QSL cards and reception reports

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2014

Howard Barnett picked up a Trans World Radio (TWR) transmission from India in an unidentified language of that country. He doesn’t give a frequency or time, but he would like a postal address and, as they issue QSL cards, you can write to TWR India, PO Box 4310, Delhi 110019, India. Simpler still you can email them at info@twr.in. TWR India broadcast in an amazing array of almost 60 languages and dialects to Asia, many of which are new to me. For instance there’s 15 minutes a week in Awadhi, 15 in Bondo, Haryanvi, Kui, Mouchi, Tulu and Varli. There is some English to be heard on TWR India as well- far more than 15 minutes a week but last year’s winter schedule for English was only on 882kHz medium wave.  

However this frequency was heard in February by a Finnish DXer surprisingly, see and hear for yourself at http://www.twrbonaire.com/news/view/67/2013/02-02/qsl-request-from-finland  

There are also TWR broadcasts in English to Europe; from 0800 to 0820 UTC on Saturdays and Sundays and a little longer on weekdays, from 0800 to 0850 UTC. All these broadcasts use 7400kHz via Moosbrunn in Austria and 6105kHz from the Nauen transmitter in Germany.

Their European office is in Vienna,  Trans World Radio, Postfach 141, A-1235 Vienna, Austria. 

Starting in 1952, in total TWR now preach “hope to the world” in an astonishing 230 languages and dialects, which brings them 20,000 listener responses every month. 

Romania celebrated 85 years of broadcasting in 2013, and the final QSL card of their 2013 series is now available. It’s of a radio studio in in the city of Resita. The series tied in with their anniversary, consisting of Romanian radio buildings, including concert halls, studios. The nicest card of the dozen, in my view was October 2013’s ancient radio office block in the city of Targu Mures. 

Howard heard a station which he believes was from Bangladesh on 15505kHz from 1530 to 1550 UTC. This was probably their Hindu broadcast. Bangladesh Betar can be heard in  English, if you are lucky, at 1230 to 1300 UTC on 15105kHz from Dhaka; 1235 to 1255 and 1530 to 1545 UTC on 4750kHz from Shavar; and from 1745 to 1900 UTC from Dhaka on 7250kHz. Reception reports can be posted to Senior Engineer, Research & Receiving Centre, Bangladesh Betar, 121 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Shabag, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh and emailed to rrc@dhaka.net  

Radio PCJ International from Taiwan (9705kHz at 1330 UTC) issued a Halloween QSL card for those who sent reception reports of the PCJ rebroadcast of War of The Worlds- it features Martians on a lake. Radio Havana Cuba’s Spanish service also issued a commemorative QSL card for the 75th anniversary of the Orson Welles’ classic radio play.

Kitchen radio

A simple swirl along the dial at this time of year brings a host of wonderful variety from European stations. 

For me, baking festive treats in the kitchen and wrapping up last minute presents are made all the sweeter with an ear tuned to some of the following stations’ own festive fare:

Mayak Radio on 549kHz from Russia; Czech Radio from Prague on 639kHz; Croatian Radio on 1134kHz and Magyar Radio 4 from Hungary on 1188kHz are just a few suggestions. At the very least you will surely hear the strong signals from stations in Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands beaming out on medium wave. They can light up a dark evening as they reach the British Isles too.

I have been tuning into medium wave a lot lately- there’s something about the winter nights that adds to the atmosphere of mw for me- as I listen I picture swathes of historical regions of Europe blanketed in snow. On Saturday nights Deutschlandfunk on 1422kHz airs a play. Even though my understanding of German is weak, I can get a feel of the programme and I can sometimes eke out some of the storyline (especially with some online research and preparation in advance). 

Recent delights from DLF have included a play called Russian Salad which was supposedly set at the BBC in London. A Russian presenter drops dead at the mike during a live broadcast. Chaos breaks out among the editors, less because of the death as how to fill, pardon the pun, dead air. It is determined the presenter was poisoned… Another play was about a trapeze artist from Bristol and another about a gambler who is kidnapped in Hollywood. It’s gripping stuff in any language.

