Monthly Archives: May 2019

FTIOM & UBMP, May 12-June 1

From the Isle of Music, May 12-June 1 (three weeks):
A. May 12-18: Special guest Marcos Morales presents his new Jazz recording “Ruinas”.
B. May 19-25: Cuban dance party with various groups
C. May 26-June 1: Special guest Carlos Miyares presents his new Jazz Recording “One More Time”
The broadcasts take place:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in most of the Eastern Hemisphere (including parts of East Asia and Oceania) with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Sofia, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK) Station website: www.spaceline.bg
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC (New UTC) on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US).
Station website: www.wbcq.com
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Station website: www.channel292.de

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, May 12-June 1 (three weeks):
A. May 12 & 14: Episode 111 features a belated tribute to Cinco de Mayo
B. May 19 & 21: Episode 112 features Balinese gamelan
C. May 26 & 28: Episode 113 features modern Flamenco Fusion from Spain
with music by Laura de los Angeles and others
The transmissions take place:
1.Sundays 2200-2230 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesdays 2000-2030 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe.

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Frontier Silicon and vTuner aggregation aggravation continues

Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post readers who’ve contacted me regarding the ongoing issues with WiFi radios that rely on the Frontier Silicon/vTuner aggregator partnership. Two days ago, we mentioned this in a post about the service outage that affected Sangean and Como Audio WiFi radio devices.

Turns out, the outage was a sign of deeper troubles that will affect any Internet radio device using the Frontier Silicon aggregator. I know that at least Sangean and Como Audio use the service, but I image there are many more, especially in some automobiles. Indeed, this might also affect devices which use the vTuner service.

At present, I am unable to use my Como Audio Solo or the Sangean WFR-28 WiFi radio. Both require re-saving all of the presets.

Sangean posted a short message on their devices yesterday. Dennis Dura notes:

I have the Sangean WFR-28 and just came home to find a message on every preset saying “due to recent changes to our internet radio service, you will need to save your presents again”.

Not only that, but many of the menus of the radio have changed.

And most bizarre, in the Genre setting, they have eliminated “Jazz” as a category, and have added many I’ve never before or heard off. How does a company eliminate a category that is understood across the world?

Como Audio actually sent an email message regarding the lapse of service yesterday evening.

The Como Audio message described, in some detail, what had actually taken place. Much of Como’s message was based on the following message Frontier Silicon posted on their website:

Why did the service change on 7th May 2019?

On 1st May 2019 we experienced a major outage of the Internet Radio & Podcast service used by our customers’ Internet Radio devices. This was caused by issues with a third-party service provider that were outside our control.  The service provider has also informed us that they are unable to ensure service provision beyond week commencing 6th May.  Any such failure to provide the service would have caused the Internet Radio functionality on all our customers’ devices to stop working unless we had taken this remedial action.

As a result, we have made some changes to the way the service is delivered, and you may notice the following changes:

  • We have deployed a replacement service, and configured all devices to use it.  It may take several hours for your device to see the new service.  Older devices may need to be powered off and back on again to force them to see the new service.
  • We are using a new provider for the Internet Radio and Podcast directory.  You may discover some new stations and podcasts that were not previously available, and you may find some stations and podcasts are missing.  If you notice a station or podcast that you think is missing from the database then please raise a support ticket and we will aim to get it added within 2 business days.
  • You may see some slight changes to the menu structure on your devices due to the change of provider.
  • The previous customer portal is no longer available, and so you can no longer use it to add your own stations.  If you would like a station adding to the database then please raise a support ticket and we will aim to get it added within 2 business days.
  • It is no longer possible to recall Favourites.  Depending on your device, we recommend using the Device Presets or Last Listened functionality to recall your favourite stations instead.
  • Any Device Presets that you have previously saved will no longer work and so you will need to resave them.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of these changes, which we have made in order to provide continuity of service for customers and users.  This is a large and complex migration and whilst we have tested and rehearsed this scenario in advance there may be an initial period of reduced service stability.  We will be monitoring the service closely during this time and will communicate any issues via the status page at https://status.frontiersmart.com/.

If you have any further comments or questions about the service then please browse the Knowledge Base, and submit a support ticket if you cannot find the information you are looking for.

