Guest Post: Methods for discovering and recording online radio programming for later listening

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill (WD9EQD), who shares the following guest post:

Time Shifting Radio Programs for Later Listening

by Bill (WD9EQD)

There are quite a few programs on shortwave that I enjoy listening to for the actual program content. If I am lucky, I will receive a strong enough signal to really enjoy the experience. But all too often, I either can’t directly receive the program or conditions are such that listening is just not enjoyable. What I was looking for was good quality sound that I could listen to on my schedule.

I could always just go to the station website and listen to the live stream of the program. But what if there are two programs on different stations at the same time? I would have to choose which one to listen to. What I needed was a way to listen to the program on my schedule.

This write-up will be presenting several ways this can be accomplished.

Is the Program Streamed?

In many cases, it is possible to go to the program’s website and then listen to the latest program or even an archive of past programs at your convenience. Some examples are:

Hobart Radio International http://www.hriradio.org/

Radio Emma Toc https://www.emmatoc.org/worldserviceindex

VORW International https://soundcloud.com/vorw

AWR Wavescan http://eu.awr.org/en/listen/program/143

Blues Radio International: http://www.bluesradiointernational.net/

This is a Music Show https://thisisamusicshow.com/

Radio Northern Europe International: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNorthernEurope/

Alt Universe Top 40: https://www.altuniversetop40.com/links

International Radio Report https://www.ckut.ca/en/content/international-radio-report

World of Radio http://worldofradio.com/

The Shortwave Report http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml

Lost Discs Radio Show https://www.lostdiscsradio.com/

Grits Radio Show https://archive.org/details/gritsradioshow2020

Le Show with Harry Shearer http://harryshearer.com/le-show/

Can the Program Be Downloaded?

All HRI programs are available on their Archive.org page.

Quite often, the program’s web site will also let you download the program for listening at a later date. Some examples are:

Hobart Radio International has an Internet Archive page where you can listen to and download their previous programs: https://archive.org/details/@hobart_radio_international

Radio Emma Toc has a button for “broadcast & internet relay services wishing to air our programme”.

But anyone can download the program.

VORW International: https://soundcloud.com/vorw

(Note: You will have to sign into Soundcloud to be able to download the files)

AWR Wavescan: http://eu.awr.org/en/listen/program/143

Your Weekend Show: https://open.spotify.com/show/2RywtSHWHEvYGjqsK6EYuG

International Radio Report https://www.ckut.ca/en/content/international-radio-report

World of Radio http://worldofradio.com/

The Shortwave Report http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml

Lost Discs Radio Show https://www.lostdiscsradio.com/

Grits Radio Show https://archive.org/details/gritsradioshow2020

Le Show with Harry Shearer http://harryshearer.com/le-show/

WBCQ has a link to an Archive of some of their programs. Just click on the Archive link and you will go to Internet Archive where there are a lot of programs that can be streamed or downloaded. The programs include:

Adventures in Pop Music
Analog Telephone Systems Show
B Movie Bob
Cows in Space
Godless Irena 1
Grits Radio Show
Lost Discs Radio Show
Radio Timtron Worldwide
Texas Radio Shortwave
The Lumpy Gravy Show
Zombies in your Brain
Vinyl Treasures
Plus many, many other programs…

Does the Program Have a Podcast?

Check to see if the program has a podcast. Many programs do and this makes it easy to always have the latest program updated into my favorite podcast program.

AWR Wavescan is available on a number of podcasting platforms

Some programs that have podcasts:

Hobart Radio International
AWR Wavescan
Blues Radio International:
Your Weekend Show
International Radio Report
World of Radio
The Shortwave Report
The Lost Discs Radio Show
Le Show with Harry Shearer

Directly Record the Stream While It Is Being Broadcast

This method is a little more difficult and requires some setup. The method is to record the program directly from the internet stream of the station as it is broadcasting the program. Once set up, the procedure is completely automatic and will continue to capture the program until it is disabled in the scheduler.

Let’s walk through a typical program that we want to record. I like Alan Gray’s “Last Radio Playing” program on WWCR. It is broadcast weekly on Wednesday at 6pm Central Time on 6115. While I can receive the program over the air, it’s not very good reception, so I usually just stream it off the internet.

What I want to do is to set up an automatic computer program that will connect to the stream on Wednesday night, record the stream for one hour and then disconnect. I use the program StreamRipper which can run on either Linux or Windows.

http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/

Since I have a spare Raspberry Pi 4 computer, I chose to use the Linux version. The following description is based on Linux. A similar method I’m sure could be done with the Windows version.

