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.
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 eclipseThere 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.
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.
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.)
and
Very cool!
Rgds,
-Pete Jernakoff-
Very cool indeed! Thank you for sharing this, Pete!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Terry Colgan (N5RTC), who shares the September 2023 schedule for Texas Radio Shortwave.
Click the link below to download the schedule:
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.
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 Dennis Dura, Rick Murray, Uli Zehndbauer, and David Iurescia for the following tips:
The New Zealand government today handed over a standby generator to the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC).
The generator will ensure SIBC’s transmission and services via its medium and short wave frequencies remain operational even when there is a power outage.
Speaking at a brief handing over ceremony, New Zealand High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, His Excellency Jonathan Schwass said the donation marks another milestone in the partnership between New Zealand and SIBC.
He said it is important for SIBC to have an uninterruptible power supply during broadcasting.
“Given the power outage we are having at the moment, it is really important to have an uninterruptible power supply for SIBC broadcast.”
“That’s not just the matter of ensuring the listening pleasure of Solomon Islanders.”
“It is also a matter of guaranteeing the flow of essentials to the scattered Islands and the communities of this country especially in times of natural disasters and during crises like COVID-19,’’ Commissioner Schwass said. [Continue reading…]
BBC Radio has been broadcasting on longwave for 89 years, covering most of the UK and northern Europe from a single transmitter in Droitwich. This radio frequency uniquely travels practically unimpeded across the country and provides a vital radio link in areas where reception of other signals and internet coverage is poor. Because only one transmitter is needed, the cost of providing this service is tiny. Not everyone is able to access digital or internet radio and longwave remains the most reliable way of receiving the BBC in any place at any time. It is also much better for the environment, as longwave receivers require far less power than digital radios, computers and mobile phones.
Recently, the BBC announced plans to end all longwave transmissions by 31st March 2024, just six months before the 90th anniversary of these transmissions beginning. We call upon the BBC to cancel these plans to scrap Radio 4 longwave, and to continue to provide this essential and historic radio lifeline for as long as possible.
I haven’t had the occasion to use any programming languages since retirement. That’s why the addition of a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B to the shack was a welcome change. I like to think of the Raspberry Pi as just another computer – one that uses a different operating system. With the Raspberry Pi, I can browse the Internet, access email, and write and run programs.
When I began to assemble a shack, I reserved a space on the wall for a 32? TV, Figure 1, which was purchased during a temporary rental stay. That TV has been unused for 3 years, but it was earmarked for a HamClock.
I searched the N1FD site to see if anyone had written about HamClock, but no articles were found. The first article for HamClock, written by Elwood Downey, WB0OEW, appeared in October 2017 QST[1]. In his article, he calls for the use of an Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 Wi-Fi system-on-chip. That device was fastened to the back of a 7? TFT display.
The version of HamClock that I built for use with the 32? HDTV employs the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, Figure 2, with 2 GB memory[2]. The kit that I found on Amazon includes a 64 GB microSD card (with USB adapter) onto which the Raspberry Pi operating system had been preloaded. The kit also includes a plastic case with fan, little rubber feet, tiny screws to attach a camera, device heatsinks, a wall-wart power supply, a micro HDMI to HDMI cable, an instruction manual and various assembly instruction cards. The user has to provide their own USB mouse and keyboard. I already owned a wireless mouse and keyboard so I was able to use a single USB 2.0 port on the Pi for the wireless adapter.
If you already have a microSD memory card with USB adapter, power supply, mouse, keyboard and HDMI cable, you could get by with a Raspberry Pi Zero[3] at one-fourth the price. [Continue reading…]
Hey radio history fans! Can any of you share a story behind this great find?
Steve Moravec, president of Phoenix Media Group in St. Paul, Minn., circulated this photo in his weekly “Monday Morning Memorabilia” email.
“This ’30s vintage board game promoted the radio stations of the Columbia Broadcasting System across the country,” he writes. “The goal seems to be to ‘touch ’em all’ with the game pieces, which appear uncut in the attachment.”
He found it on eBay; here’s the listing with more photos.
The early days of wireless, ship-to-shore and modern broadcast radio produced a number of radio board games. For example, online auction and history sites turn up “Listen In: The Great Wireless Game”; also “Radio Game,” published in 1920 by Milton Bradley (more pix here); and a “Radio Game for Little Folks,” from the mid-1920s. You can find photos of more on sites like Play Things of Past.[Continue reading…]
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