Spaceweather.com has a page that combines a historical record of sunspot numbers (Java required) with an explanation of how Karl Jansky's discovery of cosmic radiation and the creation of the science of radio astronomy was made possible by the fact that Jansky just happened to make his observations at the bottom of the 11-year sunspot cycle. (Yr. webmaster just happens to work at the location where Jansky made his discoveries.)

Posted 02:52 UTC

The Civilian Conservation Corps, one the Depression-era New Deal government agencies, trained people in using radios. They even took a few pictures.

Posted 01:57 UTC

As their latest entry in the "tiny handheld scanner with shortwave thrown in as an afterthought" sweepstakes, Icom has announced the IC-R3. It's got an interesting display that looks to be about the size of a display on a Palm Pilot. Javiation has information in English. And actually, it gets better than that. Martin Lynch & Sons, another English dealer, claims the screen on the IC-R3 also functions as an NTSC/PAL television display.

Posted 01:13 UTC

The Fairhaven RDX500VX Radio Database is an quirky little wideband radio with over 54,000 memories (!) that has never quite made it to the US. UK magazine Radio Active reviewed it in their December 1999 edition. (The article was apparently scanned in from a paper copy and not spellchecked, so expect some minor errors.)

Interestingly enough, it appears that the radio has been acquired by SMC Communications, the company that bought the rights to the Lowe receiver line a few years ago.

Posted 01:08 UTC

And they say there are no youngsters getting in to the hobby....

Posted 00:35 UTC

Catch the Wave (Worth magazine): "First of all, television makes the world seem smaller: No matter how many channels we will one day wind up with, all TV news will always seem to take place within the space of a land mass the size of Pennsylvania. Second, with shortwave, the static is the thing."

Posted 00:32 UTC

How's your Malagasy? Radio Madagascar has a web site, in French and Malagasy. No frequency information, but plenty of information about programs (in Malagasy) and ad rates (in French). (Thanks Pentti Lintujarvi from a posting to Hard Core DX.)

Posted 00:22 UTC

Germany's World Wide DX Club has listed on their front page a "Comprehensive WRTH 2000 update by Wolfgang Büschel and 'List of National Shortwave Services' (missing in WRTH 2000) together as a ZIP-file (219,258 bytes): wrth2000.zip". (Thanks, Al Quaglieri)

Posted 05:38 UTC

Fans of the late Jean Shepherd may be interested in this page of selected airchecks from his radio career. (Thanks Al Quaglieri.)

Posted 05:27 UTC

The Media Network Interactive letters page has been updated with information about a proposed Dutch longwave station. The French don't like the idea.

Posted 04:52 UTC

ICraveTV.com, cited by some in arguments that deep linking, such as that done by ListenToTheNews.com, is wrong, has been ordered by a court in Pittsburgh to stop retransmitting Canadian and US television signals over the net. It seemed clear to me that what ICraveTV.com was doing was blatant intellectual property theft by encoding broadcasts off-air and serving them from their own servers, not deep linking to other sites that legally produce the streams.

Posted 03:13 UTC

Paul Ormandy has posted an article to his Southern Pacific DX Resource site about auroras and propagation based on his experience in New Zealand. (From a post by Paul to the Hard Core DX mailing list.)

Posted 13:52 UTC

The BBC has resuscitated The Listener, formerly a dead-trees magazine, as a one-off online publication. If you're at all interested in BBC programs like From Our Own Correspondent, this looks like a winner, and one that the BBC should be encouraged to continue. (Thanks Daniel Say on the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 13:44 UTC

BBC Online News asks if Sir John Birt has been good for the BBC: "[some] say that his drive for efficiency has undermined the BBC's reputation and that a top-heavy management has strangled the creative process." (From Chet Copeland on the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 13:35 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 449 for January 26, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 02:21 UTC

Grass Roots Radio comes to the U.S.: Radio Netherlands weighs in on the low-power FM ruling by the FCC.

