The 49 metre-band lives on

Worldspan · Apr 20, 2015

Apologies if this is a shade off topic but I guess many of us remember picking up the World Service news (intro with ‘Lillibullero’) for distribution via the Tannoy. On Orontes (GBXM) we had a dedicated broadcast receiver (make and model?) in the radio office. For the benefit of those who like to remember such things, someone has kindly put ‘Lilli’, complete with pips, on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4BZrSj2VU4

Anyway, I was surprised to find that my new car radio also covers the 49 metre broadcast band: I believe there’s still quite a bit of broadcasting in some parts of the world on SW. There’s not much to be heard in the daytime but on Sunday morning I was amazed to hear ‘Trucker Radio’ on 6095 mhz. I’m not sure where the transmissions come from - perhaps they are relayed from the US. Plenty of gritty, trucker country and western interspersed with commercials for HGV driving schools and CB rigs. I just had to stop off for a Yorkie bar.

There’s a website at:

http://www.kbcradio.eu

W

trotterdotpom · Apr 20, 2015

Was that one of those huge "Dynatron" broadcast receivers that Marconi used to put on board ships, Worldspan? A lot of folk were surprised when you couldn't pick up Radio Luxembourg in China ..... the last Sparks could.

John T

steve Coombs · Apr 20, 2015

Picked up Luxembourg regularly on a Dynatron (big old thing) in Capetown and S Africa. There are many pirates in europe on 49 mtrs in europe especially at Weekend nowadays

Troppo · Apr 20, 2015

Worldspan said:
For the benefit of those who like to remember such things, someone has kindly put ‘Lilli’, complete with pips, on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4BZrSj2VU4

Takes me back. During the Gulf War (1), I was in Nivosa/VJNV, a VLCC. I used to tape "seven seas" on the BBC WS, and replay it in the smoke room and crews bar....the closer we got to the gulf, the more attention was paid to the casualty reports....

Coastie · Apr 20, 2015

Trucker Radio is a Dutch Truck Radio Station and, if the Admin will permit (it has NO connection to shipping sites, tis only a music/radio site) I can post links to via here.

Before I do that though, the last link from Eric, the owner of TR posted thie following:

Rosko will go out on Saturday via the stream, just like last week, the rest will start hopefully in May...
The stream is a bit different, because there is Dutch news, traffic info, etc

Happy Easter Shortwave Commando's!
Check out our schedule for 6095AM & 7375AM!
All times in UTC. CET = +2

Sunday 6095 kHz
08:00 - 10:00 : Trucker Radio - Stan Campbell & Tim Dennis
10:00 - 13:00 : The LA Connection - The Emperor Rosko
13:00 - 15:00 : Rock & Roll Rewind - Ron O'Quinn

Sunday 7375 kHz
00:00 - 03:00 : The Giant Jukebox - Eric van Willegen

Monday 6095 kHz
08:00 - 10:00 : Transportradio Onderweg - Bob van Beeten

I will let Eric know of this thread and, in courtesy, ask him to join.

Meanwhile, if any one wants updates, then please join us at www.fortheloveofmusic.eu

I look forward to seeing some of you on there.

Cisco · Apr 20, 2015

You can see whats on 49 metres here... http://www.short-wave.info/index.php

Coastie · Apr 21, 2015

I've just e-mailed Eric, told him of this thread and invited him to join.

EricvW · Apr 21, 2015

Thank you for the invitation Coastie.

Coastie · Apr 21, 2015

Great to see you on here Eric.(Thumb)

Worldspan · Apr 21, 2015

Regarding the broadcast RX on Orontes: it had a steel case and looked like a communications receiver but I can’t remember the make. I somehow doubt that it was a Dynatron because I’d heard of those sets and held them in awe. I’ve just done a couple of searches but not found what I always thought was their best bit of advertising: “As used in British embassies throughout the world”.

Anyway, sitting on the desk next to the broadcast RX was a turntable for 78s. We had a shellac 78 that looked like an LP in that there were several short tracks with spaces between them: each track contained a few bars of food-related music. Every evening just before dinner, a young steward would come up to play “The Roast Beef of Old England” (the third track on the disk) and this would go out over the PA system. One trick was to turn the record over to that he played the third track on the B side - “Come to the Cookhouse Door Boys”. Not at all the kind of image that Orient Line wanted.

The captain’s steward (The Old Man’s Bulldog / Tiger - what was he called?) would sometimes creep in and put his finger on the turntable to slow it down so that “The Roast Beef of Old England” came out all a-moaning and a-warbling. The young steward would get right a telling off from the Chief Steward.

W

Ron Stringer · Apr 21, 2015

Worldspan said:
Regarding the broadcast RX on Orontes: it had a steel case and looked like a communications receiver but I can’t remember the make.

One possibility was the MimCo Oceanic broadcast receiver - had a drum dial like the CR300 receiver and a tuning knob with a handle to aid tuning across the band. More likely, given the dates is that it was one of the Eddystone Radio receivers (S670/S680 etc) that were adopted and badged by MimCo prior to, and after, the Dynatron. They were far better HF receivers than either of the other two designs.

johnvvc · Apr 21, 2015

On a couple of ships I sailed with a Marconi-badged broadcast receiver, made I think by Dynatron. My recollections of it were that it was big and not very good...

There's still a lot of broadcasting takes place on short wave. Some of the 'big boys' like Radio Canada have gone as obviously it was all costing money and it's so much cheaper to stream programme content over the internet. 41 and 49 meters are used a lot in Europe for broadcasting and some of the spare time on certain European transmitters is sold to other broadcasters who need to air their programmes to an European audience. China Radio International or Radio Peking as they used to be, have English transmissions in the evenings around 9pm om 5960. They are exceptionally strong and sound like a local - after all they are local! The programme content is almost listenable with just a hint of the nasty old Radio Peking lurking in the background...

I've also heard Trucker Radio a few times.

There are a few European pirates broadcasting at the weekends right at the top end of the medium wave, between 1.6 and 1.7 mc/s - should say mhz I suppose - showing my age now!!!

I remember how I used to sit in the Wireless Room making corrections to the various 'Bibles' and listening to the main receiver. When crossing the Atlantic VOCM in St. John's was one of my favourites. I've actually heard VOCM in the UK very late at night, I can't remember the frequency but he was down towards the bottom of the medium wave.

Happy memories...

johnvvc · Apr 21, 2015

Yes a fine receiver, I had one untill a couple of years ago but my collection was becoming unmanageable (well according to the wife) so I exchanged it for drinking vouchers.

I used to listen to the once yearly hf broadcast from St. Helena on it.

Coastie · Apr 21, 2015

That looks bl**dy heavy!

Coastie · Apr 21, 2015

None listed on EBAY.

johnvvc · Apr 21, 2015

They do appear occasionally, this one sold for £80 a few weeks ago:-

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=114659

You can set up eBay so it will alert you when something you're looking for comes up, that way you don't have to be constantly checking.

The BBC used a LOT of these, the recovered audio was very good so presumably they could be used to generate signals for re-broadcasting. Also they had a rather uncommon psu which resulted in virtually no mains hum, no large reservoir caps, just low value capacitors but they used a valve to somehow clean up the ripple. Can't really remember how it worked.

Good luck finding one !

Coastie · Apr 23, 2015

The EL 84 was a fantastic valve.

Naytikos · Apr 23, 2015

Prefer the EL34 myself. Still have a matched pair.....

The 49 metre-band lives on

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