Author Archives: Thomas

A Vintage Radio Sparks Family Connection

Rachael Myrow discovered her father’s Telefunken Opus 7. (Photo: KQED)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia for sharing this touching story from KQED: “How a 1957 Vintage Radio Rekindled a Daughter’s Bond With Her Dad.”

A beautiful piece about memory, connection, and the emotional power of radio.

Read it here: https://www.kqed.org/news/12047317/how-a-1957-vintage-radio-rekindled-a-daughters-bond-with-her-dad

Can You Help Adi Identify Radio Gear from the 1957 Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition?

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Adi, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

I’m reading the book about the 1957-58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It hold many remarks of their radio operations with various antarctic bases and even with hams in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition

So I went to Youtube, I found two contemporary films

one at 17:20, frankly I don’t think it was shot during the expedition, it looks too “un-antarcticy.”

And shorter but better quality is this:

At about 9:07 a “New Zealand’s radio sets” are mentioned

I wonder if any of the devoted readers can tell more about the radios they see in those pictures.

Best regards, Adi

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Radio ZP-30 (June 21, 2025)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent Radio ZP-30 broadcast.


Carlos notes:

Part of news bulletin (in German) of Paraguay’s Radio ZP-30, on Panama’s state of emergency over banana workers protests. Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on a Xhdata D-808 receiver.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Various Stations (July 8, 2025)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent broadcasts outlining natural disasters around the world.


Carlos notes:

Any doubt that climate change is here to stay? Check the news!

News related to the global climate crisis in news bulletins from three broadcasters:
– Radio ZP-30 (Paraguay)
– CGTN Radio (China)
– KBS World Radio (South Korea).
Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on an Xhdata D-808 receiver.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Auroras, HF Predictions, and More: A Look at Australia’s Space Weather Site

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Jerome van der Linden, who writes:

For some time, I have subscribed to a service that alerts me via email when our weather bureau wants to inform people about the likelihood of aurora activity that might lead to the ability to observe the southern hemisphere auroras, such this example:

SUBJ: ASWFC AURORA OUTLOOK

ISSUED AT 0627 UT ON 31 May 2025

FROM THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING CENTRE

A halo CME is expected to impact Earth on 01-Jun at 2100UT +/- 8 hours. This impact is expected to produce auroral activity on 01-02 Jun, with a chance of continued activity on 03-Jun. Warnings and/or alerts will follow if significant geomagnetic activity occurs.

Quite recently, I discovered that the Bureau of Meteorology (“the BOM”) in Australia has, as part of its www.bom.gov.au website, an Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre: https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/. It has a number of interesting headings (with links) that may be of interest to others in the SW hobby, such as “Solar”;”HF Systems”, and “Products and Services”. With the respect to the last, it would appear that a number of organisations subscribe to services provided by the BOM, including Australian airlines. In addition it seems even Stockholm Radio subscribes to some of the services, and an example of hour by hour HF frequency area prediction is shown in these graphs:

There’s far too much for me to review on this website, so I suggest interested SWLers may care to have a look for themselves, as there’s a lot of information there, which is updated regularly.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of Radio ZP-30 (July 5, 2025)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent Radio ZP-30 broadcast.


Carlos notes:

Inundaciones repentinas en Texas, Sturzfluten in Texas, Radio ZP-30, Paraguay, 610 kHz AM

The Texas flash floods were the topic of the morning news bulletin of Paraguayan radio ZP-30, in both Spanish and German. Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on the Xhdata D-808 receiver.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Radio Marti Logs & Recordings: July 4, 2025

A portion of the Edward R Murrow Transmitting Site’s antenna farm.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who shared the following message and recordings yesterday, July 4, 2025. Dan writes:

Hi Thomas

Happy Independence Day!

Just finished listening to Radio Marti as follows:

9565 kHz strong then abruptly off at 2200 UTC (recording below)

 

11860 kHz strong then abruptly off at 2201 UTC

11930 kHz strong then abruptly off at 2201+ UTC

13605 kHz not heard today but strong on July 1st (recording below):

73

Dan Greenall

Thank you for sharing these logs and recordings, Dan! I hope you had a wonderful Canada Day on the 1st of July as well!