SHORTWAVE IN THE NEWS

SHORTWAVE IN THE NEWS

Here is a collection of new and very recent online articles relating the shortwave radio hobby. If you missed some of these, now is your opportunity to catch up!! Sit back and enjoy!

The end of an era - BBC Relay Station site handed back to Seychelles 
For around 25 years, the BBC operated it’s important relay station from the nation of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. This facility was vital in ensuring a strong and reliable signal into Africa for its English World Service programming as well a variety of African languages. This news article reports on the official handover of the relay  station’s main buildings, electrical services, antenna towers and surrounding land to the people of this island nation. There are some excellent images of the antennas in the report.

http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/1792/The+end+of+an+era+-+BBC+Relay+Station+site+handed+back+to+Seychelles


High Noon in Wertachtal
Are you the sort of person who likes watching transmitter towers fall to the ground. Do you enjoy the thrill of the explosions. Do you have a fascination with seeing things crumple into a screaming pile of twisted metal junk? Then this online article and its associated YouTube videos is for you! Ride the bumps as the Wertachtal antennas are blown away. The news report is in German so non-speakers of that language will need to employ Google Translate. But, really, the multiple images and videos tell the whole story!

http://neuerdings.com/2014/11/10/alterdings-mit-einem-explose-zur-lage-der-detonation-high-noon-im-wertachtal/


Sudan’s Info Minister admits ‘failure to block Radio Dabanga’
There’s a short but interesting report on the admission of Sudanese government officials that jamming of Radio Dabanga has largely failed.

https://www.radiodabanga.org/node/83826


Central African Republic: Chaos and self-censorship stalk nation’s journalists
The ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in the Central African Republic is discussed in a concise article that highlights the importance of shortwave radio as still a means of vital communications for parts of Africa. Media infrastructure has broken down and getting news to local communities is becoming increasingly difficult as radio stations are looted and distorted and journalists are too frightened to report on horrific events in that country. The largely rural population is heavily reliant on radio for their information, but the national broadcaster has stopped airing with no signs of return. Jacobo Quintanilla, Director of Humanitarian Communications Programmes, said that with shortwave radio, you compromise on sound quality but maximise outreach: “You can reach refugees living in camps in Chad.”  Hasan highlighted Internews’ plans to distribute wind-up radios for use by internally displaced populations, further extending the spread of information. “Some of these radio stations are literally lifelines,” Quintanilla said.

http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/11/central-african-republic-chaos-and-self-censorship-stalk-nations-journalists/


Does Shortwave Radio Have a Future?
There is a long and detailed article by Thomas Witherspoon on his wonderful radio blog “The SWLing Post”, which is well worth reading! It first appeared in the October 2014 issue of The Spectrum Monitor and is now available on Thomas’ own website. He breaks down some of the arguments surrounding the case for abandoning shortwave and argues strongly why it is essential that some services should be maintained.

http://swling.com/blog/2014/11/does-shortwave-radio-have-a-future/


Timelapse of Sunspot AR 2192
There continues to be high sunspot activity during the months of October and November, affecting shortwave radio communications. NASA has released an animated video of eight days of solar flares. It shows the surface of the sun from October 14th to 30th, 2014, following the progress of sunspot AR 2192, the largest sunspot of the last two solar cycles (22 years). During this time sunspot AR 2191 produced six X-class and four M-class solar flares. The animation shows the sun in the ultraviolet 304 ångström wavelength, and plays at a rate of 52.5 minutes per second. It is composed of more than 17,000 images, 72 GB of data produced by the solar dynamics observatory (http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/).  A fascinating view of old Mr. Sol.

http://youtu.be/yXYrLJCA9DQ


Solomon Islands Broadcasting win first DRM award
Finally, we have a short news report on the Digital Radio Mondiale consortium’s award as part of a promotion of that mode’s expansion.

https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/solomon-islands-broadcasting-win-first-drm-award


73 and good DX to all.

Rob VK3BVW