Monday, June 19, 2023

Annual Midwinter Day in Antarctica from BBC on 21 June


 Midwinter's Day in Antarctica is a week away (21st June) and BBC, as in previous years, will have a half-hour broadcast to British Antarctic Survey (BAS) staff over-wintering at BAS bases there.

"The Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast is unlike anything else on the BBC World Service. Every year, we make this special program for just 32 listeners: The team of scientists and support staff isolated at British research stations in the Antarctic midwinter. Presented by Cerys Matthews, the program features messages from family and friends at home as well as music requests from Antarctica. For decades it has been part of the traditional midwinter celebrations." https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5hqt




The BBC program website above shows three scheduled broadcasts:

Thu 22 Jun 2023 01:32 GMT 
BBC World Service UK DAB/Freeview, East and Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Online & West and Central Africa only (also on BBC R4 LW etc at this time 0230 BST?)
Thu 22 Jun 2023 04:32 GMT 
BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
Thu 22 Jun 2023 12:32 GMT 
BBC World Service Australasia

Checking HFCC today, there are 4 x 15-minute BBC English broadcasts registered this evening (14 June 2023) 2130-2145 UTC to CIRAF zones 67 & 73 (Antarctica) so presume these are the usual tests ahead of the Midwinter's Day broadcast? Can anyone at Woofferton confirm this, and also if there is still the usual 2130 UTC transmission on 21st June (as well as the three the BBC list above)?
Frequencies per HFCC 14 June 2130-2145 UTC: 7255 Dhabbaya; 12005 Woofferton; 12065 Woofferton and 13810 Woofferton.
73, Alan Pennington
Caversham, UK
(BDXC/A Pennington)

BBC World Serice information