Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent Radio Havana Cuba broadcast.
Carlos notes:
News bulletin from Rádio Habana, Cuba, on 11760 kHz, heard in Florianópolis, Brazil.
Many thanks to SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following Radio Moscow ephemera from 1972. This media is also posted on Archive.org:
I first began listening to shortwave radio in December 1969 at the age of 15. My parents were very supportive of this newfound hobby and allowed some space in the basement for a listening post, in addition to permitting external antenna wires to be run across their property. Various pieces of radio equipment, audio cassettes, shelves of reference books and printed matter including albums filled with QSL’s were accumulated over the next several years, and it all followed me when I moved out. Or so I thought! While clearing out my parents estate in 2016, I came across some ephemera received from Radio Moscow in 1972, that was mixed in with a pile of old papers.
These included a leaflet announcing a Quiz to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the USSR, a frequency guide for their North American service from May to October 1972, and a small 12 page program guide for their North American and Pacific Coast Services.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent Voice of Vietnam broadcast.
Carlos’ goal is to vividly illustrate the broadcaster’s message in his own unique artistic style and is not a reflection of his own beliefs or those of the SWLing Post. His objective is for his artwork to add historical context and put a visual with the news, reporting, and broadcast content:
Carlos notes:
Voice of Vietnam (in Spanish) describing the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who writes:
Thomas:
SWLing Post readers might like this one.
Ramakrishnan sent me the Smithsonian article. It is very nice, and helps answer — I think — the question about why so many old SW radio dials have “Schenectady” on them. Steinmetz seems like a great guy.
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-wizard-of-schenectady-charles.html
73 Bill
I love these bits of radio history, Bill! Thank you for sharing.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Jamet, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
Near my home, there’s a small pond where shortwave reception is often very good…
Receiver: XHDATA SIHUADON R-108 with single telescopic antenna (No external antenna)
Recording with a smartphone placed close to the receiver, which explains the ambient noise, especially the wind noise in the microphone.
Here are two recordings:
1 – The Voice of Korea in English; at the end of the recording, the frequencies are announced. Note that the Voice of Korea broadcasts to Europe in English from 3 pm to 4 pm UTC on 12015 kHz … But I got the best reception on 12020 kHz; this is not due to a defect in the receiver. At the same time, I also received 5/5
Audio Player2 – RFA (Radio Free Asia) in Tibetan from the island of Tinian precisely on 12125 kHz; Cf. attached file; very strong signal
Audio Player[…]Voice of Korea is becoming commonplace, but what’s interesting is to be able to pick up these distant stations with a little 45€ receiver! I’m very happy with this little receiver for listening to shortwave.
Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors David Iurescia and NT for the following tips:
Radio Bulgaria is trying to track down old recordings of its radio programmes
Today, the Bulgarian National Radio’s foreign language service Radio Bulgaria “speaks” 11 languages. Through the years, languages have been added, others have been dropped – something that happened to the Polish-language programmes. They were aired by Radio Sofia, as the Bulgarian National Radio was called then, and by Radio Varna channel in the seaside city of the same name, but today they are rarely made mention of in the history of the BNR.
We were contacted by ham operator Jaros?aw Jedrzejczak from Poland who helped us pick up the missing information, putting an enormous amount of effort into tracing the history of the undeservedly forgotten programmes in Polish.
“Radio is a hobby of mine. When shortwave radio stations started closing down their Polish-language services, I took an interest in their history,” Mr. Jedrzejczak says. “In the Polish weekly “World of radio” I came across an advert for Radio Sofia from 1946, from which I found out it had aired 10-minute broadcasts in Polish from Bulgaria. That was when I started looking for information about Radio Sofia and to listen to these broadcasts. That was 30 years ago.”