Posted 02:19 UTC

Radio New Zealand International's program Mailbox returns to the air on Monday, January 31 when, among other items, "Frequency Manager Adrian Sainsbury finds out about a little known communication mode which started life in 1927, and was used during the Spanish Civil War - What do you know about Hellschreiber?" The program airs four times between Monday and Friday; the schedule is on their page.

Posted 12:48 UTC

USA Digital Radio and Digital Radio Mondiale appear to have agreed to work together to promote a single worldwide standard for digital AM broadcasting (on medium wave or shortwave as well? The article doesn't really say).

Posted 12:00 UTC

Andy Sennitt indulges in a look back: "More than a quarter of a century later, it's interesting to compare real grass roots community radio with some of the so-called 'local' commercial stations operating today. I often wonder just how good we could have sounded if we were able to make our specialised programmes using the equipment available now."

Posted 11:55 UTC

Listen to the News, the site specializing in links to audio news broadcasts, has been shut down again. This time the site has been replaced by a note saying that the site has been shut down by AOL/Time/Warner: "You are witnessing AOL's vision for internet ... censorship" Here we go again.... (Thanks Chet Copeland for the heads up on the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 11:22 UTC

All's not well: The pirate radio site on About.com claims that Congress, with a little assist from the NAB and other "Major Broadcast Groups", is preparing to overturn the FCC's ruling about low-power FM radio.

Posted 06:03 UTC

The current survey on the Free Radio Network shows that nearly one-third of all pirate radio operators are delusional.

Posted 05:40 UTC

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation has a new web site. Not much mention of shortwave, but plenty of information about programs and presenters.

Posted 03:50 UTC

The news room at DXing.com takes a contrarian view (and not the NAB's) on the FCC's LPFM ruling.

Posted 01:49 UTC

If you live in an area without a decent newsstand, Universal Radio now sells individual copies of shortwave-related magazines.

Posted 01:46 UTC

Want your own low-powered FM station but can't afford the engineering report? The Internet comes to the rescue! (Thanks Joe Buch on the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 01:40 UTC

Jembantan DX Number 87 contains details of stations currently running in Dili, East Timor. It's not clear if any are on shortwave at the moment.

Posted 02:59 UTC

BBC reports on an attempted coup in Ecuador, and the president of Ecuador's response. Moises Corilloclla in Peru reports in HCDX that HCJB had special coverage as of 2050 UTC, with wire service news reports from AP and UPI, among others. Hans Johnson reports in a Cumbre DX Special that HCJB had Allan Graham on location giving reports at 0000 UTC. At 0048 UTC, HCJB has its usual programming, but the station bears watching (try 9745 kHz) for further reports. Another Ecuadorian station that tends to come in well here in North America, if you understand Spanish, is Radio Quito on 4919 kHz.

Posted 00:54 UTC

Chris Smolinski's ham radio theory test drill software for the Macintosh, Elmer, is now at version 1.0.2. The page doesn't say what the new version fixes. Note that the software is configured for current classes of amateur licenses and doesn't reflect the restructuring that's supposed to take effect in April.

Posted 23:38 UTC

Richard Jary in HCDX and in a Cumbre DX Special says that maybe, just possibly, it's within the realm of conceivability that Radio Australia's Darwin site just might be on the air now: "AUSTRALIA (Cumbre 278 followup) Radio Australia. After the logging of a Radio Australia test on 21720 by Bill Flynn I sent an email to Nigel Holmes, Transmission Manager for RA. He tells me that detail can't be released yet but other frequencies to check on are 9580 and 9850 during Australian daylight hours. He also states that these tests are not affecting transmissions from Shepparton, Brandon or Taiwan. I guess that leaves us to assume a separate site, so I suppose Darwin is the obvious choice. (Jary Jan 21)"

Posted 22:36 UTC

Rich Hankison's Cumbre DX QSL Gallery has some pretty interesting QSLs, as well as some witty commentary by Rich. Look out for the "Best Psychic QSL". I wish that the image for the "Best Avant-Garde QSL" wasn't broken, although maybe that's what makes it avant-garde. :-)

