Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the following news from Spaceweather.com:
A BIG CME IS COMING: This morning’s X1-class solar flare hurled a bright CME toward Earth. NASA and NOAA models agree that the storm cloud should reach our planet by the early hours of March 25th. A direct hit could spark strong G3-class geomagnetic storms with mid-latitude auroras in the USA and Europe.
NOAA Geomagnetic Activity Probabilities 24 Mar-26 Mar
Active 10/01/30
Minor storm 25/20/30
Moderate storm 25/30/20
Strong-Extreme storm 35/50/05
NOAA Kp index forecast 24 Mar - 26 Mar
Mar 24 Mar 25 Mar 26
00-03UT 3.67 5.00 5.00
03-06UT 4.67 6.67 4.00
06-09UT 2.00 5.67 4.00
09-12UT 1.00 5.00 3.67
12-15UT 1.00 4.00 3.00
15-18UT 2.67 3.00 2.33
18-21UT 5.00 3.00 2.33
21-00UT 5.67 4.00 3.33
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
“20 Days in Mariupol” won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary.
The movie is about the Russian siege to that city in the opening days
of the Ukraine invasion, as recounted by a filmmaker located there.
There is a segment of the movie about Russia’s use of propaganda to
demoralize the local population. The still photo shows an AOR AR-3000a
communications receiver playing a Russian broadcast, trying to
convince the city’s inhabitants that they cannot stop the invasion.
I love [Ocean Digital] radios and have been working on a Python API to interact easier with them. You can find my project over at https://github.com/duracell80/oceaneyes.
I have been trying to add local icecast abilities so that my PC can become its own station in order to support more services on the radio itself like HLS streams, youtube video audio and HDHomeRun audio.
It would be great if Ocean Digital could add a stop playback and power off option in their CGI/PHP web interface. The only way I know how to stop playback remotely at the moment is to either send a non-playable address to the radio, or have a non-playable stream as a favorite and select it. That then may cause the radio to stop playing and shutdown via a timeout.
Cool project, Lee! Thanks for sharing it on GitHub! Readers, if you have any insight into the options Lee is looking for to help with stop playback and power off, please comment!
It’s another week gone again and I’m FastRadioBurst 23 from the Imaginary Stations crew letting you know about this week’s shows. The first broadcast is to Europe via Shortwave Gold on Sunday 24th March 2024 at 1000/1400 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2100 UTC on 3975 kHz. This time we turn the clocks back for a bit of time anomaly broadcasting with KTAB. We’re talking old time business with some real oldies but goodies. It’s all about the power of the wireless. Tune in and go way back into time with us.
On Thursday 28th March via WRMI we have a dreamy paradise lost of a show called WSFR – Lost Island Radio at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz. Get those bags packed and that passport at the ready as you are going to be transported to a dreamy destination far far away.
Don’t worry, you won’t be marooned as we will bring you back safely to your armchair after the hour concludes. Tune into WRMI at the alloted time (Do give yourself enough time to check in and settle down of course) for some paradise island classics.
For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares this special dive into the world of radio both in and targeting the Korean peninsula. His report includes off-air recordings along with his own original artwork.
Koreas’ Radio War
by Carlos Latuff, a special for the SWLing Post
The war that divided Korea in two began in 1950. A truce was signed by both sides in 1953, but a peace agreement never came to fruition. Therefore, North Korea and South Korea remain at war. And this war is not just happening on the ground, but also over the airwaves.
Every day, a battle for hearts and minds takes place on AM, FM and shortwave. Whether the DPRK broadcasts are directed to South Korea, or South Korean broadcasters (including clandestine ones) broadcast to the DPRK.
I bring here a small collection of radio listenings made between February 29th and March 17th, all of them happened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, using a XHDATA D-808 receiver, with long wire antenna (outdoor), except for Radio Free Asia, listened with a Toshiba TR 486 receiver, using a telescopic antenna (indoor). Translations from Korean to English were made using transcription and translation apps.
KBS World
KBS World Radio was created in 1953, the year the truce was signed between the two warring Koreas, under the name “The Voice of Free Korea”, and today, as a public radio station, it broadcasts to several countries in different languages. Its programming includes news, music, variety, and of course, opposition to the DPRK government.
As part of the effort to promote “regime change” in the DPRK, the Seoul government, through its intelligence service, maintains clandestine radio stations (“Echo of Hope” and “Voice of the People”) whose role is basically broadcast 24 hours a day anti-Communist propaganda to North Korea, along South Korean and American pop music.
Echo of Hope
Voice of the People
Radio Free Asia
Created by the CIA in 1951, at the height of the Cold War and the conflict in Korea, Radio Free Asia has undergone changes throughout its history, but continues to be operated by the United States government and aims, in its own words, to “provide independent, uncensored and accurate local news” for countries like China, Vietnam and, of course, North Korea. Content directed at the DPRK follows the same principle as South Korean clandestine broadcasters: basically anti-Communist orientation, in order to achieve a “regime change”. The articles broadcasted on the radio are the same as those published on the Radio Free Asia’s website.
KCBS Pyongyang
Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) Pyongyang is the DPRK’s domestic radio station, whose programming reaches North and South Korea, even being heard in Japan. News about the achievements of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, music and attacks on Seoul government, seen by Pyongyang as a puppet regime.
Voice of Korea
On October 14, 1945, the year Japan was defeated in World War II, KCBS Pyongyang and Voice of Korea were founded (domestic and international radio stations respectively). Voice of Korea broadcasts programming in several languages ??to the world via shortwave. The content is not much different from KCBS Pyongyang: achievements of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, attacks on Seoul government and the United States, and traditional/patriotic music.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the following news from Spaceweather.com:
