Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric (WD8RIF), who notes that the 29th episode of TX Factor was recently released. Here’s the show summary:
Welcome to our new episode!
TX Factor Calling – TX date 8th July 2023
We’re beaming (almost) live across the airwaves with microwatts of broadband energy to bring you the long-awaited show 29 of TX Factor. In this programme we increase the power to a few tens of Watts when Bob, Dave and Noel head to the Wiltshire hills with a pair of Icom IC-905 all-mode transceivers to see what can be achieved.
Bob takes the TX Factor cameras to the heart of England to the UK’s last remaining shortwave transmission station and ramps up the power to a staggering 250 kilowatts. Woofferton, near Ludlow, is the home to some venerable Marconi senders from the 1960s still beaming programmes across the globe.
Oh, and there’s a free-to-enter draw – details below.
I enjoyed all of the presentations and the casual conversations many of us had in the hospitality lounge and various break-out rooms. Again, kudos to the Fest organizers and all of the volunteers who moderated the various rooms and forums–you all did an amazing job!
The one thing I always pick up when hanging with other radio enthusiasts is the type or class of radio they tend to operate the most.
Case in point: I noticed one friend is currently enamored with tube/valve radios–in past years he loved compact DSP portables. Another friend switched from using primarily a portable radio to a Drake R8 series tabletop radio. I noticed that many others have been bitten the SDR bullet since last year.
Daily drivers
For many of us, the type of radio we use daily changes over time.
For example, when I first started listening to shortwave in my youth my daily driver was a portable radio. When I got my ham license I found that I enjoyed using my general coverage transceiver connected to a multi-band doublet. Later, with the advent of Software Defined Radios, I became an avid SDR enthusiast.
At present, I’m back to using general coverage transceivers (specifically, the Icom IC-705).
Of course, I always have portables and vintage radios on the air, but they’re not my primary, or “daily driver,” these days.
Survey
I’m curious: what’s your daily driver?
I’ve created a short survey. If you’d like to participate, simply enter your answer in the form below, click the submit button and it will tally the results. Alternatively, you canclick on this link to open the survey form in a new tab/window. Of course, feel free to comment on this post as well! Thank you!
Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel broadcasts on the short wave on Wednesdays from 21 to 23 UTC and on Saturdays from 21 UTC until 03:00 on Sunday on frequency 15476 Khz (USB).
Due to improvements in the audio chain and transmission line and good propagation, we are receiving messages from listeners who had not been able to listen to it for decades and also reception reports from countries such as India, Iceland, Japan, United States, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and all the National territory.
During the summer we broadcast a program called “Uniendo Voces”, a production of the Joint Antarctic Command, the University of Quilmes and RAE, with the presentation of Juan Carlos Benavente.
We also share with you videos and posts in which listeners from around the world share their reception of LRA36. [Continue reading…]
It might seem antiquated, but Morse code still has a number of advantages compared to other modes of communication, especially over radio waves. It’s low bandwidth compared to voice or even text, and can be discerned against background noise even at extremely low signal strengths. Not every regulatory agency requires amateur operators to learn Morse any more, but for those that do it can be a challenge, so [Cristiano Monteiro] built this clock to help get some practice.
The project is based around his favorite microcontroller, the PIC16F1827, and uses a DS1307 to keep track of time. A single RGB LED at the top of the project enclosure flashes the codes for hours in blue and minutes in red at the beginning of every minute, and in between flashes green for each second. [Continue reading…]
While some still offer OTA reception, the specialty segment is dominated by online connectivity
There was a time, of course, when radios were fixtures in people’s homes. But according to Edison Research’s “Infinite Dial 2022” report, the percentage of U.S. homes with “zero” radios inside went from 4% in 2008 to 39% in 2022.
Among the radios that remain, clock and emergency radios have the best chances of justifying their presence to internet-centric consumers. But good ol’ fashioned tabletop radios? AM/FM receivers housed in eye-appealing laminated wood cases with big speakers and hefty knobs?
Mass-market companies such as Panasonic and Sony have abandoned such products. But specialty/quality brands such as C. Crane, Grace Digital, Sangean and Tivoli Audio have not.
These brands bring fresh approaches to the tabletop radio segment through innovation and the harnessing of streaming technology. Still, it’s an uphill battle in a world obsessed with all things internet.
There are several reasons conventional AM/FM tabletop radios have been disappearing from homes.
