The SWLing Post

(Source: Jeff White) Dear WRMI Clients, Listeners and Friends: Yesterday evening, Hurricane Irma passed very close to Okeechobee, and tropical storm force winds hit our transmitter site. I’m happy to say that the transmitter building and the transmitters themselves survived with no major problems. In the antenna field, one of our 44-degree antennas beaming up […]

(Source: WRMI on Facebook) 1430 UTC Monday, September 11 Hurricane Irma has done extensive damage at WRMI in Okeechobee, Florida. Two antenna towers are down and many poles holding transmission lines are also down. Power went out at around 2030 UTC Sunday, and it may not be restored for days. Meanwhile, all transmitters are off […]

(Source: Southgate ARC and Kim Elliott) Cross Country Wireless have released a Special Edition version of their SDR-4+receiver. This includes many features previously only available in custom versions of the receiver. Adding a high IP3 push pull RF amplifier, RF filter upgrades and a lower noise and distortion IQ amplifier have resulted in a high performance […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who noted my comments about the Grundig S350DL’s tuning drift yesterday, and shared the following fix found on Jeff McMahon’s Herculodge blog. Ed writes: The Grundig S350DL’s mechanical tuning drift problem is reportedly easily correctable with a screwdriver: (Source: The Herculodge) […]The drift on AM was terrible! After […]

As a follow up to our previous post about the PTT “radio” app Zello, SWLing Post contributor, Aaron Kuhn shares this story from The Houston Chronicle: I downloaded an app. And suddenly, was part of the Cajun Navy. After watching nonstop coverage of the hurricane and the incredible rescues that were taking place, I got […]

(Source: WRMI on Facebook) Dear WRMI Friends, Colleagues and Clients: I am writing this at 0400 UTC Sunday, September 10. Here in Okeechobee the winds are starting to pick up as Hurricane Irma heads to Florida. The exact path of the hurricane continues to change somewhat, but it appears that the eye of Hurricane Irma […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Chris Freitas, who notes that’s he’s published a favorable review of the Eton Field BT on his blog: Chris Freitas on Radio The Field BT shares the same basic chassis as the Tecsun S-8800 (check out the review published yesterday) and several other receivers including the Grundig S350DL, S450DLX, and the C.Crane […]

In reply to our previous post regarding email delivery of the SWLing Post, contributor Dan Robinson draws our attention to this excellent article about using RSS feeds to keep track of news: As this recent article [at Gizmodo] points out, since the demise of Google Reader, things have become a bit more complicated when it […]

(Source: Bob’s Backyard BBQ Radio Show) A bunch of radio professionals get together at a home in Southwest Connecticut for great fun and food ever couple of summers. On Saturday September 9th from 7pm to 10pm eastern (2300 Saturday to 0200 UTC Sunday) Bob’s Backyard BBQ Radio Show will take place, hosted by Bob Gilmore and […]

Earlier this year, Tecsun released its long-awaited newest large portable: the Tecsun S-8800 portable shortwave/LW/AM-MW/FM receiver. Though I fully intended to buy a Tecsun S-8800 for review, our friendly Hong Kong-based Tecsun retailer, Anon-Co, sent an S-8800 to me before I could. I’ve worked with Anna at Anon-Co for at least a decade and have […]

(Source: The Washington Post via David Korchin) As Hurricane Harvey dropped anchor over Southeast Texas last week, Zello became the go-to app for rescuers working to save thousands of people trapped by floodwaters. Within days of Harvey’s arrival, the app saw a 20-fold increase in usage in Houston, according to Bill Moore, the Austin based […]

(Source: ARRL via Mike Terry) NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm watch for September 7 through September 9. The SWPC said the watch for September 7 remains in effect due to the arrival of a coronal mass ejection (CME) and the effects of a CME on September 4. […]

A number of SWLing Post readers (about 1,200 of you) are signed up for and receive our posts via email. In the past two weeks, I’ve received a number of messages from readers noting that they haven’t been receiving any email digests. If this is the case for you, I encourage you to try signing up […]

We now have a price for the Tecsun S-8800. Anna at Anon-Co has notified me that they’ve published the listing for the new Tecsun S-8800. The price is $268.00 US with free shipping to the USA. She also noted that the S-8800 won’t actually be available until some time next week. Note that my Tecsun […]

(Source: WRMI on Facebook) Hurricane Irma: Thank you to all of our listeners who have inquired about our hurricane plans. At the moment (early Wednesday local time), it appears that the eye of Hurricane Irma will come right over or very close to Okeechobee by Sunday or Monday. We will stay on the air as […]

