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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jonathan Marks, who notes that BBC Director General Tim Davie announced a digital strategy along with a number cuts following the BBC licence fee settlement. This was all outlined in his “A digital-first BBC“ speech to staff this afternoon.
I’ve pasted the full copy of his speech below, but regarding the BBC World Service, here is an excerpt:
“The Government’s commitment to extend its £94m annual funding for the World Service for a further three years is very welcome. But UK licence fee funding for the World Service, which has been around £254m in recent years, is now running at over £290m including World News – a level that is unsustainable following the licence fee settlement.
We will set out plans in the coming weeks for how we will initially reduce licence fee spending on the World Service by around £30m by the start of 2023/24, while protecting the full breadth of languages.
At the same time, our strategic review will identify the right longer-term model for a digital-first World Service and lay out a strong case for more investment from government over the coming years. This case for a strengthened World Service is compelling but we can only expect UK licence fee payers to fund so much.”
In addition, they hope to save £500m annually by cutting services such as Radio 4 Extra, Radio 4’s Long Wave service, and Radio 5 Live’s mediumwave transmitter network.
The Director General’s speech to staff, of course, primarily focused on being a world-class digital and on-demand provider.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie’s speech to staff on 26 May 2022
Published: 26 May 2022
Good afternoon everybody.
Today, in our centenary year, I want to set out a vision of how we keep the BBC relevant and offer value to all audiences in an on-demand age.
I will cover three things: the pressing need to build a digital-first BBC; how we spend our money now that we have the certainty of public funding for six years; and how we keep reforming the way we work. Continue reading →
Hello shortwave listeners! I just wanted to make this short post as a reminder for an upcoming broadcast of mine – transmitted with high power for listeners in Europe and beyond!
Friday 1600 UTC (7 PM EEST/MSK) – 9670 kHz – Moosbrunn 100 kW – Europe, Russia, Central & East Asia
You can hear this airing every Friday, the program is 1 Hour in length and features miscellaneous discussion (sometimes about current events, other times about random subjects on my mind) at the start of the program and is then balanced out with listener requested music. I hope for it to be an enjoyable light entertainment program with good music and discussion.
For this airing exclusively, I verify reception reports with a special e-QSL! Listener reception feedback is much appreciated at [email protected]
You can’t win the Indianapolis 500 until they wave the checkered flag – and you can’t win a W9IMS Checkered Flag Award unless you contact the Indy 500 special event.
You’ll have that opportunity from now through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, May 29 in Indianapolis (0359 UTC Monday, May 30) as W9IMS fires up daily on 20 and 40 meters SSB. usually on or around 7.245 and 14.245 MHz.
The Indy 500 special event is the second of three W9IMS operations commemorating the major auto races at the Speedway. The first event of 2022, which ended May 14, honored the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and the third will run from July 25-31, during the week preceding the NASCAR Brickyard 200.
Both hams and SWLs are eligible for the Checkered Flag certificate and the three individual QSL cards, all of which boast new designs for 2022. To earn the certificate, however, you must work (or tune in) W9IMS during all three of this year’s special events – and it’s too late to catch the first race. But even if you miss the trifecta, you can still claim collectible QSLs from the other races.
Tips on finding W9IMS:
Check DX Summit (www.dxsummit.fi) for spots listing the current frequency or frequencies of W9IMS, if any. By typing “W9IMS” in the search box at upper right, you can customize it to show reports for only Indianapolis Motor Speedway special events.
Go to the W9IMS web page (www.w9ims.org) and look for the heading, “2022 Operating Schedule.” Click on the Indianapolis 500 link, which opens into a weeklong schedule listing individual operators and their reserved time slots. Your odds of catching W9IMS on the air improve significantly during these hours.
Prime operating time on weeknights is 6 to 10 p.m. Indy time (2200-0200 UTC). However, W9IMS can appear anytime, even on two bands at once, between now and 0400 UTC Monday, May 30.
Remember that the published schedule can be shortened by adverse circumstances, such as noisy band conditions, local thunderstorms or a lack of calling stations. Don’t wait till the final hour to chase W9IMS!
Operators often get on the air at unscheduled times. That’s why DX Summit is your best bet for locating W9IMS’s current spot(s).
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gareth Buxton, who writes:
Hi Thomas
I see that Anon-co have the Tecsun PL-990 Ferrite rod aerial for sale. It even says in the product description “You can use it for your DIY projects.” I thought it might be of interest to your MW/AM radio constructors, especially if they can build a radio that receives more stations than the Tecsun using the same part!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent Voice of Korea broadcast.
Carlos notes:
Part of news bulletin from Radio Voice of Korea shortwave broadcast in English about efforts of North Korea’s government to fight Covid-19 pandemic.
Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, May 23, 2022, 21h18 (UTC), frequency of 15245 kHz.
