WORLDWIDE DX CLUB Weekly Top News

Different feeling here in Germany. Apart of BBC 648/1296, the stations on
1215, 1458, and 1548 kHz are the loudest from UK now. At Stuttgart
southern Germany, 09E, 48N, 115degr from London.
1458 sounds like a 100 kW stn. (wb, mwdx Dec 31)
The power quoted by Ofcom for UK commercial stations generally takes into
account aerial gain, when a directional aerial is in use (eg 1215, 1458,
1548 kHz) whereas when the BBC used these freqs from the same tx sites,
they probably quoted the actual tx power, without taking into account
aerial gain. It does make some sense taking into account the gain, becuase
if you are in the direction of the main beam that will be the effective
power you receive - but in other directions it will be considerably lower.
The txs at Brookmans Park/Saffron Green sites on 1215, 1458 and 1548 kHz
are beamed roughly due south towards London, so you will only be getting a
side lobe in Germany, ie much weaker. If you were due South (eg in the
South of France) you would find very strong signals.
(Dave Kenny-UK, mwdx Dec 31)
1458 used to be (I thought) omni-directional 50 kW. Have to look back
through older "technical parameter" spreadsheets to see when the change
happened. Could've been back in 1994 when Sunrise started using it.
Whereas 1548 was a 27 kW tx with directional beam south effectively 97kW
in the main lobe, and has always been quoted as such. Amazing how quickly
you lose 1548 when you're on the M40 driving westwards as you cross the
M25.
(Mark, mwdx Dec 31)
BBC Radio 2
has a three part series Rhythm of the Reich starting on Tuesday [Jan 3rd]
at 2130-2200 BST. It recalls Charlie and his Orchestra, a jazz ensemble
created by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, whose mission was to
feed UK and US listeners of the notorious Germany Calling radio broadcasts
with American and British swing tunes reworked with English-language pro-
Nazi and anti-Semitic lyrics. Online listening:
If you want more information the whole story is covered in Hitler's
Airwaves by Horst J.P. Bergmeier and Rainer E. Lotz, the inside story of
Nazi radio broadcasting and propaganda swing, published by Yale University
Press in New Haven and London, ISBN 0-300-06709-7, which includes a CD of
Charlie and His Orchestra songs as well as some William Joyce broadcasts.
There was a preview of the series in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday:
The Ulster Log: Lord Haw-Haw on radio again. By Eddie McIlwaine 31
December 2005.
I USED to have nightmares about Lord Haw-Haw. It was illegal to listen to
his broadcasts from Germany during the war - but William Joyce, to give
this traitor his real name, had as many listeners as the BBC in the
blackout evenings of World War II. I must have been one of the youngest.
I was only an infant, yet I can still hear that chilling nasal voice to
this day. "Germany calling, Germany calling," was the way Haw-Haw
introduced himself on the air with his Nazi propaganda from his studio in
Berlin.
The task of this Irish-American was to sow fear and despondency in the
hearts of the people of the UK and to warn them of the Nazi wrath that was
to come. He appeared to know so much about what was going on in UK cities,
sometimes even telling which public clocks were slow or had stopped.