(Source: Voice of Vietnam) US listener: “Personal connection makes me want to listen to VOV” (VOVWORLD) – The Voice of Vietnam (VOV) turns 72 this Thursday. Over the past 7 decades, VOV has served as a bridge linking Vietnam with people all around the world. Paul Walker, an American radio presenter and a loyal listener […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov (NO2CW) who shares the following: I finally got around to listening through some of the amateur radio band spectrum captures from the 2017 Solar Eclipse QSO party. I used an SDRPlay receiver with an end fed LNR antenna in portable field setting in Nashville, TN. About 30 minutes […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Andy Howlett, who writes: Some while back I spotted an elderly ‘TW Communivator’ in use the a late episode of The Avengers TV series. The episode in question is called ‘All done with Mirrors’. Studio Canal are a bit touchy about people nicking stills from their videos, but I sent […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who shares an update to his previous post regarding Fast Radio Bursts. Ed writes: Here’s a followup article explaining, “Five Reasons Why The Signals From Stephen Hawking’s Breakthrough Initiative Aren’t Aliens”. It compares the power of these Fast Radio Bursts (FRB’s) with that of the mediumwave array in […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bob LaRose (W6ACU), for the following guest post: Eclipse 2017 Propagation Observations by Bob LaRose (W6ACU) DXers know that the reception of overseas Shortwave Broadcast stations offers one of the best ways to immediately gauge shortwave radio propagation conditions from your location to distant areas of the world. For the eclipse of 2017 I decided to see how reception of SW broadcast stations on lower shortwave broadcast frequencies (and to a smaller extent […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rawad Hamwi, who shares the following recording and notes: I recorded today part of Voice of Korea news bulletin (english language) when they started talking about what they did regarding the detonation on a H bomb today. You know, such things don’t occur everyday and maybe the last time we […]

My Labor Day weekend was free of travel again this year, so I was able to make another pilgrimage to the Shelby (North Carolina) hamfest with my good buddy, Vlado (N3CZ). The Shelby Hamfest–referred to, locally, as “The Grand-Daddy of them All”–has long been regarded as one of the largest hamfests in the southeast US. […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who shares a link to the following article at Breakthrough Initiatives: Green Bank Telescope observations of a dwarf galaxy three billion light years away reveal 15 bursts of radio emission. This is the first time bursts from this source have been seen at these frequencies. San Francisco – August […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who writes: A message to contacts in North Asia (Japan / Korea etc)… North Korea is currently (right now 1430UTC) broadcasting in DRM format on 3560KHz. Listening to remote receivers in Japan I can see the signal is very strong in the Tokyo and Yokohama areas – […]

(Source: Bob’s Backyard BBQ Radio Show) A bunch of radio professionals get together at a home in Southwest Connecticut for great fun and food ever couple of summers. On Saturday September 9th from 7pm to 10pm eastern (2300 Saturday to 0200 UTC Sunday) Bob’s Backyard BBQ Radio Show will take place, hosted by Bob Gilmore and […]

(Source: Poynter via Kim Elliott) When Hurricane Harvey’s intensity became clear, employees at 93Q in Houston reserved hotel rooms across the street from the station. They were going to be very busy. The on-air talent slept in the Cox-owned radio station for days, said Bill Tatar, digital content manager at Cox Media Group Houston. When […]

(Source: KBS World Radio via Trevor R) Hello listeners, KBS World Radio English Service is carrying out a major frequency and time adjustment on shortwave as we expand our programming as of September 4. First of all, we will start a new two-and-a-half hour broadcast on 9.770Mhz at 0800h UTC toward Southeast Asia. The one-hour […]

Yesterday, I posted some photos of the yet-to-be-released CC Skywave SSB and a number of readers had the same reaction as Frank (K4FMH): “Who makes and sells your canvas bag? Inquiring minds want to know!” Frank was referring to the bag in the background on many of the radio shots–and he wasn’t alone in his […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kim Elliott, who notes that Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty have added a new transmitter in Lithuania: (Source: The Baltic Course) A new transmitter will be launched in Lithuania this week for broadcasting the Russian and Belarusian-language services of the US Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) aimed […]

Many thanks to Rocus de Joode who shares the following announcement and request for listener reports: (Este mensaje seguirá en español.) Dear radio friends, I received your Email addresses from Jeff White, from WRMI in Florida. [W]e would like to inform you about a possible new initiative for radio transmissions via mediumwave to Venezuela on 800 […]

Tuesday afternoon, I took a number of portable radios to the field: the Tecsun S-8800, Tecsun PL-880, Digitech AR-1780, C. Crane CC Skywave and the new C. Crane CC Skywave SSB. Last week, I received a pilot run (pre-production) CC Skywave SSB from C. Crane to test and provide feedback. My unit, of course, is still […]

(Source: Popular Mechanics) Carl Sagan’s famous line from his 1990 speech about the Pale Blue Dot image—”Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark”—is an understatement. We might consider our Milky Way, with its estimated 100 to 400 billion stars, a significant fixture in the cosmos. But there are some 100 billion galaxies […]

