Radio World: HFCC Is About More Than Shortwave Now

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(Source: Radio World)

The High Frequency Coordination Conference is expanding its scope.

[…]According to a summary of the conference, membership voted to expand the scope of the HFCC.

“There are some compelling reasons for doing this,” stated Chairman Oldrich Cip. “TV and radio organizations for home listeners and their unions are busy discussing the future of distribution of the media content and the use of new — mainly digital — technologies. We would like to become a forum for such debate in international broadcasting.”

In other words: We ain’t just shortwave no more.

Read the Full article at Radio World online.

How to turn your AM radio into a metal detector

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Really? This radio could find a missing toy?

While watching Curious George on PBS Kids with my four year old, I learned something. In the episode we viewed–“Curious George, Metal Detective”–George needs a metal detector to find a toy robot he’s lost in the sand, but the one he’s borrowed has run out of batteries.  “How about making one?” his scientist friend suggests. Make one? “It’s easy,” she explains: simply by taping an AM radio and calculator together, you can make your own metal detector. George tries it, and–lo and behold–finds his missing toy.

Really? I wondered. Was this PBS show feeding my skeptical children science fiction?

I quickly googled the notion, and apparently, it works!  Watch the video below for a tutorial on building your own deluxe model:

Lessons learned? You’re never too old to learn from Curious George, PBS, or the fellow in this video.  And radios are clearly even more versatile than even I guessed.

Now, back to metal detecting…Is that another soda can?

Radio Free Sarawak is back on shortwave

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(Source: Free Malaysia Today)

KUCHING: Radio Free Sarawak is back after an almost four months hiatus. It is re-launching this week with an expanded team and greater ambitions.

It kicks off with a two hour daily timeslot from 6 – 8 pm on the shortwave 17560 kHz bandwidth.
According to its media release, the RFS “will continue to focus on the concerns and interests of the ordinary people of Sarawak, mainly rural folk, who currently have no access to an independent news source. ”

“We will also address urban and Malaysia-wide issues in recognition of its popular following among internet users and listeners from other states,” said the statement.

RFS has been credited for the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud-led Barisan Nasional coalition’s losses in the mixed and rural constituencies in Sarawak in the April state polls where BN won 55 seats while the opposition made inroads with 15 seats, whilst one seat, Pelagus, went to independent George Lagong.

This was an unprecedented victory for the opposition.

Read the full article at Free Malaysia Today.

If you want to catch Radio Sarawak as DX, try 17,560 kHz between 1000-1200 UTC. Their broadcast is also available online via www.radiofreesarawak.org .

Read previous posts about RFS by clicking here.

RCI’s “The Maple Leaf Mailbag” mentions the SWLing Post

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You can’t imagine how honored we are that Ian Jones of Radio Canada International’s “The Maple Leaf Mailbag” (and the Rock’n Roadshow) mentioned our site on the MLMB!

Here at the SWLing Post we blog about an innovative technology that serves up a wide and wild varieties of voices, sounds, opinions and music–all streaming wirelessly, all over the world, all of the time, at the speed of light–you only have to listen.

Yes, Ian, you’re right. Shortwave is far from dead.

I’ve been a Radio Canada International listener since my earliest listening years. Their programming is truly top-notch. The Link gives a perspective on life in Canada, typically from the unique perspective of immigrants. The MLMB is a quirky, fun, creative, highly interactive, interview-and-music program, that is (to say the least) unpredictable. Ian and his crew put their hearts into the show, and this comes through in every episode.

Welcome, Maple Leaf Mailbag listeners!  And thanks, again, Ian!

 

Video: Listening to sunspots on your shortwave radio

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Digital Journal  reported that last weekend’s Sunspot 1302 was so strong that it had been detected via shortwave radio.  The following video marries the shortwave audio with images from the sunspot:

A little shortwave radio astronomy courtesy of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Audio recorded by Thomas Ashcraft in New Mexico. Read more at the Digital Journal.

UNESCO Proclaims World Radio Day – February 13

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UNESCO’s Executive Board approved item 13 of its provisional agenda “Proclamation of a World Radio Day” to be celebrated each February 13th.

The Executive’s decision is as follows:

  • Recommends to the [UNESCO] General Conference that it proclaim a World Radio Day and that this Day be celebrated on 13 February, the day the United Nations established the concept of United Nations Radio;
  • Invites all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, professional associations and broadcasting unions, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations and individuals, to duly celebrate the World Radio Day, in the way that each considers most adequate;
  • Requests the Director-General, subject to the final resolution of the General Conference, to bring this resolution to the attention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations so that World Radio Day may be endorsed by the General Assembly.

Read UNESCO’s full World Radio Day proclamation here (PDF).