Fans of “The Rockpile” and “Jazz from the Left” can now listen online

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Raoul van Hall (Source: Ameristream Live)

Raoul van Hall (Source: Ameristream Live)

After Global 24 went off the air, several SWLing Post readers commented that they were going to miss hearing music programs like Jazz from the Left and The Rockpile.

Fortunately, Raoul van Hall, who hosts and produces both programs, noticed your comments . Yesterday, he commented with good news:

“For those of you who would still like to hear The Rockpile or Jazz from the Left, you can follow these links to hear both programs, whenever and wherever you’d like:

http://ameristreamlive.com/the-rockpile/

http://ameristreamlive.com/jazz-from-the-left/

I’ve exchanged a few emails with several SW stations to maybe put RP or JFTL back on shortwave. Different time and frequency. We’ll see. I’d have to lease the airtime and hopefully get at least one sponsor and some listener contributions. I like the idea of broadcasting on shortwave. After all of these years on AM and FM.

I used to love listening to music on shortwave, when I was younger. When there was some music on SW. There’s something about hearing the music fade in and out on the signal that’s magical to me. I first fell in love with radio listening to shortwave.

Plus I like being able to play lots of music that’s not heard anywhere on US FM.

If I decide to do it, I’ll make sure it’s on a smoking signal and at the right times.

Naturally, I’d welcome any of your thoughts or suggestions.

Raoul”

I couldn’t agree with you more about the magic of hearing music over shortwave.

Raoul, keep in touch and I will post any updates you provide regarding potential shortwave broadcasts. Thanks for making your programs available via Ameristream Live.

RAI may face reform

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RAI-ItalyMany thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bill Patalon, for sharing this article about potential reform at Italy state broadcaster, RAI:

(Source: The Economist)

“SELDOM has an organisational chart prompted a defamation trial. Yet judges in Milan recently heard a case involving a colour-coded table published by Libero, a newspaper. The chart listed 900 executives of Italy’s public television and radio network, RAI, and the political parties to which they supposedly owed their appointment. Dismissing charges of libel, the judges said it was well known that, in RAI, “even the most meritorious individuals are favoured by their acquaintanceships in political circles”.

Italian commentators call RAI the “mirror of the nation”: an institution so permeated by competing interests that it sometimes anticipates political shifts even before they surface. Once, this was not unhealthy. Instead of being in thrall to the government of the day, RAI offered contrasting viewpoints. The Christian Democrats controlled the first television channel, the Socialists the second and, from 1979, the Communists a third. All three parties disintegrated in the 1990s, but the idea that politicians were entitled to meddle in RAI survived. The number of newsrooms grew to 11, as did a spirit of fierce internal rivalry.

[Continue reading at The Economist…]

Richard’s CBC Radio-Canada QSL and interview with RCI

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radio_canada1

Many thanks to SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, who writes:

“[C]oncerning the RCI anniversary, attached are scans of a QSL card from the CBC International Service for reception on 20 April 1964 when I was in high school. That was on the Knight-Kit Span Master regenerative receiver I had built the previous Christmas.”

radio_canada2 (1)

“About 50 years later (in 2012, actually), I did an interview with RCI’s Victor Nerenberg on GPS and the ionosphere, which appeared on the RCI program “The Link.”

It’s still on their website:
http://www.rcinet.ca/english/archives/program/the-link/home/date/27-01-2012/
(about 15 minutes in)
and
http://www.rcinet.ca/english/archives/program/the-link/archives/episode/09-10_2012-01-30-the-link-friday-january-27-2012/

The RCI site also is featuring some information related to the 70th anniversary:
www.rcinet.ca/rci70-en/

And, lastly, there’s also some interesting stuff in the CBC’s Digital Archives under
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/media/radio-canada-international-canadas-voice-to-the-world/broadcasting-to-the-world.html
There was also an episode of the CBC Rewind archives program on RCI:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Rewind/2011/ID/2167995222/

Many thanks, Richard! I wish I understood the ionosphere as well as you do–that was a fascinating interview. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Gorgeous QSL card, by the way!

BBC plans North Korean news service

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NorthKorea-Map (2)Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, for sharing this news from The Telegraph:

BBC-WorldService“The BBC is planning a new North Korea service to give the totalitarian state’s 25 million people an alternative to Kim Jong-un’s propaganda.

In a move that could plunge the corporation into confrontation with the North Korean dictator, the World Service is examining how to set up a special news channel that will get around Pyongyang’s ban on foreign media broadcasts.

The plan has echoes of Western broadcasts into the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War, when the BBC, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America all broadcasted to listeners behind the Iron Curtain.

However, it is likely to spark fury from Pyongyang’s volatile leadership, and could lead to the British embassy in Pyongyang being targeted for protests or being shut down altogether.

It could also put Britain in the firing line for North Korean-led cyberattacks, such as the one that targeted Sony Pictures last year over its film “The Interview”, which lampooned Kim Jong-un.”[…]

[Continue reading at The Telegraph...]

