Author: Richard Langley

Live, off-air, three-hour recording of the 70th anniversary broadcast of the special annual Gruss an Bord program from German broadcaster NDR, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, on 24 December 2023 beginning at 18:00 UTC. The broadcast features music and greetings to and from mariners around the world. The Christmas greetings were recorded at two events in Leer and Hamburg.

Relatives and friends had the opportunity to wish their loved ones at sea a happy holiday and a happy new year. The Leer event was recorded on 10 December in the Kulturspeiche and featured the Bingumer Shanty Choir and Anne-Fleur Gabor and her band while the Hamburg event was recorded on 17 December in the Duckdalben International Seamen's Club featured the Swedish-South African duo "Fjarill." The broadcast was primarily in German with some greetings in other languages. Many of the songs were in English, too.

In addition to being carried on the NDR Info and NDR Info Spezial networks, the broadcast was transmitted around the world on shortwave using transmitters in Nauen (NAU), Germany; Issoudun (ISS), France; Tashkent (TAC), Uzbekistan; and Okeechobee, Florida (RMI), U.S.A.; and was organized by Media Broadcast.

The schedule (in UTC) was:

1800-2100 on 6030 ISS 250 kW / 251 deg to North/East Atlantic

1800-2100 on 6080 TAC 100 kW / 301 deg to West/Central Europe

1800-2100 on 9635 NAU 250 kW / 130 deg to Indian Ocean - West

1800-2100 on 11650 ISS 250 kW / 148 deg to Indian Ocean - SoAf

1800-2100 on 13725 NAU 250 kW / 205 deg to Southern Atlantic

1800-2100 on 15770 RMI 100 kW / 044 deg to North/West Atlantic

RMI, Radio Miami International, initially had problems with the start of the broadcast and missed about the first 17 minutes.

The recording is primarily of the transmission on the frequency of 11650 kHz for the first two hours and the first part of the third and 6030 kHz for the rest of the third hour as the signal degraded slightly on 11650 kHz with some adjacent frequency interference. Since the receiver was initially tuned to 15770 kHz at the beginning of the broadcast until retuning to 11650 kHz, the first minute and a half of the broadcast was replaced in the recording with the corresponding part of the archived NDR studio recording

The program was received outdoors on a Belka-DX receiver in pseudo-synchronous (AM2) mode with a bandwidth of 50 Hz - 2.7 kHz with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Reception was good for the most part on both recorded frequencies.

Live off-air recording of some of the last day of programming from the Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) Radio 1 longwave station on 14 April 2023 beginning at 11:55 UTC on the frequency of 252 kHz. The signal originated from a transmitter located at Clarkestown/Summerhill, County Meath, in the Republic of Ireland, reported to operate with a power of 150 kW during the day (and 60 kW during the night). The transmitter was capable of operating at 300 kW. The station used a 248-metre high single-mast antenna.

RTÉ Radio 1 is a general-interest, news, talk, and music station. It now uses FM, satellite, streaming, and cable services.

The recording starts with the final minutes of the "Louise Duffy Show," followed by the "RTÉ News at One" (which featured reports on U.S. Pres. Joe Biden's visit to Ireland) and then the first 13 minutes or so of "Liveline," an interview and phone-in chat show. The recording ends with an announcement of the shutdown of the longwave service.

Reception of the 252 kHz signal was reasonably good but it suffered from slight co-channel interference from a station in Algeria and local noise at the reception site.

RTÉ Radio 1 programming on 252 kHz ended at 23:03 UTC on 14 April 2023 and was replaced with a repeated announcement of the cessation of broadcasting on longwave and information about other ways to hear RTÉ Radio 1. It begins with the RTÉ Radio 1 interval signal "O’Donnell Abú." Examples of the announcement are included in the second three-and-a-half-minute recording which starts at about 12:34 UTC on 15 April 2023. In this recording, most of the interference has been removed by an audio filtering technique. The closedown announcements ended on 18 April 2023 at 09:59 UTC and the transmitter then fell silent.

The broadcasts were received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in synchronous AM mode with 5.08 kHz RF filtering.

A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2023 beginning at 21:30 UTC. The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the 37 members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula) and King Edward Point and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were interviews withProfessor Dame Jane Francis, Director of BAS and Nadia Frontier, a marine biologist from BAS and former winterer. The transmitter came on the air with a test tone (1108 Hz plus harmonics) about a minute before the program started. As sometimes happens, the first few words of the introduction were missed.

