New video of Radio Zaman Bidari at YouTube

  New video post at the Shortwave Central YouTube channel. Today's weekly broadcast of new clandestine station, Radio Zaman Bidari (Hope of Iran) is available at: https://youtu.be/KwTxb8RTcJo 

Have you subscribed yet? #clandestineradio 

Blog Logs, August 2025

 

Welcome to the August 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

Have you subscribed to the Shortwave Central YouTube channel? You will find a vast selection 

of videos and audio airchecks, and the Playlist is growing! Join your fellow radio enthusiasts at: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShortwaveCentral 

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 the station heard on a parallel frequency

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

Monitoring  July 1-30, 2025   

UTC, frequencies kHz 

Mediumwave

Armenia

1377, Trans World Radio relay 2005-2045.* Russian religious text and talk interspersed with Russian vocal praise music and instrumentals. Station information includes phone numbers. Additional musical instrumentals to 2044. Station theme music to lady announcer’s closing comments to distinctive TWR interval signal; 2045.* (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Russian SDR) Website: www.twr.org YouTube video: https://youtu.be/cSI3lca2kF4 

Argentina

1550, Radio Chivilcoy. Spanish at 0118 with announcer talk into romantic ballads. SINPO 14421. (Rudolf Grimm, Brazil).

840, Radio Salta in Spanish at 0516. Advertisements and “Salta” ID. SINPO 25442 (Grimm).

Bahamas

1540, ZN51 National Voice, Nassau (50 kW), 0215-0245. Announcer’s pleas of improving the quality of life in the Bahamas, shifting later into a fervent religious sermon and scripture quotes. The station is not a faith-based one, although it does have portions of programming devoted to sermons. (G Van Horn, SW Central Kiwi, Mandeville, LA). Station website: www.znsbahamas.com 

Bahrain

612, Radio Bahrain. Quran recitations are in progress at tune-in at 0245. Fanfare music at 0300 to announcer’s Arabic station ID and series of announcements. Monitored to 0320. The station operates 24 hours.. Radio Jordan is also on this frequency. (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi TWR Cyprus). YouTube video at: https://youtu.be/55LrpSGRscc 

Brazil

590, Rádio Cruzeiro, Salvador BA, 0401 with ID “ZYH Rádio Cruzeiro” to announcer’s talk segment. SINPO 15332 (Grimm).

670, Rádio Montanhesa, Ponte Nova MG at 0406. Brazilian songs to Rádio Montanhesa.” SINPO 35543 (Grimm).

1410, Rádio Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa RS, 0220. Brazilian song to local time and weather update. Station ID and program Seleção Sertaneja. SINPO 25442. (Grimm).

1420, Rádio Guarujá, Florianópolis SC, 0225. Station relaying Rádio Bandeirantes, S?o Paulo. Sports news Copa Libertadores de America. SINPO 35443 (Grimm).

Canada

540, CBC/CBK Watrous, Saskatchewan, 2055-2105. Afternoon talk show to CBC ID’s, including CBK. Canadian news headlines, promo, followed by CBC News promo and national topics. (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Alberta SDR) YouTube video https://youtu.be/HXjMCCI-Rx8 

Ecuador

1510 Radio Monumental, Quito. Spanish at 0250 with songs in typical Ecuadorian style. Local times checks and comments (Grimm).

Lithuania

1386, NHK Tokyo /BBC WS relay via Viešintos, 1825-1835NHK Tokyo Japan/BBC World Service relay,  NHK Tokyo sign-on at 1828 with ID and NHK melody to BBC identification. English world news, sports update to ID "this is BBC News.”   YouTube video:  https://youtu.be/i_miX5Hqjbg (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Poland SDR)

Uruguay

Classic QSL from SODRE

850, Radio Carve, Montevideo in Spanish at 0522. Spanish music to “Radio Carve” ID. SINPO 25432 (Grimm).

1390, Radio Difusora Treinta y Tres. Spanish with ad “Banco Republica Congregación Universal del Pensamiento Freerteria..” Station ID “transmite Radio Difusora Treinta y Tresn más que noche decadas.” Local time check. SINPO 25432 (Grimm).

Shortwave

Algeria

13640, Radio Ifrikiya FM 1915-2005. Tune in to French conversations. Arabic programming by 1954. Station ID and African news topics. Station ID to Arabic vocals. (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Italy) YouTube video https://youtu.be/uJNh6TPuELg

Bolivia

3310, Radio Mosoj Chaski, Cotapachi, 0021-0035. Quechua service with announcer’s comments. Station also heard 2347-2356. SINPO 25422 (Manuel Méndez, Spain/BDXC)

Brazil (Portuguese)

Classic QSL from Radio Nacional 

6150, Rádio Saturno, Belo Horizonte, 0535-0557. Brazilian music to program Faixa Brasil. SINPO 15422 (Méndez).

6180, Rádio Nacional da Amazonia, Brasilia 2033-2048. Music program, noted on // 11780. SINPO 25422 (Méndez). Website: https://radios.ebc.com.br/nacionalamazonia 

15189.8 Rádio Inconfidencia 1955-2049. Announc comments to Brazilian music. SINPO 15422. Also heard 2005-2033 with the same format plus station ID. SINPO 15422 (Méndez).

Canada

6070, CFRX, 0200-0205. National news, weather, traffic, local news. “Newstalk 1010” promo into Night Shift evening program. (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Crivitz SDR. YouTube video at: https://youtu.be/IXPxZ6bRUDE 

China

Classic QSL from China

5955, CGTN Radio at 1208. Good signal for English programming, with talks of Iran and the West. Station logged on 15245 at 1532 in English (Harold Sellers, CAN).

7445, China Radio International 2143-2025. Via Urumqi in Hungarian. Music to Chinese Class

Program and the theme as “Ni Hao program to station interval signal music. SINPO 45554 (Jota Xavier, Brazil/HCDX). Website: https://english.cri.cn/ 

Clandestine

6195, Radio Ndarrson International via Georgetown. Kanuri service at 0503. African music and announcer’s talk, targeted to Chad. SINPO Chad (Grimm).

Congo

6115, Radio Congo, Brazzaville 1735-1757. Very weak, but audible in French with African highlife music vocals, and male/female items in French. Intermittently heard via Kiwi Greece SDR. (G Van Horn, LA)

Denmark

15700, World Music Radio at 1901. Afro-Caribbean music. SINPO 35444. Signal fair-good and only occasional fades (Paul Walker, AK).Website: https://www.wmr.dk/ 

Ecuador

Classic QSL from HCJB

6050, HCJB Pichincha 0443-0500.* Religious programming and music to the Ecuadorian national anthem at close down. SINPO 25422 (Méndez). Website: https://hcjb.org/ 

Germany

15440 AWR. Amharic service at 1844 with religious programming. SINPO 55555 (Walker) 

Liberia

6050, ELWA Radio, Monrovia, 0602-0611. English religious programming and music. SINPO 15421. Audible also 1937-1959 in English  (Méndez). Website: https://www.elwamausa.org/ 

Luxembourg

6140, Radio Augusta International via Radio Onda, Junglinster, 1834-1858. Pop songs to English comments. Oldies music to “Radio Augusta” identification.. Radio Gloria, Switzerland, noted using this facility on 6140, 0604-0622 in German. (Méndez).

Mali

5995, Radio Mali, Bamako 1840-1905. African songs to 1850 segment English Magazine covering news and comments about Mali. African vocals at 1903. SINPO 15422. Signal on 9635 with 0800 sign-on. as “Radio Mali” in the vernacular language to comments.  (Méndez).

Peru

4775, Radio Tarma, Tarma 0022-0039. Very nice Peruvian songs and Andean flute music. Program Música Tropical Andina to station ID as “Radio Tarma.” SINPO 25422 (Méndez).

Philippines

Classic QSL from FEBC

12095, FEBC Radio at 1245. Closing items of Achang to Tai Dam language. Station ID and Christian music vocals, for good signal.Noted on 12120 at 1246 in Chin-Daai language for fair signal quality (Sellers). Website: https://febc.ph/ 

South Korea

9570, KBS World at 1301. Poor signal quality for English world news headlines. Station ID // 15575. KBS on 9785 at 1401 with similar format and co-channel interference (Sellers).

Tibet

6150, Xizang RTV Lhasa, 1735-1759. Listed as English service. Tune in with on-going instrumental Asian music throughout, monitoring from instrumentals to Asian pop vocals. Lady announcer’s very brief announcement, though not English at 1759, then off. Fair signal and certainly not adequate for taping. (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Kuwait SDR).

Turkey

11785, 2220-2230. Voice of Turkey. Turkish music program to the station ID, into the Sunday broadcast of Letterbox. (Sam Wright, MS/AirSpy) Website: https://trt.global/world 

United Arab Emirates

9540, FEBC via Al-Dhabbiya relay. Interval signal to sign-on ID in the listed Urdu service. Brief announcement in a religious reading format. Praise music brief text as the signal fades. Announcer’s closing interval signal to 0229 sign-off. (G Van Horn, LA/Kiwi Cyprus TWR SDR)

United Kingdom

17650, IBRA Media, via Woofferton, UK relay 1750-1850. Unknown language with bible reading format to African highlife music. Arabic announcements at 1800, followed by Arabic programming of the same format. (Rod Pearson/FL).

17670 IBRA Media in Arabic with Christian praise music. SINPO just under all 5’s, but just an ever-so-slight quick millisecond type fade. (Walker),

Vatican State

Classic QSL from Vatican Radio

7305, Radio Vaticana, 7305 in Portuguese. Male/female present Vatican News to station ID. SINPO 45544. Noted on 7410, 2212-2225 in Chinese // 9695 via Singapore relay and 11895. SINPO 35422 (Xavier). Website: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/epg.html 

Vietnam

9840, Voice of Vietnam at 1149. Poor signal quality for English news analysis and music // 12020. Rebeck English service on this frequency at 1330. (Sellers).

Zambia

4965, Voice of Hope Africa, Lusaka 1926-2000.* English religious comments and music. SINPO 15421 (Méndez). https://www.voiceofhope.com/station_africa.html 

Radio Liberty to return to mediumwave August 1

 

Lithuania

Thanks to Rihards Millers in Latvia who brings our attention to the news published earlier this morning (30 July 2025) that Radio Liberty is to return on mediumwave via Lithuania. According to the station itself (in Russian - https://www.svoboda.org/a/radio-svoboda-vozobnovlyaet-efirnoe-veschanie-na-srednih-volnah/33489174.html), the new broadcast times will be 8:30-11:30 Moscow time (05:30-08:30 UTC). 

Translated to English the report on the Svoboda.org website reads:

"On August 1, Radio Liberty will resume broadcasting, which was suspended in June 2025 due to unfavorable budgetary circumstances.

Listen to us daily in the medium wave range at a frequency of 1386 kHz from 8.30 to 11.30 Moscow time. The program includes live news, analytical talk shows on current topics, interviews with experts and opinion leaders on politics, culture, public life, podcasts, the best from the Radio Liberty archive.

RS programs and news releases are still available around the clock in the audio stream on the Svoboda.org website, on the Radio Liberty Live YouTube channel, and in the main RS Telegram channel. Individual radio programs and podcasts from Radio Liberty are posted online, in particular, on popular podcast platforms and in the Radio Liberty Podcast Studio Telegram channel. You can also get acquainted with Radio Liberty programs through mobile applications for Android and iOS.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which includes the Russian Service, is an independent media corporation. Its work is financed by funds allocated by the U.S. Congress through the Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

Rihards says that, apparently for now BBC will remain in the late evening hours on 1386 kHz. 

Many thanks to Rihards for this report

(BDXC)

August programming from Texas Radio Shortwave

 

August QSL features the Bobby Fuller Four

Broadcasts via Channel 292 (Rohrbach 6070, 9670 kHz) and Shortwave Radio, Winsen-Aller 3975, 6160 kHz. 

Music of Bobby Fuller Four 

Fri, 1 August 2025, 1900-2000 6160 kHz (1 kW) for Europe

Sun, 3 August 2025, 1200-1300 9670 kHz (10 kW) for Europe

Sun, August 3, 2025, 2300-0000 9670 kHz (10 kW) for North America

Wed, 6 August 2025, 2000-2100 3975 6160 kHz (1 kW) for Europe

Detailed reception reports to

texasradioshortwave@protonmail.com

Will be confirmed with a monthly changing e-QSL. This also includes WebSDR. 

(TRSW)

KTWR, Guam

 

A classic card from Guam

                Thank you to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's feature on Guam.

Jeff: Last month, we learned the sad news that Trans World Radio’s flagship shortwave station, KTWR on the U.S. overseas territory of Guam in the western Pacific, will be closing down at the end of October.  So, we thought it would be appropriate to review the nearly 50 year history of that very storied station that’s had such an impact on the shortwave radio scene in Asia.  Here’s Ray Robinson, in Los Angeles.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  The Australian monthly magazine Radio & Hobbies for October 1975 gave the first notification that Trans World Radio (TWR) was planning to establish a twin broadcasting facility on the island of Guam.  The highly honored international radio monitor in New Zealand, the late Arthur Cushen, stated in his monthly column, Listening Around the World, that TWR had already received a license for this new station which would operate with 10 kW on 770 kHz medium wave and with two shortwave transmitters at 100 kW for coverage into Asia.

At the time, Trans World Radio was in an era of expansive growth, and Arthur Cushen went on to state that this new Guam station would be their fifth radio broadcasting facility, after Monte Carlo in Europe, Bonaire in the Caribbean, Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and Swaziland (now Eswatini) in Africa.  At this stage, TWR had already established an office facility in Agana, the commercial center and seat of government on Guam.  TWR planned that their first unit in Guam would be their new medium wave station, serving the local population which is now about 170,000. 

    

The new shortwave station was constructed just a little inland from the town of Merizo in the southwest corner of the island.  Two years after the first announcement, in June 1977,

the new KTWR shortwave station was ready to go on the air with test transmissions,

and at that stage the programming consisted entirely of test tones and test announcements.  Trans World Radio issued a special QSL card acknowledging those initial transmitter tests.

Regular program broadcasting began three months later on September 4, 1977, and by then, two 100 kW Harris transmitters, model SW100, were in use, with two TCI wide band curtain antennas.  Transmitter KTWR1 was hard wired to Antenna 1 which had a beam of 285?, and KTWR2 was hard wired to Antenna 2 which had a beam of 315?.

Three years later, in 1980, Trans World Radio received FCC approval for the installation of two more 100 kW shortwave transmitters, the same model Harris SW100.  At the same time, the transmitter building was enlarged to accommodate the two additional units,

and three new curtain antennas were also installed.  Test broadcasts from the new transmitters and antennas took place during the following year, 1981.

In April 1999, a fifth transmitter and a sixth curtain antenna were installed; however, the 100 kW transmitter on this occasion was manufactured by the HCJB facility located at Elkhart in Indiana.  Then, two years later, in 2001, the two early curtain antennas were replaced by two similar units with reflectors.

Also beginning around that time, the two early 100 kW transmitters were removed

and replaced by two higher powered 250 kW units, each with digital DRM capability.

During the installation of the new high powered transmitters, there was a rearrangement of transmitter locations within the building, and the earlier KTWR3 was removed for sale.

In December 2002, one of the most devastating typhoons ever to hit the island of Guam, Typhoon Pongsona, unleashed its fury for a period of around ten hours on Sunday evening, December 8.  All of the wind speed indicators were destroyed by the high winds, though it is estimated that wind gusts reached as high as 190 miles per hour.

 

This sustained and aggressive storm destroyed and damaged a huge number of houses and other buildings, and it completely interrupted the normal flow of business and other activities throughout the island.  Schools were closed, radio stations left the air, highway traffic was completely suspended, and ships could not enter the harbor.  At the beginning of the stormy events, an explosion started a fire at the oil storage tanks near the harbor, a fire which burned for six days before it could be extinguished.

The roof was torn off the Micronesia Mall; long rows of concrete electrical poles were snapped at the base and overlaid the roadways; the island-wide telephone service was inoperative; the rain was so heavy that it was described as a white out; heavy furniture was sucked out of houses; motor vehicles were flipped; and so the story went on.

All flights to the island were cancelled or diverted, and due to the fire at the oil storage tanks, gasoline was rationed, with at one stage only government vehicles being permitted to buy gasoline.  The cost estimate for the damage sustained at the international airport was US$100 million.

The sustained high winds caused considerable damage to both of the shortwave stations that were then on the island – KTWR, and KSDA (which first went on the air in 1987).

At KTWR, the typhoon completely destroyed three of the curtain antennas and severely damaged the other two.  The transmitter building also sustained a certain amount of damage, with salt water getting into two of the transmitters, KTWR2 and KTWR4.

 

Among the immediate results of the extremely strong typhoon winds was that the roadway leading to the site was covered with debris and made impassible, there was no water at the transmitter site, and no electricity.  The cost estimate for all of the damage to the buildings and equipment at KTWR was at least US$100,000, which was also the deducible amount for their insurance policy, meaning Trans World Radio had to raise that money themselves for the repairs.

Amazingly, KTWR was off the air completely for only three days while antennas and feed lines were repaired.  The first transmitter to be re-activated was KTWR5, feeding into curtain antenna 5.  Then towards the end of the same week, KTWR2 was re-activated, feeding into antenna 4.

Transmitters KTWR1 and 3 were also ready to go back on air, but it would take several weeks before new antenna parts arrived from the United States and the antennas were re-built.  For the initial return to the air, the transmitters were powered solely by TWR’s emergency generators.  So for a temporary period well into 2003, until all five transmitters and antennas could be reactivated, KTWR broadcast a modified schedule of composite programming, with major segments chosen from each of their language services.

Incidentally, Trans World Radio’s medium wave station, KTWG, which had been operating on 801 kHz with 10 kW, had been sold, shortly before the typhoon hit, to a Christian businessman.

Over the years, many medium wave DXers in Australia and New Zealand received QSL cards from KTWG, while it was still under the ownership of Trans World Radio. Those cards are now considered to have real historic value.

Friday November 11, 2011 was an auspicious day for KTWR.  On that date, a special dedication ceremony honored the installation of new digital transmission equipment at the station, and a special quarter hour program in DRM mode marked the occasion.

That first DRM broadcast was on 17640 kHz at 0900 UTC.  The entire dedication ceremony was broadcast live from KTWR, and in addition, that special event programming was relayed throughout the United States via the several hundred FM and medium wave stations of the nationwide Moody Bible Radio Network.

   

In more recent times, KTWR was involved in two interesting and significant radio experiments, in addition to the transmission of shortwave programming in DRM mode.  Starting in 2013, Trans World Radio began installing three huge solar arrays for the generation of electricity at the rate of 60 kW hours per day from each array.  It is estimated that the energy production from that equipment has saved the station around $50,000 per year on electricity bills.

Then, in June 2016, one of the 250 kW transmitters at KTWR was used to beam an experimental digital Internet signal to Thailand, that allowed the download of a complete Bible on a smart phone.  Innovative uses of DRM like that have been a hallmark of KTWR in recent years, and it has been a source of significant frustration to them that the take up of manufacturing and distribution of DRM receivers has been so slow.  KTWR currently broadcasts four half hour weekly programs in DRM mode, in English and Tamil to India, in Mandarin to China, and in Japanese to Japan – three countries where DRM receivers are now plentiful.  TWR has said that their intention is to transfer all the current shortwave programming on KTWR to other broadcasters in the region, but what the fate of those DRM transmissions will be, we don’t know.  We do know that Mike Sabin from KTWR has been in Tashkent the past few weeks, trying to improve the equipment there for the DRM transmissions to India.  As soon as we get details of how the TWR programming will be redistributed, we will, of course, let you know.

 Trans World Radio’s KTWR on Guam has always been a reliable verifier of listener reception reports from their office in Agana, and also directly from the station at its Merizo address.  Over the past nearly fifty years, KTWR has issued a host of colorful QSL cards, mostly in English but also at times in Japanese.  Their QSL cards often depicted delightful island scenes in full color.

 Back to you, Jeff.

 

Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal audio available

Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal for July 27, is now up and ready for downloading or listening

Jen's Cast Link.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6u7vekvyxj98ih24m5jzb/Jen-s-Eclectic-Views-real-Deal-For-Sunday-July-27th-18-21-heard-on-Unique-R-Australia.mp3?rlkey=x8nix7rpcbjb2drxmyy98vayx&dl=0

Live Stream for Sunday, August 3, 2025: Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal 18-:00-21:00 UTC.

http://uk4-vn.mixstream.net:8104/index.html 

For your contact pleasure

Jenur@proton.me

Jen In The Rad. 

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

 Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

:Issued: 2025 Jul 28 0129 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 21 - 27 July 2025

Solar activity was at low levels. The largest flare was a C8.1/Sf at 24/0545 UTC from an unnumbered region located behind the west limb. Region 4149 (N17, L=247, class/area Eko/280 on 25 Jul) produced a C7.4/Sf at 25/0101 UTC. Several C-class flares were also observed from several other regions during the highlight period. No Earth-directed CME activity was observed. 

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels on 21-22 July and 24-27 July with a normal to moderate period on 23 July. The maximum flux was 13,000 pfu observed at 21/1700 UTC. 

Geomagnetic field activity reached G1 (Minor) storm levels on 22 and 23 July due to negative polarity CH HSS influence. Solar wind speeds were elevated to as high as 737 km/s late on 23 July. The remaining days were quiet to active levels due to weak negative polarity CH HSS influence. 

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 28 July - 23 August 2025

Solar activity is expected to be at mostly low levels with a chance for M-class (R1-R2, Minor to Moderate) flares for the outlook period. 

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 28 July, 05-06 August and 10-23 August all due to recurrent CH HSS influences. Low to moderate levels are expected on the remaining days. 

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at active to G1 (Minor) storm levels on 04 August, 07-14 August and 18-22 August due to recurrent CH HSS effects. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected on the remaining days of the outlook period. 

Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt

:

Issued: 2025 Jul 28 0129 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 2025-07-28

#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest

#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index

2025 Jul 28     145          10          3

2025 Jul 29     145           8          3

2025 Jul 30     140          10          3

2025 Jul 31     140          10          3

2025 Aug 01     135           8          3

2025 Aug 02     140           5          2

2025 Aug 03     150           5          2

2025 Aug 04     155          12          4

2025 Aug 05     155           8          3

2025 Aug 06     155           5          2

2025 Aug 07     155          20          5

2025 Aug 08     160          15          4

2025 Aug 09     160          25          5

2025 Aug 10     160          18          4

2025 Aug 11     160          25          5

2025 Aug 12     155          18          4

2025 Aug 13     160          20          5

2025 Aug 14     160          12          4

2025 Aug 15     155           8          3

2025 Aug 16     155           5          2

2025 Aug 17     150           5          2

2025 Aug 18     150          15          4

2025 Aug 19     150          25          5

2025 Aug 20     150          15          4

2025 Aug 21     145           8          3

2025 Aug 22     140          12          4

2025 Aug 23     135           5          2

(NOAA)

North Korea Has Scored a Major Victory in the Battle Against Information

 

Martyn Williams

July 21, 2025

The propagandists and censors at the Workers’ Party of Korea can probably hardly believe their luck. For decades they have battled against a constant, daily flow of uncensored news and information into North Korea that directly contradicts the stories they tell their own people about Kim Jong Un, the Korean Peninsula, and the world. 

But in the last three months, everything has changed. The battle has taken a decisive turn in North Korea’s favor and they did not need to do a thing.

Since May, the number of hours of foreign radio programming broadcast into North Korea has been reduced by almost 80 percent. Given the direction of both the US and South Korean administrations on this issue, that level could fall even further over the coming months.

Additional story at: 

North Korea Has Scored a Major Victory in the Battle Against Information - NK TechLab

Odd Time Zones Around the World

 

Time Zones Around the World

Thank you to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's program on Time Zones - something every radio listener has experienced.

Jeff: According to the encyclopedia, time is one of the world's deepest mysteries and it defies complete understanding, as also do magnetism, gravity and electricity, even though we all use them.  Time has been measured for millennia by the calendar and sun dials, and for the past few centuries more precisely by the clock.  But as recently as 1883, there were over 100 different time zones in use by the railway systems in the United States alone, and many other countries throughout the world shared similar time zone problems.  So, this week, Ray Robinson takes a look at some of the peculiar time zone anomalies that have occurred historically and, in some cases, still exist today.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  It was during that year, 1883, on November 18 to be exact, that the continental United States and Canada were first divided into five time zones, each one hour apart.  This concept of establishing time zones was accomplished through the endeavors of the Canadian physicist, Sir Sandford Fleming.

Then during the following year, 1884, the entire world was divided into 24 time zones, each one hour apart and covering approximately 15° of longitude.  These distinctions were based upon the location of the Greenwich Observatory in England, hence the older term, GMT, standing for Greenwich Mean Time.  These days shortwave radio uses the abbreviation, UTC, standing for three French words which are translated into English as Coordinated Universal Time.

However, even though the world was coordinated into 24 time zones, there were some strange anomalies in the expression of time that were very difficult to interpret.  A radio document printed in 1931 lists a whole slew of unusual time zones around the world, from which we take the following information.

Across North America, the observed time zones were all at exact hourly intervals from UTC.  But during that same pre-War era, two notable territories were observing their own standard time, at a half hour difference from standard time.  At midday in London, it was 1:30 am in Honolulu, Hawaii, and 9:30 pm in New Zealand.

There were also some quite strange time zones listed in different countries in 1931:

At Midday in London, it was 9:07 am in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

7:17 am in Valparaiso, Chile

12:17 pm in Paris, France (17 minutes later than in London)

11:24 am in Lisbon Portugal (36 minutes earlier)

6:31 am in Havana, Cuba

1:34 pm in Athens, Greece

4:51 pm in Bombay, India

Back in 1931, listeners to shortwave stations around the world had to know what the local time was in the country they were listening to, and then re-calculate that to their own local time, which sometimes was quite complicated.  The practice of using GMT/UTC on shortwave didn’t really become commonplace until the late 1930’s and the outbreak of World War II.

Time zones, of course, can be quite contentious.  As far back as the early 1890’s, Central European Time was adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, Serbia, Malta, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.  During World War II as the Nazis began invading countries to the west of Germany, one of the first things they did was put them all on “Berlin Time,” or CET.  The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the British Channel Islands were thus all forced to adopt CET when they were invaded in 1940.  Spain also switched to CET, but voluntarily, and the tiny states of Monaco, Andorra and Gibraltar all adopted CET after the war was over.  When the Channel Islands were liberated on May 9, 1945, they immediately switched back to London time.

Perhaps the strangest time zone of all was on the island of Newfoundland, off the east coast of Canada.  At the time of confederation into Canada as a province in 1949, Newfoundland adjusted its time zone to match standard time in Canada by exactly 14 seconds, although at UTC -3½ hours, it is the only time zone in the Americas with a half hour offset from UTC.

Even today, if you’re traveling within the Continental United States, you can still come across some interesting time zone anomalies in the states of Arizona and Idaho.  The state of Arizona does not make any change of time zone, and stays on Mountain Standard Time all year round.  However, the territory within Arizona known as the Navajo Nation, which includes the enormous Monument Valley, does make the change to DST, Daylight Saving Time.  But within the Navajo Nation, the enclave territory of the Hopi Nation, which is completely surrounded by the Navajo territory, does not observe this time zone change.  Because of the complexity of the time zones in the area (Arizona state, Navajo Nation and Hopi Nation), the nearby small town of Tuba City observes both time zones simultaneously during the summer.  This is mainly for the benefit of travelers passing through the area.

Now, up near the Canadian border, the far north of the state of Idaho observes Pacific Time, because the communities there are connected economically with the city of Spokane in Washington state to the west.  The south of the state of Idaho observes Mountain Time, the same as in the adjacent state to the east, Montana.  But, the time zone dividing line in Idaho is not a straight one.  It runs along the Salmon River, and in places there are river communities which observe Mountain Time, even though there is Idaho territory away from the river to the east of them that is on Pacific Time.

In Canada, the city of Lloydminster straddles the border between the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.  The city of Lloydminster is just one city, not twin cities, with the provincial border running down the middle of the main street.  This city observes just one time zone, not two, and they have chosen the Alberta time zone, Mountain Time, which is thus observed on both sides of the provincial border.

In Australia, the regional city of Broken Hill is within the state of New South Wales. However, it is close to the border with South Australia, and the people in this mining city observe South Australian time at UTC + 9½ hours, not the time zone of the state in which they are located, which is UTC + 10 hours.

We might also add that there is one odd time zone within the state of Western Australia.  In the south east corner of the state, on the coast adjacent to the border with South Australia, there is a rural community of just some 200 people – Border Village and the town of Eucla.  This community adopted its own time zone back in 1935, called Central Western Time, which has the peculiar time of UTC + 8¾ hours.  Today that time zone is used in a number of communities along the Eyre highway, on both sides of the state border.  Although not legally defined by the state or federal governments, the boundaries where it commences and ends are clearly understood and are frequently shown on road maps of the area.  Road signs at the western end of the time zone advise travelers to adjust their clocks by 45 minutes.

Sign on the Eyre highway indicating the start of the unofficial Central Western Time Zone

Greenland is described as the world's largest island, though scientists tell us that if all the ice was melted, we would actually see Greenland as three separate islands, which today are covered by the one large ice sheet.  Interestingly, in 1946, the United States offered to buy Greenland at a price of US$100 million.  Donald Trump wasn’t the first to come up with that idea!

Well, on the island, or if you like, on the three islands of Greenland, there are just four main settlements with a total population of around 60,000.  However, these four settlements each observe a different time zone.  Throughout a complete year with summer and winter time, a total of five different time zones are in use in Greenland, running from UTC to UTC – 4 hours.

The comparatively recent nation of Bangladesh in Asia observes its own time zone of UTC + 6 hours.  However, Bangladesh is almost completely surrounded by Indian states, all of which observe the Indian time zone of UTC + 5½ hours.  Thus if you leave Bangladesh and travel west, north or east, you would set your watch back by half an hour.

Nepal, another Asian nation high up in the Himalaya, observes its own time zone of UTC + 5¾ hours.  This places the time in Nepal at a quarter hour difference from nearby India.  However, that time difference is a little easier to negotiate these days, than the earlier time zone in Nepal when they were just ten minutes different from India.

Most countries observe a time zone that is an equal hour from any of its neighbors. However, several countries do observe a half hour difference, such as India that we just mentioned, at UTC + 5½ hours.  The Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean observe UTC + 6½ hours, and Norfolk Island off the east coast of Australia observes UTC + 11½ hours.  Interestingly, Lord Howe Island, an island off the coast of New South Wales, observes UTC + 10½ hours in the winter, and it changes just half an hour for summer time at UTC + 11 hours.

In addition to Nepal, there is another small territory that observes a ¾ hour difference from UTC – the Chatham Islands, a Pacific territory administered by New Zealand, which observes UTC + 12¾ hours.

The record for the most extreme time zone must go to the Line Islands of Kiribati, which observe UTC +14 hours, so that they can stay on the same calendar day as other parts of Kiribati to the west for administrative reasons.

In the far north of Scandinavia, there’s actually a place where you can be in three different time zones at the same time.  It’s at a point where the territories of Norway, Finland and Russia come together near the small city of Nautsi in Russia.

Each year, there are two shortwave transmission periods, with period A running from the last weekend in October until the last weekend in March, and then period B between those same weekends, from March to October.  However, in North America (in the USA, Canada, Cuba and northern Mexico) Standard Time only runs from the first Sunday in November to the second weekend in March.  The twice-yearly practice of moving our clocks forwards or backwards one hour is something President Donald Trump has vowed to end, and the European Union is known to be considering the same.  I remember as a teenager in England, there was an experiment with British Standard Time, UTC+1, which was adopted year-round for three years from 1968-1971, but pressure from people in the north of the British Isles brought that to an end.  To abandon clock changing in the USA will require an Act of Congress, and currently Congress is tied up with other more pressing financial matters, so it may take until sometime next year before the Daylight Saving Time issue can be addressed.

Back to you, Jeff.

Meet the Hobbyists Behind Today’s Smartest Radios

 

Across generations and continents, FM DXers embrace open-source tools to tune into distant signals

By Nick Langan 

Published: July 21, 2025

Do you remember your first portable radio?

For Sjef Verhoeven, it was a Sony Walkman in 1993. As is common in the Netherlands, he would often ride his bike. That spring, he heard FM stations from the U.K. at a distance of about 300 kilometers. All day long, various BBC affiliates were audible.

“I had to find out why that was possible,” he said.

Verhoeven, 47, eventually became an electrical engineer for a wholesaler in radio and TV equipment in the Eindhoven area of the Netherlands. He earned his amateur radio license (PE5PVB) in 1999.

Additional story at: 

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/news-makers/meet-the-hobbyists-behind-todays-smartest-radios?utm_term=A8208372-8B15-4B60-A12B-B5B02339D50A&utm_medium=email&utm_content=E8C9855E-4115-481D-956B-10DDB341857F&utm_source=SmartBrief

Tiny URL: https://tinyurl.com/3fc5zhmm

Audio available for Jen & GB's Summertime Party & Surf Show

 

In case you missed Sunday's show,  Jen & GB's Summertime Party & Surf Show audio is now available for downloading or listening

Jen & GB's Cast Link

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/120wku9sxkkpph7xuhlg6/Jen-GB-s-Summertime-Party-Surf-Show-For-Sunday-July-20th-18-22plus-heard-on-Unique-R-Australia.mp3?rlkey=70v3ghfjx1d2erg35l16j7o7q&dl=0

Live Stream For Sunday, July 27t,h Jen's Eclectic Views & Real Deal 18:00-21:00 UTC

http://uk4-vn.mixstream.net:8104/index.html 

For your contact pleasure Jenur@proton.me

Jen In The Rad.

Weekly Propagation Forecast Bulletins

 Weekly Highlights and Forecasts

:Issued: 2025 Jul 21 0208 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 14 - 20 July 2025

Solar activity was at low levels. The largest flare was a C7.6 from Region 4136 (N20, L=17, class/area=Cao/210 on 20 Jul) at 20/0741 UTC. C-class activity was also observed from several other regiond during the highlight period. No Earth-directed CME activity was observed. 

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels on 14-20 Jul in response to persistent positive polarity CH HSS influence. 

Geomagnetic field activity reached G1 (Minor) storm levels on 14, 15, and 17 Jul due to positive polarity CH HSS influence. Solar wind speeds were elevated to as high as 700 km/s on 15 and 17 Jul. The remaining days were at quiet to active levels despite enhanced solar wind parameters. 

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 21 July - 16 August 2025

Solar activity is expected to be at mostly low levels with a chance for M-class (R1-R2, Minor to Moderate) flares for the outlook period. 

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 21-22 Jul, 24-30 Jul, 5-6 Aug, and 10-16 Aug all due to recurrent CH HSS influences. Low to moderate levels are expected on the remaining days. 

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at active to G1 (Minor) storm levels on 23 Jul, 1-4 Aug and, 7-14 Aug due to recurrent CH HSS effects. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected on the remaining days of the outlook peirod. 

Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt

:Issued: 2025 Jul 21 0208 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 2025-07-21

#

#   UTC      Radio Flux   Planetary   Largest

#  Date       10.7 cm      A Index    Kp Index

2025 Jul 21     145           5          2

2025 Jul 22     140           5          2

2025 Jul 23     140          15          4

2025 Jul 24     142          10          3

2025 Jul 25     138           5          2

2025 Jul 26     135           5          2

2025 Jul 27     135           5          2

2025 Jul 28     130           5          2

2025 Jul 29     130           5          2

2025 Jul 30     130           5          2

2025 Jul 31     130           5          2

2025 Aug 01     130          15          4

2025 Aug 02     130          20          5

2025 Aug 03     125          18          4

2025 Aug 04     128          12          4

2025 Aug 05     130           5          2

2025 Aug 06     132           5          2

2025 Aug 07     138          20          4

2025 Aug 08     140          15          4

2025 Aug 09     138          25          5

2025 Aug 10     135          18          4

2025 Aug 11     135          25          5

2025 Aug 12     130          18          4

2025 Aug 13     130          20          5

2025 Aug 14     130          12          4

2025 Aug 15     125           8          3

2025 Aug 16     130           5          2

(NOAA)

Jen & GB's Summertime Party & Surf Show slated for Sunday broadcast

 

Jen & GB's Summertime Party & Surf Show. Programming will broadcast Sunday, July 20 at 1800-2200 UTC + 

This Sunday, we present our Summertime Celebration Party. First up GB and then Jen Instrumental Surf style. A 15-minute intro, then GB's up from 1815 to 2015; then I take over Surf's A, which is breaking. 

 Live on our digital stream.

http://uk4-vn.mixstream.net:8104/index.html

Join us in our live chat room is open for you in https://libera.chat/
Click on connect, then web chat.
Please put in the following:
For Nick: name or like me radionutresss
The next line channel, that's the following:
#eyeradiojd
and you are in the room.

For your contact pleasure
jenur@proton.me

Join us for some Fun In The Sun.

Jen & GB

UK Propagation Update

 

RSGB

GB2RS News Team | July 18, 2025

Space weather has been a bit like our terrestrial weather this week. We have had sunspots, some C-class solar flares, some coronal mass ejections and a large coronal hole – unsettled, you could say!

Luckily, the coronal mass ejections were not Earth-directed, but the Kp index did rise to 5 on the 15 July and again late on the 16 July. The large coronal hole, which may have been responsible, is well south on the Sun’s surface and should rotate out of Earth’s view by the beginning of the coming week.

Meanwhile, the Sun appears to have woken up, spot-wise, with 11 groups on the 17 July, four of which are classed as growing, while two are stable and three are declining. Two groups are unclassified at this time.

This resulted in an increase in the solar flux index to 152 on Thursday 17 July.

Overall, this means quite reasonable HF conditions considering the time of year. Recent DX spotted includes the JW0V DXpedition to Svalbard on both SSB and FT8, and C93RRC in Mozambique on 17m CW, plus 30, 20 and 10m FT8.

Conditions have been up and down, with daytime maximum useable frequencies, or MUFs, over a 3,000km path reaching 28MHz at times, but then quickly declining to 18 or 19MHz ten minutes later. All we can advise is to keep listening!

Night-time MUFs over a 3,000km path have generally been exceeding 10MHz, and occasionally reaching 14MHz.

We may start to see night-time 14MHz openings tailing off as we head into late July.

Next week, NOAA is a little pessimistic with a predicted solar flux index in the range of 118 to 130. Unsettled geomagnetic conditions, with a possible Kp of 4, are forecast for Tuesday 22 July.

VHF and up:

The unsettled weather over this weekend will continue through the first part of the coming week. Some of the rain will be heavy and possibly thundery, so there is a good chance of rain scatter on the GHz bands.

After mid-week, the pattern may change enough for a weak ridge of high pressure to build close to the UK and this may offer some Tropo opportunities. It may not be strong enough for it to persist through the warmth of a July day. Thus most places will have better Tropo prospects overnight.

The solar conditions have recently fired off a steady stream of aurora alerts and we should probably expect similar in the coming week.

Meteor scatter is often on peoples’ minds during late summer since we have two showers towards the end of this month and of course next month’s Perseids. This month both the Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids peak around the 30 July but we are already in the broad spread of dates for activity.

Sporadic-E is still happening on most days somewhere within Europe, but even UK stations can expect regular FT8 activity and a fair chance of CW or SSB paths for stronger events.

Last Wednesday saw another early afternoon opening into the USA. These stronger events need a low Kp index, below 3, and some jet stream activity to generate turbulence that can spread upwards to the E region.

In the coming week we will certainly have some jet stream activity, so it should be worth monitoring your favourite beacons for activity. In fact, it’s always helpful to have a list of favourite beacons at the ready to cover a range of directions. For example, one in Finland, Poland, Hungary, Italy and Spain should cover it.

Moon declination is positive again, reaching maximum on Tuesday 22 July with associated long Moon windows and high peak elevation. Path losses continue to fall until perigee today, Sunday 20 July. 144MHz sky noise is moderate, but Thursday 24 July sees the Moon and Sun close in the sky until early the following day.

https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/propagation-news/2025/07/18/propagation-news-20-july-2025/

(Mike Terry/BDXC)

Uncle Bill's Melting Pot programming, July 2025

 

In July, we will recognize the national days of Canada and the United States with music and comedy from both places, but it will not be standard patriotic fare in either case. 

UTC/kHz

Friday, July 18: 

6070 at 1700  

3955 at 2100 

Sunday, July 20 

9670 at 1700 using beam E (repeat of July 18 episode). 

(Bill Tilford/Tilford Productions)

BBC Offshore Radio & Rhodesia

 Special thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's script from Wavescan. Another not-to-be-missed edition.

USCG Cutter Courier (photo via Wikipedia)

Jeff: From 1952-1964, the U.S. Information Agency operated a Voice of America station from on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ‘Courier’, anchored off the island of Rhodes, Greece.  It was equipped with a 35 kW shortwave transmitter and a 150 kW medium wave transmitter – the most powerful that has ever been installed on a ship. Perhaps inspired by this, as well as by numerous other offshore stations that were by then operating in European waters, the BBC in London announced in 1965 that they too planned to establish a radio station on board a ship.  Ray Robinson has the story.

Ray: Thanks, Jeff.  Well, this all has to do with the political situation in the country of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in the mid-1960s.  So to understand that, we need briefly to review some history.

In the year 1888, mining rights were granted by the Matabele people to Cecil Rhodes, a prominent Englishman living in South Africa.  Seven years later, the Matabele territory was named Rhodesia in honor of its founder, though ten years later again (in 1905), the U.K. divided the territory in two - Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia.  Beginning in the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950’s, the U.K. began a policy of granting independence to many of the colonies worldwide that had previously been part of the British Empire, usually establishing democratic forms of government, with voting rights for all citizens, the same as in the U.K.

In 1964, Northern Rhodesia was granted independence as the nation of Zambia under their first president, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda.  The tribal situation in Northern Rhodesia was very fractured, with many small ethnic groups and over 40 different languages being spoken.   Dr. Kaunda was able to unify the country, with English being taught and used exclusively in secondary education, and for trade and government.  The country was rich in natural resources, principally copper, and although it has faced its challenges and has been plagued by 

corruption, on the whole it has become one of the most stable democracies in Africa.

However, in Southern Rhodesia, which after 1963 just used the name Rhodesia, the situation was quite different.  The population there included a sizeable minority of white people, many of whom were land-owning farmers, mostly English-speaking, and also some Afrikaners.  There were only two main tribal groupings, and the Soviet Union gleefully exploited this, by providing financial backing for two African nationalist so-called ‘liberation movements’ – the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (known as ZAPU – the Ndebele people in the west led by Joshua Nkomo) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (known as ZANU – the Shona people in the east led by Robert Mugabe).  Both were Marxist-Leninist organizations.

Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation

Under the extraordinary circumstances and facing down a likely civil war, the ruling Rhodesian Front Party led by Mr. Ian Smith decided they needed to control the propaganda narrative, and in order to do that, on January 1st 1965, they introduced limited censorship of broadcast news and the press.  The Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) immediately dropped the relay of the morning world news bulletin from the BBC World Service, and replaced it with a bulletin from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).  However, the afternoon and evening news relays of the BBC remained unchanged on all the RBC’s national network of medium wave and shortwave transmitters.

Nevertheless, both the BBC and Harold Wilson’s Labour government in London were concerned about the censorship, and in June 1965 the BBC announced that they were investigating the possibility of utilizing a large ship as a relay station for radio coverage into East Africa.  The ship they were looking at was a redundant aircraft carrier, HMS “Leviathan”, which had been built in Tyneside, England during the latter part of World War 2.  It was launched on June 7, 1945, just as World War 2 was coming to an end, and the need for the ship had passed. As such, it was never fully completed and simply lay around awaiting its destiny.  It would have been incredibly expensive to crew and operate just as a radio ship, but the suggestion was to have it stationed in the Mozambique Channel near the port of Beira, with coverage for the BBC into both Rhodesia and South Africa.

Now, the Rhodesian capital of Salisbury (present day Harare) is 284 miles from Beira – on the nearest part of the Mozambique Channel - so transmissions would probably have been on tropical band shortwave during the daytime, and high-power medium wave at night.  However, this radio project never got beyond the planning stages, and instead was replaced by plans for a land-based relay station in Bechuanaland.  Two years later, the empty and uncompleted aircraft carrier “Leviathan” itself was sold and scrapped.

Ian Smith of the Rhodesian Front 

Throughout 1965, Ian Smith and the Rhodesian Front received increasing pressure from London.  They resisted because of the violent unrest and inter-tribal rivalries that had already started to play out, and which they feared would escalate dramatically if Britain granted independence to Rhodesia using the black majority rule model.  So, to head that off, in November 1965, the Rhodesian Front surprised and upset London by making a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (or, UDI). 

In response, the British government denounced UDI as illegal, and sped up the plans for the new relay transmission facility.  A temporary site had been chosen just outside Francistown in the neighbouring Bechuanaland Protectorate – ‘temporary’ because 

(photo via Alarmy)

Bechuanaland, now Botswana, was also in the process of its own independence negotiations.  The region around Francistown can at times go for several years without rainfall, and so the almost barren 100-acre property was relatively easy to obtain quickly, and it was ideally situated just 16 miles across the southwest border from Rhodesia and 99 miles from the provincial city of Bulawayo, although the capital city, Salisbury, was some 326 miles distant.

The choice of the Francistown site did attract some local opposition protests, but on December 9th, 1965, a statement was made in the UK House of Commons that the Bechuanaland police were helping with the security of the site, and that prison labour had been used to clear it.

A quick search had been made for available transmitters and it was decided to purchase two 50 kW medium wave units from Continental in Dallas, Texas.  It so happened that at the time, Continental already had several 50 kW medium wave transmitters under construction.  All were model 317C’s, for various clients, one of whom was Ronan O'Rahilly, the founder and operator of the British offshore station ‘Radio Caroline.’

The ship used by Radio Caroline South, the MV Mi Amigo, had initially been converted to a radio ship for the Swedish offshore station Radio Nord in 1960.  Being anchored in International Waters about 20 miles from the capital Stockholm on the Baltic coast, only a 10 kW transmitter had been necessary to cover the city with a good signal.  But when the ship was moved down to a new anchorage in the southern North Sea in 1964, it was more like 60 miles from central London, where the 10 kW signal was marginal in some areas and didn’t penetrate buildings all that well.  Then in late 1964, a competitor offshore station had arrived in the form of Radio London with a much more powerful 50 kW transmitter that covered London and south east England far better.  Thus, in 1965 Ronan had decided he needed to upgrade the transmitter, and had placed the order with Continental.

When approached by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in an act of goodwill, he agreed to allow them to take the Continental 50 kW medium wave transmitter, model 317C, no. 12 that he had ordered.  This was then flown direct from Texas to Francistown and installed in what became the new Central Africa Relay Station.  The next Continental transmitter, no. 13, was similarly diverted and installed in Francistown shortly afterwards.

Interestingly, O’Rahilly then took transmitter no. 14 for Radio Caroline and it was installed on board the ‘Mi Amigo’ in February 1966 during a refit at Zaandam in The Netherlands.   When the ‘Mi Amigo’ finally sank in March 1980, the two transmitters on board – the original 10 kW and the Continental 50 kW – both went down also.  They are still there to this day, on the bottom of the shallow waters of the North Sea!

But, I digress!  The Central Africa Relay Station was quickly constructed under the supervision of Harold Robin who previously had also supervised the installation of the American high-powered medium wave transmitter ‘Aspidistra’ at Crowborough, Sussex, England during World War 2.  A total of 60 tons of radio equipment was flown from the United States and England for installation at Francistown, and 18 British technicians installed the equipment.  As well as the two medium wave transmitters from Continental, two 10 kW Marconi shortwave units had been sourced from the UK.

The first medium wave transmitter and the first shortwave unit were inaugurated on December 30, 1965.  The second medium wave transmitter and the other shortwave unit were inaugurated a few weeks later, early in the New Year of 1966.  The medium wave transmitters were then operated in tandem for a combined output power of 100 kW on 908 kHz, and the shortwave transmitters were used on various frequencies in the 60 and 41 metre bands.

British Diplomatic Wireless Service

The station was not directly operated by the BBC, but rather by the British Diplomatic Wireless Service (the DWS).  Programming was entirely in English; either the BBC World Service, the BBC’s other regular programs for Africa, or special content made specifically for Rhodesia.  Some of the programming was pre-recorded by the BBC Transcription Service and flown to Francistown from England.  Live program feeds were also taken off shortwave, both direct from Daventry and via the BBC relay station in Cyprus.  At the height of its service, the Central Africa Relay Station used the four transmitters in parallel for a total of 15 hours daily.

In order to block the broadcasts from Francistown, on March 21, 1966, the Rhodesian government retaliated by activating jammers at several different locations, including Salisbury and Bulawayo.  The medium wave jammer was a massive 400 kW unit, nicknamed ‘Big Bertha’.  However, as an economy measure, the Rhodesian jammers were only turned on when the BBC programming was discussing the situation in Rhodesia itself.  The jamming against the medium wave channel targeting Bulawayo was fairly successful, though jamming against the shortwave transmissions for the rest of the country was not so effective.

Gaborone

The temporary Central Africa Relay Station at Francistown, Bechuanaland was on the air for exactly 2¼ years, following which it was closed down on March 31, 1968.  The two shortwave transmitters were donated to the new Radio Botswana and were re-located to the capital, Gaborone.  One of the medium wave transmitters was sent to England for use by the BBC, and the other was flown to Cyprus where it was installed in the BBC relay station at Zygi.  

A few QSL’s were known to be issued to verify the reception of the Central Africa Relay Station, but not many.

When the relay facility at Francistown was closed, the shortwave transmissions were transferred to the BBC Relay Station on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.  

Back to you, Jeff.