Hard Core DX is reporting a new station from Bolivia, Radio Yura, on 4716.8 kHz. Details on their front page.

Posted 03:56 UTC

Radio Netherlands has added transmitters from Cypress Creek, SC, and Komsomolsk-Amur to its portfolio of fill-ins, and if I'm not mistaken, I'm hearing Bonaire itself on 6165 this evening thanks to the temporary generators that Rocus de Joode mentions in his note at the beginning of the RNW technical schedule.

Posted 03:53 UTC

Oguma Hironao has updated his handy list of Russian LW and MW stations in the far east.

Posted 02:41 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 463 for April 27, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 02:36 UTC

Radio Netherlands has posted an updated technical schedule showing which broadcasts are off the air and which ones are being carried by other transmitters in lieu of Bonaire. They've done an excellent job of making the distinctions clear on the page. Alternate transmitter sites being used include BBC facilities in Antigua and Ascension and the Deutsche Telekom facilities at Jülich. (Noticed via a posting by Andy Sennitt to the swprograms mailing list.)

Posted 18:41 UTC

Medium Wave DXers may be interested in Iowa State Press' upcoming book Big Voices of the Air: The Battle Over Clear Channel Radio: "Concentrating on the years from 1928 to the 1960s, the book shows how the clear channel debate mirrored changes in the American broadcasting industry, including the cementing of the commercial broadcasting structure and the splintering of commercial interests." The book is due at the end of June.

Posted 13:27 UTC

Media Network reviews the new third edition of Douglas Boyd's Broadcasting in the Arab World: "Professor Boyd navigates through the complexities of the electronic media in each country with remarkable ease. The tone and format of the book is academic, and there are no photos. Despite this, anyone with an interest (not necessarily an academic one) in broadcasting in the Arab World will find its contents endlessly fascinating." (And if you act before May 30, you can get 10% off the price from the publisher....)

Posted 13:21 UTC

And now, proof positive that shortwave radio really is the babe magnet you always thought it should be.... (thanks Mark Veldhuis)

Posted 03:53 UTC

Radio Netherlands has now posted a page in English about the fire at their Bonaire relay station's power facilities. (Link thanks to Mark Veldhuis.) Nobody was hurt, but the generators were completely destroyed, and transmissions are likely to be disrupted to many parts of the world for some time to come. The technical schedule on the site still reflects transmissions from Bonaire, but says: "Some Bonaire frequencies are on the air from other sites. A fully updated emergency schedule will be published as soon as possible."

Posted 14:43 UTC

John Figliozzi's WWW Shortwave Listening Guide has been updated with the latest information from all seven streams of the BBC World Service, VOA, and VOR, in addition to John's usual stellar job on the database. There should be further updates in the next week or two.

Posted 05:36 UTC

This week on VOA's Communications World, NASWA Tech Topics editor Joe Buch does a reprise of his provocative Winter SWL Fest forum about the coming death of shortwave radio and DXing. Joe believes that between digital shortwave, Internet audio, and QRM from broadband services such as DSL and cable modems, shortwave as we know it is on the way out, sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, the script posted on the CW web site doesn't contain a transcript, but you can listen to Joe's report on the RealAudio feed via the VOA site (this week only), or from the CW archive at the World Radio Network (April 22 edition). Joe's segment of the program starts about 14:30 into the program.

Posted 05:19 UTC

Chris Smolinski has updated his Macintosh ute-decoding program, Multimode, to version 3.3. The new version adds support for decoding HF and VHF packet radio transmissions.

Posted 04:56 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 462 for April 20, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 04:23 UTC

Don Moore has added a bunch of articles to his excellent Patapluma web site. New items include articles by Takayuki Inoue Nozaki about a number of stations in the Dominican Republic, complete with pictures, and a brief item taken from the April, 1968 FRENDX (now known as The NASWA Journal) about how a reception report of Radio Cordac, Burundi, led to a station operator's pay being docked. (Via a post by Don to HCDX.)

Posted 03:04 UTC

Andy Sennitt reports on the swprograms mailing list that a fire at the Bonaire relay station has destroyed the diesel generators there, putting the station off the air due to lack of power. It's not clear yet whether or not the transmitters have been damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but the station will be off the air for some indeterminate time. The Radio Netherlands web site doesn't contain any information about the fire yet, or about changes to the schedule, but I expect that by some time on Monday it will. At 0138, the Spanish service that would normally be on 9845 and 6165 via Bonaire is only present on 9845, presumably via Flevo.

Posted 02:40 UTC

Bjarne Mjelde posted a very interesting take on why he doesn't send for QSLs any more on the Hard Core DX mailing list. "Gone are the days when a station's CE was most certainly a HAM, and knew what we wanted. I think station personnel of today tend to ask themselves 'ok so he heard us, why does he want us to verify it when he has a recording already?'"