Of course, we all know that the “third party” is the vTuner aggregator. I’m curious who Frontier Silicon will use now as an aggregator, or if they’ll self-host the database.

A number of readers have reported issues saving their front panel presets and other favorites. My guess is that this functionality will return after the new service is fully implemented. I also assume Frontier Silicon could implement any missing music genres (like the Jazz genre Dennis mentioned). At least, I hope so.

One thing we’ve learned is how very little is actually stored locally in these WiFi radios. It seems everything down to the front panel presets rely on the aggregator functioning properly.

If you have one of the affected WiFi radios, please comment about your experience getting it back online and loaded with station presets. Please report any quirks you encounter during the process. I’ve gotten mixed reports about the Como and Sangean mobile phone applications working properly.

I shall now go about re-saving all of the presets in my family’s WiFi radios.

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Intense Solar Bursts on 20 & 25 MHz

 

Credit: Thomas Ashcraft & Spaceweather.com

Yet another Space Weather note and how Space Weather and radio are intersecting yet again – yesterday & today!  Yesterday Thomas Ashcraft – mentioned recently in this postrecorded the outbursts.

From http://spaceweather.com

INTENSE SOLAR RADIO BURSTS: Big sunspot AR2740 is turning toward Earth and emitting loud bursts of shortwave radio static. A remarkable outburst yesterday was rare in both its form and intensity, exceeding even what observers have detected during Solar Maximum …

UPDATE: Rob Stammes of Lofoten, Norway, has detected even more bursts on May 7th. The sun continues to be “radio-active.”

For the complete story, go to spaceweather.com.

Guest post by Troy Riedel

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Radio Deal: All-time low prices on Eton Executive Traveler, Satellite and Field BT

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Christian, who writes:

Hi Thomas. I know both of these deals have been posted already but just to let readers know that both the Eton Exec Traveller and Exec Satellite are still available on Amazon and the prices are both at historic lows.

Right now the Satellite is $91.13 (shipped) and the Traveler $38.00 (shipped). Oddly the older non-Exec version of the Traveler is $56 and the non-Exec version of the Satellite is $189! Don’t accidentally order one of those models. The Eton Field BT is also $79.99 shipped…quite the value.

As others have mentioned here I think Eton may be liquidating their shortwave radio stock. Hope they’ll be replaced with something else.

Thanks for the heads-up, Christian–I appreciate your updates. I’m curious if you or other readers have noticed lower Eton prices on other sites as well. I have not.

Here are links to the models on sale at Amazon. Note that these are Amazon affiliate links–purchasing via these links supports the SWLing Post at no cost to you:

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EQUINOX: A novel that blends sci-fi with ham radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader and author, DM Barrett (N4ECW), who recently shared the following press release which features his latest book:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EQUINOX Blends Science Fiction And Amateur Radio

1 May 2019 (Tampa, Florida)

A new science fiction narrative, EQUINOX, has taken amateur and shortwave radio into the cultural mainstream in its version of a limited alien invasion story line.

“It’s been quite a while since the world depended on amateur and shortwave radio as lifelines. In EQUINOX, both are critical for the success of The Resistance.” – DM Barrett, EQUINOX author

DM Barrett, callsign N4ECW, lives and breathes amateur radio. He is well known in the ham radio community having developed and manufactured several different specialized radio antennas through his former company, Transworld Antennas.  He holds two earned doctorates with majors in law, economics, and religion.

The EQUINOX story line begins on a warm, slightly breezy day on Florida’s east coast as the vernal equinox marked the beginning of spring.  Suddenly, there was a thunderous crash, a blinding light, and a vortex swirling in the blue Atlantic. The invading alien army arrived. The world surrendered. The Resistance made a stand.

When the science fiction novel was recently released as a Kindle Unlimited eBook, it moved steadily into Amazon’s top ten science fiction eBooks in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Australia.  After only a few days, the paperback version of EQUINOX was ranked in Amazon’s top third for science fiction paperbacks.

DM Barrett may be contacted at [email protected] or by text to 931-239-3760.

EQUINOX and other books by DM Barrett can be ordered online through Kindle, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

If you are a radio amateur or shortwave enthusiast, or you are just interested in the topics, don’t miss the chance to join others that are enjoying the science fiction novel, EQUINOX.

