FTIOM & UBMP, July 8-14

Leave a reply

From the Isle of Music, July 8-14:
This week, our special guest is clarinetist/composer Ernesto Vega. He will share some of his first album, Venir al Mundo and some of his work in Familia by Arturo O’Farrill and Chucho Valdés.
Four options to listen to the transmission:
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 Kostinbrod, 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 EST in the US). This has been audible in parts of NW, Central and Southern Europe with an excellent skip to Italy recently.
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Sun, July 8 & Tues, July 10, 2018
Episode 70 explores some musical aspects of Afrofuturism, a movement with incorporates avant garde Jazz and electronica among other things.
The broadcasts take 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
2. Tuesdays 2000-2030 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe. If current propagation conditions hold, the broadcast should reach from Iceland to Western Russia, Scandinavia down to North Africa and the Middle East, AND a long bounce to parts of New Zealand. 

Spread the radio love

BBC RMP transmitting site up for sale (again)

Leave a reply

(Source: Dorset Echo via Dave Porter)

It helped the BBC broadcast its radio programmes across Europe.

Now the vast site of the former radio transmission station in the west Dorset countryside is set for a new lease of life.

The Rampisham Down site next to the A356 Maiden Newton to Crewkerne road, which extends to more than 180 acres, is on the market with a guide price of £2.5 million.

It includes commercial land, and a huge area for grazing – which could be used for a ‘recreational business’.

Rampisham Down was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 2014 for its special grassland and heathland habitats.

British Solar Renewables (BSR) wanted to build a huge solar park there, but after a lengthy planning battle – in which the decision was ‘called in’ by the government’ – the company shelved its plans.

A site nearby not deemed of high importance for wildlife was instead chosen for the solar park and given planning permission.

This solar park could help to power the new venture at Rampisham Down, it is said.

All but one of the original telecommunications towers, which helped to broadcast the BBC World Service in Europe until the station was decommissioned in 2011, have been removed.

The remaining tower has become a nesting platform for peregrine falcons, as part of work by BSR, in conjunction with Natural England, to restore the land and make it a home for wildlife.[…]

Click here to read the full article at the Dorset Echo.

Spread the radio love

After 71 years, WLO operators go off the air

14 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Zach, who notes that WLO have announced that as of 04:59 UTC on July 1, 2018, “there there will no longer be 24/7 operators on duty at the Mobile, AL stations.”

Here’s a screenshot from their announcement on Facebook:
The end of an era indeed. Thanks for the tip, Zach.

Spread the radio love

The Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map is live!

3 Replies

I’m happy to announce that my friend and radio producer David Goren has released the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map: a detailed interactive website exploring the dynamic pirate radio scene in Brooklyn, New York:

“In Brooklyn, when the sun goes down, pirate radio stations fire up their transmitters and take to the air, beaming transgressive, culture-bearing signals into Caribbean, Jewish and Latino neighborhoods. The Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map is an archival home for the sounds of renegade community radio at a crucial turning point in its history.”

The site includes a map and virtual radio pre-loaded with off-air recordings of dozens of pirate radio broadcasters.

Over the past few years, David has put a lot of time and research into this project and I’m pleased to see it come to fruition in such a rich format. You could spend hours exploring the sound map.

Brilliant job, David!

Click here to check out the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map.

Spread the radio love

Aeronautical RDS: Ivan’s impressive collection of in-flight FM stations

8 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov (NO2CW), who writes:

Last week I took an Eton Satellit with me on a flight from Tampa, Florida to Washington DC. The radio is very light, portable and packed with features. I have used an SDR radio before for inlight FM reception where I recorded audio, but this time I decided to only count stations with an RDS lock. With so many signals battling RDS is tricky to catch as every 10 seconds or so one station comes on top of another. The flight was just short of 2 hours and I divided my logs into three 30 minute segments. Not suprisingly looking into the technicalities I noticed RDS is commonly received from stations 50 -100 kW of power and tall towers.

Interestingly signals seem to be stronger a lower altitudes. My theory is that FM broadcast antennas heavily favor gain on the horizontal plane parallel to the terrain and send as little signal as possible out into space. I overlaid my logs onto three maps and also a video:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Impressive Ivan! I’m taking a flight later this month and might even try this with the FM radio built into my Moto G6 smart phone which also includes RDS (although I doubt reception can match that of the Satellit.

This is fascinating, Ivan! Thank you for sharing.

Spread the radio love

RNZ: “Push to fire up Radio Australia in the Pacific”

5 Replies

(Source: Radio New Zealand via Richard Cuff)

There is a push in Australia to re-establish Radio Australia’s services to the Asia/Pacific region.

Supporters of RA in Australia hope people around the Pacific will join them in sending submissions to inquiries underway in Canberra.

It comes after savage cuts at RA that included shutting down shortwave transmission, which is seen as a critical service in many parts of the Pacific, particularly during natural disasters.

It has recently been reported that those transmission frequencies have been taken over by China Radio International.

Former RA journalist Sean Dorney said the group, of which he’s part, is trying to convince the Australian government to get back into that space.

“So there is a bit of concern in Canberra about this and I suppose the group that I’m part of are trying to convince the Australian government that it’s time to re-focus our attention on the broadcast to the region.”

Click here to read the full article at RNZ.

Spread the radio love