My AM Archive : January 2021

 EASTER 2026 has been and gone, Early May Bank Holiday has been and gone - Apologies for the lack of a post since March!  We are, once again, visiting the archive of my loggings of radio broadcasts heard years gone by - Some broadcasters still on air, some aren't - This blog hopes to reflect the changes, especially on the Medium Wave band, that have taken place in recent years.

This post brings memories of broadcasts heard January 2021 on Medium Wave.  A previous post of Medium Wave logs, heard December 2020, can be found here.

Housekeeping notes: Times in UTC (GMT), frequencies in kiloHertz (kHz). Logs transcribed from the original notes. Transmission power in watts or kiloWatts (kW).

Receiver used: Sangean ATS-405.

January 2021 : Medium Wave

• [Tuesday] 12 January [2021]: 1330 UTC: 774 kHz: BBC Radio Bradford  Strong to good reception, 500 watts via Farnley, Yorkshire.  Programming: Music: Kellie Marie 'Feels Like I'm In Love' Traffic and travel update with details relating to the [Covid] lockdown. Weather with Lisa Gallagher. Music: One Direction 'Story of My Life' Female host Charlie Smith says it is Zayn Malik's birthday (28). Music: Doobie Brothers 'Listen To The Music' ID, trailer for Planet North.
  Razwan Ul-Haq is an artist from Bradford, who is exhibiting his art, Industrialised Heart, Solo Exhibition, at Bradford Industrial Museum. Music: Kygo + Tina Turner 'What's Love Got To Do With It' Sanchez Payne and Beth Parsons had their own bake off - Bread making. Host Charlie Smith, along with [colleagues] Richard and Neil, judged the BBC Bradford bake off.
  Logged to 1352 UTC.

                 Break

• 12 January: 1543 UTC: 900 kHz: RAI Radio 1  'Viva Voce' Female host with male speaking on the phone, male often uses 'politica' during the speech, female host speaks of a 'recovery plan'
  Strong to fair reception, 50 kW via Milan, Italy.
  Logged to 1555 UTC.
  [ Listen via RaiPlaySound ]
• 12 January: 1559 UTC: 909 kHz: BBC Radio 5 Live  Drivetime News: Irish homes for Children and Mothers, Covid - Largest number of deaths in 2020, highest since 1940. Police fines rise. Supermarkets will decline customers without face masks. Supply chains must not promote slave labour. Space junk. ID. Travel update.
  Strong to good reception, up to 200 kW via Moorside Edge, West Yorkshire.
  Main interference / noise is like a stop-start buzzer. Multiple transmission audio, too.
  Logged to 1611 UTC.

Images: Demolition of Trasmettitore Milano Rai 900kHz, c. October 2023, images from Google Maps - Original Google Street View imagery featured in this blog post.

Listen to the last closedown announcement of RAI Radio Uno on 900 kHz, courtesy of Josh's Radio Paradise YouTube post.

• 12 January: 1624 UTC: 936 kHz: Dales Radio  Music: Snow Patrol 'Take Back The City' Keith Fletcher is the host. Update from the County Council, regarding recycling centres. Music: Pointer Sisters 'I'm So Excited'.
  Strong to good reception, 150 watts via Brunt Acres Road, Hawes, North Yorkshire.
  Ingleton Post Office open one day a week. Rob Stevens will be on air later. Music: Bill Withers 'Lovely Day' ID, music: Bob Marley 'Buffalo Soldier'.
  Logged to 1636 UTC.
• 12 January: 1646 UTC: 954 kHz: Český rozhlas Dvojka  Music: Boney M 'Holiday' ID, programme: Kolotoč, presented by Terezou Stýblovou. Music.
  Dvojka, Strong to good reception, up to 200 kW via Dobrochov, Czechia.
  Music: Milli Vanilli 'Girl I'm Gonna Miss You' 1700 UTC news: Oxford Astra-Zeneca [Covid] vaccine; Czech President; Israel; Marks And Spencer in Prague; Brexit. Music at 1704 UTC.
  Logged to 1705 UTC.
• 12 January: 1708 UTC: 963 kHz: Sunrise Radio  'What's on TV tonight - Watch comedy on Sky channel - ' 'This is the biggest Asian station' Music. Paul Shah on air 'Back to back songs, by the Sunrise app' Bollywood anagram: B A H A M A H A R T. Programme: 'Drive on Sunrise' Ad break: Cooking sauces, Covid ad, Southall Travel, Police recruitment, ceramic tiles importer. Boilers, Covid ad (2), Bollywood on Sony Max 2.
  Strong to poor reception, 950 watts via Hackney.
  Sunrise time check (5:18pm), travel. Bollywood music.
  Logged to 1723 UTC.
  [Sunrise Radio, Unit 2, 694-712 London Road, HOUNSLOW TW3 1PG]
• 12 January: 1731 UTC: 972 kHz: Sunrise Radio  Ads: McDonalds, Covid-19, contact the ads team at Sunrise Radio. Programme: 'Drive on Sunrise' Traffic and travel update. Sunrise Radio available via Amazon Smart Speaker and YouTube channel. Music.
  Good to poor reception, 1 kW via Southall.
  Male host Paul Shah speaks about song just played; Bollywood anagram competition.
  Logged to 1741 UTC.
  [Main switchboard: 0208 574 6666]
• 12 January: 1744 UTC: 981 kHz: Radio Algerienne - Chaine 2  Male speech, Arabic language programming, music.
  Strong to poor reception, up to 300 kW via Ouled Fayet, Algeria (ALG).
  Music. Male speech at 1752 UTC. Music.
  Logged to 1754 UTC.
• 12 January: 1758 UTC: 990 kHz: BBC Radio 5 Live  Conor McNamara with live football commentary of Sheffield United v Newcastle United.
  Good to poor reception, 1 kW via Tywyn, Wales.
  Logged to 1822 UTC.
  