The recording is of the transmission first on a frequency of 12005 kHz but after a few minutes it was switched to 13810 kHz due to interference (QRM) on the former frequency. Both frequencies were from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station. The sender of the 12005 kHz frequency had a registered power of 300 kW with antenna beam 182 degrees, while that for 13810 kHz was registered as 250 kW with an antenna beam of180 degrees. The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception on 13810 kHz was quite good with little noise or fading and very good signal strength. The additional parallel frequency of 7255 kHz from Dhabbaya, United Arab Emirates was not heard.

Live off-air recording of the last approximately two hours of programming from the RTL longwave station on 1 January 2023 beginning at 22:00 UTC on the frequency of 234 kHz. The signal originated from a transmitter located in Beidweiler, Luxembourg, reported to operate with a power of 375 kW at night (and 750 kW during the day). The transmitter was capable of operating at 1500 kW. The three-mast antenna beamed the signal mostly in the direction of Paris.

RTL is a general-interest, news, talk, and music station station owned by the RTL Group with its main studios in Paris. It has an extensive FM network covering France and also uses other broadcasting means such as DAB+ and streaming services.

The final two hours of programming was produced and presented by long-time French broadcaster Georges Lang, a devotee of English-language rock, pop, and blues music primarily from the 1960s through the 1980s. The first hour was a special New Year's version of the "Georges Lang Collection" followed by "Les Nocturnes," a program Lang has done for fifty years. The transmitter left the air at 00:00:05 UTC.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 9.00 kHz RF filtering. Reception was excellent.

Live, off-air, three-hour excerpt of a recording of the provincial Cuban station Radio Metropolitana, CMBL, Havana, Cuba, on 10 November 2022 beginning at about 20:00 UTC. The station operates on an frequency of 910 kHz from a transmitter in the Villa Maria area of the Distrito de Guanabacoa municipality of Havana with a power of 5 kW and an omnidirectional antenna. The station also transmits on 98.3 MHz in the FM band.

The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 portable receiver with its built-in ferrite-bar-loop antenna in Marathon, Florida, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception was fairly good with some background noise due to the slightly weak signal associated with the over 200 km long-range reception.

Radio Metropolitana is part of the group of stations that make up the Provincial Directorate of Radio in Havana with studios in the FOCSA building in Havana's Vedado district. It is on the air 24 hours a day and offers cultural programming with a strong presence of music aimed at families in the capital city. Its slogan is "La radio de casa" and its theme tune is a fragment of the familiar song "El Manisero" ("The Peanut Vendor") by Cuban composer Moisés Simons. Both can be heard frequently in this recording.

The recording begins with a song by Puerto Rican singer Kany García followed by the program "De Buena Tinta" (literally "of good ink" but an idiomatic expression meaning "on good authority") beginning at 20:00 UTC. This is a news program for residents of Havana including events taking place, weather, and sports. At 20:30 UTC, there is the program "La Novela" (The Novel) with an instalment of "La Flor de los Sueños" (The Flower of Dreams). Next is "Un Amigo Cincero" (A Sincere Friend), a brief program on the literature of José Martí. The program "Por La Habana" (Around Havana) begins at 21:00 UTC. This program is mostly music with Cuban jazz, blues, and funk. Between every few musical items is a discussion of indigenous languages in Latin America and elsewhere and their impact on music. At 22:30 UTC, the program "Para Luego es Tarde" (meaning colloquially "no time like the present") begins. This edition features a discussion about corn (maize), its history and how it is grown, harvested, marketed, prepared for food and other uses. Midway through the program there is a musical interlude with a short discussion about the Bee Gees with excerpts of several of their songs. During some of the programs in the recording, mention is made of the 503rd anniversary of the founding of Havana on 16 November 1519. Public service announcements about health and other matters are also present throughout the recording.

Live, off-air, three-hour recording of the special annual Gruss an Bord broadcast from German broadcaster NDR, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, on 24 December 2022 beginning at just after 18:00 UTC. The broadcast features music and greetings to and from mariners around the world. The Christmas greetings were recorded at two events on the third Advent Sunday (11 December) in Leer and on the fourth Advent Sunday (18 December) in Hamburg.

