Monthly Archives: August 2013

Voice of Greece update

Good news from our reader and regular Greek correspondent, Christos:

I listen to the programmes of ERT, almost everyday.
They continue transmitting as usual, with full programming, even these days around 15th of August (Virgin Mary Day) which is the peak of the Greek holidays. Other years we had a 2-3 minutes news bulletin and a lot of uninterrupted music.

I have written some comments about it in my blog but only in Greek.

I also have another post with photos of the radio programming producers. I am sure you have listened to some of them from the VoG.

Christos then sent this listening report:

I have checked the frequencies of VoG at my summer house in Marathon. I found out that VoG is on air on 7450kHz and 9420kHz. I couldn’t hear anything on 15630kHz, the one that was active yesterday.

Be sure to check out Christos’ blog for more details (in Greek).

Additionally, Moshe commented on my last post with this logging:

VOG Was heard last night at the 19 Meter band (I was monitoring it with my tube radio, later on confirmed it on 15650KHz).

As for now, VOG is on the air on 19 Meter Band.

Thank you, Christos and Moshe–you’ve set my mind at ease for the moment. In my current travels I can’t easily receive VoG with my portable, so I’m grateful for these reports.

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Voice of Greece 8-14, but no signal last night

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I’m a little concerned: last night I couldn’t hear the Voice of Greece on 9,420 kHz. Not even a carrier.

Though I’ve noticed they’ve had intermittent transmitter problems in some broadcasts (you can even hear it in the first minutes below) they haven’t gone off the air this long in recent memory. Not even when they were ordered to stop broadcasting. I fear that when the new Greek national broadcasting service emerges, their international arm may be cut. Their budget is tight and I imagine their shortwave service will receive strong scrutiny.

I would appreciate any news and reports from listeners. If you hear VOG on the air, please comment with frequency and time. [Update: Check out this post from Christos.]

In the meantime and for your listening pleasure: one hour and forty three minutes of the Voice of Greece. Recorded Wednesday, August 14, 2013 on 9,420 kHz starting at 00:00 UTC.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Atlantic 2000 on air Sunday August 18

Trilingual VOA Radiogram this weekend

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(Source: VOA Radiogram)

VOA Radiogram on 17 and 18 August will include our first attempt to transmit Chinese characters. (It’s part of a VOA Chinese story about the future of BlackBerry.) And there will be a VOA News story in Spanish. To view the Spanish accents and the Chinese characters, your character set should be UTF-8. In Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts to change the character set.

The broadcast will also include an Flmsg VOA News story including an SVG-formatted VOA logo created by Mark Hirst in the UK. If you have Internet Explorer, and cannot see the logo, try renaming the Flmsg file with an .xhtml suffix.

If you listen to more than one broadcast of VOA Radiogram this weekend, close Flidigi and restart it between broadcasts. This is because something in Flmsg turns off the UTF-8 character set, even though Fldigi is still configured for UTF-8.

Two of this weekend’s VOA News stories on VOA Radiogram feature VOA journalists who are radio amateurs. VOA Asia correspondent Steven Herman, W7VOA (@W7VOA), is interviewed about his visit to North Korea, and George Putic, KI4FNF, wrote the story about the renewed search for extraterrestrial life.

And there will be a VOA News story about a way to keep older brains healthy — other than experimenting with digital modes.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 17 and 18 August 2013:

3:04 MFSK16: Program preview
4:50 MFSK32: VOA Spanish logo and news re VOA app
1:46 MFSK32: VOA Chinese logo and sample text
3:26 MFSK32: VOA News re benefits of hot chocolate
1:22 MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo and addresses
4:43 MFSK64: VOA’s W7VOA visits North Korea
1:18 MFSK32: Photo of W7VOA in Pyongyang
3:28 MFSK64/Flmsg*: VOA’s KI4FNF on search for extraterrestrials
1:18 MFSK32: Photo of Gemini Observatory
1:12 MFSK16: Closing announcements
0:16 Surprise mode of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi (both can be downloaded from w1hkj.com), in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS — Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

As always, reception reports are much appreciated and should be sent to[email protected]

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

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1944 “Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations”

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Hat tip to Dennis Walter for sending me a link to this beautiful circa 1944 “Chart of Electromagnetic Radiations” by W.M Welch Scientific Company. According to Flickr user llnl photos, it was found, “tucked away in the back of an unused office years ago, but now hangs framed in a high-traffic hallway populated by Lawrence Livermore engineers.”

Being a big fan of vintage maps and technical illustrations, I would love to dedicate a wall of my radio room to this chart.

Click on the photo above to enlarge this image to 1600 × 1113.

You can download the original, high resolution image by visiting llnl photos’ Flickr page.