Jaros?aw set about tracking down the Polish broadcasts. He got in touch with the first anchors and translators of Radio Sofia and Radio Varna’s Polish-language programmes, their heirs, collected the memories of the first people working at the foreign-language programmes, kept up a correspondence with the BNR. Who were they, who were the people speaking their own language from faraway Bulgaria? [Continue reading…]
Why Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are teaming up to save the century-old technology
By Jacob Stern
There is little love lost between Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Rashida Tlaib. She has called him a “dumbass” for his opposition to the Paris Climate Agreement; he has called her and her allies “shills for terrorists” on account of their support for Palestine. Lately, though, the right-wing Cruz and the left-wing Tlaib have found a cause they can both get behind: saving AM radio.
In recent years, a number of carmakers—BMW, Volvo, Tesla—have stopped offering AM radio in at least some models, especially electric cars. The problem is that their motors cause electromagnetic interference on the same frequency bands in which AM radio operates, in some cases making the already fuzzy medium inaudible. Carmakers do have ways to filter out the interference, but they are costly and imperfect—all to maintain a format that is in decline anyway. AM radio was eclipsed by the superior-sounding FM in the late ’70s, and the century-old technology can seem akin to floppy disks in the age of Spotify and podcasts. According to Ford’s internal data gathered from some of its newer vehicles, less than 5 percent of all in-car listening is to AM radio. Which is perhaps why Ford decided last year to drop AM from all of its vehicles, not just EVs.
Because so much listening happens in the car, the Ford news seemed like the beginning of the end for the whole medium. But just a few weeks after announcing that decision, the company reneged in response to political pressure. Before Ford’s reversal, Cruz and Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, had introduced the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which would require exactly what its title suggests. [Continue reading…note: paywall]
The HBCU Radio Preservation Project is dedicated to honoring and preserving the vibrant history and cultural resource that is HBCU radio.
Nearly a third of the 104 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) have radio stations, and many have been on the air for more than fifty years. Much of the material created at these stations is at risk of being lost. Magnetic tape and other obsolete formats are deteriorating, and with them the primary source material that documents the rich history and diversity of the Black experience through the Civil Rights era and beyond. Present day digital material is also at risk.
The HBCU Radio Preservation Project grew out of a 2019 survey of HBCU radio stations to assess their preservation practices and needs. We collaborated with the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) on a follow up pilot project. With the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, we are now in the implementation phase of the project, partnering over the next four years with WYSO, NEDCC, the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. The goals of the project are to foster an ethos of preservation at HBCU radio stations, to preserve the stations’ audio collections, and to facilitate capacity-building and sustainability through connecting and supporting the stations and the institutional archives on campus.
We will be able to serve all 29 HBCU radio stations through the project. Our replicable model will serve not only HBCUs, but ultimately any college radio station—and tribal stations, rural stations, and other public and community stations. [Continue reading…]
Tuning into the radio is now an integrated part of our everyday lives. We tune in while we drive, while we work, while we cook in our kitchens. Just 100 years ago, it was a novelty to turn on a radio. The radio emerged at the turn of the twentieth century, the result of decades of scientific experimentation with the theory that information could be transmitted over long distances. Radio as a medium reached its peak—the so-called Radio Golden Age—during the Great Depression and World War II. This was a time when the world was rapidly changing, and for the first time Americans experienced those history-making events as they happened. The emergence and popularity of radio shifted not just the way Americans across the country experienced news and entertainment, but also the way they communicated. This exhibition explores the development, rise, and adaptation of the radio, and its impact on American culture.
The commission is opening a comment period for a proposed rulemaking for a “simplified multilingual alert processing approach for EAS alerts through which pre-scripted alerts that have been pre-translated into non-English languages can be initiated by alert originators for distribution to the public by the TV and radio broadcasters, cable service providers, and other services that make up the EAS public alert distribution system.” Among the topics the proposal seeks comments are whether stations should be required to transmit alerts in the language of the program content it carries, whether stations should also be allowed to transmit templated alerts in languages that do not correspond to the content offered on the station or whether to limit it to the language that corresponds to the station’s programming.
