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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Hemphill, who shares the following guest post:
Simple Android Database-PART 2
by Billy Hemphill, WD9EQD
In the first part, I showed how you could easily take a spreadsheet and create a simple database for viewing on an Android phone/tablet. The examples used in that article was two spreadsheets of radio schedules – one for Shortwave and one for FM Radio Programs. See the following link to the original article: https://swling.com/blog/2021/10/guest-post-radio-schedules-in-a-simple-android-database/
There are many lists on the internet of various radio databases. If the database can be downloaded as either a CVS file or a spreadsheet, then it is possible to load it into the PortoDB app on the phone tablet. I’ll show how this can be done with two popular databases that I reference all the time.
EIBI Data Base
Most of you are probably familiar with the EIBI database of shortwave schedules. Many of the Shortwave Schedule apps on the Phones reference this database. For example, I use the Skywave Schedules on my phone. While it does allow for me to search by many parameters, I thought it might be fun to have it in a PortoDB database. Plus it would be interesting to see how PortoDB performs with a large data set. Continue reading →
If interested, I’ve now published both parts of my Anatomy of a Field Radio Kit series over on QRPer.com. This series was originally featured in the June and July 2021 issues of The Spectrum Monitor magazine. Here are links to both articles:
These articles primarily focuses on portable amateur radio field kits, but many of the concepts are ones I also use for my field portable receiving setups like this one.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, for the following guest post:
Test Driving The Russia-Made Malahit DSP-2
Poised on Edge of Greatness? (Some Challenges To Overcome)
by Dan Robinson
By now, the Malahit SDR is well known in listening hobby circles. We have the made-in-Russia original, and those manufactured in China with various firmware and some physical differences such as location of the tuning encoders.
At the same time, we saw the development and appearance of the Belarusian Belka SDR. I consider the latest Belka DX to be the ideal portable – a sensitive diminutive miracle that has become a must-have device for many of us.
As for the Afedri LAN-IQ, I held off on purchasing one until the “Standalone” version was available. It is made in Israel by a Russian developer who supports the receiver with fairly frequent firmware revisions (though upgrading remains a bit of a challenge involving some obscure boot-loading software).
I waited and observed reviews of the original versions of the Malahit. When its designer, Georgiy (RX9CIM), announced availability of the new DSP-2 version of the receiver, with expanded coverage to 2 GHz and a claim of improved performance, I finally purchased one.
As was observed in one of the early SWLing Post articles “It seem[ed] the project is open source, the schematic, PCB and software are available to download. . . we hope [these] receivers become popular and available world wide [and that] this new project “shakes” a bit the industry of shortwave receivers.”
Malahit project authors RX9CIM George, R6DAN Vladimir, and R6DCY Vadim, had the apparent objective of “designing a low-cost portable SDR radio, using only easily obtainable components and to become the natural successor of the popular Degen and Tecsun radios.”
At the time, the price for a finished Malahit, with an ARM chip at its center was about $195 US. Coverage was to 1 GHz – this has since been extended to 2 GHz. Synchronous AM mode was added, and the DSP-2 also comes with an internal battery tray for a single 18650 Li-on battery.
This is a change from the original flat Li-on cell, and in my opinion a welcome one since 18650s are easily obtainable. Being able to easily change out a battery is important, rather than messing around with soldering (the famous Reuter Pocket receiver made in Germany should take a hint).
In this age of the SDR, we’re all familiar with the SDRplay series and various AirSpy receivers, along with other SDRs such as the RX666/888. Before that, we had the famous Perseus, which still has a strong following, and numerous WinRadio receivers.
See the articles here on the SWLing Post assessing the performance of these, as well as reviews at eHam.net, and numerous SDR dongles all over eBay, coming from China. There is also an SDR group on Groups.io.
Of course, receivers and transceivers with panoramic displays began to appear some years ago – the ICOM IC-R8600 and IC-7300 are examples of how this technology was integrated into the listening and amateur radio markets.
What we had not seen was integration of this kind of technology into portables. Even in its latest iteration, the Belka DX has a small screen without any PAN display. So, the advent of the Malahit has made this kind of advanced display widely available.
The price, by the way, for my DSP-2 as of July 2021 was 19,500 Russian rubles, with an extra 2,000 rubles for express delivery via Russian Post (though due to COVID Georgiy stressed that no guarantees could be made as to timing). That’s $263 – not a small investment and rivaling the cost of a Tecsun ATS-909x and H-501x.
According to the description I received when ordering, the Malahit DSP-2 was improved over the previous version with the following differences:
Frequency range – from 50 kHz to 380 MHz, and 400 MHz to 2 GHz
Improved RF shielding and hardware improvements to reduce interference
Changes in software functions
Dimensions changed to 140x 88x 39mm
18650 battery
The DSP-2 is in a thin black metal cabinet with dimensions 5 x ½ by 3 x ½ by 1 x ½.
A power button and headphone jack are on the right along with a power LED. On the top, we find the SMA antenna input, and a small telescopic whip is included.
The speaker, capable of some decent audio, is located on the inside rear of the receiver – audio level exceeds that of the Belka DX with its very small speaker, but the Belka has a clarity that often exceeds the Malahit.
My first testing of the DSP-2 was indoors, in a far corner on the top floor of my home, using just the included whip antenna. For comparisons, I used a Tecsun PL-368 with its whip antenna and a Belka DX in the same location. I find that indoor testing tends to identify some issues that would not be apparent outdoors.
In this, the Tecsun PL-368 and other Tecsun portables consistently performed best, followed by the Belka DX and the Malahit. This may be surprising, but shows that radios specifically designed for shortwave reception, often provide better reception because they are matched better with their internal telescopic antennas.
Now, when I say “best” I mean best basic audio quality, using auto-memory and ETM functions on the PL-368 and 990x. But what those radios can do with the signal after that point is pretty limited – there is no NR (noise reduction), you’re limited to a handful of set bandwidth selections, and SYNC mode leaves much to be desired.
Which is where the Malahit comes in with its numerous levels of flexibility, accessed through MENU icons on the lower part of the screen: HARD, AUDIO, VISUAL, NR, MODE, and BAND. I refer the reader to the Malahitteam site links showing the user manual (this is still a bit in the rough, with translation from Russian) and another link with a Quick Start guide written by John Pitz (KD8CIV).
KEY HIGH POINTS ON MALAHIT
SUPERIOR COLOR DISPLAY
The color display, also seen on numerous China-made clones, is the best on any handheld SDR. Where the Belka LCD is a basic utilitarian tool that performs well for that receiver, the Malahit display is an invitation to the wonderland of what this receiver offers.
At the top are small icons for: SQ, NB, NR, AGC, ANT, PRE, MODE. Right of center, and controlled with pushes of the small volume encoder knob, are ATT, VOL, FILTER, and the battery icon. Below those are headphone and speaker icons and an excellent, if small, frequency window. Pushing the small encoder knob selects/controls volume, attenuation, and main filters. The large tuning knob, with a press, selects step increments.
EXCELLENT NOISE REDUCTION
Noise reduction on the Malahit is superb, as many users have observed. It’s activated directly with a front panel icon and Threshold is adjustable with an icon under AUDIO, with 0 to 30 increments. NR is so good that I compare it with the latest firmware version on the ICOM IC-R8600 – it’s actually probably better than the ICOM even near and at the highest 30 level.
EXCELLENT FILTERING
Whereas the Belka DX offers fixed audio filtering values accessible via its front panel, the Malahit DSP-2 offers continually variable LOW FREQUENCY adjustment from 0 Hz to 2350 Hz, and HIGH FREQUENCY adjustment from 100 Hz all the way up to 150,000 Hz. This is in addition to standard NARROW, NORMAL, and WIDE filter options selectable with the volume encoder knob. This is nothing short of extraordinary for a handheld portable receiver.
The latest (and possibly last) Tecsun receivers offer set value multiple bandwidths, which is excellent but is a throwback to radio design from years ago. So, the DSP-2 capabilities can be compared to the kind of filtering that a Watkins Johnson or Cubic receiver have, but in the palm of your hand.
As I often observe, what we would have given in gold to have this kind of capability in consumer receivers during the glory days of international broadcasting!
AGC / MGC FLEXIBILITY
The Malahit allows the listener to use AGC, with choices of SLOW, MEDIUM, and FAST. But it also allows, again through the AUDIO settings menu, control of AGC GAIN 0 to 60, and AGC LIMITER 40 to 90 db. Wow – priceless! So even if you prefer, as I do, to listen to shortwave using AGC, you still have amazing flexibility. You can still switch to MGC with 0 to 60 range.
NOISE BLANKER FLEXIBILITY
Just as the Malahit delivers on AGC, so does it deliver with its regular noise blanker function. With NB activated, there are 3 configurations with a separate THRESHOLD icon adjustable for each of these. Amazing.
RF GAIN FLEXIBILITY
RF GAIN is adjustable from 0 to 59, and there is a separate icon for adjusting gain for the PRE-AMPLIFIER. Where the PREAMP comes in very handy is when one has the Malahit indoors – it provides a more sensitivity in situations where one is using the telescopic whip antenna, though care must still be taken not to overload the receiver and distort signals.
FCORRECT FUNCTION MAKES FOR EASY RE-CALIBRATION
The Fcorrect function located under the HARD settings menu enables one to re-calibrate the receiver to correct for error. This is similar to the capability that Tecsun added to its 330, 909x and 501x receivers (there are indications Tecsun has or will enable this ability also in the PL-368) but seems, based on my testing of the Malahit to be more effective. After I corrected my DSP-2 to about +57, calibration was pretty much on the money up and down the HF bands.
SQUELCH FLEXIBLITY
The Malahit not only has SQUELCH, but SQUELCH THRESHOLD control, another example of the tremendous flexibility in this receiver’s firmware. Since I do not do much listening outside of the HF bands, or have the antenna for it, I have not extensively tested the Squelch above 30 MHz and up to the maximum range at 2 GHz.
There is yet another feature described as adaptive noise canceling that allows the user to significantly improve the intelligibility of the received station under conditions noise and interference.
[From the manual]: The squelch uses different algorithms [depending] on filter bandwidth. With a bandwidth of more than 1 kHz, a squelch of more than suitable for speech type signal. With bandwidth less than or equal to 1 kHz, the squelch is suitable for tone type signals. Choice of algorithm is carried out automatically, depending on bandwidth. Meanwhile, squelch for speech signals can be used with NR (see further details on this in the manual).
FM RECEPTION WITH RDS
What the Belka DX lacks, namely reception of the FM range, the Malahit delivers in droves. FM sounds excellent to me, on the same level perhaps of the Afedri LAN-IQ Standalone receiver.
RDS is enabled by touching the waterfall area of the display which brings up the RDS information. The speed with which station information appears varies depends on position of your antenna and signal level.
As one user (Harold Hermanns) on the Facebook Malahit group observed: “ I don’t think it works very well. I just checked mine, and went to about 25 stations. The RDS or station name came up on only 5 stations. Letters I get are PS, PT, and PTY. When you tune a strong station, give it a minute or so, that’s what I did, and the RDS feature does work, but again, it’s not 100%. Maybe will be improved with firmware?”
The RDS information could be better organized – currently the name of the station, and name of the program scrolls on different lines. Another touch of the screen brings up an old style FM scale – this is nice, but I prefer the PAN display. Yet another touch returns the screen to the PAN display and waterfall. Mode options include NFM and WFM, and another option provides FM-STEREO. Also in FM, there is an auto-search function and station labeling
MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES
There are some other features in the mind-boggling list of options in various menus:
In FM (WFM) there is an eight position EQUALIZER function with SOFT, LIVE, CLUB, ROCK, BASS, JAZZ, POP, and VOICE positions.
A voltage monitoring function allows the user to turn off the receiver when voltage drops lower than 3.3 volts. As explained in the manual this is intended to preserve battery life and avoid full discharge.
Antenna selection can be 50 ohms or Hi-Z (preferred for telescopic antenna use).
As the Malahit manual details, internal gain of the receiving chip can be adjusted. Accessed from the HARD menu, this is too much for me to go into here, but it’s another example of the detail that went into designing the Malahit.
Brightness of the display backlight is adjustable as well as time after which backlight level is reduced to minimum and turned off completely. Rate of change of the display spectrum is adjustable as is spectrum display range, color, ratio of waterfall and speed and brightness of waterfall. Spectrum scale and view are adjustable.
There is a 5 page memory system, with M1 to M10 in each, so a total of 50 storable memories.
LOW POINTS OF THE MALAHIT
NOISE FROM THE DISPLAY
Example of noise on 1,000 kHz
As I was testing my Malahit DSP-2 it quickly became clear that there is one major low point, and thus a challenge for Georgiy and other members of the design team.
There’s no other way to say this: internally-generated noise remains the major issue keeping the Malahit from achieving greatness.
The developers of the Russian version receiver have not attempted to hide this, and users noticed it from the beginning, with one writer identifying “internally generated noise, which peaks at various frequencies” as one of the key drawbacks of the Malahit.
I had hopes that the DSP-2 version of the Russian-originated Malahit might have less of this problem. There are numerous internally-generated noise/buzzing spikes, some stronger than others, by my estimation at intervals between 125 and 200 kHz throughout the HF bands.
Example of noise on 6,000 kHz (RHC)
In the case of one huge noise spike appearing at or around 6,000 kHz – right over Radio Havana – it ruins any chance of hearing clear signals at, below and above that point. As you can see in my video, the Belka DX does not have this problem (note: apologies for mis-spelling Malahit as Malachit).
Via Telegram, Georgiy asserted to me that when using an external antenna, noise is not as serious, and notes differences between the Malahit and Belka. The Belka, he says, is a simpler device that concentrates only on shortwave, while Malahit is a wide band receiver with more complex DSP and user functions.
“When Belka cannot receive something, Malahit can. And where Belka does not have noise, Malahit has it. These devices are in different classes.”
The result is that a major workaround is often necessary – to disable the VIEW PAN&WTF option, a key feature that is a major highlight of the radio.
Georgiy says that this problem is mainly linked to telescopic antenna antenna operation because of the antenna’s proximity to the display. But as you can see in my video, when testing the Malahit and Belka on 6,000 kHz it’s a night and day situation.
A quick push of the power button blanks out the display completely – and seems to completely resolve the noise issue. But you don’t buy a radio to see a dark display, and it’s depressing to think that turning off a major feature, namely panoramic display, has to be part of standard operating procedure.
When testing the Malahit from its bottom frequency of 50 kHz, even with the PAN & WTF off, huge buzzing noise spikes are heard. In mediumwave/AM, they are seen at 615 kHz, 790 kHz, 965 kHz, 1140 kHz and so on.
If a radio had emerged from a known large manufacturer with this issue, such as Tecsun or Sangean, it would have been roundly condemned by users and reviewers and sent back to the drawing board.
Georgiy does say that in the new firmware interference from the display was decreased, with a “step of about 2.5 MHz, from 1MHz (i.e. 1MHz, 3.5MHz, 6MHz). After correction it will be with a step [of] 4 MHz”. I’m not quite sure what he’s saying with this, due to language issues, but the overall indication is that he is aware of this issue and will continue trying to tackle it in future revisions.
CW DECODING
In the MODE section of the Malahit there is no confirmation that the receiver is actually in CW. Decoding is enabled with an icon, but again no confirming icon at the top of the display. This is a bit odd.
Going to the Telegram app discussion group for the Malahit, and re-reading the translated Russian manual, I discovered that confirmation of CW appears as a white bar under the SPEAKER/HEADPHONE icon on the right. There is also a MINIMUM SNR option in decoding, with a 0 to 70 range.
A You Tube video (the Gerry DX channel) shows the decoding process and notes that it’s important to keep the filter setting at NARROW when attempting to use the decoding feature on the Malahit and also important to set the SNR at the right level.
One would think that this could be easily rectified, but adding a CW indicator to the top row of small icons on the front display might not be as easy as one thinks, unless the display can be modified to also display “CW” in the icon spaces for AM, LSB, or USB.
It turns out that CW decoding on the Malahit works quite well, at least in my attempts. I was able to decode fairly strong CW signals in 40 meters.
LCD/TOUCH SENSITIVITY
When I first got the Malahit, I was puzzled by what seemed to be a serious lack of sensitivity on the display when trying to use the touch icons to change configurations and modes.
This was so bothersome that I raised it with Georgiy who responded that this is by design. The present capacitive touch method, he says, is preferable and more comfortable for users. “If [we were to] change the touch [enable faster response] then [some] people will demand to decrease it.”
With benefit of some time, I have concluded that a slightly firmer and longer press of about half a second to a second almost always brings up the menu selected. But this is definitely a characteristic of the DSP-2, so potential owners should be aware of it.
ISSUE WITH CLOCK
Another issue that prospective purchasers should be aware of involves instances where the internal clock of the receiver does not retain the time, and the solution for this directly from Georgiy is not necessarily satisfactory.
“Yes, they need to be removed from the PCB” he says, a reference to two capacitors on the main PCB, C29 and C30 which are next to each other below a larger M7 device on the PCB.
These are SMDs so anyone without good soldering skills will be hard pressed to want to mess around with that PCB. This is not a confidence-builder, nor a solution – clearly these receivers should come from the supplier without such an issue.
This was upsetting enough for some users that the Malahit team faced some sharp criticisms. One user said the clock on his DSP-2 was working perfectly. Another said: “Unless I power off the unit the date stays good but the time is always 2 hrs and 10 minutes behind. As soon as I power off the unit the date defaults back to 15:08:2062.”
One user said: “Problem is voltage is very inaccurate causing the clock settings to be lost. I have tried several 18650 batteries (good Panasonics) and fully charged they are 4.2v, but the DSP-2 indicates 4.6v. When the battery runs down to 4.0v the clock settings are lost. Also, the battery indicator continues to show FULL. I think there is an internal problem with the DSP2. Perhaps the new design, or new internal parts are causing this. This is very disconcerting.”
In exchanges on Telegram, Georgiy said he personally checks each outgoing Malahit for sensitivity on each band, and clock operation, among other things. In a later comment just before this article went to press, Georgiy said that C29/C30 should be replaced only if there is a problem with the clock.
There is no mention by the Malahit team of any official return policy – which of course would be quite challenging and costly involving an additional round trip for a receiver back to Russia and then back again to the user.
On my DSP-2, which I have used with an Anker 26800 USB battery, so far my clock/date settings have maintained accuracy with no reset, even after the USB cable is unplugged from the receiver. I have not yet tested longer times to see if the clock/date is reset when voltage drops below a certain point.
[UPDATE: 22 July 2021]
In a message sent after publication, Georgiy says that the C29 and C30 capacitors will be deleted from the next series of the Malahit, and for now they are being removed from receivers that have not been sold yet.
[UPDATE 23 July 2021]
Further testing revealed that the observations of Malahit users are accurate. When voltage of a 18650B battery in my Malahit dropped below 3.7 v the receiver did indeed shut down — this is with the battery icon still showing 50%. So this is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed in future updates. That said, I got hours of operating time before the full 18650 dropped to the cutoff level — but obviously an inaccurate battery icon is something that the Malahit team will have to correct.
THE BATTERY GAME
Example of 18650 rechargeable batteries
The Malahit DSP-2 uses a 18650 Li-on battery. Unfamiliar to many people, these are actually well known among professional-grade flashlight collectors/users (flashlight collecting is another of my vices).
One of the first things I realized when my Malahit arrived was that my existing button top 18650 cells were too long to comfortably fit in the battery tray. A bit of research on the Facebook Malahit group page revealed that some users have modified the receiver to take two 18650 cells, with a double tray replacing the single tray.
The original Malahit tray requires shorter “unprotected” flat top 18650 cells. At the time I write this, there is a shortage of these cells at the major battery / flashlight suppliers (Battery Junction is one). DO NOT try to force a slightly larger 18650 in the stock Malahit battery tray!
So, one recommendation I would make to the Malahit Team in Russia would be to make it possible for the receiver to use regular protected button top 18650s, of the type one would easily use in a Tecsun receiver such as the 909x and H-501x.
However, in a message to me just before this article went to press, Georgiy said that the Malahit team has used “typical holders” available to them and that they had been unable to obtain a sufficient number of alternative trays for protected 18650 button top batteries. So, for now at least the Malahit will require unprotected flat tops.
My 18650B flat top batteries arrived just as I was completing this review – easily charged up in my Littokala charger, each then fit easily in the single battery tray and power the Malahit perfectly.
ENCODER KNOBS
Higher quality replacement knobs
The original encoder knobs on the Malahit can be replaced by higher quality, metal construction ones for the small and larger knobs. I got mine from Nikolay, a member in Russia of the Malahit Facebook group (he says he sources them from Switzerland, but I have not confirmed this).
I am, however, not sure that the new knobs can simply be installed on the Malahit – there are no set screws on the original plastic Malahit knobs and I chose not to mess around to see whether the metal knobs can easily be installed, at least for now. Price for the higher quality metal knobs: $17
[UPDATE 23 July 2021]
Nikolay Vedeneev in Russia produces high quality encoder knobs for the Malahit, Afedri, and Belka SDR receivers. He can be reached at: [email protected] and received a very positive review from Fernando Duarte who is known for his reviews of numerous receivers. Both of his knobs fit perfectly on the shafts of my Malahit DSP-2 and have a much better feel than the originals (NOTE: I used a 1.5 mm hex key to tighten the set screws) https://fenuradio.blogspot.com/2020/07/custom-tuning-knopfe-fur-jedes-gerat.html
The subtitle of this article asks whether the Malahit is poised on the edge of greatness. I believe it is, but anyone’s choice to join the Malahit user/fan club comes with some headaches.
We can only hope that the Malahit team can work on the problem of noise spikes that permeate the lower frequency ranges from mediumwave on up. There’s no way to minimize this: at $263 (the price of a DSP-2 as of July 2021) buyers should not have to be shutting off the display to eliminate noise.
As for the question of the clock on the DSP-2 not maintaining time/date, etc it’s clear that Georgiy and the Malahit team are aware of this issue and one hopes this could be checked off the list of concerns that users have raised.
Whether one needs all the bells and whistles that a Malahit offers is the major question, especially when the Belka DX offers excellent stepped (not continuously adjustable) audio filtering and a form of synchronous AM detection in what has to be the smallest high performance receiver ever available to the listener.
More than a few Malahit owners have observed that between 1.5 MHz and 30 MHz the Belka DX seems to be the better shortwave receiver, with no display noise issues, superb battery life and an amazing small size that makes it the ultimate ultra-portable.
In short, if you choose to step aboard the Malahit train you enter a world where there will be constant improvements in software and hardware, and bugs along the way, of which noise spikes issue is a perfect example. But if you’re someone who gets enjoyment from being on the leading edge of technology in radio development, the Malahit may be for you.
It’s impressive that the Malahit originated in Russia, not generally been known for innovations at this level. In recent years, Asia was the main source of advances from the likes of ICOM, Yaesu, AOR etc in the amateur radio area, and from Tecsun, Sangean, and Eton in the area of portable receivers for HF listeners.
Finally, one has to wonder about the potential that the Malahit design holds for integration into the kind of portables seen over the past two years. Some observers have asked why the LCD display and other features on the Malahit could not be part of a future receiver that looks like a Tecsun 990x or Sangean 909×2 with additional advances such as off-air microSD recording, and DRM.
FINAL ASSESSMENT: I boarded the Malahit bus fairly late, but I am definitely a fan. Owning one of these receivers is indeed a roller coaster – anyone climbing on should become a member of the Facebook and other discussion groups where users exchange views, suggestions, and their own experiences.
For ultimate portability in 2021, the Belka DX wins the race. But the Malahit wins on the sheer number of advanced signal processing and other features it contains, though it is hobbled to an extent by the problem of display interference.
If Georgiy and the Malahit team can continue to make steady progress in confronting the noise issue and fine tune the already amazing array of features, the Russia-made Malahit has a bright future ahead.
[UPDATE 24 July 2021]
In the latest firmware update to the Malahit DSP-2, Georgiy provides this
changelog. Note that this is still described as “TEST” firmware, so it’s still unclear
whether he intends to put out a non-TEST version of this particular upgrade:
Firmware 2.10 TEST:
fixed battery voltage indication
fixed behavior of encoder buttons at low supply voltage
protection against false switching has been made – for switching on by three, set switch 2 to the On position.
added test function – increased display frequency. This reduces noise and increases the number of frames per second; To enable this function, set switch 3 to On. The function may not work correctly, if so, please let me know
the level of interference from the display is slightly reduced
changed the distribution of frequencies to which the input high-pass filters are turned on
when HiZ is turned on, the power supply of the external active antenna is automatically turned off;
added indication of external antenna power on – now the ANT indicator is highlighted in red if this function is enabled
the algorithm for displaying the picture on the display, slightly reduces the level of interference
changed the panorama display mode from “Pan & WTF Disabled / Enabled” to “Pan & WTF Single / Always”, while the panorama image is now always present, but it is updated once (when the settings are changed) or always.
fixed attenuators bugs
[UPDATE 2, 24 July 2021 ]
Please read this updated post explaining why I believe you should hold off on making the DSP-2 purchase until software and hardware issues have been resolved.
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’sRadio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Tracy Wood, Bill Patalon, Dennis Dura, and Mike Agner for the following tips:
Ham radio hobbyists will test their emergency preparedness skills alongside All Day Radios’ Grand Opening celebration in Ramona next weekend.
The Amateur Radio Field Day, a national emergency preparedness activity sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), will be held in Ramona from 11 a.m. Saturday, June 26 and continues for 24 hours until 11 a.m. Sunday, June 27.
All Day Radios co-owner Peter Von Hagen will coordinate his Grand Opening in sync with Field Day from Friday through Sunday. The store is at 2855 state Route 67 between Dye Road and Hope Street, and Field Day will be held next door.
Von Hagen said the object of Field Day, held annually the fourth weekend in June, is to communicate on as many stations on amateur bands as possible to test the capabilities of communications equipment. Operators will be using backup sources of power such as solar power and batteries, he said.[…]
The demand for software defined radios, especially in the commercial applications, such as telecommunication, transportation, and commercial aviation, has been affected to a great extent. Due to precautionary measures undertaken by many countries to stop the spread of COVID-19, several public/private development activities have been stopped, resulting in a drop in demand for software defined radios. However, this trend seems to vary from country to country. For instance, the demand for software defined radios in Europe and the Asia Pacific has been affected by the pandemic owing to the stoppage of development activities.
Based on application, the commercial segment of the software defined radio market is projected to witness the substantial growth during the forecast period
In terms of application, the market is segregated into commercial and defense. The rising usage of SDRs in commercial applications including aviation communication, marine communication, transportation, telecommunication is supporting the segment growth. Software defined radios are predominantly used in Air Traffic Control (ATC), transportation, and telecommunication applications. They are easily upgradable and provide high data transmission rate that further enhances its usage for commercial segment.
Cognitive/ Intelligent radio sub segment of the software defined radio market by type is projected to witness the highest CAGR owing to increasing improvements in cognitive radio products.[…]
The FCC has sent another reminder to licensees of analog low power television stations regarding the July 13 drop-dead date. If an analog LPTV has not applied for a digital CP by that date its license will be cancelled and those that have Construction Permit’s but will not be ready to broadcast digitally will need to file a waiver request but still will be required to turn off their analog signal on the 13th and cease operation until ready to begin operating with their digital facilities.
This will of course affect the thirty something LPTV’s on analog channel 6 operating as radio stations on 87.75 MHz. While some of these signals will be moving to other channels, many will be remaining on channel 6 and have spent the past few years seeking loopholes to continue to broadcast an analog audio signal past the digital conversion deadline. Venture Technologies Group, which owns five affected stations, threw the door wide open this week with the grant of a six month STA for its KBKF-LD San Jose CA. KBKF-LD, which is leased to Educational Media Foundation to air its “Air 1” network, will be permitted to continue to offer an analog audio signal on 87.75 FM in its ATSC 3.0 digital video signal.[…]
Hard-Core-DX has been a pioneer in connecting shortwave listeners for nearly 30 years now. In its core it has been emailing lists and web sites and some other experiments which have either spun to become popular on their own (e.g. various ham related spotting sites or Online Log which is very popular in Finland) or not. Today we wanted to try to branch out into chat using Slack.
This is not the only chat there is… IRC, Facebook, Whatsapp etc have small circles for shortwave listeners but they have all been closed systems and not enabling an environment that can be used across devices and have conversations about any topics we choose. In the corporate world Slack has revolutionized communications amongst colleagues and partners in different companies. Much of work in U.S.A. small companies happens nowadays in Slack and not so much in emails.
Hard-Core-DX has signed up and created it’s very own Slack service.
If you want to join the HCDX Slack, please click this link and create your own HCDX Slack account:
When you join it, you will see some channels that have been created already. You can join them or if you can’t find the topic you’d like to chat about, please create your own.
HCDX will not be in the business of moderating what people are creating or discussing. If you create a channel, you will choose the policies of the discussion.
This can naturally invite some abuse. We will deal with it with Slack’s policies as time comes.
You are welcome to invite your DX friends to the HCDX Slack and grow the community. Invite happens from menu in upper left corner and link “Invite people to Hard-Core-DX”
Let’s keep subjects within shortwave radio, broadcast, utility, pirate DXing & ham radio if possible to keep the service relevant to us
This is an experiment… if it doesn’t gain popularity or becomes a burden, we will shut it down. But for now, if you want to experiment and see if this is where you want to chat with your DX friends, join the fun.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jerome van der Linden, for the following guest post:
Experiences as an SWL in Saudi Arabia 1990 /91
by Jerome van der Linden
From about 1986 I worked for the Broadcasting Division of Telecom Australia (now “Telstra”), in Adelaide, South Australia. This Division of Telecom Australia had responsibility for installation, maintenance and operation of Australian Government funded broadcasting services (radio & TV) such as ABC (including Radio Australia) and SBS. In later years responsibility for this was taken away from Telecom Australia and handed to BAI.
I already had a life long interest in Broadcasting and short wave radio in particular, and I was recruited into a new non technical managerial position in the then new Broadcasting Division of Telecom Australia: it was the perfect job to my mind. In this period of the late 1980s, the organisation was heavily involved in the capital works to get Radio Australia Cox Peninsula (Darwin) back into operation, after it was largely destroyed by cyclone Tracy in 1975, as well as building the three Northern Territory vertical incidence (“shower”) services at Katherine, Tennant Creek, and Alice Springs (VL8K, VL8T, and VL8A respectively). (The NT is probably about the size of a major US state like Texas). Apart from doing my non technical work, I took every opportunity to learn more and get involved in the technical side of things. On one occasion, when I knew that the technical staff would be testing the new transmission facilities on a range of frequencies, I was able to confirm with the onsite technician a booming signal into Adelaide from the Alice Springs transmitter he was briefly testing on 11715kHz in the daytime.
Alice Springs (VL8A) transmitter site in the last year is was operating (Photo by Jerome van der Linden).
As the opportunity arose, and as I was also part of the Southern Cross DX Club, I regularly participated in the Radio Australia DX program (I cannot even remember its name, 30 years later) that was produced by Mike Bird. I also contacted many rural cattle stations (equivalent to “ranches” in the US) that were spread throughout the Northern Territory to get them to report on how they were receiving the new NT HF service broadcasting stations when they came on the air. I saw it as a way of promoting the shortwave radio services throughout the Northern Territory.
My work gave me the opportunity to visit not just each of the new NT HF transmitter stations, but also included several visits to the Radio Australia (RA) facility at Cox Peninsula. While I also saw the old RA Receiving station on Cox Peninsula (dating from the period when signals were received from RA Shepparton and then re-transmitted from Darwin, in the period pre cyclone Tracy), this was at a time when that facility had already been largely dismantled.
In early 1990, I sought and was awarded a contract position with Telecom Australia’s Saudi project, and I was seconded to that from my job in the Broadcasting Division. From my own research, I knew that radio and TV in Saudi Arabia was quite unlike what I was used to, and I made it a point to take with me, on loan, a Sony ICF 2001D receiver. So it was in March 1990 that I arrived in Riyadh on a single person’s contract. I was allocated a 2 storey 3 bedroom villa for my own use among a large number of other identical villas occupied by other Telecom Australia staff, that were all located within a walled compound close to the Saudi Telecom offices.
Almost immediately, it was obvious that I would have to rely on the BBC World Service for my English news, as the KSABS radio services were nearly all in Arabic, and its TV service was even less appealing to me. I managed to string up some long wire antennas on the roof, and it was not long before I was also able to pick up services from Radio Australia. I got in touch with Nigel Holmes, then RA’s Frequency Manager in Melbourne, and was able to let him know how signals were being received in the Middle East, even though South Asia was about the limit of RA’s intended reach at that time. As my office was in the city of Riyadh some distance away, I was allocated a car for my own use, and – having found these were quite common – soon fitted it with a Short Wave capable car radio. In fact it was the one I reviewed in the 1991 WRTH.
The compound housing the many Australians and their families had its own CCTV system, and the Aussies were entertained by a regular supply of Australian VHS TV tapes. The same CCTV network was also used by Australians from the project making out as wannabee disk jockeys with their own programs before 7am and into the evenings.
As many people will recall, in mid 1990, Sadam Hussein, the then leader of Iraq, invaded Kuwait, and there was some concern he might continue and invade Saudi Arabia. As a direct consequence, radio with World news became even more important for the Australians, and the many other expats working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
An unexpected benefit to the expats living in Riyadh was the arrival of thousands of US ground forces, who brought with them their very own AFN broadcasting services which operated on FM with their own high pitched professional female DJs who played the latest pop music. This was at a time when this type of music was not heard at all on local Saudi radio, and the only source we had of modern music was the many bootlegged copies of cassette music which were for sale everywhere (in addition to pirated copies of software).
When Sadam Hussein decided to stop international residents from leaving Iraq to travel home, their roles as ‘hostages’ caused international broadcasters to improve their services into the Middle East.
That included Radio Australia, and at least one of its Cox Peninsula transmitters was used to improve the signal to the Middle East in the hours up to its daily shutdown at midnight Darwin time (1430UTC). The strongest signal in those days was a 21MHz frequency, and it mostly boomed in. I recall one evening when the transmitter’s audio sounded very suspect to me. I made a quick international phone call direct to Cox Peninsula; spoke to the duty shift supervisor who I knew personally; described the signal to him; he picked the problem; switched the transmitter off and placed another transmitter online on the same frequency which gave clean audio, that I was able to confirm to him.
A Patriot missiles being fired to intercept a scud missile on 24 Feb, 1991 (Photo by Jerome van der Linden)
It was about this time that I realised my Sony ICF2001D had a feature I could use to the benefit of all my fellow Australians in the compound. In the first instance, I was able to arrange for an audio feed from the 2001D in my villa into the compound’s CCTV system, so that – provided someone plugged the audio in correctly – the signal from my Sony radio’s line out was relayed to every other villa that cared to listen. As I was absent during most of the working day, I used the Sony’s programming feature that allowed for up to 4 separate listening sessions to be set up. Each program required a SW frequency and start/stop times to be programmed. I think each session had a time limit of perhaps 4 hours. This enabled me to set the radio up to relay BBC World Service for most of the day switching automatically to certain frequencies as appropriate, and also provided the people with some brief Radio Australia segments with news from home.
In the period prior to January 1991’s, when George Bush had promised to retake Kuwait if Sadam Hussein did not withdraw, it was also interesting to pick up Iraqi broadcasts intended for (and to try to demoralise) American servicemen. Very strong signals from Baghdad were regularly audible, I seem to recall 11825kHz being one such frequency.
