Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel receives a new shortwave transmitter

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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]:

New Short Wave Transmitter for LRA 36 Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel

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.

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Carlos’ Art and Recording of a NOAA Weather Bulletin via the US Coast Guard

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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.

Click here to listen via YouTube.

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Now time for a shortwave tea break

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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.

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How DXers can contribute to ionospheric research during the October 14, 2023 solar eclipse!

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Many thanks to SWling Post contributor, Nick Hall-Patch, who shares the following announcement:

How DXers can contribute to ionospheric research during the 14 October 2023 solar eclipse

There will be an annular solar eclipse on 14 October, 2023 when, at totality, the size of the Moon’s disk will appear slightly smaller than the size of the Sun’s disk.  This eclipse will affect all of North America, as well as Central and part of South America, as seen in the map below.

AM Broadcast Band DXers know that the blocking out of radiation from the sun during a total solar eclipse can introduce temporary night time listening conditions over an area far beyond the path of totality.

The upcoming annular eclipse is expected to have a similar effect on daytime medium wave listening conditions as would a total solar eclipse, and should not be missed by DXers.  Live listening can be done during the eclipse, as well as recording the entire medium wave band, using SDRs (software defined radios).

There might be more to our DXing results than new and unexpected receptions of distant radio stations, however.  The rapidly changing listening conditions will be indicating a similarly turbulent ionosphere, and DXers’ documenting those listening conditions through SDR recordings could provide information that will be useful to scientists who want to gain a better understanding of the Earth’s ionospheric dynamics.

How can DXers contribute to ionospheric research?

HamSCI is an organization of volunteer citizen-scientists and professional researchers who study upper atmospheric and space physics, and will be interested in examining MW DXers’ wideband SDR recordings made during both eclipses, and indeed, in having DXers assist with HamSCI’s research.

It will be important to have many participants in this project.  To sign up, please go to https://hamsci.org/mw-recordings/ and discover how to make sure that those DX files will also qualify as scientific data that can become part of the public record.

Those interested in finding out about all the research that HamSCI will be doing during the upcoming eclipses, check out https://hamsci.org/eclipse .  Especially if you are also an amateur radio operator, there are several other ways that you might contribute to the project.

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Pirate Radio: Peter decodes spectrum images from Mix Radio International

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pete Jernakoff, who writes:

Last evening around 10:45 pm local, I came across the pirate Mix Radio International broadcasting on 6950 kHz upper side band. Signal was absolutely huge at my QTH (northern Delaware) and the show was highly entertaining with dance and rap mixes of various pop songs being played. Also played were some NSFW rap songs… 🙂 And every so often this station would modulate its signal so as to transmit a picture or text on one or the other side of its main signal that was plainly visible on the waterfall. (I was listening with an SDRplay RSPdx and SDRuno.)

Videos:


and

Very cool!

Rgds,

-Pete Jernakoff-

Very cool indeed! Thank you for sharing this, Pete!

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Carlos pulls headlines from Kyodo News radiofax

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Carlos Latuff, who writes:

Kyodo News is a Japanese news agency, the only one in the world that still transmits news via radiofax to Japanese vessels, on shortwave frequency of 16971 kHz USB. The international radiofax transmission standard is 120 lines per minute, but the Kyodo News standard is 60 lines per minute.

However, the retransmission of the bulletin in English is done at a cadence of 120 lpm. I’m using an Android application called HF Weather Fax with which I’m decoding the radio signal coming from Japan and received in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The receiver is the Xhdata D-808 and the antenna is a magnetic loop. The image arrived this morning in Porto Alegre, at 4:10 am local time, quite noisy and with a lot of effort I managed to decipher some headlines.

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