SWLing Post contributor, Pete Madtone just shared the Free Radio Skybird graphic above announcing their broadcasts on Sunday, May 24th, and repeated on Sunday, May 31st, 2020 at 1100 UTC on 6070 kHz (Channel292). Thanks again for another excellent show graphic Pete! We look forward to tuning in!
As you can see on Pete Madtone’s graphic above, Free Radio Skybird will be on the air Sunday, May 10th, and repeated on Sunday, May 17th, 2020 at 1100 UTC on 6070 kHz (Channel292).
Thanks for the tip, Pete! Love those FRS graphics!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the following announcement:
New Program: ALT UNIVERSE TOP 40
Written and produced by Indie Rock veteran John McMullan of The Trend, Alt Universe Top 40 is a genre-hopping weekly radio countdown that combines real-life chart achievements with “good-hearted adjustments that time and taste demand.”
With each hour-long show, the listener learns a few tidbits about familiar songs, and is gently introduced to music that SHOULD be familiar. In John’s world, The Beatles are still the “toppermost of the poppermost,” but, not far behind the Fab Four are deserving underground rock acts such as Good Question, Fools Face, and a number of other bands that turned in amazing records that were not exactly commercially successful.
Each show begins with a song that, at some point, was perched at number forty on one of the three major American charts, or in England or Australia. As the countdown continues, the musical selections include a song that should have made the Top 20, but did not; a single that charted at #11 in real life; a “should have been” Top 10; a Number 9, number 9, number 9…; something that is “modern and great” and should have reached number 8; a Little Slice of Heaven at Number 7; and the rest of the countdown filled out with bonus hits, a 3 from “Way Downtown,” and a Hall of Perfection Track.
Having designed the program specifically for Shortwave, McMullan draws inspiration from a variety of sources. He composed the opening fanfare and vocal jingles throughout the show by changing the lyrics to the chorus of the Trend classic he wrote in 1982, “Mama Thought You Were a Nice Girl.” The stories are usually trivia for chart nerds, but, with his music days never too far from his mind, McMullan throws in personal memories from time to time. There are AM hits, FM album hits, and jazz & blues selections that are only heard these days on public radio. Give Alt Universe Top 40 a listen, and you will certainly, as he says each week, “Keep on smiling through the static!”
You can hear Alt Universe Top 40 Saturdays at 10 pm Eastern Time (currently 0200 UTC Sunday) on 9455 kHz, and Sundays at 9 pm Eastern Time (currently 0100 UTC Monday) on 9395 kHz.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, who shares the following announcement posted on her blog [with apologies for the late plug!]:
Radio Northern Europe International has worked with This is a Music Show to make a broadcast consisting of 30 minutes of RNEI and 30 minutes of TIAMS, that’s 1 hour of great music!
We really love what TIAMS has made for us and we can’t wait to share it with you!!
Radio Northern Europe International show #2 will have music from Iceland, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland this month, I really love the music we are playing and we hope to introduce you to some new music this month!
Songs 4,5 and 6 are my favourites this show!Broadcast Times:
We have good news to those of you not in Europe and those of you nearer the transmitter, multiple times throughout the month! RNEI #2 will broadcast 5 times on 6070 kHz at the following times:Saturday the 7th of March 2020, 10-11UTC
Saturday the 7th of March 2020, 19-20UTC
Friday the 13th of March 2020, 11-12UTC
Saturday the 21st of March 2020, 19-20UTC
Sunday the 29th of March 2020, 01-02UTC (this time is very experimental!)Digital modes:
In RNEI Show #2 the final song will have the MFSK32 embedded into it. This time: text, Emoji and some Icelandic art! (Note, an app like TIVAR shows the emoji!)
TIAMS’ contribution will contain some MFSK64 text and an MFSK64 image!
Many thanks to one of our listeners for suggesting our final MFSK song!Audio Processing:
This show Daz has been working hard making an audio processor to try and expand the audio range of RNEI! We have decided on trying to broadcast a flat signal to combat the noise floor. This means that the highs might come across a bit too bright and the bass might feel bit lacking.
Don’t worry, a little bit of EQ on the receiver should reverse it ending up with a better frequency range than before! Most standalone radios should already apply a high frequency reduction however SDRs can omit this!You can send your reception reports, feedback and suggestions for RNEI to [email protected]!
Wishing you good reception conditions and all the best,
-Roseanna
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, who shares the following announcement posted on her blog:
(Source: The Girl With The Radio)
I would like to share something very exciting that I’ve been working on since May 2019:
Radio Northern Europe International
RNEI will be the station for pop and dance music from Northern Europe on shortwave playing music from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, the UK and Ireland!
I aim to play music you haven’t heard before and the first show features a very exciting experiment: Embedded MFSK64! This means, hidden in the final song, there will be the song list sent in MFSK64 in such a way it won’t be off-putting for those of you not decoding!
My shows will mainly consist of lesser known music with a small amount of speaking and jingles. Without spoiling too much of the show I can hint that you’ll hear some Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, English and Icelandic language music if you tune in!
The first pilot show will go out on 6070 kHz Channel292 from Germany (decent reception all over Europe) at the following times:
February Saturdays 19:00-19:30 UTC (Starting Saturday 15th)
I’m also in talks with shortwaveradio.de so there is a possibility of using 3975KHz & 6160KHz as well (increased reception in the Benelux/UK/Ireland regions!)
After the broadcast, shows will be published on Mixcloud and my reception on YouTube in case you’ve missed the show!
I will respond to all reception reports sent in and, if I get enough, I’ll try and get postcards made to send out (I’ve designed one I want to get printed!)
I would like to take this space to thank RPC Audio (Jono) for the cheap jingles and Daz from HFZone for helping me with making my mic sound good!
I really hope you all get a chance to listen in and that you get decent reception!
until next time,
tgwtr
McMurdo Station, Antarctica. (Source: USAP.gov)
(Source: ARRL News)
A program of Christmas carols will be broadcast from Antarctica on Christmas Eve. The transmissions on 7995 kHz USB will begin on December 23 at 2300 UTC, coordinated by McMurdo Communications Operations (MacOps) — known as “The Voice of Antarctica.”
Each year, the station’s residents celebrate the holiday by singing Christmas Carols to those at remote Antarctic field camps. Participation will be from stations scattered throughout the Antarctic continent.
“The radios and antenna systems are optimized for on-continent communication, so we will be lucky to hear them in other parts of the world, but it has happened in the past,” said Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, who is handling QSL requests and who has participated as part of the chorus in past years while studying in Antarctica. Frissell shared some links of previous concerts, one recorded at McMurdo Station and one from the University of Twente WebSDR in the Netherlands.
Click here to read the full article at the ARRL.
UPDATE: Check out this episode of Short Wave–an NPR podcast–wher they interview the scientists involved in this tradition:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, “One Deck” Pete, who shares the following announcement:
DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird returns to the shortwaves on Sunday September 1st 2019 via http://www.channel292.de/ on 6070 kHz at 1900 UTC (8pm UK time).
With a mixture of features and music, the hour transmission will include One Deck Pete’s “Soothing sound of shortwave”, Steve with Mini indie radio and Justin Patrick Moore from Sothismedias with another episode of the Radiophonic Laboratory.
Last month we had listeners in New Zealand, Northern Canada and Italy (QSL and soundclip here) to name but a few places. Come on, what’s better than listening to a radio broadcast with audio that has fading, co-channel interference and sounds like it had a journey via the ionosphere rather than something that’s been streamed in crisp dolby stereo? Who said shortwave radio is dead? #freeradioskybird #shortwavesnotdead #madtone