May 2024: From the Isle of Music and Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following broadcast schedules:

From the Isle of Music, May 11, 2024 Broadcast:

The main feature will be special guest Kiki Valera with some of his new son cubano album “Vacilón Santiaguero”.
Broadcast times: May 11: 0900-1000 UTC 9670 kHz &
1900-2000 UTC 3955 and 6070 kHz

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, May 18, 2024 Broadcast:

The main feature will be special guest Eugene Pao, Hong Kong’s foremost jazz guitarist, with some of his new album “Jazz at Lincoln Center”, recorded live during a tour of the US.
Broadcast times: May 18 0900-1000 UTC 9670 kHz &
1900-2000 UTC 3955 and 6070 kHz

Both programs will feature additional music to round out the hour.
It’s great to be back on Channel 292!

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Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of the Voice of Korea (April 23, 2024)

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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:

Kim Jong Un guides combined tactical drill simulating nuclear counterattack, via Voice of Korea.

Click here to listen via YouTube.

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Radio Waves: HEBA Antenna Approval, Eclipse Time Signal Shift, A Novice’s Guide to Amateur Radio Astronomy, and Voyager 1 Sending Data Again!

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Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Alan, Dan, and Rich Cuff for the following tips:

WQVR(AM) Is Granted CP to Use HEBA Antenna at Night (Radio World)

Developer believes antenna’s smaller footprint can help reduce property needed for AM operators

The FCC in March granted an application for a construction permit filed by WQVR(AM) 940 in Webster, Mass., requesting licensed nighttime operation.

This is noteworthy because WQVR has been licensed to operate during daytime hours with a High-Efficiency Broadband Antenna or HEBA, developed by Worldwide Antenna Systems. [Continue reading…]

Global ‘time signals’ subtly shifted as the total solar eclipse reshaped Earth’s upper atmosphere, new data shows (Live Science)

During the historic April 8 total solar eclipse, a government radio station in Colorado started sending out slightly shifted “time signals” to millions of people across the globe as the moon’s shadow altered the upper layers of our atmosphere. However, these altered signals did not actually change the time. [Continue reading…]

Nathan Butts: A Novice’s Guide to Radio Astronomy (YouTube)

NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth (NASA JPL)

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. Credit: NASA

After some inventive sleuthing, the mission team can — for the first time in five months — check the health and status of the most distant human-made object in existence.

For the first time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.

The team discovered that a single chip responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory — including some of the FDS computer’s software code — isn’t working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Unable to repair the chip, the team decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. But no single location is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.

So they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.

The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.

During the coming weeks, the team will relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the FDS software. These include the portions that will start returning science data.

Voyager 2 continues to operate normally. Launched over 46 years ago, the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history. Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.

Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

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Events Mark the 150th Anniversary of Marconi’s Birth

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Jamet, who writes:

Tomorrow, April 25, 2024, will be the 150th anniversary of G. Marconi’s birth.

[…]I’ve just published an article on the Radio Club du Perche website in which I’ve included a few references to English-language sites : http://radioclub.perche.free.fr/?p=12658

The Poldhu Amateur Radio Club (UK) will be marking the event.

Finally, I’ve discovered a site which, since April 1, lists the amateur stations broadcasting on this occasion : https://www.150marconi.org/
Also :
https://www.dx-world.net/ii1gm-150th-anniversary-birth-of-marconi/

https://www.alfatango.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=343:wrd-imd&catid=70:special-events&Itemid=1303

Conferences are also being organized:
https://www.bolognawelcome.com/en/events/celebrations-anniversaries/150-anniversario-di-guglielmo-marconi-en

https://www.wirelessinnovation.org/marconi-anniversary-celebration

Here it is … Hope this helps … Best regards.

Thanks so much for sharing these resources, Paul!

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Kyodo News Radiofax: Japanese Disaster FM Stations and a Lack of Personnel

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Carlos Latuff, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

I received today by radiofax in Porto Alegre the morning edition of Kyodo News and the front page news is that, due to lack of personnel, the Japanese government has not put into operation more FM radio stations for use in disasters.

