Author Archives: Thomas

Radio Waves: New Yaesu FT-710 AESS, Ukraine’s Army FM, Foil 28 MHz antenna, and ATS-25 4.1 Firmware Review,

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Eric Jon Magnuson for summarizing these news items for Radio Waves!

Yaesu Introduces the FT-710 AESS 100 SDR Transceiver (QRPer.com)

Yaesu is introducing a new 100 watt SDR transceiver to their product line: the Yaesu FT-170.

The Yaesu FT-710 will cover 160-6 meters with 100 watts output. There are two other Japanese market versions: the FT-710M and FT-710S which are 50 and 10 watt respectively.

This general coverage rig will feature “AESS”–Yaesu’s ‘Acoustic Enhanced Speaker System’ which “creates the high-fidelity audio output.” Yaesu notes that the FT-710 utilizes, “the advanced digital RF technology introduced in the FTDX101 and FTDX10 series.”

Click here to check out the published features and specifications of the new FT-710.

Ukraine’s ‘Army FM’ Radio Adapts To Full-Scale War (CoffeeOrDie)

KYIV, Ukraine — During the early morning hours of Feb. 24, as Russian missiles struck targets across Ukraine in the opening hours of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian military’s Army FM radio station went underground.

The team of seven army officers and about 10 civilian personnel abandoned their studio on the top floor of a downtown Kyiv building and relocated into a nearby basement. Inside the dank and dark underground space, they connected a mixing board and a couple of laptops to a mobile radio system, which the station’s reporters had previously used to report from the Donbas trenches.

“I just grabbed my Kalashnikov and went to work,” said Oleksandr Yurchenko, 32, a Ukrainian army second lieutenant assigned to Army FM.

While a Russian invasion force advanced to the outskirts of Kyiv in the war’s perilous first few days, the Army FM team stayed at their posts and worked in six-hour shifts to keep their programs running 24/7. They constructed makeshift beds from shipping pallets and stocked the basement studio with food and water. Body armor vests and Kalashnikovs occupied all available shelves and empty corners.

From this jury-rigged basement studio, Army FM continued to transmit information and entertainment programs to listeners across Ukraine — including into territories Russian forces invaded and occupied. [Continue reading…]

Hackaday: Homemade 28 MHz antenna made from foil (Hackaday via the Southgate ARC)

On Hackaday Chris Lott WD4OLP writes about DL1DN’s aluminum foil 20cm antenna for 28 MHz (10m) operation

David DL1DN, is an Amateur Radio enthusiast with a penchant for low-power (QRP) portable operations. Recently he was out and about, and found that 10 m propagation was wide open. Not discouraged by having forgotten his antenna, he kludges up a makeshift one using a 20 cm length of aluminum foil.

Read the Hackaday story and watch the video at
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/02/aluminum-foil-20-cm-antenna-for-10-m-operation/

Dave reviews the ATS-25 with Binns 4.1 firmware

Dave Zantow writes:

ATS-25 with Binns 4.1 firmware Review Now Posted. […] There were 7 different versions in the beta stage. New audio file added as well (Sync when it does not work so well, which is NOT all the time). Might be one more update before release (not sure right now).

Click here to check it out.

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FCC Enforcement circa 1941

1 Reply

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Goren, who shares this clipping from the New York Times archive:

My how times have changed!

Jerome would like to know more about the Starwaves Truckbox DRM converter

8 Replies

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

Hello Thomas,

Back in January 2019 you featured in SWLing an item about a portable DRM/DAB receiver produced by Starwaves GmbH.

It seems the same company had also produced a DRM/DAB to FM convertor for use in trucks and cars, as this Youtube Link shows:

Click here to view on YouTube.

It shows the unit tuned to 6095khz and later to 13810khz, with music being played, I assume via the converter and transmitted on a free FM frequency the car radio is tuned to.

