Jazz Notes presenter, Ivan Lloyd (Photo: Radio Australia)
For your listening pleasure: thirty minutes of Radio Australia’s Jazz Notes.
This broadcast was recorded yesterday at 1:30 UTC on 11,945 kHz. You will note a little noise that bleeds over from jamming of Radio Marti on an adjacent frequency.
You can download this recording of Jazz Notes by clicking here, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
(Source: SW Radio Africa)
On Friday police in Rusape went door-to-door to houses belonging to known MDC-T supporters, in search of shortwave radios. But the MP for Makoni South said they found nothing.
Pishai Muchauraya said the morning raids saw police officers go in groups of three to MDC-T homes in Gandanzara, ‘demanding radios distributed by Pishai.’
[…]Last week the police ordered a ban on the possession of shortwave radios, saying they are being used to communicate hate speech ahead of next month’s constitutional referendum and elections set to be held later this year.
Wind-up, solar-powered radios sets have been distributed by some NGOs to rural communities, where villagers have established listening clubs to tune in to popular independent stations such as Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa. The broadcasts are produced by experienced exiled Zimbabwean journalists based in Europe and the US.
Read the full report on the website of clandestine radio station, SW Radio Africa.
In reference to our post, Dave’s FM Station Empire, SWLing Post reader Bill writes:
Nice article on the use of low power broadcasting. For the last 5 years my site, HobbyBroadcaster.net, has been helping radio enthusiasts along with schools and businesses learn how to use legal, low power, license-free Part 15 radio for a variety of uses. I created the site due to my involvement with starting a campus-limited high school station and discovering the lack of quality resources available for school-based broadcasters unable to obtain an FCC allocation. With many hobbyists also using this same technology on AM to serve their neighbors with micro radio it only seemed natural to expand the interest to hobbyists, too.
Also, Part 15 regulations allow for some use of the shortwave bands for experimental broadcasting with the most common frequency used by hobbyists being 13.56 MHz.
“Uh, Charlie, where did Bermuda go?”
My good buddy, David Goren, directed me to the VOLMET frequency for New York Sunday afternoon on 3,485 kHz.
VOMET, for those of you not familiar, is a worldwide network of radio stations that broadcast TAF, SIGMET and METAR aviation weather reports on shortwave radio, and in some countries on VHF, too. All of the reports are broadcast in upper sideband, using automated voice transmissions.
At any rate, they must have experienced a glitch which resulted in the loss of meteorological data for most of the United States. The broadcast preamble is as usual, but as soon as specific airport regions (mostly major US cities and some islands) are mentioned, the report takes a disturbing turn. It’s fodder for science fiction–one is not sure whether to be alarmed or amused by this eyebrow-raising data (or, lack thereof).
The end result becomes almost like a numbers station, sans numbers, of course. Take a listen for yourself by clicking here to download the recording, or listen via the embedded player below:
On February 5th, 2013, the Cuban numbers station widely known as HM01 struggled to maintain its composure following an awkward studio error.
In this particular case, I started recording a few seconds prior to the carrier, at which point you’ll hear a couple of minutes of “dead air” (silence). The broadcast starts around 2:25, cutting into the middle of a data burst; the station then goes silent before it comes back on at 5:15 with numbers, then abruptly stops. At 6:15 the station restarts the numbers broadcast in earnest.
Download the MP3 of the full recording by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below:
Click here to view the Archive.org with original audio files.
Map pointing to Truk Lagoon (Source: truk-lagoon.com)
SWLing Post reader, Chris Johnson, recently sent me a message confessing his love of travel combined with shortwave radio listening. When he told me about his enviable plans to travel to the tiny islands of Truk Lagoon in the Federated States of Micronesia–and to record some of the broadcasts he heard–I asked if he would allow me to share his recordings on the Post. Fortunately for us, he agreed!
Below are two of his recordings, the first from the Voice of Mongolia, the second from the Voice of Korea. Both happen to be very difficult stations to catch here in eastern North America. His comments follow each recording:
Voice of Mongolia Shortwave Broadcast to Asia and Europe. Using a Sony ICF-SW7600G with a whip antenna. Recorded on 29 January 2013 at 1030z on 12085 khz from the Blue Lagoon Resort, Truk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia. The broadcast interval signal begins at 1:35
Voice of Korea; Recorded on a Sony ICF-SW7600G using a whip antenna. 7 February 2013 on 15100 khz at 0500z Location; Puka Beach, Boracay Island, Philippines. The program was scheduled for 60 minutes but due to the frequent power outages in the DPRK, the program ceased at approximately 52 minutes.
Thanks, Chris!
Emma Swift is hosting Saturday Night Country while Felicity Urquhart is on maternity leave. (Photo: Radio Australia)
As on many Saturday mornings, this past weekend I sipped my morning coffee while listening to ABC’s Saturday Night Country from Radio Australia’s Shepparton shortwave transmission site on 9.58 MHz…some 9,800 miles from my home.
In this program, Emma Swift continues to fill in for Felicity Urquhart (who is on maternity leave). Swift, who is an amazing host and songwriter in her own right, focuses in this show on country drinking songs (amongst others) and on a few nostalgic country songs in the final set. Fortunately, I captured the whole show in two recordings.
Click here to download the first recording and here to download the second as MP3s. Alternatively, you can simply listen via the embedded player below:
The Archive.org download page for these recordings can be found here.