Blog Logs, November 2025

 

Welcome to the November issue of Blog Logs. Thank you for your emails, logging contributions and following my latest daily tweets on X at: Shortwave Central (Gayle Van Horn W4GVH@QSLRptMT

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The Shortwave Central blog brings you the latest from the ever-changing realm of radio. Additional radio information is covered in my Bits & Bytes monthly column in The Spectrum Monitor e-zine at: https://www.thespectrummonitor.com/

Languages as indicated

// denotes station heard on a parallel frequency

*Sign-on Sign-Off*/ frequencies in kHz

Monitoring  Oct 5-28, 2025

UTC, frequencies kHz 

Mediumwave

Argentina

1150, Radio Nacional, Viedma (tentative) at 0408. Political commentary from a male announcer. SINPO 24432 (Rudolf Grimm, Brazil).

1150, LT9 La Nueva Sauce. Spanish programming from Spanish announcers’ romantic songs. SINPO 24442 (Grimm).

Benin

1476, TWR Africa via Parakou. Hausa programming to Nigeria. Christian message and music presentations from a male announcer (Grimm).

Faroe Islands

531, Kringvarp Føroya 0430-0435. Local language for Sunday morning announcer chat. (Gayle Van Horn) YT video: https://youtu.be/nOwjTOScqLM

United States

650, KENI Anchorage, AK 0159-0210. Alaska’s News-Talk Radio. Ads for the Good Feet Store, ad for pizza place, station ID, lawyer promo to full ID. National news headlines via Fox News. (Van Horn) YT video: Video link https://youtu.be/tWWHbEF6l3E

750, KFQV, Anchorage, AK 0059-0105. Station promos, ID, into state news of Alaska from Anchorage TV audio (Van Horn) YT video: https://youtu.be/Bez54KEm81Y

820, WBAP Ft Worth, Texas 2000-2005. Station IDs and promos, local info and weather. (Van Horn)  YT video: https://youtu.be/k_twR7lmr6U

1040, WHO Des Moines, IA 0153-0205. Tunnel 2 Towers promo, ads on home products from Menards to station ID as “The Voice of Iowa.”News headlines, weather, and iHeart promo. (Van Horn). YouTube video: https://youtu.be/q1pRUSacmwc

1050, KNBR San Francisco, CA. 1400-1405. Talk about Barry Bonds, followed by talk on the Blue Jays. (Van Horn) YT video: https://youtu.be/3Ry4a_tll_o

1130, KWKH Shreveport, LA 1130-0220. Sports talk on Dodger’s Freddie Freeman and the Philliess game. Station IDs and promos. (Van Horn) YT video: https://youtu.be/k4nCKMv0de8

Uruguay

1360, Radio 41, San Jose de Mayo. Spanish local advertisements. SINPO 34443 (Grimm).

Shortwave

Belarus

3940, Music Wave Radio 1943-1955. Russian music. SINPO 25422 (Manuel Mendez, Spain/BDXC)

Bolivia

3310, Radio Mosoj Chaski 0010-0018. Quechua program with comments. SINPO 15421 (Mendez)

Classic CRI QSL

China

5975, CNR 8 at 1100 in Korean. Station ID into talks or features for fair signal quality.Additional monitoring: 7270, PBS Nei Menggu at 1059 in Mongolian; 7325 CRI in Japanese into news; CNR-1 at 1300 in Mandarin; 7420 PBS Nei Menggu at 1059 n Mandarin; 13810 CRI at 1300 in German; CNR on 15760 at 1859 with jamming being used to jam Sound of Hope. Off at 1900 time pips (Tony Pavik, BC, Canada).

Clandestine

9864, Voice of Tibet at 1326. Asian music to 1328. Station sign-on in Tibetan at 1330 for good signal quality (Harold Sellers, BC, Canada)

15425, Oromia National Media-Arrata Biyoolessa Oromiyaa 1459-1530. Wednesday broadcast in Oromo for Ethiopian exile group with musical hymn sign-on  to audio at 1500. Presumed national anthem into station ID, station references into news script. Relayed from Galbeni, Romania. YouTube video at the Shortwave  Central channel. https://youtu.be/o0wKBQiFg1I  (Van Horn).

Cuba

15140, Radio Habana Cuba at 1505. English programming of poor signal quality during newscast. (Sellers).

11950, 2229-2235 with IDs, sports news, and Spanish program “Deportivas…esta es nuestra American Radio Habana Cuba.” (Grimm)

Ecuador

Classic QSL from HCJB

6050, HCJB Pichincha 0441-0500*. Spanish religious program and music to program Vida Real en Familia. SINPO 15422 (Mendez). https://hcjb.org/ 

France

15485, Radio France International via Issoudun to West Africa at 1708-1725. (Grimm). https://www.rfi.fr/en/ 

Liberia

6050, ELWA Radio, Monrovia 1933-1958. Religious comments. Also heard *0600-0612 with English programming. Station ID “ELWA Radio.” SINPO 25422 (Mendez). https://www.elwaministries.org/radio/ 

Luxembourg

6140, Radio Onda, Junglinster 1703-1811. English pop songs to Portuguese comments. Station ID in English and French. Station relayed Radio Augusts International, including station ID. SINPO 25422 (Mendez).

Malaysia

RTM QSL

11665, RTM FM, Kajang. Malayalam service to Malaysia at 1112. Announcer’s talk to the music program. SINPO 25542 (Grimm). https://www.rtm.gov.my/ 

Mali

5995, Radio Mali 1839-1906. African vocals to the 1850 English Magazine program. News and comments about Mali. African songs at 1803 into local vernaculars. SINPO 35433 (Mendez)

Mexico

6185, Radio Educacion, 0441-0655. Spanish comments, Mexican songs to ID “Cultura Mexico, Senal Internacional, la onda corta de Radio Educacion. SINPO 25422 (Mendez).

Netherlands

5955, Radio Veronica, Westdorpe 0506-0532. English pop vocals to Dutch comments. SINPO 25433 (Mendez).

North Korea

9435, Voice of Korea at 1500. English service sign-on to the national anthem. Very good signal // 11710. VOK on 9570 at 1302; 9435 at 1500 // 11710; 9515 at 1503 in English (Sellers).

Norway

5895, Radio Northern Star, Bergen 2002-2024. English pop songs for SINPO 14421. Also heard 0431-0452 with music variety.  (Mendez). https://www.stellamaris.no/am.html 

United States

7355, KNLS Alaska at 1200 with station interval signal to station ID // 9795.; English 9580 at 1401 (Sellers). 

9580, KNLS Russian service at 1119. Sermon message by male announcer (Grimm).

Vietnam

9840, Voice of Vietnam 1230. English service with musical intros to ID “this is the Voice of Vietnam.” Newscast by male/female host at 1231. Poor signal. Noted on this freq at  1332 and 1505. (Sellers).

Radio Islands

 

Radio Island, Beaufort, North Carolina

Our thanks to RayRobinson and Jeff White for this week's Wavescan special on Radio Islands.

Jeff: There are actually five different usages of the two-word title, "Radio Island". Two of these "Radio Islands" are real geographic islands, one in Canada and the other in the United States.  There were also two movie shorts with the title “Radio Island” – one produced in 1997 and the other in 2022.  And there has been a CBC radio program on the air nationwide in Canada called "Radio Island", or more correctly, "Radio Island Morning".

In this edition of Wavescan, we’re taking a look at the two ‘Radio Islands’ that are real geographic territories.  Here’s Ray Robinson to tell us more.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  Yes, as you said, the first of these islands is a Canadian territory, in the far north of the country.  At the southern tip of Baffin Island, there’s a small cluster of islands, the largest of which is called Resolution Island.  And just off the southern tip of Resolution Island, there’s a hilly, almost barren piece of rock, maybe half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, called Radio Island, which is connected to another island at low tide by an isthmus.  This area is now part of the Canadian province of Nunavut.

There are two reasons why this seemingly insignificant piece of rock was even dignified with a name:

1) there’s an underground source of natural gas on the island, and

2) its location and proximity to the North West Passage makes it an ideal place to site an aid to navigation.

And indeed, it was back in 1929 that the Canadian government first established a radio station on Radio Island.  The purpose for the station was to serve as a navigational aid for both aircraft and shipping in the area, and also to transmit weather information.  The callsign of the station was VBY.

During the cold war era in the 1950s, the station on Radio Island was augmented with American forces and equipment as part of the Early Warning System.  This network of missile detection early warning radio stations and radio facilities was known by the Americans as the Dewline, and by the Canadians as the Pinetree Line.

In addition to the electronic facilities of the Early Warning System, there was also a small entertainment radio station on Radio Island for the American forces stationed there, with the unusual callsign, WORM.  This station was little more than an amplifier kit, though on occasions it was hooked up to a 500 watt transmitter, just for the fun of it.  On several occasions, flight personnel on passing passenger planes tuned in to this novel radio station, and phoned through, asking for music requests to be played on air.

On important local occasions, station WORM also relayed another AFRS entertainment station, located at Frobisher Bay, about 120 miles to the northwest on Baffin Island.  That AFRS station identified on air with the callsign K-I-M-O, or KIMO, as in SKIMO, and it too was a low power affair with just a 10 watt transmitter on 1010 kHz.

So now we turn our attention to the other Radio Island, the one in the United States.  This island is located almost exactly halfway along the Atlantic coast of North Carolina, midway between the borders with Virginia and South Carolina.  That area has quite a few claims to fame:

• A little further north on the Outer Banks is the community of Kitty Hawk, from which the Wright Brothers made their first adventurous flight in a heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft in December 1903.

• The notorious English pirate known as Blackbeard terrorized shipping that entered the area more than 300 years ago.

• And, the mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke was established on an island in this area more than 400 years ago.

Well, the Radio Island in North Carolina is an artificial island about four or five acres in size that was formed during a dredging operation in the estuary of the Pamlico River further north back in the 1920’s and 30’s.  The island lies in the mouth of the Newport River, in the sound between the mainland and the Outer Banks.  The city of Beaufort is about 1 mile to the east of the island, and Moorhead City is 2 miles to the west.  These days, the island is a tourist resort, with fishing facilities, new condos, holiday homes and a marina.  It’s also used for the storage of oil in huge holding tanks, and it’s well known by wildlife lovers as a refuge for the LeConte’s Sparrow – one of the smallest sparrow species in North America.

Some years ago, a historian working in the library of the County Historical Museum in downtown Moorhead City told our editor-in-chief, Dr. Adrian Peterson, that this artificial island was named Radio Island because a radio station was installed on it back in the 1930’s.  The callsign of the station, he said, was WMBM, which was interpreted to mean, “Where Moorhead and Beaufort Meet.”

This medium wave station, WMBM, must have been quite a small operation, with just low power, and it must have been on the air for only a brief period of time. There’s no listing for it in any of the records we hold.  In fact, the only station that we could find with the callsign WMBM during that pre-war era was a small radio station operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

The radio station WMBM on Radio Island in North Carolina served the small cities and communities on both sides of the Newport River Estuary.  Dr. Peterson asked the county historian what happened to the station, and he simply replied that it has long since gone.

Back to you, Jeff.

(Ray Robinson/NWS)