ARC Newsflash: Asian signals coming alive in Southern Sweden

Family Radio via Taiwan relay was heard with outstandning signal on Aug 16th at 1930 UTC on 1557 kHz. France was deep under. Quite early in southern Sweden at this time of the year. Programs in English. (Bengt Ericson, ARC, Växjö)

ARC Newsflash: Radio Caroline special broadcast

531 Radio Caroline will be broadcasting live from the Ross Revenge on August Bank Holiday weekend, August 28 to 31, on 531 - which should be audible in Tilbury and the surrounding areas of south Essex and north Kent - as well as their usual outlets. The team on board for the weekend is made up almost entirely from staff who served on two of their radio ships, the Mi Amigo in the 1970's and the Ross herself in the 1980's. More details: http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk (Mike Barraclough via MWC e-mail news 17.8.2009)

Loggings from the Radio Shack August 14

Still not much to tell you about from the schack in Fredriksfors. Propagation is favouring NA-stations although they can´t get through properly due to the light. Still quite a few this morning, with ”first for season” for eg 930, 1030, 1050, 1200, 1390, 1410, 1430 and some X-banders. Also a few YV/HC stations, but only weak signals from La Plata on 920, 950, 1070 and 1350. A music station on 1290 showed up to be from Brazil but no id, almost no spoken words at all... Radio Corporación, Chile on 1380 is often a good exampel when conditions are generally lousy. So also this time.

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NA
930 14.8 0200 CFBC St John, NB ”On Good time musik 93, CFCB”. JE
1200 14.8 0200 WKOX Framingham, MA ”La Rumba” och spelade så. Verkar bli dominant nu. JE

Västindien
1180 14.8 0218 Radio Rebelde blev första cuban för säsongen. ”Rebelde su familia”. JE
1400 14.8 0250 Harbour Light med en mäktig hymn. Vid heltimmen tog CBG över. JE

LA
1020 14.8 0200 YVMX Radio Calendario, Maracaibo med en radda id och promos på ”halvtimmen”. Ingen Continental-annonsering. JE
1060 14.8 0207 HJMG Radio Litoral, Turbo med svängig musik. ”www.1060radiolitoral.com”. JE
1070 14.8 0205 HJCG Radio Santa Fé, Bogota mycket bra. Ligger fortfarande högt (,015). JE
1190 14.8 0200 HJCT La Voz de la Costa, Barranquilla med religiöst.
Ligger så snett (1190,339) att den lätt uppfattas som en ”störning”. JE
1290 14.8 0130 oid som troligen var brasse med nästan bara musik. Några ord 03.08 som det dock inte gick att få ut något av då modulationen därtill var grötig. Inte den brasse som hörts tidigare utan nu på 1290,005. En spansktalande lite lägre i frekvens (RPC?) störde ibland. JE
1380 14.8 0300 CB138 Radio Corporación, Santiago. Religiöst. Störd av vad som förmodligen var brasse. JE

Radio Veronica memorial broadcast

Where were you August 31st 1974? Many people know where they were when J.F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas. Some people close their eyes and they can still see the first man walking on the moon. Those are historic events that we can relive time after time thanks to DVD, video, MPeg4, I-pods and whatever. You see the same and still.... it's different. A lot of people in The Netherlands, who were over twelve in August 1974, can remember where they were during the close down of Radio Veronica, the most popular radio station The Netherlands ever had. Radio Veronica was firstly a ship based radio station, started broadcasting in 1960 from a former German light vessel anchored outside the territorial waters in the North Sea.

Norderney Photo: Theo Dencker

At that time radio in Holland only consisted of Government controlled broadcasting companies radiating programs as exciting as watching grass grow. In 1959 a couple of entrepreneurs decided to follow the Scandinavian example of broadcasting, which was "free" radio from outside the jurisdiction of the authorities. Free of charge, free of Governmental interference and available at no costs. The content of these stations? Music! Radio Veronica, as the station was called, built up an audience beyond believe and forced the Government to launch a new National radiostation (Hilversum III) broadcasting mainly pop music all day as a (non successful) attempt to take away the reason for Veronica's success (broadcasting what young Europe wanted, namely pop music only). It was that same success that made the authorities reticent to act as no political movement had the courage to jeopardize an election over the popularity of Radio Veronica. It took a shot in her own feet that eventually gave the authorities an excuse to stop Veronica. An explosion on board a competeting radio ship pushed the Government into gear. After September 1st 1974 any working for, supporting of and advertising on offshore stations would be illegal. Radio Veronica decided to cease broadcasting August 31st 1974 at 6pm (CET). From then on the frequency of 538 meters, 558 kHz AM was silent until much later other stations started using it.

Do you remember the last hour? Did you hear it, but forgot how it sounded? Was it before your time and have you always regretted not to have been there? Now here is your chance. August 31st 2009, between 4 and 6 pm (CET) the sound of Radio Veronica will be back on 538 meters, 558 kHz. By courtesy of Spectrum Radio in London and Radio Seagull in The Netherlands the final two hours of Radio Veronica are going to be re-broadcast. Not on I-pod or MP3 player, but on the same old Medium Wave frequency as Spectrum Radio 35 years ago. So dig up your AM receiver and tune to 538 meters, 558 kHz on Monday August 31st between 4 and 6 pm CET, 3-5 pm UK time and listen to this historic broadcast again. Same date, same time, same frequency, just a few years later..........

