162 kHz longwave: CSA France seeks expressions of interest for broadcast license

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(Source: Southgate ARC via Mike Barraclough)

French 162 kHz Broadcast Licence

The French Superior Council of Audiovisual (Content), CSA, is calling for expressions of interest in broadcasting on 162 kHz

They say: In accordance with the provisions of Article 26 of the amended Freedom of Communication Act of September 30, 1986 and at the request of the Government, the CSA decided to withdraw from Radio France the use of the 162 kHz frequency for broadcasting of France Inter.

In order to determine whether the Commission should initiate the procedures necessary to appeal the 162 kHz frequency, it decided to issue a call for expressions of interest for the broadcast of a radio service on the 162 kHz frequency.

Responses are expected no later than January 16, 2017.

Announcement in French
http://www.csa.fr/Espace-juridique/Decisions-du-CSA/Frequence-radio-162-kHz-appel-a-manifestation-d-interet

Vatican Radio Christmas specials

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(Source: Mauno Ritola via the WRTH Facebook page)

Vatican Radio special broadcasts on Christmas:

Saturday 24 December 2016
1600-1652 [UTC]
Mass in Chinese 5975 7200 kHz 2025-2230
Portuguese 11625 kHz Angola and Mozambique
French 6080 kHz West Africa
English 7275 kHz Central Africa
Chinese 6185 kHz China

Sunday 25 December 2016
1055-1130 [UTC]
Portuguese 21560 kHz Angola and Mozambique
French 17520 kHz West Africa
English 15570 kHz Central Africa

Live audio from S.Peter’s without any comment:

  • 9645 kHz, 11740 kHz Europe
  • 15595 kHz Near East

All from Santa Maria di Galeria.
http://www.radiovaticana.va

Now’s the time to grab longwave DX!

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If you’ve been wanting to log France Inter as longwave DX, you’re running out of time. France Inter is shutting down their 162 kHz longwave service on December 31, 2016.

I’m grateful to SWLing Post contributor, Ron, who has persistently reminded me that these are some of the last days to catch France Inter as LW DX here in North America.  Indeed, he shared a bit of interesting and encouraging news a couple weeks ago:

On the Radiodiscussions DX forum, Jim Farmer over in San Antonio got and recorded France Inter on 162 khz using a PK loop and Sony 7600GR.

The PK Loop he’s referring to is this one and, of course, the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is one of my staple portables.

While I’d love to try to grab France Inter with my Sony, my schedule makes it very difficult to arrange. Fortunately, I have SDRs which allow me to record spectrum throughout the night, then review the recordings in the morning.

Throughout the month of December, I’ve been recording a small chunk of longwave spectrum–with my WinRadio Excalibur–during the night and reviewing it in the morning in hopes that I could grab an opening from France Inter.

I was rewarded on December 19, 2016 around 0300 UTC. Though there was atmospheric noise that night in the form of static crashes, I snagged France Inter on 162 kHz.

My spectrum display from the Excalibur.

The 162 kHz carrier was barely above the noise floor (see above), so it was certainly weak signal DX. Here’s an audio sample:

Audio Player

Click here to download the mp3 file.

When that short LW opening happened, I was also able to snag Medi 1 from Morocco on 171 kHz. Again, not fantastic copy, but I’m happy:

Audio Player

Click here to download the mp3.

Mind you, both France Inter and Medi 1 only transmit at 2,000 watts–that’s flea power compared to our shortwave broadcasters. It’s amazing those signals can even hop the Atlantic.

Correction…an SWLing Post reader, qwerty.am, comments:

Actually, the power of France Inter and Medi1 is 2000 kW and 1600 kW respectively. So the power of most SW broadcasters should be called a “flea power” in comparison to what is used on longwave. The smallest output on LW band in Europe is 50 kW, it’s used by Denmark and Czech Rep. The 162 kHz transmitter is closing on Dec 26th, according to the latest news.

Wow!

Again, if you’d like to grab  longwave stations before they disappear, now is the time! Our LW broadcasters are disappearing rapidly. Fortunately, winter (here in the northern hemisphere) is the best time to chase LW DX.

Thanks, again, Ron for your encouragement! I’ll keep listening and recording!

