Author Archives: Thomas

Seeking recordings of VOA broadcaster Billy Brown

I received the following inquiry from Neal Lavon via the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contact form. Check out Neal’s request below and if you have any information or leads that might help him, please comment.

Neal writes:

I am working on a project about a Voice of America broadcaster from 1952-54 named Billy Brown. He was a 16 year-old kid who launched a Pen Pals club by speaking on a Voice of America broadcast to the Near East, particularly Pakistan.

The announcements were so successful they generated hundreds of responses and led to him getting a 15-minute weekly radio program on VOA in English that was later translated into Urdu. The programs were broadcast on Friday nights at 1530 GMT on 17750, 16.90; 15130, 19.30. The relay were TAN 17780 16.87 15230 19.70, and Colombo 15120 19.84. At least, I think those are the frequencies; it comes as close as I can get it.

So far, I have not been able to find any surviving tapes of this broadcast at the National Archives or the Library of Congress. The family does not have any tapes. So I am wondering, hope against hope, if somehow, somewhere, someone in the region or someone else might have a copy of this. I would greatly appreciate it.

Neal Lavon, Takoma Park, Maryland, former VOA Staffer.

This would have been in the very early days of home recording so I imagine it might be difficult to find audio from Billy Brown’s broadcasts. If you have any leads, please comment.

Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of the Voice of Korea (October 13, 2022)

Mario reminds us to log 10 meter CW beacon activity!

9 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who shares the following guest post:

Ten meter beacon band spans 28.100 – 28.300 MHz (photo by author)

Recent 10 Meter CW Beacon Activity

Mario Filippi, N2HUN

The 10m band has been coming alive lately and it’s time for all hams and SWLs to take advantage of it. For several years I’ve been listening to 10m beacons with mediocre results but this has all changed over the past few days with loggings of European beacons running as low as seven watts.

These amateur radio beacons can be found from 28.1 – 28.3 MHz, sending out their callsigns in CW along with other information such as power output, grid square, antenna type and other tidbits of interesting information. Most USA beacons are heard from 28.1 – 28.2 MHz while international ones inhabit 28.2 – 28.3 MHz. Some beacon ops will request QSL card reports the old school way via mail. I’ve written out a few already, bringing back fond memories of my early days as a ham and SWL.

Over the past few days at my central NJ QTH, using an Airspy HF+ Discovery and a ground mounted 31 foot vertical, here are some of the DX beacons logged:

IZ8RVA, 28.239 MHz, 1230 UTC
OH9TEN, 28.265 MHz, 1253 UTC
LA5TEN, 28.237 MHZ, 1300 UTC
OK1AR, 28.249 MHz, 1214 UTC
DA5TEN, 28.237 MHz, 1219 UTC (7 watts, vertical antenna!)
DL0IGI, 28.204 MHz, 1251 GMT (50watts)

Note that most signals were 449 with QSB so a quiet room, a good pair of headphones, many cups of good hot coffee/tea and a heap of patience are needed. Beacons will send a continuous CW tone as a preamble while others will transmit a series of V’s (…-). So, spin that VFO dial up to 10 meters, a band which comes alive as sunspots rise. If you are a QRP’er, this comes as good news since this band is great for those who love to run peanut whistles.

Thanks and have fun!

Audio journalist seeking Radio Free Grenada recordings

2 Replies

I received the following message from Ted Muldoon via the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contact form. If you happen to have any recordings of Radio Free Grenada, please comment so we may add these to the archive and preserve them for all to enjoy:

Hello,

My name is Ted Muldoon. I’m an audio journalist at The Washington Post.

I’m currently working on an audio project examining the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. Among the many lasting impacts on the island from that year, was the loss of the Radio Free Grenada archive, which was bombed and destroyed by the Americans. From what I understand from speaking with people on Grenada, it was huge cultural loss for the island.

Doing a quick search, this post (https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/radio-free-grenada-january-1980) was one of the few results returned with a snippet of archival audio from that time. I’m curious whether there’s any chance that the author, Jim Nall [or other contributors] might have more recordings from Radio Free Grenada?

Best,
Ted Muldoon

I realize how unlikely it is that anyone still has a recording of Radio Free Grenada, but if you do please comment or contact us so that we can digitize, archive, and share this with the wider world.

Campaign to help WRMI after extensive hurricane damage

Sangean ATS-909X2: Uli is seeking information about firmware version 78

17 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Uli (DK5ZU), who writes:

Hi Thomas,

I hope you are fine! I just bought a Sangean ATS-909X2 despite of the mixed reviews it earned in the beginning. There are a lot of reviews as on SWLING and other sources. But I think no newer models have been reviewed.

Mine is build in May 2022 and has a firmware version 078. This is quite ahead of the reviewed versions with 073. Unfortunately, I cannot find any information throughout the net, what changes where made since the version 073.

I just have the radio for one day, but for example the noise when touching the display is gone and I found no birdies so far. The SSB is still low concerning the audio level compared to AM but the SSB sounds much better as on my Tecsun 501x I had once.

As of now, I am really happy with this rig, and if current production line and firmware fixed some issues of the older one’s I guess this should be known since there may be folks interested in the radio which do hesitate to buy one because of the probably outdated reviews.

Do you know a source, where a firmware update log could be found? I just found this:
https://www.qsl.net/n9ewo/ats909x2_firmware_log.pdf

But this one ends with version 073.

Would you mind to post this question on the blog?
If you need more infos please let me know.

Best regards and 73,
Uli
DK5ZU

Post readers: If you can share a link to firmware revision logs or any information regarding the latest firmware updates for the ATS-909X2, please comment!

UPDATE

Sangean America Notes in our comments:

[S]oftware version 0.78 is a compatibility update for the new LCD hardware in the ATS-909×2 this update is only for units that use the new BU91510KV LCD display. it does not improve the performance of the ATS-909×2

2022 Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International

Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International

Sunday, the 6th of November 2022, is Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International

Dear friends, Sunday, the 6th of November 2022, will be Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International, celebrated a week after the Romanian Radio Day marked on the 1st of November.

2022 will go down in history and, equally, in the collective memory, as a very special year, but not like the year when the whole world emerged out of the pandemic, as most of us would have expected.

On the morning of February 24, the old continent was shattered by an armed conflict, after almost 80 years of peace. Large-scale propaganda and disinformation campaigns, meant to create chaos and confusion, have also become part of the confrontation.

The information warfare is not a new kind of reality. However, its effects have become more visible than ever against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, because the war has brought a real explosion of fake news and disinformation with it.

In this year’s edition of Listeners’ Day on RRI we ask you what sources of information about the war in Ukraine are the most reliable for you? How can you identify fake news from real news? How vulnerable you think you are to disinformation? Have you removed from your list the sources of information proven to be spreading fake news and disinform the public? Which is the role that public radio, and an international radio station in particular, plays in your life during this period of time?

We are looking forward to receiving your answers, which will be included in our show on the 6th of November! You can email them to us, at [email protected], post them on Facebook or send them as a comment to this article on RRI’s website at www.rri.ro. If you like, you can also send us pre-recorded answers via WhatsApp, at +40744312650, or you can send us your telephone number so we can call you from the studio and record your opinions. Thank you!