Monthly Archives: September 2016

NPOTA Activations this morning!

elecraft-kx2-appalachaintrail-npota-tr01

If you’re around the radio this morning (Sunday, Sep 25), and you’d like to make some NPOTA contacts, note that I plan activate:

Look for me around 14,286 kHz and 7286 kHz +/- 6 kHz.

Once again, I’ll operate the lightweight Elecraft KX2/EFT Trail-Friendly combo–and that’s a good thing. To activate these sites, I’ll log at least 1 hour 15 minutes of hiking (the AT portion over steep terrain). Having a small radio package makes the experience much more enjoyable!

I hope to hear you on the air or, perhaps, you’ll hear me. I expect there will be a lot of NPOTA activators in the field today.  Should be a lot of fun!

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Rare Hitachi KW-WSI WorldSpace Receiver on Ebay

This is the first and only “WorldSpace” satellite receiver I’ve seen on Ebay, currently offered at a $175 Buy-It-Now price from a seller in Australia:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HITACHI-KW-WSI-DIGITAL-RECEIVER-WS-FM-MW-SW1-SW2-/282192383263

The radio is listed as in excellent condition with the original box and literature. Besides the long-gone WorldSpace satellite frequencies, the radio covers medium wave, FM, and most of the shortwave range. A brief PDF data sheet for the radio gives a description of features and operations.

hitachi-kw-wsi

Wikipedia describes this radio’s satellite service as 1worldspace, formerly known as ‘WorldSpace’, is a defunct satellite radio network that in its heyday provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern and southern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia with 96% coming from India. It was profitable in India, with 450,000 subscribers.

I wonder if the Hitachi KW-WSI is a reasonable performer for shortwave listening? Does anyone know any technical details of this receiver?

Guy Atkins is a Sr. Graphic Designer for T-Mobile and lives near Seattle, Washington.  He’s a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.

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A new way to navigate the BBC Archives

Zenith-Dial-2

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who shares a link to this article on the BBC Blog:

Currently there are over 15,000 permanently available programmes, largely radio programmes, on the BBC website dating back decades, but they can be very difficult to find. From today, we’re launching a new piece of technology called ADA (Automated Data Architecture) that unearths and helps people navigate the BBC’s rich archive of permanently available programmes.

As you can see below, it adds a list of related topic tags under the description of the programme. So if you’ve just listened to an episode on Ada Lovelace and were interested in other notable women of the Victorian era, you can now click that tag and find all the permanently available programmes on that topic. There are programmes on Beatrix Potter, Florence Nightingale and Sylvia Pankhurst to name a few. There will also be up to three recommended programmes on the right hand side, with a link to the topic that connects them.

This seemingly small change to a programme page can lead you down interesting little alleyways to fascinating places you never expected to visit. For example, starting off at Ada Lovelace can take you all the way to a programme on Julius Caesar via ‘the Byron family’ followed by ‘Fellows of the Royal Society’ then ‘Captain James Cook’ and finally the ‘Deaths by stabbing’ topic tags. Give it a try here and see where you end up.

Some programmes like Desert Island Discs, which have a lot of programmes available, have navigation which is tailored very carefully to the brand. This makes it easy to find programmes but also means the system cannot be re-used across other BBC brands or programmes.[…]

Click here to continue reading this article on the BBC Blog.

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eBay Sighting: Sony CRF-V21

sony-crf-v21-001

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, London Shortwave, who shared a link to this Sony CRF-V21 on eBay:

Click here to view on eBay UK.

I’m sure a Sony collector will eventually snag this rig. Thought the listing mentions no shipping outside the UK, the Seller states otherwise:

“[I]f you don’t live in uk you can arrange a courier at your own cost”

Do any SWLing Post readers own the CRF-V21? Please comment!

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Four NPOTA activations planned today

npota-tr10-pk01-qrp-elecraft-kx2-clipboard

Around noon (EDT) today, I’ll start my short journey to the W4DXCC conference in Sevierville, TN.

En route, I’ll pass through three National Parks: the Blue Ridge Parkway, The Appalachian National Scenic Trail and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s a beautiful drive and the weather appears to be near-ideal–clear skies.

ARRL-NPOTAThis also affords me the opportunity to activate two “two-fers” for the National Parks On The Air  (NPOTA):

  • Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains Park (PK01 & NP26)
  • Appalachian Trail and Great Smoky Mountains Park (NP26 & TR01)

I’ll only get credit for three activations, but chasers will have a better opportunity to snag two park entities in one QSO.

I plan to activate the PK01 & NP26 two-fer starting around 17:00 UTC, then the NP26 & TR01 two-fer starting around 19:15 UTC. Look for me on 14,286 and 7,286 +/- 6 kHz.

SWLs: please comment if you happen to hear me at your location!

On the way back from the conference, Sunday morning, I plan to activate the same sites once again (weather permitting).

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AirGig: a new BPL technology that promises less RFI

projectairgig

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, DanH, who writes:

I read this news item today. AT&T has a new approach to broadband over power lines called AirGig. Supposedly, this technology will avoid RFI issues encountered with previous BPL technologies. This shouldn’t be an issue in my neighborhood where power lines are underground. Underground utilities still have RFI issues. My next door neighbor’s AT&T high speed internet swamps out all nearly all shortwave signals below 4.7 MHz within radius of 30 feet from the connection box.

http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/att-internet-over-powerlines/

Many thanks, DanH! Here is a short promo video for AirGig:

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