Can't listen to AM? Go to http://www.spectrumradio.net/ and find out more about hadio Veronica, menmow to listen live via the web or how to listen to the recording later. If you missed it in 1974, here is your chance. If you heard it then, relive the sentiment and listen again. (HANS KNOT INTERNATIONAL RADIOREPORT EXTRA EDITION TWO AUGUST 2009)

Loggings from the Radio Shack August 10

Another bad night, and after that a couple (or more) of hours with collecting fire wood and cutting bushes in the vicinity of the dx-schack.
It´s tough to be a dx-er...
I started listen at about 01.15 UTC. Canadians as 590, 740, 750, 800, 1140, 1400 and with 740 with VOCM-programming as the strongest. A very good and lasting signal from Radio Apolo 1320.
Almost nothing from La Plata - weak signals on 920, 950, 1070, 1190,
1350, 1620 but only 1070 and 1350 barley readable.
The exception was Peru on 1400 and more common 1500.

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LA
1320 10.8 0130 YVWP Radio Apolo, Turmero bästa signal och stadig i gott och väl en timme. Lättsam musik. JE
1390 YVZA Fé y Alegria, Caracas med varierat program. JE
1400 10.8 0234 OBX4W Radio Callao, Lima med sport. Annan spansktalande (ej La Plata) med ”udda” musik. Colombia (Radio Multi-Cultural ?) även om jag inte hade någon annan därifrån? CBG också. JE
1470 10.8 0135 YVJW Llanerissima, Valencia. Skön musik och CNB-annonseringar. Ligger fortfarande högt. JE
1500 10.8 0230 OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima. Religiöst. Snett (lågt) som alltid. JE (Jan Edh, ARC, listening in Fredriksfors)

Loggings from Fredriksfors August 9

The signals are not propagating as good as I hope this far.Last visit to the schack in Fredriksfors was no exception. Only very few signals and at low signal strenght, However, there was some ”hope” this night as I had Radio El Mundo 1070 and Radio America 1190 in Buenos Aires at good strength already at 23 UTC. But most signals fadaded away instead of increasing towards sunrise.
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Europa
1512 5.8 2159 TCR är ju en pirat som tycks vara helt omöjlig att hitta en andress till, men går bra och är mycket ”proffsig”. Reklam och sedan ”from the Sky News Center at eleven...”. JE
1584 5.8 21.59 SER Radio Ourense, Ourense med anrop och reklam för en klädfirma på vägen till Portugal (tack HK och BIH). Sökte egentligen Veronicas jubileumssändning, men den gick inte. I stället Tay AM och BBC Nottingham också. JE
LA
1070 5.8 2300 LR1 Radio El Mundo, Capital Federal, BA annonserade med bra signal vid denna tidiga timme. Förhoppningarna det gav infriades dock inte. Också Radio America 1190 gick bra. JE
1400 6.8 0227 ZYJ 462 Radio Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro med fotboll och rekklam. JE
1400 6.8 0230 CX140 Radio Zorrilla San Martin, Tacuarembó. HK fick också fram att man annonserade emailadressen zsm@adinet.com.uy. Ganska ”vasst” ljud på annonseringen gjorde att den kunde skära igenom när egentligen ingenting annat längre gick. JE (Jan Edh, ARC, listening in Fredriksfors)

Loggings from the Radio Shack by Jan Edh

Fredriksfors August 1 and 3 I have listened two mornings (August 1st. and 3rd.) in the schack at Fredriksfors (together with Rolf Larsson). First night some NA signals at first at 01.15 UTC, but later some La Plata and Brazilian stations took over. Very few signals readable, however.A little better signals (and also more of them) August 3rd., but still few strong enough to be identified as far away thunder storms were raging.
Europe
1395 3.8 0303 OID ”britt” med gammal pop nonstop. På natten någon jingle med ”Energy” insprängd. Vid 21 id som ”Classic Gold Energy”. Är det gamla piraten Energy/Power AM som mest gått på 1386 men tidvis även använt den här frekvensen. Eller är det den nya som aviserats här? JE
Västindien
1400 1.8 0130 Harbour Light starkare än CBG. JE
Sydamerika
1180 3.8 0238 ZYJ 463 Radio Mundial, Rio de Janeiro. Mestadels religiöst, men också en del som verkade ”världsligt” tidigare. JE
1190 1.8 0205 ZYJ 594 CBN Natal, RN med något slags nyheter. JE
1190 3.8 0230 LR9 Radio America, Capital Federal, BA. Non stop amerikansk ”gammelpop” med Roy Orbison (Travelling Wilburys) etc. Idad tack vare TJ som höll ut till 03 då id-et kom. JE
1220 3.8 ZYJ 458 Radio Globo, Rio de Janeiro brakade in nästan som på den gamla goda tiden. JE
1290 3.8 0227 OID religiös brasse. Ganska stark stundtals men inget identifierbart.
1470 3.8 0303 CX147 Radio Cristal, Las Piedras. Jag var övertygad om Argentina och trodde på Rafela, men HK ledde mig rätt med adressen http://www.vjrockandroll.com/HK förklarar vidare:”Det låter kanske enkelt, men det var det egentligen inte. Nu har jag haft med det här ZOE-programmet och göra för 3-4 år sedan.Då var det Mika Mäkeläinen som ställde frågan. Och då körde man rockmusikfrån El Salvador i Centralamerika. Det tog lite längre tid att utreda. Nu var vägen plogad och klar. Du skulle kunna göra dina kolleger en tjänst om du tipsledes berättar vilka konstiga konstellationer som då och då dyker upp där man minst anar det.” JE
1620 3.9 0150 AM 16-20 Mar del Plata, BA har jag nog aldrig hört så bra. ”AM 16-20, Mar del Plata en Republica Argentina” mest mellan varje ”låt”. HK berättar att den även hörs på x2 i Portugal. JE
1640 3.9 0120 OID trolligen Argentina men inte läsbar i åskspraket. JE (Jan Edh, ARC, listening in Fredriksfors)