(Source: Variety) Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says A new study published today by the head of New York University’s Steinhart Music Business Program casts a sobering outlook on the future of terrestrial radio. In the 30-page report, Larry Miller argues that traditional radio has failed to engage with Generation Z — people born […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kim Elliott, who recently shared the photo above of President Harry S. Truman via @RealTimeWWII. If I’m not mistaken, that is a Scott Radio Labs Model RBO-2. I’m guessing that’s also the speaker mounted on the wall directly above the receiver. Scott Radio Labs marine receivers were shielded to the […]

If you’ve been an SWLing Post contributor for a few years, you’ll recall that we used to use Google’s Captcha system to prevent SPAMbot comments on our site. A few readers complained about how difficult the Captcha system was at the time (and I agreed with them), so we removed Captcha. At the same time, […]

Earlier this week, I received a message from my good friend, Mike, who lives south of Houston in Galveston County, Texas. Mike noted: Here in Texas, we’re still dealing with the impact of hurricane Harvey. […]The absolute best hurricane information came from AM 740 KTRH Houston. A 50,000 Watt AM transmitter that covers a major […]

After enjoying an afternoon testing the Tecsun S-8800 on the Blue Ridge Parkway this past weekend, I decided to return to the parkway yesterday and test the S-8800’s shortwave performance. I carved out about two hours of my afternoon and spent the entire time comparing the S-8800 to the Tecsun PL-880 and the Sony ICF-SW7600GR. I tested […]

(Source: Twice.com via Tom Hacker) RadioShack’s second bankruptcy in two years may have brought its company-owned stores to the edge of oblivion, but it has apparently sparked a renaissance among the chain’s approximately 425 independent franchisees. As Wisconsin dealer-owner PJ Kruschel explains, inventory is beginning to flow again, and the departure of the corporate stores […]

(Source: The K2DLS blog) Solar Eclipse Data Collection Project Between 1600 – 2015 UTC on August 21, 2017, as the solar eclipse swept across the nation, I captured much of the lower 2 MHz of the radio frequency spectrum. I used a Microtelecom Perseus SDR, a 130? inverted L with four radials, and lots of disk […]

The flea-powered Ozy Radio has begun testing on 5045 kHz in the 60-meter band. First noted here in Australia on August 28, the station has been missing for several years from its former 3210 kHz allocation. The location has been reported as Razorback, New South Wales, but I have not been able to confirm this […]

About a week ago, I received a re-engineered version of the Tecsun S-8800 from Anna at the excellent online retailer, Anon-Co. If you recall, I evaluated an early production unit of the S-8800 in February and while putting it through the paces, I discovered loud, warbling DSP birdies throughout the mediumwave and shortwave bands. Tecsun, […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rob Wagner (VK3BVW), who comments: There’s a quick and dirty video review of the AR-1780 by Peter VK3YE, which highlights a few interesting quirks (if that’s the right word!) with this receiver. Some birdies, specs that don’t appear accurate, and a query over one of the bandwidth settings. Well […]

(Source: Radio Mi Amigo International via Mike Terry) Radio Mi Amigo International presents a very special live broadcast remembering those days ‘the music almost died’. We remember Aug. 1967 (UK) and Aug. 1974 (Netherland) when the MOA (‘Anti-Pirate-Law’) became law in those countries and stopped most of the offshore stations. We remember with the songs […]

Man-made RF noise levels have increased dramatically at my place in the past six months. It has become much harder to hear weaker shortwave signals. Even the stronger stations are getting covered in all types of hash from all manner of electrical appliances. So, I have been looking at ways to reduce the noise problem. […]

With travels, solar eclipse events and family activities this week, I’ve had very little time to play radio. Yesterday was a gorgeous day though, so I took the family to the Blue Ridge Parkway and (of course) packed a couple portable radios. While we all enjoyed a picnic, I pulled out the AR-1780 with the […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes: Came across this very unusual Panasonic Radar Matic RF-880L radio on eBay: Click here to view on eBay. Very interesting model from the mid-60’s that automatically tunes for radio stations; apparently there’s a motor mechanism to accomplish this. Some other links for this remarkable radio […]

As Hurricane Harvey makes its slow trek through toward Corpus Christi, we’re watching what might become one of the most damaging storms this decade in the States. Each hurricane season, I receive emails from readers asking about frequencies to monitor as the storm approaches. Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) The Hurricane Watch Net is a group […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes: There’s been a new flurry of these posts on eBay, always the WJ 8711A. These items have prohibited listing practices, and should be ignored — definitely not something to bid on. I have reported these on numerous occasions to Ebay, which has expressed appreciation, but […]