The SWLing Post

Encore – Classical Music on Shortwave – Broadcast on Sunday afternoon in Europe (repeated Friday evening) and USA Encore – Classical Music this weekend is being broadcast as usual by Channel 292 (Europe) on 6070 kHz at 15:00 UTC Sunday 13th October. And by WBCQ on 7490 kHz at 00:00 – 01:00 UTC Monday 14th […]

One of our contributors on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, Tom Gavaras, has been sharing some brilliant airchecks. I also discovered that Tom runs an amazing site simply chock-full of Minneapolis/St. Paul airchecks. Tom writes: Hi Thomas, […]As an FYI … I own/run a website called RadioTapes (www.RadioTapes.com). It features more than 2,000 airchecks of […]

(Source: CNN via Tracy Wood) (CNN) — It’s March 23, 1959. The radio waves crackle and broadcast begins: “Govorit Radio Svoboda” (??????? ????? ??????? – “This is Radio Liberty speaking…”) From the other side of the Iron Curtain, the radio broadcasts of US-funded Radio Liberty reached deep inside the Soviet Union. This was an opening […]

(Source: Radio Romania International via David Iurescia) Dear RRI friends, Sunday, November 3, 2019 will be Listeners’ Day on RRI, a day of celebration for which you are kindly invited to send us your opinion about the role of international radio broadcasting now, 30 years after the fall of many communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The Berlin […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Steve Lebkuecher, who shares this video which compares the mediumwave performance of the PL-990 and PL-680: Click here to view on YouTube.

Many thanks to SLWing Post contributor, Mike Ladd with SDRplay, who shares the following guest post: Basics to decoding WEFAX using an RSP and SDRuno by Mike Ladd SDR I use: RSPduo from SDRplay using the Hi-Z input. Any model RSP’s can tune WEFAX transmissions. https://www.sdrplay.com/rspduo/ Antenna I use: Megaloop FX from Bonito. In an […]

(Source: Radio World) Is medium wave in decline? Some people think so. In the 1950s radio was declared mortally wounded by TV. But then FM with its new music rescued it, becoming one of the most successful technologies and platforms ever. Radio survived and thrived but AM should have died at the hands of the […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Justin Moore, who writes: [I recently published a post] on the history of the 1990’s Japanese Satellite radio station St. GIGA (here http://www.sothismedias.com/home/the-lunar-phases-of-st-giga ). They were a station that played ambient music and nature recordings and other stuff whose programming schedule was based on the movement of the tides. Very […]

(Source: Southgate ARC via Eric McFadden) Broadcaster KUNC reports that a little-known radio station in Fort Collins might one day save the world An array of radio towers sits behind security fences amid farms and pastures north of Fort Collins. This is home to WWV, the country’s oldest radio call letters. The station’s high-frequency broadcasts […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, S. Thomas Bradley, who shares the following: I just upgraded my receiver from my trusty old FRG-7 (I bought it new back in the 70’s) to a Tecsun PL-880. For my own benefit I have gathered together all of the PL-880 hidden features I could find on the web […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rich Stahl (WR3V), who shares his frugal but effective mediumwave DXing setup: My MWBC directional reception on the cheap (see photo above): Tecsun PL-310ET $40.85 Tecsun AN200 loop $12.95 Walmart Lazy susan $7.95 Cardboard box -0- Total $61.75 Who says its an expensive hobby? Indeed! That’s a very basic, […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Steve Lebkuecher, who shares this video which compares the speaker audio of the PL-990 and PL-680: Click here to view on YouTube. I would love to hear a comparison with the PL-880 since the PL-880’s audio is also superior to that of the PL-680.

