Attention Radio Cryptogrophers: FBI Calls For Help From Public In Unsolved Murder

This has nothing to do with radio, but maybe our fellow radio enthusiasts can help here....especially those of you with experience with cryptology! This means maybe even the numbers crowd can help! Here's the link to the story and the notes made public that the FBI is calling for help with:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/fbi-asks-public-for-help-breaking-encrypted-notes-tied-to-1999-murder 

Anyone who can give any good, solid information to the FBI should write to:

FBI Laboratory
Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit
2501 Investigation Parkway
Quantico, VA 22135
Attn: Ricky McCormick Case

Here is the Official FBI Press Release

WRN Newsletter For 25 March 2011

With all the newer posts that needed to be published, especially the new A-11 schedules, the WRN Newsletter is a little late with sincere apologies. This Friday's newsletter will run on time.

WRN Newsletter 25 March 2011

Media Network Plus - March Edition

Features David Goren's Shortwave Shindig from the SWL Festival held in Plymouth Meeting, USA.,  radio to and from Japan after the massive 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, a talking QSL Card from Radio Japan from the early 60s. LISTEN NOW

For continuing updates from Media Network Plus, see the Media Network Plus Blog over at Wordpress

International Spring/Summer 2011 Shortwave Broadcast Schedules (A-11 Schedules)

These schedules are good from 27 March 2011 until 30 October 2011 unless otherwise noted. Thanks to Shortwave Central  and Primetime Shortwave for obtaining & posting these skeds even before Eibi or HFCC! There will likely be more A-11 schedules to come until Eibi and HFCC get their official schedules posted.

We will start with the TXT listings from Primetime Shortwave: UTC Time Conversion

Shortwave Broadcasts Sorted By Time

Sorted By Country

Directed To AFRICA

Directed To AMERICA

Directed To ASIA / OCEANIA

Directed To EUROPE

Directed To The MIDDLE EAST 

Tab Delimited

Frequency LARGE

Frequency small

DBase ZIP

Excel ZIP

From Shortwave Central:


Radio Bulgaria, broadcasting in the following languages:
Albanian, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Greek, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish.

Radio Taiwan International, broadcasting in the following languages: English.

Radio Taiwan International Multi-lingual Schedule
Languages: Cantonese, English, French, German, Hakka, Hokkein, Indonesian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese.  

Radio Havana Cuba, broadcasting in the following languages: English.

Voice Of America, broadcasting in the following languages: English.

Radio Canada International, broadcasting in the following languages: English

Radio Canada International Multi-lingual Schedule

Adventist World Radio, broadcasting in the following languages: English

Libya's Voice Of Africa (LJBC) broadcasting in the following languages:
Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Swahili.

Radio Free Asia broadcasting in the following languages:
Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, Tibetan, Uyghur, Vietnamese.

France, Radio France Internationale
No languages listed as of now.

Radio New Zealand International In English

Radio Japan In English

Radio Veritas - Philippines
Bengali, Burmese, Filipino, Hindi, Hmong, Kachin, Karen, Khmer, Mandarin, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Vietnamese, Zomi-Chin.

Voice Of Turkey
Arabic, Azerbaijan, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dari/Pashto, English, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Kazakh, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek.

Transmitter Documentation Project (TDP) Clandestine Schedules

Voice Of Russia English Service Schedule

Links To International Broadcasters:
Primetime Shortwave Links To International Broadcasters

If anyone out here has A-11 schedules for any station not listed here, or if you have multi-lingual schedules for any station that is only listed here with an English service, please submit that information in the comments section.

United States A-11 (Spring/Summer 2011) Shortwave Schedules

The United States Federal Communications Commission has posted the new A-11 Spring/Summer Shortwave Broadcast schedules! Here is the link: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/A11FCC01.TXT

Operation Odyssey Dawn Recordings Hit The Web

WIRED has the story about one radio listener who uses a combination of techniques to monitor military movements with great accuracy. Technological hobby groups from amateur radio operators who hold a license and have to take an exam, to ATC monitors, and computer geeks come together and use their vast array of knowledge and resources to track U.S. Federal Agencies who thought that they could not be tracked.

Who said radio is useless? Here are OPERATION ODYSSEY DAWN FREQ LISTINGS from Bryan Herbert, a Licensed Amateur with a 6 call.

China Radio International Coded Messages?

A reliable source in the politburo informed me a few months ago that China Radio International's distribution of content on radio stations in Australia, United Kingdom, United States and Canada is not just way to have foreign listeners. My source informed me that since 2005/06 China's Ministry of State Security has been embedding messages into the Chinese programs. The messages are encoded in the audio. How the messages are encoded is unknown at this time.

More on this will follow!

WRN Newsletter For 18 March 2011

Shortwave America is pleased to finally announce the very first authorized distribution of the WRN Newsletter! Since blogger doesn't like the html or something in the newsletter, and formatting was a huge pain with the blogger template, SCRIBD has been used to create and publish the newsletter for Shortwave America readers.

With no further waiting, please enjoy this awesome piece of journalism brought here by permission of World Radio Network!

