Yearly Archives: 2016

Good Afternoon everyone,

Radio Northern Ireland will be broadcasting tonight 1900UTC on 6005khz via Shortwave Service in Germany, and then followed by 15770khz via WRMI at 2100 UTC and further more on 11580khz at 0130 UTC. Our show tonight is jam packed with talking and a few special shortwave articles as well! SSTV will also be sent out in Scottie 2 mode. I hope you enjoy the shows this evening! A full list of broadcasts can be found below ;

Shortwave Service 6005khz – 1900 UTC (Saturday)
WRMI 15770khz – 2100 UTC (Saturday)
WRMI 11580khz – 0130 UTC (Saturday UTC date)
WRMI 9955khz – 0130 UTC (Monday)

Your reports are very welcome to [email protected] and if you wish to donate to keep us on the air! Donations are very welcome to [email protected]. We QSL by card as well, again a donation of $2 would be most kindly received.

Jordan Heyburn (MI6JVC) is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Jordan is an avid shortwave listener, ham radio operator and shortwave presenter/owner of Radio Northern Ireland. Jordan is based in Northern Ireland.

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HAARP facility to re-open in 2017

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Aerial view of the HAARP site, looking towards Mount Sanford, Alaska (Source: Wikipedia)

(Source: ARRL)

Let the conspiracy theories resume! Alaska’s High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility will reopen in 2017. The sprawling facility now is under the ownership of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and the UAF Geophysical Institute is preparing HAARP for a new sponsored research campaign that’s set to begin early next year, UAF Researcher Chris Fallen, KL3WX, told ARRL.

“This involves, for example, reinstalling the vacuum tubes in each of the 10 kW amplifiers — eventually 360 in total — that were removed by the US Air Force [the facility’s former owner] for warm storage in the main facility,” Fallen said. He later clarified that’s just one-half of the 720 tubes required to equip all of HAARP’s transmitters. “For the first campaign we will only be bringing half of the array online, as we will only have half the tubes installed,” he explained. “It’s a long process and we have limited resources.” He noted that the transmitter shelters have been unheated since the previous campaign in the summer of 2014. “The five generators — approximately 3 MW each — have recently been tested individually and are verified operational.”

Continue reading on the ARRl News website…

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The Sony ICF-5500W: My morning companion

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I spent this morning doing a lot of work around our property. When it was time for a break, I turned on my trust Sony ICF-5500W and tuned to WTZQ: one of my favorite regional AM braodcasters. Though WTZQ is over 30 miles from my home, any good AM radio, like the ICF-5500W, can receive their 1,000 watt signal with ease.

As luck would have it, when I turned on my 5500W, WTZQ started playing Love Me Do by The Beatles. It sounded absolutely amazing via the 5500W’s internal speaker: full-on, rich AM audio fidelity! Absolutely brilliant!

I cranked up the volume so our local black bears could enjoy.

I relaxed a good half hour, and caught up on reading the latest two issues of RadCom with my ICF-5500W playing WTZQ in the background.

Sometimes it’s the simple stuff that starts one’s morning off the right way.

That and plenty of good coffee.

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Radio Australia off the air this week

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Nikolich (N9OVQ), who writes:

Radio Australia has been off the air all week. My buddy Ron Howard in California contacted [email protected] regarding this issue, and received this response:

“Thank you for your recent correspondence with regards to the Radio Australia Broadcasts on Shortwave Radio in the SW Pacific. We are currently working with our transmission provider on a number of shut downs over the past week and again over the next week to investigate a range of technical and commercial issues for the service.

In the meantime the services are still on air via our satellite services on Intelsat IS18 and IS22 as well as our FM network across the targeted markets in the SW Pacific (for detailed information please see http://goo.gl/2Y7xS3 ) and of course Radio Australia is online at http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/listen.

Thank you also for your audio clip of ABC Alice Springs NT!

Kind Regards,

ABC Reception Advice (Communications Networks)”

Tom, you have more than 10,000 people regularly following your blog. Can you encourage your readers to contact Radio Australia and tell them how important their shortwave transmissions are to them? I have been listening to this station continuously since 1972 and I would be crushed if they left the air. I begin most mornings by listening to their loud, clear English language shortwave signal on 9,580 kHz.

Thanks, Mike. Like many other SWLs, I too have noted that Radio Australia has been off the air this week. Without a doubt, Radio Australia is my staple source of news on shortwave these days and a part of my morning ritual (cup of coffee and RA–!).

I will send them an email immediately.

Post readers: if you enjoy Radio Australia, please take Mike’s advice and contact them at your earliest convenience.

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BHI Summer Sale

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, TomL, who notes:

Not sure if you had anything posted for this but I stumbled on BHI having a summer sale until August 16. So, I went onto YouTube and listened to a number of user demos and chose to buy the Compact Inline model. So, I get 10% off using the special code plus the British Pound has gone down against the US Dollar over the last few months by about 15% or more. Shipping is a bit more expensive but overall seems worth it. Just thought I would pass it along!

TomL from noisy Illinois

Thank you, Tom! I know DX Engineering also stocks BHI products here in the States, but I imagine with the currency conversion and summer sale, it might even be less expensive to order directly from BHI.

I hope you report back and let us know how well the Compact Inline filter works for you!

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Bruce believes the CC Skywave is an ideal travel radio

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The C.Crane CC Skywave

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bruce Atchison, who recently shared his positive comments about the CC Skywave. Bruce writes::

This is a lot of radio for such a small size. The CC Skywave is a great travel companion because of its portability and price.

Moreover, it’s rich with features. The receiver tunes in AM and FM as well as all the shortwave bands, NOAA weather channels, and the aircraft band. The latter comes in handy while you’re waiting for flights so you can find out immediately and directly what is delaying them.

It also has a built-in alarm clock so you needn’t miss the next morning’s activities.

The Skywave runs on 2 AA cells and can be set to charge NiMH rechargeable batteries. Its mini-USB port lets you use the AC adaptor or 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter. You can even use one of those cell phone solar panels to power the set.

This radio’s reception is excellent and its filters allow for eliminating adjacent channel interference. Apart from its rather high noise floor on AM, the receiver pulls in stations at night very well.

The Skywave can also add local stations to its memory pages automatically. This comes in handy in foreign cities when you don’t have time to manually scan the AM and FM dial.

This is truly a globe trotter’s accessory. You can set it to European AM channel spacing and the Japanese FM band. The radio even has a fine tuning setting for oddly-spaced stations.

The three amber LEDs light up the dial nicely and they turn off automatically after about ten seconds to conserve battery life. In fact, the Skywave is amazingly energy efficient.

Whenever I travel, this radio is one thing I’ll be sure to pack. It’s all I need when I travel away from home.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Bruce. Yes, I believe the Skywave is a great little travel radio, too. One of the Skywave features I used extensively while off-grid in Canada this summer, was the weather radio function (Environment Canada and NOAA frequencies are the same). Without Internet, it was an excellent, handy source of weather information.

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