Tag Archives: Shortwave Listener Posts

AGA Nostalgia Trip: Haluk soon to be reunited with his childhood radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Haluk Mesci, who shares the following guest post:

AGA is the agha of radios…

by Haluk Mesci

Full disclosure: Contains nostalgia of ‘my parent’s radio’ and some 36 ‘and’s…

I was born and raised in Turkey. Throughout some part of my primary and secondary school years–between 1960 to 1968–we enjoyed listening to an AGA tube radio in the family room.

Although AGA is mainly Swedish as far as I know, I re-discovered a stock photo of it on agamuseum.nl which is Dutch:

Ours had a ‘magic eye’ just above the tuning knob on the right

I remember, at age 9, trying to listen to a live broadcast of a soccer match between Fenerbahce–my favorite team–and the French team of Nice: There was a ‘Nis’ -Turkish spelling- on the MW screen, so there had to be a broadcast, right? Wrong.

I learned much later that it wasn’t that easy on radio. (Alas, my team was devastated 5-1 anyhow.) Similar ‘search’ for ‘Russian Sputnik sending messages to the world’ yielded nothing but strange sounds like ‘a diesel engine working loudly’… I wasn’t a silly kid, but nobody taught us basic radio then.

Years passed and my family relocated to Samsun, another city by the Black Sea, because of my father’s work. I was about to graduate from ODTU and there was the famous leftist (anti-US etc) ‘boycott’s of 1968 and later, I had to go live with my parents while my university courses remained suspended.

Ironically, the city had a US radar base; the base had a low power MW radio station broadcasting news and music -rock and country etc- 24 hours in English to the base staff: AFRTS 1590 kHz.

Shortly thereafter, the base was closed and the radio station went off the air, maybe because of the boycotts and the political winds in Turkey, so I had to look up another such station. Continue reading →

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Listener Post: Fabien’s love of radio which lead him to collecting

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Fabien’s radio story below is the latest in our series called Listener Posts, where I place all of your personal radio histories.

If you would like to add your story to the mix, simply send your story by email!

In the meantime, many thanks to Fabien who writes:

I’ve been a radio listener since the age of 14. I was an SWL and a listener of local VHF free stations too.

In the beginning, my receiver was a poor radio-cassette, with a little segment of the shortwave bands. I used it for two years.

Then, for 16th birthday I received a Philips AL 990 shortwave receiver.

It was a great receiver because the sound was clear and it was easy to identify the stations when listening with my usual headphones–even those broadcasts with very weak signals and an unidentified language. The negative of this receiver was the frequency was not easy to see/read and I was at the same display for hours.

After my school period, I worked for two years and with my savings I was able to buy a JRC NRD 525 in Swizterland, where this receiver was less expensive and easier to find than in my country of France at the time.

The Japan Radio Company NRD 525 receiver. Photo: Universal Radio

The good with the NRD 525 is that it was easy to tune to a frequency, easy to read the display and easy to connect the receiver to another unit for decoding RTTY signals with an old computer monitor and a small EPSON dot printer.

I was in paradise!

But the NRD 525 has a problem with its sound. Even with my best headphones, I was not able to understand the station voices when the signal was poor and the language was not mine, so it was difficult to have sufficient details to make a good reception report for sending it proudly to the logged radio station.

My solution was strange but the only one possible : I searched for rare signals with the NRD 525 and after I found them, listened to those signals with the AL 990 and my headphones.
With this solution, I was able to send a lot a reception reports and receive some beautiful QSLs from official, pirate and clandestine stations (clandestines were my favorites).

This SWL period was until 1988. In 1988 I was obliged to move from my city to a new location where it was more difficult to be a SWL. The following years, I was more a BCL (Broadcast Listener) than an SWL.

I did BCL DX until 1999, and after 1999 most of my radio listening time was only BCL easy listening, without looking for weak signals.

Because of the Internet, online SDRs, and the closing down of a lot of broadcasters, I’m less interested in contact stations directly, save from time to time. For me, the chase of weak signals was the most important part; now we can listen to a station via the Internet (online on a website or with a SDR online)…even the pirates stations.

My actual interest today is to have all of the receivers I was dreamed about when I was a teenager. In 2020, at 53 years old, I am now more a collector of receivers than a real BCL. I like all electronics, including many hifi systems/components and radio items.

