Friday: transmission tests for Sunday’s Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rob Wagner, who reports:

HFCC is now listing a test transmission (as the BBC usually does) before the official Antarctic broadcast. The test will be held on Friday June 19 at 2130-2145 UTC. All frequencies listed [below] will be tested INCLUDING the 7425 Ascension outlet! Tests usually consist of a simple feed to BBC WS English programming.

7,425 kHz, Ascension, 207 degrees

5,985 kHz, Woofferton, 184 degrees

9,590 kHz, Woofferton, 182 degrees

5,905 kHz, Dhabayya, 203 degrees

What’s interesting about this is that 7425 wasn’t listed in the finally three freqs chosen for the broadcast, but they are including it in the test! Sounds like they are having “an each-way bet” (as we say in Australia) – 7425 may still possibly be used as a backup for the actual broadcast on June 21. Cheers, Rob VK3BVW

Many thanks, Rob! These test broadcasts will give us a good idea which frequencies to focus on during the official broadcast on June 21, 2015. I’ll be listening Friday at 2130 UTC!

[Update: Note that I originally noted the broadcast time as Thursday in the title of this post. Apologies! I’ve since made this correction. The test broadcast is Friday night (June 19, 2015).]

BBC At War: new series sheds light on WWII broadcasting

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Many thanks to several SWLing Post readers from the UK who have pointed out this new BBC Two documentary: The BBC at War, Presented by Jonathan Dimbleby.

BBC Two describes the documentary as, “[a]n enthralling series exploring how the BBC fought not only Hitler but also the British government to become the institution it is today.”

Of course, the BBC iPlayer is region-locked, so you either need to be resident in the UK or using a proxy server in order to view. The first episode is available to view now; the second will be soon.

Click here to view Episode 1: The War of Words.

2015 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast frequencies confirmed

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Stephen Cooper, who has confirmed the frequencies that will be used for the 2015 BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on June 21 at 21:30 UTC.

Again, this year, I’m calling on all SWLing Post readers and shortwave radio listeners to make a short recording (say, 30-60 seconds) of the show and share it here at the Post. Click here for details.

Stephen received confirmation of the following frequencies directly from the BBC World Service:

5,985 kHz,
9,590 kHz,
and 5,905 kHz

Evidently, these were the frequencies chosen from the following that were tested:

7,425 kHz, Ascension, 207 degrees
5,985 kHz, Woofferton, 184 degrees
9,590 kHz, Woofferton, 182 degrees
5,905 kHz, Dhabayya, 203 degrees

I think it’s safe to assume that the same antenna paths will be used from the tests. I had hoped an Ascension Island frequency would have made the cut as it’s typically the frequency I hear best here in eastern North America. Of course, the selections were made based on actual test reception in the various parts of Antarctica where the team is located.

Please note these frequencies and take a little time to submit your recording! We look forward to sharing and mapping them across the globe.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: UNID 12,365 kHz USB

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Yesterday, I posted a note about an unidentified station who was broadcasting the Chile v Mexico football game on 12,365 kHz USB. Several readers sent messages with reception reports, most of which indicated a signal strength of less than S5.

Several of us speculate that this could be a relay from a South American (perhaps Chilean?) shipping service for their fleet in the Pacific; hence the weak signal reports in North America. SWLing Post reader, @K7al_L3afta, suspects that it could even be an audio feed for a radio station.

We may never know, but it’ll be fun to listen for future broadcasts.

I recorded almost four hours of the station last night, starting around 22:00 UTC –during the Ecuador v Bolivia game–on my Elad FDM-S2 software defined receiver (see screen grab above). Below, I’ve embedded a 30 minute clip from the Chile v Mexico game, starting at approximately 23:45 UTC.

The FDM-S2 was hooked up to my large horizontal delta loop wire antenna. The signal was certainly very much buried in the static at time. I could have improved the clarity of the signal by using the FDM-S2’s built in DSP noise reduction, but opted to keep the USB audio unaltered to better represent reception.

Click here to download this audio clip as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

RFI: The Sound Kitchen now on shortwave radio

“Switzerland’s international voice in a changing world”

Prime Time Shortwave may be shutting down

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Chris Crosby, for passing along this information from Daniel Sampson of Prime Time Shortwave:

Prime Time Shortwave shutting down June 26, 2015
~.~.~
It is disappointing to have to do this but it looks like I may be discontinuing the Prime Time Shortwave website June 24. Where I have the Prime Time Shortwave hosted, Front Page extensions will no longer be supported, and the costs for using their website builder is too high added to the server space. I expected this day would eventually come since the Front Page product was discontinued in 2006.

I have been doing the Prime Time Shortwave website for 17 years and it is getting difficult to find the time to work on it.

Regards,
Daniel Sampson
__._,_.___
Prime Time Shortwave
http://www.primetimeshortwave.com