Category Archives: Ham Radio

Video: The Digitech AR-1780 on single sideband

[UPDATE: Click here to read our full review of the Digitech AR-1780.]

With travels, solar eclipse events and family activities this week, I’ve had very little time to play radio.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day though, so I took the family to the Blue Ridge Parkway and (of course) packed a couple portable radios.

While we all enjoyed a picnic, I pulled out the AR-1780 with the intention of exploring its SSB performance and audio fidelity. I found an Islands On The Air (IOTA) activation with a decent pileup on 14,250 kHz.

I shot this short video with my smart phone:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the AR-1780 on SSB. The noise floor is pretty low, the filter selections are handy and the overall audio is comparable to slightly larger portable radios.

The dedicated fine tune control is quite handy, even though it’s oddly located on the right side of the radio (where one typically finds a volume control).

I’m putting together a short review of the AR-1780, but will need more air and comp time before I form any firm opinions.

For readers that have made it this far down the post, you might recognize a yet-to-be-released portable next to the AR-1780. Of course, I’m comparing it with the AR-1780 and its predecessor, but it’s not a production run unit (yet!), so I can’t comment on performance. Stay tuned, though, as I will be posting more in the coming days!

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Hurricane Harvey: How to monitor Hurricane Watch Net observations via shortwave radio

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As Hurricane Harvey makes its slow trek through toward Corpus Christi, we’re watching what might become one of the most damaging storms this decade in the States.

Each hurricane season, I receive emails from readers asking about frequencies to monitor as the storm approaches.

Hurricane Watch Net (HWN)

The Hurricane Watch Net is a group of amateur radio operators who are trained and organized “to provide essential communications support to the National Hurricane Center during times of Hurricane emergencies.” The HWN focuses on “ground truth” observations (much like SkyWarn nets).

The Hurricane Watch Net is activated when a hurricane is within 300 statute miles of expected land-fall. The HWN covers the Caribbean, Central America, Eastern Mexico, Eastern Canada, and all US Coastal States.

The HWN operates in both English and Spanish, and is active on 14.325 MHz (upper sideband) during the day and 7.268 MHz (lower sideband) at night. The HWN is known to operate on both frequencies if propagation allows.

Please keep HWN frequencies clear

If you’re an amateur radio operator, please avoid using 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz anytime the HWN has been activated.

Monitoring hurricane frequencies

If you have a shortwave radio with a BFO/SSB mode–and you live within the propagation footprint–you can monitor the Hurricane Watch Net.

Note that you’ll need to use upper sideband on 14.325 MHz and lower sideband on 7.268 MHz.

You can also monitor the Hurricane Watch Net via the following web stream: http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/20970/web

Click here to view the Hurricane Watch Net website.

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Dan warns of more fraudulent eBay items

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:

There’s been a new flurry of these posts on eBay, always the WJ 8711A. These items have prohibited listing practices, and should be ignored — definitely not something to bid on. I have reported these on numerous occasions to Ebay, which has expressed appreciation, but they keep coming back. Location is often listed as Pennsylvania, and other states.

Example of item title

And they can’t even get the spelling right!

Thank you for the heads-up and warning, Dan!

It’s frustrating and I assume it’s a scammer who has hijacked valid eBay seller accounts. The seller above, for example, has 16,000+ feedbacks 99.7% positive. TIn every way, the top of the listing appears to be valid.

But if you scroll down the page, you’ll find this message:

Let’s be clear: If you ever see the message above, you are viewing a fraudulent eBay listing!

The scammer actually embeds the convoluted BuyItNow message above as a graphic in the eBay listing. This makes it difficult for eBay to automatically find the scammers and delete the postings.

Many thanks, Dan, for apprising us of the situation.

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Universal Radio is moving

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Universal Radio’s showroom at the current Reynoldsburg location.

(Source: Universal Radio via Dave Zantow)

Universal Radio Is Moving

In the coming months Universal Radio will move its operations to a more efficient location here in the Columbus, Ohio area where we can continue to serve our loyal customers.

This will be the fourth location change since Universal was founded in 1942.

We look forward to many more years of serving the amateur and short wave communities which Universal Radio has done for 75 years.

The new location (below) is a 30 minute drive from the current location.

Universal Radio Inc.
651-B Lakeview Plaza Blvd.
Worthington, OH 43085

Moving date: Mid-October, 2017

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EclipseMob’s August 21 experiment

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(Image: EclipseMob)

(Source: The Washington Post)

On Aug. 21, as the moon passes in front of the sun and casts a shadow across the United States, millions are expected to gaze at the totality. Meanwhile, a smaller crowd will be glued to 150 custom-made radio receivers set up across the country.

The project, called EclipseMob, is the largest experiment of its kind in history. By recording changes in the radio signal, these citizen scientists will collect data on the ionosphere — the region of the atmosphere where, miles above Earth’s surface, cosmic and solar radiation bumps electrons free from atoms and molecules. It plays a crucial role in some forms of long-distance communication: Like rocks skipped across a pond, radio waves can bounce along the top of the ionosphere to travel farther around the globe. But signals passing through the ionosphere sometimes behave in unpredictable ways, and scientists still have a lot of questions about its properties and behavior.