Other medium wave frequencies that I pick up clearly on the car radio as well as on a basic kitchen set include Czech Radio on 954khz. Radio Maria from Lopik in the Netherlands on 675kHz plays a mix of folk and religious music, Dutch station NOR5 on 747kHz from Flevo has news bulletins which you can pick out odd sentences of and translate quite easily. The old Radio Sweden frequency of 1179kHz is used by various stations from Antenne Saar in Germany including Radio France International at 1700 UTC. 

For a selection of French music try France bleu on 864kHz while France Info delivers interesting programmes on 945 and 792kHz among others. BBC Radio Scotland is always an entertaining listen for me and easy to catch on medium wave from here in the north of England on its 810kHz frequency.

A little Latin

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

This time we go a little Latin with some Argentinean and Brazilian radio stations, dip into some blogs to review logbooks and radios new and old, and finish off with a wide selection of readers' website tips. She finishes off in a time machine to the 1950s.

Stations and shows
I've long been a big fan of shortwave stations Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior (RAE), the international radio and online service of Radio Nacional Argentina. But it's not always easy to hear on shortwave so the World Radio Network online option is something I turn to at www.wrn.org/ Other options include the RAE website at http://rae.radionacional.com.ar/  

and there are two sites for the wonderful Latin Jumpstart music programme; on Facebook and Soundcloud https://www.facebook.com/LatinJumpstart and https://soundcloud.com/latinjumpstart Latin Jumpstart is presented by Fernando Farias, DJ G Mega, Melanie Henderson every Friday evening at 11.30pm on the RAE channel of Argentina's Radio Nacional. www.radionacional.com.ar/vivo/4-rae

Feeling in need of some Brazilian music as well I turned to Streema to start my journey to the land of the samba and so much more. http://streema.com/radios/country/
Brazil offered me a good choice. Radio Paqueire at http://streema.com/radios/Radio_Paiquere_FM and www.paiquerefm.com.br/ was a good start, playing as it did some Brazilian ballads and tunes to brighten the gloomiest of days.  Nova Brasil FM in Sao Paulo on 89.7 delivered me folk, samba and bossa nova http://www.novabrasilfm.com.br/

Tune In, with 70,000 global stations, unsurprisingly showed me one thousand Brazilian stations, some of which were western rock but most were offering local musical fare. I hasten to add that I am yet to work my way through all 1,000 but would gladly do so if I had time. A little project for the autumn perhaps...Start at http://tunein.com/radio/Brazilian-Music-g137/  I enjoyed Rádio Samba dos Gêmeos at http://sambadosgemeos.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sambao.dosgemeos. I kid you not, as soon as I clicked onto the station and the music started streaming, the sun came out! The music was a little too cheesy and mainstream at times for me, but I would persevere. Likewise Rádio Planalto do Oeste AM 1490 www.radioplanaltodooeste.com.br/

QRM and NZ

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Two other recommendations from Ian Brothwell are this video on QRM (interference).
Thilo Kootz DL9KCE, of Deutscher Amateur-Radio-Club (DARC), demonstrates findings when they tested a range of LED lamps. http://www.ukqrm.org.uk/lighting.php. In a different mood, watch a rather nice video of moon rise over Wellington, New Zealand on Mark Gee’s Vimeo channel http://vimeo.com/58385453 

Why not tune to radio from Wellington et al online as you watch, or select from other kiwi stations. A handy guide is at http://www.nzradioguide.co.nz/

Also, I found an interesting "design a radio" NZ competition (see photo above) at 
http://bestawards.co.nz/entries/interactive/category/interactive-marketing/radio-new-zealand-sounds-like-us-competition-website/

Tape Recording Magazine

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Ian Brothwell was going through some old magazines that came from the house of a relation and found a copy of 'Tape Recording Magazine' from April 1967. (the issue above dates from 1966).