ERT Open shortwave schedule & news

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logo-ert-open-bw-color-2Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Merkouris, who writes:

I’ve just thought that the shortwave schedule of ERT Open, published on the 28th of February, might be of interest to you and the readers of the SWLing Post.

Here is the link in Greek and below is the translation in English [by time, region, frequency, and program]:

0000-1500 UTC, Europe/North America, 9420 kHz, ERA Athens
1500-2400 UTC, Europe/North America, 9415 kHz, ERA Athens
1100-0450 UTC, Europe/Central America, 9935 kHz, ERA Athens
0500-1050 UTC, Central & South Africa, 11645 kHz, ERA Athens
0000-0550 UTC, Russia/Japan, 15630 kHz, ERA Athens
0600-1850 UTC, Europe/Central America, 15630 kHz, ERA Athens
1900-2350 UTC, Middle East – Australia, 15650 kHz, ERA Athens

Draft Bill to Reestablish ERT?

(Photo source: AP / Petros Giannakouris)

(Photo source: AP / Petros Giannakouris)

Merkouris also included links to the following reports from Greek and English language news sources.

(Source: ANAmpa.gr)

ANA – MPA — A draft bill to reestablish defunct public broadcaster ERT was released to public consultation on Monday afternoon, under the title “Regulations on issues of the state radio and television agency, Hellenic Radio and Television SA, and amendment of article 48 of Law 2190-1920.”

The consultation period will end at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday.

[…]It also said it was reinstating all the ERT staff who had permanent contracts by June 11, 2013 and said a fee of 3 euros would be introduced for ERT on PPC bills and the present name of the public broadcaster (“NERIT S.A.”) be replaced by ERT S.A.

[Click here to read full article…]

This is an interesting development for the Greek public broadcaster. Of course, even if the bill passes, it is unknown how this could affect shortwave radio relays. I must say that I’m impressed that ERT Open has been broadcasting on shortwave a good 1.5 years after they should have been closed down. (Personally, I hope they never go off the air as I love ERT Open’s weekend music programs!)

Again, many thanks Merkouris for sharing this schedule and breaking news. Please keep us informed!

Remembering Radio Canada International’s final shortwave broadcast

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The transmitter building of Radio Canada International, Sackville, NB.

The transmitter building of Radio Canada International, Sackville, NB.

I spent the summer of 2012 in an off-grid cabin on the eastern coast of Prince Edward Island, Canada. That summer, I listened as two of my favorite shortwave broadcasters left the air within weeks of each other: Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Radio Canada International.

I was able to not only listen to the final broadcasts of Radio Netherlands, but also record them. I wrote a post about that memorable experience.

Ironically, though I was only a geographic stone’s-throw from the RCI Sackville transmitter site, I struggled to hear any Sackville signals as my location was too close for skywave propagation and a little too far for ground wave. Though I paid a visit to the transmitter site only two days prior, I was unable to hear or record RCI’s final broadcast.

Unlike RNW’s final broadcasts, RCI’s ended without fanfare and quite abruptly. This week, I heard a recording of that final RCI broadcast for the first time. My friend, Rajdeep Das, recorded it on June 24, 2012 in Kolkata, India. Rajdeep has kindly shared his recording with the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive and here on the SWLing Post.

This is a short 10 minute recording, beginning at 1550 UTC, June 24, 2012 on 11,675 kHz. Listeners will note that the broadcast ends abruptly during the mailbag program–obviously the Sackville transmitters were turned off prematurely.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

While we’re talking about RCI, I would also like to thank @LeedsRadio, @UKDXer and Al Holt for sharing the following brilliant QSLs and pennant:

UK-DXer-RCI-QSL

Source: @UKDXer via Twitter

LeedsRadio-RCI-NorthQuebecService-QSL

Source: @LeedsRadio via Twitter

Al-Holt-RCI-QSL

Source: @grovekid2 (Al Holt) via Twitter

 

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!

SWLing Post readers should note that Rajdeep Das has a DX blog you should visit. I’ve added Rajdeep’s site to our blog roll. Thanks again, Rajdeep!

VOA Radiogram #100

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VOARadioGramDr. Kim Elliott, has been transmitting VOA Radiograms to a devoted set of global listeners for two years. Indeed, he recently passed a milestone by transmitting the 100th episode of the VOA Radiogram. Most impressive!

SWLing Post reader, Harald (DL1ABJ), recently sent the following message regarding reception of the 100th episode:

Dear Thomas,

Last weekend I decoded VOA Radiogram #100 on 17860 kHz AM (via Greenville, Edward R. Murrow TX station) from 1600 till 1630 UTC here in Germany.

Part of it was a text by Kim Andrew Elliott, KD9XB, telling a bit about his project of broadcasting text and pictures over AM transmitters on shortwave.

I am also attaching one of the pictures sent during VOA Radiogram #100.

Regards

Harald

VOARadiogram100 VOARadiogram100

Click here to view/download Harald’s text file (.RTF).

Many thanks for sharing this, Harald. VOA Radiograms are successfully decoded by listeners across the world. If you’re interested in decoding a VOA Radiogram, or simply following the broadcasts, bookmark VOAradiogram.net.