Yearly Archives: 2018

Video: Moshe captures an echo in Radio Kuwait signal

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Moshe Ze’ev Zaharia, who submits the following videos of his reception of Radio Kuwait at 10:30 UTC on April 6, 2018 from his home in Israel.

Moshe notes that the signal was of blowtorch strength and, for at least 45 minutes, there was an ever-present delay/echo. Moshe’s receiver is a (beautiful!) Zenith Trans-Oceanic T600 and his antenna a 15 meter wire:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Many thanks for sharing, Moshe!

Did anyone else note this echo? I wonder what happened at the Radio Kuwait transmitting station to make this happen? Or, perhaps, it was a fault with the audio feed they received? Please comment!

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St. Bandon (3B7A): An all-SDR DXpedition

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3B7A Antenna Layout (Source: SunSDR)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Hansgen (K8RAT), for passing along this press release from SunSDR:

The 3B7A Saint Brandon team is now active from Saint Brandon and we are exited! This is the first major DXpedition that will be using only SDR transcievers in its setup.[…]

SunSDR2 Pro

Using past experience from their successful FT4TA expedition to Tromelin island and FT4JA Juan de Nova island Expedition, the experienced team lead by F5UFX Seb build their St Brandon setup around the SunSDR2 PRO transceiver, the SPE 1.3K-FA amplifier and ModMic attachable boom microphone.

3B7A will have 5 x HF stations on air simultaneously. Each station will have a SunSDR2 PRO with E-Coder hardware controller, an amplifier, and a ModMic. Logging is done using WinTest in network configuration and all stations will be able to operate CW, SSB or RTTY.

All 5 stations will have will have identical configuration from the keyboard to the amplifier. This will keep the operator focused on the pile-up and improve redundancy in case of any equipment failure.[…]

Click here to read the full article at SunSDR.

Note that I believe the January 2018 Bouvet Island (3YØZ) DXpedition would have also been one of the first major ham radio DXpeditions to use SDRs (FlexRadio SDRs). Sadly, due to weather and engine problems, 3Y0Z were not able to activate.

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Clyde Haehnle: Loss of a broadcasting icon

California Historical Radio Society has acquired one of 8 original NBC chime machines

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(Photo source: The CRHS Newsletter)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Richards (AA7EE), who writes:

Thomas – I know you’ve posted before about the NBC chimes, so I thought you might be interested to know that CHRS, the California Historical Radio Society, has acquired one of 8 original NBC chime machines. They don’t think that more than a dozen were ever made. CHRS have their own building on the island of Alameda, CA, and are putting a huge amount of time and work into amassing an impressive collection of vintage radio gear. [I]f you scroll about 1/3 way down this page, you’ll see the news, along with a brief history of an NBC chime machine, and pictures of the one they now have in their collection. It is a rare find indeed!

Click here to read the new on the CHRS newsletter.

Very cool! Thank you for sharing this, Dave! I’m very happy to hear that these chimes have proper custodians.

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“Threatened radio shut down” in Germany

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UPDATE: Many thanks to Mike Barraclough who notes that a report today is that this has been averted. Click here to read.

(Source: Southgate ARC)

Germany – up to 10 million people could be hit by threatened radio shut down

The airwaves across many parts of Germany could fall silent next week due to a financial dispute between radio stations and an FM broadcasting provider.

The company Media Broadcast announced on Friday that it would cut off FM broadcasters for several radio stations if they did not immediately fulfil certain payment demands.

“Up to 10 million radio listeners could be affected by their FM broadcaster being cut off from Wednesday onwards,” company head Wolfgang Breuer told Die Welt.

Major public service broadcasters such as MDR, NDR and Deutschlandfunk are among those who could be cut off, the newspaper reported.

The dispute began when Media Broadcast, formerly a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, decided to move focus away from FM radio and onto digital platforms last year. The shift meant that broadcasting antennae across Germany, for which Media Broadcast had previously been responsible, were sold to private investors.

