Category Archives: Guest Posts

Do not adjust your set

FastRadioBurst 23 here letting you know of our shortwave outings this week. On Sunday 5th May 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz we have a show called Test Cards on Radio which is beamed to Europe via Shortwave Gold.

This show is a must for fans of test cards and TV trade test transmissions alike and will feature all kinds of frequency tones for screen calibration purposes, an exclusive interview with Stooky Bill (*subject to availability) and test card related music from around the world. So rotate your rooftop antenna, adjust your brightness and vertical hold and tune in on Sunday.

Our second show is a special WRMI edition of Test Cards on Radio (2) on our new day of Wednesday 8th May 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz. We’re talking more test card musical classics and the worldwide exclusive play of the debut single from the band Horizontal Polarization called “Take me back to the good old days of 525 line Television” (*subject to availability). It’ll be an exciting show so tune in. If you want to know more about both shows and see some great test cards see the trailer below.

For more information on all our shows please email [email protected] and check out our Mixcloud page here.

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We’re a garage band, we come from garageland

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Hi, FastRadioBurst 23 here letting you know of a couple of our shows this week. On Sunday 28th April 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz we have The Shortwave Garage Sale beamed to Europe via Shortwave Gold. Pull open that garage door, crank up your shortwave radio to 11 and enjoy our rousing Garage and Psyche special. Why not even get into some overalls and lie down on one of those mechanic’s creeper things and really get into the garage vibe!

On our new day of Wednesday 1st May 2024 via the services of WRMI we bring you another episode of WMMR – Mystery Mix Radio at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz. Who knows what DJ Frederick will play but we promise you it’ll be interesting and fun.

We are still looking for some financial help to cover our production and transmission costs for our shows on shortwave so here’s our fundraising video below. We’d love to keep our show on the air for the rest of the year and we are looking for donations (no matter how small as everything helps) to keep our shows bouncing off that ionosphere. Remember, radio connects us all!

For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here.

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Guest Post: Pre-Internet Sources of Shortwave Information

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:

Sources of SWL Information “Pre-Internet”

by Dan Greenall

When I first discovered the world of shortwave listening, many years before the internet, access to hobby related information was mostly available through over-the-air DX programs, monthly DX club bulletins, as well as a number of books and electronics magazines. I joined a few clubs including the Midwest DX Club, SPEEDX, and the Ontario DX Association, and eagerly awaited each issue of Electronics Illustrated and Popular Electronics (early 1970’s) on the news stand. Later, in the 1980’s, Popular Communications and Monitoring Times came along, though these were not always easy to find here in Canada.

Ironically, nearly all issues of these magazines can be read today, over 30, 40 and even 50 years later, thanks to David Gleason’s not-for-profit, free online library

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm

You can also find the semi-annual (and eventually annual) Communications World (1971-81) which contained the popular White’s Radio Log.

As well, five issues of the Communications Handbook can be found; 1963, 1966, 1967, 1974 and 1977. It only came out once a year but was still a favourite of mine, so much so, that I still have my copies from 1971 and 1972.

I have scanned parts of these and put them on the Internet Archive. You can find them here:

Communications Handbook 1971: https://archive.org/details/page-09

Communications Handbook 1972: https://archive.org/details/page-20

Here are links that will lead to some of the other magazines:

As a bonus, all of the issues of the monthly SPEEDX bulletin (1971-95) have been made available here

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Speedx.htm

And finally, a good read is Shortwave Voices of the World by the late Dr. Richard E. Wood written in 1969. I still have my copy of it, but you can find it online here

https://archive.org/details/shortwave-voices-of-the-world-richard-wood-ed-1-pr-1-1969

WDX SWL registration program

My link to the 1971 Communications Handbook contains pages regarding the old WDX SWL registration program. I have found my old certificate from December 1971:

Wonder how many others still have theirs, or even the WPE ones from the 1960’s?

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No birds do sing

Here comes the Sun (again)

It’s a mystery

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Hi FastRadioBurst 23 from the Imaginary Stations crew here letting you know about the Imaginary Stations Spring mystery challenge. We are inviting all our listeners to guess the theme of the show below on Mixcloud.

Please send your suggestions to [email protected] and the person who comes closest will be sent an individual QSL and a prize.

For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here.

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Kostas improves the contrast on his FRG-7 digital display

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kostas (SV3ORA), for sharing the following guest post which originally appeared on his radio website:

FRG-7 digital display contrast improvement

by Kostas (SV3ORA)

The FRG-7 digital by Marcel Jacobs PA8MA, is a very well thought modification KIT for the Yaesu FRG-7 receiver. It really adds to it one of the things it misses (and it misses a lot) to become a more “serious” receiver in the modern era, the digital frequency readout and S-meter. If you are like me and enjoy classic radio gear, but you do not want to compromise much the every-day usability, I recommend you this KIT. I have to say here that, the first thing you would want to do if you use the receiver for SSB, is to perform my SSB-related mods as well.

When I installed this KIT on my FRG-7 The first thing I did not like about it, was the very bright display which blasts your eyes with light especially at night on a low-lit shack. Not only that, but your eye will condinuously focus on the bright display and you loose the magic of the rest of the radio controls and displays. I wanted the digital display to be one of the parts of the radio and not the major thing that my eyes will look all the time. Marcel was smart enough to include 2 brightness levels in software. The low brightness setting does not actually change the backlight of the display, it just changes the graphics in more dim colors. As a result in either setting, the backlight color is very bright and this decreases contrast a lot. The background of the numbers in the display has a blue-ish color and not true black. Not only that, but the edges of the display, are visible too. I have solved all of these problems with a simple modification to the KIT.

The picture above, shows the display after my modification. The picture is taken on a dim-lit shack using my phone, with no further image processing. What you see in this picture, is exactly what it looks in reality, after my modification. Notice how the background of the display, remains pure black and the numbers and graphics of the display do not blind you anymore and are of the same brightness as the rest of the original backlit graphics of the radio. This allows your eye to wander around to the rest of the nice radio backlit things, without focusing all the time on a bright display. This is very relaxing to the eye and the brain as you scan for stations. You actually only look at the digital display when you want more accuracy. Compare this nice display contrast with the one presented on Marcel’s manual and you will notice the difference.

The modification is really simple and it does not need a schematic. It is just a 22k potentiometer, connected as a variable resistor like shown in the picture. I just cut the second cable (from the left), of the ribbon and then soldered the variable resistor there. That’s it. Depended on the light conditions in which you operate the receiver and on your personal preference, you can set the brighness from full to very dim. In the software setting, set the brightness to maximum. Then use this variable resistor to decrease it to your desired level.

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