Archive

Category: Featured Stories

RNZ marks 75 years of broadcasting shortwave into the Pacific

It has been 75 years since Radio New Zealand commenced broadcasting on shortwave frequencies into the Pacific region.

RNZ goes live with new Pacific shortwave transmitter

Shortwave transmission to the Pacific is “more important now” than in 1990 when RNZ Pacific first broadcast into the region, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister says. RNZ went live on Thursday with its new Pacific shortwave transmitter, replacing its old one that dates to 1989.

Wakkanai Air Station, 1966 -1967

One of the most interesting assignments during my USAF years was to a small ELINT (ELectronic INTelligence) gathering post, Wakkanai Air Station. Located at the northern end of Japan’s most northerly island, Hokkaido, Wakkanai AS was blessed with a climate that, coupled with it’s distance from any major population centers, made it pretty much the end of the earth in the minds of most Japanese, and to the GI’s stationed there.

VOA Okinawa Relay Station

In running through boxes of photos I came across a series of snapshots taken in 1968 during a tour of the VOA facility that then operated from a site near Okuma village in the north part of Okinawa. Googling the web didn’t produce much on the station so I figured why not post them for broadcasting/radio buffs, or whoever might be interested.

The Story of Terezinha Felix Cardoso (PT2TF)

Martin Butera talks to Terezinha Felix Cardoso (PT2TF), one of the oldest YLs in Brazil about her life in amateur radio.

Radio Luxembourg, the station that changed our world

In collaboration with various partners and using digital media, the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History announced its newest research project on Radio Luxembourg.

Interview with Enivaldo Alves Silva PT2CA

Martin Butera (LU9EFO – PT2ZDX), prepared this special report on the relationship that exists between Esperanto, radio amateurs and the media, specifically shortwave transmissions.

Remembering the Tiri

On the Eastern shores of Matakohe-Limestone Island lie the derelict remains of a once-famous floating pirate radio studio. Scattered skeletal piles of rusting metal is all that remains of the shipwrecked Tiri, once the beating heart of Radio Hauraki and the centre of a political and media storm of the swinging sixties. From her cockpit on the Hauraki Coast, she debuted to the carefree tune of Matt Monro’s Born Free, defiantly blasting through wireless into the homes of thousands of 1960s young Kiwi fans.

Souvenir Programme: Official Opening of 2ZB

On Wednesday, 28th of April, 1937 the Hon. F. Jones, M.P., Postmaster-General and Acting Minister for Broadcasting, officially opened Station 2ZB in Wellington, New Zealand….

The Collection of Adinei Brochi PY2ADN

Martin Butera (PT2ZDX-LU9EFO), travels to the city of Americana, in the interior of Sao Paulo, to meet his colleague Adinei Brochi (PY2ADN), owner of one of the private collections of the most important radio transmitters in Brazil.

Two Lochs Radio

Britain’s smallest commercial radio station and community broadcaster for the Gairloch and Loch Ewe areas of Wester Ross, Scotland, on 106 and 106.6 FM.

Radio Six at Sixty

On 6th June 1963, a group of schoolchildren gathered in the attic of a house on the Ardrossan seafront in Ayrshire to launch their very own radio station. Cobbled together with tins, clockwork gramophones, and lots of wire, the opening day’s programmes were line fed to a radio receiver two floors down. But it was a start and, against the odds, the station survived in a variety of forms and today can be heard 24/7 on the internet.

Rádio Universitária – Goiânia, Brazil

Martin Butera continues his fascinating visits to radio stations and this time shows us one of the most important university radio stations in Brazil. A station that transmits in the AM band and with its 20 KW, it has been able to be heard by different DXers in 5 continents.

Bird Calls on Radio

Adrian Peterson takes a look (and listen) to some more bird calls that have featured on radio stations around the globe.

Recent Radio Developments in Europe and Africa

Recent radio news in four different countries, two in Europe and two in Africa, indicate a positive direction for mediumwave and shortwave broadcasting, rather than a negative.

Return to Guadeloupe: The Radio Scene on outlier islands

We return to the radio scene on Guadeloupe, and in particular to the radio scene on the other nearby islands that form part of the this French overseas department in the Caribbean.

Whale Stranding at King Island and the Local Radio Scene

Adrian Peterson takes a look at the history and local radio scene on King Island, off the northern coast of Tasmania, Australia.

VOA Voyager: Three Mobile VOA Stations in the United States

On three separate occasions, VOA, the Voice of America, has commissioned a mobile radio station for use within the United States. On each occasion, the intent was to obtain information and recordings about lifestyle and events throughout the nation for inclusion in their worldwide English and foreign language programming.

Return to Guadeloupe

We return to the French island of Guadeloupe which is shaped like the wings of a butterfly that is flying towards the northwest.  That island is located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and we examine the early communication radio scene and their almost three quarter century of mediumwave radio history.

The Radio Scene at the End of the Highway: Cooktown Part 2

This is our second topic on the radio scene at Cooktown at the end of the highway in Cape York Peninsula, at the far north of coastal Queensland in Australia. Unexpectedly, Cooktown was the second largest town in Queensland at the height of the nearby gold rush in the 1880s. Back then, the state capital Brisbane had a population of 50,000 and Cooktown had a population of 30,000.