In the event, about January 16, 1991 the allies invaded Kuwait from Saudi Arabia, and made devastating air based attacks on Iraqi facilities. Radio Baghdad’s shortwave service did not seem to last very long after that.
We Australians were told in no uncertain fashion that Iraqi “Scud” missiles were ballistic (hence not accurately targeted), and would definitely not have the range to reach Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The experts were wrong however, and a couple of scuds did reach Riyadh. As our compound was in the “flight path” from Iraq to the Riyadh airbase the Americans were using, it turned out we were not in the best location! The American forces had “Patriot Missiles” set up to intercept any Scuds that got through, but nobody told us that the Patriots break the sound barrier seconds after being fired, and that they’re only capable of intercepting Scud missiles just before they hit the ground. You can imagine the sonic booms that went off the first night Scud missiles arrived: I have photo in my home that some daredevil took outside, that proves all this.
We had been told to tape up the glass on our villas in case it should shatter, and that we should leave our TV sets tuned to our CCTV channel turned on at all times, with the volume up so that if there was an air raid the staff and their families could be alerted by means of a piercing alarm sound that someone had fiendishly created. And so it was that one Thursday, when Jonathan Marks had scheduled a telephone interview with me for Radio Netherland’s Media Network, we were discussing media events in Saudi Arabia when the air raid alarm went off, and we had to postpone the rest of the interview. I seem to recall that he did call me again later the same night and we finished things off. I never did get to hear the program, or I would have recorded it! As far as I know, it’s not one of the programs that Jonathan has been able to find to include in his on line media vault. If anyone else has a copy of this early 1991 edition, I’d love to hear it again.
As the experts had been wrong in their assessment, it was decided that most of the Australians would be removed from Riyadh, and I was sent to do my work from Jeddah, for about 6 weeks. Again it was a slightly different media environment, and while interesting, I missed the ICF2001D, and bought a cheap multi band analogue portable to be able to keep up to date with BBC World Service News broadcasts.
By early March 1991, most of the fighting was over, and it was safe for me to return to Riyadh, where I worked for another two or three months, before returning to my normal job and family in Australia.
Off-Air Audio Recordings
Radio Baghdad to US Troops (1990):
BBC World Service News of the start of Desert Storm (January 16, 1991):
Radio Australia announcement by the acting Foreign Affairs Minister (January 16, 1991):
AFN Riyadh (Brief clip of Army Sergeant Patty Cunningham signing off her shift):
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who shares the following guest post:
Indoor Noise and Ferrites, Part 1
by TomL
My magnet wire loop antenna on the porch reminded me to revisit aspects about my noisy Condo that I still needed to understand. Some RF noise I could control if I could find the right kind of information that is understandable to a non-engineer like me. There is a lot written about the general problem of noise and radio listening, for instance this ARRL article with web links to research – www.arrl.org/radio-frequency-interference-rfi, but I needed to get more specific about my particular environment.
I had tried some common clamp-on TDK ferrites I had obtained from eBay a long time ago but they only seemed to work a little bit. I have since found out these are probably the ones which are widely used on home stereo system connections used to reduce noise on those systems. There must be a better way.
The more I researched topics, like a portable “Loop on Ground” antenna, or, using RF chokes on the magnet wire loop, it dawned on my feeble, misguided brain that I was wrongly thinking about how to use ferrite material. For one thing, the material used to suppress RF noise is made with a certain “mix” of elements, like Manganese-Zinc, that electrically “resists” a specified frequency range. Fair-Rite has a useful Material Data Sheets web page which lists the Types of ferrite material. For dealing with noise (at the Source causing the problem), I needed to use the right kind of “Suppression” materials and proper placement. So, it (partly) made sense why the TDK snap-on ferrites might not fully work to reduce certain noise coming from my computer screens, LED lights, USB devices, and cheap Chinese-made power adapters.
A very good paper is by Jim Brown (K9YC) of Audio Systems Group entitled, “Understanding How Ferrites Can Prevent and Eliminate RF Interference to Audio Systems [PDF]”. There is a longer paper speaking directly to Amateur Radio folks, but the Audio version is simpler and it uses some of the same graphs and ideas. I was drawn to the very detailed Impedance measurements of many different “Types” of ferrite material used for different noise mitigation. I remember the traumatic pain of my college experience trying mightily to understand the Van Vlack Materials Science text book to no avail. But Jim’s paper reminded me of the importance of using the correct type of ferrite material and in an optimal way that reacts favorably in the target frequency range to solve a particular noise problem. So, what are my problem areas?
Shortwave Noise
Loop antennas have been what I have experimented with the most. They do not pick up as much man-made noise (QRM) and they have a space saving footprint. Fortunately, there is a wooden porch where these things have been tried. I had successfully built a broadband amplified “ferrite sleeve loop” (FSL) in the past. It was useful for a while but it fell into disrepair and also the Condo building has steadily increased in noise output. The amplifier was just amplifying the noise after a while. I also tried phasing two antennas but found the ever increasing noise cloud was coming from all directions and I could not null it out. I even tried a “mini-whip” from eBay but that just produced a wall of noise.
I recently tested AirSpy’s YouLoop written about before, and the results were good. However, it seemed obvious to me that it was too small as a passive loop to capture shortwave signals strongly enough without resorting to another amplifier attached at the antenna and would not improve the signal/noise ratio. My current solution is a unamplified stealth magnet wire loop about 32 feet in circumference. In that article, I mention things like common mode RF chokes at both ends of the antenna connection, horizontal polarization, and basically accepting that only the stronger shortwave signals will be received in a predictable manner. I think for now, this is about all I can do for shortwave and mediumwave noise, as far as my own Condo-generated noise. Neighborhood noise is a different topic.
VHF Noise
I then started to isolate which devices caused which kind of noise when listening to my outside amplified antennas for FM/VHF and UHF-TV transmissions. Many consumer Power adapters make a lot of noise from VLF up into UHF ranges. One thing I did right was to try a 10 pack of these little miracle “Wall Wart” toroids from Palomar Engineers. One by one, I put one of these small toroids (19mm inside diameter) on my home AC adapters as shown in the pictures, and the noises started disappearing. It does not explicitly say, but I believe it is Type 75 material which suppresses the noise generating AC adapter (at very low frequencies) when wrapped 8 – 12 times.
