Onshore and offshore, Radio Skybird keeps on keeping on

Radio Free Europe: 30 Years in Prague

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia, who shares the following article from Radio Prague (in Spanish), which focuses on the history and relevance of Radio Free Europe. For the past 30 years, the station has been broadcasting from Prague, continuing its mission of providing uncensored news to regions where press freedom is severely restricted. The article explores the station’s enduring role in the fight against authoritarian censorship and the growing challenges it faces in today’s geopolitical landscape.

Read the full article on Radio Prague’s website (Google Translate can assist with translation).

SWL Contest 2025 Wrap-Up & New SSB SWL Contest

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Frank, who shares the results of the SWL Contest 2025, which challenged shortwave and medium-wave listeners from around the world to log as many stations and transmitters as possible. A total of 34 participants from 17 countries participated, demonstrating the incredible reach and diversity of the SWL community.

Frank is now organizing an new challenge—the SSB SWL Contest 2025, running from March 1st to October 31st, 2025. This contest focuses on listening to amateur radio stations in SSB mode across the 10m to 40m bands, with the goal of logging the most DXCC entities over eight months. Both SWLs and licensed amateur radio operators are welcome to participate!

Check out the full results of the SWL Contest 2025 here.

For the new SSB SWL Contest 2025 Rules, visit: https://chinaradiosswl.blogspot.com/2025/02/ssb-swl-contest-2025-rules.html

Finding the Kookaburra on Shortwave—Past and Present

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Photo by Matthew Willimott via Unsplash

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:

Hi Thomas

I still have warm memories of tuning into Radio Australia on 9580 kHz at sunrise during my early days of shortwave listening. They would sign on with their Waltzing Matilda interval signal and the sound of the kookaburra bird.

While doing some listening on the SDR of my friend Ken (VE3HLS) who has retired to northern Thailand, I have discovered you can still hear the kookaburra on shortwave by tuning into Reach Beyond Australia. Their broadcast to Myanmar in Burmese from 1500 to 1530 UTC on 11900 kHz can be very well heard on this Kiwi. There is a brief English announcement at sign and sign off, as well as a few seconds of “kookaburra chatter.”

Attached are two recordings, the first at sign on (March 7, 2025) and the second at sign off (December 1, 2024).

Also I’ve included a link to Interval Signals Online where you can find the old Radio Australia sign on.

https://www.intervalsignals.net/

Dan Greenall VE3HLC, London, Ontario, Canada

Radio World: NRSC Studies RF Noise on Various Roadway Types

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dure, who shares the following item from Radio World:

NRSC Studies RF Noise on Various Roadway Types (Radio World)

Radio World asked Cris Alexander to read the report and comment

The National Radio Systems Committee recently published the results of a study on AM band noise.

The report, principally authored by John Kean, is titled NRSC-R102, “Measurement of AM Band RF Noise Levels and Station Signal Attenuation.” It was released in January.

The study consisted of several measurement series conducted along roadways both in urban and rural areas, measuring the signal strength of three different Baltimore/Washington 50 kW AM stations as well as the RF noise on three different unoccupied AM band frequencies.

Measurements were made across five environments: rural, rural-suburban, suburban, urban and dense urban. The results were mostly as one would expect, but there were a few surprises. [Continue reading…]

Click here to download the NRSC PDF report.