Monthly Archives: December 2021

Experimental Station WI2XLQ will recreate 1906 Fessenden transmissions again this Holiday season

Canadian Reginald Aubrey Fessenden in his lab believed circa 1906 (Source: Radio Canada International)

Experimental Station will Recreate 1906 Fessenden Transmissions

Experimental station WI2XLQ will be on the air on 486 kHz AM for the Reginald Fessenden commemorative transmission. Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, is the licensee. He will transmit for 24 hours starting at 2000 UTC on December 24, with a repeat transmission starting at 2000 UTC on December 31. Justin will use a homebrew 1921-era MOPA exciter with Heising modulation, followed by a modern 500-W linear. The transmission will be the same as in past years — two violin pieces that Fessenden claims to have played as one of the very first voice transmissions from his Brant Rock, Massachusetts, radio lab site. “While doubt remains that such a transmission ever took place, Fessenden did perform some crude voice transmissions over a few miles distance in early December near Washington, DC, as a demonstration for the US Navy,” Justin said. “So, perhaps some credit is due Fessenden for his efforts to transmit the human voice in an era of spark transmissions.”

If you would like more information about Brian Justin and WI2XLQ, check out our interview with him in 2013. Indeed, I successfully heard the 2013 WG2XFG broadcast and posted this audio clip on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

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Boxing Day: Monitor the Sydney to Hobart Race via Shortwave

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jack Dully, who shares the following information via Tecsun Radios Australia:

Follow The Sydney to Hobart Race Via Your Radio!

For the last 76 years, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race has been run on Boxing Day December 26. Sadly last year due to COVID, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia announced that the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race would not be proceeding in 2020.

The great news is it will be recommencing in 2021

The race covers 628 nautical miles from Sydney to Hobart. Installation of an operational HF transceiver is mandatory for all vessels entered in the race.

HF and shortwave radio enthusiasts can listen in to position and weather reports during the race by monitoring the following frequencies:

- Primary HF frequency: 4483 kHz USB
- Secondary frequency: 6516 kHz USB

6516 kHz USB is constantly monitored by relay vessel “JBW” owned and donated for use during the race by Mr John Winning, owner of Appliances Online. JBW is a 70 foot motor cruiser.

Weather forecasts:
4426 kHz, 8176 kHz, 12365 kHz and 16546 kHz, USB at 1030, 1430 and 1830 AEST daily,
2201 kHz, 6507 kHz, 8176 kHz and 12365 kHz USB at 0230, 0630 and 2230 AEST daily.

Tasmanian weather forecasts on the above frequencies at: 1130 and 1530 AEST
Tasmanian maritime radio:

2524 kHz, 4146 kHz, and 6627 khz USB at 0745, 1345, 1633 and 1903 AEST

Position reports:
4483 kHz USB at 1935, 2035 and 0635AEST daily

Many thanks to Tecsun Radios Australia for providing all of this monitoring information. It’s always a blast for me to listening to live event communications!

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New Reuter Elektronik RDR52 QRP general coverage transceiver

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow, who notes that Reuter Elektronik recently introduced their latest radio: the RDR52 QRP Transceiver.

Here’s the announcement from the Reuter Elektronik website:

RDR52 in standard “black” and special “metal”

The RDR52 can basically be seen as a desktop version of the popular Reuter Pocket mobile device. Astonishingly, the Pocket is often used as a full-fledged desktop receiver. Many operators report that they have sold their “large” devices and now only use the Pocket because it pairs good reception properties with simple operation and offers a very effective spectrum display while keeping the power consumption to a minimum.

However, the battery-powered Pocket was never designed for that purpose. First, it needs a stand-up aid to be easy to operate on your desktop (display almost vertical). Second, the playback volume of the loudspeakers is low and turning the scroll wheel feels finicky. Third, operation on a constant charging current supply is suboptimal for the built-in batteries: Constant full charging shortens their service life.

