Tag Archives: Shortwave Radio

Radio Romania International celebrates 89 years of broadcasting

(Source: Radio Romania International via David Iurescia, LW4DAF)

Ten years after WWI and the unification of Greater Romania, the most efficient and popular means of communication was first introduced in Romania: the radio. On November 1, 1928, the newly founded Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation aired its first broadcast. From the very beginning the radio was described as a means of public information, education and entertainment.

This year Radio Romania celebrates 89 years of continuous radio broadcasting. Despite having to constantly adapt its editorial policies, the public radio survived each radical change on the political spectrum, from the interwar democracy to right-wing dictatorships around the Second World War, and from the communist dictatorship to the democracy restored after the anti-communist revolution of 1989. For years now the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation has been considered one of the most trustworthy and reputed media institutions in Romania, due to its large number of listeners.

Radio Romania addresses all generations and caters for all tastes, addressing society as a whole. It consists of channels with nationwide coverage, Radio Romania News and Current Affairs, Radio Romania Culture, Radio Romania Music and the Village Antenna, as well as regional and local studios, Internet platforms and a children’s and youth station. The Romanian public radio has started broadcasting abroad ever since the 1930s.

Today, Radio Romania International tries to keeps both international audiences and Romanians living abroad up to date with news from Romania and our traditional values. RRI broadcasts in 11 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Serbian, Spanish, Russia, Ukrainian and starting this year, Hebrew, as well as in Romanian and the Aromanian dialect. Its target audience virtually includes the entire world, from Alaska to Australia, from Argentina to the Russian Far East.

Nearly nine decades since its first broadcast, Radio Romania continues to innovate, to reinvent itself and to adapt to the ever-increasing market competitiveness and legislative changes. One such change was the recent scrappage of the radio license fee, traditionally covered by taxpayers, which now means the institution is fully funded by the state, amidst criticism from the political, civil and journalistic fields over editorial interference.

Similarly, other voices from outside or within the institution have over the years signaled controversial managerial practices of successive administrations. Thanks to its professionals, however, Radio Romania remains the leading media institution in the country to date. (translated by Vlad Palcu)

Click here to read this article at Radio Romania International.

Deutsche Welle may have dropped English language shortwave service

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Paul Walker who notes that, according to their latest schedule, Deutsche Welle has dropped English language shortwave services. Paul shared the following links:

Current shortwave schedule:
http://www.dw.com/downloads/41133929/b17webkw.pdf

Linked from this page:
http://www.dw.com/en/dw-radio-programs/a-1777509

English only gets one hour a day on satellite
http://www.dw.com/downloads/41133930/b17websat.pdf

Radio World: Shortwave Station Bends But Doesn’t Break

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A second tower holding the 44-degree antenna was snapped in the middle.

(Source: Radio World via Richard Langley)

Among the many victims of Hurricane Irma in September was the transmitter/antenna farm of Radio Miami International, WRMI in Okeechobee, located on a cattle ranch 40 miles inland from Port St. Lucie on Florida’s Atlantic coast.

On Sunday Sept. 10, Irma’s roaring winds tore across the flat plains housing WRMI’s 23 antenna systems, comprising a total of 68 towers — the largest commercial shortwave radio transmission site in the United States. The hurricane-force winds snapped one of WRMI’s towers in half, leaving the torn metal lattice dangling suspended in the transmission lines. A second tower was bent in half like a paperclip. Many transmission lines radiating from WRMI’s central 16,000-square-foot transmitter building to the arrays also were knocked down along with the telephone poles that supported them.

The post-Irma scene looked as if a drunken giant had wandered across the cattle ranch and tripped repeatedly, taking down whatever he had stumbled across.[…]

Continue reading a Radio World.

Click here to view photos of the WRMI damage.

RRI “Listener’s Day” programme seeks your input

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(Source: Elena Enache and Cristina Mateescu via email)

Dear listener,

On 5th November, Radio Romania International will be broadcasting its annual “Listener’s Day” programme in which we ask you, the listeners, what you think of the hot topics of the day. And this year’s topic is: “Fake news and trust in the media”.

What’s your experience of fake news in your country? What, in your opinion, is the greatest danger posed by fake news in today’s society? Do you associate fake news more with social media, or is it also to be found in traditional media? Has the rise of fake news affected your trust in traditional news sources? And if so, what can be done about it?