I also love black and white film photography/laboratory too and I collect stickers from French radio stations.

Here are two pictures of part of my actual listening post. On one, you could see a model boat of the famous offshore radio station ” Radio Caroline “.

My favorite shortwave receivers are the Drake R8-E (European version of the R8), the BEARCAT DX-1000 and the Yaesu FRG-7.

My favorite receiver for synchronous detection reception is the SONY ICF-2001D (the European version of the ICF 2010).

To receive mediumwave stations, I prefer my JRC NRD 515 connected with an Australian active loop antenna.

For travel, I use a small Lowe HF 150.

For VHF FM-commercial band, I use my Grundig Satellit 500 and a Sony ICF 6800W.

Some of my best souvenirs/memories of SW reception are Radio La Voz de Alpha 66 (USA), Radio Venceremos (El Salvador), Radio Botswana, Radio Bardaï (Tchad or Libia), Radio RFO Tahiti, and Radio Bandeirantes (Brasil).

My regrets from the years 1981-1988 are not being able to receive the signal of Radio BHUTAN and the signal from The Faklands Islands.

I don’t like to travel outside my beloved country, but for the pleasure of visiting some radio stations, I made an effort and I traveled to Phnom Penh (Cambodia), La Habana (Cuba), San Salvador (El Salvador) and Ciudad Guatemala (Guatemala).

Truly Yours,
Fabien SERVE, in France

Thank you, Fabien, for sharing your story! You’ve added some truly classic receivers to your collection over the years! I love the Radio Caroline model too!

I encourage other SWLing Post readers and contributors to submit their own listener post! Tell us how you became interested in radio!

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Part 3: SWLing Post shack photos

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Rajesh Chandwani (VU2OEC), Gurgaon (Haryana), India INDIA

Several months ago, we conducted a shack photo contest sponsored by Universal Radio. I’m posting all of your excellent photos as time allows and putting them under the tag, shack photos.

The following is the third set of ten photos along with any notes that were included.

Click on images to enlarge and enjoy:

Robert Gulley (AK3Q)

Notes: I have a Kenwood TM-D710G with lots of bells and whistles (center-right), including APRS and packet capability, Echolink, computer control, programming and data output, not to mention the regular functions of a dual-band, cross-band repeat radio. Another rig above and to the left (under the computer monitor) is my main all-mode rig, a Kenwood TS-2000. To the right is an old Swan 350 transceiver and power supply. There is an old manual Dentron tuner above that, and sitting atop of it all is an analog Uniden Bearcat BC898T scanner. There is an amplifier, a 220Mhz rig, several HTs, and on the bottom right my pride and joy Yaesu FRG-7 shortwave receiver. I currently have 6 speakers for various sound outputs. Out of the frame are two more computers, two SDR receivers, another monitor and a sound mixing board. I won’t begin to mention all the portable SW radios and several old DX-160s (my first real SW radio). I love listening/transmitting here, but I also take portable radios around the house and on the front or back porch as the mood hits.

Mahesh Jain (57HS4688)

Notes: I am radio hobbyist particularly my beloved shortwave radio. But it makes me sad to see that most of the radio stations on shortwave in my country India are closing their shortwave broadcast and they are going online and digital, which is available to few not the all people. Hope the radio and specially shortwave radio revive soon. Hope we all have good old days back. 🙂

I love my Graundig Yacht boy 80 radios which I won from DW (german radio) and later i bought Sony ICF SW35. I use telescopic antenna and sometimes I use a reel antenna. I have very little technical knowledge about the radios and antennas used. Still, I keep on experimenting and sometimes found far far away stations, which is obviously a thrilling experience. with this hobby of DXing I have learned a lot about different cultures and nations. Moreover i am using the internet technology to get far away stations which are not targeting my country/region and the WEB SDR is the best source.

Ray Sylvester (NR1R)

Notes: Ray’s main shack rig is the Yaesu FTDX5000MP.

Darwin McDonald (SWL/W8)

Notes: The Drake Receiver is my best–using a long wire and an antenna tuner.

S B Sharma

Notes: In the photo above, I am listening to radio at world famous Buddhist temple in Barbadur, Indonesia. Photo taken while I was surfing and listening voice of Indonesia and general overseas service of India on the temple. I have been listening to radio for the past 32 years and continue today. Due to this hobby, I won two free foreign tours till date and hope there will be some more.