NATE, in collaboration with Storybuilt Media, has created a feature-length documentary titled “Vertical Freedom,” which highlights the professional and personal lives of six communications infrastructure workers in the United States.
Throughout the film, these cellular and broadcast tower climbers share what compels and excites them about their line of work. Plus, how to overcome every-day danger in order to connect us all.
Ky Nguyen is just one of the climbers featured in the film. He has worked with RIO Steel and Tower out of Alvarado, Texas for the last 10 years.
After the Great Recession, Nguyen wanted to move away from his job in construction and — while he is skilled at his craft now — he was initially hired onto the tower communication service’s team with zero experience.
“I started as a climber and then just kept working my way up,” he said. “Then I became foreman and began project managing. I’m one of those types of guys where, if you want it done a certain way, you have to be with them, showing them, leading by example – so I’m climbing every day.” [Continue reading…]
Ten years ago, my friend John gave me this tiny Sony receiver. It wasn’t working. I tried to fix it but quickly discovered that the tiny size of the device made repair difficult. All you needed to do was to swap out some leaking electrolytics, but they are surface mount electrolytics — replacing them is not for the faint of heart. Kits are available, but again, this is not easy.
In 2020 I got one of the kits, but didn’t try to use it until yesterday. It only supplied six of the electrolytics. In the video above, they discuss replacing seven electrolytics, including the one that seems to be placed in the round black holder. C-625. Why didn’t my kit include a replacement for that one? Could it be that this capacitor was not one of the leaky SMD caps?
Replacing these caps really wasn’t easy. At one point I inadvertently removed not just the bad cap, but also a nearby surface mount resistor. Luckily the schematic showed it to be 0 ohms. That was easily replaced. I lifted one of the pads on one of the other caps — I just slid it back into place and hoped for the best. [Continue reading at Soldersmoke…]
The FCC has introduced a proposal for rulemaking to determine whether to permanently approve the use the spectrum of television channel 6 for analog radio service on 87.75 MHz and will vote on whether to proceed with it at its June meeting.
In July 2021, all of the remaining analog low-power television stations were required to convert to digital, which would then lead to thirteen of them resuming analog audio transmission within their ATSC 3 broadcasts on an experimental basis. The rulemaking proposal seeks comments whether FM on channel 6 operations server the public interest and should be authorized to continue, whether they should be authorized as ancillary or supplementary services and if so subject to a new rule that permits their operation subject the certain technical and operational requirements, whether they can limit future channel 6 FM operations to those stations with active STAs, whether to consider a proposal to license additional non-commercials FMs on 82-88 MHz in areas where no television stations are operating, and whether to eliminate or revise the distance separation rules between television stations on channel 6 and radio licenses in the non-commercial band.
The petition by Educational Media Foundation and antenna manufacturers Dielectric, Jampro Antennas, Radio Frequency Systems, and Shively Labs to allow FM antenna directional pattern verification by computer modeling was approved at the FCC’s monthly open meeting. [Click here to read the full article at Radio Insight…]
The Marconi Van exhibition tells the story of Marconi’s pioneering work and its scientific legacy in radio and microwave physics. The exhibition combines:
Engaging exhibits and interactive activities exploring the past, present, and future of radio and communications physics.
An exploration of historical objects from the History of Science Museum’s Marconi collection.
Virtual experiments you can try yourself. As restrictions ease we shall be inviting you to have a go in the laboratory!
The exhibition is housed inside a 1968 Morris Motor Traveller van built at the iconic Morris Motors plant in Cowley, Oxford. The objects an information available inside the van will evolve as the exhibition progresses… so just because you’ve seen it once doesn’t mean there isn’t more to see.
The first week of June is a special week at RNEI: It’s a 5th show week!
This means that there are 5 broadcasts before the next RNEI show airs on 6070KHz, (Channel 292).
During this “5th week” we like to create something special and outside of our usual remit.
For the first week of February, we had an EasyDRF demonstration from Daz followed by the normal shows from Mamma and Stephen. This time the special before Mamma and Stephen is of Japanese music from Rose! Without any further ado, here is the announcement:
While there might be a blue light in Yokohama, this Japanese special has unlocked a green light to be on RNEI’s 5th week broadcast!
I thought about writing a normal-style announcement post.. but that felt predictable like small talk about the weather. Instead I’ve included hints only a dimension hacker could crack as to the songs I am playing this show.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Japanese music recently.. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned before but I’ve always had a liking for Japanese music. I remember listening to J-pop at train stations and I remember one summer’s day hearing Sentimental Journey on NHK in 2021 which got me back into listening to J-Pop! I feel my love of Japanese pop will probably last until the day after eternity!
Anyways, that’s enough of me rambling on, time to give you the broadcast dates and times!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jonathan Marks, who notes that BBC Director General Tim Davie announced a digital strategy along with a number cuts following the BBC licence fee settlement. This was all outlined in his “A digital-first BBC“ speech to staff this afternoon.