Relatives and friends had the opportunity to wish their loved ones at sea a happy holiday and a happy new year. The Leer event featured the Bingumer Shanty Choir and Anne-Fleur Schoch and her band while the Hamburg event featured Beatles experts Stefanie Hempel and The Silver Spoons. The broadcast was primarily in German with some greetings in English, Filipino, and Portuguese as well as German. A number of songs in English, too. A news bulletin (in progress when recording began) precedes the program for a few minutes.

In addition to being carried on the NDR Info and NDR Info Spezial networks, the broadcast was transmitted around the world on shortwave using transmitters in Nauen (NAU), Germany; Issoudun (ISS), France; Tashkent (TAC), Uzbekistan; and Okeechobee, Florida (RMI), U.S.A.; and was organized by Media Broadcast.

The schedule was:
1800-2100 on 6030 ISS 250 kW / 251 deg to North/East Atlantic
1800-2100 on 6080 TAC 100 kW / 301 deg to West/Central Europe
1800-2100 on 9740 NAU 250 kW / 130 deg to Indian Ocean - West
1800-2100 on 11650 ISS 250 kW / 148 deg to Indian Ocean - SoAf
1800-2100 on 13725 NAU 250 kW / 205 deg to Southern Atlantic
1800-2100 on 15770 RMI 100 kW / 044 deg to North/West Atlantic
RMI, Radio Miami International, experienced a power outage and was off the air for about the first two hours of the broadcast.

The recording is primarily of the transmission on the frequency of 11650 kHz for about the first two hours and 6030 kHz for the third hour as the signal degraded on 11650 kHz.

The program was received outdoors on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz filtering. Reception was good for the most part on both recorded frequencies although, as previously mentioned, signal quality on 11650 kHz degraded during the second hour of the broadcast necessitating the switch to 6030 kHz. There was some adjacent channel interference on 11650 kHz at times. Also, there was about a one-minute dropout of the 11650 kHz frequency around the start of the second hour of the broadcast. The last minute or so of the broadcast on 6030 kHz was interfered with by a co-channel digital transmission from Radio Romania International.

Live, off-air, recording of a morse code (CW or continuous wave) transmission in English from station SAQ, Grimeton Radio, Sweden, on 16 November 2022 beginning at 16:00 UTC on a very low frequency (VLF) of 17.2 kHz. The signal originates from the historic Alexanderson alternator transmitter at Grimeton near Varberg on the southwest coast of Sweden, running at about 80 kW. The antenna is essentially omnidirectional.

The transmitter was tuned up before the broadcast with many sequences of VVV VVV VVV DE SAQ SAQ SAQ being sent. The message, titled UNESCO 50th Anniversary Telegram, began at 16:00 UTC, lasted about 9 minutes and 30 seconds, and is as follows:

CQ CQ CQ DE SAQ SAQ SAQQ <BT> THIS IS GRIMETON RADIO STATION SAQ IN A TRANSMISSION USING THE ALEXANDERSON 200 KW ALTERNATOR ON 17.2 KHZ. <BT> THE 16TH OF NOVEMBER 2022 MARKS THE 50TH ANNIVER4RY OF THE WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION. UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES ARE IRREPLACEABLE ASSETS OF HUMANITY BUT MANY OF THEM ARE THREATENED TODAY THROUGH UNCONTROLLED URBANIZATION, UNCHECKED TOURISM, ARMED CONFLICT AND CLIMATE CHANGE. TO ENSURE THEIR PROTECTION,INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION TO PROMOTE PEACE, INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER. <BT> SIGNED: LENA SOMMESTAD, CHAIR SWEDISH NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR UNESCO, WORLD HERITAGE GRIMETON RADIO STATION AND THE ALEXANDER-GRIMETON FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION. <BT> FOR QSL INFO PLEASE READ OUR WEBSITE: WWW.ALEXANDER.N.SE <AR> DE SAQ SAQ SAQ <SK>

Note that <BT> indicates the start of a new paragraph; <AR> means end of transmission; and <SK> means end of work.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in CW mode with 0.40 kHz RF filtering and real-time noise reduction. The CW tone is about 760 Hz and the message was sent at about 15 words per minute. Reception was fairly good with some occasional atmospheric noise (QRN).