Category Archives: News

Amazon Prime Day(s) 2019

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Today and tomorrow (July 15 and 16) Amazon.com carries on an annual tradition of offering deep discounts and flash sales for their Prime members–they call it Prime Day.

In all honesty, I’m not the biggest fan of Amazon Prime Day because when I check out the deals–and some of them are pretty impressive–I end up making a lot of impulse purchases. (Anyone else do this?)

With that said, each year Prime Day seems to include more and more items. I did a quick search this morning for “shortwave” and found at least one radio I’d recommend (the Retekess HR11S emergency radio which is a great little radio to tuck away in your emergency provisions). It’s no DX machine, but it’s a capable little flashlight radio.

 

There are also a number of other radios in the Prime Day lineup.

If you’re a Prime member, you might give a quick browse of some of the deals. Again, I rarely make large purchases myself, but it’s a great time to find deep discounts on station accessories.

Here are a few searches you might try:

I’m planning to purchase a couple of surge protectors, a 2TB hard drive, and 16 rechargeable AA batteries.

Of course, the links above all have the SWLing Post affiliate code, which means it supports the SWLing Post (at no cost to you) when you make a purchase via the Amazon links provided. It really does help the site, but please never feel an obligation to use these links. We never create posts only for the sake of creating more affiliate links–sites like that really annoy me–we simply implement these links when you suggest a product, sale, or if Amazon is a viable option for a purchase. I struggled to publish this particular post because it’s so heavy on the Amazon links, but while browsing the Prime Deals this morning, I realize there are a number of ones that might appeal to readers and if purchases are being made anyway, it’s an effortless way to support the Post.  Thanks for understanding!

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Covert shortwave transmitters smuggled into trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who writes:

I ran across this fascinating historical article about how the Associated Press and the New York Daily News each smuggled a covert shortwave radio transmitter into the 1935 courtroom trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, who was charged with kidnapping and murdering the young son of Charles Lindbergh.

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/short-wave-craft/short-waves-hauptmann-trial-short-wave-craft-june-1935.htm

Neither news organization knew of the other’s covert transmitter, and crossed signals led to erroneous news of the verdict being reported.

Wow! What a fascinating bit of history, Ed! I bet those briefcase transmitters were heavy!

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Dennis approves of the Hermitshell Case for CC Skywave radios

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who notes that after seeing a number of posts about radio cases, he thought he’d share a link to the case he uses for the C. Crane CC Skywave SSB.

It’s the Hermitshell Travel Case and it fits both the CC Skywave SSB and original CC Skywave.

Thanks for sharing, Dennis. This case is well-loved by Skywave owners! Note that this case fits the Skywave series like a glove and only has enough extra room for a set of earphones and/or perhaps a wire antenna.

Click here to view on Amazon (affiliate link supports the SWLing Post).

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The Degen DE1108: a new multimedia device with shortwave radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Magdiel Cruz, who shares a link to the new Degen DE1108.

Perhaps “radio” doesn’t really describe this multimedia device, but it does feature shortwave, MW, LW, and FM reception along with the following features:

  • Dual touch screens
  • WiFi radio (at least, I believe it does based on the description)
  • Video playback via WiFi
  • SD Card and USB playback (supports WAV, APE, FLAC, MP3)
  • WIFI+ Bluetooth
  • AUX input
  • Custom audio

Here are some of the receiver specs (click to enlarge):

In truth, the translated product description on eBay is a bit humorous, but I suspect most of it is a machine translation from Chinese and has yet to be properly edited.

Obviously, this is not a standard portable or tabletop radio–I feel like it’s more of a multimedia device that also happens to receive shortwave. I doubt this will be a benchmark receiver, although I could be proven wrong.

Degen DE1108

The price is a hefty $449 US shipped on eBay. It’s also available on AliExpress for the same amount.

Thanks for the tip, Magdiel! Of course we’ll post updates as we learn more about the DE1108.

Click here to view on eBay.

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Radio in the third season of “Stranger Things”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who writes:

I started to watch season 3 of “Stranger Things”.

In the first chapter, “Dustin” uses a “ham radio” rig to contact his new girlfriend and builts a strange Antenna in the top of a hill. She didn´t answer, but he listens a coded transmission in Russian.

Thank you for sharing, David! Stranger Things certainly has a number of interesting radio references!

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“Father Knows Best” episode features shortwave radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who notes the following episode of “Father Knows Best” (link below) features shortwave radio. Dave also points out that the website streaming this episode can be somewhat slow to load, but is very watchable.

Click here to view on Shout Factory TV.

Thanks for the tip, Dave!

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