Falkland Island Radio Scene 5 November, 2014
King Penguins at Volunteer Point

Our cruise ship arrived in the morning. The weather was lovely, with a pleasant temperature of about 12 deg C, partial sunny weather, and a mild breeze. We had signed up for an extensive 4 x 4 tour to
Volunteer Point, a major penguin rookery, so time to check the bands was rather limited. Thanks to Kim Elliot of the VOA, as well as Guy
Atkins for emailing me some resources regarding the media scene, from internet sources. Kim’s link to the Falklands’ government website was particularly useful (fg.gov.fk) under frequencies. One would think that this is accurate, but not exactly. One problem stems from the large land area of the islands (something like 6000 sq miles I was told). Stanley, the capital is located in the south-east corner of the islands, on East
Falkland. I noted that the FM transmitter sites reported at this website were quite distant: Mt Alice is 125 miles from Stanley near the southern tip of West Falkland (between Port Stephens and Albermarle).
Byron Heights, also on West Falkland (between West Point Is and
Dunbar) is 120 miles west of Stanley. Sussex Mountain, on East
Falkland but 45 miles west of Stanley (south of San Carlos) is likely still too far for reception, assuming that the transmitter power is in the 10s of watts (my assumption). That leaves only Mt William, overlooking
Stanley to the west (5 miles away) as the only other “official” site listed by the F.I. Government. There are other hills and low mountains noted in the region. Sapper Hill is immediately to the west of Stanley, and I noted other transmitters listed there according to Guy Atkins’ information.
There are very few local resources available, so when a cruise ship arrives, the local population is mustered to provide transportation.
Virtually everyone owns a 4 x 4, which very soon became apparent why!
We lucked into having the local JP and retired manager of the FI
Company as our driver. He’s lived on the islands for 51 years, and his wife is a 5 th generation islander. I questioned him about 530 kHz, and was told that the transmitter is beyond repair and will unlikely return to the air (contrary to the government website). They were most definitely NOT on the air during our stay. As for SW, Terry mentioned that in the old days most everyone had a SW receiver to listen to the news from the old country (UK). I saw very little evidence of external
SW antennae during our stay, unfortunately. A quick AM bandscan with my trusty little Eton e100 during the day revealed one weak transmission only. Of course at dusk, the band became alive with continental stations. With all of the endless miles of open spaces, I can

only imagine this to be a Dxers wonderland with the possibility of endless Beverage antennae in any direction, but be aware, there are still many places where minefields exist from the 1982 Argentinian-UK conflict. I suspect that the amount of RF noise is minimal, owing to the very little infrastructure, no industry, and few power lines seen. An interesting statistic is that up to 50% of the islands power is provided by wind energy. We did see several large windmills:
Before embarking on my Stanley radio report scene, here are a few of the photos I took on the islands:

Above is the typical Falkland landscape: no trees, very rocky. Sheep farming is important here, but unlike places like New Zealand, you don’t see them in high concentrations.
More typical scenery:

Stanley Harbour. Note 2 vertical masts.
This is Stanley. There are two vertical towers seen, which appear to be near or at the local Stanley airport (used only for inter-island flights). I

saw another single vertical mast elsewhere in town. Below is Sapper
Hill, overlooking Stanley:
Sapper Hill with numerous antennae
Beware the minefields! Fenced off areas are seen widely throughout the islands. They are gradually being de-mined, presently being done by
Zimbabweans! (and previously by a group from Ghana).

Typical off-road driving (to the penguin rookery):

Getting stuck is quite common!
Finally, remnants of the 1982 conflict are much in evidence. Here’s the remains of an Argentinian CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, not far from Stanley and on the opposite side of the road, a very rocky mountain, site of heated battles between entrenched Argentinian soldiers and the British Royal Marines below:

Now, onto my findings. First, I’ll comment on the stations in and around Stanley, NOT on the air, from the list provided to me by Guy
Atkins:
MW:
530 FIRS, Stanley.
550 BFBS Radio 2, Bush Rincon
FM:
95.5 Saint FM, Stanley
101.0
DW, Stanley (for the life of me, I find it difficult to understand why DW would have a FM repeater on the Falklands!
106.5
Radio Nova, Stanley
Now, onto what I did hear in Stanley, and for the first 30 minutes after departure. Around 21:30 UTC, as well as briefly at 11:45 UTC upon arrival:
87.5 may be someone here. Very weak.
88.3
Falkland Islands Radio Service (FIRS), Stanley. Parallels heard, but all 3 with about a 1 second delay: 90.0, 96.5, 97.8
From the government list, they also mention 88.2 and 88.4 from distant sites, but carrying BFBS 2. Also 88.6 and 88.8, the latter being on Mt
William. This one was definitely NOT on the air, as it is located near
Stanley. With the inexpensive Eton, it was difficult sometimes to be sure of the exact FM frequency. 88.3 could be heard well on 88.2 and
88.4 MHz, but with FIRS programming, and not the BFBS R2. Here is a mp3 file of this most interesting station:
Falkland Is Radio Service 88.3 5Nov2014 news.mp3
90.0
FIRS (see 88.3)
91.1
BFBS with ID at 21:32, and again at 22:10, parallel to 91.4
91.4
BFBS (see 91.1) ID noted in this mp3 file:
Falkland Is Radio Survey 5Nov2014 even better BFBS ID.mp3
92.5
very weak, may be // to 92.7 not sure of program
92.6
very weak, may be // to 92.5 not sure of program

93.1
sounds like a mixing product. Weak, but seems to have FIRS and
BFBS cochannel.
93.3
? someone weakly there
93.8
probably BFBS Radio 2 with soccer play by play at 21:37 // 94.5
Transmitter site (via Guy Atkins) is listed as Mt Pleasant/RAF Airport, some 30 miles from Stanley.
94.5
see 93.8 Transmitter site is listed as Stanley.
96.0
BFBS Gurkha Radio Transmitter site listed as Mt Pleasant
Here’s an mp3 link: Falkland Is Radio Survey 5Nov2014 BFBS Gurkha.mp3
96.5
FIRS at very good level // to 88.3 and 97.8 (see 88.3). Guy’s list states that this is a BFBS transmitter located on Sapper Hill,
Stanley yet I only heard FIRS programming both in the morning and the late afternoon/early evening.
97.8 FIRS at very good level (see 88.3) Listed as Mt. William site,
Stanley. 97.6 from Mt. Allice is listed with FIRS. Heard on the Eton, but most likely simply due to the bandwidth spilling over to frequency.
98.5 BFBS ID at 22:11, and local programming, giving phone number
(5678) and website: FI@bfbs.com
. // to 91.1
99.8
BBCWS at very strong level
104.3
Very weak, // to 93.8 so BFBS R2
105.8
Very weak ?
106.8 (non): FI government site lists this as BFBS Falklands from Mt
William (Stanley) and definitely NOT on the air.
I hope that you have found this little travelogue of some interest.
We’re told that the rate of being able to tender into Stanley is only 50%
(due to high winds and seas: which we definitely experienced in the afternoon), so I count myself very fortunate to have been able to actually land and experience the hospitality of the Falklands.