Kuwait Radio updates shortwave transmitters

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(Source: Radio World via Andrea Borgnino)

Swiss-based company Ampegon has accepted a contract from Al Rashed to handle the upgrade of five analog shortwave transmitters that are more than 20 years old for the Kuwait Ministry of Information in Al Kabd station.

[…]Ampegon will refurbish all of the transmitters, and in addition upgrade three of them to full digital DRM integration and converted to the new transmitter control system UCS[…]

Read more at Radio World online…

Transatlantic medium wave DX: 3 Canadian stations rarely heard in Oxford, UK

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Hi there, I thought I’d share with you, three recent catches from Canada that I had not previously heard here in Oxford, UK, over the past 18 months of DXing. The first is VOWR, a religous station in Saint John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. At the time of reception their TX power was 2.5 kW, thus a really pleasing catch. 800 kHz is such a difficult channel to DX in Europe due to heavy adjacent channel QRM, but the brilliant selectivity of the Elad FDM DUO operating via the FDM-SW2 software performed really well, producing mostlyy intelligble audio on LSB with an audio bandwidth filter of 2.1 kHz. Below is an embedded video and text link.

MW DX with 200 m Beverage: VOWR 800 kHz, St. John’s, N&L, first reception, with ID

The next reception video is CHHA ‘Voces Latinas’ from Toronto on 1600 kHz. This was the biggest surprise because this channel at the start of the X-band is dominated by The Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla. In fact, I would go so far as to say I’ve never heard anything else but Anguilla on 1600 kHz. The only difference in this reception is that it occurred relatively late in the morning for me – around 7:45 am. To catch CHHA for the first time, with a very clear ID was great, I hope to hear them again soon.  Below is an embedded video and text link.

Finally, a reception video of CBC Radio 1, transmitting on 1140 kHz. CBC are very often herad at my shack in Oxford, in fact, I see at least one carrier, usually with audio most evenings/mornings and often multiple signals are present across 600, 750 and 1400 KHz. However, their transmission from Sydney, Nova Scotia had never been copied previously and so this was a pleasing catch. Below is an embedded video and text link.

Thanks for reading/watching/listening and I wish you all great DX!

Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.

Reviews of the Elpa ER-C57WR shortwave portable?

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I recently received an email from SWLing Post reader, Ibrahima Ditinn Diallo, regarding a receiver I had never heard of–the Elpa ER-C57WR. Ibrahima has been searching for a new receiver and is considering the Elpa.

I did a quick search and discovered that the Elpa ER-C57WR is available from a number of sellers on eBay–as both new and used for around $63 US shipped from China.

The form factor is very similar to the C.Crane CC Skywave, but it apparently lacks some of the Skywave’s functionality like weather radio and (perhaps?) multiple AM bandwidths. Here’s the ER-C57WR spec sheet:

Remembering a post from a couple years ago, I quickly realized the ER-C57WR is almost an identical match to the DigiTech AR-1733 available via Jaycar in Australia.

If the ER-C57WR is simply the same receiver as the AR-1733, I would be hesitant to recommend it. Many AR-1733 owners complained of lousy AGC performance.

Of course, it’s been a couple of years since the introduction of the AR-1733–perhaps this Elpa-badged version has been updgraded?

I’m curious if any SWLing Post readers have purchased the Elpa ER-C57WR and could comment about the receiver’s performance.

Click here to search eBay for the Elpa ER-C57WR.

“The Threat to the BBC Monitoring Service”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jonathan Marks, who shares his latest post from Medium.com:

Open Source Stupidity: The Threat to the BBC Monitoring Service

Media Network, the weekly communications magazine formerly on Radio Netherlands, is set to return as an independent podcast in 2017, resuming its analysis of international broadcasting.

Audio Player

The first time we visited BBC Monitoring was in August 1989. That broadcast is sitting in the Media Network Vintage Vault. During the previous lifetime of the programme (1980–2000), we worked closely with colleagues from World Broadcasting Information at BBC Monitoring. Search for contributions from Richard Measham and Chris Greenway in the vintage vault of around 450 half-hour programmes.

By way of a prequel to the new series, we asked John Fertaud, who has worked at BBC Monitoring in the past, to analyse and comment on a new UK government report about the future of the service. Here is his analysis.

Click here to read Jonathan’s full post and to listen to his Vintage Vault audio.