Author Archives: Thomas

Inaugural DX Central MW Daytime Challenge starts today!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Loyd Van Horn at DX Central who shares the following announcement:


The Inaugural DX Central MW Daytime Challenge

What a great season of DX Central Live! and the MW Frequency Challenge it has already been and we are just getting started! This season, you helped us cross 1,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, have brought in a record number of MW Frequency Challenge submissions thus far, and have helped to generate a lot of energy around this DX season! We couldn’t do it without your support, so thank you!

First, a little housekeeping. We will be taking some time off to spend the holidays with family and of course – some DX! As such, there will be no DX Central Live! on Friday, December 23 or 30th. We will return on Friday, January 6, 2023.

Also during this time, we will be taking a brief pause on our weekly MW Frequency Challenge as well. I will be announcing the results from week 12 (576-600) when we return on Jan 6, as well as the next frequency range at that time.

Don’t worry, we have a challenge for our little break that should provide all of the fun and difficulty to push DXers to scratch new ones in their logbooks: The Inaugural DX Central MW Daytime Challenge.

The premise: Log as many stations as you can during daytime conditions. That’s it!

Nothing but daytime DX (period from 2 hours after local sunrise to 2 hours prior to local sunset) starting at 0200 UTC Saturday, December 17 and ending at 0200 UTC Monday, January 2, 2023. This challenge is open to all DXers around the world!

A few rules:
– Loggings must be during your local daytime period (2 hours after local sunrise to 2 hours prior to local sunset)
– Loggings must be from between 0200 UTC Saturday, December 17th and 0200 UTC Monday, January 6.
– Any stations are allowed for this challenge: local stations, TIS/HAR, part 15 transmitters not to mention anything distant you might be able to pull in!
– Stations do not need to be “new to you”, relogs are allowed
– Stations need to be on any mediumwave frequency between 530-1710 kHz.
– Loggings should be from a location within 50 miles of your home location. This includes use of online SDRs, portable operations, etc.
– If you are traveling for the holidays and will be away from home but have access to either your station remotely or another online SDR from your home location, those submissions will be allowed.
– Only submissions made using the Google Form sheet (link below) will be considered for the challenge. Social media posts, emails, etc will not count.

Categories for this challenge will include US and international versions of:
– Most stations logged
– Most US States/Canadian Prov logged
– Most countries logged
– Furthest reception
– Most frequencies with at least one logged station

Google Form for entries: https://forms.gle/TVgCPrHMpfDAzbzb6

I hope this challenge will be a fun one for all!

To all of our fellow DXers, supporters, family, friends….Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and may your logbooks be filled with DX and your hearts filled with joy and love!

73,

Loyd Van Horn
W4LVH – Mandeville, LA

Alan Roe’s 2022 Holiday Programmes on Shortwave (Version 2)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares Version 2 of his annual Holiday Programmes on Shortwave schedule. This guide is chock-full of numerous shortwave holiday programs Alan has curated for us all to enjoy on the air!

Click here to download Holiday Programmes on Shortwave V2 (PDF).

Thank you so much for sharing, Alan!

Adi’s universal solution to various charging plugs

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adi, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

In one of the comments to your CC Skywave SSB 2 report I read, “Micro-USB is the worst connector ever” so I thought I might send you this solution, a magnetic cable

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000478737800.html

I’m using this on all my phones, tablets and radios.

One fits all and it works great.

Best regards, Adi

What a great tip. I suppose another benefit is the mag lock will break easily if someone trips on the charging cord. Might save a radio, tablet, or phone from a fall! 

AWA Video Presentation: Patrolling the Ether in WW2 – Radio Intelligence for the War Effort

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark (AE2EA), who writes:

One of our AWA Members recently made this video on the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service (FBMS) and the Radio Intelligence Division (RID) during World War 2. I think it might be of interest to your SWLing enthusiasts:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Brilliant presentation! Thank you for sharing this, Mark!

Video: Giuseppe’s “Cassette Loop” on the shortwaves with induction

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who writes:

Dear Thomas and Friends of the SWLing Post,

I’m Giuseppe Morlè from central Italy, Formia on the Tyrrhenian Sea…

My Cassette Loop experiment this time shows how induction takes place on short waves after medium waves.

I used a smaller box as the primary antenna which, however, is pushed by the secondary one due to the induction effect generated between the two windings brought closer together.

This way, the larger loop “captures” more of the signal and sends it to the smaller cassette…

I really like working on induction… I hope you like it:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thanks and greetings from central Italy.
73. Giuseppe Morlè iz0gzw.

Thank you so much for sharing this, Giuseppe!

DXERS Diary via KTWR DRM

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Arun Kumar Narasimhan, who shares the following announcement:

My Name is Arun Kumar Narasimhan from Chennai in India in India and I have been producing and presenting “DXERS DIARY”, a 5-minute weekly DX programme in KTWR’s DRM broadcast in 15205 kHz from 15.00 hrs UTC every Sunday from January 3, 2021.

DXERS Diary DX Programme is also being broadcast every Wednesday in 11965 kHz from 11.01 hrs UTC to 11.07 hrs UTC as part of KTWR’s South East Asia block. You can also listen in 9965 kHz from 14.30 hrs UTC every Wednesday. Those who can’t tune in to DRM can now listen to the program in Shortwave.

This programme is designed to make it easy for listeners to contribute to the advancement of the DX hobby. In this programme, we broadcast listeners’ logs, band scans, sent to us from listeners across the world, information about sunspot number, SFI forecast and A-index , news and frequency changes by various radio stations around the world.

Listeners can send their band scans, shortwave radio logs, reception reports, views and opinion about the programme to “dxersdiary@gmail.com”.

Ivan checks out the new TEF6686 chip radio

Product photo from AliExpress

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov (NO2CW) who writes:

Hey I just got a radio from China based on the famed tef6686 tuning chip. Just started checking out the basic functions and will let you know how it fares on the bands.

Video description: This project started by enthusiasts has created many DIY and consumer grade projects. This is one of several receivers that take advantage of the great NXP TEF6686 radio chip. AM (Medium Wave), FM, SW (Shortwave) and Longwave receiver with some unusual features not commonly found on other radios. The DX tests will come after this introduction

Click here to check out Ivan’s video on YouTube.

Thank you for sharing this, Ivan! We look forward to your updates!