  

  Frequencies, contacts for Great Yorkshire Gold

• 12 January: 1758 UTC: 990 kHz: BBC Radio Devon  Music: Lenny Kravitz 'It Ain't Over, 'Til It's Over' Traffic and travel at 1804 UTC: Exeter, Ilfracombe, Newton Abbot - Call BBC Radio Devon travel line on 0808 100 2829. Music: Keane 'Somewhere Only We Know'.
  Good to poor reception, 1 kW via Exeter, Devon.
  Music: Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus 'Prisoner' BBC Make A Difference update: Donate a laptop. Music: Erasure 'Love To Hate You'.
  Logged to 1824 UTC.
  [BBC Radio Devon, PO Box 1034, Plymouth PL3 5BD - Main switchboard 01752 260323]

My AM Archive: April 2015

 "I SIT under a sky which is still very blue in the evening dark, complete with a bright, crescent moon.
It is 20:02 UTC and tuned to 954 kHz Medium Wave..."

April 2015 : Medium Wave

• [Wednesday] 22 April [2015]: 2002 UTC: 954 kHz: CRo Plus Brno, Czech Republic.  Fair reception. 200 kW via Brno, Czech Republic.
  Male and female speech, broadcast ident, Male speech.
  Logged to 2016 UTC.
• 22 April: 2034 UTC: 954 kHz: Onda Cera Radio  Live commentary of football.
  20 kW via Madrid (Spain).
  Male and female commentators, speech includes 'Champions La Liga' from the female; 'Sergio Ramos' from the male.
  Fair reception.
  Logged to 2043 UTC.

[22 April: 2053 UTC: 972 kHz. Unconfirmed log of Spain broadcasting via Lugo, north Spain]

• 22 April: 2116 UTC: 981 kHz: Radio Algerie  French language speech, mix of speech and music.
  Radio Algerie, Chaine 2.
• 22 April: 2125 UTC: 990 kHz: SER Bilbao.  Male speech in the Spanish language. Time check for 2130 UTC.
  10 kW via Monte Archanda (Bilbao) Spain.
• 22 April: 2136 UTC: 999 kHz: RAI Radio 1  Female and male voices speaking in RAI Radio 1.
  Co- Channel interference.
  50 kW via Volpiano, TO (Turin) Italy.

The RAI Radio 1 logo.

For the above posts:

Housekeeping notes: Times in UTC (GMT), frequencies in kiloHertz (kHz). Transmission power in watts or kiloWatts (kW). Logs transcribed from the original notes.

Receiver used: Roberts R881.

The previous post in this thread, My AM Archive: February 2015, can be found here.

Thank you for visiting Reporting From The Fox Tower!

📻

2018 on the air.

BRINGING you more recent radio logs here on Reporting From The Fox Tower, with broadcasts received over these first seven weeks of 2018.
Housekeeping notes: Times in UTC (GMT), frequencies in kiloHertz (kHz), MegaHertz (MHz) and/or metrebands (m). Transmission power in watts or kiloWatts (kW).