Posted 22:33 UTC

Some links about the FCC's decision to allow low-power FM Radio, found courtesy of Glenn Hauser's DX Listening Digest (as posted on HCDX):

Washington Post: "Low-power FM is potentially the biggest change to hit radio since the ascent of FM in the '60s. Over the past few years, Internet-only radio stations have blossomed around the globe, but their programming is accessible only to those who can afford computers. Theoretically, low-power FM stations--broadcasting news, music and commentary to individual neighborhoods--could be heard by anybody who can afford a cheap radio." (Article found by Chet Copeland.)

Salon: Pirate Radio Goes Legit. "[A] radical incarnation of a very old medium is taking shape. But this isn't mega media -- it's micro-media.... If the power of a cause can be judged by the size of its enemies, micro-radio has grand potential indeed." (Article found by Bill Westenhaver.)

The FCC LPFM web site: "The new LPFM service will consist of two classes of LPFM radio stations with maximum power levels of 10 watts and 100 watts. The 10 watt stations would reach an area with a radius of between one and two miles, the 100 watt stations would reach an area with a radius of approximately three and a half miles. (Site found by Eric Cooper, NRC.)

Posted 18:57 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 448 for January 20, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 04:37 UTC

The New Zealand Radio DX League has set up a Yahoo-like database of radio-related links. The database is fairly empty right now, but there's a very easy link submission form available. So help populate it!

Posted 04:26 UTC

Graham Powell is looking for help IDing an Asian station on 6003.97 kHz. He's posted two RealAudio files to the HF Loggings page of his DX Sheigra site. (From a post by Graham to HCDX.)

Posted 23:00 UTC

This is Radio Botswana: "An advert appeared in Wireless World (as it was then) for the post of 'Senior Technical Officer' at Radio Botswana.... Grabbing an atlas I suggested to Pru that it might be fun to go for it, not really thinking that I would get the job."

Posted 07:15 UTC

Haracio Nigro has put together a web page detailing the recent Uruguayan stamp released to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of S.O.D.R.E., the Uruguayan radio. (From a post by Horacio to HCDX.)

Posted 07:10 UTC

Radio Netherlands Media Network has updated its Lowdown on Lightning section, authored by NASWAn Tom Sundstrom. The update consists mostly of links to newly-found sites, including some pretty neat up-close pictures of lightning.

Posted 03:26 UTC

"It was the first time that I ever saw the West Coast headquarters of Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). It was at the old Fox studios on Western Avenue, in Hollywood. At that time, I didn't realize that, in years to come, I would be doing daily radio shows for AFRS' worldwide audience." (Thanks Chet Copeland on the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 23:19 UTC

The January 2000 edition of Sheldon Harvey's Radio HF Internet Newsletter has been posted to the web, a few days after subscribers received their copies via e-mail. Sheldon always manages to find an eclectic collection of interesting links.

Posted 12:20 UTC

Portions of a note I sent to Kim Elliott about his special Communications World program about the events of 1989-90 and their manifestation on shortwave were read on the air in this week's show (but the show is worth listening to anyway). You can listen to the show on demand from World Radio Network or via the VOA server.

Posted 04:15 UTC

Another day, another DXing with Cumbre schedule....

Posted 15:20 UTC

Graham Powell has posted an audio clip of RTV Guineenne on 7125 kHz at 0600 GMT (RealAudio format), complete with IS and national anthem, to his DX Sheigra Latest HF Loggings page. Quite a few of the loggings on the page include clips. (From a post to rec.radio.shortwave by Graham.)

Posted 15:11 UTC

There a new web-based discussion group for owners of the venerable Yaesu FRG-7. There's not much going on there yet, though. (From a post to rec.radio.shortwave.)

Posted 14:56 UTC

George Maroti in New York state has posted a RealAudio file of his reception of IRRS' test broadcast to North America on 7120 kHz over the weekend so you can hear just how bad reception really was. It looks like George is starting a page devoted to audio clips of his and others' receptions.

Posted 13:10 UTC

The test transmission from IRRS to North America on 7120 kHz was heard, but very poorly, here on the east coast. It suffered tremendously from splash from Moscow on 7125, especially when Moscow played music. Back to the drawing board, guys. You may want to try listening tonight to see if things are any better, but it's unlikely.

Posted 15:29 UTC

Chris Smolinski has updated his ham test preparation software for the Macintosh, Elmer, to version 1.01, which fixes a bug in the test section for General Class that didn't display enough questions. Note that the software is configured for current classes of amateur licenses and doesn't reflect the restructuring that's supposed to take effect in April.

Posted 15:27 UTC

Mark Fine has finished updating his receiver control programs to squash some pesky Y2K bugs. The latest to get the treatment are Smart NRD Control 32 and Smart Kenwood Control 32.

Posted 13:48 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 447 for January 14, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 13:43 UTC

Steve Coletti, a.k.a. "Big Steve Cole", has set up a web site in support of his A Different Kind of Oldies Show, which airs on WBCQ. You can listen to the show and access Steve's playlists. There are even links to great radio hobby web sites like, er, this one....

Posted 04:40 UTC

If numbers stations are your thing, Chris Smolinski has set up a loggings database. You can even find out what numbers stations are likely to be on this hour and next.

It's kind of like our own WWW Shortwave Listening Guide, come to think of it....

Or you could always just go out and buy the CD box set....

Posted 04:20 UTC

Hans van den Boogert has a nice page explaining how to record and clean up audio directly to your (Windows) computer with CoolEdit and GoldWave.

Posted 04:39 UTC

Larry Nebron posted the following to HCDX: "Alfredo Cotroneo, who runs Nexus-IRRS in Milan, Italy has started experimental evening transmissions on weekends on 7120 [kHz]. These should be audible at least on the East Coast and in the Central US and Canada. These transmissions [from 0300-0400 according to the schedule] are especially interesting because they're in pure SSB (USB) with 10 kW of power into an L-dipole, i.e. pretty much omni-directional. These transmissions feature free radio programs from Europe, and the producers are eager to see if they reach NA.

Posted 23:55 UTC

Andy Sennitt reviews the broadcast database EURO TX 4.1 for Windows: "The program contains information on shortwave broadcasts to Europe in 15 different languages..., a total of 118 stations in 78 countries."

Posted 23:03 UTC

Chris Smolinski's MultiMode shareware signal decoding software for the Macintosh has been upgraded to version 3.0.1. You can also download the software from the INFOMac Hyperarchive. Multimode handles "morse code, RTTY, FAX, SSTV, PSK31, and many other modes".

Posted 16:40 UTC

Chris Mackerell in Wellington, New Zealand, heard Europirate Radio Free London on 15060 kHz and has posted a RealAudio file. The beginning of the clip is a little rough, but it gets better. (From a post to HCDX by Chris.)

Posted 14:00 UTC

Andy Sennitt: "The [AOL-Time Warner] merger has much wider implications, though. It's the final piece of the jigsaw that fits together a traditional media conglomerate with an Internet technology company. No longer will there be the distinction between new and traditional media. From now on, it's all going to be just media."

Posted 02:42 UTC

Peter Bowen posted his review of CBC/RCI's The World At Six daily newscast to the swprograms mailing list.

Posted 23:48 UTC

The WRTH National Stations Supplement has some formatting problems, in particular, station listings that are cut off between pages. This is caused by a printing bug in a particular web browser. Mark Hattam in the UK has taken the HTML file that the WRTH seems to have made available inadvertently and reformatted it in HTML, re-printed it in PDF, and also posted tab-delimited and Excel format versions as well. In his post to HCDX, Mark says "If WRTH people object to these re-done files, then they'll disappear. They are purely there to help." So you might want to grab them now and ask questions later. Mark's site has some interesting information, particularly on European FM DXing. (From a post to HCDX by Mark Hattam.)

