Monthly Archives: December 2018

Mark’s Tree House DXpedition in Bali

I recently received an email from SWLing Post friend, contributor and Patron, Mark Fahey, who is currently enjoying a fascinating DXpedition.

Many thanks to Mark who has allowed me to share a few of his notes from the trip. Mark writes:

I am at Susut, in the Bangli Regency, on the Indonesian island of Bali.

This treehouse is at the base region of Mt Agung, an active volcano, so the earth rumbles a few time each day.

For the next week and a half, I am alone in the Indonesian jungle with my WinRadio Excalibur a collection of loops and wire antennas and lots of storage for spectrum recording. No QRM, I am running on DC, but charge my gear during the day from an AC mains supply.

DX is fantastic – best today being CNR in DRM locked solid!

But the big disappointment is just like Malaysia, MW in most of Indonesia is now just white noise, nothing at all – and hardly any RRI (Radio Republik Indonesia) on the tropical bands now.

But FM jam-packed, I expect many are community pirate stations as well. I came all setup for FM capture as well.

Wow! What a brilliant DXpedition location, Mark! It appears you’ve truly removed all other distractions being in such a remote area.

Sign me up! I’m ready for some Indonesian tree house DXing!

Thanks for sharing, Mark! [And by the way, I’m not at all envious. Okay, maybe just a little. Or a lot.]

Post readers: Have you ever been on a DXpedition in an exotic or unique location? Please comment!

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Radio Deal: Eton Traveller III $48.53 shipped

Dave’s review of the Icom IC-R75 HF receiver

RCA Transmitter Window Contest: We have a winner!

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Click to enlarge

Over the past five weeks, we’ve been promoting our contest to win an authentic Woofferton RCA Transmitter window that has been generously donated by our long-time friend and contributor, Dave Porter (G4OYX).

We are pleased to announce our winner: Kenneth Kopp (AK0A)

Congratulations, Kenneth!

Kenneth correctly answered at least one of the Wooferton Transmitting station questions we’ve posted over the past five weeks. His entry was picked at random.

RCA Window from MI-7330

In case you were wondering, here are the original questions and answers:

Question 1:What was the operating frequency range of the six original RCA 50 kW MI 7330 transmitters?
Answer: 5.9 to 22 MHz

Question 2: What was the BBC code name for the site from the 1944 build to about 1961? Answer: OSE 10 or Overseas Station Extension 10

Question 3: Besides the current HF services from the site what other broadcast services are radiated?
Answer: BBC Hereford and Worcester MF Local Radio on 1584 kHz and Sunshine Radio on 105.9 MHz FM

Question 4: Who is the present owner / operator of the site?
Answer: Encompass Media

Question 5: The Woofferton site straddles two English counties, what are they?
Answer: Herefordshire and Shropshire

Of course, Dave and I looked over all of the entries and accepted any answer variation that was essentially correct.

We had a total of 318 entries from SWLing Post readers–a fantastic turn-out for a contest that often required serious research!

Thank you once again, Dave, for donating this brilliant piece of shortwave broadcasting history! And congratulations, Kenneth–I’m sure that RCA window will look amazing in your radio shack!

Post readers: We’re plotting a number of contests over the next year to celebrate 10 years of the SWLing Post! There will be other amazing prizes involved! Stay tuned!

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From the Shortwave Archive: Radio South Africa (RSA) New Year’s call-in program 1977

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Minolta DSC

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording of Radio South Africa which was originally recorded on December 31, 1977 from his home in Plymouth, MN using a Hammarlund HQ-180.

Tom notes:

During the late 1970s, Radio South Africa (RSA) would broadcast a New Years call-in show. This recording is from 1/1/1978 (12/31/1977 in the US). At two minutes into the recording, you can hear the interval signal for RAI (Italy) in the background. I have scoped (edited) the music. Unsure how long RSA carried on this tradition, but heard a similar call-in broadcast the following year on 1/1/1979.

Click here to download this recording.

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Digitech AR-1780 sale and purchasing from the US

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike, who reminds us that Jaycar has the Digitech AR-1780 on sale until December 26, 2018.

Click here to check out the sale at JayCar online.

Mike also shares the following email he received from Jaycar regarding the purchase of an AR-1780 from the United States:

Thanks for your enquiry.

The product is on special now until Dec 26 2018 at the Australian site.
Please see the following price in AUD for the order.
AR1780 x 1 $89.00 AUD
Standard Air $33.40 AUD
Total $122.40 AUD

But the Australian site is not running for overseas online order.
If you are interested to getting the product, please provide your credit
card payment to proceed the order by email or phone.
You can call our regular phone +61 2 8832 3245 during Australian
business hours to provide your credit card details. The business trading
hours are 8:30am – 5:30pm Mon – Fri. It’s 11:11am Friday here. Our staff
will make this order for you.

You also can place this order directly on our US site. We have put it to
the US market now.
https://www.jaycar.us/compact-world-band-radio-with-ssb/p/AR1780

The price in USD will be as follows.
AR1780 x 1 $94.95 USD
Economy Air $15.00 USD
Total $109.95 USD

The product is dispatched from Australia to the USA, so local customs
duty & taxes may apply. Delivery time estimated about 6-10 business days
via post standard air. You can track it at the post office site.

Regards,
Helen Yang
Customer Service Representative

Thank you for the tip, Mike! Since I’m not a fan of sharing credit card information over email, I would encourage you to make the purchase through JayCar’s US website.

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KiwiSDRs now at the KPH receive site in Point Reyes

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Ruck, who writes:

Please be advised that the Martitime Radio Historical Society has made publicly available Kiwi SDR receivers at the KPH receive site in Point Reyes. This site was selected for SW reception by Dr. Beverage for RCA around 1930.

You can access the receivers at radiomarine.org

Bill Ruck
Maintenance
MRHS

Brilliant news, Bill! Thank you for sharing!

Click here to visit the Point Reyes KiwiSDR optimized for HF reception and this one optimized for LW/MW reception.

Click here to visit the KPH Software Defined Receivers info page.

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