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”.
Thanks for sharing, Cap! I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive 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 timehttps://ok.ru/video/904028097176
20:00-21:39 “How radio works” animationThe 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!
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.
WWV building in Fort Collins, Colorado (photo courtesy: NIST)
(Source: Dave Swartz, W0DAS)
NCARC WWV Committee
Fort Collins, Colorado:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JANUARY 11, 2019WWV Centennial Celebration and Special Event Amateur Station September 28 – October 2, 2019
The 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?.
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!
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!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jamie Anderson (KM4WYO), who writes:
I have been browsing around eBay too much and was trying to put together a do-it-all radio for camping/backpacking that is small.
It is hard to find SW/broadcast/weather/air band together (for good reason, of course). I did run across this radio that is interesting: the HRD-737 which retails around $40.
- Internal 700mah 3.7v lithium, with 5v usb charge
- Air 118-138 MHz
- FM 87.5 – 108 MHz
- AM 520-1720 kHz
- CB 25-28 MHz
- SW 2-30 MHz in 5 kHz steps
- VHF narrow/wide FM – 30-223 MHz (10,6,2,220)
I’m not sure if it would pick up NOAA stations as I think they have a slightly different FM bandwidth.
It seems interesting for a do it all point of view, you could possibly monitor ham repeaters on 2 meters, just a little too short of frequency coverage for 220.
Click here to view the HDR-737 on eBay.
Have you seen one of these or something similar in your reviews?
I have never used the HDR-737, but thanks for bringing it to our attention, Jamie!
I should think, assuming the stated VHF frequency coverage is correct, that you should be able to hear weather radio on this receiver. NOAA weather frequencies are on 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, and 162.550 MHz.
The manufacturer isn’t clear about the frequency steps on VHF however–it’s possible tuning increments could be too coarse to get a good lock on the station. That specification is omitted altogether even though every other band has stated frequency steps.
I should mention that the original C. Crane CC Skywave meets all of your specifications save the ability to potentially tune in the 2M ham radio band.
Post readers: Is anyone familiar with the HanRongDa HRD-737? Please comment!