Posted 23:37 UTC

The Italian HF Archives, a site run by Andrea Borgnino, has posted pictures of the RAI regional transmitting site at Caltanisetta, Sicily. Note that Sicily is a separate country on the NASWA Country List. (From a post to HCDX by Andrea Borgnino.)

Posted 23:26 UTC

The WRTH National Stations Supplement, promised in late-December to make up for their omission in WRTH 2000, has finally arrived. It's 31 A4-sized pages in Adobe Acrobat format. It's not the prettiest thing I've ever seen, and some of the type gets chopped off between pages, but it's there. (Found in a posting to HCDX by WRTH editor David Bobbett.)

Posted 18:49 UTC

"Paper modelling is fun! All you need is glue, a pair of scissors, a ruler - and half an hour. Cut and fold along the lines, then glue: what you get is a scale replica of Deutsche Welle's broadcasting van."

Posted 04:57 UTC

Jonathan Marks: The real added value for international broadcasters is to interpret emotion, sharing experiences across borders. [Broadcasters] need to involve the audience, drawing them in, not shutting them out. Maybe that's why we remember the Keith Glovers of this world...people who showed emotion on shortwave radio... (From a post to the swprograms mailing list by Jonathan Marks.)

Almost as an aside in the message, Jonathan mentioned a new feature on the Media Network web site, Media Network Interactive. It's their attempt to further draw the audience in. Looking at the page, it appears at the moment to be basically a repurposing of the letters section from the on-air program, but that doesn't make the comments any less interesting. Oh, and Jonathan and Diana, Halifax is in eastern Canada.

Posted 02:20 UTC

Radio pirates steal listeners Illegal radio operators in the UK are forcing their broadcasts into motorists' cars. The pirate broadcasters have discovered how to hijack the Radio Data System (RDS) standard. (From BBC News, thanks to Chet Copeland on the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 16:43 UTC

Vasily Strelnikov, who used to be on Radio Moscow in the bad old days, has a picture of himself with John Peel on his web site. Oddly enough, they look kind of alike. You could almost believe that Vasily was John's son.

Posted 04:08 UTC

Media Network contributor (and NASWA Net Notes editor) Tom Sundstrom has posted his millennium radio and streaming audio travelogue to the Media Network web site.

Posted 03:29 UTC

Andy Sennitt editorial: "So, there really was a millennium bug. It took the form of an especially nasty flu virus that chose me as one of its victims. I took to my bed on Christmas Eve and spent the best part of the next two weeks feeling as if I were about to expire."

Posted 03:15 UTC

The Drake/Lextronix joint production, the Grundig Satellit 800 Millennium, seems to keep slipping. Universal Radio is now quoting an arrival date of February 25, 2000, at least three months later than the first shipping date I recall seeing.

Posted 20:15 UTC

For those of you interested in spooks, Don Schimmel's Radio Intrigue #007 has been posted to DXing.com.

Posted 20:12 UTC

Are you looking for a high quality, precision made, multiband receiver, with exceptional performance? Well this ain't it.

Posted 20:05 UTC

According to the Universal Radio web site, the Watkins-Johnson HF-1000A receiver, the holy grail of high-end receivers, has been discontinued.

Posted 19:59 UTC

NPR All Things Considered did a 10-minute piece on exploring the electromagnetic spectrum, including a few minutes spinning the dials with a utility DXer. (Thanks Al Quaglieri.)

Posted 03:45 UTC

Posted 02:02 UTC

Radio St. Helena has been sending out e-mail QSLs (with no individual names on them) for reception of its 1999 broadcast. (Thanks Mark Veldhuis and Bill Harms.)

Posted 23:36 UTC

George Maroti in New York state has heard Bhutan on 5030 kHz around 1200 UTC, and posted a RealAudio file to share the fruits of his labor. (From Cumbre DX 275.)