Clyde Ramsdell (N1BHH)

Notes: My simple station/listening post is the Icom IC-735 using one of three antennas:

Off Center Fed Dipole (130 feet) at 45 feet high,
160 meter (250 feet long) dipole at 30 feet high,
Random wire, roughly 45 feet draped around my room.

My bedside radio is a Grundig Yachtboy YB-400 with another random wire draped around the room. In the photo (above) you’ll find the Icom IC-735 on the Astron RS-35 power supply, MFJ-949E tuner and Bencher paddle, a Radio Shack Pro-106 scanner, Icom IC-3AT 220 HT and Yaesu FT-2900R.

Jawahar Shaikh

Notes: My favorite receiver is none other than Tecsun PL-660 as it pulls a lot of far away radio stations without any external antenna!!! On MW I could log a number of South Korea, Japan, and Australian radio stations.On shortwave, numerous far away radio stations including 1 KW Australian Marine Weather Broadcast station VMW. On longwave…Vow…Ireland radio on 252 khz…What else do I need from a budget Tecsun?

The tinyTecsun PL-660 is my DX magic box !!!! So,This is my listening post!

Location: Tamil Nadu state, India.

José William

Notes: This is my little shack that is located in my backyard.

Features:
Receiver- DEGEN DE 1103
Antenna- RGP3-OC Loop Magnética and DEGEN 31MS active loop antenna
Amplifier- Amplificador Indutivo de RF DXCB-V1
Recorder- Sony ICD-PX312F

Peter Ströhlein

Notes: My Listeningt post consists of my fav. Kenwood TS-50 (30khz – 30Mhz) and a VHF YAESU FT-1900.

All night long when my kids are in bed, I spend my time listening to numerous SW Stations.

This is my hobby since nearly 30 years! 🙂 So that’s my little listening post, illuminated with two little LED-Spots for SWL Nights with “Style”. 🙂

Hank Dean (KU8S)

Notes: Here are four photos of a portable outing “QRP to the field” op in April 2013. This park is called Bear Pond and is located in the Seminole State Forest, west of Sanford, FL on SR 46, about four miles from my house. I love this place. Great place to have lunch and play radio.

The rig is a Yaesu FT-817ND QRP transceiver, a PAR end fed wire antenna, and SLAB 12v 10AHr battery. Apple IPad does the logging chores. Add some Chinese food, some almond cookies, a little sweet tea, Hmmnnnnnn, life is good!

Life is good, indeed, Hank! What a great way to cap off this third set of shack photos!

Again, many thanks to all who sent in their listening post photos. I absolutely love the variety!

Follow the tag Shack Photos for more!

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Part 2: SWLing Post shack photos

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Arie van Bezooijen’s (PE1AJ) shack photo

Several months ago, we conducted a shack photo contest sponsored by Universal Radio. I’m posting all of your excellent photos as time allows and putting them under the tag, shack photos.

The following is the second set of ten photos along with any notes that were included.

Click on images to enlarge and enjoy:

Rajesh Chandwani, VU2OEC

Notes:

?My radio shack has radio from two generations, that is, my father’s tube radio, viz., Murphy TAO 776 MARK II. My father, Mr. P. R. Chandwani, also a Shortwave Listener, purchased Murphy Radio in Summer of 1971.

I used to see him install wire antenna between to bamboo poles or mesh antenna in our room for shorwave signals. I love this old murphy radio. I carried on further the legacy of radio listening till 2005 and then got my Ham ticket. My radio shack also have state-of-the-art technology radios, like, Kenwood TS-590s and Grundig Satellit 800 Millennium. Overall, it is the love for radio, experience of years & years of listening works out. Even after becoming ham, I still indulge in Shortwave Listening, AM Bands and FM Dxing. It is a lot of fun. My 14 year old son, viz., Chittaranjan too some time takes interest in radio technology.

?73?
Rajesh Chandwani, VU2OEC
Gurgaon (Haryana)
INDIA

Moshe Ze’ev Zaharia

Notes:

I actually have two favorite listening posts, as seen in the following pictures:

In the first you can see the Ben-Gal Duet Stereo, Tube radio with record player. The Ben-Gal covers Shortwave in 3 overlap bands continues from about 2MHz up to about 23MHz, it has an RF stage and it is very sensitive. Above are (from left to right): the Sangean ATS909, Tecsun S2000, and Philips 90AL765.