Short Wave: January 2018

• [Monday] 29 January [2018]: 1519 UTC: 15825 kHz: WWCR, USA. Good to fair reception, English to Europe, Middle East, Americas via WWCR-2, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Music with vocals, a lot of noise on the channel. Male speaks of 'God, the most merciful', 'Our God' - "Have you been careless about Christ? Have you forgotten about God?" WWCR programming shows Ray McMahon 'Jesus Is Our Shepherd' / Michael Guido 'The Sower'. Female speech, new programme at 1530 UTC: Male with prayer at the start of the programme, "The almighty God of Heaven". Speech continues, regarding armageddon. Reading verses from the Bible, speaking of 'wickedness' and 'refusing to repent'. Reading of chapters of Revelation from the Bible. WWCR programming shows Larry Gilmore 'Christlife Servant Leadership Ministry'. Logged to 1539 UTC.
• 29 January: 1602 UTC: 17730 kHz: Eye Radio, South Sudan. Faint reception of female speech, muffled against noise. Poor reception. Female speech continues, male speech. [Sources show Arabic / English via Issoudun, France] Logged to 1608 UTC.
• 29 January: 1615 UTC: 17640 kHz: BBC World Service, UK. Female and male speech, broadcast lost to noise. [Sources show English via Ascension, 250 kW] Logged to 1620 UTC.

Medium Wave: February 2018

• [Tuesday] 13 February [2018]: 1938 UTC: 1566 kHz: BBC Somerset, UK. Good to fair reception, 1 kW via Taunton, Somerset. Music from Albert Hammond 'The Free Electric Band', female host with time check "It's twenty to eight", interview with female guest, lots of laughter. Georgey Spanswick with an interview broadcast on BBC Radio Derby. Music: Robbie Williams 'Millennium' Time check "Ten to eight on the BBC" Contact details, speech regarding the preceding interview with Samantha, who was a lead in the Rio Carnival. Logged to 1951 UTC.
• 13 February: 1952 UTC: 1566 kHz: Vahon Hindustani Radio, Holland. Good to fair reception, via Den Haag, Netherlands (Holland). Asian music, male speech, Asian music with female vocal. Male speech at 20 UTC (news?) speech included India and Goa. Jingles, male speech, web details. Speech in Dutch at 2005 UTC. Music with male vocal at 2006 UTC. Logged to 2010 UTC.
• 13 February: 2014 UTC: 1575 kHz: RAI Radio 1, Italy. Strong to good reception, 30 kW via Genova Portofino, Italy. Male speech at a sporting event - Football? FAST speech in commentary! Dominant broadcast on this channel. Logged to 2027 UTC.

[Football update: The football covered by RAI Radio 1 could have been that evening's Champions League match: Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur. Elsewhere that evening: Notts County v Carlisle United.]

• 13 February: 2049 UTC: 1584 kHz: Panjab Radio, UK. Strong to good reception, 200 watts via Lea Bridge Road, Hackney, North London. Music with a very strong subcontinent feel - Male speech with reference to locations in London, contact details? Continued male speech. ID for Panjab Radio news at 21 UTC: Sexual offences, Oxfam aid workers, six week old baby dies. Sport update. "This is Panjab Radio on 1584 AM" ID, top of the hour ads: Tourism, driving lessons, Punjabi restaurant, The Black Prince Maharaja Tour. ID, music, male speech, with broadcast details: Medium wave, satellite, contact post code? Music under speech. Logged to 2113 UTC.
• 13 February: 2117 UTC: 1593 kHz: Bretagne 5, France. Strong to fair reception, 10 kW via Saint-Goueno / Collinée, France. Acoustic singing from a male, followed by another male, singing lead with a band. French language. Brief female speech in French. Music, female vocals with some lyrics in English: "There is nothing I can do / To save you from yourself". Female speech, music: Ed Sheeran 'Shape Of You'. Music from a band which also includes bagpipes! Male vocals. Logged to 2131 UTC.
• 13 February: 2137 UTC: 1602 kHz: KBC Radio, Holland. Good to poor reception, 1 kW via Pietersbierum / Harlingen, Netherlands (Holland). Music: Bruce Springsteen 'I'm On Fire', Eric Carmen 'All By Myself'. Co-channel interference from SER Cartagena, Spain. Logged to 2153 UTC.
• 13 February: 2237 UTC: 1692 kHz: Norwegian Coastal Radio, South, Norway. LGQ Rogaland, Norway. Navigational warnings and weather, ice. Broadcast at 2233 UTC. Muffled speech. To 2244 UTC.

DX Extra

• 13 February: 2250 UTC: 648 kHz: Radio Caroline, UK. Good to fair reception, 1 kW via Orfordness, Suffolk [Community Radio]. Music: Status Quo 'Something Bout You Baby I Like', Small Faces 'My Mind's Eye', ID 'Online, on your mobile, Radio Caroline'. Music: Billy Idol 'Hot In The City', Roger Daltrey 'Walking In My Sleep'. Promo for the Radio Caroline website - Use online stores to donate to Caroline, promo by Roger 'Twiggy' Day for his show. ID 'This is Europe's first album station, Radio Caroline'. Music: Stereophonics 'Maybe Tomorrow'. Logged to 2318 UTC.

Thanks for listening!

📻

An evening by the radio.

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.