Monthly Archives: August 2021

FTIOM & UBMP, September 5-11


From the Isle of Music, September 5-11:

This week we our guest is Ilmar Gavilán, whose album Hermanos/Brothers with Aldo López Gavilán won the Instrumental category of Cubadisco this year. Lovers of modern concert music will especially enjoy this episode.
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)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 kHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US).
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/fromtheisleofmusic/
Our V-Kontakte page is https://vk.com/fromtheisleofmusic
Our Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/tilford

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, September 5-11:
In episode 233, we recognize Labor Day in the United States with an hour of songs, some of them satirical, about work and the lack of it.
The transmissions take place:
1.Sunday 2200-2300 (6:00PM -7:00PM EDT) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 kHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesday 2000-2100 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe.
3. Saturday 0800-0900 UTC on Channel 292, 9670 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe with a directional booster aimed eastward.
Our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/UncleBillsMeltingPot/
Our V-Kontakte page is https://vk.com/fromtheisleofmusic
Our Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/tilford

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China Radio International’s German language service via shortwave ends today, August 31, 2021

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gérard Koopal, who writes:

Dear Thomas,

Just received the following message from CRI’s German language service.

They will stop their German language on shortwave from August 31, 2021.

The only way to listen to their German presence will be via the Internet. Sorry that they made this decision since i listened to them on a regular basis. The internet is no substitute for shortwave!

Original announcement in German:

Liebe Radiofreunde,

auch wenn wir am 31. August unser Kurzwellenprogramm in deutscher Sprache einstellen, sind wir als Radio China International (CRI) auf Deutsch natürlich weiterhin für Sie da.

Wie überall in der Welt stehen auch bei uns im Fokus unserer Abeit nun die Neuen Medien. Und genau dort werden Sie uns auch künftig finden. Unter den folgenden Links bieten wir Ihnen auch weiterhin die aktuellsten Informationen aus und rund um China:

http://german.cri.cn/

Facebook: CRI German

APP: China Info

Deutsche Redaktion von CRI

Thank you for sharing this with us, Gérard.

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Kevin’s ATS-25 video series

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Richmond, who shares the following series of videos about the new ATS-25 receiver (mentioned in this previous post) from Kevin O’Reilly’s YouTube channel.

The ATS-25 – A First Look:

ATS-25 First Power Up:

ATS-25 Useful Features:

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Rare AEG Telefunken E1800 receiver fetches over $5,000 US

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:

A rare AEG 1800 receiver fetched over $5,000 in an auction on the Japan Buyee site, complete with its original metal cabinet.

As collectors/users of premium receivers know, the 1800 was once described as the best HF radio ever made. And this particular unit contained most of the rare main modules that themselves often sell for high prices in Europe.

There were 54 bids for this AEG 1800, demonstrating that rare premium sets such as this, and especially Japan Radio Company (JRC) receivers, still attract major interest from collectors.

Click here to view the completed listing on Buyee.

Most impressive, Dan. It truly amazes me to see the prices rare commercial-grade receivers fetch these days. I’ll be the first to admit that an AEG E1800 would look great in my shack!

Thank you for sharing, Dan.

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Wire antennas vs. mag loop antennas

In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a lot of questions from readers who are trying to decide if they should install a magnetic loop antenna or a simple wire antenna at their home. Obviously, most of the questions come from shortwave radio listeners, but some have come from ham radio operators as well.

I realize that there’s a common theme to my answers and I thought it might be useful to share it here on the SWLing Post for future reference. I started to write a slightly more comprehensive article about this, but I quickly realized I want to keep my advice as short and clear as possible. I’ll be painting in broad brush strokes, but here you go:

If you live in an environment with a lot of radio interference…

Magnetic loop antennas are your friend.

By design, mag loop antennas are some of the best antennas for mitigating the radio frequency interference (RFI) that plagues so many of our homes and neighborhoods. When oriented vertically, mag loop antennas can also be rotated to null out unwanted signals on lower frequencies.

Mag loops come in a wide variety of configurations:

  • The most popular among SWLs are wideband amplified loop antennas manufactured by companies like Wellbrook, Chameleon Antenna, MFJ, DX Engineering, Cross Country Wireless, Bonito, and a number of manufacturers in China. Unlike passive loop antennas, wideband amplified antennas require no manual tuning. These loops do require a power source, typically fed through a Bias-T or batteries.
  • Passive loop antennas are popular among ham radio operators because they’re easy to build and, unlike amplified loop antennas, one can transmit into them if designed correctly. They’re less popular among radio listeners only because they typically have a very narrow bandwidth and need to be re-tuned (via a variable capacitor) each time you move frequency even a few kilohertz. The NCPL (Noise-Cancelling Passive Loop) which is also known as the Moebius or YouLoop is a bit of an exception and doesn’t require tuning, but does require a receiver with a very high dynamic range.

