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Hailing from Germany, the KWZ-30 communications receiver was one of the first DSP receivers available. This collectable and high performance receiver is rarely seen for sale, but one is now available for a $1890.00 Buy-It-Now price from a Russian Ebay seller. Even with the few dings visible on the radio’s case, it’s likely worth the asking price to a collector.
At the $1890.00 price of this KWZ-30, you could buy a dozen SDRPlay receivers, or roughly a couple of the highly rated Perseus SDRs. Assuming available funds, is the KWZ-30 a receiver you would add to your radio shack? If so, why… or why not?
Guy Atkins is a Sr. Graphic Designer for T-Mobile and lives near Seattle, Washington. He’s a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.
Germans Close Business in Rwanda After Half Century Lease Expires
Once a powerful facility in the region, the German owned Deutsche Welle radio center at Kinyinya hill outside Kigali is finally and completely shutting down. It’s no more.
In 1965, Rwanda leased 68.4 hectares on Kinyinya hill for fifty years to the Germans- that later set up a massive facility to boost Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster.
“We are stopping our short wave transmitters today and then next week we will start dismantling them and the masts in order to meet the deadline of August when our license expires,” said Bernhard Ahlborn, the deputy director of Deutsche Welle.
On March 28, 2015 the facility stopped its operations, to begin dismantling their equipment, to pave away for the handover of the Land to Rwanda government.
The Germans will today hand over the premises of the relay station with its infrastructure to the Government of Rwanda, to mark the end of 50 year concession agreement.
The Deutsche Welle relay station in Kigali has been serving African and the Middle East audiences. It was the only firm facility of the kind that was remaining. The Germans had similar facilities in other 60 countries.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Korchin (K2WNW), for sharing this short video demonstrating the shortwave receive capabilities of the Icom IC-92AD handheld transceiver:
Frankly, I’m quite amazed at the clarity and fidelity of the Voice of Turkey interval signal on this handheld. Goes to show that with a proper antenna, and decent conditions, wide-band handhelds can certainly be used for shortwave radio listening! It also helps that David is outdoors, away from RFI, and was located on the coast of Long Island, NY.
Post readers: Have you had good fortune SWLing with wide-band handled transceivers? Please comment!
The word “archives” can conjure up an image of dusty boxes of documents and sepia photographs. Do not be deceived. In fact, the files in the Tompkins County History Center Archives are filled with stories and all manner of tantalizing clues and evidence about the lives of those who came before us. And in the hands of Archives Director Donna Eschenbrenner—knowledgeable, helpful, ever eager to assist—those files can come alive.
Such a collection is file V-63-7-6, the ‘Meredith Brill WWII Correspondence Collection. In early 1944 15-year-old Caroline resident Meredith (“Bub” to his family) Brill was a shortwave radio enthusiast. What made Brill remarkable is that he was able, with his radio, to get information from Nazi-occupied Europe thousands of miles away, about American servicemen who had been taken prisoner by the Germans. He wrote the names, ranks serial numbers and home addresses down, and then sent letters to the families of the prisoners. He wrote dozens of such letters. The archives file is comprised of thank-you letters from those families, Brill’s notebooks and some of his letters that were returned unread.
His own letters are extraordinary. They are simple without being blunt, and his all-caps typewritten directness doesn’t disguise the very human impulse to ease a family’s anxiety. “I hope this information will be of help to you because I know many parents worry a great deal about their sons and daughters in the service.”
Shortwave radios captured the imagination of a lot of young people in those days. The technology has been called the “first internet.” A shortwave radio uses frequencies just above the medium AM broadcast band, and it can be used for very long distance reception by means of “skip propagation,” in which the radio waves are reflected back to earth from the ionosphere. It allows communication around the curvature of the earth. Sound quality can vary greatly, and it depends on the season and time of day, but you can hear broadcasts from around the world. Generally, the signals are best at night.[…]
Back in 2011, I posted a short review of Lisa Spahr’s book, World War II Radio Heroes, which also focuses on these amazing POW messages. Such a fascinating piece of WWII radio history.
For those who might be interested there is a black version of the 909X on eBay with an auction end day of Monday early afternoon. The condition looks good from the pics (of course buyer beware!) and current bid is $127.50 with two bidders. I have one of the white series which bought several years ago from another ham right at this price, so needless to say I was happy (and lucky!)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, DanH, who writes:
I have been working on my Hammarlund SP600-JX-21 for the last two weeks. Results of the filter cap replacement were encouraging. I’m going after an AVC issue that is probably capacitor-related as well before doing a re-alignment with the signal generator.
All of this activity has turned my attention toward vacuum tubes. I found three vintage industrial films online that caught my interest…
The Mullard Radio Valve Company produced The Blackburn Story in 1962. The film was shot at what must have been close the peak of vacuum tube mass production. This presentation is unique in its finely detailed documentation of miniature tube construction. The hand labor required to build some of these tubes is incredible, considering it is a mass production operation. A surprising degree of automation is present for manufacture of some of the more popular tube types. The video resolution is not the best but I found myself ignoring this limitation after the film got underway. I have a few Mullard tubes in my tube boxes.
Western Electric presents A Modern Aladdin’s Lamp (1940). This look at the electron tube is hosted by none other than Lowell Thomas. From the age of four pin and octal base tubes animation shows how tubes work.
Electronics at Work (1943) is a WWII offering by Westinghouse. The description of vacuum tube technology is a little more detailed and again animation is employed for visual impact. A variety of vacuum tube applications in industry and the military are shown from curing plywood to producing X-rays. The excellent animation was contributed by Famous Studios (when they weren’t doing the wartime Popeye cartoons).
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Barraclough, who writes:
BBC World Service Archives continue to put up programmes on the main site, they were previously available on a beta site you had to register for and were allowed to add tags or edit data. 64 editions of Waveguide, their radio broadcasting developments programme now up, first one 21 April 1988. last one 14 March 2001.
There were only 4 editions of the long running Letterbox on the beta site but they have been transferred over, includes the final edition. None of World Radio Club in the archives unfortunately.
Many thanks for the tip, Mike! I’m happy the BBC is making their archives even more accessible as a part of their strategic plan. Please let us know if you note any other archives of interest!
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