The first and most obvious is that even by the beginning of this century, radio had long ceased being a destination medium around which the family gathered to listen. In recent decades, the more common uses were morning wakeups, rush-hour commutes, sports on the go and weather emergencies, all well-served by portable radios, though there was still some degree of at-home listening. [Continue reading…]
Car manufacturers claim they cannot suppress noise getting into the AM signals in their electric vehicles. This article presents the viewpoint of three people who beg to disagree.
Tom King, the chairman of Kintronic Labs Inc., is an expert on AM transmission and noise interference. His company manufactures most of the phasing cabinets for directional arrays on AM stations around the world. Continue reading →
It has been just over four years since Hubbard Radio’s adult alternative “The Gamut” WWFD, Frederick, MD (820) powered down its analog signal and began operating as a digital-only AM station under experimental authority granted by the FCC. Since then, new FCC rules permitting all-digital AMs industrywide have broadcasters taking a closer look at WWFD as they consider options for struggling AMs.
WWFD posted a 1.5 share (12+) in Nielsen’s Frederick, MD spring survey with a weekly cume of 3,300. Before it went all digital, Dave Kolesar, Senior Broadcast Engineer at Hubbard and the station’s PD, says it was a ratings no-show, “a wasted signal.”
The idea for making the all-digital leap came around Christmas 2016 when Kolesar concluded that a music format on AM – even one as differentiated as The Gamut’s expansive playlist – was “pretty much a nonstarter that exists for the purpose of having an FM translator. In all-digital mode, the AM signal has the capability of becoming relevant again” with digital sound quality, and artist and album title and album artwork displays.
According to Xperi, about 35% of cars on the road in the DC market are equipped with HD Radio receivers. Yet only a small fraction of listening to radio in the market is to AM radio. The station focuses on the one-third of the market that could enjoy a music format that looks and feels like any other service in the dashboard. The strategy involves using the FM translator as promotional vehicle for the digital AM frequency: “when you’re outside the coverage area of our 94.3 FM signal, tune into 820 and hear us while you’re driving around,” Kolesar explains. [Continue reading…]
Radio DJ Tom Edwards looks back at his youth spent broadcasting off the East Anglia coast
Although I’ve lived in Lincolnshire for nearly 30 years having been born and educated in Norwich, I will of course always be a Norfolk man. At 77 years of age now I’ve been a broadcaster for 57 of those years.
During Easter of 1964 a somewhat mysterious radio station came on the airwaves playing non-stop music and the presenters seemed to be just ad libbing at the microphone in contrast to the rather staid BBC light programme which hardly played any popular music. The station turned out to be the now famous Radio Caroline, which was transmitting from a ship off the East Anglia coast.
I was a Bluecoat at Pontins holiday camp at Pakefield and the site had a Radio Pontins Tannoy system so I asked the boss for some money to buy some 45 hit singles which he agreed to and so started doing record requests for the happy campers.
Other stations, whether they were ships or wartime fortresses, suddenly began to appear right around the coast of the UK. Apart from Caroline there were other stations including Radio London, Radio England, Radio270 and Radio 390.
The more I heard of these stations, which were becoming so popular with an estimated audience of 22 million, the more I wanted to be out there at sea with them. I wrote and sent tapes of my Pontins shows to all of them. While on a few days off in Norwich, a man called Reg Calvert called me and said he liked what he heard and offered me a weekend try out on Radio City. [Continue reading…]
Surrounded by the barbed wires, dense deodar trees and Pir Panchal mountains in the backdrop, this is the All India Radio (AIR) Srinagar’s Radio Station which has been set up close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Rustum area of J&K’s Uri sector.
Set up in November 2020, the station has been built 9,000 feet above the sea level.
The radio station has been set up with an aim to provide access to the Kashmiri people living on the other side of the border to listen to their favourite programs.
“The local news, music programs and especially Pahari and Gojari programs are aired from this station for the Kashmiri population living on the other side of the LoC,” said Qazi Masood who heads the station in Uri. [Continue reading…]
Three top public media podcast executives discuss with PMA the benefits and complications that come with collaborations, and how ultimately, they can help public media organisations fulfil their public service obligations.
As the podcast market globally becomes ever more saturated and competitive, PMA invited three top podcast executives from three leading public media organisations to discuss how collaborations might provide the pathway for public media organisations to remain the premier podcast producers. It came after a talk about podcast collaborations at Radiodays Europe in Malmö, Sweden in May 2022.
