BBC calling Antarctica! Midwinter broadcast on Qodosen DX-286, XHDATA D-109 and six other radios

Once a year the BBC has a very special broadcast to Antarctica, the Midwinter Broadcast. It happens on the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. This video is the 21 June 2024 broadcast, the full 30 minutes.

Three frequencies were used this year, namely 9585 kHz and 11685 kHz from Woofferton, and 9870 kHz from Ascension Island. Here in Johannesburg, South Africa, I only heard the 9585 kHz signal, with some weak traces on 11685 kHz.

In this video I show you my reception on eight different radios. The great thing about shortwave listening is that you can sometimes catch very interesting transmissions with really basic and cheap radios. Two of the radios in this video cost only $10, the XHDATA D-219 and the Clooblut RD218. They both captured this signal very well!

The radios you can see here are the Qodosen DX-286, Qodosen SR-286, XHDATA D-808, D-109, D-219, the Tecsun R-909, the Eton Elite Traveler III and the Clooblut RD218. I use a 10 metre external long wire on all the radios. I planned to include the Tecsun PL-360, but the PL-360 sound, for some reason, did not record well. So I left it out in the end.

The sound was recorded digitally in all cases, so speaker quality is not at play here. What you hear in my video is what you would hear on headphones. Bandwidth settings (on radios with bandwidth settings) vary between 3 kHz and 4 kHz.

This special broadcast is aimed at people who are stationed at three British Antarctic Survey research stations in Antarctica. The Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast is a special programme that contains messages from family members to researchers who are completely isolated because of the severe Antarctic winter. The programme also contains music requests.

00:00 BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica 9585 kHz
01:06 Qodosen DX-286
03:38 XHDATA D-808
05:38 Back to Qodosen DX-286
06:33 Qodosen SR-286
08:30 XHDATA D-109
10:40 Back to Qodosen SR-286
12:13 Eton Elite Traveler III
13:33 XHDATA D-219
15:02 Clooblut RD218 ($10 radio on Ali Express!)
16:06 Qodosen DX-286 again
18:47 Tecsun R-909
20:32 Qodosen SR-286 again
21:28 Back to the XHDATA D-109
22:28 Ending with the Qodosen DX-286
25:00 Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast sign-off