Tag Archives: Richard Langley

BBC: Raspberry Pi-powered transmitters broadcast Syrian radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who shares the following:

Latest item, which provides more information, on this previously mentioned news story:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35690688

Here’s an excerpt:

Raspberry Pi computers are being used to power “micro” radio transmitters in Syria.
The Pocket FMs, as they are called, were designed by a German organisation as a way of providing Syrians with independent radio.

The devices have a range of between 4 to 6km (2.5 to 3.75 miles), which is enough to cover an entire town.

At the heart of each is a Raspberry Pi, the credit card-sized single-board computers.
About two dozen have been built, and the designer says they are intended to be as easy to set up as a piece of flat-pack furniture.

“We lost one device in Kobane”, Philipp Hochleichter told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme.

“But due to the bombing – not due to a malfunction.”[…]

Continue reading on the BBC website…

The Raspberry Pi is an amazing little computer; capable of so much at such a low cost. I just purchased a Raspberry Pi 3 yesterday; hoping I can think of a clever way to use it for a little radio fun..

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Spectres of Shortwave: near completion

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I took this photo of the RCI Sackville curtain antennas in June, 2012. (Photo: Thomas)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who shares this CBC New Brunswick article about Amanda Dawn Christie’s film, Spectres of Shortwave:

(Source: CBC)

Amanda Dawn Christie launching documentary about demise of RCI towers

Documentary ‘Spectres of Shortwave’ to be finished in time for possible premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs

Moncton artist Amanda Dawn Christie says after six years, her documentary Spectres of Shortwave, about the demise of the Radio-Canada International towers in Sackville, is nearly complete.

“A project like this is very hard,” Christie said in an interview on Information Morning Moncton. “When I went into this project they weren’t supposed to be tearing the towers down.”

After budget cuts in 2012, CBC announced the shortwave service would end after 67 years of broadcasting around the world.

Christie calls that decision a loss for the international community.

“Shortwave communication is something that will always get through. Even though technology advances and people rely on the internet — not everyone can afford a computer or digital receiver … Canada was known for more objective, non-biased broadcasting.”

Continue reading on the CBC New Brunswick website…

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Recordings of final mediumwave broadcasts from Luxembourg, France and Germany

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AM-Dial-Digital-Grundig-Mediumwave-MW Many thanks to several of you who recorded the final sign-ons and sign-offs of several European broadcasters who pulled the plug on mediumwave transmissions this past weekend.

SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, recorded the following broadcasts and posted them to our Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. Click on the following links for recordings and Richard’s excellent notes:

Bernhard Albicker of IntervalSignals.org and AM-Tuners also contacted me with links to recordings he made of the following:

Radio Luxembourg (RTL) special broadcast in honor of the former English service:

Notes:

00:00:00 CRI german, no closing announcement
00:07:49 RTL special broadcast: final 2 hours of RTL “Great 208” from Dec., 1991
02:12:12 National Anthem of LUX

Deutschlandfunk DLF final sign-off:

A special thanks to Bernhard for including the following notes from the final DLF broadcast (in German):

01:03 Announcement of closure. This announcement was broadcast before the full hour since the month of November followed by time signal and news.
Within the news at 05:05–item about shutdown of Medium Wave “Era of medium wave ends in Germany” followed by weather report at 05:37
46:35 switch from regular programming to interval signal loop
51:57 sign off transmitter Nordkirchen 549kHz
53:13 sign off transmitter Thurnau 549kHz

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BBC World Service: “Click” Broadcast Times (Oct 2015 – Mar 2016)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, for providing this simple updated broadcast schedule for one of our favorite technology programs, Click:

Click here to download as a PDF.

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WWV History: Richard’s QSL cards

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Sign from the original WWV tranmitter site in Maryland, currently posted outside of the Fort Collins, Colorado transmitter building. (Photo: Thomas Witherspoon)

Commenting on our post about Myke’s new release of At The Tone, SWLing Post contributor Richard Langley writes:

I must have first heard WWV shortly after putting together the Knight-Kit Span Master I received for Christmas 1963. I still have my log books from my high school days, which include an entry for Radio Habana on 29 December 1963 for which I subsequently received a QSL card. But I guess I didn’t log all my receptions. The first entry for WWV is dated 3 June 1966 in the last year of WWV’s operation from Greenbelt, Maryland (on government land that subsequently became the site of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center).

I have a QSL card for the reception of the 5 MHz signal featuring a drawing (in pink) of the Jefferson Memorial [see above].

The next entry is dated 1 December 1966, the first day of WWV’s operation from Fort Collins, Colorado.

I have one of the special QSL cards issued for confirmation of first-day reception for my report on the 20 and 25 MHz signals [see above].

I’m sure I heard WWVH early on too but my first log entry is dated 29 March 1967. I never did QSL them.

Richard: Thanks so much for sharing these special QSL cards. Wow! I had never seen the first day card from WWV Fort Collins before–what a treasure you have there!

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Last minute changes to special PCJ broadcast to Europe

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(Source: Keith Perron via Richard Langley)

At the last minute we had to make a frequency change for our special broadcasts to Europe.

The time will remain the same: 0900 to 1000UTC

But we will not be using 17825 khz.

The new frequency is 11580 khz.

Nothing else has changed.

As a reminder, here’s the weekly schedule:

Time: 0900 to 1000 UTC

November 14th – Say It With Music
November 21st – Call it Ukraine
November 28th – Rockin’ with Raoul
December 5th – Classics with David Monson
December 12th – Special Jazz For The Asking
December 19th – European radio during WW2 (documentary)
December 26th – Special listeners programs

Richard points out that PCJ has switched their transmitter site from Trinco to WRMI; because of this, listeners in North America might also be able to hear the programs.

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AFVN: The GI’s Companion — A Tribute To Our Vietnam Veterans

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley for the following guest post:

AFVN: The GI’s Companion — A Tribute To Our Vietnam Veterans

Radio station WEBY on 1330 kHz in Milton, Florida (near Pensacola and Elgin Air Force Base), has produced a 10-hour documentary on the American Forces Vietnam Network. This documentary aired in two-hour segments in the afternoons of 26 through 30 October 2015. But it is being repeated in its entirety between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. CST (14:00 to 24:00 UTC) on Veterans Day (known as Remembrance Day in Canada and elsewhere), 11 November.

The WEBY website is http://www.1330weby.com/ and a backgrounder on the documentary can be found here: http://www.1330weby.com/images/afvn/AFVN_Documentary_on_WEBY.pdf and a timeline of U.S. broadcasting in South Vietnam here:
https://www.afvnvets.net/hist—timeline.html

WEBY runs 25 kW during daytime hours (and a puny 79 watts at night) and can be heard in parts of four states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) but it also streams its programs on the Internet and so can be heard around the world. I’ll try to record some of the streamed audio in case the documentary is not available after the broadcast.

I was alerted to this documentary by a recent episode of PCJ Radio International’s Media Network Plus (24 October) during which Keith Perron interviewed the producer. That interview is worth listening to, too.

AFVN transmitted on AM and FM throughout South Vietnam. I never had the opportunity to listen to AFVN personally, but as a high school student, I did use to listen to the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) on shortwave from time to time. AFVN received some of their broadcast material via AFRTS broadcasts from Voice of America transmitters in Delano, California, and the Philippines. A scan of a QSL card I received for a broadcast from AFRTS Los Angeles via Delano in April 1964 [see below].