Posted 23:39 UTC

There has been a lot of discussion of world time web sites on Hard Core DX in the past few days. Terry Palmersheim recommends timeanddate.com's World Clock. Pentti Lintujärvi likes the page at Heavens Above, which has a very extensive database of locations names (I found a small village in Poland where my great-grandmother was born that doesn't appear on a lot of maps, with enough information to pick it out from the other twelve towns in Poland with the same name), although for use just as a time source, it doesn't have the friendliest interface.

Posted 23:58 UTC

Jean-Marie Cherry in Brussels has put together an exceptionally detailed look at the products of the R. L. Drake Company over the years. I never even heard of some of these products....

Posted 23:43 UTC

JA-DXing's Listening Points number 2000-08 has been posted.

Posted 04:26 UTC

Yokohama DXing number 53, the Japan-based English language newsletter covering the Americas, has been published.

Posted 04:24 UTC

Universal Radio got their first shipment of Grundig Satellit 800s today. So far, they've cleared the backlog up to October 20, 1999, so if you haven't ordered one yet, you can probably expect a bit of a wait.

Posted 04:17 UTC

Andy Sennitt: "[W]ith all this new technology, are we in danger of not being able to see the wood for the trees? After all, the purpose of it all is to enable the consumer to listen to his or her choice of programming. That seems obvious enough, but the recent experiences of some listeners suggests that the schedulers have lost sight of this."

Posted 04:14 UTC

RN station profile: "[World Beacon] broadcast the first edition of its weekly listener appreciation program, DX-QSL. The acronym DX-QSL brought back memories for Beacon President and presenter Scott Westerman. 'I grew up as an avid shortwave listener,' Scott remembers. 'I started with an International Cadet and moved quickly to a Zenith Trans-Oceanic. Reception reports were part of my weekly routine and few things were more exciting than receiving a QSL card confirming what I heard. Knowing that broadcasters appreciated my correspondence made me want to be a regular listener.'" Shouldn't be any problems QSLing these guys, then.

Posted 04:14 UTC

I got a nicely odd QSL in the mail today (I don't normally QSL, but this one was kind of interesting....) It's peculiar for a couple of reasons. First, this QSL is for BBC on 5975 kHz via Bonaire. But, you say, BBC doesn't broadcast from Bonaire! Au contraire! Back in October, a storm knocked out the BBC station on Antigua, which BBC relies on for much of its strength in the Americas. Radio Netherlands offered the use of a 100 kW back-up transmitter on Bonaire until BBC could get it's station put back together, which took about a week. Second, it's for the BBC in Spanish on 5975, their longtime evening frequency for English. I seem to recall the frequency reverting to English the following evening.

Posted 03:11 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 461 for April 15, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 16:32 UTC

Jamming comes to Internet Radio: "The stations -- E101, Pro G, and Trance Invasion - were knocked off the air and 'literally stolen from their sophisticated server....We could incur a multi-million dollar loss if the radio stations, which we hope this individual has saved on CD Rom, are not returned safely to us.'" I've never heard of a radio station being archived on CD-ROM.... (Thanks Joe Buch, from a post to the swprograms mailing list)

Posted 16:23 UTC

With the sun near the peak of its 11-year cycle, Guido Schotmans has put together an extensive list of stations using the 11 meter band (26 MHz) for studio-to-transmitter links. At this point in the cycle, these signals can easily make it around the world, not just across town.

Posted 14:55 UTC

Paul Stenning's Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration site has an exceptional amount of information about valves (tubes) and old radios, particularly European ones. Even if you're not working on a European radio, there's a ton of advice about general repair and replacement. Paul also offers CD-ROMs with service manuals in Adobe Acrobat format for many radios. (Thanks Pete Costello for the pointer.)

Posted 14:42 UTC

Incidentally, the front page of the Radio Netherlands web site has had a total redesign. Expect the new design to filter down to your favorite parts of the site in the next few weeks.

Posted 20:17 UTC

Mike Bird's weekly solar weather report on the Media Network site contains a special report on the geomagnetic storm of April 4-8. Mike gives the official line, then explains briefly why he disagrees with it (oooh! controversy!).

Posted 20:14 UTC

Media Network has announced the winners of its captions contest; the results are good for some chuckles. :-)

Posted 20:01 UTC

Chris Smolinski's ute decoding software for the Macintosh, Multimode, has been upgraded to version 3.2.0. This version adds support for ALE (Automatic Link Establishment).

