Monthly Archives: November 2023

RRI’s Annual “Personality of the Year”

Personality of the Year 2023 on RRI

Time for RRI’s annual survey of its listeners and Internet and social media users to find out the 2023 Personality of the Year.

RRI is again holding its annual survey of its listeners and Internet and social media users to find out the 2023 Personality of the Year.

And this has been no easy year, with Russia’s war in Ukraine continuing, energy prices rocketing, many parts of the world suffering food shortages, and not least, with global warming causing what was probably the hottest year on record. On top of all this came the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

In this difficult year, which international public figure, in your opinion, has had the strongest positive impact on the world? And why? RRI will designate its Personality of the Year based on your nominations, which you can submit, together with a short justification, by posting directly on our website in a comment to this article, at www.rri.ro, by email at [email protected], on our Facebook page, on Instagram, WhatsApp, at 0040.744.312.650 (text or audio) or by fax at 0040.21.319.05.62.

We will announce the RRI Personality of the Year on-air and online on Monday, 1st January 2024.

We are looking forward to receiving your nominations, so please, get in touch!

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Mark spots a vintage radio in ‘Taxi Driver’

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who writes:

Thomas,

I’ve been deep down the k-drama rabbit hole for months now and I’m trying to familiarise myself with the Korean language at the same time.

I’ve just started a new series called ‘Taxi Driver’ and this radio cassette player popped up in the first episode. It shouts ‘shortwave receiver’ to me, but what I think is the manufacturer logo is blacked out in the top left corner.

I’m wondering if anyone recognises the model; it has a late seventies Panasonic or Sony vibe to me.

Mark

Readers: please comment if you can identify this radio for Mark!

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Libraries are ACE

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Hi all SWLing Post Community, FastRadioBurst 23 here. Firstly thanks to all our listeners over the past few months for your interest in our shows. It’s great to hear that you’re liking our programmes and ta for your suggestions for forthcoming episodes.

This week on the shortwave dial we have Radio Ace (3) featuring more of the Adventures of Flash Frisbone ACE DJ. This show is beamed to Europe via Shortwave Gold on Sunday 19th November 2023 at 1000/1400 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and 2100 UTC on 3975 kHz.

Then on Monday 20th November via the transmitters of WRMI we have the return of The Shortwave Music Library at 0300 UTC on 9395 kHz and then at 0400 UTC on 9455 kHz. DJ Frederick looks through his record collection and pulls out some eclectic tunes. Tune in!

For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here.

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“Uncle” Jock’s Pro Tip for using the scan function

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The postman delivers a new radio for test.

So I unbox it, punch the ON button, start SCAN on AM MW band.

Scan works (yea!) but passes by really strong local stations. Sacred poop, I think, this thing is deaf as the proverbial post.

Is there some sort of space weather thing going on? I grab my Skywave and Tecsun . . . scan with both, and they both find those fat stations out there, as well as a bunch of others.

Does this other manufacturer not know how to build a radio?

Then I tune the radio manually to the fat stations . . . it hears them just fine.

Huh.

Then a thought creeps into my fevered brain . . . could it be that this new radio is scanning at 9 kHz intervals?

I do the procedure for setting the AM MW intervals to 10 khz, punch SCAN, and Ta-Dah! the new radio is not deaf as a post; it is hearing lots of stuff just fine.

Operator error.

Soooo, if you’re testing a new radio or maybe one of your old radios suddenly decides it can’t hear much on scanning medium wave frequencies, you might want to make sure that it is set for the 9 or 10 kHz interval that is appropriate for your area.

Just sayin’,

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1971 “Hippy” Shortwave Listening

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares this story on the SolderSmoke Podcast and notes, “With more to follow…”

From the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971) — Short Waves — Part 1

Having recently returned from San Francisco, it seemed somehow appropriate for me to take a look into the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971). I picked a copy of this book up some time ago. There is some radio stuff in it, a lot of it on shortwave listening. [To the right] is one article. I’ll post more in the days ahead.

It was around 1973 that I gave my cousin’s husband Mike an S38-E shortwave receiver. It is a wonder that he survived. He did report electrical shocks.

Click here to read this article and listen to the episode via the SoderSmoke website!

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Balázs spots a radio in 1993 series “seaQuest DSV”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

I started re-watching one of the sci-fi TV series I watched when I was a kid the seaQuest DSV (1993), it’s interesting how many current topics were in it 30 years ago (environment pollution, artificial meat, VR, AI, drones, etc) and the trivia at the end of the episodes by Bob Ballard from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

In the Season 1 Episode 16 a radio appeared also next to the protagonist played by Roy Scheider, see attached.

with best regards,
Balazs

Wow! Thank you, Balazs. I had completely forgotten about this show. Like you, I did watch a number of episodes back in college. What a great shot of his radio!

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On Netflix: “All The Light We Cannot See” and radio references

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Many thanks to a number of readers who have noted that All The Light We Cannot See is now on Netflix. You may recall, we’re quite big fans of the book which has a strong radio theme.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jake Brodsky who notes:

Heads up: Netflix is serializing a story that centers around SW radio
during WWII in occupied France.

Here’s the IMDB reference https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15320362/

And I’ve just seen the first episode. Aside from some inevitable
anachronisms such as a dial that looks a lot like that of a signal
generator and a dial measured in MHz (That designation didn’t come
until the 1960s) It’s a good story and VERY radio centric.

More detail from Netflix can be found at
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-cast

Also, SWLing Post contributor, Les Polt, notes a few of the radio quirks he found in the series:

This series on Netflix, based on a best-selling novel, shows a German officer listening to an illegal Resistance broadcast on his short wave receiver in occupied France during WWII. The receiver dial clearly is marked “MHz”, which was not adopted until 1970. I also heard a character referring to a “transceiver”, a term not in use that far back.

I’d be curious to identify the receiver.

This screenshot also shows a radio direction finder, presumably of German World War II vintage.

Many thanks, Les, for the screenshots and notes! I, too, and curious if anyone can ID that dial–perhaps it’s just a set mark up?

If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend reading the book by Anthony Doerr upon which this series is based. It’s superb, especially if you love WWII history and radio. Check it out on Amazon (affiliate link).

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