Broadcasters and their network operators were then left furious when many of the new owners raised prices for the use of their antennae, leading to a stalemate in business negotiations.

Hessian broadcaster FFH told dpa that a 50 percent rise in the cost of antennae use had left them with a “massive problem”.

In order to break the stalemate, Media Broadcast recently agreed to continue operating all antennae until the end of June, so as to provide more time for negotiations. Yet such an arrangement would still require the stations to contract the company during that period.

Media Broadcast now claims that around 75 percent of stations have not done this, and has threatened to cut these stations off if they do not officially contract the company by Monday.

Though digital and online streaming radio will still be available, the mass cut-off of FM radio broadcasts would affect a huge proportion of the population. According to Bild, around 92.7 percent of Germans said they still preferred listening to radio on an analogue device in a poll last year.

Up to 10 million people could be hit by threatened radio shut down

https://www.thelocal.de/20180406/up-to-10-million-people-could-be-hit-by-threatened-radio-shut-down

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Ham radio contacts between W2PVF (SK) and two Antarctic Stations, circa 1974

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Palmer Station (Photo Credit: Ryan Wallace and the USAP)

Many thanks to Bill Hemphill (WD9EQD) who is one of our newest contributors at the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive (SRAA). Bill approached me at the Winter SWL Fest this year noting that he has a wide variety of radio-related audio recordings to share with the SRAA and the SWLing Post.

This week, Bill shared two fascinating tape recordings he originally acquired from an estate sale box. These recordings were originally made in 1974 by the late Jim Hayward (W2PVF) in Absecon, New Jersey (USA) with two different ham radio stations in Antarctica.

This first recording is between W2PVF and KC4AAC of Palmer Station. The audio starts mid conversation:

Click here to download.

The second recording is between W2PVF and LU1ZE of the Argentine Antarctica Station. The operator at the microphone is W1PV. The recording even includes a phone patch:

Click here to download.

Bill, thanks so much for sharing these recordings–I thoroughly enjoyed them!

I’m so impressed with the audio and signal quality of the Antarctic stations. In 1974, we were approaching a solar minimum in Solar Cycle 20. Still, I bet conditions were better than anything we’ve seen in over a decade!

I’m curious if any Post readers have ever made contact with either of these stations or even know the operators in the recordings? Bill notes that Jim (W2PVF) was president of the local Atlantic City Electric Company for many years. Would be fun to share these recordings with the some of the original operators, if they’re around!

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Review of “A Quiet Place” in The Economist

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kevin Turinsky, who writes:

Just spotted a curious radio stack in an upcoming movie reviewed by The Economist:

Take a look:

“A Quiet Place” is high-concept horror at its best

John Krasinski transforms a B-movie conceit into a smart, nerve-shredding film

IN MOST cinemas, films are preceded by a polite request that patrons switch off their mobile phones. Wherever “A Quiet Place” is shown, that request should be upgraded to a legal requirement and transgressors should be frogmarched from the building. There is so little dialogue in this nerve-shredding post-apocalyptic survival chiller that it almost counts as a silent movie, and yet sound has rarely been more crucial to a story. The ingenious high-concept is that bloodthirsty, presumably alien, monsters have butchered most of humanity, but these near-indestructible crab-creatures are sightless so track their quarry using their super-sensitive ears. Silence, therefore, is more than golden. If somebody drops a cup or sneezes, they might well be punished with a foot-long claw through the belly, so any viewer who breaks the spell by letting their phone ring deserves a similar, if not so extreme, punishment.[…]

Click here to read the full review at The Economist online.

Thanks for the tip, Kevin! That screen shot at the top of the post contains so many radio sets–including a lovely Zenith Transoceanic!

William first reported this film a couple weeks ago here on the Post. I watched the trailer and it does seem to be rather suspenseful. Perhaps a new take on the zombie genre. I imagine there are no small number of radios to be spotted in A Quiet Place…

Thanks again, Kevin!

Have any readers watched the film yet? Please comment!

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