wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (08/12/85)
Those of us on the net have been able to read the "Stardate" daily programs on astronomy, and, if we were lucky enough to have a local radio station carry them at a time we could listen, also hear them. There is now another radio program on astronomy available; this one is carried on shortwave, and should be able to be received throughout North America. (Some comment on Europe later.) The program is "Skyline" -- it, too, is a non-technical broadcast aimed at novices. It is carried as part of the programming of Radio Earth, which is a shortwave program which has been operating for a few years, buying time on other stations' facilities until their own Caribbean-based transmitter is built. Due to the fact that they were thus dependent on other stations, they have not been being broadcast in North America recently. That just changed, and they now have a weekly 3-hour broadcast on the new shortwave station KCBI in Dallas, TX. This broadcast is on 11790 kHz, beginning at 1800 GMT on Sundays (that is 1 PM Central Daylight Time). The fifteen-minute Skyline program was aired at about 1815 GMT this last Sunday (11 Aug); it is possible that it might be moved within the broadcast on future transmissions. There was minimal interference during this first hour, which made it easy to hear Skyline on this broadcast, but interference from other stations increased during the 3-hour transmission, making the last half-hour just about unlistenable. There is a European transmission of Radio Earth, but I do not have the frequency and time to hand at the moment. They are broadcast on one of the Italian private stations, I believe. The KCBI transmission may well make it to Europe, however, and readers there are encouraged to try. You will hear announcements of the European frequency and time also. In addition to the usual "current celestial phenomena" discussions, like the Perseids, Skyline is also carrying a series of reviews of astronomically-oriented software for personal computers. This might be particularily interesting to net readers. Happy listening! Regards, Will Martin UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA