Farewell to Radio Australia

6
Tuesday, January 31, 2017

It's official: Radio Australia are no longer on shortwave and only time will tell of all the implications of what I feel is an incredibly short-sighted decision.

Having heard that they might switch off their transmitters at midnight universal time on  January 31st, I monitored their 17840 kHz signal remotely via a KiwiSDR server located in New Zealand (there is no night-time propagation path from their Shepparton transmitter site to the UK at this time of the year). I was encouraged to find that they were still on the air after midnight UTC and thought this meant they would go on until midnight Sydney time, in which case I might be able to record their sign-off from my usual outdoor shortwave listening and spectrum capture spot.

However, I hadn't seen the most recent updates informing listeners that transmissions would be cut at noon Australian Eastern Standard Time (0100 UTC). I thus missed their sign-off on the KiwiSDR, but I was able to record their last news bulletin from it, which gave me some faint hope that we might see them back on the air one day:


I made my last personal recording of their shortwave signal out in the park on January 30th, using my portable spectrum capture set-up. The signal was a lot weaker than normal at this time of the day but still perfectly intelligible.


Three and a half years earlier, I tuned into them for the very first time, while on a trip to Moscow, Russia:


Fairwell, Radio Australia. You will be missed.

About the author

This blog is written by a shortwave radio enthusiast based in London, UK. You can follow him on Twitter at @LondonShortwave

6 comments:

  1. John AE5X31 January 2017 at 14:02

    Sad to hear of this...
    http://ae5x.blogspot.com/2017/01/radio-australia-and-sea-story.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. London Shortwave31 January 2017 at 14:45

      Thank you for sharing your fascinating story! 73s, LS

      Delete
  2. Anonymous31 January 2017 at 17:16

    I am very disappointed at the closure of RA. It was one of the few international broadcasters still providing us with good program content. Besides, it was the first station to which I had courage to send a reception report 45 years ago in my teen age. Now I have lost a reliable friend, sigh.

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  3. Breva75028 March 2017 at 09:41

    Sad times indeed. I listened to SW in the 80s and 90s and as an Aussie I was always proud of RA reaching out to the world. Very short sighted; not everyone has the internet or a good enough connection to listen to streams. I wonder if the domestic shortwave has also gone? It used to serve the outback well...73 2E0OZI Scott.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. London Shortwave2 April 2017 at 19:30

      Hi Scott, unfortunately the domestic service has also been shut down. 73s, LS

      Delete
  4. Normandy16 July 2023 at 06:53

    Oh the pain... The pain!!!

    ReplyDelete

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