Dear listeners and friends of shortwave and Radio Bulgaria, With a huge regret I’d like to inform you very bad news.
After more than 75 years in the world broadcasting from January 31, 2012 at 2200UT Radio Bulgaria cease broadcasting on shortwave and medium wave.
The shortwave transmitters in Kostinbrod & Padarsko will be destroyed in the next few months.
Radio Bulgaria is not necessary now to its shortwave and medium waves listeners.
THE REASON
No money for broadcasting on shortwave and medium waves. And who listens to short waves today?
We have internet. Maintaining the shortwave transmitters was ”Mission Impossible”! Hope dies last.
As a frequency manager in the last 19 years my main task was to provide best quality signal of Radio Bulgaria in worldwide coverage.
There will be no shortwave, there will be no frequency manager. For all people who work in Radio Bulgaria that bad news is shock and horror. Beginning of the end. But we expect your moral support.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Tällä kertaa laitetestaukseen on päätynyt Lidlin myymä Silver Crest KH-2032. Silver Crest -tuotemerkillä valmistetaan kaikkea leivänpaahtimista hiustenkuivaimiin, joten mitenkään erikoistunutta tuotekehitystä on turha odottaa. Ennakko-odotukset olivat melko huonot. Aiemmin testaamani KH 2029 on huonoin maailmanradio koskaan, joka minulla on ollut. Kolme numeroa malliasteikolla ylöspäin on kuitenkin tuonut monia odotettuja parannuksia. Vastaanotin ei edelleenkään ole erinomainen, ei ehkä edes hyvä. Mutta tiivistäisin kaiken sanaan kelvollinen.
Tiivistettynä laitteen plussat, etenkin verrokkina KH2029:ään.
+++ RDS-toiminnon olemassaolo
+++ Vastaanotin päivittää ajan ja päivämäärän RDS:n perusteella (kuten Sangean 909:ssä)
+++ Radio on kevyt (joskin hiukan kookas)
+++ 5.85-17.9 MHz aukottomana
++ Herkkyys on parantunut aiemmasta versiosta (KH2029), mutta ei edelleenkään yllä hyvään kastiin. En kutsuisi kuitenkaan sellaista radiota surkeaksi, jonka omalla piiskalla kuulee testikuuntelun aikana sattumalta 4 maanosaa (Eurooppa, Aasia, Amerikka, Afrikka)
++ suojapussi ja toimivuus verkkovirralla
++ Muisteja varmasti tarpeeksi jokaiselle käyttäjälle (yht. 1600 kpl)
++ Hienoviritysmahdollisuus FM 0.05 MHz, SW 1 kHz (tosin jokseenkin tarpeeton ominaisuus)
+ Soveltuu paikallisten FM-asemien kuunteluun sillä varauksella, että filtterit ovat leveät. Esimerkiksi 99.3 YLE roiski vielä 99.7 Bassoradion päälle hiukan. Molempiin matkaa n. 30 km.
+ Lämpömittari
Miinukset – ”miten tämä eroaa aivan oikeasta maailmanradiosta”
– – – Vastaanottimessa on olemassa low-sensitiivisyys ja DX-asento. Low on käytännössä tarpeeton, eikä päästä edes paikalliseksi luokiteltavia asemia läpi (6160 Rossii)
– – – MW vaimennettu, vain vahvimmat asemat jaksavat läpi, kuten monissa kotiradioissakin
– – FM:llä harhoja ja herkkyys korkeintaan kohtalainen
– -Skannaustoiminto ei takerru kuin tappi pohjassa tuleviin asemiin
– – RDS sekosi heti ensimmäisten asemien kohdalla. Novasta ja Iskelmästä näkyi yhdistelmä NOLM
– Selektiivisyydessä parantamisen varaa
– laitteen hyviä puolia oli etsittävä lähinnä käytettävyydestä ja muista, kuin asemien kuunteluun liitettävistä ominaisuuksista
Vastaanottimen valmistaja näkyy olevan Fai Hsing Industries, joka viitanee Kiinan suuntaan. Kaiken kaikkiaan hyvin peruskiinalainen radiovastaanotin, joka on tungettu täyteen muisteja ja lykätty pakkaan muutama hienomman radion toiminto (RDS+PLL), mutta perustekniikka (selektiivisyys ja sensitiivisyys) yltävät korkeintaan keskinkertaiselle tasolle. Kuuluu sellaisiin keksintöihin, joita ilman maailma pärjäisi vallan mainiosti. Ei tuo mitään uutta eikä edes mitään erikoista erikoisen edulliseen hintaan. Silti ihan toimiva peruspaketti aivan alkutaipaleella olevalle harrastajalle, joka ei halua panostaa ensimmäiseen radioonsa suuria summia. Luultavasti jollekulle sellaiselle tämäkin yksilö tiensä löytää. Silver Crestin voi ottaa vaikka matkalle mukaan. Jos vastaanotin litistyy lentokoneen ruumassa, mitään vahinkoa ei pääse tapahtumaan. Voisin jopa toivoa että niin kävisi. Silti, jos se selviytyisi perille ehjänä, se olisi ihan käyttökelpoinen laite.