Send us your views and experiences by replying to this email. Better still, send us your reply as an audio file and we will try to include it in the programme. This is your day, so it’s your voice that should be heard!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Elena Enache and Cristina Mateescu, the hosts of the “Listener’s Day” programme

If you would like to send them your message or audio file, please use the following email address: engl.rri@gmail.com

European Music Relays and More Update

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(Source: Tom Taylor)

EMR Relays + More

Scheduled Transmissions from Radio City are:
3rd Saturday at 08.00 to 09.00 UTC on 9510 kHz with Repeats all other Saturdays
4th Saturday at 12.00 to 13.00 UTC on 7265 kHz via Hamburger Lokalradio
Contact address remains: citymorecars@yahoo.ca

Saturday HLR:
06.00 to 10.00 UTC, on 6190 KHz
10.00 to 16.00 UTC, on 7265 KHz

European Music Radio Relays:
21st October 2017:
21.30 to 22.00 UTC on 7490 KHz – to Central & North America via WBCQ

Internet Repeats on 22nd October 2017:
EMR will have this months Transmissions via two streams running at the following Times:15.00, 17.00, 19.00 UTC
http://nednl.net:8000/emr.m3u will be on 96 kbps /44 KHz stereo for normal listening
http://nednl.net:8000/emr24.m3u will be 24 kbps / 22 KHz mono will be especially for low bandwidth like mobile phones.

Sunday HLR:
09.00 to 12.00 UTC on 9485 kHz
E-mail: redaktion@hamburger-lokalradio.de Thank you!
HLR FM-DAB+ Program via the Internet : www.hamburger-lokalradio.net Daily 24 h

The Mighty KBC: Programme Schedule http://www.kbcradio.eu/index.php?dir=shows/6095
Please Email: themightykbc@gmail.com Thank you!

Radio Joystick:
11.00 to 12.00 UTC on 7330 KHz in November
Contact the Station: http://radiojoystick.de

Hobart Radio International:
Full Schedule A17: http://www.hriradio.org/p/current-schedule.html
Please Email: hriradio@gmail.com Thank you!

Radio Channel 292 Transmission schedules:
http://www.channel292.de/schedule-for-bookings/

Radio Mi Amigo Transmission schedules:
www.radiomiamigo.es/shortwave

For outside the listening area please try the Twente/Netherlands Web RX at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
You can also hear many European free and alternative stations via the Internet at: http://laut.fm/jukebox

Good Listening! 73s, Tom

Radio Romania International: 2017 Listener’s Day

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following from Radio Romania International:

(Source: Radio Romania International)

2017 Listener’s Day on RRI

You are invited to take part in our 2017 edition of Listener’s Day on RRI, a show devoted entirely to you, our listeners

Dear friends,

Sunday, November 5, 2017, we will be airing our annual show “Listener’s Day on Radio Romania International”. As usual, we will be happy to take your contributions which will form the basis of our show. Our topic for this year is fake news and confidence in mass-media.

The last few years have seen a sharp drop in public trust in the media. This development has, to a certain extent, been affecting the press, radio and television, both in the private and public sectors. From the media’s ingressions in politics and the economy to sensationalizing the news and the consumerist rush to control the audience, the reasons behind this waning public confidence are diverse. They often include error-filled reporting and more often than not reflect people’s reliance on social media as a source of information. The latter are in most cases ridden with fake news, a phenomenon very widespread across social networks, whose general purpose is to manipulate public opinion.

So, this year on “Listener’s Day” we are asking you “How much confidence do you have in the media?”

We look forward to receiving your contributions, whether in writing (by e-mail, on Facebook, through the form on the RRI website, or by fax or post) or in audio format (if you agree, we can call to record your contributions). Our contact details are, as always: Radio Romania International, 60-64 General Berthelot, sector 1, Bucharest, PO Box 111, post code 010165, fax 00.40.21.319.05.62, e-mail engl@rri.ro. Our web page is at www.rri.ro.
Hope to hear from you soon!

DXtreme Monitor Log 11

Many thanks to SWLing Post sponsor, Bob Raymond with DXtreme Software, for sharing the following press release:

Product Announcement: DXtreme Monitor Log 11™

DXtreme Software™ has released a new version of its popular logging program for radio monitoring enthusiasts: DXtreme Monitor Log 11.

Monitor Log 11 lets listeners and DXers log the stations they’ve heard using advanced features that can enhance their monitoring experience.

Finding Broadcast Stations to Monitor

The Schedule Checker™ lets users import schedules from Aoki, EiBi, and FCC AM web sites and display schedule data according to the filter criteria they specify. A list box lets users switch between schedule types, and depending on the schedule type selected, users can filter schedule information by band, frequency, station, country, city, state, time of day, language, antenna direction, and target area.

When the What’s On Now? function is activated, the schedule refreshes automatically at the top of each hour for Aoki and EiBi schedules.

