Many thanks for reminding us, Andrea!
World Radio TV Handbook 70th Edition is coming soon @SWLingDotCom pic.twitter.com/Nh8M2LLUGX
— Andrea Borgnino (@aborgnino) November 6, 2015
Hard to believe this will be the 70th anniversary edition. I’ll post a link when WRTH 2016 starts shipping.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Daniel, who shares a link to this article on the BT website:
From Marconi and the transistor radio to DAB: the history of radio in the UK
93 years ago this week, the BBC made its first radio broadcast. We look back at some of the most significant events in radio’s history.
On November 14, 1922 the British Broadcasting Company began its first radio broadcast. Since then the radio landscape has changed dramatically.
Radio is still an incredibly popular medium. According to Ofcom’s 2015 Communications Market Report, nine in ten UK adults listen to the radio each week. We listen for an average of 21.4 hours a week, but the way we do this has changed.
Families had to huddle around the radio in the 1930s, but now we can listen to the radio anywhere, anytime using our smartphones. We look at some of the most significant milestones of British radio over the last 93 years[…]
Click here to read through the entire article and timeline at BT.com.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Eric Weatherall, who writes:
I’ve been interested by news of the updated DSP version of the Degen DE1103.
I just saw an eBay auction for a used DE1103 which listed “DSP” in the title. But I looked at a photo of the product and it showed the labeling of the original product. If you look at the bottom left of the unit, the older radios have two lines of product description printed in black, and the newer radios have one line.
Based on photos I found online, here is the old product’s description (which applies to both the Degen and Kaito versions)
“PLL FM STEREO/SW MW LW DUAL CONVERSION SYNTHESIZED WORLD RECEIVER”
And here is the new product’s description.
“FM STEREO/SW MW LW DIGITAL WORLD RECEIVER”
I thought this would be useful for anyone wishing to buy the new DSP version of this radio where a photo of the actual unit is shown.
Eric has a good point–many times on eBay, sellers simply copy descriptions from previous or existing listings. You my find a used DE1103 listed as a unit with DSP. It’s best to confirm the version with the seller before purchasing. To my knowledge, only the 2015 version of the Degen DE1103 has DSP.
It doesn’t matter that propagation is rather poor this morning: I have a Sony ICF-SW100, a good cup of coffee, a beautiful sunrise and Radio Australia is loud and clear on 9,580 kHz.
All is well.
Dave Cripe (NM0S) has designed yet another QRP kit for the 4 State QRP Group: the 4S-Tuner/Antenna Coupler.
Description (per Four State QRP Group):
This excellent random wire antenna tuner is the classic T-Match design which is known for wide matching range and smooth operation. Dave has added a nice wrinkle – the SWR indicator employs TWO leds, not the normally seen single red LED. A green one indicates output power with a red one indicating reflected power. The beauty of this arrangement is that the operator sees the output power peaking as the SWR goes down, just like a power meter with dual meters – very intuitive. This makes tuning easier and leaves no doubt that it’s tuned for maximum power output. For a high SWR the red LED is at full brightness and the green LED is off. At 2:1 both are at equal brilliance. At 1:1 the green is full on and the red is off. The small size is perfect for portable operations. Add this dandy little tuner to your portable ops go bag, or use it at home. It’s equally at home on a picnic table, in a tent or camper, as well as on the operating desk in your shack.
Specifications and Design Features
- Wide tuning range: 80 meters thru 10 meters. Tested on EFHW and 100′ wire.
- Maximum Power Throughput: tested at 10 Watts.
- Low loss large toroid
- Twelve taps for small inductance step selection.
- Low insertion loss when matched.
- Enclosure Size: 3″x3″x2″.
- Pittsburg Construction.
Shipped price is $51.00 (US), $55.00 (Canada), $60.00 (Outside US/Canada).
Dave Cripe designs excellent kits for the ham radio community; they’re easy to build, fun and functional. If this kit is as popular as his past kits, the first run will most likely sell out in short order.
Click here to check out the 4S-Tuner/Antenna Coupler at the Four State QRP Group website.
Enter our challenge and you could win this prize package worth over $200 courtesy of CountyComm!
Let’s imagine that your area suddenly loses power–as well as cell phone and internet service–for an indeterminate period. Home and personal electronics remain unaffected, but must be powered off-grid (without mains power). Moreover, you may be required to evacuate your home…perhaps even on foot.
In preparation for this event, what portable radio kit would you assemble?
Submit your answer to this question and you could win a preparedness prize package courtesy of CountyComm!
All entries must be received by November 21, 2015.
Click here to read about this challenge and how to submit your answer!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley for the following guest post:
AFVN: The GI’s Companion — A Tribute To Our Vietnam Veterans
Radio station WEBY on 1330 kHz in Milton, Florida (near Pensacola and Elgin Air Force Base), has produced a 10-hour documentary on the American Forces Vietnam Network. This documentary aired in two-hour segments in the afternoons of 26 through 30 October 2015. But it is being repeated in its entirety between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. CST (14:00 to 24:00 UTC) on Veterans Day (known as Remembrance Day in Canada and elsewhere), 11 November.
The WEBY website is http://www.1330weby.com/ and a backgrounder on the documentary can be found here: http://www.1330weby.com/images/afvn/AFVN_Documentary_on_WEBY.pdf and a timeline of U.S. broadcasting in South Vietnam here:
https://www.afvnvets.net/hist—timeline.html
WEBY runs 25 kW during daytime hours (and a puny 79 watts at night) and can be heard in parts of four states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) but it also streams its programs on the Internet and so can be heard around the world. I’ll try to record some of the streamed audio in case the documentary is not available after the broadcast.
I was alerted to this documentary by a recent episode of PCJ Radio International’s Media Network Plus (24 October) during which Keith Perron interviewed the producer. That interview is worth listening to, too.
AFVN transmitted on AM and FM throughout South Vietnam. I never had the opportunity to listen to AFVN personally, but as a high school student, I did use to listen to the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) on shortwave from time to time. AFVN received some of their broadcast material via AFRTS broadcasts from Voice of America transmitters in Delano, California, and the Philippines. A scan of a QSL card I received for a broadcast from AFRTS Los Angeles via Delano in April 1964 [see below].