Koekuuntelussa tammikuun alussa Uuraisilla lyhyiltä löytyi piiskalla seuraavat maat: Saudi-Arabia, Romania, Botswana, USA ja Espanja. KaupunkiQTH:ssa (turkulainen betonikeskittymä) sähköhäiriöistä puskivat läpi mm. Vatikaani, Kiina ja Ranska sekä silloinkin Romania. Keskiaalloilta läpi jaksoivat vielä ukrainalaiset 1000 kilowattia. Siinä olisi jo ihan mukava alku projektille 50 maata Silver Crestillä!
KH2032 *** *** ** * ** **** *** € 19.90 ***
Tähtien antaminen oli vaikeaa, kun puolikkaita en haluaisi käyttää ja jotenkin järkevästi vastaanottimet pitäisi laittaa paremmuusjärjestykseen mahdollisimman todenmukaisesti. Vielä vaikeampaan on kuitenkin tähtien tabuloiminen kohdalleen, heh! Arvosanat saattavat vielä koekuuntelujen edetessä täsmentyäkin hiukan.
Kolme tähteä, hiukan parempi kuin edeltäjänsä!
English summary
Silver Crest is a brand of LIDL including everything from toast maker to hair dryer. Silver Crest receivers are manufactured and assembled by Fai Hsing Industries Ltd which refers to China. Silver Crest KH 2032 is a fair receiver in fair price. It offers nothing very special, it´s not very cheap, not very little, not very sensitive, neither selective, but it’s not even bad! It’s better than KH 2029, so in this case we can say that new model is better than the old one, as often happens.
KH 2032 is suitable for Dxing of the strongest international broadcasters and local stations. It has RDS display and time and date are updating automatically by RDS. It has PLL also and hundreds of memories, so the receiver is typical chinese – something better something worse – and the worse is the very simple basic technology. It’s suitable for example for travelling, it’s not heavy not expensive and you won’t cry if you loose it with all your luggages!
December has always been a great month for DX’ing, because of it’s long dust and dark time. The only negative argumentation for December must be the christmas lights in the gardens of neighbourhood, which are causing terrible interference on medium wave band. This year the MW band was almost blocked from 1.200 kHz to 1.450 kHz. Only some of the strongest signals were coming through the noise. The rest of the band was almost enjoyable to stay and lay. Even I had planned to concentrate in DX’ing, suddenly I got a call and had a job offer. The decision to answer ”yes” seemed to be correct, because the transatlantic conditions were absolutely bad during the daytime. Eh there was hardly any yankee station neither in the mornings…
Europe (incl. British Isles and Iberia)
Traditional christmas day pirates were very few, probably because of the extremely weak conditions.. I can only remember the full 48 meter band in 2005. Oh these were the days! Well my personal dream stations are not located thousands of kilometres away – on the beach of Hawaii or Tahiti. It can be also some hundreds away on the rocky and icy coast eheh! NRK Ingoy 153 kHz has been written down on my catch list since 2000, when it started it’s operation. During the christmas I was lucky to hear Deutschlandfunk, Romania and Russia on the frequency besides of NRK P1 network – but already in January the station was very well audible with local programme! On 999 there was no COPE Madrid – which I have never reported, boh.. It’s easy to think well this station is audible also tomorrow. The frequency is open till 0600 UTC, when the strong ”Moscow” is starting the day.