The RDR52 avoids these disadvantages. It essentially contains the circuit and thus the display and reception properties as well as the operating options of the Pocket. Due to the larger housing (heat dissipation) and a slightly higher possible current consumption (no batteries as power supply), improvements in the IM behavior (more powerful preamplifiers and AD converters) could be achieved. Other differences to the Pocket include:

- Aluminum profile housing 190 x 90 x 100 mm³ with 5 mm thick front and 2 mm thick rear panel, powder-coated / anodized.
- BNC sockets for antenna connection, separate for 0 – 71 MHz, FM / 2m / DAB and exciter / QRP transmitter.
- Large rotary knob with solid optical rotary encoder.
- Additional rotary knob for volume adjustment of headphones and loudspeakers.
- Two 32 mm loudspeakers with good bass reproduction.
- External power supply DC voltage 9 – 15 V (common hollow pin socket with 2.5 mm pin).

All the Pocket’s enhancements are also available for the RDR52 (broadband spectrum with up to 52.6 MHz display width, 8 different FM filters for extreme DX to high-end stereo, up to 16 GBit flash memory for audio or I/Q recordings, screen dump of the display to the recorder, WiFi, Bluetooth, power supply and control of the RLA4 / RFA1 directly from the antenna input, …). Two basic hardware versions will be available: Standard black with simple loudspeakers and plastic knobs, or a special version with metal knobs and aluminum loudspeaker membranes.

The equipment of different transmitter modules and frequency ranges has been a bit expanded in contrast to the Pocket. Two modules can be installed in the RDR52 at the same time (Pocket: only 1 module). This means, for example, that the FM module and the SW QRP transmitter can be installed at the same time, or the broadband exciter can be installed without the need for an FM module. However, equipping both transmitter modules (exciter and QRP transmitter at the same time) is not possible.

The RDR52 is in production and is expected to be available from the end of December 2021. Prices according to the current price list.

Based on the price list, it appears the RDR52 will start at € 999 with a number of optional upgrades/configurations.

Click here for more information.

Thank you for the tip, Dave!

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KMTS end of year transmission on December 27, 2021 via WRMI

Alan Roe’s Updated 2021 Guide to Holiday Programming on Shortwave!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares the latest and likely final version of his 2021 Guide to Holiday Programming on Shortwave. Alan notes:

Here is a further updated edition (version 4) of the compilation of Holiday Programmes covering Saturday 18 December 2021 to 2 January 2022.

[…]The programmes listed are not necessarily seasonal.

Regular weekly music programming, where no special advance programme information has been provided, are not included in this list, but please refer to my Music on Shortwave list already uploaded to the files section.
I hope that you find it useful.

Additions and corrections are most welcome to [email protected]

Best wishes for Christmas and a Happy New Year
Alan Roe, Teddington, UK

Click here to download this guide as a PDF (updated December 23, 2021).

Thank you so much for sharing this, Alan! So many great choices over the holidays!

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Carlos’ Shortwave Art and Recording of Raadiyoonii Dirree Shaggar

The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Pavel’s Amazing Upcycled Hombrew Radios!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pavel Kraus, who shares the following guest post:

Inspiration for gifts

by Pavel Kraus

This article should be just an inspiration for how to make a gift for our wives and neighbors so that they are not upset that we are still sitting at the radio, but rather they also have something to do with it.

When I see a nice box, I get the thought of building a radio in it.

Iomega ZIP Drive Radio

For the production of the first two radios, I used boxes from Iomega ZIP floppy disk drives, which were previously widely used in DTP studios before the advent of USB flash drives and can certainly be found as discarded in warehouses.

Used electronic components can be purchased on eBay, Amazon, Aliexpress – they are radio modules, batteries, charging module, other components can be found in our amateur stocks.

After removing the inside of the Iomega ZIP drive, there is room for the module to be built in and the transparent window prompts you to place the module with the display.

I desoldered the encoders from the motherboard and placed them on the side of the radio. The fingerboard of the button from the drive can also be used as a power switch.

At the same time, the original LEDs can be used as an indication of charging the built-in battery.

In the second type of radio using the same box, a button control module is used, where the buttons have been desoldered and connected to a separate board inside the radio.

Russian Enclosure Radio

The third type of radio uses a box from Russian radio by wire, where an AM / FM radio module with a clock was built in.

Commodor C 64 Power Supply Radio

The last type uses half of the box from the Commodor C 64 power supply. It has a built-in radio module with IO SI 4732 (radio from the Commodore C64 power supply box with SI4732 radio module .jpg).