Posted 23:27 UTC

Radio Netherlands WRTH 2000 review: "Despite some shortcomings - especially the missing tropical bands frequency listing - the WRTH still contains far more information than any of its competitors. It is no longer the obvious choice for bandscanning, but the well-equipped listening post should have a copy for the wealth of other reference material it contains."

As of 2130 UTC January 5, 2000, the WRTH web site still does not have the promised WRTH National Shortwave Supplement, more than sixteen days after editor David Bobbett promised it.

Posted 21:41 UTC

Wide Open News interviews the man who paid $35 so Microsoft could keep using a domain they had forgotten to renew. Absence of said domain was keeping people from using Hotmail. Why should shortwave listeners and DXers care? Because the domain in question was passport.com, which Microsoft bought last year from Passport to World Band Radio to use as their web password server, presumably for Big Bucks. Whoops!

Incidentally, Passport to World Band Radio, in case you weren't aware, can now be found at www.passband.com.

Posted 15:19 UTC

And the hits just keep coming! Mark Fine has updated his Smart Lowe Control 32 program to fix a Y2K bug in the logging section, and you can download it from his site. Kenwood and NRD updates should be coming in the next few days, according to Mark.

Posted 13:06 UTC

Jan Niewenhuis has posted an update to the Benelux DX Club's listings of broadcasts, including their English to Europe, English to America, and DX Programmes to Europe lists. (from Jan Niewenhuis' posting to rec.radio.shortwave.)

Posted 02:58 UTC

Dave Kernick's Interval Signals Archive (a great source for IDing stations, incidentally) has a RealAudio file of the last moments of the VOA signing off from Ekala, Sri Lanka, on December 31, 1999, recorded by Victor Goonetilleke. (Search for "VOA Ekala" about 4/5ths of the way down the page.)

Dave has also added clips from Takhar Radio, the opposition station in Afghanistan, and Radiostansiya Chechenya Svobodnaya to his list of clips from domestic radio stations, as well as many of the regional stations in Mozambique and the networks in Zimbabwe. (from Dave Kernick's post to rec.radio.shortwave.)

Posted 02:38 UTC

If you use Mark Fine's Smart R8 Control program for Windows 3.1 or the 32-bit version for Windows 95/98/NT, you'll want to visit his web site to pick up the latest update, which fixes a minor Y2K bug concerning logging dates. The 32-bit version also has some other improvements, which you can read about at the site.

Posted 04:57 UTC

Mark Fine, English Language Schedules columnist for NASWA and proprietor of FineWare®, makers of fine receiver control software, has gathered information about the current and previous solar cycles and run it through some interesting calculations. Of particular interest is the final graph on the page, which ran the data through a Fourier Fast Transform to expose patterns in the data. Many listeners have long known that there's a 27-day recurring cycle in solar flux and sunspots. Mark's data shows that there is also a strong correlation for a yearly cycle in solar flux and sunspots. Also of interest is that the A-index does not seem to be cyclical.

Posted 18:32 UTC

It's an oldie but goodie: Radio Netherlands' The Solar Guide, edition 3, by David Rosenthal, has a decent layman's explanation of the sun and its effects on shortwave radio. (Thanks Mark Veldhuis for asking the questions on IRC chat channel #swl that got me to revisit this document.)

Posted 18:32 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 445 for December 30, 1999, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 18:20 UTC

I posted my report of my experiences following the millenium around the world on shortwave and via RealAudio to the swprograms mailing list.

Posted 17:00 UTC

Communications World on VOA has two more special live broadcasts today at 1936 and 2336. I was able to receive the one at 1536, but reception quality made it tough to really hear what was going on. Kim is calling people to find out how they made it to the new millenium, and also playing some audio excerpts from receptions of New Year's celebrations on the radio. I hope Kim makes these broadcasts available in RealAudio over the web just like the special half-hour broadcast this weekend that covers Kim's experiences listening to the tumult in eastern Europe as 1989 came to an end ten years ago.

Posted 16:59 UTC