A site about the radio listening hobby and my activities therein - longwave, mediumwave, shortwave, FM, and television DXing. A site about the radio listening hobby in all its forms, or at least the forms that interest me.

I am also a licenced amateur radio operator, callsign VE3LXL. Information about my amateur radio station is found on my station website.

Sunday, 16 November 2008

Radio Saint Helena Day

Saturday Nov. 15, 2008 was Radio Saint Helena Day. Saint Helena is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, a British possession. The shortwave broadcasting station on St. Helena shut down operations in the late 1990s, but once a year they fire it up to do a special broadcast. So I guess you could say that they have a regular schedule - regularly once a year.

The broadcast was on 11092.5 kHz in USB from 20:00 to 23:30 UTC. I was listening for most of it (from 20:30 onwards). Here are the details of what I heard:

(1) Transmission to Japan:
20:30-20:40 (approx): Fairly strong for a few minutes. Male announcer mentioned this was a transmission to Japan. Song by the Carpenters. Then if faded out and nothing more was heard.

(2) Transmission to Europe:
Around 21:14: Faint music and talk. Too weak to make out what was being said or played, but enough to tell that there was a signal. Faded out after a few minutes and nothing more heard.

(3) Transmission to North America:
Nothing heard.

Radio: JRC NRD-525, attached to random length wire on my apartment
balcony (and hooked to balcony railing, which acted as part of the antenna).

A disappointing performance. I heard this station better a few years ago
on a previous Radio St. Helena day, and I was expecting more this time
around, as I was using a better radio attached to a better antenna this
time. Oh well, there's always next year!

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