Studio 1 Software Defined Radio will give your Perseus a resizable interface

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One of the major complaints I hear regarding the benchmark Microtelecom Perseus SDR is that its GUI (graphic user interface) is not resizable or scalable to fit a large monitor at full-screen.

If you’re a Perseus owner and if this is a problem for you, then you need to watch for the release of Studio 1 Software Defined Radio by SDR Applications. Which will boast:

  • Fully re-sizable windows/interface,
  • support for multiple sessions
  • and state of the art visualization, demodulation and filtering

WoodBoxRadio told me that SDR Applications is still finishing off development, but plan to have a bug-free version of their software available at the end of March 2012. They told me that Studio 1 will work with the Microtelecom Perseus, FDM-S1 and the Softrock family of software defined radios (SDRs).

We will stay in touch with WoodBoxRadio and post any updates here on the SWLing Post.

“VOA Looks to Future on 70th Anniversary”

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(Source: Voice of America Press Release)

Washington, D.C. — February 1, 2012 — Voice of America turned 70 on Wednesday, and VOA Director David Ensor says the international broadcast agency is aggressively moving forward with new programs that ensure it remains an “information lifeline to people in closed societies like Iran.”

Addressing VOA journalists at the agency’s Washington headquarters, Ensor pointed to a television news show for Burma that began airing in January, a popular video blog that has been viewed more than 7 million times in China, expanded TV broadcasts to Iran, and new health programs on radio in Africa. He also described plans for a Russian language TV program that will harness popular social media programs to make citizen journalists and the audience a key part of the show.

Ensor said the one-time cold war broadcaster is “as relevant today as it was February 1st, 1942,” the date of the first shortwave radio broadcast to Germany.”

Created by the U.S. government in the opening days of World War Two, the Voice of America has evolved into a global multi-media organization, broadcasting balanced and comprehensive news in 43 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 141 million.

The first shortwave radio transmission, spoken in German just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, began with the words “Here speaks a voice from America.” The broadcast went on to promise, “The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” Ensor, the 28th Voice of America director, says the agency continues to be guided by those words.

VOA radio remains highly popular in many markets, including Somalia, parts of Pakistan and Haiti. Ensor says the agency is moving forward with new television and Internet programs that target countries like Iran, where the government restricts the free flow of information.

VOA programs are delivered on satellite, cable TV, mobile, shortwave, FM, medium wave, the Internet, and on a network of about 1,200 affiliate stations around the world. In addition to more than 1,100 employees in Washington, VOA works with contract journalists in trouble spots around the world. Last month the Taliban claimed responsibility for the murder of a reporter working for VOA in Pakistan.

Updates to the WRTH B11 schedules are now available for download

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The World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) B11 schedules updates file is now available to download, free of charge, from the WRTH website. This is a comprehensive update and supplement to the printed 2012 WRTH.

Final Transmission of Radio Bulgaria

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Just in case you missed it, below I have a full recording of Radio Bulgaria’s final transmission in French. This was recorded on 7,400 kHz, Jan 31, 2012 at 21:00 UTC.

Typically, I have to move to 5,900 kHz after 22:00 UTC due to neighboring Radio Marti on 7,405 kHz (which you hear come in at the end of this recording). Yesterday, after moving to 5,900, I heard one Radio Bulgaria interval signal and then dead air in place of their normally scheduled English service. I believe the recording below was their last transmission on shortwave.

Click here to download.

Still want to listen to Radio Bulgaria? No problem–they now stream online, everyday, on their website.

Chucho Valdés: Inspiration from VOA Jazz Hours

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(Source: Kim Elliott via the Hartford Courant)

24 Jan 2012, Owen McNally: “Still very much an irrepressible life-force at 70, Chucho Valdés, the renowned Cuban pianist, composer and bandleader, is on a winter tour of the United States that sets down for high-energy maneuvers … at the cabaret series at the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. … The title track [of his new CD], ‘Chucho’s Steps,’ … is a 50-bar adventure in challenging harmony in which he pays tribute to John Coltrane’s intimidating masterpiece, ‘Giant Steps.’ Valdés notes that as a young man in Cuba he would listen on short-wave radio to a program called ‘The Jazz Hour’ on The Voice of America, an experience that opened his ears to Coltrane’s innovations and the creative fervor of the new, iconoclastic music that was fermenting in the States.”

The Voice of America turns 70

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(Source: Diplomatic Courier)

“The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” – William Harlan Hale; February 1, 1942

Such began the first broadcast of a small team of dedicated men transmitting live from a claustrophobic New York City studio into Nazi Germany.  Their group had no name, although their first broadcast was titled Stimmen aus Amerika—Voices from America. The equipment they used was borrowed.  They had no direction as to what they would broadcast, except the truth.  At that moment, the United States stepped into a role as guardian of the power of ideas and honest messenger of information to all corners of the world.

From the very beginning, the Voice of America has held at its core the mission to present to the world the policies and culture of the United States, while reporting on global news events accurately, clearly, and objectively.  It has been one of the U.S.’s most effective public relations initiatives. All around the world, the Voice of America is highly respected as an honest and fair messenger, and in many places, as the only comprehensive source of news free from propaganda.  From Nazi Germany to Communist Eastern Europe to Kim Jong Il’s North Korea, VOA has often been the only connection to the outside world that people of repressive regimes have. […]

Today, VOA broadcasts through the Internet, television, and a network of AM, FM, and shortwave radio signals. The approximately 1500 hours of programs per week include features on American culture, learning English, international news, discussion programs, and regionally focused programs to address the needs of the local populations.  VOA broadcasts in 43 languages, televising programs in 26 of those, and reaches 141 million people weekly. All this makes VOA one of the largest multimedia news organizations in the world.

Read the full story at the Diplomatic Courier website.