I have been sent a paperback preview copy of Equinox and plan to read it in the coming weeks.

Equinox can be purchased from the following retailers:

Also, the author notified me that there are a limited number of paperback copies available on eBay for $14.95. These copies are a First Printing and are autographed by the author. Click here to view on eBay.

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WiFi Radio: Dave experiences “aggregation aggravation”

The Sangean WFR-28 WiFi Radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Dave Mackie, who writes:

I have a Sangean WFR-28 that just stopped working recently and through a bit of internet spelunking I happened across your site and explanation about Frontier Silicon as ‘aggregator’ for Sangean. A phone call to Sangean confirmed that Frontier Silicon was having a problem with the aggregation service.

First off, thanks for the three part series on internet radio; it gave me just enough of a hint that the problem with be something other than the radio despite the fact that other wifi things were working properly.

[After contacting Frontier Silicon, I received] this unhelpful reply:

Unfortunately, we are having some difficulties with the internet radio service provided to us by a third party, which causes products not to be able to tune to any internet radio stations.

We are working on addressing the issue, and should have it up and running, hopefully within the next 12 hours.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

On one hand we’re getting a service that’s ‘free’ in that we don’t send a check directly to Frontier or the 3rd Party

We press a button and the radio just works.

On the other hand, the radio can inexplicably just stop working and we have absolutely no way to fix it.

Again as you mentioned, perhaps ‘closed’ vs. ‘open’ aggregator could (should?) be more well-known and more of a factor when choosing a radio.

I’d like more preset buttons on my Sangean WFR-28, but way more than that, I want it to work!

Many thanks to Dave for sharing this experience with us–I imagine other readers may have caught this lapse in service as well. Fortunately, the problem Dave referred to was fixed within a 24 hour window.

I believe the “third party” Frontier Silicon relies on is vTuner. If I understand correctly, Frontier Silicon actually pulls all of the station linking information from vTuner’s database.

So you can see why aggregation aggravation could occur: there are no less than three companies involved when you “tune” your Sangean WiFi radio.

Sangean makes the radio which has software that links to Frontier Silicon’s portal. You log into Frontier Silicon’s portal to create a user account and manage your station favorites. But in the end, Frontier Silicon uses vTuner as a station database.

If any one of these links fail, the result may be a dead WiFi radio.

On the positive side, I listen to a Como Audio Solo radio most mornings. The Solo relies on the same aggregator chain as Sangean radios and I have never experienced an outage. I might be lucky, but I don’t think outages are all that common.

It would be great if there was a community-powered aggregator–something akin to a Wikipedia of Wifi radio–that would serve as a database for our Internet receivers. I could see a model where radio stations manage their own stream data and coordinates and listeners could even be approved to help manage link integrity. Sadly, I know of no such aggregator at present (readers, please correct me if I’m wrong about this).

Aggregators used by OEMs (like Sangean) are backed by a company (Frontier Silicon, vTuner, TuneIn, iHeartMedia, Reciva, etc.) that have a financial interest in serving up-to-date station information to its customers. In the end, it still takes a human to physically add, delete or alter station information.

Since there’s money involved, it’s in the aggregator’s best interest to take care of problems quickly and efficiently. In truth, I worry less about the time it takes to fix problems or add stations–I worry about the aggregator going out of business. This happened in the early days of WiFi radio when some smaller manufacturers chose to run their own aggregators. If their company closed shop, their products were essentially useless.

Post readers: Have you ever owned a Wifi radio that stopped working due to aggregator failure? Have I missed a point here? Please share your thoughts!

Click here to read our WiFi Radio Primer.


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Gene seeks input on source of HF voice chatter

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gene Paradis, who writes:

I have something to share…It is on every night on 5.620 MHz around 010 UTC some folks talking language unknown..It goes on most of the night..This is an aero frequency but these folks are there every night. Hope to find out more. Maybe fishing vessels or something else–? It is these mysteries that make this hobby fun!

My schedule as of late has not allowed dedicated listening time on this frequency. I would certainly suspect fishing vessel communications, but can’t confirm.

Post readers: can you help Gene identify this over-the-air chatter? Please comment!

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