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!
Check out this article from Radio World which addresses the state of shortwave radio broadcasting.
Jeff White of WRMI and Kim Elliott of the VOA are both interviewed. Elliott even speaks about the virtues of the VOA Radiogram experiments which have had success circumventing shortwave radio jamming (broadcasts which were completely omitted from the BBG Special Committee report on the efficacy of shortwave radio).
The First Pirate is the title of a Radio 4 Extra–an interview with Les Woodland who tells the story of Captain Plugge, founder of Radio Normandy, the first station to take on the BBC.
(Source: Southgate ARC)
Capt Leonard Plugge was the driving force behind Radio Normandy in the early 1930s. He created the International Broadcasting Company in 1931 as a commercial rival to the British Broadcasting Corporation by buying airtime from radio stations such as Normandy, Toulouse, Ljubljana, Juan les Pins, Paris, Poste Parisien, Athlone, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. IBC worked indirectly with Radio Luxembourg until 1936. World War II silenced most of Plugge’s stations between 1939 and 1945.
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!
SWLing Post reader, Neil, writes:
“An app specifically made for the Elecraft KX3 is KX3Companion (www.kx3companion.com). There are free and paid versions on Google Play (does not work on Kindle Fire).
The same author has created KX3 KeyApp to give a virtual set of keys for KX3 users. It comes with two predefined templates (CW, and default) with KX3 macros setup for use.
Finally, he created QRSS Beacon – A fully featured QRSS (Slow CW) Beacon on Android. You can select a DIT duration from 1 to 60 seconds and choose one of the 3 supported modes: QRSS, FSK/CW and DFCW. This works on any radio, connect the audio out of your Android device to the audio in of your radio and an enable VOX.
Also, HamLog is available on iOS & Android (there’s even a MAC version).”
Many thanks for sharing this, Neil! I will add the KX3 Companion apps to our comprehensive list of ham/shortwave radio apps.
Many thanks to Jonathan Marks who apprised me of this excellent 1960 film from the BBC. As Jonathan notes, it’s heavily scripted, but fascinating nonetheless.
Click here to view the full video on YouTube or watch via the embedded player below: