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When Hurricane Harvey’s intensity became clear, employees at 93Q in Houston reserved hotel rooms across the street from the station. They were going to be very busy.
The on-air talent slept in the Cox-owned radio station for days, said Bill Tatar, digital content manager at Cox Media Group Houston. When they weren’t on-air, they did Facebook Live hits.
93Q is not normally an all-news station. But when emergencies hit, local radio stations can convey vital information: which streets are open, what shelters are taking people in and where communities can rally once the water begins to recede.
“Radio has been all over Harvey doing what radio does; immediately helping with updated information,” said Valerie Geller, a radio consultant. “Most stations dropped the format and went ‘all Harvey,’ taking calls, and across the country, stations are sending help and raising money.”[…]
A new transmitter will be launched in Lithuania this week for broadcasting the Russian and Belarusian-language services of the US Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) aimed at countering Russian propaganda, reports LETA/BNS.
It will replace a 52-year-old transmitter in Sitkunai, close to Kaunas, that has been transmitting programs for listeners in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova at a lower quality.
The medium wave (AM) transmitter was manufactured some five years ago and was used by the US Defense Department in Western Germany to broadcast a radio program for American troops stationed abroad.
The transmitting power of the new device is set at 75 kilowatts, the same as that of the old one, but it can be increased up to 300 kilowatts if needed, Rimantas Pleikys, the owner of Radio Baltic Waves International, said.[…]
Many thanks to Rocus de Joode who shares the following announcement and request for listener reports:
(Este mensaje seguirá en español.)
Dear radio friends,
I received your Email addresses from Jeff White, from WRMI in Florida.
[W]e would like to inform you about a possible new initiative for radio transmissions via mediumwave to Venezuela on 800 kHz.
We will perform test transmissions starting on Wednesday August 30th for seven days long at 1600 hours local time (2000 UTC). As you can understand we would like to receive test reports in order to verify the quality of reception.
The transmissions will be 30 minutes long and we will use two different antenna systems.
Therefore we ask you your kind cooperation to monitor as much as possible and report this back to us via this special Email address: [email protected]
This is our test schedule:
Dates of transmission: 30 August – 06 September 2017 (7 days)
Frequency: 800 kHz
Time of test broadcast: 1600-1630 LT / 2000-2030 UTC
Antenna 1: 1600-1615 LT / 2000-2015 UTC
Antenna 2: 1615-1630 LT / 2015-2030 UTC
Program content: General announcements and Music
We would like to receive your reception reports in the following order:
Dates of listening
Time of listening
Your location or city name
Reception quality in SIO or SINPO for both Antenna 1 and Antenna 2.
If possible also an S-meter reading
Audio quality
Type of radio used
Type of antenna used
We would appreciate if you also could inform other DX colleagues and radio enthusiasts you know.
We are also curious how the signal will perform while driving in a car.
On behalf of the initiators of this project I thank you already in advance for your cooperation!
73 from Rocus de Joode
Estimado amigo de la radioescucha,
Por medio de este mensaje me complace informarle acerca de una posible nueva iniciativa para transmisiones a través de la onda media para Venezuela en los 800 kHz.
Iniciaremos nuestras emisiones de prueba a partir del miércoles 30 de agosto durante 7 días a partir de las 16:00 hora local (20:00 UTC). Como bien comprenderá nos gustaría recibir sus informes de recepción de estas emisiones de prueba para así verificar la calidad de la recepción.
Las transmisiones tendrán una duración de 30 minutos y utilizaremos dos sistemas distintos de antena.
Le pedimos su amable cooperación en monitorear lo más posible y enviarnos sus informes de recepción
Fechas de transmisión: del 30 de agosto al 6 de septiembre de 2017 (7 días)
Frecuencia: 800 kHz
Hora de la trasmisión de prueba: 1600-1630 HL / 2000-2030 UTC
Antena 1: 1600-1615 HL / 2000-2015 UTC
Antena 2: 1615-1630 HL / 2015-2030 UTC
Contenido del programa: Información de interés general y música
Nos gustaría recibir sus informes de recepción en el siguiente orden:
Fecha de la recepción
Hora de la escucha
Su localidad o ciudad
Calidad de la recepción en los códigos SIO o SINPO tanto para la Antena 1 como la Antena 2.
de ser posible, también la indicación del nivel relativo de la señal recibida – medidor S
Calidad del Audio
Tipo del receptor utilizado
Tipo de antena utilizada
También apreciaríamos mucho si usted pudiera informar sobre estas transmisiones a otros Dxistas y entusiastas de la escucha de la onda media que usted conozca. También estamos muy interesados en saber sobre la calidad de la señal cuando se escucha a bordo de un automóvil en marcha.
En nombre de los participantes en este proyecto quisiera agradecerles de antemano su amable cooperación!
Tuesday afternoon, I took a number of portable radios to the field: the Tecsun S-8800, Tecsun PL-880, Digitech AR-1780, C. Crane CC Skywave and the new C. Crane CC Skywave SSB.
Last week, I received a pilot run (pre-production) CC Skywave SSB from C. Crane to test and provide feedback. My unit, of course, is still subject to cosmetic changes and engineering tweaks.
Since this is not a final iteration of the product, I won’t comment or review performance other than to say that if you like the original CC Skywave, you should love the new CC Skywave SSB.
C. Crane has kindly given me permission to post a few preview photos.
CC Skywave SSB Photos
First thing you’ll notice is that the CC Skywave SSB is essentially identical to its predecessor in size and shape.
Indeed, the CC Skywave SSB fits the original Skywave’s carry case perfectly. If you’ve purchased a custom protective case–like this one— for the original Skywave, it’ll fit the CC Skywave SSB like a glove. As you can see above, the front panel design has changed, though. The CC Skywave SSB accommodates four additional function buttons and sports a re-designed speaker grill (similar to the CC Pocket Radio). Nice touch! C. Crane thought to use that little piece of real estate behind the backstand.
Listening to the 2016 BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica while traveling in Canada with the CC Skywave.
The original CC Skywave has pretty much been my go-to travel radio since it was released. I’ve taken it everywhere.
I’ve also taken the amazing Sony ICF-SW100 and the full-featured Grundig G6 (which even includes the AIR band) on trips when I wanted access to single sideband mode–something the original CC Skywave lacked. (Note that both of these radios are now discontinued.)
But when traveling in North America or by air, I really appreciate the Skywave’s excellent NOAA weather radio and access to aviation frequencies on the AIR band. Very handy features for the traveler who likes to stay informed.
By adding single sideband mode to an already capable ultra-compact travel radio, C. Crane has created a welcome radio traveling companion indeed.
Earlier this week, I received a message from my good friend, Mike, who lives south of Houston in Galveston County, Texas. Mike noted:
Here in Texas, we’re still dealing with the impact of hurricane Harvey.
[…]The absolute best hurricane information came from AM 740 KTRH Houston. A 50,000 Watt AM transmitter that covers a major portion of the gulf coast.
I’m learning that the Corpus Christi AM news station was evacuated and secured operations. KTRH kicked in and served the listening public very well.
I haven’t heard from Mike in a couple of days and, since then, Harvey has caused unprecedented levels of flooding in south Texas. I hope he’s doing okay and hope to hear from him soon.
Indeed, I hope SWLing Post readers in the affected area, their friends and family have all made it to safety.
My schedule last week made it impossible to carve out the dedicated time I needed to begin an S-8800 evaluation.
Yesterday, however, I spent the afternoon with my family at Richland Balsam, the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway (6,000′ ASL) and a completely RFI-free zone. I brought the Tecsun S-8800 and a few other portables along for the ride–namely the Digitech AR-1780, the C.Crane CC Skywave and the Panasonic RF-2200.
I had just enough available space on my smart phone to record this one short video:
Let’s be clear: comparing any modern radio with the RF-2200 on mediumwave is hardly fair.
For one, the RF-2200 has been out of production for a few decades.
Secondly (what I never finished saying in the video is that) the RF-2200 has a large rotatable ferrite bar antenna that provides excellent gain. The RF-2200 simply wipes the floor with all of my modern portables as their ferrite bar antennas are a fraction of the size.
In other words, the RF-2200 was engineered to rule mediumwave like a boss.
On shortwave, the RF-2200 does a fine job, but isn’t nearly as accurate and stable as modern DSP receivers.
Spoiler alert
Still, as the video indicates, my final review of the Tecsun S-8800 will indicate that it is not a receiver for the serious Mediumwave DXer. It’s been my experience that few shortwave portables are excellent on both HF and MW.
At home, tuned to local station 880 AM.
Of course you can’t tell from the video, but the S-8800 actually sounds brilliant when tuned to a relatively strong/local AM station, but either a lack of sensitivity or internal noise makes MW DXing a challenge.
I spent the better part of two hours yesterday evaluating its daytime MW performance–the video is pretty indicative of my findings. The S-8800 struggles with weak stations, but does a fine job with strong ones. It’s overall audio fidelity almost matches that of the RF-2200 when tuned to a strong broadcast. I’ve yet to test evening MW
The S-8800 still has some birdies on MW, but they’re not the loud warbling kind found on the previous model. Tecsun did properly address this, though in full disclosure, I haven’t fully explored the shortwave bands yet.
Shortwave?
I suspect the S-8800’s performance on shortwave will be much better than mediumwave because the previous S-8800 showed excellent results. As long as sensitivity wasn’t harmed while addressing the DSP birdies, I expect it’ll give the PL-880, PL-680 and Sony ICF-SW7600GR a run for their money.
Still…the lesson learned yesterday?
The Panasonic RF-2200 is the indisputable champion of mediumwave!
There’s a quick and dirty video review of the AR-1780 by Peter VK3YE, which highlights a few interesting quirks (if that’s the right word!) with this receiver. Some birdies, specs that don’t appear accurate, and a query over one of the bandwidth settings. Well worth a look!:
Peter (VK3YE) has done an excellent job indeed summing up the AR-1780–his notes and comments mirror my own. I would have never caught that oddity with the 1.2 to 1 kHz bandwidth reversal.