Fortunately, StreamRipper is in the current software repository for the Raspberry PI and I could just install it with having to do a compile. I’m sure other Linux distributions probably also have it in their repository. It was a simple matter to install it. In Linux, Streamripper is run from the command line in a terminal window.

A typical command line for SteamRipper is:

streamripper station_URL_stream –a “filename” –A –d directory_path -l seconds

where

station_URL_stream is the http address of the audio stream. Determining this can sometimes be challenging and some methods were recently discussed in a SWLing Post:

https://swling.com/blog/2021/04/robs-tips-for-uncovering-radio-station-stream-urls/

–a says to record the audio as a single file and not try to break it up into individual songs.

“filename” the filename of the resultant mp3 file goes here in quotes

-A again says to create a single file.

-d tells it the directory path to store the mp3 file. Place the full directory path after the –d

-l specifies how long to record. Enter the number of seconds after –l.

(note: this is lower case letter l)

For Last Radio Playing, the command line is:

streamripper http://67.225.254.16:3763 –a “Last Radio Playing” –A –d /home/pi/RIP/wwcr –l 3600

when executed, this would connect to the URL stream, record for 3600 seconds (60 minutes) and then disconnect from the stream A file called “Last Radio Playing.mp3” would be in the wwcr1 directory.

Save this command line to a shell file, maybe wwcr.sh. Then make this shell file executable.

Last is to enter a crontab entry to schedule the shell file wwcw.sh to be run every Wednesday at 6pm ct.

At the command line, enter crontab –e to edit the cron table.

Add the following line at the end:

0 19 * * 3 /home/pi/wwcr.sh

then exit and save the crontab file.

This line says to execute wwcr.sh every Wednesday at 1900 (my computer is on eastern time).

There are many ways to enhance the shell script. For example, I have added the date to the mp3 file name. My wwcr1.sh shell script is:

NOW=$(date +”%Y-%m%d”)

# WWCR1 Last Radio Playing

# Wednesday 7-8pm et

streamripper http://67.225.254.16:3763 -a “$NOW Last Radio Playing” -A -u FreeAmp/2.X -d /media/pi/RIP/wwcr1 -l 3600

This will create a MP3 file with the date in the file name. For example

2021-0505 Last Radio Playing.mp3

Note: I named the file wwcr1.sh to denote that WWCR transmitter 1 was being streamed. Each of the WWCR transmitters have different stream URL.

Most radio streams work fine with the default user agent but WWCR required a different user agent which is why the –u FreeAmp/2.X is added. Normally, –u useragent is not required. The default works fine.

For each program, just create a similar shell file and add it to the cron scheduler.

Streamripper is very powerful and has many options. One option is for it to attempt to divide the stream up into individual files – one for each song. Sometimes this works quite well – it all depends on the metadata that the station is sending over the stream. I usually just go for a single file for the entire show. Some stations are a little sloppy on whether the program starts on time – sometimes they start a minute early and sometimes run a minute over. The solution is to increase the recording time to two minutes longer and then specify in the crontab file that the show starts a minute early. It’s easy to adjust to whatever condition might be occurring.

Recording the BBC

I have found that the BBC makes it more difficult to use this procedure. For one thing, they have just changed all their stream URL’s. And they have decided NOT to make them public. When they did this some of the internet radios broke since they still had the old URL’s. Of course it didn’t take long for someone to discover and post the new stream URL’s:

https://gist.github.com/bpsib/67089b959e4fa898af69fea59ad74bc3#file-bbc-radio-m3u

I have tested the Radio 4 Extra stream and it does seem to work. For how long is anyone’s guess.

I found that while streamripper did seem to work on BBC, all the mp3 files came out garbled. So the method above doesn’t seem to work with the BBC.

I went back to the drawing board (many hours on Google) and discovered another way to create a shell script that can be scheduled to record a stream. This involves using the programs mplayer and timelimit.

First step is to install the programs mplayer and timelimit to the Linux system. mplayer is a simple command line audio and video player. timelimit is a program that will execute another program for a specific length of time.

First I created a shell script bbc30.sh:

#!/bin/bash

NOW=$(date +”%Y-%m%d-%H%M”)

# BBC Extra 4 – 30 minute program

timelimit -t1800 mplayer http://stream.live.vc.bbcmedia.co.uk/bbc_radio_four_extra -dumpstream -dumpfile /media/pi/RIP/$NOW-bbc.mp3

Note: The bold line above is all on one line in the shell file.

