Yearly Archives: 2018

Sony CRF-330K fetching top dollar on eBay

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes:

Saw this Sony receiver at a current high price on eBay:

Interesting that it has a cassette recorder, although back in those days cassettes were popular and other radios had ’em installed to record your favorite shows or to just use as a player.

Yes indeed, Mario! I remember absolutely lusting after a few radio models with built-in cassette recording features when I was much younger. It would have made off-air recordings much easier! Of course, the most affordable (and accessible) model I remember in the past couple of decades was the vulnerable Sangean ATS-818cs or RadioShack DX-392.

I’ve never seen a pull-out cassette tray like the CK-330K’s:

It appears this Sony CRF-330K only has a few hours left of bidding at time of posting. There’s a bit of a bidding war going on, it seems, based on the bid history.

Click here to view on eBay.

I assume the CK-330K is a performer. Perhaps our resident expert, Dan Robinson, will share his comments?

Thanks for the tip, Mario!

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Numbers station in a Netflix series “The Same Sky”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Harper (AE5X), who writes:

I don’t know if you’ve heard of a new series on Netflix – “The Same Sky” is a Cold War spy series regarding an attempt to gain access to an American eavesdropping facility in Berlin in the 1970’s.

Not a lot of radio-related activity in the series but there is a scene of a spy receiving his coded instructions via a numbers station. I’ve posted a YouTube video of the scene here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=45&v=KqyIqn926eM

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thank you, John! I’ve just added The Same Sky to my watch list–I love Cold War spy films and series!

I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

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Only 24 hours to work the special Y8 call signs

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(Source: Southgate ARC via Ralf Bender)

The ex-DDR call-sign group from Y81A through Y89U, not used for 28 years has been issued especially for the WRTC Championship in Wittenberg, Germany.

BUT …. These call signs will ONLY be on the air for the 24 hours of the WRTC / IARU HF contest – after that these call signs may never appear on the air again – or perhaps only in another 28 years?

All stations are built and all competitors out on their sites waiting patiently to be able to use these very special call-signs from 1200 UTC on Saturday 14th. July.

The stations will be active on CW & SSB on all contest bands from 80m through 10m. Not only is this the ONLY opportunity to work these call signs, there’s also a range of awards available for working the WRTC stations.

Full award details, live streams, on-line scoreboard and a daily news report is available from the website at www.wrtc2018.de.

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KiwiSDR network adds Time Difference of Arrival direction-finding functionality

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There has been some fascinating functionality added to the excellent KiwiSDR network of online software defined radios: Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) direction-finding functionality.

RTL-SDR.com has posted an informative article about this new feature and how effectively it works:

The KiwiSDR is a US$299 HF SDR that can monitor the entire 0 – 30 MHz band at once. It is designed to be web-based and shared, meaning that the KiwiSDR owner, or anyone that they’ve given access, can tune and listen to it via a web browser over the internet. Many public KiwiSDRs can be found and browsed from the list at sdr.hu or by signal strength and location on this website.

One thing that KiwiSDRs have is a GPS input which allows the KiwiSDR to run from an accurate clock, as well as providing positional data. Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) is a direction finding technique that relies on measuring the difference in time that a signal is received at over multiple receivers spread out over some distance. In order to do this an accurate clock that is synchronized with each receiver is required. GPS provides this and is able to accurately sync KiwiSDR clocks worldwide.

Just recently all KiwiSDRs were pushed with a beta update (changelog) that enables easy TDoA direction finding to be performed with them. Since many KiwiSDRs are public, this means that right now anyone can browse to a KiwiSDR web interface and start a direction finding computation. You don’t even need to own a KiwiSDR to do this so this is the first freely accessible RF direction finding system available to the public.[…]

Of course, as the KiwiSDR network grows, TDoA accuracy will increase.

If you’d like to host your own KiwiSDR, you can purchase the full setup at SeedStudio or Amazon.com for $299 US (affiliate link).

Check out RTL-SDR.com’s full article and TDoA tests by clicking here.

Click here to go to the KiwiSDR portal.

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“Night of Nights” Returns Tonight!

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Chief Operator Richard Dillman at Position 1 (Source: Maritime Radio Historical Society)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Brian Smith (W9IND), who writes:

The cast may be smaller than in previous years, but the “Night of Nights” nostalgia show will go on. At 8:01 p.m. Eastern Time today (0001 UTC July 13), two maritime CW stations operated by the Maritime Radio Historical Society will begin transmitting Morse code on shortwave and medium wave bands, while the Society’s amateur radio station will be active on four ham bands.

Venerable KPH will reappear tonight in the company of KFS and ham station K6KPH, all transmitting from a century-old Marconi site at Bolinas, California. They’ll be directed from a 1930 RCA station at 17400 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Point Reyes National Seashore. Several previous participants will be absent this year, including ship-to-shore powerhouse WLO of Mobile, Alabama, and a quartet of Coast Guard stations.

The annual July 12 event commemorates the date in 1999 when commercial Morse code operations ceased in the United States. One year later, “Night of Nights” debuted in a defiant declaration that maritime CW stations would not go gentle into that good night.

Typically, the two 5 kw coast stations transmit “code wheels” (repeating messages), personal messages, and tributes to long-gone maritime stations and operators, remaining on the air till at least 0700 UTC. And K6KPH will not only be heard, but contacted by fellow amateur radio stations. A list of KPH, KFS and K6KPH frequencies can be found at www.radiomarine.org, including those used by ships. Reception reports go to P.O. Box 392, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956.

The public is welcome to observe today’s event and tour the facility at Point Reyes. Doors open at 3 p.m. local (Pacific) time, and Morse aficionados are invited to operate K6KPH. Whisper the words “true believer” for a peek at the Treasure Room!

https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/events_nightofnights.htm

For a comprehensive list of frequencies please click here.

Many thanks for the notice, Brian! We’ll tune in!

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Impressive Transatlantic FM DX: Newfoundland to Northern Ireland on 88.5 MHz

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(Source: Southgate ARC)

88 MHz Trans-Atlantic signals heard in Ireland

On Sunday the 8th of July 2018, there was a remarkable opening on the VHF bands across the North Atlantic. While there were plenty of strong multi-hop Sporadic-E signals on the 28 MHz and 50 MHz bands, the maximum qusable frequency did reach as high as 88 MHz at one stage.

Paul Logan in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland managed to catch CBC radio 1 on 88.5 MHz from Newfoundland, Canada at 22:35 local time (21:35 UTC). It is very rare for openings on Band 2 across the Atlantic and to date, only two people have managed to succeed in hearing North American radio stations.