A new time signal station has appeared on 6450 kHz operated by the Australian Navy, replacing the service that has been provided until now by VNG. Paul Ballster reports power cuts to both BBC domestic and commercial networks. BBC has trouble restoring power to its 648 kHz service in Oxfordness.
Shortwave radio stations used to get a huge postbag before email made correspondence so much easier. The bulk of the mail was often a request for a QSL card or a programme schedule. Can correspondence with Eastern European stations in 1987 get you in trouble with Western authorities? Austrian Radio (ORF) has discovered that they have to send letters to listeners in the GDR with a handwritten envelope. Remember Earl Hunter of Radio Morania? (a parody creation from Kim Andrew Eliott) Tony Hackley at the real VOA reports an upward surge in mail response. Graham Mytton of the BBC IBAR says listeners get the best chance of an answer by writing in English. Least likely is Hindi! At Radio Australia they make sure the letters get to the producer concerned. There is also news from the bands from Andy Sennitt and Ginger da Silva.
