Hi SWLing post community, just to let you know this week’s Imaginary Stations on WRMI visits the Shortwave Music Library with DJ Frederick. Delve into classic pop & library music on 9395 kHz from 2200 utc on Sunday 11th September 2022. Expect some good tunes. Fastradioburst23.
“The Texas Tank: A Prison Radio Station Changing Lives”
SWLing Post friend and contributor, David Goren, notes that a piece he’s produced and Maria Margaronis has presented is now available to listen to online via BBC Radio 4:
The Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, used to be known as the Terror Dome for its high rates of inmate violence, murder and suicide. Polunsky houses all the men condemned to death in Texas (currently 185) and nearly 3,000 maximum security prisoners. But since the pandemic, a prison radio station almost entirely run by the men themselves has helped to create community–even for those on death row, who spend 23 hours a day locked alone in their cells.
The Tank beams all kinds of programmes across the prison complex: conversations both gruff and tender; music from R&B to metal; the soundtracks of old movies; inspirational messages from all faiths and none. The station’s steady signal has saved some men from suicide and many from loneliness; it lets family members and inmates dedicate songs to each other and make special shows for those on their way to execution. Maria Margaronis tunes in to The Tank and meets some of the men who say it’s changed their lives—even when those lives have just weeks left to run.
Produced by David Goren.
Click here to listen to The Texas Tank: A Prison Radio Station Changing Lives on Radio 4.
WRTH 2023 will be available in print and digital form under new ownership
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Andrea Borgnino, who shared the following via Twitter:
The next edition of the WRTH “world’s most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to broadcasting” will be published in December 2022 in a printed and a digital version. The rights have now been transferred to Radio Data Center GmbH (RDC), based in Freising, Germany.
This is fantastic news! Thank you for sharing this, Andrea.
UPDATE: WRTH has posted the following press release (click to download PDF).
Of course, we’ll post more details as they become available.
The return of the lavalamp
Just a quick reminder of the return of Radio Lavalamp “Your ethereal shortwave music station” to your radio receivers via the transmitters of Channel 292 this weekend. The broadcast is on Sunday 11th September 2022 at 10.00 UTC/12.00 CEST on 6070 kHz and will feature a mix of chilled out tunes and a relaxed musical selection for a Sunday (including the below tune Subtle Body from Fila Brazillia). Tune in and enjoy! Fastradioburst23
Treetop Antennas: Featured with my friend Wlodek (US7IGN) on BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts
I’m very honored to be featured with my good friend Wlodek (US7IGN) in a short radio documentary on BBC Radio 4 today.
Wlodek is long-time reader and subscriber here on the SWLing Post and QRPer.com. Wlodek lives in Kiev, Ukraine and we keep in touch these days over email. Like me, he is passionate about field radio work and before the Russian invasion, you’d often find him in nearby forests experimenting with some pretty impressive field antennas.
Sadly, when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, it very quickly brought an end to all of that for Wlod. Not only were amateur radio operators not allowed to transmit under the state of emergency, but it’s no longer safe to venture into nearby forests.
Radio producer, Cicely Fell, learned about our love of all things field radio and put together an audio piece that airs today on BBC Radio 4:
BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts
From the forests of North Carolina, USA to the city of Kyiv, Ukraine – two ham radio enthusiasts seek each other out and a voice from the past prompts a dialogue on listening between a rabbi and a radio producer.
Click here to listen via the BBC Radio 4 website (note that the audio can be streamed shortly after the program airs today).
Many thanks to Cicely and her talented team at Falling Tree Productions for spending a little time with us in the forest and on the air! Truly an honor.
Video: Tour of AM Stereo Station KYET
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave (N9EWO), who writes:
Dan, shango066 on You Tube give us a nice little tour of KYET on 1070 kHz in Golden Valley Arizona which transmits in AM Stereo (6K day, 1 watt night). Harris solid state transmitter which is also shown in this video:
Click here to view on YouTube.
First part of his video explains the modified Realistic receiver (which he could not get working, well at least not yet):
Jock’s Op Ed: Why shortwave? And an idea for the future.
By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM
The internet, I think, is darn near magic. A few keystrokes and you can find almost anything. And people use it all the time for all kinds of things. Hold that thought for a moment.
At the same time, I am very nearly a free speech absolutist . . . you (or anyone) should be allowed to say anything you please so long as it is not illegal. Period.
(An important aside: this post is NOT about left vs. right, up vs. down, etc. It’s about principles, speech, and access to media. If the comments descend into political vituperation, I will ask Thomas (our Maximum Leader) to take the whole post down, comments and all.)
Now, I know what you are thinking: what about mis-information, dis-information, hate speech, offensive speech, and so forth?
Who gets to decide? And other issues.
Well, three things:
- Who gets to decide? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want “the rules” of free speech to be decided by individuals, companies, or governments that have reason to suppress or hide information. The road to the past is positively paved with examples of constricting speech
- How – if you decide to suppress speech for whatever reason – do you know that you are absoflippinlutely correct in your assessment? It wasn’t that long ago that “the experts” were positively certain that continents did not move, and people were pilloried for suggesting that they did. And yet now continental drift is an accepted theory with a great deal of physical evidence to support it. Or how about this: in 2005, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to two Australian physicians who discovered ulcers are caused by a bacterium. For decades, medical journals would not publish their experimental results because the “consensus” said stress caused ulcers. How many people died because of this suppression? Or how about this zinger from Einstein: “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” Got it? Today’s foolishness can be tomorrow’s truth . . . and vice versa.
- When it comes to offensive speech (and there is certainly enough out there), I’ve discovered these amazing, state-of-the-art, high-tech tools: the OFF switch and the tuning knob. Use them; it’s a liberating experience.
Okay, bear that in mind for a moment.
But what does that have to do with shortwave? I’ll tell you in a second, but first, one teeny-weeny observation about the internet. Ready? Here it is: it can be switched off in an instant, and then your wonderful world of information simply isn’t there.
Shortwave, however, is much harder (although not impossible) to switch off. It can get through often when nothing else can. It crosses borders, by passes those who control the switches, and even can be discerned many times when powers that be are trying to jam it.
My Wish
I would like to see lots more shortwave stations, including privately owned shortwave stations, broadcasting a wide variety programming from lots of different perspectives. And because it is over the international airwaves, it would be a lot more difficult to suppress than the internet (or social media).
Wouldn’t it be neat if it was relatively easy, especially in terms of government regulations to get low-power shortwave stations on the air? Imagine a plethora of viewpoints delivered through a medium that would be relatively difficult to curtail. I think that would be a good idea. What do you think?