Click to enlarge
Erin, with TecsinRadio.com, sent me this graphic with English translations for the Degen DE1129’s front panel (which is silk-screened in Chinese).
This could come in handy for future DE1129 owners less familiar with Chinese.
I’ve also added this image in our Shortwave Radio Index.
Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” is tossed into this Radio Kuwait mix (Photo: Billboard.com)
Any of you who’ve been following the SWLing Post for a while know how much I love recording music over the shortwaves. Lately, Radio Kuwait has been booming into my part of eastern North America with great vivacity.
Yesterday, I recorded several hours of their broadcast on my WinRadio Excalibur. I couldn’t help but notice, the last time I posted a recording, that their music had a great deal of variety. Their mix yesterday afternoon encompassed hip hop, country, pop, rock, R&B, and even a little Billy Joel and Donovan.
Though the hip-hop and boy bands don’t particularly hold my personal interest, hearing “Mellow Yellow” over 7,000 miles of ether certainly has appeal.
If you’re looking for music variety (well, a lot of variety), with some items of cultural interest thrown in, check out Radio Kuwait:
A B24’s Hallicrafters S27 (Photo: AAFRadio.org)
One of my favorite ham radio blogs is that of John (AE5X). Like me, he’s a QRPer–meaning, as amateur radio operators, we love making contacts across this great globe of ours using very low power…typically 5 watts or less. The challenge is fun, the medium is magical.
John’s also a radio historian and shortwave radio listener. Yesterday, he posted a most fascinating look at how the Hallicrafters S27s played an important role during World War II countering very innovative radio guidance techniques by the Third Reich.
You should bookmark John’s blog, as he post many radio related topics that the SWL would find enjoyable, whether it be about numbers stations, QSLs or even his own experience learning Russian via shortwave.
But first, read: Hallicrafters and electronic warfare in 1940 on 10 meters. . .or, an ‘Aspirin’ for the ‘Headache’
(Photo: The Radio Kitchen)
So great to see a new post on The Radio Kitchen, letting us know that The Professor can DX from home again after resolving a spectrum noise disturbance. This is a post many a shortwave listener will relate to, since most of us have had to deal with spectrum noise at some point.
Click here to read:
Goodbye Neighbor, Hello Brazil!
(Photo source: TecsunRadio.com)
TecsunRadio.com has posted the new Degen DE1129 shortwave radio on their website. Though they have not yet posted pricing, it appears pre-orders are being taken.
The DE1129 looks like a decedent of the Degen DE1128 that has not exactly been a market success in North America. The DE1128 lacks medium wave (AM) 10kHz steps (spacing) that allows it to be useful in the North America AM broadcast market. It also lacks English as a selectible language on the display. (The Grundig G2 Reporter, however, does have the features and is, in essence, the North American version of the DE1128).
The published features/specs of the new DE1129 do not reveal if AM spacing or English language will be an issue in the DE1129. I will try to contact the manufacturer. Until then, I would keep this in mind if pre-ordering. UPDATE: The DE1129 does have 10kHz spacing.
UPDATE: Vimal points out pricing is $102 US/each with shipping.
Thanks for the tip from the excellent Herculodge blog!
Features (per retailer)
Click here to download your copy.
Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated radio historian and author, Jeff Cant, you can download and read an excellent history of the first fifty years of the BBC’s Woofferton transmission station. Cant began his history as an internal document to the station; he later finished it in his retirement. I wish every shortwave transmitter station had such a well-documented history providing a perspective on the station’s broadcasting. We owe Mr. Cant a profound debt of gratitude.
To download the PDF, simply click here.
A special thanks to Jonathan Marks for finding and sharing this great bit of radio history.
Should the link to the PDF above ever become inactive, I’ve placed an archive copy available for download on the SWLing Post server.
(Source: VOA News)
A Malian journalist who was hospitalized after being beaten by Islamist militants in the northern city of Gao Sunday says he was unconscious after the attack.
Speaking from his hospital bed Tuesday in Gao, Malick Maiga Aliou told VOA’s French To Africa service that men “armed to the teeth” entered the studios of radio Adar Koima during a live broadcast and dragged him into a car.
He says the gunmen beat him with rifle butts and other objects, accusing him of spreading lies about them. Eventually, he says, they dumped him at a local cemetery where they stomped on him and left him for dead.
Local residents who heard the attack live on the radio organized a search for Aliou, who was found unconscious and taken to a local hospital.
The beating, Aliou’s third at the hand of Islamists, appeared to be punishment for reporting that local residents had prevented the amputation of a thief’s hand on Sunday.
The Malian journalist also contributes stories to the Voice of America. VOA’s director David Ensor condemned the attack and applauded the local residents who came to Aliou’s aid.
The Islamist group MUJAO, which controls Gao, insists on imposing strict Islamist laws in the region under their control. But local residents organized a protest Sunday to prevent the amputation of the young thief’s hand.
MUJAO and other Islamist groups took over control in northern Mali following the March coup in the capital Bamoko.
Last week, in the small Malian town of Aguelhok, another armed Islamist group, Ansar Dine, publicly stoned an unmarried couple.
Mali’s government has condemned the stoning as well as the attack on the journalist.
Malian interim President Dioncounda Traore has recently returned to Bamako after two months in Paris, recovering from a violent attack by opponents to his appointment. He vowed the government will retake the north.
Fifteen-member regional group ECOWAS has proposed deploying more than 3,000 troops to help restore order in Mali.