Category Archives: Ham Radio

Radios in Godzilla 2 trailer

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ron Chester (W6AZ), who notes that the new Godzilla film contains a number of boat anchors.

What I think is so funny is how they’ve altered the logging/fine tune dial of the Hammarlund SP-600 to look like signal strength meter! For someone who has owned an SP-600, this is a little strange to say the least!

Click here to view on YouTube.

Cap spots an Icom and Yaesu in Netflix Sci-Fi film IO

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Cap Tux, who spotted two ham radio rigs in IO. Cap notes:

ICOM IC-740, Yaesu FT-901DM and Shortwave make an appearance in Netflix Sci-Fi film IO:
Mentions “transmitting on frequency 9043kHz and listening on frequency 9560kHz daily, that’s the 31m band”.

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80134721

Thanks for sharing, Cap! I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

Balázs spots a wide variety of radios in film

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who shares the following radio sightings and notes:

The Priest’s rig from the last episode of “The Walking Dead

A Yaesu in “Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom

Some emergency/weather radios in the “The Darkest Minds

The Last Ship S05E01
After a cyber attack a backup comm solution for the US Navy.

Night of the Living Dead (1968/1990)
In the original a radio broadcast was the first information source, in the remake only a small one was used at the end.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
In a remote shack.

+1: The “Álmodozások kora” (Age of Illusions (US) / The Age of Daydreaming (Int)) was the first (Hungarian) feature film of the director István Szabó (winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981 (Mephisto), English language films: Meeting Venus (1991), Sunshine (1999), Taking Sides (2001), the Oscar nominated Being Julia (2004) and The Door (2012)) in 1965 about a group of young electrical engineers. Two scenes from it about the radios, unfortunately I found the hungarian speaking version only online, but I think maybe it can be still interesting: https://ok.ru/video/228250552961

  • 33:58-35: A custom rig receiving 4 european stations (Paris, London, Rome, Prague) on different speakers at the same time
  • 1:05:43-1:07:20: “How radio works” animation
  • (and there was a short scene also where they talk about the The Pioneer Railway and how they learned the morse code there)

I found another (splited) version of the movie now with english subtitles, the new links and timings:

https://ok.ru/video/904027376280
33:58-35:28: A custom rig receiving 4 European stations (Paris, London, Rome, Prague) on different speakers at the same time

https://ok.ru/video/904028097176
20:00-21:39 “How radio works” animation

The same actor (András Bálint) 13 years later have a short ham radio scene (new year greetings in english) in another movie (BUÉK, 1978). I checked the callsign from the wall (HA5FA) and probably it was already a real one, belongs to Jen? Matzon, active member of the radio amateur community (DXCC Honor Roll, etc.) now a Silent Key.

Wow! Many thanks for sharing all of these radio spots, Balazs! Funny thing is I remember so well those shots from Night of the Living Dead even though I likely watched it 40 years ago! I guess I never forget a Zenith!

Of course, I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

Video: “The Fort and the Field Day”

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who shares a link to this short video highlighting amateur radio at the 2017 Fort Wayne Field Day:

Click here to view on YouTube.

YouTube description: A 10 minute documentary investigating why people still do ham radio. Shot at the Historical Fort Wayne in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during ARRL Field Day in 2017.

Mark your calendars: WWV Special Event Amateur Station Sep 28 – Oct 2, 2019

WWV building in Fort Collins, Colorado (photo courtesy: NIST)

(Source: Dave Swartz, W0DAS)

NCARC WWV Committee
Fort Collins, Colorado:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JANUARY 11, 2019

WWV Centennial Celebration and Special Event Amateur Station September 28 – October 2, 2019

Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club Logo NCARCThe Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club (NCARC) will operate a special event amateur radio station in conjunction with the WWV Centennial Celebration, a tribute to radio station WWV, the oldest continuously broadcasting radio station in the world, as it turns 100 years old on October 1, 2019.

Operating from alongside the historic and scientific long wave (WWVB) and short wave (WWV) radio stations, the NCARC effort will use 4 simultaneous operations on a variety of amateur shortwave bands. The goal is to contact as many amateur radio stations in the world as possible during the 5-day operating period, September 28 through October 2, 2019, using a variety of operating modes (Morse code, voice, and data).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, (US Dept of Commerce) lists the official 100t?h celebration on their events calendar from 8am until 7pm, October 1, 2019.

NCARC and NIST are working on coordinating the celebration and the special event amateur station. Because of the present shutdown of the US Government, planning and discussions have been put on hold. We look forward to the end of the shutdown, a future press release from NIST, and getting back to work on planning the celebration of this historic event.
NCARC deemed it necessary to issue this press release on our own due to the uncertainty of the length of the shutdown and the need to get this event, at least the special event station, on everyone’s planning calendar as soon as possible.

The exceptional challenge of operating this station will require the help of amateurs and radio clubs throughout Colorado, the surrounding states, and from across the country. Amateurs who are interested in traveling to Fort Collins this fall and taking part in the operations are encouraged to apply starting February 15, 2019. Please see the Operators page on the website.

For more information, please visit the WWV Centennial Celebration website,? ?WWV100.com?.

M.I.T. Radio Society: Public lectures covering all aspects of radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jennifer Waits, who notes that The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radio Society (W1MX) and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) are presenting a series of radio-related lectures covering a wide array of topics, “from the design of modern wireless communications systems and 5G, to software defined radio and satellite communications, to shortwave radio propagation, space weather, Radio Astronomy and more.”

The public lectures are announced here: http://student.mit.edu/iap/ns313.html 

All lectures are streamed live and archived on YouTube.

Jennifer notes that one of the most recent lectures focuses on shortwave radio and propagation:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Click here to view the entire lecture playlist.

Thanks for the tip, Jennifer!

Dave notes the Icom IC-735 makes an appearance in “Pole To Pole With Michael Palin”

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who writes:

Now you just just had to talk about the Icom IC-735.

In the final episode from the 1992 BBC 8 part series “Pole To Pole with Michael Palin” (Bitter End), you will see a couple of IC-735’s used.

They are located about 7:04 and 28:08 (minutes) in the video:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2iszgj

Click here to view the video in a separate window.

Thanks for sharing this, Dave. I absolutely loved this travel series and watched it many years ago.  I’m also a big fan of Michael Palin. I think it’s time to re-watch it especially knowing the IC-735 makes a cameo!