Via Bryan Clark reporting on the DX Dialog reflector: The following posted to the DXLD Yahoo Group yesterday by Mike Terry:
The film ‘3 Mile Limit’ about Radio Hauraki New Zealand is now in post production. There is no official Trailer yet but there is this clip on YouTube.
“Auckland Viaduct, October 1966: a group of determined young men defy the police and government and, to the cheering of their fans, launch a coastal ship that has been converted to a pirate radio station which they intend to use to broadcast from the Hauraki Gulf.
Amazon are taking pre-orders for the WRTH with a release date of Dec 30th 2013. You can either buy from the Amazon.com website (US$25.39 + shipping), or use a New Zealand-based Amazon reseller like Fishpond (NZ$38-40 delivered!).
India’s public service broadcaster, Prasar Bharati will assist the Afghan government broadcaster – Radio and Television Afghanistan (RTA) to start a news channel in the war-ravaged country.
Excerpts…. RTA Director General Zarin Anzor and A R Panjshiri, Afghanistan’s head of International Relations met Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar and also sought help in repair and maintenance of their existing transmission facilities such as uplink, short wave transmitter and TV network.
The RTA has a network of 24 TV transmitter with downlink facilities, one 100 kw short wave transmitter with 7 antennae catering service to its neighbouring countries and one uplink station in Kabul providing connectivity.
Russia’s international radio service, the Voice of Russia (Golos Rossii) will stop its shortwave broadcasts on January 1, 2014. According to digit.ru website, the decision to leave shortwave has been taken because of decreased funding. Digit.ru says that ending shortwave transmissions was revealed in a letter from Natalia Zhmay, Deputy Chairman of the Voice of Russia, to Andrew Romanchenko, head of the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRN), dated August 15. Neither Voice of Russia nor RTRN have officially commented on the matter.
When the MW band opened into the Caribbean, many NZ DXers checked 780kHz for the chance of a rare new country, British Virgin Islands.
Well, chances of snaring this rarity may have improved. Thanks to Paul Rawdon who forwarded this item from the MW DX group to the NZRDXL “DX Dialog” e-mail reflector:
I’ve gotten word construction on their new 300 foot tower has begun. In fact, the tower is standing at about 160 feet.
In response to an e-mail from Paul Rawdon on the DX League reflector, Martin Hadlow recalls the days when he worked for Radio England…
Is it really 47 years from the ‘summer of 66’ when I worked for off-shore stations Radio England/Britain Radio? It was my first job in radio and my shortest! The job didn’t last long because the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act was introduced to the UK Parliament that year and took effect a year later. Radio England/Britain radio went to air in June, 1966 (after testing from around May), so was a late starter in the whole pirate radio scene. I had a job in the station’s London office (in Curzon Street) and often visited the ship (which was anchored in the English Channel) carrying a suitcase full of the latest top 40 records and taped commercials. To get to the ship entailed a train ride from London to Harwich, thence to the small port of Felixstowe, where one boarded a Dutch registered fishing boat for the voyage to the ship.
What an era! Crazy days. Imagine being an 18 year old in London in the swinging 60’s working for a pirate station? It is still hard for me to believe I was part of the excitement of the time, albeit for only months, not years. By the way, one of my jobs was issuing some of the QSLs…so if you have a QSL card (which featured a photo of our ship, the MV Olga Patricia) have a look to see if it has my signature.
Radio 270
The Government legislation of August 1967 effectively brought the whole off-shore radio scene to a close, although several stations battled on. Thanks for the memory…
Here is the article from Alan Jarvie via Facebook, on celebratiosn by Scotland 69am to commemorate the introduction of the Marine Offences Act in 1967 and the implications for the offshore pirate radio stations….
August 13, 2013Alan Jarvie writes on Facebook:Today and tomorrow, Scotland 69am (http://www.scotland69am.com/) will be
commemorating the introduction of the Marine Offences Act on August 15th 1967.
There will be a two part AJ Pirate Radio Special, Part 1 tonight followed by Part 2 tomorrow night. Part 1 will feature recordings of the early days of the offshore stations whilst Part 2 will feature recordings nearer the end of the stations. Both progs will include interviews with former offshore presenters, including Dave Gillbee (ex-City and Britain Radio) and Tony Prince (ex-Caroline North). The programmes should start at 8pm UK (19:00 UTC) but this is to be confirmed… (internet only, more stations expected with special programmes tomorrow)
Radio Veronica
Per Wiki:The Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 c.41, shortened to Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, became law in the United Kingdom at midnight on Monday 14 July 1967 and was repealed by the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006. Its purpose was to extend the powers of the British Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949 (which it incorporated by reference), beyond the territorial land mass and territorial waters of the UK to cover airspace and bodies of water.
At the time that the Bill was introduced in Parliament in 1966, there were radio stations and proposals for television stations outside British licensing jurisdiction with signals aimed at Britain. These stations were at sea but there were press reports of stations planned from aircraft. Radio Caroline South
The Act included the Channel Islands and extended to the Isle of Man. As a result, offshore stations called pirate radio became criminal if operated or assisted by persons subject to UK law. Station operators thought they could continue if they were staffed, supplied and funded by non-British citizens, but this proved impractical(More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine,_%26c.,_Broadcasting_(Offences)_Act_1967)
And here is a Youtube compilation of English off-shore pirate radio stations
Thanks to Paul Rawdon for posting the following on the DX League reflector:
Video produced by Vatican TV to commemorate Vatican Radio’s 75th Anniversary. Complete programme has been split into five parts. Would have been made in 2006 as they celebrated their 80th anniversary in 2011.
Ivo Ivanov reports via the SW DX Bulgaria website that Radio Free Sarawak has reactivated on SW. Ivo notes “Radio Free Sarawak continues to broadcast on 15420 after 1230, probably until 1300”.
Their mandate seems to be to support land-owners disenfranchised by large companies and government misinformation: “If you have a problem in your village or if someone is taking your land, logging, planting or polluting your area let your voice be heard and tell the world about it through Radio Free Sarawak!”. For more info visit their website.
Radio Cayman was one of the most regular of Caribbean stations heard in New Zealand. The split frequency of 1555kHz gave it solus position and the bird song interval signal prior to the 1100z sign-on was magical to hear. They were also heard signing off around 0500z some days.
Thanks to Tony King, here is their sign-off announcement:
The average age of DXers is steadily increasing, so it is worth contemplating this time of life. DXers should be aware that there are signs that indicate you are approaching old age, or whether it is too late.
The warning signs are when :
1) You still refer to kc/s instead of kHz.
2) You keep an extra pair of glasses to find the spare ones – and lose them both.
3) You start saying “I remember the days you could hear 250 Watt Yanks on 1490 kc/s”.
4) You can’t see the numbers on the dial of the receiver too well.
5) Sitting in front of your radio is your daily exercise.
6) You now get the grandson to climb the tree to hang the antenna wire.
7) You log the station but never get around to writing the reception report.
8) You can remember first hearing of Kennedy’s assassination over the VOA.
9) You blame the earphones when you can’t hear the station ID properly.
Back in December 1986, MW DXers were tuning their radios to 1570kHz to hear a new radio station operating out of the Turks & Caicos Islands. That station was “The Atlantic Beacon” and Tony King made this recording of their opening announcement
Following on from the post about the curious case of the jamming of Uncle Scrim, here is a story that appeared in the October 1990 DX Times penned by Barry Williams.
THE JAMMING OF 1ZB
When we talk of jamming we tend to think of the Cold war during the 50s and 6os on shortwave when there was a real battle of the airwaves between the East and the West. However New Zealand had a case of jamming much earlier than than that.
Martin Hadlow has forwarded an interesting article describing the Honolulu radio dial in 1976. DXers will fondly remember Alan Roycroft and recall the comments he used to write on the back of the “Broadcasting Services” QSL cards.
Entitled “Honolulu Radio: A Wasteland”
“The Honolulu Star-Bulletin on February 12th issued it’s second annual survey of radio stations on Oahu. There are 21 stations. The news-paper noted a number of changes which have taken place over the past year. These include: 12 instead of 9 stations broadcasting 24 hours; a reduction in the number of employees the replacement of eight general managers and four major ownership changes. There is apparently a greater number of stations broadcasting the sane format — “Beautiful music, that is. ‘the same pop music, ranging (if that phrase can be used meaningfully) from Golden Oldies to popified mellow rock.‘ Janos Gereben. the reviewer, noted that ‘an astonishing tom of 12 stations‘ are involved in broadcasting a “musical vast wasteland”
Remember the good old ferrite loopstick antenna? Well, the FSL (ferrite sleeve loop) is a loopstick on steroids. Gary DeBock is one of many hobbyists who have been experimenting with these imposing antennas, sort of the boat anchor of aerials! His interesting article appears on Colin Newall’s dxer.ca site.
Posted onAugust 4, 2013byPaul Ormandy|Comments Off on China Radio’s Tamil Service Marks Golden Anniversary
In these days when we’re faced with shortwave stations closing down, it is refreshing to know that some international broadcasters continue to defy the pundits. And so it is that the Chinese international broadcaster (Radio Peking, Radio Beijing, China Radio International) is now celebrating its 50th year of broadcasting in Tamil.
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