POSTBAG

A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2026 beginning at 21:30 UTC.

The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula), King Edward Point, and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were interviews with Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of BAS; and Lousiane Ferlier, an archivist at the Royal Society in London who is digitizing the photographs of the first midwinter celebration during Robert Scott's discovery expedition of 1901-04. As sometimes happens, the first few words of the introduction were not transmitted: "This is the BBC World Service calling Antarctica ...".

The recording is of the transmission on 12070 kHz from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station. The sender had a registered power of 300 kW with antenna beam 182 degrees. The transmission was received on a Belka-DX receiver with a Sangean ANT-60 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in pseudo-synchronous (AM2) mode with 50 Hz - 2.7 kHz bandwidth. Reception was quite good with excellent signal strength but with occasional lightning burst noise and digital utility station interference. The additional parallel frequencies of 9510 kHz from Woofferton and 9460 kHz from Ascension were heard but not as well as 12070 kHz. A studio quality, slightly longer, podcast version is available on the BBC World Service website.

BBC World Service Annual Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast: June 21, 2026 Richard Langley Download

Many thanks to SRAA contributor Bruce MacDonald, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Radio Exterior de Espana

Date of recording: Unknown

Starting time: Unknown

Frequency: not recorded

Recorded in Hounslow, west London

Receiver and antenna: Sony portable stereo radio cassette player with built-in whip antenna

Notes: Recording from late 1984 or early 1985 of the DX programme transmitted by the English section of Radio Exterior de Esapana (REE). This was broadcast to Europe on a Sunday, but I did not record the time of transmission. I did not record the frequency, at a guess I think it would be either on the 49 or 41 metre bands.

A typical DX programme of the era, comprising mainly listening tips for hobbyist listeners and radio-related news. For example there's a short mention of the then-upcoming 1985 European DX Council conference which was held in Madrid. There is also a request for news and tips from listeners and an address for reception reports. At the end there's a very plummy English station ID.

This may be a bit of a hard listen for some due to intrusive QRM but I think accurately reflects the crowded bands back then, especially if your receiver didn't have a narrow filter.

Radio Exterior de España: Circa 1984-1985 Bruce MacDonald Download