Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans, who notes that R&L’s price on the Icom IC-7300 transceiver is currently $948.89 with discounts and coupons.
Radio deal: Icom IC-7300 $948.89 at R&L
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Tag Archives: RL
Playa de Pals transmitter site history and documentary
Photo courtesy: http://www.radioliberty.org
In response to Listening to WWV at the source, SWLing Post reader, David (EA4998URE SWL) comments:
What a “coincidence”. Hopefully, before the summer holidays officially end, I will be off to another shortwave transmitter site. Well, to the remains of it. I will be visiting the former RFE/RL (and VOA in the last years of operation) site in Playa de Pals, near the Catalan city of Girona and also very close to my main QTH in Barcelona. The Pals RFE/RL site was from where a 1MW signal was transmitted by feeding the same audio signal to 4 Continental transmitters.
Their output signals where put in phase, then the big Group D dipole curtain was divided into two “halves” by switching the feed lines in the appropriate way. Each half of the curtain received 500KW from two transmitters. So the total was 1000KW, or 1MW. If we add the antenna gain, the ERP was in the order of several megawatts. This was a signal directed to Eastern Europe, and more specifically to Moscow, via single-hop propagation. I suppose receivers in Moscow released plenty of smoke and had to be replaced every time they were tuned to a RFE/RL signal from Pals. Hahaha!
The curtains were demolished in 2006 and because the place is abandoned now and has been repeatedly sacked, the station buildings are in a very poor situation, specially in the inside. Almost no radio hardware survives, but what is still there is quite interesting. […]
There is an excellent website (www.radioliberty.org) which is a virtual museum of all things related to the Pals station. It was created and is maintained by a former worker of the station. The language in the English version of the website is a bit “macaronic” in some parts of the site, but I think this is a minor issue given the excellent amount of information kept there.
There is also a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/
PalsRadioStation) which keeps videos for the above website. Some of them are really long and very complete. Finally, although not part of the Pals station virtual museum website, there was even a documentary made, after the demolition of the antennas, as a tribute to the station. It can be watched in the following link although parts of it have not been translated to English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=tJnxsSL3bbY
Many thanks, David!
After you visit the Playa de Pals site, later this year, please share your experience with us!
Radio Liberty President Steve Korn has resigned in wake of closure
(Source: The Washington Post)
American-financed Radio Liberty, which penetrated the Iron Curtain with news of the outside world during the Cold War, has been trying to join today’s information revolution — and the static crackling around its efforts has been loud enough to reach Washington.
The radio station, funded by Congress but independent of it, has embraced a digital future, dismissing 37 journalists as it downsized just before it lost its only local broadcasting license here in November, when a 2011 law preventing foreign ownership came into effect.
[H]ere in the Russia of Vladimir Putin, where news is highly political and controlled, a small but loyal radio audience that treasures unbiased reporting has declared itself betrayed. Even Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, has complained. The name Radio Liberty — Svoboda in Russian — carries memories of overcoming Soviet oppression, freighted with disappointment over failed democracy, and its transformation is mourned.
On New Year’s Eve, after weeks of growing controversy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President and Chief Executive Officer Steven Korn resigned, effective Jan. 25. […]
The forced closure of Radio Liberty is hypocritical–especially since the Voice of Russia’s own strategy is to pull out of shortwave radio broadcasting into North America and invest in local radio/television stations within major US markets (like Washington DC) where they, of course, receive no resistance.
Korn has been heavily criticized for how he handled the “re-organization” of Radio Liberty in Moscow. He certainly disposed of a lot of talented journalists, many of whom could have been instrumental in gathering and reporting news into Russia via Internet.
Kim Elliott has done an excellent job following the Radio Liberty story as it appears in the media.