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Classical Music on shortwave – broadcast Sunday afternoon in Europe & USA
Encore – Classical Music this weekend Is being broadcast as usual on WBCQ at 00:00 – 01:00 UTC Monday 22nd April.
Channel 292 is off air at the moment for servicing so the normal 15:00 UTC Sunday 21st April transmission will not happen this week.
The show will start with a Boccherini quintet, then some ballet music from Swan Lake.
There will also be some French wind band music, an organ work from Bach and some interesting works for the human voice.
As usual reception reports and requests for pieces to pay in future programmes will be very welcome.
Broadcast times are:
15:00 – 16:00 UTC Sunday, and repeated 19:00 – 20:00 UTC Friday on 6070 kHz (Channel 292 Germany).
00:00 – 01:00 UTC Monday on 7490 kHz (WBCQ – Maine).
(Channel 292 is off air for ten days from Monday 16th April.)
Some of our initial radios received by Radio Taboo.
Readers: what Alan didn’t know is that I’ve been working with Issa via Ears To Our World and can confirm that this station is having a most positive impact on its community!
I was originally introduced to Issa via one of ETOW’s long-time supporters and friends a couple years ago.
At ETOW, we wanted to help establish more Radio Taboo listener groups, so we sent an initial batch of radios to be used in this very rural and remote part of Cameroon.
The radio we sent to Radio Taboo is the Tecsun GR-88 (or “Green-88”). This radio used to be branded by Grundig as the FR200, but Grundig no longer markets this model so we purchase them from Tecsun.
In fact, in a recent email to friends and supporters of Radio Taboo, Issa shared the following photo and noted:
“This man next to me is one of the first beneficiaries of the crank radios donated by Thomas Witherspoon, the founder of “Ears To Our World” a U.S. non-profit. They donated a dozen of these radios to some Radio Taboo’s listers. Radios made it in the Cameroon this week.”
I should mention it’s a logistical challenge to get radios to this part of the world (especially in the summer when the roads are nearly impassable due to rains) but we’re looking into a service that might be able to help in the future with a much larger donation of radios.
Alan, thanks again for sharing this story and giving me an opportunity to tell about our first-hand experience working with Radio Taboo!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Emilio Ruiz, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
I’m sending you and The SWLing Post readers these screenshots from the cult
movie Sneakers; a great movie about incipient world of hacker security
(phreaking, hacking, cryptography, etc).
In a scene with Robert Redford and Dan Aykroyd, it looks like a radio communications receiver in the background, but i don’t know what brand is.
Could you help for identification?
Great job spotting that radio in the background! Readers: please comment if you can help Emilio identify this rig!
At first glance, you’ll see a similarity between the ALT-512 and the LnR Precision LD-11/Aerial-51 SKY-SDR. The LD-11 and SKY-SDR, are very similar, save the LD-11 is marketed to North America (via LnR) and the SKY-SDR to Europe. The SKY-SDR had several iterative upgrades, most importantly the dual-threaded software used in the firmware, which cut CPU latency in half. Both the LD-11, SKY-SDR and now the ALT-512 are made in Europe.
According to Aerial-51, the new ALT-512 is built on the LD-11/SKY-SDR platform, has the same chassis design but has many improvements over the SKY-SDR:
4m Band
2.4 in. Color Display
Improved receiver pre-amplifier
2 transistors in the transmitter PA (was 1)
Waterfall in addition to the Pan-Adapter Bandscope
4 additional front-panel buttons
User friendly front-panel adjustment of often used parameters (formerly embedded within the software menu)
FULL TS-2000 command set implementation
Built-in Sound Card; Digi Modes run using only one USB-2 cable connected to the PC. No additional hardware required.
If the ALT-512 performs as well as or better than its predecessor, it’ll certainly be a great little QRP radio.
Pricing has not yet been posted, but Aerial-51 plans to make this transceiver available in the next few weeks.
Join us this Easter, our 55th Birthday, for our Annual Fundraiser.
We will be broadcasting Radio Caroline North live from our radio ship, Ross Revenge, anchored in the estuary of the River Blackwater, from 9:00 am on Easter Friday until 2:00 pm on Easter Monday (all UK times).
You will be able to hear us on 1368 AM (courtesy of Manx Radio) in the north west of the UK (and parts of Ireland) and on our own 648 AM frequency in the south east, and also round the world online at www.radiocaroline.co.uk and on our mobile app.
In addition, you will be able to hear our regular Radio Caroline album format and Radio Caroline Flashback programmes on their normal channels, when they are not carrying the Radio Caroline North programmes.
It’s been quite a year, with our 648 AM and London DAB transmissions both building a substantial new audience for Radio Caroline.
However, with each expansion, our annual running costs increase substantially. And there’s lots more we would like to do.
This year, we have created a stylish Radio Caroline Bell teeshirt, based on a design that was originally used for the Radio Caroline Roadshows.
Starting on Easter Friday, and ending at midnight UK time on Easter Monday, if you are able to make a one off donation of 25 Pounds or more, or join the Radio Caroline Support Group (for a minimum monthly donation of 7.50 Pounds, cancellable at any time), we will send you your Retro Radio Caroline Bell teeshirt.
And remember, donations of any amount will always be gratefully received.
The donation button will go live on our website early on Easter Friday.
After deducting the cost of the teeshirt, we are planning to use approximately one half of your donations to maintain and expand our broadcast operations, and the other half for the maintenance and upkeep of Ross Revenge.
From the Isle of Music, April 21-27, 2019:
No guest this week – instead, we honor Jazz Appreciation Month with an hour of excellent Cuban Jazz from some outstanding artists living in the United States and Mexico.
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) Station website: www.spaceline.bg
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC (New UTC) on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US).
Station website: www.wbcq.com
(Channel 292 is off the air this week due to transmitter maintenance.)
Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, April 21, 2019:
Episode 109 is dedicated to the music of Haiti.
The transmission takes place:
1.Sundays 2200-2230 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
(Channel 292 is off the air for transmitter maintenance this week.)
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