In the second picture is the Ben-Gal Verdi. In contrast to the Duet Stereo, it lacks the RF stage, but 15 meters of wire as an antenna compensate for that. I like to lay down on the sofa, in the dark, spin the dial on this radio while gazing the green light of the EM84 tuning tube.

Best Regards,
Moshe Ze’ev Zaharia
Be’er Sheva
Israel

Elwood Downey, WB0OEW

Notes:

Main rig at this time is Elecraft KX3, both on-air and SWL. I also still have my Knight Kit Star Roamer I built in 1970 to which I added a BFO but it is not in the photo. Ham interests include antennas, building and digital modes. SWL interests include WX FAX, utility and military.

Thanks for a great website.

73, Elwood

Tucson Arizona

Gregory

Notes:

Here is my Tecsun PL-600. My other toys include UHF-walkie and RTL-SDR, and that’s it for now. I was laying in my mother-in-law’s garden, in evening twilight, and this very friendly stray cat came and jumped on me to listen 20m hams too.

Best regards,
Greg,

Yekaterinburg Russia

Dan Robinson

Dan Robinson sits in front of his “main stack” of receivers in his basement shack in Potomac, MD.

The former VOA correspondent currently runs, from top to bottom, a RFT EKD-515, McKay Dymek DR33-C6, JRC NRD-301A, Drake R7A/RV75, Eddystone 6200, JRC NRD-515. Just behind Dan, you find a Drake R8, SONY ICF-6800W, and a Kenwood R-2000, while not seen behind this veteran DX’er is a NRD-545. Dan notes that the receivers shown constitute only about half of his collection.

In his “back room” he has everything from a Panasonic RF-9000 and Grundig Sat 650, to an R-390A and JRC NRD-93.

David Self, K8SSN

Primary radio is a Flex 3000 and a secondary FT900. Location is Hamilton, Ohio.

Satyan, VU3MES

Notes:

Top is my ham radio equipment and bottom shelf is for my JRC NRD92 – 35 years young.

Art van Esch, VK4GO

Notes:

I am a ham since 1963 was born in The Netherlands, moving to Australia in 1980. I am active on the short wave bands.

Regards de Art VK4GO

Queensland, Australia

Anthony Bueron

Notes: Hello, my name is Anthony Bueron from the Philippines. Here is a photo of my shortwave radio. Thanks!

Francisc Grünberg, YO4PX

Notes:

My name is Francisc Grünberg, a radio ham with the call sign YO4PX. I live in Constanta, Romania. More about me and my ham radio activities and publications may be found on my QRZ.com page at https://www.qrz.com/db/yo4px

From there you may see that I was a short-wave listener for 17 years because of the discrimination of the former communist authorities, before obtaining my transmitter license in 1980.

I am a writer, a journalist and a professional certified and sworn translator for 4 languages. I am also my own webmaster at http://yo4px.blogspot.ro where more than 850 articles (translations and own writings) were published in the last 6 years.
A picture of me in my shack is attached.

The gear I am using is presented on my QRZ.com page.
My postal address is also there, but I repeat it:

Grünberg Francisc
Constanta, Romania

Again, many thanks to all who sent in their listening post photos. I absolutely love the variety!

Follow the tag Shack Photos for more!

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Part 1: SWLing Post shack photos

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The listening post and ham radio shack of Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW) from Ponza Island, Italy.

Several months ago, we conducted a shack photo contest sponsored by Universal Radio. At the time, I promised to post all of your excellent photos soon–apologies to all for the extended delay!

The following is the first set of ten photos along with any notes that were included.I plan to post these photos in sets of 10 and tag your names in each post. These actually take time to format for the blog, but I hope to post new sets of shack photos in the coming days.

Click on images to enlarge and enjoy:

Stu McLeod

Notes:

1937 Philco 620 EZ 121
1936 Ultimate
1936 Philips P626 Superhet Radio Player
1937 World Radio
1936 Stewart Warner R-146X

Lower is my tweaked Icom IC-R71. Most fun is with the 1936 Philips P626 Radioplayer–for its age , its tuning sensitivity and selectivity is simply amazing.

