Tag Archives: Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel

Arcángel San Gabriel (LRA36) special broadcasts and LU1ZV activation

Source: Base Esperanza – Antártida

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tracy Wood, who writes:

I listened to LRA36 streaming this past Friday with their special show, including callouts to other Argentine scientific stations via satphone and lots of greetings by ham radio enthusiasts, both recorded and via live call-in.

Source: Base Esperanza – Antártida

…At the conclusion the announcer said they would be back this Monday at 1800 Buenos Aires time or 2100 UTC.

Details about last Friday’s broadcast:

http://www.radionacional.com.ar/continuan-las-emisiones-especiales-en-lra-36-arcangel-san-gabriel/

Source: Base Esperanza – Antártida

The audio stream is only up when LRA36 is on the air apparently but is at the Radio Nacional website under the audio streams listing:”

http://vmf.edge-apps.net/embed/live.php?streamname=sc_rad32-100131&autoplay=true

Thank you so much for sharing this, Tracy! It’s incredibly difficult for me to snag LRA36 broadcasts off the air, so it’ll be nice to have this stream link as well.

I also recently received a note about LU1ZV: the amateur radio station at the Esperanza Antarctic Base.  What follows is a rough English translation of the press release. Click here to download the original press release in Spanish (MS Word Doc).

Source: Base Esperanza – Antártida

THE HAM RADIO ACTIVATION OF ESPERANZA ANTARCTIC BASE

Started on December 8, the activation of the LU1ZV amateur radio station of the Antarctic Base Esperanza, after years of being inactive.

The radio activity of LU1ZV has as primary objective to remember the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the transmission of the radio station LRA 36 “Arcángel San Gabriel” of the Esperanza Base, the first shortwave station in AM across Antarctica, which began broadcasting on October 20,1979. In addition, this activity seeks to maintain the continuity of emission of stations of radio amateurs from Antarctica.

The LU1ZV activation has registered more than 900 contacts with amateur radio stations
nationally and abroad, and in addition to covering all regions of the country, they have already

Source: Base Esperanza – Antártida

contacted twenty-two Argentine provinces.

Among the most relevant data that LU1ZV activity exhibits so far are the distant radio contacts  (despite the low emission power) as in the case of Japan, Canada, Latvia, Ukraine and Finland among others. They have contacted most South American countries, several of Central American countries and all from North America.

Another outstanding contact was made with VP8HAL, the Halley VI scientific station of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), located in the Brunt Ice Barrier, about 1,700 km SE of Hope.

The operation of LU1ZV is carried out from the study of LRA 36 and the rhombic antenna of the station, while the station isn’t operating. The amateur radio station activity adapts to the general schedule of the base and of LRA36, so activation times are reduced to a few hours during the evening – night.

The Head of Hope Base, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Walter Nahueltripay was present during some contacts and received greetings from radio correspondents.

This special activation also includes the project “Uniendo Voces” of the National University of Quilmes (UNQ) of the province of Buenos Aires, an initiative that included areas of interest to amateur radio and Antarctic activations, and which was presented to the
Antarctic Joint Command (COCOANTAR).

“Uniendo Voces” has participated in these radio activations since 2013 (in Marambio Base and Matienzo) to which the historical emission from Base Esperanza is now added, within the framework of a special initiative called “DX Radial Expedition Uniting Voices”.

The amateur Radio Claudio García (LU1VC) member of the LRA 57 Radio Nacional de El
Bolsón (province of Chubut) and Juan C. Benavente (LU8DBS) of COCOANTAR and UNQ, perform the activation for which they had to move equipment to that Antarctic base.
The radio activation of Esperanza has the support and collaboration of Adrián Korol,
director of the Argentine Broadcasting Abroad (RAE) who expressed his emotion and
satisfaction for “this joint achievement with the Antarctic Command and the National University of Quilmes. “

Antarctic bases are licensed by amateur radio stations, and like all the activity, is regulated by the National Communications Agency (ENACOM). These radio activations have a “high symbolic and real value”, as Korol says, and they contribute, in addition to remembering ephemeris, to the promotion of sovereignty in the Antarctic region from the radio spectrum.

Likewise, the amateur radio activity contributes to the study of communications – such as
radio wave propagation conditions- and keeps an alternative communication service active and effective.

Many Argentine radio amateurs from different parts of the country are attentive to the
calls from LU1ZV and collaborate with the initiative.”

Along with the photos and LU1ZV press release above, I also received press releases from two special broadcasts that happened earlier. Click here and here to download the MS Word documents in Spanish.

