June 6, 2023: Radio Six 60th anniversary special
(Google translated from German)
On June 6th 1963 four school children started their own radio station in the attic of a house on the seafront in Ardrossan (Ayrshire). Cobbled together with tin cans, clockwork gramophones and lots of wire, the opening day’s broadcasts were fed into a radio receiver two floors below. After many adversities and changes, Radio Six now broadcasts 24/7 on the Internet (*2000) and has around 30 AM, FM and digital stations worldwide as partners. But there is also a shortwave story that was revived in 2020 after a hiatus of several years on Channel 292. Programming comes from a purpose built headquarters (Radio Six International, The Studio, Port Ramsay, Isle of Lismore, Argyll PA34 5UN, Scotland) on the Isle of Lismore, a tiny Inner Hebrides island between Oban on the mainland and the much larger Isle trash in the west.

To mark the station’s 60th anniversary, there will be a specially produced original program on June 6, 2023 with all the current station presenters. It comes 00:00-24:00 UTC on https://www.radiosix.com and terrestrially via Channel 202 Rohrbach on 9670 kHz and with partners in New Zealand on VHF 88.2 and 107.6 MHz. There is also a 2 hour live program Sixty Swinging Years with Tony Currie on 1323kHz from the Nexus IBA station in Milan, Italy. It airs 7pm-9pm on 1323kHz.

On this occasion a special e QSL card will be issued and reception reports are welcome. They can be sent to letters@radiosix.com during the broadcast (with probable on-air mentions) and will likely be first confirmed in the broadcast on air. On previous occasions, receipt reports were also confirmed by post but had to be accompanied by return postage.

Dr. Hansjörg Biener to A-DX iog (2023-06-03)

Targetted broadcaster Radio Lenta has a new URL for their website: https://nashalenta.com. Although the 1557 kHz transmitter in Sitkunai (Lithuania) is on air with their Russian programming for only 8½ hours daily this site has a 24-hour live stream as well as on-demand audio files. On air the station identifies as “Nasha Lenta” (and occasionally as “Radio Pravda”) but the website simply labels and references itself as Radio Lenta.

Dave Kernick to WRTH FB group (2023-06-02)

Ofcom has fined Bauer Radio £25,000 after it stopped broadcasting Absolute Radio’s national AM service before the end of its licence period.
Absolute Radio’s AM licence was most recently renewed for a period of 10 years from May 2021. On 26 January 2023, Bauer Radio confirmed that Absolute Radio was no longer being broadcast on AM, so Ofcom revoked the licence on 13 February 2023. Absolute Radio continues to be broadcast nationally on DAB.
Under the Broadcasting Act 1990, where Ofcom revokes a national licence, it must require the licence holder to pay it a financial penalty.
In setting the level of financial penalty, we took account of Bauer’s reasoning for stopping the AM service, which included declining listener numbers on AM and the commercial viability of the service.
The financial penalty is payable to HM Treasury. You can read our decision on the level of financial penalty and our licence revocation notice (PDF, 369.6 KB) in full.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/ofcom-fines-bauer-radio-25000

Mike Terry to WOR iog (2023-06-01)

The Second support group meeting this year will take place Wednesday 7th June.
Read about this on 
https://groups.io/g/RadioCarolineMailinglist/topic/radio_caroline_southampton/99259540

Nico, Gouda HOL (2023-06-01)

You can hear Radio Caroline Northduring 2023 on the following dates on 1368 AM via Manx Radio, our own 648 AM transmitter or online using the ‘North’ pop-up player or the Radio Caroline app.

24/25 June
15/16 July
11/13 August (Annual Fundraiser)
16/17 September
14/15 October
18/19 November
09/10 December

Kari Kallio to nordx iog (2023-06-01)

“To our listeners: We would like to inform you that our medium wave [Radio Hapi Isles] 1035 and FM 96.3 frequencies are currently unavailable due to technical problems that are beyond our control. The reason for this is the frequent power cuts in Honiara.”

Christoph Ratzer to A-DX Facebook group (2023-05-30)

Re. BBC Radio 4 begins information campaign to transition listeners from Long Wave.
There is no indication in the announcement from the BBC as to when the LW transmitter will close, only that they will stop scheduling separate programming on LW from 31 March 2024.

The various R4 MW transmitters are never mentioned by the BBC but probably included in the same transmission contract with Arqiva as the LW transmitter, so I expect they will close at the same time as LW – whenever that is.

73s Dave Kenny to Longwaveradiolistening iog (2023-05-30)

This weekend COPE Castellón is observed on 1056 kHz with 50 Hz and 100 Hz hum.  After dark the resulting 3 kHz heterodyne can be heard far beyond the station’s service area.

David W. (2023-05-28)

Liblice update.
The output on 639 kHz will be 20 kW, like the Zbraslav transmission it will replace.
In addition Country Radio will also be transmit from Ceske Budejovice with 5 kW on 954 kHz, by the transmitter so far used for a DRM test. This per
https://www.lupa.cz/aktuality/country-radio-vyuzije-am-kmitocet-v-ceskych-budejovicich/

And the rumour mill describes the transmitter they brought to Liblice as a rig that came from Germany and has been obtained for scrap metal value. Which could be taken as a paraphrase for the ex-Topolna transmitter which indeed is the ex-261 kHz 1996 til 2000 transmitter from Burg. In this case it would, however, be a modification of a TRAM-L into a mediumwave TRAM. Thus I would not jump to conclusions here too quickly.

Kai Ludwig to WOR iog (2023-05-27)

Only 1 AM station in Japanese Kanto area have decided to stop AM from February 2024.
According to May 21 issue of “Tokyo Simbun”, only 1 AM station in Kanto area have decided to stop AM from February 2024.

Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications permits AM commercial radio stations to stop AM on a trial bases for maximum 2 years from February  2024, if they request in November 2023, when all the AM radio stations renew licenses.

As for Kanto area (Tokyo and surrounded 6 prefectures), only 1 AM station out of 6 decided to stop AM.

Tokyo: Nippon Hoso (Kisarazu 1242kHz/Tokyo Sky Tree 93.0MHz), Bunka Hoso (Kawaguchi 1134kHz/Tokyo Sky Tree 91.6MHz), TBS Radio (Toda 954kHz/Tokyo Sky Tree 90.5MHz) do not stop AM, because 1) each station has only one AM transmitter site, 2) FM from Tokyo Sky Tree (634m) cannot cover the northern Kanto areas.

Kanagawa: Radio Nippon (Kawasaki 1422kHz/Odawara 1485kHz/Yokohama-Tsurumi 92.4MHz) is considering not stop AM because most of the listeners are old aged who prefer to listen on AM.

Tochigi: Tochigi Hoso (Utsunomiya 1530kHz/Nasu 864kHz/Ashikaga 1062kHz/Utsunomiya 94.1MHz/Ashikaga 91.1MHz/3 relays 93.4MHz）does not decided yet. Cause for concern is the low penetration of the FM radios receivable above 90MHz (Japanese old FM radio is covering only 76-90MHz).

Ibaragi: Ibaragi Hoso (Mito 1197kHz/2 relays 1458kHz/Tsukuba 88.1MHz/Hitachi 88.1MHz/Moriya 88.1MHz/Mito 94.6MHz) decided to stop AM because 100W FM transmitter in Tsukuba (located at the top of Mt.Hokyo 461m) can cover much wider areas than AM. 88.1MHz can be received by old FM radios for 76-90MHz.

Original article is https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/251392.

Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan to WOR iog (2023-05-24)