use their Sangean ATS-505 to make the final recording:
WWV on 25 MHz (includes Atlantic and Pacific weather)
This morning, I was very happy to tune to Saturday Night Country on Radio Australia (9,580 kHz). RA’s signal was booming into Taos, New Mexico, where my travels have taken me this Saturday morning.
It was a welcome relief to hear RA; the shortwave bands have been in terrible shape the past three days or so. The ionosphere has been so disturbed that the only broadcasters I’ve been able to hear have been Radio Havana Cuba and a few domestic religious broadcasters.
I hope to take the CommRadio CR-1 out later today and perhaps test a couple of outdoor antennas…Stay tuned!
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!”