Posted 04:40 UTC

The proprietors of I Eat Dirt Media have reverse engineered the infamous Grenade, a cheap portable lose-able 40 meter transmitter much in demand among pirates. It wasn't as easy as it seems, since the manufacturer went to great lengths to disguise the design. (Thanks Patrik Willför for the pointer.)

Posted 12:33 UTC

Hugh Stegman, proving that everything you could possibly think of is on the web now, has a photo gallery of unusual, interesting, and/or bizarre vacuum tubes.

Posted 08:38 UTC

Mo Nickles has posted an interesting article about converting cheap AM (medium wave) portables to work on shortwave. Pay particular attention to his safety warning: "Because the radio was poorly grounded and I did not unplug it, I was mildly shocked, in the same way a cow up against an electric cattle fence is shocked (no permanent damage, I think, or maybe so much that I don't know the difference). I stress that you take every precaution against electricity. Your best bet is to use a hand-held radio. It's easier, not dangerous and it's just as good. BE CAREFUL." (thanks Grant Barrett for bringing this to my attention.)

Posted 08:31 UTC

This is Radio Botswana, Part 7: "Indeed, we couldn't quite see why so many [Americans] were needed - and especially why they'd need diplomatic status! - but Botswana was apparently considered to be a 'hardship' post necessitating incentives for the technicians. Presumably they would all work very short hours."

Posted 07:47 UTC

Tom Sundstrom has added many pictures from the 2000 Winter SWL Fest to his site, including a page of pictures of the gang from Media Network, and photos taken by Ed Mauger.

Posted 18:19 UTC

Paul Ormandy reports on the recent Waianakarua DXpediation he and Bryan Clark went on: "The day dawned with heavy rain. Three of the aerials cross the Waianakarua river and drop onto a river-flat which was a few feet under water as a result of the torrential rain, and two of the wires were down... and because of the flood levels I wasn't game to cross the river to resurrect them till 4 days afterwards." (found thanks to Paul's post to HCDX.)

Posted 20:40 UTC

And you thought the Kiwa Loop was expensive?

Posted 01:14 UTC

In addition to documenting every transmitter out there, Ludo Maes acts as an agent, selling time on some of them.

Posted 00:06 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 460 for April 8, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 23:45 UTC

IPS Space Services has a page showing shortwave fadeouts (something that may be of interest in light of the fadeout that occurred this evening....)

Posted 06:03 UTC

"That international short-wave broadcast programs have a definite interest for the average listener is evidenced by the fact that one of America's largest hostelries has recently incorporated short-wave reception in its lobby and 2,000 guest rooms. A description of the great receiver, which undoubtably will be duplicated in other institutions, points out its many interesting features."

Posted 05:44 UTC

Nostalgia Air has manuals for a bunch of old Hallicrafters receivers online.

Posted 05:37 UTC

This circuit will convert an AM radio into a shortwave receiver; I used something like this my first year in college when my parents wouldn't let me bring my radio to school because they thought it would get stolen. Also handy for prisoners.

Posted 05:29 UTC

The WinRadio isn't just for Windows anymore; LinRadio provides access to open source software to operate the receiver-on-a-card. (Found via the New Zealand Radio DX League web site.)

Posted 04:53 UTC

Here's a little antenna advice from an unusual source: Macintouch discusses extending the coverage of the Apple Airport wireless LAN (based on Lucent WaveLAN hardware and IEEE 802.11 specifications for wireless LANs, so this is applicable to more than just Macintoshen) by using Yagi antennas. The author has managed to use the radio link between his iBook and his home base station in the 2.4 GHz band at a distance of 14 kilometers, and says that Lucent engineers have successfully used the wireless LAN at up to 57 kilometers. Not bad for a technology designed to let you work in the bedroom....

Posted 01:15 UTC

In case the Save VOA audio files disappear from the VOA web site, they've been mirrored on Tom Sundstrom's site.

Posted 03:00 UTC

HCJB is testing an experimental RealAudio feed in English from 0000-1630 and 1900-2200 UTC and soliciting reports. No word on whether they're sending QSLs. :-) They're also offering some of their programs on-demand, including DX Partyline.

Posted 02:24 UTC

Jembatan DX, focusing on Indonesia, haven't posted a new newsletter since March 19th, but since I'm already riffing on Japanese newsletters....

Posted 01:37 UTC

Japan Premium is another Japanese DX e-mail newsletter. Are there any paper bulletins left in Japan?

Posted 01:31 UTC

Vostochnoe Radio, the Japanese DX newsletter covering Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, has posted a new issue on April 5th covering reception for the month of March.

Posted 01:25 UTC

Listening Points 2000-07, another Japanese e-mail newsletter, has been posted to the web.

Posted 01:20 UTC

Yokohama DXing number 52, covering DXing the Americas from Japan, has been posted.

