Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent BBC ERS broadcast.
Carlos notes:
BBC’s Emergency Radio Service:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent BBC ERS broadcast.
Carlos notes:
BBC’s Emergency Radio Service:
by Karl D. Forth
Radio Moscow didn’t seem confrontational. We’re here, their attitude seemed to be, and we’re going to offer our opinion on things, which you may or may not like.
Looking at the World Radio-TV Handbook in the early 1970s, Radio Moscow was on dozens of frequencies from many different transmitters thousands of miles apart. The Far Eastern transmitters were 5,000 miles from Moscow.
In 1974, Radio Moscow offered programs in 64 languages, along with Russian by Radio, and a transcription service. U.S.S.R. was one of the largest broadcasters, with shortwave transmissions in many languages, from Bambara to Urdu.
“If you’d like first-hand information about the Soviet Union, its developed socialist society, the Soviet way of life and the Soviet view on major international issues tune in to Radio Moscow,” an ad for the broadcaster stated.
I thought that Radio Moscow offered a straightforward outlook, and they tried to make the programs truthful but were sometimes selective in what was covered. Their job was to promote progress that was being achieved in the Soviet Union, and to criticize the West.
(If you’re interested in the Soviet viewpoint from that time, an interesting book to read is Parting With Illusions, by Vladimir Pozner.)
One subject that got under Radio Moscow’s skin was NATO’s deployment of short-range cruise missiles in the early 1980s.
Later, there was Vasily’s Weekend, broadcast about 1990 and 1991, in the last days of the Soviet Union. The show, hosted by one Vasily Strelnikov, a Russian who had grown up mostly in America, was an informal English-language program of popular music and listener requests, a segment that must have stood in contrast to the station’s other programs.
Moscow’s exit from shortwave was sudden. It was renamed the Voice of Russia in 1993, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The shortwave radio broadcasts were ended completely by Vladimir Putin in 2014.
Go Go Radio Moscow was an actual 45 single by Nikita the K, probably the only 45 record about a shortwave station. It was an American record and was not, as far as we know, ever played on Radio Moscow. (For the record, there is a rock band called Radio Moscow based in Iowa, not the Russian capital.)
Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Loyd Van Horn, who shares the following announcement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MANDEVILLE, La. — April 29, 2026 — DX Central is proud to announce the official launch of version 2.0 of our popular Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project (SEDAP), a revolutionary, interactive intelligence dashboard designed to decode the mysteries of VHF propagation. Officially unlocking on Friday, May 1, 2026, at 7:45 PM CDT (0045 UTC May 2) at fmdxdata.com, SEDAP transforms nearly a decade of siloed radio loggings into a massive, cinematic data science suite, completely free of charge for the hobbyist and academic community.
Historically, analyzing Sporadic E (Es) propagation on the FM band has been an isolated effort, with individual DXers tracking their own localized season-over-season metrics and comparing notes with other DXers. SEDAP shatters that limitation by aggregating more than 95,000 North American FM broadcast logs and presenting them with brand new interactive visualizations to give DXers a whole new understanding of this elusive and magical propagation method.
“For years, our understanding of Sporadic E has been largely limited to individual observations,” said Loyd Van Horn, founder of DX Central and creator of SEDAP. “By bringing all of this data together, we aren’t just looking at spreadsheets anymore. SEDAP allows us to physically watch ionospheric clouds spawn, compress, and track across the continent in real-time. We can finally see what a typical season looks like on a macroscopic level.”
Built on a Google Cloud BigQuery architecture, SEDAP boasts a sleek user interface featuring dynamic visualizations, including:
SEDAP makes no claim of ownership over the raw data presented, acting strictly as an analytical engine. The platform owes its immense capabilities to the unprecedented collaboration and public data provided by FMList.org, and the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association (WTFDA).
To protect the integrity of the database and respect the bandwidth of its data partners, SEDAP is strictly governed by a non-commercial usage policy. Automated scraping and commercial monetization are prohibited, but users are highly encouraged to explore, share, and cite the dashboard’s findings.
The Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project will be accessible to the public beginning May 1, 2026. To access the dashboard, view the real-time launch countdown, or read the full data usage policy, visit fmdxdata.com.
About DX Central: Based in Mandeville, Louisiana, DX Central is a premier hub for the radio monitoring community, dedicated to advancing the hobby of DXing through live streams, online receivers, regular DX challenges and contests, educational content, and data-driven propagation analysis.
Media Contact:
Loyd Van Horn | Founder, DX Central
Email: [email protected]
Web: dxcentralonline.com
Youtube: youtube.com/@DXCentral
Twitter/X: twitter.com/DXCentral
Loyd Van Horn
W4LVH – Mandeville, LA
Member: IRCA/NRC Courtesy Program Committee (CPC)
Founder: DX Central – Because we’re all about radio
Web: dxcentralonline.com
Twitter: @DXCentral
YouTube: youtube.com/c/DXCentral
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares his A-26 (version 2.0) season guide to music on shortwave. Alan provides this amazing resource as a free PDF download.
Click here to download Music on Shortwave A-26 v2.0 (PDF)
Alan has also created at-a-glance, single-page PDF programme grids for BBC World Service, CGTN Radio, Radio Romania International, Voice of Turkey, and Radio Taiwan International — all updated for the A-26 broadcast season. If you’d like to download these, visit Alan’s Box account here: http://tinyurl.com/shortwaveprograms
As always, thank you for sharing your excellent guide, Alan!
This dedicated page will always have the latest version of Alan’s guide available for download.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following update:
From the Isle of Music, Friday, May 8, 2026, 3955 kHz, 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC
This month, we present some Cuban rock and pop from the 60s, 70s and 80s..
Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Friday, May 15, 2016,: 3955 kHz at 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC
This month, we present some Persian classical music.
In addition to direct radio reception, we do honor reception reports using remote SDRs as long as the whole program is described and which SDR is specified. All QSLs are e-QSLs only.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Bruce (VE3EAR), who writes:
Hello Thomas, about a month ago, I bought a portable SDR receiver after reading a few positive reviews about it online. It’s a BAJEI, which I purchased from Amazon [SWLing Post affiliate link] and shipped from China. It arrived on my doorstep just ten days after placing the order. It cost me CND $114, which included shipping and taxes.
There is a bit of a learning curve to its operation, but I soon figured it out and the “one knob” control became very easy to use! It covers a range from 100 kHz. up to 149 mHz. continuous in AM, CW, FM, and SSB modes. For a radio measuring just 6 x 3 x 1 inches, it packs a lot of features for its size. The colour display is 4.5 inches diagonal.
The antenna connection is a top mounted SMA female, while the two controls (on-off switch & knob) are on the right hand end, along with a USB-C jack for charging the internal Li-on battery, and a USB-A jack for powering an external 5 volt device. A 1/8 in/3.5 mm stereo jack for headphones is on the left hand end.
A small oval speaker to the left of the display sounds good for its size. The black case is ruggedly built from aluminum. A collapsable whip antenna and charging cord are included with the radio. I use a pig-tail SMA male to BNC female adaptor to connect external antennas, reducing any strain on the antenna jack.
I am very happy with the set and give it a thumbs-up for anyone who is looking for a portable SDR. When I’m using it in my radio shack, I connect it to a broad-band “Super Loop” antenna, which pulls in the AM broadcast and Shortwave stations very nicely. I’m intending to take it for a listening test at an electrically quiet location in my SUV, using an 8 foot whip antenna.
73, Bruce, VE3EAR