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Call me anachronistic, but I listen to digital tech shows on shortwave

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While I’m passionate about shortwave radio–a technology that has, of course, been around for many decades–I also love to hear about emerging digital technologies, especially those that make our world a better place.

These days, I listen to several shows about technology, many of which are only available as a live stream or podcast (like TWIT, for example).

There are two shows, however, that I like to listen to on shortwave radio when my schedule allows.

One such show is the BBC World Service technology show, Click (formerly Digital Planet). I’ve listened to Click for years, and have even been interviewed on the show by its marvelous host Gareth Mitchell (click here to listen). I especially love the show’s focus on technologies that have a positive impact in developing countries (hence my interview, about my non-profit, ETOW). Mitchell, I’m delighted to add, is quite the fan of shortwave radio as well, and is not afraid of reporting on technologies that are not exclusively tied to smart phones and the like.

Another show I’ve been listening to for a few months is Download This Show on Radio Australia. It’s a fun and informative technology program and always has a great panel discussion on technology news. What I really love about this show is its take on Australian technology in particular, and how this compares with technology in the rest of the world.

Since Download This Show is broadcast via Radio Australia’s Shepparton transmitting site, the signal is quite strong here in North America and easily received on portable shortwave radios.

Click here to download over two hours of Radio Australia, including Download this Show, or listen via the embedded player below. This broadcast was recorded on August 2, 2013, on 9,580 kHz, starting around 13:00 UTC.

You’ll find Download This Show in the second hour of the recording, following the news headlines at 1:05.

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Jeff designs an SDR “Go Kit” around the Softrock Ensemble

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Jeffrey Fritz (WB1AAL) contacted me with details about his SDR (Software Defined Radio) “Go Kit” and has kindly allowed me to post it.

Jeff writes:

As a reader of the SWLing blog, I know that you are very interested in SDR. And you probably know that a “Go Kit” is a portable ham radio system in a case that can be moved at a moment’s notice and set up at another moment’s notice virtually anywhere.

I have a VHF Go Kit made up for emergency events. It is complete with waterproof carrying case, Aden PCS-7000H two-meter transceiver, a Kenwood VHF tuner, a Kenwood SW-100 VHF SWR bridge and two antennas (a 2-meter J-pole made out of twin lead and a two meter mag mount.) But what if there is a need to monitor the HF bands during the same event?

Now that I own a Flex-1500 SDR transceiver, the Softrock Ensemble SDR receiver that I bought a while ago has become somewhat redundant. It is still a serviceable radio and works fine, but it can’t hold a candle to the amazing Flex-1500. While I could turn it into a panadapter or sell it on eBay, eHam, etc., I had a better idea.

To monitor the HF ham bands, I could use something like my Grundig G3 shortwave radio in my Go Kit. While it is portable, battery operated and will tune LSB and USB, listening to SSB or even CW in an emergency situation with the G3 can be a bit of a chore. (Think of the old boat anchors with their main tuning and fine tuning band spread dials, but now make both dials tiny and you’ll get the idea.) Instead, why not build a 12-volt battery supply with common, easy to obtain batteries? I could connect it to the Softrock Ensemble and then via a USB audio interface to a battery powered laptop. Add a pair of headphones and we are in business.

That is just what I’ve done.

I’ve attached some photos of my most recent project–done this past weekend actually. [Check out photos above and below] It’s an SDR Go Kit. One of the attached photos shows the laptop and the Softrock Ensemble SDR receiving 40-meter band SSB while entirely being operated on battery power. There is no power switch. You simply pull the DC jack out of the Softrock Ensemble SDR radio when it isn’t in use. Simple as it gets! The other photo shows the battery pack built into a (ahem!) Preparation H Pad holder pack. (Now, I am not saying who used this!)

Ah but what will battery life be like with 8 C cells in series driving the receiver? It’s too soon to say because I just put it together an hour ago. But here’s a guess:

The Softrock Ensemble draws 18 mA at 12.6 volts (my measurement.) An Alkaline ‘C’ battery can supply up to 8,000 mAh, so doing some math and assuming fresh batteries, the battery pack should run the radio for roughly 400 hours. (Hopefully my math is correct!) If so, then I think that the laptop batteries will give out long before the life span of the C Cell is reached!

73,

Jeff, WB1AAL

Jeff, this is an excellent use for the Softrock Ensemble. I imagine it will run for a very long time drawing only 18 mA. I have a “Go Kit” for QRP ham radio purposes and one for SWLing during travels. You’ve inspired me to piece together a proper receiver “Go Kit” to be used in case of emergencies.

Readers: If you have a project, like Jeff, that you’d like to share on the SWLing Post, feel free to contact me with details!

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