The video also shows a couple of shots of the converter and remote control, and a second bit of hardware that I’m unsure of its function. This was all back in 2007, I gather. The comments from those that have seen the video are not I suspect from people familiar with SW listening, and the suspicion that a car whip antenna is entirely unsuited to SW reception should be questioned, as I had personal experience of this while in Saudi Arabia in 1990, where SW car radios were not uncommon, and strong signals provided perfectly acceptable audio quality. Sure, 1 metre long whip won’t be much good for SW DX, but who’s going to be doing that while driving a car?
Anyway, I’m curious to know if anyone has ever purchased a Starwaves Truckbox? I gather it is currently not available.

73s
Jerome van der Linden

Thanks for sharing this, Jerome. I, too, am curious if the Starwaves Truckbox made it beyond the prototype stage to be mass produced. Please comment if you have more info!

John recommends “A Call to Spy”

BBC Radio 4: “Scotland’s Lord Haw Haw”

Scotland’s Lord Haw Haw

Radio played a key role in the propaganda campaigns of Nazi Germany. The most notorious personality in this radio war was William Joyce, or ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ – who came to be known as the English voice of Nazi Germany. But he wasn’t alone in this effort.

Professor Jo Fox of Durham University discovers the lost transcripts of Radio Caledonia, a ‘secret station’ designed to disseminate defeatist propaganda to the people of Scotland and sow seeds of dissent among its listeners. Set up by the German Propaganda Ministry in 1940, the presenter was Scottish national Donald Grant.

Jo Fox examines the Nazis’ attempts to appeal to Scottish nationalist feeling through these broadcasts and asks why, unlike Joyce, Donald Grant was spared execution.

Producer: Sarah Shebbeare.

Click here to listen on BBC Sounds.

Eton Elite Satellit Pricing and Context

33 Replies

As the Eton Elite Satellit comes closer to fruition, I’ve gotten a lot of questions and comments from readers about the price retailers are publishing. Here they are so far (all in USD):

Even the lowest price ($599.99 via Universal) is no trivial amount for most of us.

That said, the pricing doesn’t surprise me.

Back in 2005 when this radio’s predecessor, the Eton E1/XM, finally hit the market, it was sold for $499.95. Here’s a screenshot from Universal’s site in 2005 courtesy of the Wayback Machine:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statists, $499.95 in June 2005 has the same buying power as $751.33 in May 2022. If we add to that the recent elevated prices for many radio/electronic goods due to increased component cost and availability of chips, frankly I’m a little surprised Eton’s even able to release a new product this of all years. These aren’t easy days for electronics manufacturers. Then again, Eton has been producing radios for decades and obviously knows the manufacturing landscape quite well.

When I first learned about the new Elite Satellit, you could have painted me seven shades of surprised. With the advent of inexpensive high-performance SDRs, affordable DSP portables, and knowing full well the shortwave portable radio market is on the decline (in terms of customer numbers), I would have never guessed a new enthusiast-grade portable would be introduced.

My hope is that the Elite Satellit will deliver the performance we all want. I firmly believe that high-performance, quality gear enriches the hobby as a whole.

In terms of Elite Satellit specs and features, there’s a lot of confusion out there right now [great article, Guy!], but I’m sure this will be cleared up in coming weeks.

Many have also commented about Universal Radio especially since they officially closed their brick and mortar store near Columbus, Ohio in November 2020. Fred Osterman mentioned to customers at the time that Universal would still be selling books, parts, and some accessories online, but they would no longer carry inventory like ham radio transceivers.

Universal will be an authorized distributor of the Eton Satellit Elite and I wouldn’t hesitate purchasing from them. I suspect Fred and Barbara made an exception for Eton because they’ve been such a long-term distributor (dating back to the 1980s). I also think Universal will continue being a limited online retailer at least into 2023 or even beyond. Eton will fully back a warranty from products purchased at Universal regardless.

Adi spots an Eddystone among other radios in the Netflix series Spycraft

1 Reply

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

Hi Thomas,

I just finished watching “Spycraft” on Netfilx. It’s 8X30min parts documentary.

The last part is “Recruiting the best spy“.

I first spotted this lovely 880 Eddystone receiver but coming into the ~20 min was the story of the ICF-2010 and how an American spy for Cuba used it to receive the “numbered” code massages.

Later on there is nice illustration how the code was used.