This script will execute the timelimit command. The timelimit command will then execute the mplayer command for 1800 seconds (30 minutes).

The mplayer command then connects to the http stream; the stream instead of playing out loud is dumped to the dumpfile /media/pi/RIP/$NOW-bbc.mp3

The crontab entry becomes:

30 23 11 5 * /home/pi/bbc30.sh

In this case, the program on May 11 at 2330 will be recorded.

Summary

In conclusion, Podcasts are the easiest way to get the programs. But automatically recording directly from the station stream is really not that much harder to do. Just be careful. It’s very easy to accumulate much more audio than you can ever listen to in this lifetime.

One final note. The use of a Raspberry Pi makes this a very easy and convenient method. I run the pi totally headless. No keyboard, mouse or monitor. It just sits on a shelf out of the way and does it thing. I either log in using VNC when I want the graphical desktop, Putty for the command line, or WinSCP for transferring files. The Pi stays out of the way and I don’t end up with another computer system cluttering up my desktop.

Besides recording several shortwave programs, I use Streamripper to record many FM programs from all around the United States. It’s great for recording that program that is on in the early morning hours.

Bill WD9EQD

Smithville, NJ

Thank you for sharing this with the SWLing Post community, Bill! This weekend, I’m going to put one of my RPi 3 units into headless service recording a few of my favorite programs that aren’t available after the live broadcast. Many thanks for the detailed command line tutorial!

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WRTH A21 season broadcasting schedule updates available as free download

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Many thanks to Sean Gilbert, with the World Radio TV Handbook, who shares the following announcement:

WRTH is pleased to announce that the A21 (Summer) season broadcasting schedules for International and Clandestine/Target broadcasters are now available for download, free of charge.

This file is in PDF format so you will need software capable of reading the Adobe PDF format (such as the free Adobe Acrobat reader, amongst others).

Not only do you get the full schedules, extras included with the file are:
Broadcasts in Selected Languages (English. French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish); International DRM broadcasts (yes, there are still some around); International Broadcasting Frequency list; International Transmitter Sites, with lat/long; WRTH Target Areas and religious stations cross-reference table (You can find out which country each station is based in and where to find their schedule as that is not always as obvious as it may seem).

Please visit www.wrth.com and follow the links to the download page.

We hope you find this a useful file, both as a stand-alone product and as an accompaniment to the printed WRTH volume.

Feel free to pass this information on to all your radio friends and your social media groups, etc.

73 and happy listening from the WRTH Editorial Staff.

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The Chameleon CHA RXL amplified wideband loop antenna

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A few weeks ago, Chameleon Antenna sent me a pre-production model of their new wideband magnetic loop antenna called the Chameleon CHA RXL.

I’ve evaluated and reviewed a number of Chameleon’s ham radio antennas (primarily on QRPer.com). I find that the quality of their products are second to none. Price-wise, they tend to be at the top of the market, but keep in mind they machine and manufacture all of their antennas here in the US and they’re incredibly rugged; indeed, military-grade. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m proud Chameleon has been a sponsor the SWLing Post and QRPer.com since last year. My sponsors are by invite only and focus on companies I trust with our radio community’s business.

When Chameleon shipped the CHA RXL to me, it wasn’t from their factory, it was directly from the field: Fort Irwin, to be exact.

(Source: NTC Operations Group, Ft. Irwin)

This CHA RXL sample had been used by NTC Operations Group Fort Irwin (who, incidentally, won QRPX this year–click here to read the PDF report).

I was told that the condition of the antenna could be very rough after the QRPX because it had essentially been sandblasted in the desert winds. I was also told that someone accidently transmitted 5 watts into it at some point but it didn’t seem to harm it (for the record, like all amplified receive-only loops, it’s not designed to take RF).

Tony (W0NTC), who was one of the Ft. Irwin radio ops, sent me this note as he dropped off the shipment at Fort Irwin’s FedEx:

“Had a blast with [the CHA RXL], and it was absolutely critical while I was operating in the Army HF Low Power Competition (think tons of high powered MARS stations piling up and drowning out the 20W or less competitors). It absolutely crushed some localized RFI from a huge building I operated behind, and the receive on it I can only describe as “layered” in that I could hear stations somewhat clearer than usual if they transmitted simultaneously. Receiver I used was the IC-705 with default Auto Notch and Noise Reduction.”

Tony volunteered all of this info–I never asked him how it performed.

A few days later, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened the box although I knew that my operating locations were nowhere near as cool as its position next to a Humvee at Fort Irwin in the photo above!

