Category Archives: Longwave

eBay find: Acoustical Manufacturing of England

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Korchin (K2WNW), who writes:

I remember when I was a young kid back in Saskatoon, being invited over to a friend’s house to hear his “English stereo.”

We both worked at the CFMC-FM radio back then (he did the 10 PM-2AM slot, and I worked overnights). He being a little older, wise, cooler, than me, I jumped at the chance to browse his vinyl collection, read through his punk magazines and generally look to have his coolness rub off on me.

It was the first time I heard a Quad stereo system. He had the pre-amp, amp, and FM tuner (I think he might have had a Technics turntable, and a pair of Klipsch speakers). I remember being awestruck by the warm sound and the precise imaging of the system. Tracks that I thought I knew intimately took on new dimension. I wanted that system!—and I still don’t have it.

But I’ve noticed a few pieces on eBay, and I wondered if you’ve heard of them, too?

http://ebay.to/1n90DYm

Surprisingly, Acoustical made MW and SW tuners, too!

Acoustical Mfg England Shortwave

http://ebay.to/1PxLSEP

Here’s an early FM example:

Acoustical Mfg England FM Tuner

http://ebay.to/1n915Wz

And a later one, that I think I saw at his house:

Acoustical Mfg England FM TunerII

http://ebay.to/1OoIQoJ

These are all tube rigs, OM! And if nostalgia carries any weight, they are worth checking in to.

Many thanks for the links and trip down memory lane, David!

Some of you may know that David is my ultimate radio enabler; my savings account nemesis! 🙂 He about got me this time, too. I almost pulled the trigger on that Acoustical Manufacturing Shortwave Tuner. It is a beauty indeed! Though not tested (and one would assume it could use some new caps), it does look very clean and I bet it performs like a charm.

Still, I’ll pass this time. I recently dipped heavily into my radio savings so I need to allow a little time for the account to build up again!

I’m curious if other SWLing Post readers are familiar with Acoustical Manufacturing products? Please comment!

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Star Wars sound designer is, indeed, a radio enthusiast

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SWLing Post readers may remember a post I recently published in which I believed I’d identified a familiar shortwave time signal station in the Battle of Hoth scene from The Empire Strikes Back. If you haven’t read this post, feel free to do so and listen to the embedded video/audio clips.

Upon hearing this, I went so far as to muse that the Star Wars sound designer might be a radio listener. I asked our readers if anyone could confirm this–?

Well, we’ve got our answer! I’m truly indebted to an SWLing Post reader who passed my post along to his friend, Ben, who could provide this definitive response:

“This is Ben Burtt, sound designer of the Star Wars films. A friend sent me a link to this blog thinking I would like to comment.

Ben Burtt with his recording gear, circa 1980. The mike on the stand at Ben’s feet is one from his grandfather’s ham radio station in the 1950s, or possibly earlier.

“The answer is yes, I have always been a ham radio enthusiast.”

“My grandfather, Harold Burtt, operated W8CD out of his home in Columbus, Ohio 1930s-1960s. I was enthralled as a kid listening to the sounds on his receiver. I heard alien worlds and cosmic ‘voices.’

Harold Burtt, W8CD. (Chairman of the Psychology Dept Ohio State) with his attic gear, approximately 1935

“So not only did I record his radio, but continued to do so on the Star Wars series and Star Trek as well.

My memory of the Hoth transmission was that it was WWV but it could have been CHU since I was recording all that interested me on the dial.”

Terrific! Thank you, Ben, for taking the time to respond. As I said, you’ve certainly started off this radio enthusiast’s year on the right wavelength…no doubt some of our readers will agree.

Indeed, the powerful sonic experience of the Star Wars and Star Trek films has, in my estimation, helped shape many of us into the radio/sound enthusiasts we’ve become–myself certainly included. Thank you, Ben, for this! You’ve sharpened my ear to a greater appreciation of sound, especially filmic sound, and your work in particular.

For readers who are less familiar with Ben Burtt’s work, check out his Wikipedia page and IMDB profile–you’ll find he’s been the sound designer on numerous influential films including the recently released Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

A special thanks to Ben Burtt for sharing these wonderful photos and kindly giving me permission to use them here on the SWLing Post. I must say, considering my love of radio in the thirties, I especially like that photo of Harold Burtt (W8CD) in his shack.

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Ayar notes LW and MW transmitters still active in France

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AM-Dial-Digital-Grundig-Mediumwave-MW In response to our previous post about France, Germany and Luxembourg leaving the AM broadcast bands, SWLing Post contributor Ayar (HB9EVW) comments:

It is indeed a sad day for AM broadcasting. Not only Germany, France and Luxembourg, also the Czech Republic will turn off 3 MW transmitters on January 5th 2016. The three transmitters carrying the CRo Plus program are: 639, 954 and 1332 kHz.

[In the Czech Republic, there] are 2 transmitters on 693 kHz, the bigger one in “Liblice” with 750 kW will be switched off, but the smaller one in “Ostrava-Svinov” with 30 kW will remain active for now, or at least until the FM coverage is good enough for this region.

In France (including Monaco), there will still be few active LW and MW stations:

162 KHz. Allouis (France Inter)
216 KHz. Roumoules (RMC)
1467 KHz. Roumoules (TWR)
1467 KHz. Col de la Madone (Radio Maria France)
1593 KHz. St Goueno (Bretagne 5)

I am already recording some of the transmitters from Germany and France. I can receive few of them here in Switzerland even during the day.

