Last Saturday night, I caught the shortwave radio pirate, Red Mercury Labs, on 6.9251 MHz in the upper side band.
This broadcast, which started around 1:57 UTC, contains a great mix of rock music with some commentary throughout.
You can download the full recording as an MP3 file by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy:
The CommRadio CR-1
You can now purchase the CommRadio CR1 (we recently mentioned) for $500 plus $12 shipping on CommRadio’s website.
Don Moore (N0HDX), founder of CommRadio, placed the following statement on the CR-1 order page:
As the lead designer of the CR-1, I am pleased to offer this new radio to you. It draws on my experience as a kid building Knight Kits, from my paper route earnings through currently owning a classic Drake 2B and a Zenith Transoceanic; my benchmarks for enjoyable, high quality short wave listening. I added a smooth machined aluminum tuning knob and minimized the number of buttons to provide you (and me), an intuitively obvious and enjoyable radio to operate. This radio is solid as a brick, looks cool and sounds great. The tall feet have a purpose besides good-looks: rest your hand on the tabletop to spin the knob and for the bottom- speaker to bounce the sound to you instead of going straight up into up in space. The military ‘black box’ people who visit us see it sitting on the shelf with the bright OLED display and they all say: “I want one!” Well, here it is. Let the CR-1 draw you into the wonderful hobby I’ve enjoyed throughout my life.
I do love the look of this little radio–its simplicity reminds me of the Palstar line of shortwave radios.
Though not available for the shortwave bands, Google Play reviews are mostly positive for the new software defined radio application that will run on your Android phone or tablet: SDR Touch.
According to the Google Play page, SDR Touch covers 50 MHz to 2.2 GHz and demodulates WFM, AM, NFM, USB, LSB, DSB, CWU and CLW signals. It requires an inexpensive USB rtl-sdr compatible USB DVB-T tuner. Click here to search eBay for RTL-SDR receivers. You then connect to your Android device via a USB OTG cable and SDR Touch should control the receiver.
SDR Touch’s Google Play website has a list of supported receivers–make sure to check the model number from eBay against this list before purchasing. Additionally, you should install their free demo SDR app to make sure your Android device is compatible.
This video shows SDR Touch in action on the FM broadcast band:
SDR touch claims that crashes should be expected as this app is still considered somewhat experimental.
Would be great if SDR Touch could support the HF bands some day.
(Photo: Satdirectory.com)
As I suspected, the unidentified broadcast I recently posted was the Chinese jamming service, Firedrake. Thanks to all who confirmed.
Mark Fahey even commented with a link to an article explaining how he made a studio recording of Firedrake from Chinasat 6B. Read Mark’s article here.
Mark also has the full 60 minute studio copy of Firedrake available as a 90MB MP3 file.
Active Ferrite Rod Antenna (Photo: ON2NLT)
In my recent post, The truth about portable amplified shortwave antennas, I argue that small, portable amplified antennas are, by and large, ineffective. The post comments are interesting, however; many readers agree, and some tout the Sony ANT-LP1 as worthy, but Mike made the following comment about his amplified antenna:
The one active antenna that I have been pleased with is one I built myself. The design was by ON2NLT and uses a ferrite rod, so it is somewhat directional. Rotating the unit (it is very compact) often allows nulling out noise or interference. You have to be careful not to crank up the gain too much though, or you will amplify the noise floor. The link is here
http://www.kolumbus.fi/juha.
niinikoski/Ferrite_antenna/ Ferrite_antenna.htm
Looks like a fairly simple project. Thanks, Mike!
Ravi Shankar passed away December 11, 2012. Like many people, Shankar was a complicated fellow, but no one can deny his talent on the Sitar. His music will live with us forever, not to mention through the musical talents of his children, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.
I recorded this clip of him on All India Radio some weeks ago. Click here to download or enjoy below:
“Mum, this sounds like Firedrake. Quick, make a note of it in the logs!”
I’ve noticed a broadcaster that routinely transmits weekends at 11:00 UTC on 6,970 kHz. Some mornings, it’s much stronger than others. Saturday morning, my time, I managed to record it in its typical format: music. Specifically, Chinese folk music, at least so it sounds to my untrained ear.
I searched through logs and in the WRTH, and I could find no mention of a broadcaster on 6970 kHz. It doesn’t help that the 27 minute broadcast contained no audible IDs.
So, I’ve come to the conclusion that my initial hunch is correct–that this is the Chinese jamming service, Firedrake. Using Firedrake, the Chinese government transmits music on top of broadcasts they wish to block. It’s fairly effective (and annoying). While I’ve heard Firedrake a number of times over the bands, I can’t say I’ve ever tried to listen to the one-hour production.
The following recording contains a 27 minute broadcast of what I believe may be Firedrake on 6,970 kHz, starting around 11:00 UTC, Saturday January 26, 2013. Click here to download the MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Note that the first two minutes have some digital noises (in the lower side band) that affected my receiver’s AGC.
If you can confirm or correct my supposition, please comment!