(Source: NIST Blog via Eric McFadden) NIST Radio Station WWV Celebrates a Century of Service By Laura Ost What technological application has had musical, timekeeping, navigational, scientific, traffic-control, emergency-response, and telephone applications? Answer: WWV, one of the world’s oldest continuously operating radio stations. NIST received the call letters WWV a century ago, in 1919. Since then, […]

In response to Paolo’s recent post regarding Internet scams, SWLing Post contributor, 13dka replies: Sellers should be aware too: the same scammers have various schemes to scam sellers as well, and these fake ads play a role in those too, IIRC one popular variant is that the scammers try to buy your item, and offer […]

(Source: Deutsche Welle via David Iurescia) It served as a symbol of communist power and remains a remarkable landmark of the now reunited city: the Fernsehturm on Alexanderplatz was inaugurated on October 3, 1969. With its iconic glittering sphere, the TV Tower looks over the once divided city that has been reunited since 1990. The 365-meter-high […]

Encore – Classical Music on Shortwave – Broadcast on Sunday afternoon in Europe and USA with a repeat on Friday Encore – Classical Music this weekend is being broadcast as usual by Channel 292 (Europe) on 6070 kHz at 15:00 UTC Sunday 6th of October. And by WBCQ on 7490 kHz at 00:00 – 01:00 […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike (KA3JJZ), who writes: Have you ever heard of the SW Radiogram digital broadcasts? These are produced by Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott and started way back when as the VoA Radiogram. They are now carried on 2 other stations (WRMI and WINB) on a schedule (check every week for […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans, who notes that R&L’s price on the Icom IC-7300 transceiver is currently $948.89 with discounts and coupons. Click here to view this deal at R&L Electronics. Click here to read our review of the Icom IC-7300.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who shares the following story from the RTL-SDR.com blog: Last month we posted a collection of reviews about the MLA-30 which is a budget magnetic loop antenna designed for receiving HF signals. The overall consensus from the reviews was that it worked decently for the price, but of course could […]

(Source: ABC News via Michael Bird) To NASA personnel, he is VK5ZAI. To his neighbours at Pinks Beach, a small coastal town in South Australia, he goes by Tony. In his 30-year association with the US space agency, Tony Hutchison has been called upon to help in times of crisis, moderate calls between astronauts and […]

(Source: Trans World Radio via Marcus Keulertz) Due to changes to the media landscape and subsequent decline in demand for shortwave radio broadcasts in South Africa, TWR will be reducing our English morning broadcasts in the 49, 60 and 90 metre bands on October 27th – followed by a retirement of these broadcasts on December 31st. We […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marty, who shares a link to the following video (in Chinese) of the new Tecsun PL-990: Click here to view on YouTube.

I assume people who read this blog have so many things in common, one of them is a love for gadgets, especially radios and SDRs. To others, a radio is a radio, but not to us. We invest so much money and time to obtain and play and experiment with different tools and compare them. […]

Earlier this year I published what I called an “initial” review of the CommRadio CTX-10 QRP transceiver, promising an eventual final review. The reason for this is that I sensed there were important CTX-10 updates on the horizon, and I wanted to re-evaluate the rig once the upgrades had been implemented through firmware. This final […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul W4/VP9KF, who shares the following report from the UK’s National Hamfest: Your travelling foreign correspondent took in a visit to the UK’s National Hamfest held in Newark, Notts. We arrived right on opening time (10am) and were the first in the door. There was a ‘rush’ to the SDRPlay […]

(Source: Southgate ARC) Al Williams WD5GNR writes on Hackaday about bouncing amateur radio signals off the moon One of the great things about ham radio is that isn’t just one hobby. Some people like to chit chat, some like to work foreign countries, some prepare for emergencies, and there are several space-related activities. There are hundreds […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paolo Viappiani (SWL I1-11437), who shares the following guest post: Some Tips For Avoiding Internet Scams by Paolo Viappiani – SWL I1-11437 pviappiani@tin.it Recently, I have been amazed by the growing number of frauds that foul up the radio market on the Internet (I was scammed too), so I […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who shares a number of articles about the one-frequency FM radio called the Public Radio: Might be of interest to you and readers of the SWLing Post: https://www.thepublicrad.io/ Why does the Public Radio cost $60? http://pencerw.com/feed/2018/11/21/why-its-sixty-dollars How to program a radio which is sealed inside a cardboard shipping […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden, who shares the following note from the Southgate ARC: The article Decoding Numbers Stations by Allison McLellan which appears in the November 2019 issue of ARRL’s QST magazine is available for free download Download the article PDF from http://www.arrl.org/this-month-in-qst Digital membership of ARRL costs just £40 ($49) https://www.arrl.org/membership-levels