Many thanks, Ayar. I would love to share some of your recordings on the SRAA.

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Fessenden Christmas Eve Commemorative Transmissions

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Embedded image permalink

This was reported in the ARRL Newsletter:

Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, will again put his 600 meter Experimental Station WG2XFQ on the air on for a Christmas Eve commemorative transmission. WG2XFQ will transmit on 486 kHz from Forest, Virginia, to mark the 109th anniversary of Reginald Fessenden’s first audio transmission. Historic accounts say Fessenden played the violin — or a recording — and read a brief Bible verse. It’s been reported that other radio experimenters and shipboard operators who heard Fessenden’s broadcast were astounded.

Justin will conduct a run-up to this year’s event starting at around mid-day Eastern Time on December 23. The “official” Christmas event will begin on December 24 at 0001 UTC (the evening of December 23 in US time zones) and will continue for at least 24 hours. Justin said he plans to repeat the commemorative transmissions on New Year’s Eve and on New Year’s Day.

Fessenden’s transmitter was an ac alternator, modulated by placing carbon microphones in series with the antenna feed line. Justin’s homebuilt station is slightly more modern, based on a 1921 vacuum tube master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) design. Listener reports are appreciated and may be sent directly to Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, at his QRZ.com address. (Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, built this replica circa-1920 transmitter, capable of CW and Heising modulated AM. Photo by Brian Justin)

While I have not heard Brian’s transmission before, I have actually heard a transmission on the experimental frequencies between 465 – 515 kHz. I never expected to be able to hear anything due to extremely high local noise, but one night the propagation gods smiled upon me and the evening was exceptionally quiet. I listened on my Elad SDR receiver over and over to the Morse Code signal which was extremely weak, but mostly readable. I confirmed with Multipsk software, verifying I was indeed hearing one of the experimental stations out of Connecticut.

For information regarding the 500 KC experimental project you can follow this link.

Why not give a listen? You just might be surprised like I was to hear something on this band, and you could add a little Christmas Eve radio memory to your collection!! 73, Robert

Robert Gulley, AK3Q, is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Robert also blogs at All Things Radio.

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Help identifying longwave transmitters

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As many of you know, I’ve been catching up on correspondence recently as the past few weeks have been quite hectic.

SWLing Post reader, Andy (G0FTD), sent the following message several weeks ago, but is still seeking help:

I came across your website recently, so good to read something dealing with proper SWLing!

Last night I set up an experiment on 279Khz.

This is because of my interest in something called QRSS beacons in amateur radio. I use the HF bands, but recently became interested in the LF bands, 136 / 475Khz amateur bands and propagation.

I thought it would be interesting to test for the times that the day / nightime occurs at LF.

To do this I decided to use 279Khz, which by rights only has 2 transmitters on them, and at a convenient distance.

The only list I have says that Belarus and Turkey operate transmitters, so in theory I should only see 2 traces on my Argo software.

But I was surprised to see 3 traces.

Two of them have about a 1Hz offset to the main one, exactly on 279Khz.

I wonder if your readers can confirm the transmitters ?

Maybe Belarus is operating two TX sites with the offset, and the other is Turkey ?

You can see that the two offset ones go QRT at the same time.

If you can help Andy, please comment. Again, Andy, apologies for the delay in posting your inquiry!

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The demise of longwave could lead to the end of the Shipping Forecast

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Erica, who writes:

“I saw this article about the demise of the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4 Longwave and thought readers might be interested:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11892805/End-of-Shipping-Forecast-on-long-wave-radio-could-leave-sailors-high-and-dry.html

I’m not a fan of DAB radio and my bedroom radio aerial has to be positioned just so to get radio 4 FM with cclarity, so I will be disappointed if Longwave eventually gets switched off. That’s not to mention all the people–however many there may be–who don’t have easy ways to get weather info out at sea.”

Here’s an excerpt from The Telegraph:

It has kept sailors safe on the ocean waves for 90 years, becoming just as much a part of national consciousness as cricket, cups of tea and The Archers.

But the days of hearing the Shipping Forecast out on a boat may be numbered thanks to the demise of long wave technology, a veteran announcer has said.

Peter Jefferson, who read the Shipping Forecast to Radio 4 listeners for 40 years, said the “very old” transmitters which worked on long wave could soon be retired.

If that was to happen, he said, anyone more than 12 miles from the coastline would be unable to hear the shipping forecast on long wave, ending a Radio 4 tradition dating back to 1924.

Speaking at the Radio Times Festival, in Hampton Court, Mr Jefferson said the soothing tones of the Shipping Forecast would then be left to its many fans who choose to listen to it from their homes in lieu of a “sleeping pill”.

“Long wave reaches much further than FM, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“So FM would be totally useless for shipping beyond 12 miles from land.

[…]A spokesman for the BBC said they were no firm plans to end long wave broadcasting, and no date set for when the technology could run out.

The service currently reaches as far as south-east Iceland, and is occasionally picked up as far as 3,000 miles away.

Read this full article at The Telegraph online.

Of course, I haven’t heard the Shipping Forecast on longwave since moving back to the States from the UK. Still, I would be very sad to hear the program and the longwave medium fall silent.

I would like to start adding some Shipping Forecast programs on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive where we also curate select mediumwave and longwave recordings. If you have the means to record episodes on longwave, please consider helping us!

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