Stephen Morshead

Notes: An Icom R71E and CommRadio CR-1a and a transmatch tuner running a sloping dipole longwire. My favourite rig at the momemnt is my Icom–maybe older but quite sensitive compared to the CommRadio–but the CommRadio is quite good on CW decoding. SWL callsign is MA3087swl.

John Magee (W4GLX)

Notes: My favorite gear to use is The Kenwood TS 2000. I also have an Kenwood R2000 for my short wave listening …

Robin Gist (K4VU)

Notes: Elecraft K3 transceiver, Alpha 78 amplifier, Vibroplex Iambic Deluxe paddle

Matt Champion (AC0TW)

Notes: My shack is simply a bedside table connected to a homebrew multiband dipole. I use the Radio Shack DX-394 for most of my DXing and the Grundig Aviator G6 Buzz Aldrin edition for local FM and shortwave during outdoor excursions.

Ken Carr (KE1RI)

Notes: My ham shack is my favorite listening post. Since all the children are now adults I am able to dedicate this second floor bedroom to radio.

From left to right: Ten-Tec Omni VI transceiver (with all Plus upgrades), Collins 302C-3 wattmeter, Yaesu FTDX-3000 transceiver,Ameriton AL-811H amplifier, Hammarlund HQ-OneSeventy receiver, Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitter, and, National HRO-Sixty receiver. To the far right can be seen part of a Grundig 8080 / USA.

Unseen are an additional 4 consoles, several Trans-Oceanics, and many others.

Vance Thompson (K7VNZ)

Notes: Attached is a photo of probably one of the smallest, most cluttered/disorganized (to the naked eye) listening station ever. Then again, maybe not… But seriously, I read your latest post, and just immediately took a picture. No cleaning up, staging, adding or removing things, or photoshop used. It is what it is and I like it.

My name is Vance Thompson and my callsign is K7VNZ, and this is where I listen.

Some highlights starting from top to bottom:

Top shelf: An old Griffen “Radio Shark” (1st gen) nestled in a homemade loop antenna made with an old Roi-Tan cigar box as the base, a lava lamp, a Colonial Viper, a Buddha box that looks like a weird radio.

Middle shelf: WWII blackout lantern, toy safe to hold all my secret spy number decoder books in :-), misc. vaseline glass and ‘glowy’ stuff, and a mask my daughter made. Dixie Cannonball crystal radio headset hanging on left, unnamed headset on right with cool radioactive stickers I put on it.

Monitor shelf: Viewing SWLing Post, of course. Raspberry Pi on left running ADS-B software when I turn it on, green laser pointer I used to tease my dog with, stack of misc. papers with a homemade crystal radio made on an expired plastic gift card on top.

Bottom shelf: Baofeng BF-F8+ with diamond antenna, recent hand-wound coil connected to breadboard prototype crystal radio I’m currently working on (tuning capacitor seen below next to the keyboard), digital audio recorder in there somewhere, Radio Shack DSP processor I found at a junk store for $4 with various alligator clip jumpers on top, round tin for small radio parts, moleskin logbook, Yaesu FT-60, my grandfather’s D-4 flight computer from WWII.

Arie van Bezooijen (PE1AJ)

Notes: I’m using a Kenwood 950s and an Icom IC7400 for HF. For 2m i’m using a Yeasu FT-7800 and other SW listening I can do with a Kenwood R2000.

Mitul Kansal (VU3MCN)

Notes: Recently, I visited RRI- Voice of Indonesia & Republic of Indonesia in September 2015 as a winner of International Quiz, “Wonderful Indonesia 2015.” I visited the RRI- Voice Of Indonesia Broadcasting Station .

There, I went on air, shared my views about RRI- Voice of Indonesia. It was an unforgettable moment for me. With other winners , I enjoyed listening on radio.

Jackie LaVaque (KC0ODY)

Notes: Here’s my humble listening post! Right now it consists of a Kaito KA1102, a Tecsun PL310, a Baofeng UV5R, and not seen because it’s not up and running yet, an RTL-SDR USB dongle which I plan to make into my winter project. My favorite rig is the Tecsun PL310 because not only is it a great performer on SW and MW, it also does pretty well with longwave using an added homemade cake form antenna.

Again, many thanks to all who sent in their listening post photos. I absolutely love the variety!

Follow the tag Shack Photos for more!

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