For each schedule item, Schedule Checker queries the Monitor Log 11 database to let users know – through user-defined, foreground and background display colors – whether they need to monitor a station for a brand-new or verified country. Schedule Checker also displays bearing and distance, runs optional Afreet Ham CAP1 propagation predictions, draws optional Afreet DX Atlas2 azimuth plots, tunes supported radios to schedule frequencies when users double-click schedule items3 4 5, and starts log entries for scheduled stations monitored.

Finding Amateur Radio Stations to Monitor

Monitor Log 11 integrates with optional Afreet Band Master6 to let users see, on its graphical interface, where hams are operating. Monitor Log 11 supplies Band Master with an Entity Needed List based on the user’s Monitor Log database, making it possible for Band Master to indicate the stations whose entities (countries) users need to monitor. When invoking Band Master, users can select an Entity Needed List for all bands or individually for the 160- through 6-Meter bands.

Finding Utility Stations to Monitor

A Links menu provides convenient access to user-specified blogs and web sites that can inform users as to where utility and other stations may be operating.
Logging Stations

Monitor Log 11 lets users log all kinds of stations — radio stations, television stations, broadcast stations, Amateur Radio stations, utility stations, military stations, and more! And it lets them log stations across the radio spectrum — from long wave, to medium wave, to short wave, and beyond.

The Last Log Entries Grid on the Monitor Log window shows up to 5000 of the most recent log entries added. Its records can be sorted, and double-clicking records displays detailed data on the Monitor Log window. Users can resize the grid columns and scroll horizontally to columns that do not appear initially. And because the names of stations and NASWA countries can be quite long, users can also display a larger, resizable Last Log Entries window. A Properties window lets users change the order of columns, the number of log entries to display, and the font and color attributes of grids and other program components, such as the Content Editor for describing the content monitored, the Script Editor for creating and editing scripts, the Direct Tune interface for tuning radios, and the Comments tab for typing ad hoc comments.

Reporting Reception

Users can create customized paper and e-mail reception reports for sending to stations plus club report entries for reporting catches to clubs and magazines.

When users add or display a log entry, Monitor Log 11 prepares a post announcing their DX catch and displays it on the Social Media Post tab. From there, users can drag the post to their favorite social media web sites to share their catch with others.

Using the Script Editor window, users can create and edit scripts that format reception reports, eReports, and social media posts to their liking. The software prompts users to select the script they want to use. Dozens of scripts come with Monitor Log 11.

Users can also print SWL and Address labels on industry-standard label stock, and send eQSL requests to hams automatically through the popular www.eQSL.cc site.

Imaging

Improv Imaging™ lets users associate ad hoc images with log entries using Capture, Scan, and Clipboard functions. Captures of stations received on digital applications, waterfall displays, facsimile and Amateur TV pictures are popular. The Improv Imaging tab and Application let users view images anytime, and an Improv Image Explorer lets them peruse their entire collection and display associated log entries.

QSL Imaging™ functions the same as Improv Imaging, but specializes in associating QSL cards and eQSLs with log entries.

Other Features

Rig Control — Retrieves the frequency and mode from supported radios and permits tuning from the Schedule Checker and Direct Tune interface. Rig control is provided through integration with Afreet Omni-Rig and the SDR applications listed on our web site, currently HDSDR4 (High Definition Software Defined Radio) and SDR Console5.

Audio Archiving — An embedded Audio facility lets users maintain an audio archive of stations heard.

Reporting — Produces Performance, Stations, and Log Entry reports that track the performance and progress of the user’s monitoring station. The software lets users FTP those reports to user-provided Web space for remote access. Some reports integrate with Afreet DX Atlas to generate pin maps.

Documentation — Context-sensitive Procedural Help, Field Help, and Microhelp are accessible per window to provide instructions quickly. A web-based Information Center is accessible from the Help menu for late-breaking assistance, and Installation Instructions and a Getting Started Guide are delivered in PDF format with the software.

Operating Systems, Pricing, Contact Information

DXtreme Monitor Log 11 runs in 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. It retails for $89.99 USD worldwide for electronic distribution. Pricing for CD versions and upgrading users is available on our Web site. All prices include product support by Internet e-mail. For more information, visit www.dxtreme.com or contact Bob Raymond at bobraymond@dxtreme.com.

1 — Licenses for Afreet Ham CAP and Omni-Rig are required to use Ham CAP.
2 — A license for Afreet DX Atlas is required to perform plots and create pin reports.
3 — A license for Afreet Omni-Rig is required to use rig control with radios supported by Omni-Rig.
4 — Can be used for rig control. HDSDR is owned by Mario Taeubel. Refer to http://www.hdsdr.de/index.html for more information.
5 — Can be used for rig control. SDR Console is owned by Simon Brown, G4ELI. Refer to http://www.sdr-radio.com for more information.
?6 — A license for Afreet Band Master is required to use Band Master.

Click here to download a PDF of this press release.