Wednesday 22 April 2015 : I sat in the bedroom of my home, under a sky which was still very blue in the evening dark, complete with a bright crescent moon. At 20:02 UTC, I was tuned to 954 kHz Medium Wave, ready to spend a couple of hours listening to whatever I would hear. Over the years I have collected much information about the broadcasts I could have heard, many frequencies were recognisable, though after a long day, there were moments of brain fade, so where I could not conclusively find the information I required in my own sources, I found information online which concurred with my notes. Here are the broadcasts I heard on that Wednesday evening - Times are UTC (GMT); Frequencies are kHz (kiloHertz) :
- 20:02 UTC, 954 kHz : CRo Plus, Male and female speech, with jingles, stabs and breaks. Czech language. Moderate reception via Brno, Czech Republic, 200 kW (kiloWatt) transmission. To 2016 UTC.
- 2034 UTC, 954 kHz : Onda Cero Radio, Live commentary of football. Spanish language. Onda Cero broadcasts from Madrid, Spain, 20 kW. Moderate reception. To 2043 UTC.
- 2053 UTC, 972 kHz : Radio Nacional, Spanish language, affected by propagation. Football commentary. Transmission from Lugo, Spain. To 2116 UTC.
- 2116 UTC, 981 kHz - I was torn an confused. I was unsure of my languages and nations. My sources were contradictory; The old said Algiers - The language I could hear was French and the Algerians do speak French, don't they? The new said Czech Republic. The broadcast was a mix of speech and music, which to my ear was French. I heard Radio Algerie Chaine 2, which broadcasts around 300 to 600 kW. To 2125 UTC.
- 2125 UTC, 990 kHz : Cadena SER, Speech from two males in the Spanish language. Time pips at 2130 UTC. Cadena SER via Monte Archanda, Bilbao, Spain, 10 kW. To 2136 UTC.
- 2136 UTC, 999 kHz : Rai Radio 1, Female and male voices, live from Turin, Italy. Female is the dominant speaker.Propagation playing its part in reception. Relay of the Rai Radio 1 FM service via Volpiano, Torino (Turin). 50 kW. To 2146 UTC.
Sleep was calling me by that point, so at 2146 UTC (10:46pm BST), I signed off on 999 kHz. I enjoyed the evening listening to that busy band.
Goodnight.