They spoke to PMA’s Editorial Manager, Harry Lock.
Harry Lock:Could you give me some examples of podcasts which you’ve worked on where you collaborated with another organisation? How does it actually work logistics-wise?
Arif Noorani, Director of CBC Podcasts: Hunting Warhead is a collaboration we did with VG, Scandinavia’s biggest newspaper, on a story they’d spent more than two years on (it was nominated for a Prix Italia.) Production wise – CBC led the podcast and embedded a VG team member in the production team providing contacts, research and notes on scripts.
We have three international co-productions with the BBC World Service – launching in the next year. It’s an equal joint effort – Jon Manel, commissioner for the BBC World Service and I co-lead all aspects of the project. We think the combined heft of CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service was attractive. We meet weekly and more (along with Whatsapping each other if it’s urgent) to discuss production, content, rollout and all the business side of things. We have one point person between the production teams and the BBC/CBC to keep it streamlined. To make this work, you have to have lots of trust between all sides, and a shared vision of the type of content you want to make (in this case journalistically-driven serialised narrative storytelling rich in characters and heartbeat). Jon and I have informally collaborated for a few years so that really helped. We’ll also combine our audience building, digital and marketing efforts in the launch and rollout.
Andrew Davies, Digital and Engagement Editor, ABC Australia: Co-productions and collaborations with external organisations/partners is still a relatively new area for the ABC in podcasting. There have been a number of collaborations between Radio National (ABC’s specialist talks network) and the BBC but those have mostly been radio focused. The ABC’s Audio Studios team did a co-production with WNYC Studios a few years ago with Short & Curly, our very popular ethics podcast for children.
More recently we’ve worked with Arif and the CBC Podcasts team around the release of series two of our popular Stuff The British Stole podcast. That involved the CBC team helping with audience building (through cross-promotion, publicity, marketing and digital/social content) in the North American market. That was a really successful collaboration and we were excited to work with the CBC as we knew they recognised not just what a great show it is but also wanted to help it reach a bigger audience. There were a large number of people involved from both broader teams but I want to echo Arif’s point about having clear point people on both sides to keep things streamlined.
Tim Watkin, Executive Producer of Podcasts & Series, RNZ: RNZ Podcasts has produced 46 podcasts in partnership with 38 different organisations. That includes other broadcasters and media, production houses and funders. Collaboration can take many forms.
The most common form of collaboration for RNZ is where we make a podcast alongside an independent production company. For example, Eating Fried Chicken in the Shower is a series that was pitched to us by an independent producer, Charlie Bleakley, and host James Nokise. RNZ paid for the series but was very hands-on, more than a mere commission. We provided a supervising producer, sound recordist on location, draft audio edits, studios for the final mix and promotion. [Continue reading…]
I received the following message from my buddy Rob (NC0B) who is trying to identify a couple of signals on the 20 meter band. Rob kindly gave me permission to post his email here on the SWLing Post with the idea that someone may be able to help him solve this:
The following is a description of two odd digital signals observed on 20 meters with transmission modes I do not understand. They may not amateur transmissions, but I have no way to decode them. They stick out like a sore thumb on 20m in the Extra portion of the phone band. The time of day on August 20th was between 11:50 AM and 12:00 PM MDT.
Two weeks ago I was in QSO on 14,170 kHz and occasionally there was the same 10 kHz wide digital signal but centered on 14,171 kHz. It sounded like the old Russian jammers buzz saw modulation. Those signals from decades ago were much wider, and or course we didn’t have high resolution spectrum scopes back then. Today the same transmissions occurred several times, and more than once a minute for about 5 seconds each. In total the transmissions may have occurred on and off for about 10 minutes.
Then after a few 10 kHz transmissions a different signal came on the air a few times with what looked like a digital modulated carrier plus digital sidebands on each side of the middle signal.
Look at the attached JPG file and I’ll try to make sense out of it:
The waterfall image lasts about 50 seconds on the Icom IC-7610 set on slow. There are two different signals to differentiate in this image. The signal I observed two weeks ago and today is 10 kHz wide and today spans from 14,178 to 14,188. It shows up in green on the band scope, and just under it in blue on the water fall for about 3 seconds of the approximate 5 second transmission. You can also see at the bottom of the waterfall the previous transmission that has about 4 seconds worth saved on the waterfall running off the bottom. The horizontal span of the scope was set to 5 kHz per division.
Once the 10 kHz wide signal started, I went to Dual Watch so I could listen for KL7QOW on 14,170 kHz for a sked, and hear the buzzing signal on 14,183 kHz in SSB mode. That frequency placed the carrier position of the SSB 2.8 kHz bandwidth in the center of the 10 kHz wide signal.
Soon after I started observing the relatively flat spectrum of the 10 kHz signal, a new digital signal appeared about 3 kHz lower in frequency. At first it had a much stronger center modulated carrier about 2 kHz wide and then two symmetrical digital signals on each side within about a 6 kHz total bandwidth. I wasn’t able to capture the best picture of the 2nd signal as it appeared to be tuning up. The amplitude difference between the central signal and the separate sidebands initially was about 15 dB. Vertical divisions are 10 dB.
On the waterfall you can see the second type of signal is centered on about 14,180 kHz. The modulation depth of the outer pairs of signals were not constant, possibly due to selective facing. QSB was quite significant at this time at least to Alaska. You can see there was a short break of a few seconds in the 6 kHz wide signal. Every time I have seen the 10 kHz wide signal its amplitude across the transmission bandwidth has been fairly constant, always of short duration, and repeating several times within 10 minutes before terminating.
Does anyone have any idea what either of these transmissions are? I have heard of email digipeaters, but I would not think their bandwidth would be this wide.
Rob, NC0B
SWLing Post community: Please comment if you can help Rob ID these signals!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Sheldon Harvey, who shares the following announcement from the CIDX:
CIDX AMATEUR RADIO CLUB STATIONS ON THE AIR JULY 17, 2022
CIDX has two amateur radio club stations that are activated from time to time on the ham bands, usually to mark special events, club anniversaries, etc.
VE2AQP is our eastern Canada amateur club station callsign, located at CIDX eastern Canadian headquarters in Saint-Lambert, Quebec
VE6SWL is our western Canada amateur club station callsign, located at CIDX western Canadian headquarters in Sherwood Park, Alberta
CIDX is planning to activate the stations in July to mark the 60th anniversary of the Canadian International DX Club.
VE2AQP will be active from Montreal, Quebec, operated by CIDX World of Utilities editor Gilles Letourneau, VE2ZZI, on July 17th from 1800 UTC to 2200 UTC around 14240 kHz USB, plus or minus, depending on activity and the conditions on the band,
VE6SWL will be active from Lamont, Alberta, operated by CIDX Vice-President & Verie Interesting editor Mickey Delmage, VE6IDX, also July 17th from 1800 UTC to 2200 UTC around 14265 kHz USB, plus or minus, depending on activity and the conditions on the band.
VE2AQP will be active again on July 31st at 2200 UTC to August 1 at 0200 UTC on 40 meters around 7150 kHz LSB, plus or minus, depending on activity and the conditions on the band.
CIDX will be issuing special e-QSLs for contacts with either or both CIDX club stations. SWLs are also welcome to submit reports should you log either or both stations. For those receiving e-QSLs who are not CIDX members, a free sample copy of “Messenger” together with club information will accompany the e-QSL.
CIDX will activate the two CIDX amateur club stations at various times throughout the balance of 2022 to mark CIDX’s 60th anniversary. Notices of future operations will be posted on the CIDX Facebook group and the CIDX IO Group.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mangosman, who notes that since a number of SWLing Post readers are in North America, he’s curious if readers could read through and add to his list of HD Radios. He notes:
There was a HDradio trial in the FM band in India early 2021. The report shows the receivers used. I wonder if they are currently available in the USA?
I searched the receiver manufacturers’ websites with the following results.
It was not an easy task particularly for car radios so there could be omissions.
https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/NEX/AVIC-W8500NEX#Tuner is the only current model of car radio I can find that will receive HDradio When you click on a particular model many of the links go to the manufacturers’ website but not to their product HDradio is very difficult to find.
Beatboy was an HDradio with a phone added. It is not a smart phone https://www.carousell.ph/p/boxed-beatboy-basic-phone-243342561/ a free give away in the Philippines. Internet searches of the Philippines broadcasts shows evidence of HDRadio but all the references are old. Considering that xperi charges broadcasters for the use of HDradio standard, I wonder if they have all dropped it. It is not mentioned on the www.Hdradio website.
