Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Carlos Latuff, who shares the Radiofax news report (above) from Kyodo News Agency and his amazing artwork (below) detailing the news and his Radiofax reception. Carlos writes:
This time, the main headline of Kyodo News Morning Edition it’s about the passing of the world-renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia, who shares the following announcement from the SDXF website (translated via Google Translate):
Tuesday, February 13, 2024, it is time again for World Radio Day. Sweden’s DX Association participates in the celebration with a newly produced special program. As in previous broadcasts, there will be a mix of interviews and other features. This time some of the program items are in English. Those listeners who got in touch after our last broadcast, on December 26, 2023, will be notified in a shorter mailbox.
The world’s shortest music program this time presents music from Peru. As usual, the broadcast has been put together by Göran Lindemark.
This time too, the program will be broadcast on shortwave on Channel 292 in Germany. The frequency is 9670 kHz. The program is broadcast at 11.00 with a repeat at 15.00 Swedish winter time.
Reports and comments can be emailed to us . It is then our QSL manager Gert Nilsson who answers the listener post. Feel free to comment on the program content!
We hope for a good reception and that the program content will be of interest. Unfortunately, it is now very unusual to have Swedish-language programs on shortwave.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares his B-23 (version 4.0) season guide to music on shortwave. Alan provides this amazing resource as a free PDF download:
Click here to download Music on Shortwave B-23 v4.0 (PDF)
As always, thank you for sharing your excellent guide, Alan!
This dedicated page will always have the latest version of Alan’s guide available for download.
Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post contributors who’ve shared this story from a variety of sources. The following article comes from ARS Technica and was shared by Mark Hist:
A 200-foot AM radio tower has been missing for at least a week, leaving an Alabama radio station in a financial crisis and on a desperate hunt.
As first reported by Memphis’ Action News 5, Jasper, Alabama, radio station WJLX 101.5 FM/1240 AM, sent a bush hog crew to maintain the area around the tower on February 2. The tower is behind a poultry plant in a forested area, per The Guardian. Once there, a crew member called station manager Brett Elmore, informing him that the 200-foot structure that CNN says has been there since the ’50s had disappeared.
“He said, ‘The tower is gone. There’s wires [sic] everywhere, and it’s gone,’” Elmore told Action News 5.
The total value of all the equipment reported stolen is nearly $200,000, Alabama’s ABC 33/40 News said.
Now the radio station says it has to get a new tower, as well as a new transmitter and additional equipment for tasks like processing and engineering. Replacement costs are an estimated $60,000 or more, per WJLX.
Even if the tower were somehow recovered, the station would still be “in a jam,” Elmore told CNN, saying that the equipment would probably “be in pieces.”
“This has affected the operation of our AM, which needs a complete rebuild, and our FM, which is currently off the air,” the radio station said Thursday via its Facebook page.
The radio station manager has told outlets that he’s hopeful that community tips and surveillance footage from the poultry plant near the tower’s former location may eventually help police find the tower-taker(s).
“It is a federal crime, and it absolutely will not be worth it to them,” Elmore told Action 5 News. [Continue reading at ARS Technica…]
Readers have shared a lot of speculation about this particular theft. Perhaps more links and facts can be shared in the comments section.
Photo by Raychel Sanner via Unsplash
by Jock Elliott
Today is the 154th birthday of the National Weather Service. The NWS covers from American Samoa to the Virgin Islands and from Hawaii to the Arctic Circle of Alaska, and it does so with fewer than 4,000 employees nationwide.
It is, according to Mike Smith’s blog: “one of the few federal agencies that is essential to the welfare of the Nation.” https://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2024/02/154th-birthday-of-he-national-weather.html
And in my view, NOAA Weather Radio is essential for every household. If live in the US you don’t have a radio capable of receiving the Weather Radio channels, you need one.
For more info, check here: https://swling.com/blog/2022/02/jock-shares-a-bit-more-about-noaa-weather-radio/
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who shares the following piece which recently aired on BBC Radio 4 (click link below to listen):
To mark the centenary of the Greenwich Time Signal on the BBC, Paddy O’Connell asks the unaskable – Do We Still Need the Pips?
First broadcast at 9.30pm on Feb the 5th 1924, the six pips of the Greenwich Time Signal have become synonymous with Radio 4.
But today digital broadcasting has rendered this time signal delayed and inaccurate. Plus their immovable presence can cause accidents on-air, and no-one wants to crash the Pips.
So after 100 years, should Radio 4 just get rid of them? What is the point of a time signal in 2024 anyway?
Paddy O’Connell looks back across a century of organised beeps, and meets the people who listen to, broadcast and sometimes crash in to the Pips to find out what we really think about these six little characters.
With interviews including Mishal Husain, Robin Ince & Brian Cox, Jane Steel, Richard Hoptroff, Jon Holmes and David Rooney.
Produced by Luke Doran.
Original music by Ed Carter.
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’ goal is to vividly illustrate the broadcaster’s message in his own unique artistic style and is not a reflection of his own beliefs or those of the SWLing Post. His objective is for his artwork to add historical context and put a visual with the news, reporting, and broadcast content:
Carlos notes:
EEUU, El Lobo Desdentado, La Voz de Corea (en español), RPDC, 12015 kHz.
“…es una conducta imbécil confiar la garantía de seguridad en un lobo desdentado que está desesperado para mantener su vida precaria…“
(“…it is a foolish act to get a security guarantee by relying on a toothless wolf trying to prolong its remaining days…”)