Yearly Archives: 2017

Receiving Jupiter with the SDRplay RSP1

I’ve been fascinated with radio astronomy since my university days. In the 1980s and 90s almost any radio astronomy experiment equated to forking out some serious money to purchase a wideband receiver (serious money to a student, at least). With the advent of SDRs, though, radio astronomy has become affordable for everyone.

Many thanks to RTL-SDR.com for publishing the following video and post about monitoring Jupiter radio bursts:

Over on YouTube user MaskitolSAE has uploaded a video showing him receiving some noise bursts from Jupiter with his SDRplay RSP1. The planet Jupiter is known to emit bursts of noise via natural ‘radio lasers’ powered partly by the planets interaction with the electrically conductive gases emitted by Io, one of the the planets moons. When Jupiter is high in the sky and the Earth passes through one of these radio lasers the noise bursts can be received on Earth quite easily with an appropriate antenna

In his video MaskitolSAE shows the 10 MHz of waterfall and audio from some Jupiter noise bursts received with his SDRplay RSP1 at 22119 kHz. According to the YouTube description, it appears that he is using the UTR-2 radio telescope which is a large Ukrainian radio telescope installation that consists of an array of 2040 dipoles. A professional radio telescope installation is not required to receive the Jupiter bursts (a backyard dipole tuned to ~20 MHz will work), but the professional radio telescope does get some really nice strong bursts as seen in the video.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here to read at RTL-SDR.com.

As Carl mentions above, you do not need a professional radio telescope to receive Jupiter noise bursts, a dipole will do.

In fact, the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) has a dedicated Jupiter receiver–a simple SDR kit called the Radio JOVE Receiver which is promoted by NASA. While PARI has the resources to install any number of antennas, PARI uses two simple dipoles which are mounted only a few feet off the ground as their radio telescope. I doubt their investment in the antennas exceeded $50. It works brilliantly.

The Radio JOVE receiver at PARI

I had planned to purchase and build a JOVE receiver (and, for fun, still may!), but it would be much easier to simply use the SDRplay RSP I already have in my shack. What a great project this fall.

Post readers: Please comment if you’ve used an SDR or JOVE kit to receive Jupiter bursts!

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Mystery solved: Remember the 8 Track FM radio converter?

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Sunday morning, I attended the Sainte-Foy flea market in Québec City. When I’m in QC, I love attending this particular market because of the amazing variety of things for sale. It’s a proper community event.

As I was browsing the various tables, I happened upon one of these:

Talk about a blast from the past!

Yesterday, I posted a cropped photo of this radio and it was quickly identified as an 8 Track FM radio converter by Ken (N2VIP). Steve Yothment found the same unit under a different brand and Bill Lee even found a Futura branded unit on the Internet. Of course, many others figured out this was an 8 Track to FM radio converter. Impressive sleuthing!

These radio tuners were popular in the days of the mobile 8 Track players–in that time period right before FM was standard in car radios, but 8 Track was somewhat prevalent.

My father had a similar FM radio converter for his 1966 Chevy pickup. As a kid, I thought the thing was fascinating! You simply inserted the unit into the 8 Track player and voilá!, FM radio!

I never quite understood how the FM reception was so decent considering there was no external antenna of any sort.

The rear of the converter looks like an 8 Track cartridge minus the magnetic tape.

Taking a closer look at this particular FUTURA brand converter, I’m impressed with the number of features on such a compact front end:

Analog FM dial
Red LED stereo tuning indicator
AFC OFF/ON switch
DX/Local switch
A wide, vertically-oriented tuning knob

I’m curious: how many Post readers had an 8 track FM radio converter in their vehicle? Or, did you ever have an Audio Cassette to 8 Track converter? Please comment! Also, you should check out some of the comments from our previous post.

And thanks for being sports about my “Mystery radio challenge“–I knew savvy Post readers would ID this tuner in no time!

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Can you identify this mystery radio?

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Yesterday, at the marché aux puces de Sainte-Foy (Sainte-Foy flea market) in Québec City, I stumbled across the little receiver above in a box of junk under a vendor’s table.

I’ve actually worked up a short post about this radio and will publish it tomorrow, but first I’m curious if any Post readers can identify it based only on the photo above.

I’ve purposely cropped the image so it’s slightly more challenging. Still, there are so many radio enthusiasts here on the SWLing Post, no doubt someone will quickly ID this radio.

Please comment with the make/model and type of receiver if you think you’ve got the answer to this radio challenge!

Here’s a hint: I haven’t seen a receiver like this in decades. Good luck!

UPDATE: Click here to read our follow-up post.

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eBay: Bargain basement prices on the Degen DE1103 DSP version

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UPDATE–Caveat emptor:

I can no longer link to this deal. Several readers have noted the seller has no history nor feedback.

Additionally, Joe notes that “The same seller is offering the Tecsun PL-660 for $39.99 and the Tecsun PL-360 for $17.47, among other extraordinarily low-priced items.”

Thanks guys–I’m sorry, but that’s just too good to be true. I’ve removed the eBay links below.

To be clear: eBay provides a money back guarantee for buyers in instances like this, but it would be an extra hassle, for sure. I just feel these prices are too good to be true.

Here’s the original post:

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who notes:

“I see the sour DSP version of the DE1103 are down to rock bottom prices up on eBay.”

Click here to view on eBay.

Any potential buyers should note: while this DE1103 looks identical to the excellent DE1103/KA1103 receiver produced through 2014, the DE1103 DSP model leaves much to be desired. Check out my review from 2015.

Still, for $22.56 US shipped, it would make for a great FM radio if nothing else.

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Swiss Army Knife radios: Dave plugs the discontinued Kaito KA1121

Future of ABC Shortwave Service: Nigel Participates in Senate Committee Hearing

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Nigel Holmes–formerly of Radio Australia–for the following update regarding Nick Xenophon’s bill to resume ABC shortwave services:

Last Friday I travelled to Canberra and fronted the Senate Committee hearing testimony on the matter of HF broadcasting & Senator Xenophon’s Bill to compel ABC to resume HF domestically & for RA. I was grilled like a breakfast kipper. It went well.

Another witness was Graeme Dobell, a legendary radio & print journalist who has travelled & worked all over the Pacific region. Graeme has written some good articles on the current subject. See here:

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/abc-gets-wrong-south-pacific-service/ and here

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/smart-stuff-shortwave-south-pacific/

Interestingly another ex-RA journalist & RA senior executive Geoff Heriot wrote a recent piece critical of ABCs degradation of RA specialist programming. See here:

The crowded Pacific: re-considering the sharp edge of broadcasting’s soft power

Thank you, Nigel. We appreciate your updates and are certainly thankful that you have been representing the interests of those who believe in ABC maintaining a presence on shortwave.

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David seeks a feature-packed “Swiss Army Knife” portable

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The CC Skywave

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, David, who writes with the following inquiry:

I really enjoy the SWLing site. It’s great and you guys have such good reviews and information!

I’m looking for a radio and one thing I have not seen on the site is a “features” type breakdown when you could limit the radios by the features you’re looking for. Maybe I missed it???

I’m looking for a portable radio (option to run on batteries, rechargeable, etc.) that has SW/AM/FM and the NOAA bands (perk if it has SAME) and has an Aux In so I can play music from my phone/whatever on it.

This will be a radio that I can take camping, to parks, have in the car for trips, gatherings, etc. I’d like it to have enough speaker that music is enjoyable, but not such a large form factor that it’s impossible/silly to lug around when needed.

Does such a thing exist!? Any recommendations? Thanks so much.

Good questions, David! I like your suggestion about a master feature list for comparing portables. If I have the time someday, I might try to put something like this together (else, perhaps, a Post contributor can volunteer for the job?).

To answer your question…

You’re certainly looking for a “Swiss Army Knife” of a radio. The only model that comes to mind is the C.Crane CC Skywave. I published a full review of the Skywave a couple years ago and can whole-heartedly recommend it. (Click here to browse our archive of Skywave posts.)

The C.Crane CC Skywave

The Skywave ticks every box on your feature list–it is even capable of SAME weather alerts! It’s also an excellent performer and my favorite compact travel radio that’s currently in production.

The only item missing on the Skywave is an audio AUX-in port, but I can’t think of any other radio on the market that comes closer to meeting your wish list than the Skywave.

SWLing Post readers: Perhaps you can help? Please comment if you can recommend a portable that meets all of David’s criteria. I may very well have overlooked a model. Obviously, the two features that make this search more challenging are weather radio and an an AUX-in port. Please comment with your suggestions!

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