Tag Archives: Dan Greenall

Time Stations from the 1970s Heard in Ontario, Canada — And What You Can Still Hear Today

by Dan Greenall

Time and standard frequency stations have been around for a long time. In my early years of DXing, there were more than 20 of them scattered all over the globe. These two pages from the 1972 World Radio TV Handbook show what could be heard back then, along with the frequencies used.

A page from the 1975 WRTVH indicates the arrival of BPM.

I managed to log at least ten of them from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada. They are listed below, some of them including links to recordings I made, have survived for over half a century.

WWV, Fort Collins, CO (change of format in 1971)

WWVH, Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii

YVTO, Caracas, Venezuela

LOL, Buenos Aires, Argentina

VNG, Lyndhurst, Victoria, Australia

JJY, Tokyo, Japan

BPM, Shaanxi Province, China

CHU, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

RID, Irkutsk, USSR

FTK77, Bureau International de l’Heure, Paris, France

A link to some of their vintage QSL cards can be found here: https://archive.org/details/vng-australia-1971

Time stations in 2026

Today, only a handful of these time signal stations remain on shortwave. Most are listed below.

BPM, Shaanxi Province, China (70 km northeast of Lintong) 2500, 5000, 10000 and 15000 kHz

ID given twice per hour during the 29th and 59th minute. BPM was sent 10 times in CW, then the announcement in Chinese was given twice.

RWM, near Moscow, Russia 4996, 9996 and 14996 kHz

ID’s given twice per hour. During 9th and 39th minute, RWM sent 21 times in CW.

CHU, Ottawa, Ontario Canada 3330 kHz, 7850 and 14670 kHz

ID and time announcement (English/French) in UTC, last 9 seconds of each minute. Scheduled to close June 22, 2026.

WWV, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA 2500, 5000, 10000, 15000, and 20000 kHz

Time announcement (UTC) in English, each minute (male voice). Station ID at :00 and :30 minutes.

WWVH, Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii 2500, 5000, 10000 and 15000 kHz

Time announcement (UTC) in English, each minute (female voice). Station ID at :29 and :59 minutes.

Best to log the remaining ones before their time runs out.

DXing from another country – Bermuda 1975

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by Dan Greenall

A half-century ago, long before the internet, e-mail, and SDRs, I was fortunate to visit the islands of Bermuda. In addition to meeting up with a fellow amateur radio operator, whom I had contacted from my home QTH in Ontario, Canada, I was able to do some listening on the AM broadcast band, as well as FM, on an inexpensive portable receiver from Radio Shack that I had brought along with me. To this day, I still have the recordings of a few medium wave “catches” that I made, a few from the Caribbean, and a few from the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.

You can hear them by following this link to the Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/bcb-dx-from-bermuda-1975

As well, I recorded station ID’s of all the AM (3) and FM (2) local radio stations in Bermuda.

According to the 1975 World Radio TV Handbook, there were only 4 FM outlets, as the 94.9 FM outlet is not listed. Here is the link to these on the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/bermuda-radio-airchecks-1975

Today, I can DX from another country without leaving home (through the use of various worldwide SDR’s), though I have to admit that some of the magic is missing.

VOA Hitting the Target in Korea

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

Judging by the 60 dB over S9 signal strength on a Kiwi SDR receiver in South Korea, I would say the Voice of America is getting into its target area very well.

They have a Korean language broadcast on 9310 kHz beginning at 1530 hours UTC using their Tinang transmitter in the Philippines. I made a couple of recordings, which are as follows:

April 29, 2026, leading up to 1600 hours UTC (programming in progress), presumed news about King Charles’ visit, “VOA” heard a few times around 3:04 and 3:10:

April 30, 2026, starting at 1527 UTC, open carrier with tone, carrier off after 40 seconds. carrier back on around the 1:44 mark with English ID and Yankee Doodle briefly, then off, Yankee Doodle resumes at the 2:03 mark, then programming in Korean:

Since my original post on March 9, I’ve noticed the Voice of America is no longer using 7500 kHz for its 2200 UTC broadcast in Mandarin Chinese. According to short-wave.info, they are now using 9625 and 11590 kHz from 2200 to 2230 UTC. Shortwave.live has them here as well, but in recent checks using remote SDRs, I have been coming up empty on 9625, and a bit of a mess on 11590. Other listed times and frequencies checked for the Mandarin service have not been heard either.

