Monthly Archives: March 2016

Ordering the CountyComm GP5/SSB from outside the US

SWLing Post readers who are located in countries other than the United States, may have found it difficult (and pricey) to order the CountyComm GP5/SSB portable radio.

I’ve just learned about an eBay seller that ships internationally and works directly with CountyComm. The seller, Randy, is a ham radio operator (KB3GGC) and has a 100% satisfaction rating on eBay, so you can purchase with confidence. His price ($79.95) is also fair and shipping quite reasonable–certainly much better than many of the Tecsun PL-365 listings on eBay.

Click here to view his CountyComm GP5/SSB listing on eBay.

Randy also sells spare antennas and an adaptor that allows to connect external antennas to the GP5 series receiver.

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Update: From the Isle of Music

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bill Tilford, who shares this From The Isle of Music update:

Starting March 14 we will be at 0200-0300 UTC Tuesdays (8-9 PM EST Mondays in the Americas)

March 14 in the Americas (March 15 in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania), our special guest will be Leo Garcia, leader of Timbalive, which just released a new Timba album, Gasolina de Avion; we’ll converse with him and play some music from the album. We’ll also play a new single by Haila Maria Mompie. We’ll also share more of the Cuban Classical album Piñera Concertante, a great new Jazz release by Cesar López & Habana Ensemble, and some traditional music by Ecos de Tivoli.

*** Every Monday night from 8pm-9pm EST in North, Central and South America (Tuesday morning from ~~0200-0300 UTC~~ [CORRECTION 00:00-01:00 UTC] in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania) on the short waves on WBCQ The Planet, 7.490 MHz: From the Isle of Music, a new radio program dedicated to the music of Cuba – Jazz, Fusion, Timba, Nueva Trova, Son, Classical, Folklorica, interviews with musicians, even a little history of the music now and then. Partly in English, en parte en español. “Like” our page to keep informed about what we will bring you.

(For those without shortwave or outside of viable signal range, there are also a couple of ways to stream the frequency via Internet; see the instructions in our NOTES section).

Click here to view the From the Isle Of Music Facebook page.

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Reminder: Paul’s music show “The Classics Experience”

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Paul Walker at KIYU Alaska.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, who sends this reminder about his music show on WBCQ, WRMI, and Channel 292 this Friday and Saturday:

“The Classics Experience”, 2 hours of oldies and a smattering of country airs this week.

Tune into WRMI 11580khz, ~~8pm to 10pm eastern Friday/0100 to 0300utc Saturday~~ [CORRECTION: 0100 to 0300 UTC Friday, 8-10 pm EST Thursday].

I’ll be on WBCQ 5130khz AND 9330khz (YES, A SIMULCAST!) Friday 10:05pm to 12:005AM (0300 to 0500utc)

I’ll also be on Channel 292, 6070khz Friday from 2205 utc Friday to 0005 UTC Saturday ( 10pm to 12midnight UK time)

No political or religious rants and no personal opinion.. just music and stuff like that.

QSL Address:

Paul Walker
PO Box 353
Galena, AK 99741

with $2 US appreciated to cover costs of postage, envelopes and stamps. If I get enough response, I will likely get some REAL qsl cards printed rather then just send out letters (The place i get stuff printed at has a minimum of 25 or 50 cards, I forget which

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Ofcom charts of UK spectrum allocations

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Colin, who writes:

This chart may be familiar to some, for others like me who has just found it, this will be a very useful one-stop information page for UK spectrum allocations for scanning the bands.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/spectrum/map.html

Thanks, Colin! Ofcom has done a fantastic job making this data accessible. Individual maps for each chunk of spectrum can be downloaded as well.

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Photo tour of RAE transmitter site

Can you help Chris ID this station?

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SWLing Post contributor, Chris Smolinski, would like your help to ID a Spanish language station. Chris notes:

“I record the 6800-7000 kHz band every night with my SDR, looking for pirates, but sometimes I also stumble on other interesting transmissions. The other night (UTC March 8) I picked up a curious station on 6974.5 kHz AM, starting at 0119 UTC, off at 0137. It was a mix of music and possible IDs by an OM in Spanish. There is what sounds like a four character call sign as part of the ID, and mentions of what could be the Dominican Republic. My guess right now is this was some sort of a relay of a domestic MW or FM station.

I have two recordings here, perhaps someone can pick out the callsign or other parts of the ID? Not the best audio quality, but you know how that goes:”

Audio Clip 1

Audio Clip 2

Please comment!

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James adds an LM386 amplifier kit to his Heathkit GR-150

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, James Surprenant (AB1DQ), who shares this update to his review of the Heathkit Explorer Jr. TRF AM radio receiver kit:

With regard to the Heathkit TRF AM receiver kit, I did indeed build my LM386 amplifier.

I was planning on home-brewing it from scratch as the chip is pretty much all you need and there are various proven schematics for the circuit, but in the end I went with a small kit from Nightfire Electronics for $10 plus $5 shipping that I found on Amazon.com.

It was a bit cheaper to buy it in kit form, of course, and then there was the convenience of having all the parts in one place.

Here is a photo of the kit as advertised on Amazon…

And here is my build with the Heathkit…

I modified the kit to add a 3.5mm input jack, replacing the RCA jack that came with the kit, to make it easier to plug into the Heathkit radio.

I deliberated whether to install the audio amp into the Heathkit cabinet drilling out a couple of holes for the pot shafts. It all would have fit and I could have easily mounted the 3″ 8 ohm speaker to the back panel of the Heathkit radio. In the end, I decided to keep the radio original and mounted the amplifier board on a small piece of wood I found at a hobby store and decided to leave it all exposed. It works well, all things considered.

(Click here to view video on Facebook.)

It worked well and per my original review on SWLing Post, I feel Heathkit should have included such a little amp in the kit – it makes a big difference.

Many thanks for the update, James! That little LM386 amp kit seems like an affordable addition for any receiver lacking an amplifier or adequate audio amplification.

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