Archive

Category: International

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.

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.

Celebrating Marconi

An event at the Marconi Museum inside the Vatican on Saturday celebrates 150 years since the birth of the man who set up Vatican Radio. Present, alongside the Prefect and directors of the Dicastery for Communications, were also Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, and Guglielmo Marconi’s grandson.

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.

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.

DW Turns 70

To mark their 70th anniversary German broadcaster DW (Deutsche Welle) published this video report on their website.

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.

American Shortwave Stations – 1928

At the beginning of the year 1928, there were six international shortwave stations on the air in the United States

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.

Shortwave Station WMLK

US broadcaster WMLK from Bethel, Pennsylvania resumed broadcasting at the end of June 2022 with a new 450 kW transmitter on the frequency of 9275 kHz. In the spring of 2017, the WMLK radio transmitter building caught fire and the transmitter originally built in 1975, and which worked reliably until the fire, was completely destroyed. We take a look at the history of this shortwave station, and the step by step reconstruction after the fire, with exclusive photographs courtesy of WMLK.

Voice of America Relay Station at Tinang in the Philippines

The fourth VOA relay station in the Philippines is the large and powerful station that is located at Tinang, some 50 miles north of the national capital, Manila, on the main island of Luzon.

VOA Shortwave Relay Station at Poro in the Philippines

The Poro radio stations were constructed on 200 acres at the Wallace Air Force Base, at Poro Point on Poro Island.  The original complement of shortwave transmitters was made up of six transmitters…

The Voice of America on Mediumwave at Poro in the Philippines

The third relay station for VOA, the Voice of America in the Philippines, was located at Poro Point, 150 miles north of the national capital, Manila.  Interestingly though, that one VOA relay station at Poro was in reality four different radio broadcasting stations all clustered together. 

Ancient DX Report – 1927

The American radio magazine Radio News for October 1927 presented a list of radio broadcasting stations that were recently monitored on shortwave. We have adjusted that list into a more modern format, and we present this off air monitoring information in frequency order.

Bird Calls on Shortwave Radio

Bird Call identification signals from five different shortwave stations, and a little about the bird that is featured in the sign on routine, as well as about the station itself. 

BBC World Service Turns 90

90 years on, BBC World Service evolves with time. It began in 1932 as the “BBC Empire Service” – making radio broadcasts via globe-girdling shortwave to the far-flung territories ruled under the British Crown.

WRMI at Heart of SW Broadcasts to Russia, Ukraine

During the Cold War, long-distance shortwave radio broadcasts from the BBC, Voice of America, and Radio Free/Europe/Radio Liberty pierced the Iron Curtain with trustworthy news programming. Today, this old medium is being revitalized through the efforts of volunteer groups and SW broadcasters to get through the new Iron Curtain.

World Wide Waves: The sounds of community radio

An interesting audio documentary on the BBC Sounds website: We may think we live in a digital age, but only half the world is currently…

The Radio Scene on the World’s Most Isolated Island

Modern geographers inform us that the world’s most isolated island is the barren, frozen and windswept island called Bouvet, in the South Atlantic Ocean. This small uninhabited island is located somewhere between South America, South Africa, and Antarctica, more than a thousand miles distant from each continent.