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Giuseppe catches the 40th Anniversary broadcast of LRA36

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:

Ciao Thomas,
I’m Giuseppe Morlè, iz0gzw, from Formia, central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea … this is what I managed to hear about the 40 years of transmission of LRA 36 from the Antarctic Argentina to 15,476 …

I took two receivers and two different antennas to the sea … the Kenwood R1000 was connected to my tested “Simil beverage on salt Ground” with salt water tip and the Tecsun PL-660 to my Loop Mea Casali self-built …

Both antennas are directed to SSW where we find the LRA36 station …

The main problem was the boring and tragic Chinese Jammer that strongly raged on 15.470 until 15.00 UTC and then calmed down a bit so I could hear the last part of the transmission with fading and spoken female and male in Spanish …

On the Tecsun and the loop I have not found the station …but on my Kenwood R1000 and my similar beverage on salt grond I listened to about 13 minutes of final transmission.
You can watch the video on my YouTube channel at the link:

Thanks to you and a warm greeting from Italy.
Giuseppe Morlè iz0gzw.

Wow! Great catch, Giuseppe!  I understand the Chinese jammer made it difficult, but obviously your antennas did the trick. I tried to catch the same broadcast from home, but only received a very faint signal. Most of the audio was lost in the noise.

Thank you for sharing.

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LRA36 anniversary broadcast today!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adrian Korol, who shares the photo above and video below of the LRA36 crew heading to the broadcast building on the Argentine Antarctic Research Station this morning.

Adrian has also provided the following broadcast schedule (in Spanish) for the anniversary program:

This frequency has not yet opened to eastern North America, but I will be listening today, all day. I have noted that there are few KiwiSDR stations in South America available at the moment. No doubt, listeners are taking up the available seats in hopes of hearing the anniversary broadcast.

I suspect this may be one of the largest audiences LRA36 has broadcast to over its 40 years on the air!

Post Readers: If you manage to capture a good recording of the broadcast, I’d love to post it on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

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LRA 36 40th anniversary broadcast reminder and new promotional video

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adrian Korol, who shares the following promotional video for LRA36’s 40th Anniversary broadcast tomorrow:

Click here to view on YouTube.

For more information about this special broadcast, please read this post.

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40th Anniversary Event: National Radio Archangel San Gabriel (LRA36)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adrian Korol, who writes:

LRA 36 National Radio Archangel San Gabriel turns 40 on October 20

The different services of RAE Argentina to the World have produced special programs of 10 minutes each that will be broadcast from Antarctica via LRA36 on 15476 kHz, days and times to be confirmed.

The languages ??of these special programs will be Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese. The arrival to the Antarctic of the new valves of the transmitting equipment of LRA36 is imminent.

These broadcasts will have a commemorative eQSL. You can send your reports, message and greetings to [email protected]

Thanks for sharing, Adrian! We’ll be listening!

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Giuseppe captures LRA36 special on the coast of Italy with a portable receiver

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who writes:

Giuseppe Morlè

I’m Giuseppe Morlè from Formia, Italy, on the Tyrrhenian Sea … I had the pleasure of listening to the transmission of LRA36 Base Esperanza Antartida Argentina on 15,476 MHz on 21 September 2019 at 14.01 UTC.

I used a 25 meter wire, on the ground, with salt water resistance in a SSW direction that I have been using for years … similar to a “beverage on salt ground”.

I made the following video of the broadcast on my YouTube channel:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Wow! Giuseppe I am most impressed with your reception of the elusive LRA36. No doubt, this is testament to the power of combining a low noise environment, a capable shortwave receiver, and a longwire on a salt ground.


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Dan records the LRA36 special broadcast

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

As the DX/SWL community knows, LRA-36 Radio Arcangel San Gabriel in Antarctica Argentina put on a special broadcast on September 21st for listeners around the world. This had some pre-publicity via an announcement from the station, so chances are many people heard it.

My listening began at around 1253 UTC when I was surprised to find the broadcast already in progress, though the time was originally set for 1300-1415 UTC. Because the Paradinho, Brazil Kiwi site was full I tuned to one of two Iceland-based SDRs at 1253 to find an Argentine song often used by the station in progress, then sign on announcements, including what sounded like English greetings to listeners, followed by a program that consisted mostly of two female announcers in conversation, punctuated by occasional drop-ins by a male announcer with ID’s and sending “abrazos” (embraces/hugs) to listeners.

At 1400 UTC, there was a period of CW ID followed by some more discussion until about 1415 when they went into straight music. Programming actually lasted through 1430 when I tuned away — the transmitter was not on when I checked at noon EDT, but the station said they intended to repeat the special program later in the day. Here is video of the beginning of the program as heard at 1253 UTC, as well as the CW ID at 1400.

Click here to watch/listen via Vimeo.

Excellent! Thank you, Dan for sharing your recording.

I also made a recording remotely via my home SDR while travelling this weekend. I’ll review the recording the coming days.

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