Tag Archives: Radio Australia

Lynley Marshall defends ABC overseas broadcasts

Lynley Marshal (Source: ADNews.com.au)

(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)

“The chief for the ABC broadcasting into the Asia Pacific insists the taxpayer funded network has a growing audience with better programs on the way – despite reports the service is for the chop in the May budget.

ABC International boss Lynley Marshall stoutly defended overseas broadcasts as a way of promoting Australia, saying the spread of social media and mobile devices in Asia has vastly extended the potential audience.

She told a Melbourne audience on Monday evening the service had more than 1 million supporters on its Facebook page for learning theEnglish language.”

[Continue reading…]

While this article doesn’t mention shortwave radio per se, it’s most interesting to see where Marshall must both defend Australian international broadcasting as a form of diplomacy while also defending the news agency when its reports are critical of the government.

There’s an inherent tension all international broadcasters face–at least, those that are tax-payer supported–as many try to transition from being purely a mouthpiece of the government to an example of free press and democracy.

Listening Rewind: Radio Australia rings in the millennium

Leave a reply

Yesterday–New Year’s Eve, 2014–I spent some time listening to a few broadcasters as the new year passed through their time zones. While I missed hearing Radio New Zealand International (the first to welcome the New Year on the air), I did manage to catch Radio Australia, and the New Year was celebrated with no fanfare; one program merely ran into the next, and there was a brief mention of 2014’s arrival in the headline news.

Oh, but it wasn’t that way when we moved into the year 2000…

Rewind 14 years

Back in December of 1999, before setting off to visit family for the New Year, I had a sudden notion: I decided it would be fun–and a bit novel–to record radio broadcasters as each moved into the new millennium. As we were packing the car to travel, I changed my mind about using my Grundig Yacht Boy 400 to accomplish this fairly ambitious, round-the-world listening/recording endeavor; instead, I grabbed my ham radio transceiver, an Icom IC-735, and packed it, along with a hefty 12-volt power supply. While my IC-735 lacked AM filters (at the time) it had much better sensitivity than the YB400, especially when hooked up to a decent antenna. I also had the foresight to take along a few odds and ends, including a mechanical antenna tuner and a spool of long wire.

The Icom IC-735

To record the broadcast, I used my trusty Aiwa AM F70 MiniDisk recorder–remember those? Upon arrival at our extended family’s home, they kindly permitted me to erect a long wire antenna in a sloping configuration in their yard. It did a fine job netting the airwaves. The MiniDisk recorder recorded brilliantly, allowing me to monitor levels and even edit afterward.

As a result, I spent New Year’s Eve 2000 recording station after station as the earth turned. It was great fun, and meanwhile had very little impact on our family celebrations as I simply left the recorder running for long periods of time.

My trusty Aiwa AM F70 MiniDisk recorder.

While I have yet to dissect the many hours of recordings, if memory serves, I think I managed to record Radio New Zealand International, Voice of Russia, Radio France International, NHK, Voice of America, and Radio Canada International as each rang in 2000. The IC-735 performed quite well, save a lack of bandwidth filters, as I only really had two–very wide, and very narrow.

So, for your New Year’s Day listening pleasure: I hope you’ll enjoy, as much as I did, listening to Radio Australia ring in the new millennium yet again. In the news items, you’ll hear that Russian President Boris Yeltson has handed the reigns over to Vladimir Putin, and remarks about the (lack of) problems resulting from the infamous Y2K threat.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen below:

Listen to the The Melbourne Cup on Radio Australia

Leave a reply

John Figliozzi writes:

“Radio Australia will preempt its regular programming beginning at 0400 UT Tuesday to provide live coverage of the running of the 2013 Melbourne Cup horse race. RA will have special programming at 0400 and 0530, before and after the race. It will join the national sports program Grandstand beginning at 0430. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s greatest and most loved horse race and is run annually on the first Tuesday in November. It is known as “the Race that stops a Nation!”

Listeners can access the coverage via shortwave [9660, 12080, 15160, 15240, 15415, 15515, 17750, 17840, 21725; and 13630 after 0500 ] and the internet [http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/] and [http://www.radioaustralia.net.au].”

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Australia

1 Reply

Like most Friday mornings, yesterday at 11:00 UTC, I tuned to 9,580 kHz to listen to Radio Australia news and ABC National’s technology program Download This Show.

While the signal out of Shepparton, Australia was as strong as ever, I heard adjacent interference from China Radio International.