I pulled the CHA RXL out of the box and it looked cosmetically flawless to me.

Frankly, there’s not a lot to get damaged. The 36 inch diameter loop is made of rigid aluminum and has a Navy gray powder coating. The preamplifier unit is completely sealed and made of a high-impact plastic/PVC type material. The steel loop is attached to the preamplifier loop flanges with wing nut connectors.

The only potentially vulnerable part of the antenna system is the Bias-T box which would normally be located in your shack close to your receiver.

If I mounted the CHA RXL permanently outdoors, I would use Coax Seal around the BNC connection point, of course.

Although the CHA RXL has a supplied mounting bracket for permanent installations, I love the fact that the preamp box has a 1/4” x 20 threaded camera socket on the bottom. This makes for a brilliant portable loop because it can so easily be mounted on a standard heavier-weight tripod! All antenna manufacturers should give us tripod mount options when possible.

On the air

One of the reasons amplified receive loop antennas have become so incredibly popular over the past couple of decades is because they do an amazing job mitigating radio frequency interference (RFI) a.k.a. “QRM.” If you live in a neighborhood with significant radio interference, you really should consider some form of loop in your antenna arsenal.

Ironically, at home, I live in pretty much an RFI-free zone. I’m surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of national forest, so I’ve only used amplified loop antennas in the past for mediumwave DXing–mainly, when I wanted to take advantage of their amazing ability to null out unwanted signals.

Many years ago, I purchased a Pixel Loop Pro antenna (now under a different name via DX Engineering), mounted it outside where it lasted almost a year before a bear decided to pull it down and chew through the coaxial feedline. He/she did so with enough energy that it ripped down the loop and damaged the connector end of the Pixel’s pre-amp. This all happened when our family was travelling for two months in Canada. Why bear, why?!? But I digress…

The CHA RXL version I was shipped has one single rigid loop–the “EU” version’s loop comes in two pieces (for easier shipping/transport)–but I had no problem fitting the entire assembled loop in the back seat of my Subaru or my truck (as long as no one was sitting back there at the time). If you plan to travel with your loop a lot, consider the “EU” version!

I’ve taken the CHA RXL to my parent’s home a couple of times and enjoyed doing a little mediumwave and shortwave listening. Inside the house, the loop would attenuate RFI nicely, but when outside it would all but eliminate many sources of RFI.

At their house, I primarily used my Icom IC-705 for cruising the bands (being careful, of course, to disengage the transmit function).

Listening time in my hometown, though, was very limited. Since the CHA RXL is so portable, I decided to set it up at home on our porch for a few days, giving me an opportunity to test both the Sangean ATS-909X2 and Tecsun H-501x with an external antenna.

I’ve especially appreciated using the CHA RXL on mediumwave. Even from our screened-in porch, I can rotate the loop and use its excellent nulling properties to pick out multiple station IDs on crowded frequencies.

I’ve spent time on shortwave, too, and found that it certainly gave these two portables a signal boost.

In fact, it was by using the CHA RXL that I discovered the audio level difference between AM and SSB on my ATS-909X2 is very minimal when an external antenna is connected.

I’m sure you’ll hear the CHA RXL in action when I post audio clips and recordings in upcoming reviews.

Summary

If I owned a CHA RXL loop, one of the first things I’d do is build a power cord for it with an in-line fuse and terminated with an Anderson Powerpole connector. Since the operating voltage of the Bias-T is 12-14 VDC, it would pair perfectly with one of my Bioenno LiFePo4 batteries, offering a power source with longevity in the field–ideal for a group LW/MW/SWL DXpedition.

It’s difficult for me to truly comment on the loop’s performance because I don’t have another loop at present for comparison. I can say that it’s amazing on mediumwave, where I’ve spent much of my listening time this past week. I believe shortwave reception has been at least on par with my former Pixel Loop, if not better. It’s hard to say, in truth, because propagation conditions have been so poor lately. The CHA RXL loop does effectively mitigate noise!

I’m not sure if the CHA RXL is currently on backorder or not, but I would suggest you check out the product page on Chameleon’s website and possibly contact them if you’re interested. They’ve a number of options and accessories to consider.

Click here to check out the CHA RXL at Chameleon Antennas ($490 US).

