The Media Network Vintage Vault 2026-2027

Going through some cassettes on the last day of February and I discovered several cassettes of BBC's programme for shortwave listeners. World Radio Club and Waveguide. The earliest recording turned out to be from July 1977 which I recorded while at a DX camp in Austria. Nice to hear the voices of Peter Barsby and Henry Hatch.

This edition had another Longwave update. We talk to John Ross Barnard about the attempts to get longwave radio out of the Isle of Man. Delta 171 seems to be a non-starter though. Web TV has challenges too. A personal computer program has been launched for the Lowe HF-150. Phil Murphy has comments about the program we did from Shanghai. Harald Kuhl sent a post-script on his trip to Shanghai. Long-distance trains have their own radio station. Lots of announcements discouraging spitting. And Jonathan picked up a Chinese wind-up radio - no spring like the Baygen version though.

In this edition, Lodewijk Bouwens launches DRM at a conference in China on behalf of other Western broadcasters. (This is the earliest announcement we know of concerning digital shortwave radio). We also look at USA Digital Radio. Some good signals came out of RCI in Montreal this week on their 53rd anniversary. Bryan Clark has news that Tahiti has suddenly returned on 15170 kHz. The second half of the programme features an extended interview with Professor Doug Boyd, who is a specialist on Middle East Broadcasting. Satellite Television is booming. But what happened to the BBC's attempts? When the first attempt failed, it spawned the launch of Al Jazeera. Radio is becoming increasingly FM orientated.

Ignore all the email address and phone numbers mentioned in this edition of the programme. They are all obsolete. However, we have revived a new email address for reactions on these vintage editions as well as new video editions of the programme for 2021 - please email [email protected] We started the Feb 1998 edition by previewing the results to the Big Survey. We investigate the first Audible Player (yes they are still going strong). In this case, the 1998 Audible player had a built-in FM radio. Fred Osterman will be in our Lightning special at the end of February 98. Andy Sennitt has news from Paraguay, where a military uprising was reported as a joke. Community radio has the go-ahead in Brazil. Radio Astronomers are complaining about interference from broadcast satellites. Professor John Campbell has an update on increasing bandwidth but network operators have responded. Campbell had some interesting predictions on the future Microsoft. He thought it would go the way of IBM. (I think he is right – in 2021 look at the popularity of Zoom compared to Microsoft Skype and Teams). Jonathan tells the story of the big bang at Flevo. And we were amazed at how many pirates had a transmitter ready to transmit on 5955 Khz. John Campbell has news about the pirates in the Eastern part of the Netherlands and North America. 6955 kHz is a popular channel. There are 500 new satellite transponders. We talk to Bob Cooper in New Zealand about the Euro bouquet and what it costs to get into satellite. He had some very disparaging comments about Australian satellite TV. I am delighted to note Bob's website is still around.

During the lifetime of Series One, we had a great relationship with Steve Whitt of the UK's Mediumwave Circle. They were kind enough to host our receiver reviews when the radio show ended. And they are still there. (If you think we should archive those reviews and other DX Publications, please tell us at [email protected]) In this programme, at the end of a cold, dark January, it was an excellent time to return to the topic of long-distance AM (Mediumwave) reception. Steve reported some strange conditions in the UK, normally only possible for listeners much further North in Finland and Norway. Even in 1998, some stations were closing down. But things were starting to go full circle. And there was excitement around the expanded band with stations like WJDM on 1660 (later WWRL), WCMQ on 1700 kHz. There is plenty more coming about mediumwave – check out the goodbye to BBC 648 which we posted on YouTube 10 years ago. The programme also deals with the failure of Asiasat 3, with expert commentary from Bob Cooper.

This edition of Media Network covered updates on the numbers stations. But we started with news of unusual FM reception in New Zealand from Bryan Clark. Moscow has made a historic cutback to its output. We talk to Elizabeth Fox about broadcasting in Latin America. It was also time to renew the phone line to UK Numbers Station specialist Simon Mason to find out the latest on mysteries like the Lincolnshire Poacher, the Buzzer, and The New Star Station. This is an extensive interview with many off-air examples. Simon tells me (January 2021) that some are still running right now! Here's the list.

Happy New Year 2021. This is THE place for vintage editions of Media Network, the weekly communications programme as aired on the English Service of Radio Netherlands. This edition broadcast on January 2nd 1998 was unusual in that it was just under 50 minutes long because it fell on a holiday when the current affairs programme "Newsline" was missing. Diana Janssen and Jonathan Marks used the time to share the results of a major survey we conducted into sales of shortwave radios. In the early days of DX programmes from Radio Netherlands, it was often cheaper to build your own set. DX Juke Box even sent out plans to make them. But by 1998, it was much better to buy one. Which is why we compiled the "Receiver Shopping List" with quite a comprehensive guide as to what was on the market. In this programme we spoke with dealers like Bob Grove, Martin Lynch, Fred Osterman, Jack Summers, and contributors Mike Bird and Lou Josephs. These days there are some excellent sites dealing with restoration of these old radios. We recommend Mr Carlson's Lab, David Tipton and Techmoan in particular. Please remember to support them.

Christmas and New Year were traditionally quiet times at Radio Netherlands, with a lot of pre-taped specials. We didn't really know whether anyone was listening. But apparently, they were because we had plenty of feedback to report on in this last Media Network of 1996. So join us for some time travel, back to the birth of the Internet.

I was delighted to discover in December 2020 that Neil Carleton of Almonte, Ontario, Canada remembers us. We remember him. We originally got in touch with him because of his fascination for stamps connected with radio and his spot on HCJB, Quito. He must have owned the world's more comprehensive collection. But he also used shortwave radio for teaching. Here are some links to his more recent work. RADIO IN THE CLASSROOM Making connections across the curriculum with shortwave listening and amateur radio was a grand adventure each year during my teaching career. Early one morning nine students, one each from kindergarten to grade 8, had their questions about space answered by the Commander of the International Space Station as the crew passed high overhead in orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0zMn16z8to COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER During my retirement years I've enjoyed volunteering with a variety of community organizations. https://mvfn.ca/2009-champion-for-nature-neil-carleton/ https://millstonenews.com/geoheritage-park-inaugurates-qr-code/ Creative pursuits and amateur radio have also been special interests. http://thehumm.com/online/theprinthumm.cfm?id=201901 https://millstonenews.com/neil-carletons-induction-to-amateur-radio-hall-of-fame/ We also talked to Fred Vobbe of the US National Radio Club in more detail about AM DXing in the winter months. And Lou Josephs has been reviewing the new book from "shock jock" Howard Stern.

So whatever happened to the world's first green radio station, Radio Safari? In late 1996, we followed up on a report in New Scientist and met up with Andre Waters who had clearly identified a need for such a station in South Africa. But apart from that article and our report 12 months later, I can find no record of what happened to that project. Did it run out of money? Or is it around today under a different name. The same programme reports that Radio Canada International has been saved (again). Kiwi Radio in New Zealand is going to try another international test. We also discuss our methods in testing receivers. Especially figures for the dynamic range are a hot topic for debate amongst other reviewers.