Posted 01:15 UTC

Don Schimmel's Radio Intrigue number 10 for April, for the spook fans out there, has been posted to DXing.com.

Posted 01:12 UTC

Universal's web site now says that the Icom IC-R3 HF-through UHF scanner-cum-television is expected in June, price still unknown. Icom is already advertising it in mags like Monitoring Times.

Posted 01:08 UTC

Media Network profiles Radio Bloemendaal, a religious station in Holland that's been on the air since 1924.

Posted 01:02 UTC

If you've ever been incredulous or awestruck at the kind of mediumwave reception Mark Connelly manages routinely, now you can share the excitement by listening to some of Mark's best catches in Real Audio format. SEE astonishing logs like Sudan-1296. HEAR amazing things like the Trans World Radio interval signal from Kamo, Armenia-864, mixing with Egypt. THRILL to death-defying acts like Mongo the Magnifi... No, wait, that's something else....

Posted 23:45 UTC

Pentti Lintujarvi just can't stop looking for web sites and e-mail addresses of obscure radio stations....

Posted 23:33 UTC

HCDX reports a new station, possibly from Peru or maybe Equador, called Radio Cielo, on 4693.2, reported by Pedro F. Arrunátegui in Chasqui DX 143.

Posted 23:29 UTC

sunrisesunset.com has information about local sunrise and sunset for locations around the world, and you can enter custom coordinates to get a report on any location they don't include. (Thanks Karl Leite and Alf Aardal on HCDX.)

Posted 04:59 UTC

John Figliozzi's WWW Shortwave Listener's Guide has been updated with current programming information for the BBC Americas stream, as well as updates for Radio Canada Int'l, Radio Netherlands, and Radio Australia. Further updates to reflect the other 6 shortwave streams for the BBC will be forthcoming over the next few days. And have pity on poor John; between expanding from 3 to 8 streams and totally revamping the presentation of the schedule to local time, the BBC has caused John an awful lot of work this time around....

Posted 01:49 UTC

KPIG finds a world of listeners online: "An esoteric little radio station with no play lists and the weakest signal in its market is topping online radio charts as people around the globe discover its irreverent delights. KPIG, 107-oink-5, has long been an important part of the Santa Cruz and Monterey communities, featuring an eclectic mix of music - folk, country, rock, Hawaiian, Cajun, local artists and more." (I think Al Quaglieri, always with his finger on the pulse of the hip, first pointed this station out to me a couple of years ago....)

Posted 13:35 UTC

Tom Sundstrom has been digging through his shoeboxes and has posted photos from the Winter SWL Fest dating back to 1992. Thrill to the excitement of seeing people you know get older before your very eyes!

Posted 05:06 UTC

I've posted columns from April's edition of The Journal on the main NASWA web site. Joe Buch's eagerly awaited Technical Topics column reports that NASWA Research Labs has done it again, bringing back the romance of listening to distant, exotic locations with an add-on to make Internet audio sound just like shortwave radio. Easy Listening's Richard Cuff reports on the extensive changes to the BBC World Service, other seasonal changes, political changes in Taiwan, and musings on a successful 'Fest. The column also includes an extensive table covering the reorganized BBC schedule. And in Shortwave Center, Rich D'Angelo explores DX Target: Mongolia, and editor Jerry Lineback reprints part one of the history of the Voice of America.

Posted 05:02 UTC

Kim Andrew Elliott of VOA's Communications World wants reception reports on VOA broadcasts to Africa between 2130 and 2200 UTC on any day except Saturdays. The reason? VOA to Africa goes to at least 2200 most days, but on Saturdays shuts down at 2130, depriving Africa of the airing of CW that would otherwise go out at 2133. Details of which frequencies to listen to are available in this week's Communications World script. Search for the words "Segment C"; the information will be immediately following that. And you don't have to be in Africa to participate; Kim is looking for reports from anywhere and everywhere.

Posted 04:58 UTC

Universal Radio's web site says their first shipment of the ever-receding Grundig Satellit 800 is now due April 15th. At least the intervals are getting stronger; one hopes it isn't like the classic calculus graph where the line is always approaching a number, closer and closer, but never quite gets there.

Posted 04:43 UTC

WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News 459 for March 31, 2000, compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, has been posted.

Posted 02:00 UTC

Media Network has updated their Kosovo Dossier with a ton of information, including news that Serbs in Kosovo are about to get a radio station of their own. Meanwhile, the Serbian media seems to be in government-induced turmoil.

Posted 01:54 UTC

Tom Sundstrom tells the world that the new schedule for Communications World, hosted by Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, is posted on the CW web site.

Posted 01:49 UTC