SWLing Post reader, Thomas Ally, writes:
Here is Tom Stiles’ Playlist for the review of that new ATS-405
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtQGZBHtrIF9_wPKo3Z0TqgCBqcHFydep
Many thanks for sharing this, Thomas!
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Grzegorz Jasionek, who notes that CommRadio has just released a firmware update for the CommRadio CR-1a that includes a new Graphic User Interface (GUI) with a 3D spectrum display.
The CommRadio Dropbox site has an 18 minute video showing how to operate the GUI and the various features; CommRadio recommends you watch the video prior to using the GUI for the first time.
Click here to view Dropbox folder with CommRadio newsletter, video, update instructions and files.
SWLing Post reader, Neil Gates, comments:
“Euro Radio is Europe’s brand new commercial shortwave station which will begin broadcasting on August 1st 2015.
Visit our Facebook page for updates. facebook.com/euroradio6205“
Many thanks, Neil. I have checked the Euro Radio Facebook page and it appears they will broadcast on 6205 kHz AM, starting August 1st, 2015. I haven’t seen a schedule at this point, nor noted their transmitter location.
UPDATE: SWLing Post reader, Jarno, writes:
Looks like Euro Radio 6205 is a pirate and not an official station
Found some info – http://members7.boardhost.com/PirateRadio/msg/1434464301.html
Greek 2kw transmitter but no location yet….
Thanks, Jarno!
SWLing Post reader, Mike, writes:
Keith Perron’s review of the new Sangean ATS-405 appeared in the last show of Media Network Plus. There is an archive of the show on the PCJ website for you to listen:
http://www.pcjmedia.com/medianetworkplus
The review’s at the beginning of the episode and Keith had multiple complaints about performance, build quality and the radio’s overall engineering. I don’t remember him having anything positive to say about it. Sad because I had hoped this new Sangean would be better.
Thanks for the link, Mike. For what it’s worth Jay Allen was actually mostly impressed with the ATS-405.
I’ll receive an ATS-405 later this week; and I’m very interested to see how it compares to other portables like the Tecsun PL-310ET, CC Skywave, and Tecsun PL-660. I’ll certainly report on what I find.
Here’s the audio from the Media Network Plus review:
SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, recently shared the following recording of the 2015 Pacific Games coverage of the National Broadcasting Corporation on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. Richard notes:
Live three-hour recording of the 2015 Pacific Games coverage of the National Broadcasting Corporation, the Voice of Papua New Guinea (PNG), via a transmitter in Australia on 10 July 2015 beginning at 07:01:21 UTC on a frequency of 12025 kHz. At the time of the uploading of this sound file, it is not clear if the signal originated from the former Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s lower-power facility at Brandon (as registered with the High Frequency Co-ordination Conference (HFCC) organization; 25 kW beamed 80°) or their higher-power Shepparton site with 100 kW transmitters.
The recording, mostly in English with some Tok Pisin, includes commentary on the games being held in Port Moresby, music, news bulletins, public service announcements, and the NBC’s drum, flute and bird call interval signal near the top of some of the hours. Note that PNG time is 10 hours ahead of UTC.
The broadcast was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with its built-in telescopic whip antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Signal quality is generally good and gets better towards the end of the recording as propagation conditions improved.
Many thanks, Richard!
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Please subscribe to the SRAA podcast to receive future shortwave recordings automatically.
A new SWLing Post reader challenge is on the way–the Virtual Radio Challenge III–and I’m especially pumped about this one. Like the previous two challenges, this one is not just hypothetical, but based on an actual query from an SWLing Post reader. Yet this one is just a bit different from the previous challenges.
What I’m really excited about is this: for the first time, there’s going to be a prize on the table for the winner!
Here’s how the challenge will work. I’ll post the query this week; if you’re interested in participating, you’ll have until August 1st to craft and submit your response via a form on the reader challenge post or via email.
I’ve already lined up an expert who is uniquely qualified to choose the best entry for this particular reader challenge.
But that’s not all: whoever our expert selects will receive…(drumroll)…a new CountyComm GP5/SSB portable radio, courtesy of Universal Radio. Thanks, Universal! How cool is that?
So, stay tuned! The Virtual Radio Challenge III will be posted soon.
SWLing Post contributor, Fred Studenberg, recently contacted me about an ingenious car (mobile) shortwave radio he’s designed. Though originally designed for his own personal use, Fred’s now considering initiating a production run of the radio for the commercial market. To do so, however, he needs funding to help pay for parts, and this is where we can help: by voting for his shortwave car radio design in this contest–! Fred writes with details about his radio:
I wanted a high performance shortwave receiver in my car without the clutter of a separate unit under the dash. It had to be easy to tune stations and not require any modifications to my car’s built-in radio and audio system. I looked everywhere, and there was nothing that even came close to meeting my requirements.
Being a retired RF communications engineer, I set about designing a high performance digital radio. It installs remotely in the trunk or hatchback area and broadcasts tuned shortwave audio to your car FM radio. No modifications at all to the car radio or FM system are required. It is powered right off your car’s power plug.
Operation is simple: tune your car FM radio to 88.1 or 88.3 and use a small handheld wireless key fob controller to scan through the 100 preset channels. You have access to full shortwave band coverage in 5 KHz tuning steps with excellent sensitivity and selectivity. There is even a digital noise blanker to eliminate spark plug ignition interference. You can also manually scan to find new stations to add to preset memory, quick tune to WWV for time checks, and even switch the audio bandwidth for voice or music.
If your FM radio has RDS display you can see the tuned shortwave frequency as well as a digital “S” meter. If your car radio does not have RDS, it still works. Just press the scan button on the wireless controller until you hear something interesting or go into manual mode and scan the various shortwave bands listening for something of interest.
This started as a project just for my use, but after I showed it to a few people, I was encouraged to make it commercially available. I’ve entered it in a design contest that will provide $10,000 worth of parts to help launch a production run.
You can see full information on the radio at www.carshortwaveradio.com and there is a link right at the top to take one to the voting site, or go directly to the voting site at Your IoT and look for the car shortwave radio entry.
If readers are interested in seeing this in production, indicate your interest by voting. You have to vote by logging in with your Facebook account, which presumes you have a FB account–if not, they are easy to set up, and you can use a pseudonym and leave out all the personal info they ask [for] at signup.
I voted for Fred’s design earlier today. It does require using your Facebook login to vote, but the contest site can only read the public profile you choose to provide, and–if you allow it–your email address.
If you have a Facebook account, please consider helping Fred out by voting for his shortwave car radio design!