bbc springs more leaks

I stayed in upstate New York for the last two weeks in December. My Kaito 1102 was with me, and I scanned the usual places looking for expected stations and new receptions. This was my first good opportunity to hear shortwave broadcasts intended for Europe.

Her Majesty's BBC was received, due to the inexact science of directed shortwave broadcasts. In case you don't already know the back-story, feel free to read my previous article titled "focus on the bbc".

Now I'll enter a rant about shortwave listeners' misconceptions about the BBC. I have seen forum postings and radio reviews where a North American listener says they bought a shortwave radio to listen to the BBC, and ended up disappointed when the radio couldn't receive it. That is not always a good reason to blame the radio. Primetimeshortwave.com is a good place to research schedules for English-language broadcasts on shortwave. In some cases (and this is true for most of the BBC broadcasts listed), they list the originating location of a broadcast.

Anyway, here are my receptions of the BBC from upstate New York. My descriptions of what was heard are on the terse side because I was more interested in scanning than writing detailed reception reports.

21 Dec 2005 0421 UTC: 7130 khz (via Cyprus, to Europe) - SIO 333. Discussion of Chinese literacy.
21 Dec 2005 0422 UTC: 7160 khz (via Ascension Island, to Africa) - SIO 333. Sports news. Announced an upcoming two-part series on mobile phones. They say worldwide mobile phone ownership is 1 billion. This show is called Network Africa.
22 Dec 2005 0249 UTC: 5975 khz (via French Guiana, to Central America): SIO 434.
22 Dec 2005 2201 UTC: 5975 khz (via French Guiana, to Central America): SIO 444.
23 Dec 2005 0333 UTC: 5975 khz (via Delano, CA to Central America): SIO 434. US President George W. Bush asking for a 6-month extension to the Patriot Act; Congress granted 1-month extension. Democrats worried about the extension of powers. New Orleans rebuilding has been very slow after Hurricane Katrina. 25% of residents have returned. Much of the city is still in darkness. Discussing video blogging: "there are a lot of boring things occuring on the Internet."