Here’s an article dealing with the subject. https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/322546
Since the original is in Japanese, here’s an English translation:

Oku-Noto: No temporary disaster FM stations opened due to lack of personnel, challenges in disseminating support information

In four cities and towns in the Oku-Noto region of Wajima, Suzu, Noto, and Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, which suffered severe damage from the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, local governments have set up ‘Temporary Disaster Broadcasting Stations” (Disaster FM) to disseminate support information to residents. Interviews with local governments revealed on the 20th that the government has not done so. The lack of personnel is said to be a contributing factor, and it has become clear that there are still issues with the way administrative information is communicated, such as procedures for restoring water outages and setting up temporary housing.

Disaster FM was institutionalized in 1995 based on the experience of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. If a local government applies to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and obtains permission, they can be temporarily installed. In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, 28 municipalities opened and operated them. It was also opened during the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake and the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake.

Disaster FM broadcasts on the radio about the safety of residents, evacuation information, and the status of restoration of lifelines such as electricity and gas. It also provides administrative information on the reopening of roads, supermarkets, gas stations, etc., as well as disaster victim certification and donation procedures, and plays a role in supplementing disaster prevention administrative radio.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in the wake of the Noto earthquake, employees of the ministry’s Hokuriku General Communications Bureau visited city halls and appealed for the establishment of such systems.

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Patrizio receives detailed information about the Woofferton test transmission he confirmed

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Woofferton Transmitting Station (Photo by Shirokazan via Wikimedia Commons.)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Patrizio Cardelli, who shares the following background story (via our friend, Dave Porter) about a Woofferton test transmission received at his QTH in Italy:

Hi Patrizio,

Thank you for your report and I confirm the details for 9885 kHz are correct. These transmissions were to fault-find on a 250/300 kW sender at the UK HF transmitter station at Woofferton in England.

These duration of these tests can be variable as the engineers can sometimes need a long time to establish a fault or they may interrupt the test, make an adjustment and resume. This is particularly so if the fault is of an intermittent nature.

Encompass Digital Media, Woofferton is the only remaining UK HF sender broadcast station and also is the only one with this transmission test audio and email address.

The audio is contained in a file play-out system and incorporates non-copyright music and voice announcements from one of the engineers, Martin, 2E1EKX at the transmitter site.

There is a Club amateur radio station on site with the callsign M0WOF and the operators are Matt G8XYJ, Dave M0MYA, Gillian M0OVW, John G1JOD and Martin 2E1EKX.

The amateur radio repeater GB3VM that was on site has recently been moved and the history of it is here https://hbrg.co.uk/gb3vm/

Woofferton has recently celebrated 80 years on the air and there was much publicity in the broadcast media.

My son Matt, G8XYJ was the Transmitter Engineer on duty running the 9885 tests.

He features it in the following Youtube video:

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Guest Post: Pre-Internet Sources of Shortwave Information

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:

Sources of SWL Information “Pre-Internet”

by Dan Greenall

When I first discovered the world of shortwave listening, many years before the internet, access to hobby related information was mostly available through over-the-air DX programs, monthly DX club bulletins, as well as a number of books and electronics magazines. I joined a few clubs including the Midwest DX Club, SPEEDX, and the Ontario DX Association, and eagerly awaited each issue of Electronics Illustrated and Popular Electronics (early 1970’s) on the news stand. Later, in the 1980’s, Popular Communications and Monitoring Times came along, though these were not always easy to find here in Canada.

Ironically, nearly all issues of these magazines can be read today, over 30, 40 and even 50 years later, thanks to David Gleason’s not-for-profit, free online library

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm

You can also find the semi-annual (and eventually annual) Communications World (1971-81) which contained the popular White’s Radio Log.

As well, five issues of the Communications Handbook can be found; 1963, 1966, 1967, 1974 and 1977. It only came out once a year but was still a favourite of mine, so much so, that I still have my copies from 1971 and 1972.

I have scanned parts of these and put them on the Internet Archive. You can find them here:

Communications Handbook 1971: https://archive.org/details/page-09

Communications Handbook 1972: https://archive.org/details/page-20

Here are links that will lead to some of the other magazines:

As a bonus, all of the issues of the monthly SPEEDX bulletin (1971-95) have been made available here

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Speedx.htm

And finally, a good read is Shortwave Voices of the World by the late Dr. Richard E. Wood written in 1969. I still have my copy of it, but you can find it online here

https://archive.org/details/shortwave-voices-of-the-world-richard-wood-ed-1-pr-1-1969

WDX SWL registration program

My link to the 1971 Communications Handbook contains pages regarding the old WDX SWL registration program. I have found my old certificate from December 1971: