LOGS / NEWS - AUGUST 2012 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
| 1240 | WCEM | Cambridge, MA |
23/08/12 0500 (VERY POOR, tip Paul C) |
| 1590 | WAUB | Auburn, NY |
21/08/12 0431 Id as Fingerlake News Radio (no call) |
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The last day of August 2012, and commemorating the closure of Radio Northsea etc from the Dutch coast in 1974 on this date. Radio Caroline as everyone reading this should know, sailed again "home" to the English coast line, broadcasting as she went, with the legendary (late) Tony Allan.
120823_0303_1368_bbc_radio_lincolnshire_close_mw.mp3 120823_0500_1368_manx_radio_sign_on.mp3 120824_0825_1485_bbc_merseyside_left_mw.mp3
MW DXING LAST FEW DAYS: MW Dxing certainly looking better by the day here. A list of stations heard, or at least some is to be seen below, as well as a montage of common logs. The stations heard so far are mostly what are called in these parts, common stations. I would usually list these at the start of the season and perhaps include them in a montage, if the signal was notably powerful. I certainly do NOT list logs every day of WBBR and WWKB!! The list below are simply common stations that have been identified at some point over the last week or so. No real logs are kept here of these stations during the course of the dx season, unless it is a log of exceptional strength or unusual in other ways. Less common stations may be in bold below. 540 CBC
ee
1170
WWVA
MW during the last few days has been somewhat depressed, and not worth noting. The common stuff eg WWKB and WBBR are still there, but Peru has been heard also on 1570, so a mixed bag really. DX neighbour Davie up the road heard a good one at 0430 the other morning on 1590. WPSL FL. That is a new one on me, so well done Davie. I had WAKR around 0400, and never really record half hours. The peak at these latitudes is certainly around 0430 now, so maybe I will record over the weekend at 0430. Then again, I may try 6.9 for the American pirates. It will be a last minute decision.
OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHERS GROUP - AMERICAN ARCHIVE: It was pointed out to me via the BDXC Yahoo group that a multitude of vintage wireless material is being added to the following site, with a North American slant.
AMERICAN ARCHIVE SITE COMMENTS, AND DX ARCHIVE COMMENTS!! I notice the comments on the above site re the ignorant hoarders that seem to thrive on clutching on to their collections and not making them public. I have come across this attitude in local history circles as well. Then there are the chaps that would scan their old boots, just to leave a record of themselves and their collections. I can picture the formert sitting behind closed curtains at night with the candle burning, laughing as they read their precious material. Like Frazer from Dad's Army..LOL. I moan and groan here often, but there is nothing more miserable than the collectors of radio memorabilia that hoard and don't share. Except perhaps the sharks who's only thoughts are of greed and money. Those types are not radio hobbyists. They are as I stated, sharks, and certainly should not be encouraged. The lowest types are those that prey on hard working archive builders, before throwing recording after recording on ebay. I have seen countless on ebay selling offshore download club files and AZ Anorak files. Also there are those offering publications from the past, taken straight from archive.org and the open library of Google scans. These types are preying on the ignorance of others, for not knowing where to look for public domain downloads in the first place. Another point I must make on this subject is the many items that have been sold on ebay recently from the 60s. Lets think what I have seen and bid on but lost. An interesting vintage item is listed below, but I have also seen collections of Time and Tide appear, a 60's supplement of a London newspaper that contained radio news of the Offshore stations. A collection of the forerunner to Time and Tide, a collection of 1960's radio press cuttings, a large collection of Offshore Photos, original reels with classic off air recordings made public neither by the seller or the buyer!! What is that all about!!! These were all sold and bought without any thoughts about having them scanned / archived and made public. If collectors and hoarders keep taking this material out of circulation, no one will ever have the chance to see or hear them. I have won a few items of late that WILL appear on this site. Be patient for updates. BROADCASTING FROM WITHIN is a 1924 book written by a BBC Employee in the early days. It is a great addition and from the same era as the Burrows book already available here. (That was made up a few years ago, and I believe the pdf creating skills have improved somewhat here, so this needs tidied up!!) A couple of years ago, I was appealing to borrow Radio Scotland 242 magazines to scan and return to the owners. Believe it or not, there were a couple of replies on a forum to the extent of "Yes I have a few of those". And what? It's like the "I have it and you don't" type of schoolyard nonsense!! One genuine chap that only had two, mailed them and had them sent straight back, and they have been on line since. And again I state what I see as obvious. Why is it that radio clubs don't in general make their back archives public?? Fair enough if they are interested in making money as a first instance, then wait three months or so for the latest issues. The web is a fantastic medium for creating a large public archive. I have recently made all the back issues of the Anoraks UK Weekly report available, a time consuming job, but well worth the effort in the long run. We have had thousands of hits for that stuff as well!! So if there is anyone with anything worthy of sharing, scan it and make it public. A3 scanner here for donkey work if bigger items need scanned!!!
BACK BUYING OLD STUFF!!! I have been on ebay again, and came across more interesting "treasures" from the past. There was a set of 16 or 17 "Radio for Amateurs" publications dating back to 1922. No matter whether these are American based, or European based, they's have been of interest from that early wireless era. I thought as they were sitting at 8 quid for a long while, I would go 20 quid or so. At the end, bidding heat up, and they sat at 24 quid or there about's. I stuck in 26 at the last kick... Was I close?? NO.Not a hope. Final bid £146!!!!!! Click here to view. NB:This is an ebay link, and therefore the original link to the item will disappear within 90 days I think it is.
KEN'S YEARBOOK SOON: I haven't forgotten the annual pdf yearbook that is produced here along with a few extra items of note from the last 12 months. I better play catchup with these things before the mw dx season picks up here again (hopefully).
Basking in the sunshine here in Scotland this morning, and thus need to get some outside work done, that has been ignored in the streaming rains of the last month or more.
MW DXING: The subject of this web site in fact was supposed to be MW dxing. I am happy to say that signals are gradually coming back from across the water, and this morning at 0400 not only was WWKB 1520 booming, but less usual station, KRJO 1680 had a surprisingly good peak at 0400. There were a lot more signals coming through, but nothing to talk about. I always feel that when WWKB starts to come in like that, the band is picking up. Let's hope so at any rate. 930 CFBC
0500
It is not just the weather here in Scotland that has that back end feel to it. After some attempts at recording at dawn, and hearing virtually nothing, despite the beverage antennas, signals are again starting to re-appear as if by magic. I have not heard anything too exciting so far, but a few signals are included below.
120803_0358_1230_wmid_classic_oldies.mp3 120807_0400_1320_cjmr_dual_ee_id.mp3 120808_0400_1370_wdea_new_toth.mp3 120807_0400_1520_wwkb_inc_long_ad_dentistry.mp3 120803_0358_1570_bethel_peru_ids.mp3
A regular here in Europe is 1370 WDEA Elsworth. They have changed to ABC news, and are no longer a Cumulous station, as heard on the new TOTH ann (Top of the Hour) - see the above clip.
WEATHER REPORT: Again
I discuss the shocking weather we have had this summer. Rain Rain and
Rain. Heavy thundery clouds all around as well. So bad that I never
recorded over the weekend at all. Saturday was hammering it down with
thunder and lightning, so the pc, antennas, hard drives etc all got
pulled and abandoned!! Sod that.
Remarkable as it may seem, today, Wednesday 8th Aug, I have the short
troosers on again!! Sun is warm in the afternoon sky, as it has been
all morning. Maybe there is hope for a wee bit of weather after all,
before the end of this wet "driech" summer.
SILLY LANGUAGE: PLUG TOPS: This was a term used in the 80's when plugs were sold in shops. These days, they try and tell you that everything is all safe now with pre moulded plugs. But why were plugs called PLUG TOPS!!! What a silly name for them. SLEEP OVER: This phrase was pointed out to me recently as being used by the media loving mothers of today do describe their kids "staying at hughie's the night". No, they are not staying at Hughie's. They are having a sleep over. Where did this come from?? Silly American tv shows?? Who knows? I wonder what else I can come up with on this subject?
I have a few logs from today... A lot of other signals were coming through as well as the few below. 1230
WMID id via Wildwood relay 0358
BBC INTRODUCE A STAGGERING 48 NEW TV CHANNELS: The BBC have taken on a staggering 48 new satellite TV channels!!! Yes it's true!!! But it is not to show any of the massive archive material the BBC have in their collections. It is for the Olympics!! Yes, on satellite (28 deg E) they have taken channel 450 - 473 for normal Sky Boxes, and for HD boxes, 474 - 497.
2LO MILITARY BAND: The old early BBC channel for London, 2LO is featured in many of the vintage wireless web sites, as well as many of the old books on the subject. Not least the early BBC YEARBOOKS. I came across an old 78 rpm record last week on ebay of the 2LO Military Band. The sellers old 78 rpm records never seemed to be attracting much interest, so I bid on the item before I went out on Sunday. Unfortunately I was beaten. I wonder how rare that would be?? But I had a look through my own archives, and found that I had a record from the BBC WIRELESS MILITARY BAND!! I wonder how many years down the line from the 2LO band the BBC band were?? I notice that the 2LO label is Edison Bell, where as the BBC label is Columbia.
The early days of radio especially interest me, though I guess there can not be anyone reading these pages now that were listeners back in those days. Rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel so to speak, have a read at the MDS web site, and download the extensive frequency listings.
BBC LEAVES BUSH HOUSE: I was watching some serious kit being sold off from Bush House the other week, but could not believe that the BBC were selling off their heritage. There were a number of original photographs and historical pieces offered for sale. I wish I had saved the page with this material, but many of them were taken straight from the wall of the building. Look out for phase 2 of the sell off..
MARS ROVER SET FOR LANDING: I have been following the latest from NASA regards the latest Rover that is hopefully about to land in Gale Crater. Fingers crossed for Sunday / Monday when the lander is due to touch down on the Martian surface. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/ I can't help but remember the perseus file that was shared a few years ago, with the signal from VOYAGER on it, complete with the doppler effect!! I wonder if the contributor that had access to a 40m dish antenna in Spain at the time could actually decode any of the NASA signals?? Or if the signals were simply audible and visible, much like for example the noise on 1680, or some of the other encrypted noises on hf. What frequency does the Mars orbiter transmit back to Earth??? What mode?? Is it possible for amateur enthusiasts to receive the signals with relatively basic antennas?? It is not everyone that has a 40m dish at their disposal!!! Another point of this exciting up and coming Mars explorer, is this. Has NASA sent this Rover to another dry hole?? There are many many interesting images that have been seen in recent years of places on Mars that would seem to have some kind of life, or other sites that seem to have liquid water. Why haven't they sent the craft to one of these sites???? Have a look at this page and follow the links to the original NASA images and then judge for yourself. Remember the reporter is only highlighting images NASA already have up on line. Just what will CURIOSITY see on landing in the coming days??? http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2012/221/real-mars.htm |