Indeed, looking my WinRadio Excalibur‘s spectrum display (see image on right), you can see that CRI’s signal on 9,570 kHz was actually producing noise 15 kHz on either side of their AM carrier (for a total bandwidth of 30 kHz!). Radio Australia’s signal was much cleaner, sticking to their allotted 10 kHz bandwidth limit.

The recording of Radio Australia was still quite good, despite the interference, because I was able to run the Excalibur’s AM sync detector locked on the (less noisy) upper side band.

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

Call me anachronistic, but I listen to digital tech shows on shortwave

1 Reply

While I’m passionate about shortwave radio–a technology that has, of course, been around for many decades–I also love to hear about emerging digital technologies, especially those that make our world a better place.

These days, I listen to several shows about technology, many of which are only available as a live stream or podcast (like TWIT, for example).

There are two shows, however, that I like to listen to on shortwave radio when my schedule allows.

One such show is the BBC World Service technology show, Click (formerly Digital Planet). I’ve listened to Click for years, and have even been interviewed on the show by its marvelous host Gareth Mitchell (click here to listen). I especially love the show’s focus on technologies that have a positive impact in developing countries (hence my interview, about my non-profit, ETOW). Mitchell, I’m delighted to add, is quite the fan of shortwave radio as well, and is not afraid of reporting on technologies that are not exclusively tied to smart phones and the like.

Another show I’ve been listening to for a few months is Download This Show on Radio Australia. It’s a fun and informative technology program and always has a great panel discussion on technology news. What I really love about this show is its take on Australian technology in particular, and how this compares with technology in the rest of the world.

Since Download This Show is broadcast via Radio Australia’s Shepparton transmitting site, the signal is quite strong here in North America and easily received on portable shortwave radios.

Click here to download over two hours of Radio Australia, including Download this Show, or listen via the embedded player below. This broadcast was recorded on August 2, 2013, on 9,580 kHz, starting around 13:00 UTC.

You’ll find Download This Show in the second hour of the recording, following the news headlines at 1:05.

Seeking 1970s era recordings of Radio Australia

Leave a reply

The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive

Yesterday, I received a message from Sam, via the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. He writes:

Nice website! I’ve been looking (and listening) through it for the last hour or so. Nice!

I see you have some Radio Australia recordings and was wondering if you have any older ones? I’ve been trying for a couple of years now to find a recording of the top of the hour from Radio Australia in the mid 1970s. I was a youngster then and used to rush home from school to hear the station – I grew up in Northern Ireland and used to be able to get Radio Australia from around 1530 local time until maybe 1800 local, depending on the conditions. One thing I remember about it was the time “pips”, which included a pip at 10 seconds to the hour, which I had never heard before (or anywhere else since). I’d love to hear this again along with the theme to the news which came on the hour – I’ve found out that it was called Majestic Fanfare, but the version played on 70s Radio Australia is different to that played now and in every recording I’ve heard. Seems they changed the recording they used during the 80s. Even the ABC and Radio Australia can’t help as I’ve contacted them, so I’m trying every avenue which comes along.

I know it’s probably way before your oldest recording but heck, I had to ask! 😉

Many thanks.

If you happen to have 1970s era recordings of Radio Australia that you would like to share with Sam (and the world), please contact me and I would be happy to upload them to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Thanks for your inquiry, Sam!

Radio Australia transmitting digital radiograms this weekend, June 8 – 9

Leave a reply

Most encouraging to see Radio Australia sending digital text over shortwave. Their 12:30 UTC broadcast should be easily heard in North America on 9,850 kHz:

(Source: VOA Radiograms)

Radio Australia will transmit digital text and an image during three special broadcasts the weekend of 8 and 9 June 2013.

The seven-minute broadcasts will consist of…

MFSK16 text
MFSK32 text
MFSK32 in Flmsg* format (creates Radio Australia logo in browser window)
MFSK32 image (ABC logo)

*Fldigi and Flmsg from www.w1hkj.com must be used together. In Fldigi, click Configure > Misc > NBEMS: Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg program file is located.

Transmission schedule

All dates/times are in UTC, all frequencies in kHz

Saturday/Sunday 8/9 June 2013

Nominal target areas are listed. Reception beyond these target areas is likely.

0850-0857 UTC

7410 kHz (PNG & south-west Pacific)

11945 kHz (south Pacific, NZ, central America, Europe)

1230-1237 UTC

6080 kHz (PNG, west Pacific, Philippines, Japan)

9580 kHz (central Pacific, NAM)

12065 kHz (central Pacific, NAM)

2150-2157 UT C

11695 kHz (south-east Asia, Europe)

21740 kHz (central Pacific, NAm)

Each broadcast begins with with 40 seconds of Radio Australia interval signal (Waltzing Matilda).