One thing for sure: this must be one of the most rugged and durable RX loop antennas on the market. In addition, that Navy gray powder coating helps this rigid aluminum loop disappear against the sky. I believe you could strategically mount this loop and the friendly neighborhood association may never notice–it’s pretty stealthy. Speaking of which…

Josh’s CHA RXL install and demo video

Josh over at Ham Radio Crash Course recently installed a CHA RXL on his house and tested it on several bands, comparing it with a number of his external antennas:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

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Tecsun H-501x pricing and availability via Anon-Co

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Anon-Co has started taking pre-orders for the Tecsun H-501x portable receiver. Click here to read Dan Robinson’s review of this radio.

Anon-Co will start shipping these on Monday, May 16, 2021.

Hard case version

The price will be $298.00 US for both the hard case and faux leather case versions.

Faux leather case version.

Shipping cost: Depends on the delivery country; slightly higher cost for the hard case version.
Faux leather pouch is not included with the hard case version. It can be included as a $15.25 add-on, but does not fit inside the hard case.
Hard case version: Limited stock available (more stock expected by the end of June).

Click here to check out the faux leather case version and/or the hard case version of the Tecsun H-501x at Anon-Co.

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KSOL via WRMI on Sunday, May 16, 2021

FTIOM & UBMP, May 16-22

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From the Isle of Music, May 16-22:
This week, we begin our coverage of Cubadisco 2020-2021 with music by the nominees of the Tradicional Variado (varied traditional) category of the awards.
The broadcasts take place:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in most of the Eastern Hemisphere (including parts of East Asia and Oceania) with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Sofia, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 kHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US).
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/fromtheisleofmusic/
Our V-Kontakte page is https://vk.com/fromtheisleofmusic
Our Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/tilford

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, May 16-22:
In episode 217, we listen to music from El Salvador.
The transmissions take place:
1.Sunday 2200-2300 (6:00PM -7:00PM EDT) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 kHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesday 2000-2100 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe.
3. Saturday 0800-0900 UTC on Channel 292, 9670 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe with a directional booster aimed eastward.
Our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/UncleBillsMeltingPot/
Our V-Kontakte page is https://vk.com/fromtheisleofmusic
Our Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/tilford

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2021 W9IMS Special Event Station Details!

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Now Underway: A More Typical W9IMS Special Event

By Brian D. Smith, W9IND

The fans are returning to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year, and with them comes a more traditional calendar for special event station W9IMS.

For hams and SWLs alike, that means a renewed opportunity to earn three newly designed QSL cards and the latest edition of the certificate known as the Checkered Flag Award.

The first W9IMS special event of 2021, saluting the upcoming IndyCar Grand Prix, is now underway and will continue through Saturday, May 15 (Race Day), ending at midnight Indianapolis time or 0400 UTC Sunday, May 16.

It’s the first of three W9IMS special events this year – two in May and the third in August – to commemorate the major auto races at the track. (Last year, because of Covid restrictions, two of the three races were held on the same weekend, and W9IMS followed suit by compressing its usual trio of special events into two.)

Here’s the remaining W9IMS slate for 2021:

May 24-30: Indianapolis 500

Aug. 9-15: NASCAR 400 at the Brickyard

Each of the three W9IMS events features its own unique QSL card, with the Checkered Flag certificate available to anyone who completes the clean sweep. However, you can still claim a single-event QSL or two even if you fail to bag the trio.

How to find W9IMS? The station will operate SSB daily on two bands, 20 or 40 meters, generally around 7.245 and 14.245 MHz, and could pop up at any time of day or night until local midnight Sunday. Keep a lookout, too, for digital activity – particularly FT8 and FT4 – on virtually any amateur radio band.

But the surest way to snare the station is this:

Go to the W9IMS web page (www.w9ims.org) and find the heading, “2021 Operating Schedule.” Beneath it are links to the operator schedules for this year’s three special events; time slots with a name and a callsign offer your best bet for a W9IMS contact.
Check DX Summit (www.dxsummit.fi) for spots that identify the current frequency or frequencies of W9IMS, if any. By typing “W9IMS” in the search box, you can customize it to show reports for only that station.

Remember, you can’t qualify for the 2021 certificate if you don’t catch the first event! So if you haven’t logged W9IMS by Saturday evening, keep in mind that the station traditionally conducts “happy hour” between 11 p.m. and midnight (0300 to 0400 UTC Sunday), with rapid contacts right up to the end. (But don’t stake your certificate on it: W9IMS special events may end early if the calls stop coming and/or band conditions deteriorate.)

For additional details, including QSL information, consult the W9IMS web page.

And in answer to the most-asked question: W9IMS operators transmit, usually remotely, from home stations in the Indianapolis area, but neither the ops nor the stations are physically located at the track.

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