Category Archives: News

Greetings all SWLing Post community, Imaginary Stations have a couple of great programmes this week over those short waves. The first is on Saturday 13th September 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 14th September 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold) we bring you the first in the programmes called Skybird School of the Air.

The programme is aptly educational themed especially as the schools are back so do have that notepad at the ready as you don’t want to miss anything as there will be a multiple-choice quiz at the end of transmission*.

It’s all good natured though and there won’t be any weekend detentions if you get the odd answer wrong. The only qualification you need to listen to the transmission is to own a shortwave radio or access to an online SDR. If all goes well we will have a local school brass band in the studio for a rollicking version of “Schools Out” and a first year college student choir entertaining us with a song about the importance of algebra and how fun it can be*. Tune in and be prepared to learn something.

* All subject to availability of course.

On Wednesday 17th September 2025 via WRMI we have another Radio Ace episode. Thanks to all the listeners who emailed us wanting to hear the show return to the airwaves and keep them ears open to catch if the great DJ Flash Frisbone will appear or not.

For more information on all our shows, please write to us at [email protected] and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

FastRadioBurst23

Noise-Reduction Ideas via Hackaday & Electronics Unmessed

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura for sharing this excellent Hackaday feature: Quieting That Radio. If you’ve ever struggled to hear weak signals through modern RFI, this piece, featuring content from Electronics Unmessed, is well worth checking out. It explores the hidden interference SDR setups often face and offers simple, practical/inexpensive fixes—like adding a counterpoise or ferrite choke—that can make all the difference in pulling in those hard-to-hear stations. This is advice we’ve recommended in past articles, but it’s brilliant to see demonstrated improvement.

Click here to read on Hackaday.

KBS World Radio – Then and Now

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

Back in the 1980’s, KBS World Radio was known as Radio Korea, and they could be heard quite well at times here in eastern North America. Even with modest receiving equipment, their familiar interval signal, that included regular ID’s in English and Korean, made it fairly easy to spot.

The recording here (circa 1983) was made in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, using a Panasonic RF-3100 portable receiver and a long wire antenna. As a bonus, this station offered a variety of colorful QSL cards to its listeners.

Today, KBS World Radio from Seoul in the Republic of Korea continues to offer programs via shortwave in several languages including English. Transmitter power up to 250 kw is used so they should be audible in most parts of the world. “Sign on” is strikingly similar using the same interval signal with bi-lingual ID’s and opening music.

They also use some of the same frequencies, including 9570 and 15575 kHz, that they have broadcast on for decades. This recording was made using a remote SDR in Hong Kong on August 14, 2025 on 15575 kHz around 1300 hours UTC.

Passion Radio Suspends US Shipments Following Tariff Increase

Many thanks to David (F1JXQ) who notes that his radio retailer, Passion Radio in France, has temporarily suspended shipments to the United States.

This decision follows:

A new 15% US tariff on goods imported from the European Union.
Service suspensions by La Poste (as of August 25, 2025) and new UPS processing fees (effective September 8, 2025).
Added complexity with US customs procedures and brokerage charges billed directly to buyers at delivery.

The company hopes to resume shipments once a fair and reliable shipping solution is found.

More details and updates are also available at: https://www.passion-radio.com/store/hamradio-us-tariff-43

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of the Voice of Vietnam (September 7, 2025)

Farewell to The Herculodge

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(Source: The Herculodge)

Many of you long-time SWLing Post readers may also be followers of my good friend Jeff McMahon’s blog, The Herculodge. Since 2006, Jeff has been writing thoughtful, candid, and often entertaining and cheeky posts about radios, reviewing countless models, and chronicling his fascination with radio.

Sadly, with the pending demise of Typepad on September 30, 2025, The Herculodge will finally be shutting down. Jeff mentioned to me that he kept the blog online in its basic mode for many years, even after posting less frequently, because it still served as a rich archive of his radio reviews and thoughts—and because so many of us in the community (myself included) still referenced it.

Jeff recently published a piece reflecting on the end of Typepad. You can read his farewell post here: Typepad R.I.P. — Obituary for a Dinosaur

Although The Herculodge will disappear, Jeff continues to write at his current site: Cinemorphosis. As he notes, Cinemorphosis focuses more on literary, cultural, and philosophical topics—not specifically radio—but he hasn’t ruled out posting the occasional review or reflection about his long-standing radio obsession.

For those of us who have enjoyed and benefited from Jeff’s writing over the years, The Herculodge will be missed. Thank you, Jeff, for nearly two decades of radio insights, humor, and thoughtful commentary!

And, hey, Jeff—don’t be a stranger around here!