153 3/1 NOR: NRK Finnmark, Ingoy. Local programming.
603 11/12 D: Oldiestar, Zehlendorf. Audible for 5 minutes before Romania made a comeback.
603 18/12 D: Oldiestar, Zehlendorf.
657 11/12 RUS: Radio Rossii.
666 21/12 D: SWR Cont. Ra. Relaying MDR Info at the nighttime
738 21/12 RUS: Polskie Radio via WRN Relay, Moscow. In Russian, @ 0445 Radio ”Iponi”?
765 12/12 SUI: Option Musique, Sottens.
864 11/12 F: France Bleu, Paris.
1062 22/12 CZE: Country Radio, Prague.
1287 11/12 E: Cadena SER. Mysterious and unlisted SER Radio Cadena here, I’m just wondering where on Earth is located the city of Cadena! 😉
1440 09/12 RUS: Radio Zvezda, St. Petersburg.
1458 20/12 G: Sunrise Radio, London.
1476 21/12 E: Euskadi Irratia. Stronger than 1386.
1566 21/12 G: County Sound Radio, Guildford.
3900 18/12 HOL: Spaceman, Ruurlo.
4015 26/12 Laser Hot Hits, unid qth.
4016 29/12 Laser Hot Hits, unid qth. A part of an antenna test!
4065 26/12 D: Radio Supersound, unid qth. Logged as german. UNID’s @ 3905 & 4035 kHz.
5820 18/12 HOL: Orion Radio Nederland, Elburg.
5820 25/12 HOL: Orion Radio Nederland, Elburg. ”Feliz Navidad”. Another station on 6210.
6205 25/12 FIN: Spaceshuttle Radio Scandinavia. Continued here after 6265 and 6220.
6210 26/12 Laser Hot Hits, unid qth.
6220 25/12 FIN: Spaceshuttle Radio Scandinavia. Came from 6265 to here for a while.
6265 25/12 FIN: Spaceshuttle Radio International. ”Spaceshuttle Radio Scandinavia, the music makes the difference” was heard all day long. A lot of Marja Tyrni songs.
6293 26/12 Tentative Free Radio Victoria. Logged here in Europe. Cassette still ”under construction”
6305 26/12 HOL: Marconi Radio, Weiteveen.
6308 25/12 HOL: Marconi Radio, Weiteveen.
Old World
1314 18/12 IRN: Radio Iran.
1566 23/12 BEN: Trans World Radio, Parakou. Closing down @ 0600 UTC.
4760 18/12 SWZ: Trans World Radio Swaziland, Manzini.
4835 18/12 IND: All India Radio, Gangtok.
4880 18/12 AFS: SW Radio Africa, Meyerton.
Northern Territory’s 90mb stations (2310, 2325, 2485) were audible on December 18th, but there was not even a whisper from Radio Symban on 2368,5 kHz.
America’s
Just wondering if there will happen anything on AM band in January 9, 2011. That’s exactly 28 days after the best ever yankee station reception conditions what I have ever meet travelling around the world by radio. Otherwise the band was ”normal”, what means same as ”boring”. Several mornings there was a ghost signals on 1560 and 1570 when I was leaving home and going to work. However several mornings there were not even these ghost signals. The enjoyable mornings were very few, (probably because I was forced to leave too early). However the new year 2011 had the best possible start with a colombian network, new for me.
1290 13/12 VEN: Radio Puerto Cabello, Puerto Cabello.
1510 12/12 USA: KCKK, Littleton CO.
1540 12/12 CAN: CHIN, Toronto ON.
1560 12/12 USA: KKAA, Aberdeen SD. ”Family Radio”
1560 18/12 USA: WQEW, New York NY. ”Radio Disney”. 1570 French speaker must be Laval.
1560 23/12 USA: WQEW, New York NY. ”Radio Disney”
1560 01/01 CLM: RCN La Cariñosa, Tuluà. Surprisingly ”RCN la radio” when passing by. Jingles over music sounded similar compared with La Cariñosa webstream.
