Yearly Archives: 2017

Radio Caroline testing on 648 kHz

(Source: Southgate ARC via Mike Terry)

Caroline 648 testing

A test signal with continuous music and announcements reported today.

Reception reports on Facebook from the UK, Holland, Belgium, France and Austria.

Some reports from mainland Europe refer to a co-channel Romanian or Slovenian station.

I think this is at a lower power than the permitted 1 KW.

Much excitement in anorak circles!

Note that if you’re interesting in monitoring 648 kHz but live outside the broadcast footprint, you can easily listen and record via the U Twente WebSDR.

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Listen to the 30th Anniversary of The International Radio Report–Sunday, November 12

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(International Radio Report press release via Sheldon Harvey)

NOTICE: 30th Anniversary edition of The International Radio Report on CKUT-FM 90.3 MHz in Montreal

Sunday, November 19, 2017 from 10:30 am to 11:30 AM Eastern (1530 to 1630 UTC)
The International Radio Report, is a radio program conceived by Sheldon Harvey and submitted to CKUT’s first station manager Ms. Susan Elrington as a proposal in the fall of 1987. CKUT obtained its FM broadcasting license in 1987 and began broadcasting regular programming, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in November 1987.

The program proposal was approved and the International Radio Report, a weekly 30-minute program about the medium of radio, first aired on Thursday afternoons from 2:30 to 3 PM, beginning in mid-November 1987 when CKUT first went on the air. The program eventually moved to Sunday mornings from 10:30 to 11:00 AM. It has aired every week for the past 30 years on CKUT.

The program, originally hosted and produced by Sheldon Harvey and William Westenhaver, initially dealt exclusively with the world of international radio broadcasting, or shortwave radio, featuring information on radio broadcasts from around the world that could be listened to on shortwave radio. Over the years the scope of the program evolved and expanded to also include information and developments in local and national radio broadcasting, campus/community radio, pirate and clandestine radio and, eventually, Internet and digital radio. The program also covers developments in radio equipment, radio technology, and more.

Throughout its 30 years on the air, the program has had a few other hosts and producers. Sheldon Harvey and William Westenhaver took a break for several years, but the program continued with hosts Janice Laws and Steve Karlock. Eventually Steve left and Sheldon returned to co-host with Janice. Then Janice left and was replaced by David Asselin. Today the show continues with co-hosts Sheldon Harvey and David Asselin.

Over the years numerous guests have appeared on the program, including personalities from local and international radio stations, members of various shortwave and amateur radio clubs and organizations, representatives of Industry Canada and the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and other radio related organizations.

The program has developed a dedicated local audience, as well as many listeners from around the world tuning in via CKUT’s webpage live-stream. There is also a very active Facebook group with over 365 members from around the world.

The International Radio Report will be celebrating its 30th anniversary broadcast on Sunday, November 19th with a special one-hour edition of the program from 10:30 to 11:30 am. Sheldon and David will have an array of special in-studio guests, plus some samplings of past historic broadcasts, including a clip from the very first edition in November 1987. We will also pay tribute to past hosts and guests and have a round-table discussion on the evolution of radio over the last 30 years and what the future holds for the medium.

We invite you to tune in to this special 1-hour edition of the International Radio Report, live from 10:30 to 11:30 AM, on Sunday, November 19, 2017 on CKUT-FM 90.3 in Montreal and online, live-streaming, on www.ckut.ca. The broadcast will then be available on the CKUT archives.

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Airspy HF+ SDR Now Available to Order

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As reported recently on the SWLing Post that the Airspy HF+ would be available “really, really, really soon”, the rumor has become reality–this new SDR receiver is for sale on Airspy’s main sale site www.Itead.cc.

The direct link for purchase is: https://www.itead.cc/airspy-hf-plus.html. The price in US dollars is a very reasonable $199.00, considering the high performance evident by the few test units “in the wild” recently.

There was an initial $50-off coupon code available first come, first served this morning for the first 100 orders. These were snapped up quickly; I was fortunate to make it into that limited group and I saved $50 each off a couple of HF+ units. My intent is to pair them up for full coverage of the medium wave band–while recording I/Q WAV files)–using two receiver “instances” within Studio 1 or SDR-Console software. (The alias-free bandwidth of the HF+ is a modest 660 kHz, a trade-off this receiver makes to deliver high performance at a low price.) I expect a EXTIO DLL file to be available soon for use in EXTIO software like Studio 1 (or the EXTIO version of SDRuno which I also use).

I plan to be comparing the HF+ to my current Elad FDM-S2 SDR; based on specs and early user reports, it should be a tight race.

UPDATE: I’ve learned that the shipping timeframe for the HF+ is the beginning of December (approx. three weeks). There is also a U.S. distributor who is kindly offering a similar $50-off deal: https://v3.airspy.us/product/airspy-hfplus/

Simon Brown, author of the popular SDR-Console software versions, closely compares the Airspy HF+ ($199 USD) against a RFspace NetSDR ($1449 USD w/o options): http://www.sdr-radio.com/Radios/Airspy/AirspyHF

Who else is planning on an Airspy HF+ purchase? What are your monitoring interests you plan to use it for? Please comment below and share your thoughts with other SWLing Post readers!

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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Amazon Deal: Eton Field BT $97.49 shipped

NAB Delivers Radios to Hurricane-Ravished Puerto Rico

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(Source: NAB Blog via Richard Langley)

https://youtu.be/NtOpsVDnJzM

I recently had the opportunity of a lifetime. I was asked by my employer – the National Association of Broadcasters – to travel to Puerto Rico to help distribute 10,000 battery-operated radios to people in hurricane-ravaged island and the Virgin Islands.

The idea for the radio hand-out stemmed from a meeting where President and CEO Gordon Smith asked: “What can NAB and our industry do to help?” NAB swung into action, purchasing, shipping and delivering the radios in just 18 days.

I had seen pictures of the devastation in Puerto Rico, but nothing compares to seeing it in person. Most of Puerto Rico remained without power and drinkable water during our visit. Even in the Capitol of San Juan, power came almost exclusively from generators that had to be refilled with fuel or diesel daily by hand, sometimes every four hours. Police directed traffic at intersections.

People wait from six to 14 hours over three days to get tarps to cover the roofs of their houses. It’s common for people to wait in line for three hours to enter grocery stores, where bottled water is sold in rationed quantities. We saw 100-year-old trees uprooted, bringing concrete sidewalks with them and toppling power lines. We saw people living in cars or in tents on the beach. Recovery in areas away from the coast, where mountains and rain forests dominate the landscape, is occurring at a snail’s pace.

[…]People in 25 Puerto Rican municipalities, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands, received radios from our shipment of 10,000 devices. Donations from NAB, the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations (NASBA) and multiple U.S. radio companies covered the cost of this project.[…]

Click here to read the full article at the NAB blog.

Many thank, Richard, for the tip! I’m most impressed with how quickly the NAB were able to source those radios and hand-deliver them to those in need.

At Ears To Our World, we’re in the process of doing something similar, though on a much smaller scale. We’re partnering with a Puerto Rico amateur radio club to deliver a number of self-powered radios and flashlights to those in need. If the distribution goes well, and there is still a need moving forward, we will increase the number we distribute.

By many accounts, it could still be weeks or months before electricity is fully restored to the island.

Great job, NAB!

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Free Ham Radio Class videos available online

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gary Wise (W4EEY), who shares the following:

As you might know, Dave Ivey, KE4EA, and I have been teaching Ham Radio classes in Greer, South Carolina (under the sponsorship of the Greer Amateur Radio Club – and Greer Parks and Recreation). We are completing Technician and General classes later this month.

What might be of interest to your readers, if they have ever thought about getting their own Ham Radio license, is that we have recorded the classes, and posted them online at my YouTube channel. Anyone can view the videos and prepare for the amateur radio exams at home. License Tests are given by a variety of Volunteer Examineers all over the United States.

A link to the channel is here. (The channel name is my callsign, W4EEY.)

We use the ARRL License Manuals as a basis for the class. Links to the books are here:

Technician http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Ham-Radio-License-Manual-Spiral-Bound/

General http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-General-Class-License-Manual-Spiral-Bound/

Extra http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Extra-Class-License-Manual-Spiral-Bound/

This was all new to us this year and the first videos are pretty basic. But we’ve made improvements along the way, and hope to continue with the effort. We will have Technician and Amateur Extra classes starting in January and will continue to record and edit the videos for each new class session.

Ham Radio is the best hobby in the world! Dave and I enjoy teaching the classes and helping others into this great hobby.

Vy 73,

Gary W4EEY

Thank you so much for sharing this, Gary!

Readers, what Gary didn’t mention is that I’ve checked out his ham radio classes in person–he invited Vlado (N3CZ) and I to do a presentation on my favorite topic: field portable radio! The class was packed with students and all of them were enthusiastic. Gary and Dave have really put their labor of love into a proper class, with peer support and interactive hands-on demonstrations. I was amazed with the diverse group of students in his Technician class last year.

Again, thanks for sharing, Gary and keep up the good work!

Check out their ham radio class videos on Gary’s YouTube channel.

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Purchasing the Digitech AR-1780 directly from Jaycar

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Last week, I posted a review of the Digitech AR-1780–a compact receiver that is only sold in Jaycar retail stores throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Since I live in the US, I purchased my AR-1780 via an Australian distributor on eBay.

Several SWLing Post readers discovered direct orders can be placed with Jaycar, thus taking advantage of Jaycar’s sales.

A couple weeks ago, Post reader, Paul, shared his correspondence with Jaycar where they implied an order could be placed via email directly with a Jaycar representative. I reached out to this representative for clarification because I felt uneasy about even suggesting that readers send credit card information over email. I asked if they had a secure order form. I never heard back from Jaycar and have been too busy to follow-up.

Turns out, SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, just placed an order for the AR-1780 via Jaycar and shared the details–all it takes is a phone call. Troy writes:

I ordered the AR-1780 from Jaycar.

I contacted them through their web site, exchanged emails with a Customer Service Supervisor and she told me that they actually have a toll-free U.S. number that goes to their Australian call center (staffed during their business hours)! FYI, it’s:

1-800-784-0263

I got it for $134 AUD or $103.40 USD shipped!

Thanks for sharing, Troy! A great option for ordering Jaycar products in the US.

If any Post readers in Canada have also successfully placed an order through this toll free number, please comment!

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