Dan Greenall. Ontario, Canada

Ethiopia on Shortwave – Then and Now

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by Dan Greenall

Back in the early 1970’s, Radio Voice of the Gospel, station ETLF, in Addis Ababa was the best way to hear this country, though it was by no means an everyday occurrence here in southern Ontario, Canada. Their distinctive drum interval signal was the first 4 notes of “A Mighty Fortress.” Or perhaps you would be lucky to hear “Elizabethan Serenade” being played prior to the start of their broadcast. Two recordings I have managed to save can be found at the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/etlf-ethiopia-1971

In 1977, the station was nationalized by the Provisional Military Governing Council of Ethiopia and renamed the Radio Voice of Revolutionary Ethiopia.

Later, in the late 1990’s, a couple of Ethiopian stations could readily be heard thanks to their out of band frequencies. The Voice of Tigray Revolution used 5500 kHz and I recorded their signal on February 21, 1999 while at a DX Camp in Coe Hill, Ontario.

Radio Fana used 6940 kHz and I made a recording of them signing on just prior to 0330 UTC also on February 21, 1999 while at the same DX Camp.

Today, a few stations are still listed as broadcasting on shortwave from Ethiopia, namely Radio Oromiya on 6030, Amhara State Radio on 6090, and Radio Fana on 6110 kHz.

When active, they all seem to suffer from low modulation levels and co-channel interference (primarily from Chinese stations). Recently, I was able to discover that Radio Fana is still using the same interval signal as they did in 1999, by listening on a Kiwi SDR in Mombasa, Kenya.
Here is a recording of their sign on at 0300 UTC on April 26, 2026 on 6110 kHz.

They now seem to ID as Fana Media Corporation, even though programming is not in English.

Listen at the 3:05 mark for this. Also, the modulation level jumps up significantly about the 3:28 mark.

Additionally, I have included a recording of their sign off on April 1, 2026 beginning at 2053 UTC and concluding with the Ethiopian national anthem.

Dan Notes: Radio 567 is Back On The Air from NSW

Radio Televisyen Malaysia Active on Shortwave: New Logs from Kajang Transmitting Station

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following update:

A follow-up to my post last month: https://swling.com/blog/2026/03/is-nasional-fm-on-shortwave-full-time/

I am now hearing RTM regularly on shortwave on both 11885 kHz and 15295 kHz through Kiwi SDR’s located in Southeast Asia and Australia. As Timm Breyel pointed out, programming seems to be in Chinese on 11885 with IDs noted as “Sabah V FM” at the 52-second and one-minute mark of the attached recording. Voice announcements on 15295 continue to be in presumed Malaysian, but identification can be heard as Nasional FM at the 6:05, 6:14, and 6:20 marks of the second recording. These are both coming from the Kajang Transmitting Station near Kuala Lumpur. It will be interesting to see how far afield their signal can be heard.

Sabah V FM April 2, 2026 on 11885 kHz at 0128 UTC:

Nasional FM April 2, 2026 on 15295 kHz at 0255 UTC:

Dan Greenall, Ontario, Canada

BBC Interval Signals – Then and Now

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by Dan Greenall

A half century ago, the BBC World Service used a number of different interval signals. A few minutes prior to the start of a broadcast, a recognizable, often repeating tune would be played that would enable listeners to more easily locate the BBC in a crowded band on a typical analog receiver.

A peek into the 1975 World Radio TV Handbook notes a few of these. There was the Morse signal V (as in, V for Victory), primarily used for broadcasts to Europe. It was also identified as 4 notes tuned B-B-B-E, and an example can be found on Jerry Johnston’s page of shortwave interval signals:

https://www.iaswww.com/swmp3/intervalsignals/simple_is.php

Next, a version of the children’s nursery rhyme “Oranges and Lemons” was used during the 1970’s, and I have managed to save a recording of it here:

https://archive.org/details/oranges-and-lemons_202510

Then, there were the three notes “B-B-C” in tonic scale. This was assigned to the World Service for Africa and other services.

Finally, though not listed in this edition of the handbook, was the highly recognizable sound of the Bow Bells. This one came into common use during World War Two when it was broadcast as a symbol of hope for the people of Europe. At least one source states that the original recording was made in 1926, now 100 years ago. Many recordings of the Bow Bells interval signal can be found online via YouTube.

More recently, many of the BBC World Service broadcasts seem to start up very abruptly. An open carrier appears on the frequency to be used only minutes, or even seconds, before the program (already in progress) begins. One example is noted in this recording made on February 5, 2026, just prior to 2200 UTC sign-on, on a frequency of 11645 kHz.

However, two of the above-mentioned tuning signals appear to still be occasionally in use. The three-note B-B-C was observed on March 4, 2026, at 0028 UTC on 7445 kHz. This recording was made through a Kiwi SDR on the island of Cyprus.

I also logged them using their Bow Bells interval signal on December 28, 2025 at 2358 UTC on 6155 kHz while listening on a Kiwi SDR in Thailand. Here is how they sounded then.