Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Terry Colgan, who shares the following announcement and update to our previous post:
Due to unforeseen issues on our end, no TRSW shows will air this weekend, despite a previous announcement.
We ceased all operations today.
Thanks and 73.
tc
Terry Colgan N5RTC
Manager
Texas Radio Shortwave
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan (NO2CW), who writes:
I ran a test of weak signals RTL-SDR v4 against Airspy HF+ Discovery. Using sdr # and a few gain adjustments particular to each of the receivers. I ran the test at approximately 9 pm local time using the same W6LVP loop antenna from my location near Miami Florida and I was intentionally looking for barely readable weak signals. The RTL-SDR v4 is a great budget SDR receiver!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Terry Colgan, who shares the following announcement:
September 10 will be the final day of TRSW broadcasts for a while.
We realize this is abrupt and apologize to listeners for the short notice.
We may be back on the air, but there are no immediate plans to do that. We’ll inform hobby and media outlets if the situation changes.
73.
tc
Terry Colgan N5RTC
Manager
Texas Radio Shortwave
Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Ron Chester and Dennis Dura for the following tips:
As he turned the dial gently but purposefully, the sound of people speaking in foreign languages and the lilt of unfamiliar music burst through a haze of crackle and buzz.
Clint Gouveia was only about seven years old at the time, listening to long wave radio in bed, late at night.
“I could hear all these voices from far away,” he recalls. “It inspired me to want to see the world when I got older, to travel, which eventually I did.”
Back then, in the late 1970s, there were dozens of long wave stations broadcasting. Now, only a handful are left. Among them are those in Denmark and Iceland – but they are due to shut by the end of 2023 and during 2024, respectively.
The BBC still broadcasts Radio 4 on long wave as well as on digital radio, FM, and online. However, separate scheduling of BBC radio programmes on long wave will end in March next year – for example Test Match Special will not be available on long wave. The long-term future of the BBC’s long wave output is far from certain.
The only other remaining broadcasters in the world using the long wave band are those in Romania, Poland, Algeria, Morocco and Mongolia.
“The band is basically almost dead,” says Mr Gouveia, who enjoys listening to radio stations from his home in Oxford. “It all feels a bit sad, really.” He adds that, when a long wave station shuts, he makes an effort to record its last moments. [Continue reading…]
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was consulting for a car company and I needed to A/B two tweeters. I dashed over to the nearest RadioShack and picked up a speaker-switching box. Crazy to think about it now – a brick-and-mortar store selling something like that. Of course, RadioShack is just a distant memory now. Or is it? Is RadioShack making a comeback?
Founded in 1921 to sell amateur radio gear, RadioShack grew to achieve genuine ubiquity. In its prime, there were over 5,000 stores in the U.S. and another 3,000 in other countries. The company boasted that it was the biggest seller of consumer telecommunications in the world. But times change. The internet came along, the company declined, and in 2015 it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Aside from a few stalwart independently owned stores, the brand disappeared in the U.S. The company was sold, bounced around with various owners and their revitalization plans, and generally went nowhere. Few noticed that an outfit called Unicomer Group, based in El Salvador, had bought the brand’s exclusive use in Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Price? $5 million.
Unicomer had been a franchisee of RadioShack since 1998 and by 2015 it had expanded to 57 physical stores in four countries. After its purchase from the bankruptcy court, things got even better. They added company-owned stores and picked up existing franchises in other countries. In fact, under its new management, RadioShack is doing pretty well.
Now here’s the really interesting part: In May of this year, Unicomer acquired the RadioShack brand in about 70 more countries – including the U.S., Canada, Europe and China. With a 25-year proven track record of successful retail management, could Unicomer bring RadioShack back to its brick-and-mortar global glory? [Continue reading…]
The federal government has filed a motion to block a proposed mission to salvage the ship’s wireless telegraph.
The wreck of the Titanic has been a source of ongoing fascination since it was first discovered in 1985. As it continues to decompose, there has been a race against time to capture and preserve the ship and its contents, whether through high-tech scans or by salvaging artifacts.
Many fascinating items have been successfully recovered, including one passenger’s alligator purse, jewelry, vials of perfume, a bowler hat, sheet music, and a logometer. Their retrieval has been controversial because the wreck is not only a site of historical significance but also the resting place of over 1,500 passengers that sunk with the ship on April 15, 1912.
Now, the U.S. government is aiming to block a proposed mission to rescue the Marconi wireless telegraph. This important machine was used to transmit a distress call when the ship was sinking and helped save the 700 people who made it onto lifeboats. It has been located on the wreck and will eventually disintegrate if not salvaged, but its removal risks damaging the boat’s hull.
The recovery would be carried out by RMS. Titanic, Inc., a company based in Atlanta, Georgia that was handed exclusive salvaging rights to the wreck by a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia in 1994. Prior to this, U.S. Congress had discouraged disturbing or salvaging the wreck, but no formal, legally-enforced agreement had materialized. [Continue reading…]
Please consider supporting us via Patreon or our Coffee Fund!
Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!