The April 1967 cover shows a lady listening to a Van der Molen cassette recorder, which it looks a neat unit. The magazine says that the left speaker is actually removable from the unit - it is in a box inside the left side of the cabinet behind a dummy grille - for improved stereo separation.

The caption to the cover reads: "The attractive lady is none other than ballerina Amina Hanafy. Well known for her work with Covent Garden Opera, Sadler's Wells and Carla Rosa Opera, she listens with professional interest to the sound produced by one of the latest cassette machines, the Sonic 8. Designed and made in this country by Van der Molen, it is based on the Philips Compact Cassette mechanism and offers full stereo record and play-back facilities. The left-hand speaker can be stored within the cabinet when not in use, but is provided with a long extension cable to ensure adequate separation from the right-hand channel for stereo reproduction. Impressed by the smart, modern appearance of the equipment, Amina loves the simplicity of cassettes." The Sonic 8 cost 49 guineas.


So far, so good. I guessed that Amina was in her thirties and I wondered what she was doing today. I did a search and found this. www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-heir-hunters-the-remarkable-story-of-joyce-amina-hanafy Hmmm. I wasn't expecting that end to her story. Copies of Tape Recording magazine sometimes appear for sale on eBay, in fact there were half a dozen from the 1960s the week I wrote this, all starting at £2.99.

If you would like to buy copies of all Tape Recording magazine plus two other similar British journals from the same era, head to the Australian website http://www.bassboy.com.au/getreel/tapemags3.htm  where you can buy electronic versions of Amateur Tape Recording, The Tape Recorder (becoming Studio Sound in late 1970) and Tape Recording Magazine. 

At 190 Australian dollars that might seem expensive but it probably isn’t, although I am always unsure about copyright issues here. Having said that I did buy some DVDs a few years back containing about 25 years worth of the satirical US Mad magazine. Maybe it’s a grey area.

Tesla tales...

Tesla in 1890

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Ian Brothwell has another batch of intriguing and eccentric websites, starting with news that crowd funding has raised enough money to buy a laboratory that was used by Nikola Tesla. http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum_saved 

This is on Long Island in the USA and there us a really great backstory (and more ) at http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/

 “The site became known as Wardenclyffe, after the former owner. Here, Tesla established what would become his only remaining laboratory building. Previously, after emigrating to the United States in 1884, Tesla had worked on all of his major projects at various laboratory sites. These included Pittsburgh, PA; New York City, NY; Orange, NJ; Colorado Springs, CO; and finally Wardenclyffe, NY. In April, 1901, the Wardenclyffe Post Office was established in the town; in 1906 the town became the Village of Shoreham.”

Ian adds that if readers haven't heard of Tesla (it's possible!) then these references should help. http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm , 
http://www.biography.com/people/nikola-tesla-9504443 and, of course, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla 

A Radio Roma mystery...

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Phil Dodd writes with a little mystery that perhaps readers can help unravel and solve?

In an old engineering photo blog that he follows, there is a photo of some power supply equipment associated with a Radio Roma transmitter, in 1929. (reproduced above).Phil is wondering if the square units on the right of the equipment were water cooled, “as if you look at the base of the nearest square unit, a tap is clearly visible! If not water, it must have been oil?” He'd hoped to find a bit more information on Wikipedia about Radio Roma. It is mentioned, but as appearing at a later time. 

A further Wikipedia page suggests that Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR) was in fact the user of the transmitter. Phil adds that there is further information available, but in Italian and if he really wants to know, he'll have to learn Italian. A simpler option is to use an online translator such as Google Chrome or others- I find them a great boon.

As is the way of the web, Phil found out other related information on his research journey and notes that medium wave in Italy is now being switched off, but they are getting good results from DRM+, according to http://portale.italradio.org on 10 May. “On that score, they're ahead of the UK!” The Portale Italradio is an interesting website in English covering news and current affairs about Italian radio and TV around the world.