“Any solar eclipse is a good opportunity to study the ionosphere,” said Jill K. Nelson, an expert in signal processing at George Mason University in Virginia. The level of ions in the ionosphere fluctuates from day to night, decreasing in the absence of sunlight. But this change happens gradually during normal sunrises and sunsets. The sudden light-to-dark switch as it occurs during the eclipse, then, is an opportune moment to observe this layer of the atmosphere.

Continue reading at The Washington Post…

Many thanks for the tip, Ed!

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Solar Eclipse 2017: In the path of totality

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A portion of the PARI campus

Tomorrow, we will be experiencing a total solar eclipse here in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Instead of enjoying the eclipse at home, I will be volunteering as a docent at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman, North Carolina. Post readers might recall PARI as it was the location of our 2015 PARI DXpedition.

One of PARI’s 26 meter radio telescopes.

PARI is expecting at least 1,000 visitors tomorrow, from a number of countries. Many are scientists, astronomers, and guests who want to be in the path of totality.

On the PARI campus, we will be in totality for about 1 minutes, 47 seconds.

What makes the event truly special for PARI is that this is the first time in history a world-class radio astronomy observatory has been in the path of totality. To say the PARI astronomers are excited is simply an understatement. All four of PARI’s telescopes will be trained on our local star and gathering copious amounts of data.

If you don’t live in the path of the Eclipse, I invite you to check out PARI’s YouTube channel where they will host a live stream:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Gathering spectrum

I will also be gathering data of my own during the event.

I will remotely record the entire mediumwave (AM broadcast) band several hours before, during and after the eclipse. I will also set up a separate SDR to record either the 31/30 meter bands and my buddy, Vlado (N3CZ) is kindly using his SDRplay RSP1 to record from 6 MHz – 8 MHz.

What do I expect to see/hear in the spectrum recordings? Certainly a drop in noise. If I’m lucky, I also hope to hear some DX anomalies–hopefully a signal or two that I wouldn’t normally here in the middle of a summer day.

I don’t expect any dramatic results (though I would love to be proven otherwise!) since the ionosphere takes time to change states. My buddy Mike (K8RAT) likens it to an oven: it takes time for it to heat up to the desired temperature, and it takes time for it to cool down as well. I’m not so sure the shadow of the moon, which moves at a good clip, will be persistent enough to change the state of the ionosphere in any meaningful way.

If it does, I’ll be there to record it!

There are many other radio related experiments happening during the solar eclipse. A notable one that you can even help with is the 2017 Ham Radio Eclipse Experiment.

SWLing Post contributor, Dan Srebnick also suggests a few stations you might try catching on the AM broadcast band. Dan notes:

Something to do during the solar eclipse on Monday. There are 13 clear channel AM stations along the path of totality. Give a listen for them:
[LIST OF AM CLEAR CHANNEL STATIONS]
kHz CALL Location Eclipse UTC
—— ——- —————- ————–
650 WSM Nashville, TN 18:28
670 KBOI Boise, ID 17:27
750 WSB Atlanta, GA 18:36
840 WHAS Louisville, KY 18:27
880 KRVN Lexington, NE 17:57
1030 KTWO Casper, WY 17:43
1040 WHO DesMoines, IA 18:08
1110 KFAB Omaha, NE 18:04
1110 WBT Charlotte, NC 18:41
1120 KPNW Eugene, OR 17:17
1120 KMOX St. Louis, MO 18:18
1190 KEX Portland, OR 17:19
1510 WLAC Nashville, TN 18:28

Kudos to Bob WB4APR (of APRS fame) for producing this list.

Post readers: Will you be in the path of totality or do you plan to enjoy a partial eclipse? Have you ever experienced a total solar eclipse? What are your plans if any? Please comment!

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Practical Wireless and RadioUser magazines have new owner

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(Source: Southgate ARC)

New owner for Practical Wireless and RadioUser magazines

Roger Hall & Steve Hunt have made the following announcement on the PW Publishing website:

We are very pleased to announce that Practical Wireless and RadioUsermagazines have been bought by Warners Group Publications, a Lincolnshire-based multi-million-pound turnover publishing company that specialises in producing magazines, websites and events for niche hobbies.

They believe that both Practical Wireless and RadioUser are an ideal fit with their business and have assured us they plan to use their publishing expertise and size to help develop both titles, giving them an assured long-term future.

Both Steve and I are aware that we were only the most recent custodians of two historic titles, Practical Wireless dating from 1932 and the RadioUser with its roots in Short Wave Magazine from 1937.
That’s why, when we decided to retire after being in publishing for almost 40 years, first with IPC and then with PW Publishing, we felt it was important to find a reputable company with the expertise and resources to make sure they will continue to be published for many years to come. In Warners, we believe we have found just such a company and both PW and RU will continue to be the country’s best-selling radio magazines.

Over the next few weeks we will be handing over all aspect of our business to Warners and they will be publishing both titles from the October issues onwards.

The new Publisher will be Rob McDonnell ([email protected]) and the new Group Advertising Manager will be Claire Ingram ([email protected]).

Our existing Editors, Don Field and Georg Wiessala, will remain with their respective magazines. In addition, I will be staying on in a consultancy role to help with the transition and to assist Warners going forwards.

We’d both like to thank all of you for the support you’ve given us and the magazines in the past; it’s been an interesting few decades.

For the next three months, Webscribe will continue to administer subscriptions, to assure a seamless handover, and new contact details will be forthcoming in due course.

Roger Hall & Steve Hunt
PW Publishing Limited
http://www.pwpublishing.ltd.uk