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Srebnick, who writes: Here’s a question to put to your blog readers. I’m looking for a compact portable receiver for travel purposes. It must have AM, FM and shortwave coverage. It should support SSB and RDS. Synchronous AM is a plus, as is FM band coverage starting at […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who shares the following antenna construction article from Radio World: Ken Beckwith is a field engineer with EMF based in Nebraska. Being a hands-on engineer, Ken has done his share of construction over the years. One of his projects was the construction of an octagonal-shaped AM loop […]

I think this is a brilliant story from the CBC: Almost every morning and night, Therese Mair can be found sitting on her favourite chair in her living room, in front of a ham radio. Mair lives in Georgetown, P.E.I., but by fiddling with a dial and searching through static, she can speak with people […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Edward Ganshirt, who writes: I have seen some very good radio cases for carrying your radio with you with a price tag. I needed one for my DX-440 but did not want to shell out a hundred bux for it, so I made a home brew version out of […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jack Kratoville, who writes: I was once big into Grundig; I owned the YB-400PE, 550, Traveller II, Mini, finally settling on the G5 as one of my favorite radios. I looked at the G3 and probably got a bad one – sold it on eBay. When the G2 “Reporter” […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Carlos Latuff, who writes: Greetings from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Yesterday I listened something unusual. On the shortwave band of 11.520 kHz, 11.525 kHz and then 11.530 kHz, this last the frequency of Kurdish Radio Denge Welat, it was broadcasting military songs from the times of the Ottoman Empire something […]

Encore – Classical Music on Shortwave – Broadcast on Sunday afternoon in Europe and USA Encore – Classical Music this weekend is being broadcast as usual by Channel 292 (Europe) on 6070 kHz at 15:00 UTC Sunday 29th September. And by WBCQ on 7490 kHz at 00:00 – 01:00 UTC Monday 30th September There is […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jim (W4OXB), who writes: I have been involved in SWLing and ham radio since the middle 1960s. Mostly listening before I got my ham ticket in 1969. My current call is W4OXB. I used to record dx catches on mediumwave and shortwave that I put in my logbook. About […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Julian Stargardt, who writes: I was just browsing through eBay when I stumbled on this listing that may interest some SWLing readers: An excellent condition SONY ICF-7600A. The listing is for a Sony ICF 7600 [with box and accessories] – the original ICF 7600, a very different beast from […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov, who writes: If you are interested, here’s a video where the power consumption of nine different SDRs was compared: Click here to view on YouTube. Fascinating! I’ve always been curious about SDR power consumption because many of my SDRs are rarely turned off. Thank you for sharing, […]

Many thanks to the SWLing Post contributor, Martin Butera, who shares the following guest post: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Visiting the most important time signal station in South America – PPE Observatório Nacional by Martin Butera Still photographs by: Mark Van Marx (Marcos Melzi) Video by: Ligia Katze English adaptation and correction by: Sudipto Ghose (VU2UT) We invite […]

The relatively new Eton Elite Executive, formerly Eton Executive Satellit, has dropped $50 USD on its Amazon page to $129.99: This rather major price drop lowers the cost to just $20 more than Amazon’s price for the older, silver-cased Eton Executive Satellit. According to Jay Allen’s review the new radio has identical performance to the […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who writes: SWLing Post readers might be interested in learning about Gospell’s newly-announced DRM receivers and active antenna products. The GR-22 “pocket-sized” “full-wave” receiver that’s supposed to be available for purchase by June 2020 seems especially interesting. (Source: Gospell Press Release) Gospell to announce the DRM monitoring system […]

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kim Elliott, who shares a link to this short but fantastic photo pdoc about Kumartuli’s radio man, Amit Ranjan Karmakar. Click here to view at The Indian Express.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marty Kraft, who asked that I share the following question with our community: I’m still working on a receive-only passive hula loop magnetic antenna for my Tecsun PL-660. After viewing thousands of YouTube videos (LOL), I built the PVC-pipe structure [you can see in the photo below]. But I […]

(Source: Southgate ARC via Eric McFadden) Scientific American magazine reports new data suggest the 1921 ‘New York Railroad Storm’ could have surpassed the intensity of the famous Carrington Event of 1859 In a paper published in the journal Space Weather, Jeffrey Love of the U.S. Geological Survey and his colleagues reexamined the intensity of the 1921 event, […]