Saturday, April 11, 2026

Sunday programming from Jen's Eclectic View & Real Deal

 


Don't miss it -

Aanother jammed-packed program from Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal R & R

Sunday, April 12, 2026, at 1700 UTC

Live Stream:  

For contact pleasure.

Thanks.

Jen In The RAD.

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Friday, April 10, 2026

U.K. Propagation Update

 


RSGB
RadCom Assistant Editor | April 10, 2026
Compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA and G4BAO on 9 April, 2026.
After a pretty stormy run-up to Easter, from a geomagnetic disturbance point of view, the Sun has been quieter. In fact, the Kp index has been below 3 all week. Unfortunately, the solar flux index has also declined, standing at 108 on Thursday, 9 April.
The only advantage has been a lack of solar flares. There have only been 12 minor C-class flares over the past three days compared with 29 C-class flares and six M-class flares on 4-5 April.
We always look for a low Kp index over a higher solar flux index for better HF conditions.
So how does this all affect HF propagation? The maximum useable frequency, or MUF, over a 3,000km path has been struggling to get up to 28MHz on most days. This leaves only 21MHz and 24MHz open after the initial post-dawn ionospheric build-up.
This doesn’t mean that 10m is dead but it may be that the band is only open to DX and not open to Europe.

This may change once the Sporadic-E season starts but we are still a month away from that.
DX being worked, according to the CDXC Slack group, includes 5W1SA in Samoa on 17m FT8, F0/F6BCW from French Polynesia on 12m CW and 3DA0TM in Eswatini on 20m USB. T31TTT on Kanton Island, Central Kiribati, has also been spotted on the 20 and 30m bands using FT4 and FT8.
The DXpedition is focusing on FT modes, although the team is also operating some CW.
Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will start around 105 but will increase a little over the week to reach the low 120s.

Geomagnetic conditions are forecast to be quiet, with a maximum Kp index of 3 once we get over this weekend’s predicted disruption, which has a forecast Kp index of 5.
Then we are in for a rough ride next weekend, with a predicted Kp index of 6 on 19 April and disrupted conditions for three days. This is likely due to the return of active region 4392, which produced a coronal mass ejection that hit the Earth and caused the Kp index to rise to 7 on its last rotation.
VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO:
The warm, dry weather of the middle of last week has left us with ideas of spring but it has now been replaced by cooler, unsettled weather with rain or showers.
In fact, the next week or two will be generally unsettled, not atypical of April. This will be a good period for rain scatter on the upper GHz bands since April showers can be heavy and present good scatter opportunities.
This unsettled weather means tropo retreats into the background for this period.
Meteor scatter is still under the influence of random activity and best in the early morning hours. Aurora is currently looking more promising with solar conditions offering coronal holes and possible auroras as a result.

Sporadic-E will start to make an appearance soon, especially on the 10m band, but realistically, we probably need to wait until we are into May before chances are more rewarding for the 6m band.
It is often a feature of the early part of the Sporadic-E season that the traditional two periods of activity of the high season, morning and afternoon, start off as one broad period around the middle of the day.
For EME operators, Moon declination is starting to climb again, going positive on Wednesday, 15 April. Earth-Moon-Earth path losses are past maximum now and continue to fall all week.
144MHz sky noise is high today, 12 April, and will fall to low for the rest of the week. Friday, 17 April will be an exception as the Moon and Sun will be close in the sky.
(Mike Terry/BDXC) 

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Thursday, April 09, 2026

April programming from Tilford Productions

 


THE FOLLOWING TIMES ARE TENTATIVE AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE - VISIT THE 
FACEBOOK PAGES OF EACH PROGRAM PRIOR TO BROADCAST FOR CONFIRMATION 
 
From the Isle of Music, Friday, April 10, 2026, 3955 kHz, 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC 
This month, we present a surprise package of selections from several decades.  

Uncle Bill's Melting Pot, Friday, April 17, 2016: 3955 kHz at 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC 
This month, we recognize the passage of Nuyorquino salsa artist Willie Colon with selections from some of his earliest recordings.  

In addition to direct radio reception, we do honor reception reports using remote SDRs as long as the whole program is described, and which SDR is specified. All QSLs are e-QSLs only.

William "Bill" Tilford, Owner/Producer 
Tilford Productions, LLC 
Lafayette, IN 
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Tuesday, April 07, 2026

Wavescan radio history features 1500 Meters Longwave

1500 Meters Longwave
Part 1 – Before and During World War II

The Wavescan staff does it again .... a new and fascinating feature in radio history. on longwave. Thanks once again to our friends.

Jeff: Unique to Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia is the use of longwave for AM radio broadcasting.  These days, many former longwave transmitters have been closed down, and the few that remain probably won’t do so for much longer.  But there is still a famous one that’s active in the British Isles, on 


198 kHz.  Ray Robinson has been looking into its history, which will be covered in two parts, this week and next.  Here’s Ray. ...

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  When I was growing up in London as a young teenager in the 1960’s, one of my prized possessions was a small pocket radio I had been given for my 13th birthday.  I carried it everywhere, and I made good use of the single-piece earphones that came with it.  It was a 6-transistor, two-band model, but the two bands were not AM and FM as you might expect today.  They were medium wave and longwave, as was common in Europe at that time.

Today, the BBC still broadcasts their Radio 4 programming on 198 kHz longwave (as well as on FM and digital), and in fact, since the 1930’s, the BBC has used a high-power transmitter on longwave to achieve near national coverage.  But with the announcement that this will finally be shut down on September 26 this year, I thought it might be interesting to review the British use of longwave for radio broadcasting.

From 1922-1924, the BBC opened no less than nine medium wave stations in cities around the UK, beginning with 2LO in London.  These were all relatively low power – 1.5 kW each – and coverage in many parts of the country was poor to non-existent.

In October 1926, a 25 kW longwave transmitter was inaugurated at Daventry in the English Midlands on 1600 metres, 187.5 kHz, and this filled in a lot of the coverage gaps in central and southern England.  Then on March 9, 1930, a new ‘National Programme’ was launched by the BBC, using the longwave transmitter at Daventry and a new medium wave one at Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire, on the northern outskirts of London.  The National Programme was further extended to the north of England on July 12, 1931, again on medium wave, from a new transmission site high atop the Pennine Mountains, midway between Manchester and Leeds.  Other transmitters were added in central Scotland and Somerset in 1932 and 1933.

But by that time, it was planned that much of the medium wave network could be freed up for regional programming by instead utilizing a single high-power longwave transmitter for the National Programme.  Commercial stations were already heard with good signal strength in central and southern England from both Paris and Luxembourg, and so based on that evidence, it was hoped that a high-powered longwave transmitter somewhere in the heartland of the English Midlands would be able to provide near-nationwide coverage of the UK for the BBC.

The attraction of longwave, and specifically the part of the spectrum from about 150-300 kHz, was that signals could reach long distances by ground wave – up to 700 miles or more – with stable reception unaffected by ionospheric conditions, more or less around the clock.  Longwave was therefore of great interest to national broadcasters, especially in Europe and North Africa, which had large domestic territories to cover.  Unlike shortwave, longwave doesn’t rely on skywave propagation, and so doesn’t have a skip zone, fading, or any other atmospheric challenges.  It behaves much more like medium wave does during the daytime, but it has a much greater range, provided a high-power transmitter is used.  And in the 1930’s with 10 kHz bandwidth, the audio quality was pretty good for the monaural phonograph records of the day.

And so it was that in March 1933, a decision was made to purchase a site three miles northeast of Droitwich in Worcestershire, and the foundations for a transmitter hall there were laid in May.  By November 1933, the plans called for a 150 kW longwave transmitter to be constructed – the maximum power level allowed under the new Lucerne Plan, which was to take effect on January 15, 1934.  The Lucerne Plan was also the first international agreement that assigned frequencies to countries rather than to individual transmitters, and the frequency assigned to Great Britain was 200 kHz, exactly 1500 metres.  On the date the Lucerne Plan went into effect, January 15, 1934, the 150 kW transmitter at Droitwich was still under construction, so the existing 25 kW transmitter at Daventry was moved to the new frequency.  

The callsign 5XX which previously had been used at both Chelmsford and Daventry was also assigned to the new 150 kW longwave transmitter, which began testing on Monday, July 30, 1934, from midnight to 3am, daily except Sundays, after the Daventry transmitter had closed down for the night.  To radiate on the new longwave frequency of 200 kHz, a T-aerial was used, suspended between two 700-foot-high guyed steel lattice masts, standing 590 feet apart.

There was a soft launch of the new transmitter for some programming in the September, but the final cutover with an opening ceremony featuring an overture by the BBC Symphony Orchestra was on Sunday, October 7, 1934.  It’s interesting that this came a full 18 months after the opening of Radio Luxembourg’s all-day longwave broadcasts in English to the UK, which began in March 1933.




On Sunday morning September 3, 1939, the Prime Minister spoke to the nation in a broadcast to inform the people that Britain was now at war with Germany.  However, two days earlier, at 6:55pm on the evening of Friday, September 1, 1939, a message had been received by the B.B.C. from the government ordering all transmitters, including Droitwich, to be closed down and changed over to a pre-arranged wartime broadcasting system.  This involved wavelength changes for all medium wave transmitters so that they could operate in two synchronised groups, to avoid the possibility of them being used for direction finding.  At 8.15 that same evening, the medium wave transmitters returned to service with the Regional and National services now replaced by a single ‘Home Service’.  The medium wave transmitter at Droitwich, 5GB, was now broadcasting on 391 metres instead of 296 metres, and the longwave transmitter there, 5XX, had been closed down indefinitely.

By late 1939, many complaints were being received about the lack of choice and lighter entertainment for people serving in the British Armed Forces, both in the UK and that point, in northern France and the Low Countries.  In response to this, a new channel was formed called the BBC Forces Programme, which was launched on January 7, 1940, initially only from 6-11pm, although it was later extended to an all-day schedule.

The BBC Forces Programme was launched to appeal directly to those members of the armed services during the Phoney War who were mainly sat in barracks with little to do.  Its mixture of drama, comedy, popular music, features, quiz shows and variety was richer and more varied than the former National Programme, although it continued to supply lengthy news bulletins, informational programming and talk shows.

Use of the longwave transmitter, 5XX, resumed on November 16, 1941 with the European Service on 1500 metres, and from then on, coded messages were often sent to the French Resistance via that transmitter.  These were read during normal programmed broadcasts, usually at the end of news bulletins.

However, when American servicemen arrived en masse in 1943 and 1944 in preparation for Operation Overlord – “D-Day” – they found even the BBC Forces Programme to be staid and slow compared with the output of the American networks they were used to.

So, in response to appeals from General Dwight Eisenhower, the BBC abolished their Forces Programme and established the General Forces Programme instead, designed to provide a mixture of content suitable for both American and British servicemen, and also to appeal to the "Home Front", which research had shown wished to listen to the same type of output as the forces, once fighting had broken out.  The General Forces Programme replaced the BBC Forces Programme on February 27, 1944, and the main difference was that now a large number of American network and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programmes were also included, alongside British programming such as the ‘Forces Favourites’ request show and comedies such as ‘Much Binding in the Marsh’ set in a fictional RAF station.

The General Forces Programme was on the air daily from 6:30am to 11pm, and in addition to the medium wave transmissions, it was also broadcast on the shortwave frequencies of the BBC’s Overseas Service, so it could be heard in North Africa, Italy, the Middle East and the Far East.  But the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, and so far as the British home audience was concerned, it was decided to replace the General Forces Programme with a new channel called the BBC Light Programme, and this was inaugurated on July 29, 1945, on 1500 metres longwave.  The General Forces Programme continued to be aired on shortwave only, primarily for forces stationed in the Far East, until December 31, 1946.

And we’ll pick up the story again with the new post-war BBC Light Programme on 1500 metres next week.
(Ray Robinson/Wavescan)


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Music programs on Shortwave-Version 1, now available

 

The first version of my "Music Programs on Shortwave" PDF file for the new A-26 broadcast season is now available to download from the permanent link at 



You will also find here my "at-a-glance" single-page PDF programme grids for the English language programs on shortwave of BBC World Service, CGTN Radio, Voice of Turkiye, Radio Romania International, and Radio Taiwan International - all updated for the new A-26 broadcast season.
I hope that you find these of interest.
As always, I appreciate any updates or corrections.
(Alan Roe, Teddington, UK/BDXC)

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Audio now available for Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal

 

No problem if you missed Sunday's program of  Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal.  The audio is now available for listening and downloading.

Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal. 



For contact pleasure.

Jen In The RAD.
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Monday, April 06, 2026

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

 Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts
:Issued: 2026 Apr 06 0211 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services
#
#                Weekly Highlights and Forecasts
#
Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 30 March - 05 April 2026



Solar activity reached high levels on 30 Mar and 04 Apr, moderate levels on 02-03 Apr, with low levels observed on 31 Mar, 01 Apr, and 5 Apr. 

Region 4409 (N02, L=156, class/area=Eai/170 on 04 Apr) was the most active of the period, producing 50 C-class flares and six M-class flares. Region 4405 (S27, L=220, class/area=Eai/220 on 02 Apr) added the strongest flare of the period, an X1.4/Sf flare, on 30 Mar at
0319 UTC. Accompanying the flare was a Type II radio sweep (estimated velocity 1872 km/s) and a partial halo CME first seen in LASCO C2 imagery at 30/0312 UTC. Expected impacts from this CME were on 01 Apr. Region 4409 also produced a C8.1 flare at 01/1958 UTC.
Accompanying this flare was a filament eruption and subsequent CME that had a likely Earth-directed trajectory with impacts likely felt on 03-04 Apr. 

Slightly elevated proton levels were observed from 01-05 Apr, but conditions remained below alert thresholds throughout the period.   The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached high levels throughout most of the period of 30 Mar - 05 Apr, with a
peak flux value of 6,000 pfu observed at 05/1645 UTC. The only exception was on 02 Apr when conditions dropped to moderate levels for that 24-hour reporting period. 

Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to G3 (Strong) storm levels during the 30 Mar - 05 Apr period. Quiet to unsettled levels were observed on 30 Mar - 01 Apr, and most of 05 Apr (aside from an isolated active period at the beginning of the UT day). Conditions
increased to active to G2 (Moderate) levels on 02 Apr following the onset of a negative polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Conditions remained at active to G1 (Minor) levels through midday on 03 Apr, when they increased to G3 (Strong) levels with the
arrival of the anticipated CME from 01 Apr (C8.1 flare and filament eruption). Conditions then decreased to G1 levels to start 04 Apr, before decreasing to quiet to active conditions lasting through 05 Apr. 

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 06 April - 02 May 2026

Solar activity is expected to be at low levels, with a varying chance for M-class (R1-R2/Minor-Moderate) flares, and a slight chance for X-Class (R3/Strong) flares from 06 Apr through 02 May. 

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit, barring any significant, non-recurrent solar activity. 

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 06-09 Apr, 11-16 Apr, and 18 Apr-02 May. Normal to moderate flux levels are expected on 10 and 17 Apr. 

Geomagnetic field activity is anticipated to reach G1/G2 (Minor/Moderate) geomagnetic storm levels on 18-19, and 29 Apr due to the influence of negative polarity CH HSS (-CH HSS). Periods of G1 (Minor) storming are likely on 04 April in response to a negative
polarity CH HSS (-CH HSS). Unsettled to Active levels are expected on 06-07 Apr, 20-22 Apr, and 30 Apr, as well as 01-02 May associated with negative polarity CH HSS effects. On 10-13 and 25-26 April, positive polarity CH HSS influences are expected to bump geomagnetic
conditions to unsettled to active levels. Mostly quiet levels are expected during all other days of the period. 

Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt
:Issued: 2026 Apr 06 0211 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
# Product description and SWPC web contact www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services
#
#      27-day Space Weather Outlook Table
#                Issued 2026-04-06
#
#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest
#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index
2026 Apr 06     118          10          3
2026 Apr 07     115           8          3
2026 Apr 08     113           5          2
2026 Apr 09     111           5          2
2026 Apr 10     108          12          4
2026 Apr 11     106          18          5
2026 Apr 12     105          10          4
2026 Apr 13     108           8          3
2026 Apr 14     110           7          2
2026 Apr 15     115           5          2
2026 Apr 16     115           4          2
2026 Apr 17     120           7          2
2026 Apr 18     122          48          6
2026 Apr 19     124          22          5
2026 Apr 20     130          12          4
2026 Apr 21     140          12          4
2026 Apr 22     150           8          3
2026 Apr 23     155           5          2
2026 Apr 24     160           8          3
2026 Apr 25     155          12          4
2026 Apr 26     150          10          3
2026 Apr 27     145           5          2
2026 Apr 28     140           5          2
2026 Apr 29     140          20          5
2026 Apr 30     135          18          5
2026 May 01     130          12          4
2026 May 02     120           8          3
(NOAA)

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Friday, April 03, 2026

Texas Radio Shortwave, April 4, 5



UTC/ relays via Germany
Apr 4  at 1400 on 160 kHz via Shortwave Radio Gold to Europe. Featuring Michael Strah on Texas Radio Shortwave: The Music of Sly Stone

April 4 at 1800  on 3975 + 6160 kHz via Shortwave Radio Gold to Europe. Featuring  Michael Strah on Texas Radio Shortwave: The Music of Sly Stone

April 5 at  1200 on  9670 kHz via Channel 292  to Europe. Featuring  Michael Strah on Texas Radio Shortwave: The Music of Sly Stone
(TRSW)
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U.K. Propagation Update

 

RSGB
RadCom Assistant Editor
  April 2, 2026

Over the last week, we have had a fair sprinkling of sunspots, along with some enormous coronal holes, including one almost rectangular hole. 
Coronal holes are lower-energy areas on the Sun with open magnetic field lines, allowing solar plasma to flow out.

Geomagnetic conditions have mainly been settled, with the Kp index hitting a maximum of 3.67 over the past five days.

We had a long M1.3 solar flare at 0415UTC on Saturday, 28 March, and an
X1.5 class solar flare on Monday, 30 March.

Active region 4405 erupted at 0318UTC and launched a halo coronal mass ejection, or CME, into space that hit the Earth on Wednesday, 1 April.

Meanwhile, the solar flux index has remained above 140 for a few days, which bodes well for HF propagation.

NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will start at 145 at the beginning of the coming week and fall to 112 by Saturday, 11 April.

Geomagnetic conditions are set to be unsettled from Thursday to Sunday,
9-12 April, with a potential Kp index of 5 or even 6.

If this comes to pass, expect lower maximum usable frequencies, or MUFs, and disrupted HF conditions, especially on polar paths.

HF DX to look out for this week includes:

VHF and up propagation news from G3YLA and G4BAO:

The equinoxes are a time of the year when the Atlantic jet stream typically blows across the UK as it migrates north from the Mediterranean in the winter to near Iceland in the summer.

The weather for the coming week is going to see a succession of lows driven by the Atlantic jet stream crossing the UK with bands of rain and scattered blustery showers.

These may represent chances of some rain scatter for those on the upper GHz bands but this pattern suggests limited tropo options.

The prospects for meteor scatter are no better since we remain some way short of the next major meteor shower in late April. In these situations, your best chances are from random meteors, which tend to peak in the early pre-dawn hours.

The equinox also gets credit as being a preferred time for auroras since there is a better coupling between the Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind.

It is too early in the year for much Sporadic-E activity, but keep a check on the Sporadic-E graphs on propquest.co.uk  for signs of brief upticks. Incidentally, some maintenance work is currently under way on the website so apologies for any interruptions.

For EME operators, Moon declination is now negative, reaching its minimum on Wednesday, 8 April. At this point, the Moon is up for only six hours and gets to a mere nine degrees elevation in the UK.

The Moon is also furthest away, or at its apogee, on Tuesday, 7 April so path losses are at their highest. 144MHz sky noise starts low but quickly climbs to a high of more than 2,700 Kelvin on Wednesday, 8 April.


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Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal, slated for April 5

 


Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal will air on  Sunday, April 5


Tune in 1700 - 2000 UTC on Unique.
This weeks live cast will begin an hour earlier at 1700 UT Sunday.


For contact pleasure.


Thanks.
Happy Holidays to all, however you celebrate.

Jen In The RAD.

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Jen & GB's CARN audio for Marach 28, is ready for YOU!

 


For The HF Enthusiast in you ... Jen & GB's CARN for Saturday, March 28, is up and ready for listening  and downloading 

The last 30 minutes were not recorded due to a technical problem. Apologies.

Please note this is the CARN show recording in completed form. We had issues, but most of the show was saved.
Enjoy.


Short Link For CARN.


For contact pleasure.

JenUR@proton.me

The Bands Are Alive !!

Jen & GB

33'' & 73'' 

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Thursday, April 02, 2026

SDXF announces Good Friday programming

 

It's time again for a special program from SDXF. 

This time also from Channel 292 in Germany. 

Programming will broadcast on Good Friday, April 3rd, on 9670 kHz 10:00-11:00 SST (08:00-09:00 UTC) with a repeat at 17:00-18:00 SST (15:00-16:00 UTC).

Reports can be sent as usual to qsl@sdxf.se

The programs are produced as usual by Göran Lindemark and Christer Brunström, now also featuring contributions from Mats Westin.

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