1570 12/12 CAN: CKMW, Winkler MB. ”Country 15-70 CKMW”.
1570 12/12 MEX: XERF La Poderosa, Ciudad Acuña.
1570 23/12 CAN: CFAV, Laval QC. ”Vous ecoutez…AM Laval..”
5755 19/12 USA: WTWW, TN. Scriptures for America with pastor Peter Peters.
FM – Sporadic E loggings for July 2010 – RX’s: Tecsun PL-310 for OIRT and Kenwood KT-6050 for CCIR
July 7, 2010
67,34 – 0812 – UKR: UR1. Mariupol-tx. Same programme also on 65.93 and 66.08. The interval signal is easy to recognize in political programs, it sounds like Mc Gyver’s bomb efect just a 5 seconds before the bomb should explode! However no real ID. Still there 0945 UTC.
69,14 – 1044 – MDA: BBC World Service. Cahul-tx. Fading alone on OIRT.
94,9 – 1112 – ROU: Pro FM. Sibiu/Paltinis-tx. Again with RDS [PRO_FM__] at 1223 UTC. Spot for Medias at 1135 UTC might be local! ROU aswell on 90,2 and probably BUL on 92,2.
92,2 – 1229 – ROU: One FM. Cluj Napoca-tx. Beating already at 1110 with a classical music station. 1253 ”..One Summer, One FM”. 101,9 was Russian for a while!
92,9 – 1234 – ROU: Radio Atlas, Alba Iulia. Local news and commercials for Alba Iulia have to come from here! 89.6 might have been Radio Reintregirea from same city.
98,5 – 1237 – ROU: Radio Info Pro. Parang-tx. At the same time 101,4 was playing Toto Cutugno ”Solo Noi”, 94,5 Romanian folk song and 101,8 music with talk about ”letteratur romanescu”.
July 9, 2010
72,50 – 1529 – RUS: Radio Yunost. Kletskiy (VG)-tx. Playing samples of dance music in the programme ”Yuni-Hits”, but no clear ID. Non-commercial must be this one. 95.7 was playing weakly Russian folk song for few seconds at 1525 UTC and indicated better signals on OIRT.
71,54 – 1534 – RUS: Radio Mayak. Chilekovo (VG)-tx. ID as radiomayak dotschka ru. Also 71.33 was playing classical music, which indicates Volgograd in usual. (Radio Orfey Volgograd)
95,7 – 1540 – BEL: tent. VRT Radio 1. Egem-tx. Reporting from an international sport event, clearly not Dutch but could be Flemish.
92,2 – 1542 – HOL: Omrop Fryslân, Irnsum. Only RDS with pop music for a while [OMROP___][92.2_FM_] which belongs probably to this one. Used to be Smilde 100 kW, now Irnsum 10 kW.
67,76 – 1602 – RUS: tent. Radio Yunost. Tbilisskaya (KD)-tx. Also music on 72.41.
67,34 – 1628 – UKR: UR1. Mariupol (DO)-tx. No ID but weather for Karpatsky region and Mykolaiv.
68,36 – 1631 – UKR: UNID giving jingle ”Shi shatala”, Makiivka (DO)-tx. Listed as Klasne but at least few of Klasnes are nowadays ROKS. This one was playing no rock but ”shansons”.
99,0 – 1704 – UNID very probably Radio Alla -jingle, but sounded much as Radio Krona in the beginning. Some weak signals on 90.3 and 95.7. Mr. HPE has heard very similar ID on 91.4 on June 6 2010 0916-0924 as UNID. It’s said the both of these are clearly Radio Alla! However I’m not able to recognize neither the language of this one!? It’s more like Estonian or Finnish, but not Russian! After the played song same jingle again but weaker.
July 17, 2010 – weak ES for all day long. I was forced to leave home at 0815 UTC.
88,9 – 0744 – D: Bayern 1. Dillberg-tx. [BAYERN_1]; several music stations were fading on the fq!
88,8 – 0747 – D: RBB Berlin 88.8, Berlin. [VOM_RBB_]; only a piece of RDS also from this one.