In the Photo: Adrian Korol , RAE Director , Alejandro Pont Lezica , Executive Director of Radio Nacional Argentina, Javier Gratz, donor of shortwave transmitter, Jorge Taiana, Minister of Defense Argentina Republic, and Lic. Rosario Lufrano, head or RTA (Radio and TV Argentina) during the ceremony.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adrian Korol, who shares the following press release from RAE and LRA 36 [note that this article has been machine-translated into English]:
Defense Minister Jorge Taiana, together with the Joint Antarctic Commander, Brigadier General Edgar Calandín, the head of Radio y Televisión Argentina SE (RTA), Rosario Lufrano, and the Executive Director of Radio Nacional, Alejandro Pont Lezica, headed a ceremony on the donation of a shortwave transmitter to radio LRA 36 “Arcángel San Gabriel”, located at the Antarctic Base Esperanza.
This action – which is part of a new collaboration between the Joint Antarctic Command (COCOANTAR) and public media entity RTA – will allow the station to significantly improve its coverage and signal’s quality, thus keeping its international reach and fulfilling the objective of disseminating the work of the Armed Forces and the scientific personnel stationed in Argentina’s Antarctic bases.
“This is an act of generosity, of solidarity with the Argentine people as a whole… it is also an act of patriotism, because it will make it possible for all of us to listen to radio broadcasts from Antarctica”, said Taiana.
For the Minister, “it is important for all Argentine men and women to have present, in their minds and hearts, that there is a part of our territory down there, and that there are Argentine men and women working hard in that continent”.
On his part, Lufrano said: “We have always said that our National Radio and Public TV must be broadcast by land, by sea, by air, and we are fulfilling that mission. It has been an honor to bring this piece of equipment on board of icebreaker ARA “Almirante Irízar” so that they could listen to all our programming, listen to our radio and watch our public television”.
In his turn, Brigadier General Calandín said: “For us it is a joy, an enormous satisfaction, to be able to show all that Radio Nacional and the Ministry of Defense have done to contribute to Argentine sovereignty in Antarctica”.
And he pointed out: “This transmitter will allow us to spread Argentine culture, all that Argentine culture means for Argentine sovereignty in Antarctica…this is essential to us”.
Javier Gratz, the donor of the transmitter, was present at the event and he stressed that the piece is entirely manufactured in Argentina.
The donation was preceded by a technical survey carried out at the Joint Antarctic Base Esperanza by Alejandro Petrecca (Head of Radio Nacional’s Transmission Plant in Pacheco) and Engineer Alejandro Alvarez, and promoted by the relationship they have with RAE (RadioDifusión Argentina al Exterior).
The event was broadcast by AM 870 and the entire public radio network throughout the country. The special program was attended by the director of Radio Nacional, Alejandro Pont Lezica; RAE director Adrián Korol; journalist Marcelo Ayala (who was in Antarctica earlier this year broadcasting from there) and hosts Mario Giorgi and Federica Pais.
LRA36 began transmissions on October 20, 1979 and since then has been operating non-stop from the Esperanza Base in Antarctica, Argentina. It is one of the most sought after stations by shortwave listeners from all over the world, and its signal has been picked up in places as distant as Alaska, Iceland, Japan, most European countries, and Latin America.
It is the only public radio station that broadcasts from Antarctica on shortwave, a characteristic that, added to the fact that it is operated by personnel of the Joint Antarctic Command, makes it unique in relation to the other stations of Radio Nacional, such as RAE.
In 2022, and for the first time, the entire LRA36 team was integrated by women only. The same happens this year and in 2024, as well.
Radio Nacional staff, teachers from the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, RAE and the Antarctic Joint Command, under the coordination of Juan Carlos Benavente, all take part in the training of the station staff as well as in the general coordination.
Being a radio station of international scope, its goal is to disseminate Argentine culture, but above all, the work of our Armed Forces in the Antarctic bases, the scientific research work and, fundamentally, the long-running historical claim of Argentine sovereignty over this portion of Antarctic territory.
The transmitter will have a power of 10 kw and is expected to be working effectively during the Antarctic Campaign 2024.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent NOAA Weather Bulletin from the US Coast Guard:
Carlos writes:
NOAA bulletin (partial), US Coast Guard, Chesapeake, VA, 13089 kHz USB, high seas forecast and hurricane information. Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Carlos’ listening post and gear.
Hi all in SWLing Post land, Fastradioburst23 letting you know about the Imaginary Stations shows this Sunday 3rd September 2023. The first transmission will be beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany at 2000 utc on 6160 kHz and it will be WTBR, tea and biscuits radio. Expect an assortment of tunes, some musical crackers (without cheese) and a urn of the finest tea money can buy. It may not be 3pm where you are (or it may be) but make anytime a tea-time with WTBR!
Then later at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI we bring you another episode of CTRN for all of us who love that wonderful mode of transport, the train. We will bring you songs about level crossings, ticket machines and guard’s vans for all the trainspotters out there. So tune in, make yourself comfortable, please don’t put your feet on the seats, do have your tickets ready for inspection and enjoy a nice ride across the country by shortwave radio.
For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here.