Most egregious of these was my CCrane FM2 transmitter. A strangled warbling sound kept emanating from the monitor closest to my laptop. Installing ferrites on the laptop and back of the monitor were not working. I moved the FM Transmitter and noticed a reduction in noise. So, I put one of these little toroids on the power input of the device and the noise disappeared. Apparently, it was picking up noise from the monitor (as well as its own power adapter) and rebroadcasting it to all my other radios! The strangled warbler is no more, I choked it (HaHa, sick bird joke).
While looking for the monitor noise, I put the eBay TDK ferrites on all the USB ports and HDMI ports. This has helped greatly on VHF and confirms my suspicion that these cheap TDK ferrites are indeed a common type of ferrite material. Some informative graphs can be seen in Jim Brown’s Audio paper mentioned before. One example might be Figure 22, which shows the #61 Series Resistance which peaks around 100 MHz when using a toroid with three “Turns”. More confused, I could not find a definition of a “Turn”. Eventually, in his longer paper to Amateur Radio operators, he defines it, “…is one more than the number of turns external to the cores”. Somewhere else he describes using many single snap-on ferrites being electrically equal to just one toroidal ferrite with multiple Turns. And interestingly, more Turns shifts the peak impedance substantially lower in frequency. So, using the graphs he supplies, one can target a noisy frequency range to try to suppress.
I then put 6 of the TDK ferrites on the VHF input to the AirSpy HF+. Some FM grunge was reduced and was thankful for that. The rest of the background noise truly seems to be coming from the outside picked up by the amplified antenna.
Also, I juggled a couple of the amplifiers around and now have separate VHF/FM and UHF/TV amplifiers which cleaned up the FM reception a little bit more – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkDsy95et2w .
UHF TV Quality
On a whim, I put the balance of the TDK ferrites on the FM/TV splitter input cable, 10 in all. The FM reception did not improve but the Over The Air UHF TV reception Quality improved noticeably. My weakest TV station now has a stable Signal level and the Quality is pegged at 100%. This is a nice surprise since it means that now all local TV stations on UHF will come in cleanly without dropouts and I can view all digital subchannels. I was even able to rescan and added two more low-power stations never seen before. ?
LED lights
I have common LED lights hanging over a number of fish tanks and some grow lights over an indoor plant box and can hear this noise on upper shortwave and higher radio bands. In a future article, I will explore RF noise from lights as its own special topic. For instance, why do some LED lights generate RFI and how to know before buying (I am using BR30 spot bulbs from name brands)? Also, there is a new kind of LED “filament” light out now that uses much smaller LED’s on both sides of an aluminum strip, greatly reducing electromagnetic noise output (or do they??). More questions than answers.
I will explore creating my own customized AC power cord attached to the AC power strips of the LED lights. I will need to test this for safety and efficacy, so I will want to take some time to do this right. The hope is that, using Jim’s info, I will be able to create a broad spectrum RFI suppression AC power cord and cost less than $30 each cord. We’ll see.
Finally, I will look at “stacked” toroids using different mixes of ferrite Types, creating a custom RF suppression better than using just one Type of ferrite material, using AC cords as the main examples. For instance, the best set of graphs in Jim’s paper, in my opinion, are Figures 21 and 24 compared to each other. Something I did not know before is that one can not only use multiple turns on a single toroid to get a lower, peaked frequency response, but also stack multiple toroids of the same Type to get a smoother frequency response. Then on top of this, combine that set with other Types to create a customized frequency response curve.
Radios are quieter now. Those pesky grow lights are still a problem as well as the upstairs neighbor’s lights which seem to be on a timer, making FM reception noisy again after 5pm!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, for the following guest post:
Premium Receiver Scammer(s) Back
by Dan Robinson
From time to time here on SWLing Post, we have alerted readers to scammers using multiple eBay addresses to attempt to rip off unsuspecting potential buyers and using old photographs of usually premium receivers to do so.
Well, whether this is one scammer or many, he is back. See the photos attached here, which show what is surely a fictitious eBay ID and what appear to be legitimate photos of a Panasonic RF-8000, one of the most sought after of the large portables from decades ago.
It’s not until the 4th photograph that this person provides that you see what’s involved in the scam, which is the scammer noting that he is “selling this on behalf of my company” and that the radio can be purchased “at the buy it now price only” The scammer then provides an email address to get around the standard eBay auction process, adding that he does not respond via Ebay messaging.
I have continued to alert eBay to these scams, and to their credit eBay has taken down many of these items in recent weeks and months, though occasionally eBay does miss these. eBay also does not make it immediately clear as to how to report items like this (HINT: you have to scroll down the page until you see a tiny REPORT link on the right side which takes you to multiple categories. These scam items fall under “LISTING PRACTICES” “FRAUDULENT LISTING ACTIVITIES” and “YOU SUSPECT THAT A LISTING IS FRAUDULENT”
If eBay has successfully already taken a scam item down, you will then see a confirmation page saying the item could not be found after refreshing the page. Very often, even after reporting an item, the identical item will show up within seconds or minutes under a completely different eBay ID (see the 2nd photo here on the Panasonic RF-8000 which shows a changed eBay ID)
Receivers most often seen on these scams include: AEG 1800A, Panasonic RF-8000, and usually other premium sets, and the tip off to the scam is that the seller/scammer usually always starts the price at $1.00 or $34.00 or similar level. In the case of the AEG 1800A, the scammer consistently uses the exact same photo of this rare receiver, from a sale that completed years ago.
I would encourage eBay users to join me in reporting scams like this — eBay certainly appreciates it and if you have eBay “Concierge” level service, which I do, it’s sometimes a help to them to get online and chat with eBay about the item and your report, especially if the eBay algorithms have failed to spot and take down a particular scam.
Thank you for sharing this, Dan. We appreciate insight from radio enthusiasts like you and Paolo. As Dan suggested, I encourage you to report listings that are obviously fraudulent to eBay. They will investigate the case and take action if it is a scam.
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Hemphill, who shares the following guest post:
