BBC ANTARCTIC TRANSMISSION - Great Listening!

BBC ANTARCTIC TRANSMISSION

Great Listening!

Southeastern Australia is not really that far from the Antarctic Territories. So our reception of the special BBC Solstice broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey teams was probably a fair indication of how listeners in that region might have heard the broadcasts.

Recording the Midwinter message at BAS, Cambridge, England
As usual, there were many warm and heartfelt greetings to family members and colleagues. But, also included were wonderful greetings from English comedian Bill Bailey and a British astronaut who is currently training for duty on the International Space Station next year.

Below are some snippets of recordings from all three frequencies used for the transmission, which will give you an indication of reception into Mount Evelyn.


MONITORING REPORT - June 21, 2130-2200 UTC

5875   ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. Good clear signal, no QRM at 2130. Not quite as strong as 5985 kHz but very readable and consistent throughout the broadcast.

Excerpt #1 includes a message from the British astronaut from the European Space Agency:



Excerpt #2 includes the end-of-broadcast closing announcements and best wishes from the broadcast's announcers and producers:




5985.12   UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. BBC - Dhabayya. Strong signal but with a little low level hum (strange!) at 2135, no QRM. Maintained good levels throughout the broadcast. Surprised to see it off frequency by so much.....not very British!!  ;-)

Excerpt #3 includes best wishes from British professor Jane Francis, and from special guest well-wisher, comedian Bill Bailey:




7350   ASCENSION IS.  BBC - Ascension. Started out as a reasonably good signal at 2138 but, surprisingly, it deteriorated rapidly to a rather weak signal by 2146, light QRM from China on 7345 kHz, but not really a problem there.

Excerpt #4 is sample audio at 2138 UTC when the signal on 7350 kHz was reasonably strong enough to copy easily:



 Excerpt #5 is sample audio of how this frequency deteriorated only 8 minutes later:



There is a lovely article that appeared from the British Antarctic Survey online that provides some background behind the reasons for this special annual 30 minute broadcast. Here's the link:

 http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_bas/news/news_story.php?id=2665

So, if you couldn't hear the broadcast from your part of the world or weren't near your radio when it was transmitted, then I hope that these audio clips have given you a taste of "family" radio at its best. The BBC is to be congratulated for making this broadcast available each year, simultaneously from three different transmitter sites, in an effort to get the signals through to the good researchers and workers at the four British Antarctic stations.

 Watch out for the next year......same time (probably!) but definitely on the same date!!  

 73 and have a great weekend everyone!

 Rob Wagner VK3BVW



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