Loop antennas can also be very stealthy. In fact, Loop on Ground (LoG) antennas are essentially invisible and could be deployed (under the cover of darkness, of course!) in the most restrictive of neighborhoods. Note that since LoGs are horizontal, they are essentially omni-directional. [13dka corrects this in the comments: “This is somewhat ambiguous and not entirely correct: LoGs are horizontally oriented but (somewhat surprisingly) vertically polarized, and even more surprisingly they have the trademark property of verticals”]

We’ve also featured other stealthy loop designs like this porch loop.

As with any antenna, mag loops prefer to be outdoors but can be effectively used indoors if that’s the only option.

If you live in an environment free of radio interference…

Outdoor wire antennas are very hard to beat.

I am a case in point, in fact: I live in a rural, remote location without any meaningful RFI. All of my external antennas are homebrew wire antennas and they serve me incredibly well.

If you’ve been a reader for long, you may note that I don’t personally review amplified magnetic loop antennas often–these are typically published by some of our amazing contributors. This is because I like to do “apples to apples” comparisons and usually don’t have a second compact magnetic loop antenna for comparison here at SWLing Post HQ.

Almost without exception, my cheap homebrew wire antennas outperform wideband amplified mag loop antennas…sometimes, by orders of magnitude.

Many years ago, I tested a Pixel Loop amplified mag loop antenna (now under a different name and sold by DX Engineering) specifically for use on the mediumwave band to null unwanted stations. It was a very capable amplified mag loop antenna, but other than its MW nulling abilities, all of my homebrew wire antennas outperformed it on the HF bands. Reception was, at times, dramatically better on my wire antennas.

Of course, for a wire antenna to perform properly, it needs to be deployed properly. There are excellent resources out there that describe ideal heights and configurations for any given wire antenna design.

Keep in mind that wire antennas can be incredibly stealthy as well. It’s very difficult to see a wire antenna among or in front of a patch of trees, for example. At a previous home, I deployed a horizontal delta loop antenna on my property that–if you knew where to look–was easy to spot from the road. In all of the years we lived there not one neighbor took note, though, because the antenna wire had sky blue jacketing and I deployed it while no one was looking.

Summary

Experiment!

This isn’t an either/or choice for most of us. There’s no harm in building a simple wire antenna and trying it at home first. If the local noise floor is high, then consider adding a magnetic loop antenna to your arsenal as well.

You might find that the wire antenna has an advantage on frequencies where you have less radio interference, and the mag loop serves you well in those portions of the band with thicker RFI and QRM.

Find the best antenna system that works for you at home, but always remember that hitting the field with your radio has advantages as well!

What did I miss?

I omitted numerous antenna designs that aren’t straight-forward loop or simple wires. Check out some designs by our contributors Grayhat, , TomL, and many others here on the SWLing Post. As always, please feel free to comment!

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Mike compares four active mag loop antennas

Many thanks to Jon Hudson who shared the following on the SDRplay Facebook page:

In this new video, Mike Harwood compares 4 different active mag loop antenna at various frequencies up to 52MHz using two SDRplay RSPduos which allowed simultaneous spectrum snapshots of the 4 loops in action with real signals.

These are loops from Bonito, Cross Country Wireless, LZ1AQ and Wellbrook.

This is the second of Mike’s antenna comparison videos. He welcomes comments which will help shape the content for future antenna experiments:

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Malahit DSP-2: Dan’s thoughts on external antennas, firmware, and purchase decisions

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, for the following guest post:


Additional Thoughts on the Malahit DSP-2 

  • Potential for Noise Reduction Using Non-Whip Antennas
  • Latest Firmware Changes

by Dan Robinson

After my last update on the Russia-made Malahit DSP-2, I thought it important to add something about the receiver, as it could well influence those who may be on the fence about purchasing one.

In a series of communications, Georgiy at Malahit team has stressed steps taken to attempt to deal with internal interference seen across the bands.  And he has asserted

that noise spikes lessen if the receiver is connected to a non-whip antenna.

Most of my tests have used whip antennas of various lengths, in various locations indoors and outdoors, because it’s my view that portability is a major attraction of these small SDR receivers.

Continue reading

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