WRN News Letter 18 March 2011

Shortwave America Amateur Radio Listening Gallery News Update

This new feature of Shortwave America is almost ready!! There are only four license call districts that need to be added to this gallery before it is published. This gallery will also serve as a comprehensive, exhaustive resource center for amateur radio licensees and unlicensed enthusiasts alike.

When the gallery is published, the complete resource center will not be ready, so readers will get to see what is being worked on in real time! Check back daily to see what is going on here at Shortwave America!

Icom America and Yaesu Production News

Both of these news pieces are from CQ Amateur Radio Magazine:

ICOM: Staff & Factories OK, Other Issues May Slow Production

Yaesu/Vertex Standard OPerations Suspended in Fukushima Due To Earthquake Damage, Some Production Continues In China

Speculation on part of Shortwave America says that prices will jump and quality of some equipment may not be the best since Vertex is operating under such harsh circumstances. Product availability could likely become a problem as well. It is gonna be a wait & see situation.

U.S. Funds BBC Effort To Defeat China's Great Firewall

Published as HC 849-i,

HOUSE OF COMMONS  ORAL EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE

FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE IMPLICATIONS OF THE BBC WORLD SERVICE CUTS

WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH 2011

LUKE CRAWLEY and JEREMY DEAR JIM EGAN, PETER HORROCKS and RICHARD THOMAS MARK THOMPSON

If this works the way it is intended, China can forever say goodbye to the great firewall.

Number Station

The past few nights I have been picking up a number station I have never heard before. Broadcast begins at around 0000UTC and continues for about 6 hours. The frequency is 6478.8mhz LSB. I'm just in the middle of making a recording.

IARU Has Japan Emcomm Information

Shortwave America has discovered, late as it may be right now that the IARU has two updates to emcomm in and around Japan related to their horrific state of living right now. READ IT HERE

Russia Joins CEPT Amateur Radio License Agreement

Southegate ARC brings us news that Russia has joined the CEPT amateur radio licensing agreement. READ IT HERE

Japan Reels From 8.9 Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Meltdown Highly Possible

The ARRL has the story, stating a report from the JA1 area of Japan that the JA7 prefecture area is unreachable by any means so far. Read it here

Shortwave America is following the state of emergency, recovery, and other developments carefully. At this time, it has been learned that nuclear reactors in Fukushima are still in a state of emergency and unable to be cooled.

PCJ Radio has live streaming coverage. Go to the Shortwave America Listening Gallery and click on the PCJ link.

Fighting Against The West - China's Powerplay To Control Radio Communications

BBC's decision to cut certain services, VOA's situation, Firedrake, the most recent CPC meeting in Beijing where a comment was made about "The fight against the west" and "a victory for communism" have clearly marked China as the enemy of anyone who has gotten used to hearing communications from all over the world. Licensed radio amateurs should also be raising their eyebrows at this because China holds considerable influence over the most powerful medium of communications there is: the airwaves.

Shortwave broadcasters and amateur radio operators share many things in common and the most important of these commonalities are the ability to perform technical experiments, to understand HOW to use radio, and being able to communicate the entire world over. We both know who our audience is, we know how to reach them, and we know how to set up effective communications nets in order to keep the flow of information going.

China's power play for control of the communications medium is encroaching just as aggressively as the Iranian government. Neither of these entities can be trusted. In order for diplomacy to happen, in order for the last communist governments of the world to be effectively dismantled, those of us in the communications arena need to use our medium well. When a person uses communications well, communications actually become ninety nine percent of bringing diplomacy and democracy to the forefront.

It is already well known that communications are ninety nine percent of getting most jobs on the world done, but China needs to be given the message that their so called "victory" is short lived. One step in the right direction would be setting up American-Chinese, or Chinese-International civillian controlled shortwave stations and amateur radio nets on a regular basis.

Although radio amateurs may not broadcast, we CAN talk about technical subjects and pass on vital information that pertains to radio communications. The latest CPC meeting was merely a meeting of foolish minds.

CPC Meeting in Beijing on HF and international broadcasting

As you may or may not know March 5th was the start of the annual National

People's Congress in China. At a meeting Sunday night with the head of the

Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China which is headed by Li

Changchun. This department is directly controlled by the Politburo Standing

Committee have called the cuts at the BBC World Service and the proposed cuts to

the Voice Of America as a victory for "the Communist Party of China and the

fight against the West", in speech to members of his department. In the

un-publisized speech he said with the Western media outlets losing the media

war, it will give China a chance to dominate the international airwaves. Li

Changchun also announced that China will spend 52 000 000 Yuan (8 million USD)

starting this year to expand it's reach to international audiences. This

includes satellite broadcasts, "taking over AM/FM stations in the west", and

expanding China's use of shortwave to the Americas, Europe, Africa and South

East Asia. China will also be looking at taking over relay stations once used to

broadcast to the PRC by the West "who have mis-informed the people of China to

create an un-stable society".

A proposal by the Politburo Standing Committee will be submitted to the high

level officials of the Communist Party of China on March 8th to combine CCTV 4

and 9 (international) and China Radio International into one, to "take over the

airwaves of the imperialist aggressors of stations like the BBC and the Voice Of

America".

This information comes to me from a source I can not name to protect his

identity as they work in the documents office at Zhongnanhai, the main

headquarters of the CPC. I got this information this morning March 7th.