69,08 – 0951 – RUS: Radio Rossii. Maykop (AD)-tx. ID and ”Novosti Sport” at 1008 hours UTC.
66,98 – 1017 – RUS: Radio Mayak. Tbilisskaya (KD)-tx. Played ”New York City Boy”.
90,9 – 1029 – UKR: MFM. Dnipropetrovsk (DN)-tx. ”Kylie” by Akcent etc. Clear jingle at 1110 UTC, but the female DJ was fooling and talking all the time of ”Klasnaya Radio”.
91,75 – 1032 – UKR: Ukrainian TV sound. The famous ”Ihana Elisa” was dubbed in Ukrainian! At the same time there was kind of boring discussion on 100.5 and oldies on 99.1.
101,8 – 1059 – ROU: Radio România Cultural. Bacau-tx. [CULTURAL]
98,5 – 1100 – ROU: Kiss FM. Calarasi Baneasa-tx. ”Summertime – Kiss FM” and ”She’s Kiss FM”
99,5 – 1103 – UKR: Lux FM. UNID-tx. A weak station jingle and ”We No Speak Americano”, which was playing at the same time on 90.9 by MFM!
102,7 – 1114 – ROU: Radio România Actualitati. Constanta-tx. [RRACTUAL].
99,6 – 1117 – ROU: Radio România Actualitati. Suceava-tx. [RRACTUAL]. With a turk or arab!?
101,4 – 1127 – ROU: Radio România Cultural. Comanesti-tx. [CULTURAL]. This was probably also on 103.7, 103.0, 102.8, 102.0, 101.8 and 100.7! At 1146 they were teaching Spanish!
104,2 – 1130 – ROU: Europa FM. Bacau-tx. Playing good oldies with romanian hit music station!
A souvenir card from Europa FM heard 2007
103,9 – 1137 – ROU: Radio România Actualitati. Bârlad/Bistrita-tx. [RRACTUAL].
102,0 – 1137 – BUL: BNR Horizont. Shumen-tx. RDS [102,0MHZ] but luckily clear ”Horizont!”. Same stile of programme was heard also on 101.4 and 103.0. 92.2 could have been Hristo Botev.
103,0 – 1150 – UKR: Retro FM. Rivne-tx. Playing old ”Sunshine Reggae” summer hit! Retro! After 1200 there was a turk on 98.4 and some hit pop music stations on 100.0 and 102.8.
96,1 – 1220 – HRV: HRT2. Borinci-tx. Only RDS code [HRT-HR_2]. 88.3 and 94.9 must have been HRT1 (Borinci and Papuk-tx’s).
89,5 – 1222 – HNG: Juventus Rádió, Budapest. Playing reggae, ”Summer Jam”, Roxette’s ”How Do You Do” and ID at 1235 and 1246. UNID’s on 88.9, 89.3 and 92.8.
92,7 – 1255 – HNG: MR2 Petöfi Rádió. Tokaj-tx. [__MR2___][_PETOFI_] playing r’n’b ”Sweet 16… You’ll have no choice”, commercial spot at 1259; At 1346 ”Don’t be afraid, come on babe and she had no fear” and clear ”…M.R. Kättó Petöfi Rádió-ban”
95,3 – 1302 – SRB: Radio Beograd 1. Avala-tx. UNID’s on 94.9 and 92.2 from ex-Yugoslavia. Showing RDS [RTS_BG_1] at 1336. Later there was an orthodox singing, Radio Trinitas, Ploiesti?
95,9 – 1306 – HNG: Neo FM. Pecs-tx. ID sounded as Neo FM. On 100.4 strong classical music station, Bartok not listed. UNID’s on 88.9 and 98.9 from Balkan.
98,3 – 1315 – ROU: RR Radio Bucuresti, Bucuresti. ”Waiting for tonight” – Me too eh?! Jingle as ”Nouâ optzeci virgula trei FM” and showed RDS [_98,3MHZ] – both very informative! With an unidentified hungarian. At 1331 interviewed Adrian from ”servizul Info Trafic”. At 1349 playing 80’s disco ”Losing my mind” and some pop at 1356.
100,4 – 1327 – HNG: Neo FM. Szentes-tx with clear audio ID. 92.1 playing ”Mercy Mercy”.