The proposal would see alerts offered in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese along with English and ASL. The FCC noted that the preliminary 2023 national EAS test revealed that already 2% of EAS participants transmitted alerts in Spanish, while 0.1% did so in other non-English languages. [Continue reading…]
Please consider supporting us via Patreon or our Coffee Fund!
Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post:
By Bob Colegrove
There’s an old story about a man who owned two watches. One watch ran but lost a minute every hour. The other watch didn’t work at all. He always wore the watch that didn’t work, because as he said, “At least it will have the correct time twice a day.”
First off, a couple of caveats. This is not a definitive description of the Radio Data System (RDS). I leave that to much more knowledgeable sources. One detailed description is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System. Second, my experience described here is confined to the Eton Elite Executive and the XHDATA/SIHUADON D-808. Other radios may operate differently.
I have surrounded myself with several multiband travel radios over the past year and enjoy them very much – each for different reasons. Besides listening, I like to push buttons to see what happens. The manuals? At best they occasionally provide a clue. I read them, eventually filling in the blanks on my own.
XHDATA/SIHUADON D-808
What is RDS? RDS is a system which enables an FM station to transmit various fields of information such as date, time, call letters, frequency, and program information in text form. The call letters are useful, but if you have a digital radio, you already know the frequency. The name of the song and artist are particularly helpful if the DJ won’t tell you. As for the date and time, well, I’ll get to that.
RDS is an international standard and Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) is the official name used for the U.S. version. So why don’t we in the States just call it RBDS? Probably because our radios aren’t made here.
Eton Elite Executive
The XHDATA and Eton allow the user to display four of the several fields comprising the RDS standard. They each step through the same sequence, indicating a similar or possibly the same demodulator chip.
PS and RT seem to be freeform fields with stations providing whatever information they want to share. Often the call letters and frequency are contained here, along with program content. Clock Time (CT) is not displayed per se, but is used to set the radio time, and is included as part of the DATA field. DATA is important; it has four elements, which should provide the listener with an indication of the call, day, date, and time being received by the radio. The international RDS standard omits the call letters.
The RDS information transmitted by any given station may not contain all the fields identified above, including the time. For example, stepping through the fields you may encounter “NO PTY,” “NO PS,” “NO RT,” or “NO DATA.” Consequently, you may tune in to a station broadcasting RDS and wait a long time for the radio clock to synchronize, which it never does. The display of any content in the DATA field is probably the best clue whether CT is being transmitted.
It is interesting that the Eton is programmed for the US RBDS system, whereas the XDATA follows the international RDS system. For the international system on the D-808:
International PTY RDS term on the XHDATA
US PTY RBDS term on the Eton
The mischief all began when I got my XHDATA D-808 and tried to program the clock to automatically update using the RDS information off FM stations. Minutes seem to display correctly, but try as I might, I couldn’t get the hours to register properly. Then I bought an Eton Elite Executive. It also has the RDS feature, so I tried again. It appeared to work OK for a day or so. Then the hour indication started to misbehave. In addition to the clock, the Eton allows programming of time zones and day of the week. I determined that the erroneous indication did not appear to be related to GMT, EST, 12-hour or 24-hour format settings. In theory, if you try to set your radio to GMT or some other time zone, the RDS time from a local station should override it.
When I tested the radios side-by-side, the DATA field was fraught with problems on both radios. Several local RDS stations containing CT were monitored. The whip antenna was extended a tad, as the information may not reliably register with some otherwise clear audio signals.
RDS content obviously requires some attention at the station. In the end, they are responsible for the information going out. In fairness, with all that goes on in a studio and limited staffing, RDS content may not be a priority. As an example:
There are two main factors which may impinge on the accuracy of a radio clock when set automatically by the RDS:
Trivial? Perhaps, but you may want to reconsider and program the clock manually, particularly if you depend on the alarm function of the radio to get to work on time.