For your listening pleasure: two hours, fifteen minutes of the Radio Station of Macedonia (a.k.a. Voice of Greece) recorded on March 6, 2014 starting around 01:50 UTC on 9,420 kHz.
Click here to download as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
The HFCC has posted the preliminary A14 schedule on their website. Click here to download.
This schedule is subject to change since the season does not start until April 1, 2014 and at least one broadcaster (VOR) will be pulling out.
UPDATE: I seriously question this VOR twitter account’s authenticity. @VORMoscow looks to be very new, starting on March 19, 2014–the same day VOR announced an end to its shortwave service–obviously not an official VOR account. Either this is a disgruntled VOR staffer posing as VOR English, or (most likely) a VOR listener. By 5:30 UTC on March 22, 2014 @VORMoscow was removed from Twitter:
Two days ago we learn that the Voice of Russia plans to end all shortwave and medium wave broadcasts as of April 1, 2014.
Yesterday, SWLing Post reader Juan Kulichevsky, noticed this tweet from the new Twitter account @VORMoscow:
Then, about ten hours ago, I notice this tweet among other VOR news items from @VORMoscow:
By 5:30 UTC on March 22, 2014, @VORMoscow posted this final tweet before the account was removed from Twitter:
Many thanks to my friends, Bennett Kobb (AK4AV) and Christopher Rumbaugh (K6FIB) who wrote a letter to the BBG regarding the relevancy of shortwave radio. They make a strong point as this article in Radio World puts it: “Hey, don’t forget about Radiogram!”
I also made a case for the VOA Radiogram in my letter to the BBG, but I think Benn and Chris sum it up better. Click here to download their letter to the BBG as a PDF document–I’ve also pasted it below:
Response to BBG Shortwave Committee Request for Comment
March 14, 2014
The BBG has spearheaded ‘Radiogram’ (voaradiogram.net), an entirely novel form of international high-frequency broadcasting. Radiogram is soundly premised on modern digital techniques and mitigates longstanding impediments to HF transmission. Users around the world have documented reception of fifty VOA Radiogram programs in more than a thousand YouTube videos.
BBG must not allow its own pioneering developments to wither, but should advance them toward operational status.
Radiogram should not be confused with Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), which employs digital modulation for sound broadcasting. Radiogram broadcasts web content via robust, interference-resistant, error-detecting/correcting AM tone modulation, using standardized formats widely practiced in the Amateur Radio Service.
The user’s ordinary shortwave receiver, tuned to a Radiogram transmission, feeds its audio to a user device. These could include mobile phones, tablets, laptop and desktop computers and the new ARM-based miniature computers and embedded devices. The user device decodes the tones and displays text and imagery despite propagation impairments and intentional interference — and without Internet connection.
Placing the radio near the phone or computer is normally sufficient. No hardwire connection is required. By adding a simple audio cable between receiver and user device, however, reception can be silent and covert. No specialized hardware is needed, and the software platform for decoding is long in the public domain.
A more advanced, yet still inexpensive setup would use existing “dongle” technology that places a software-defined radio (SDR) inside a small USB enclosure. Such units are available today for a few tens of dollars and widely used by experimenters. The operating system and decoding software could also be incorporated into the device, which could boot the computer, eliminating the need to install any PC software.
The user need not be present at the time of transmission to receive content. He essentially receives a web magazine updated at will and always ready for use. The user can redistribute it by printing, USB storage, SMS, E-mail etc.
Naturally, the audio tone transmission can be recorded for later playback. Even when buried well under music or noise, the nearly inaudible recorded broadcast can nevertheless deliver 100% copy upon decode.
Radiogram’s transmission methods provide text at 120 WPM (near to the speed of spoken English) along with images. Additional languages have been proven, including non-Roman alphabets.
Sent over regular broadcast transmitters (no modifications needed), this approach effectively extends the reach of the transmitter. In other words, the digital text mode will decode in locations where the audible speech over the same transmitter would be too low for aural intelligibility. The audio recorded or captured could be replayed over another transmitter to even further extend the reach of the broadcast.
Recommendations
BBG should:
1. Capitalize on Radiogram as a circumvention tool, readily consumable by mobile devices. It should integrate Radiogram into its media strategy and networks.
2. Retain, but reconfigure as necessary its HF facilities in view of the potentially lower costs and greater efficiency of Radiogram when compared to conventional sound broadcasting.
3. Support the development and wide distribution of simple, usable, open-source Radiogram decoding applications for popular mobile devices and platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux), derived from the free Fldigi software used worldwide.
About the Respondents
Bennett Z. Kobb, M.S., SMIEEE, is the communications director for an Arlington, Virginia trade association.
Christopher Rumbaugh, MLS, is a library manager and web publisher in Salem, Oregon.
The views expressed herein are the authors’ own.
Again, many thanks to Benn and Chris for submitting such an articulate letter to the BBG and for sharing with SWLing Post readers.
If you would like to decode a VOA Radiogram yourself, simply visit VOAradiogram.net for details on broadcasts targeting your part of the world.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Matthew Williams, who recorded The Shortwave Shindig on 7,570 kHz at 2:00 UTC on March 15, 2014. Matthew was using his Kenwood TS-590S and an 80 meter doublet antenna at his home in New York state.
Here’s his recording, hot off the press:
If others were able to record The Shortwave Shindig, please comment with a link to your recording, your location and your receiver. I will post them on them on Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
Many thanks for making this recording, Matthew!
Check out David Goren’s website Shortwaveology.net and his Facebook page for more shortwave radio productions.
Are there any SWLing Post readers out there who could make an off air recording of the Shortwave Shindig broadcast tonight (22:00 EST, 02:00 UTC)? If so, please comment! I would like to share your recordings on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
Please note the type of radio used and what part of the world you live in. The more recordings, the merrier! Thank you!
The Shortwave Shindig goes live on shortwave Friday 3/14/14 from the 27th Annual Winter SWL Festival in Plymouth Meeting, PA. The Shindig signs on for one hour at 10 ET/0200 UTC on 7,570 khz via WRMI’s new Okeechobee facility. Please join us for a celebration of the art and culture of long distance listening.
DJ Eric van Willegen, “Uncle Eric”
For your listening pleasure: two hours of The Mighty KBC, recorded on March 9, 2014 starting at 00:00 UTC on their winter frequency of 7,375 kHz.
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; DJ, “Uncle Eric” knows how to entertain and spin the tunes! Uncle Eric includes Kim Elliott’s digital text modes in this broadcast–if you missed the live broadcast, you can even decode the messages from the recording below.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