96,7 – 1358 – HNG: MR2 Petöfi Rádió. Komádi-tx. ”We can always settle down and…” 89.4 in Romanian; 101,9 might have been CRo with evergreens. 102.0 military speech with shooting!
105,6 – 1403 – ROU: RR Radio Resita, Resita. [R_RESITA] with local news for Resita.
93,7 – 1406 – HNG: MR1 Kossuth Rádió. ”..MR Egy punkt hu…MR Egy Kossuth Rádió..”. 100.2 and 92.7 with music till 1418 UTC.
Last full day at the cabins and what a day that was! In the morning a totally new country was heard, i.e. Libya that became our FM country #68 in the inofficial Finnish count. In the evening we had a stunning long opening to Greece; also the Balkans, Turkey and Italy were present. Now at 2:50am (!) local time Italian and Balkan stations are still jumping in up to 108 MHz at times.
Let’s see how hectic tomorrow will be as we have to dismantle the antennas and pack our stuff by 2pm.
Utö Blog is thus over and out! See you again next year 🙂
Your ed and JJS laughing all the way to the Greek bankRadio Melodia, Ptolemaida, was one of the Greek highlights of the eveningGoodbye to the barren rocky island
Today we woke up at 5.50am to check Mr. Hepburn’s forecast of some Baltic tropo. And right he was again – some Lithuanian stations came through quite nicely, eg 104.2 Opus 3 (Taurage-tx) and 106.6 M-1 (Kaunas-tx). This year’s big thing in Latvia has been the local announcements of Latviesuradio on every one of their frequencies and many managed to complete their collection during the morning hours.
Es woke up, but she seemed very much worn out from this week’s earlier activities: first very little Romania (KISS FM), then an UNID Arab praying on two frequencies (89.3//89.5), and finally an hour-long weak opening to Greece – mostly Athens and Thessaloniki low-band high power stations.
We had arranged lunch at 2pm, this time not at the hotel, but at the residence of the parents of Hanna the landlady. Everyone became kind of edgy when the Greek opening was still sort of ongoing when we had to leave. Luckily we didn’t miss that much, it seems.
Hanna and her mother had prepared us a local specialty, seal stew. Something not many of us have ever tried or even considered. However, it was excellent, and the meat tasted like something between very tender beef and liver.
This is the last evening for three members of the Utö team and now at 6.45pm the band and Sherlock both seem very dull… We want more! 🙂
Utö crew and our hostesses chitchatting after lunch
No Sporadic E today. But we had a strange powerful meteor bang on the hour at 0900 UTC, with the following stations identified: 87.5 Dorozhnoye R, St Peterburg, local ID; 92.4 Sport FM, Moscow; 92.8 M-Vienas, Lithuania. Very short skips!
A couple of pictures from our morning jog (5.91 km at 38 min 53 s, says the computer), all courtesy by OSY.
A ferocious black adder going for the killWould they sell this place? It's desolate and growing weed...
A sunny morning and the Es have all gone away. Time to delve into yesterday’s loot. Loads of good stuff from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Northern England.
There seems to be a pattern, that an eruption in the sun first lifts Sporadic E in higher latitudes giving us stations from the British Isles. But when it hits the Earth all we get is Aurora and the Es are all gone. As the sun has been really inactive in recent years we haven’t really had any decent openings to that direction since 2006. Now is the time to hope for something better…
During our morning jog, OSY was nearly bitten by a ferocious viper that literally attacked us from behind a stone. Luckily he managed to jump up high above the stinging snake, a real touch and go situation.
Oh and your ed won the the third round of cards, aka Utö Championships – more trophies to win will follow 🙂
”Scotland is my dreaming head; Ireland is my heart” -Mike Scott/The Waterboys
Phantom made its first appearance in Finland on TuesdayR Cuillin from Isle of Skye was also a new oneHKU, JUS, JJS and JTK upping the ante
What a day! In the morning my best Serbia-opening ever, and after a quick lunch a two-hour opening to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Dublin. More details later.
Serbian Radio JAT on 90.2First lunch on the hotel patio - still a bit chilly
