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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
Barlow Wadley’s show up every now and then on Ebay, but infrequently with the original papers.
Rarely, one sees them with the original box. These are great representatives of SW radio history, though you have to take care to ask question of the seller.
This price appears to be quite high (roughly $490 US), especially for a radio without the FM band, which was added in later production runs:
Thanks, Dan! Someone brought one of these to the SWL Fest some years ago and it attracted quite a crowd. I’ve never had one on the air, though–very curious how well they perform.
Are there any SWLing Post readers who own the Barlow Wadley XCR-30? Please comment!
A radar site considered by some to be as historically important as Bletchley Park will be preserved, thanks to a £1.4 million ($2 million) grant from the UK government. The Bawdsey facility in eastern England, established in 1938, was the world’s first operational radar station. The then-brand new technology helped the allied forces win the Battle of Britain, and some historians think it may have shortened World War II by as much as two years. The facility was closed in 1991, and is on Britain’s “at-risk” heritage list because of structural issues and water damage.
According to the preservation group Bawsdey Radar, construction work will start in September 2016 and the building will open to visitors in September 2017. The goal is not just to conserve it, but also to unveil a new visitor exhibition featuring physical and virtual displays. The UK’s “Heritage At Risk” adviser John Etté said the facility “played a vital part in the development of radar technology during [WWII], and had a huge impact on post-war electronics and defense system,” including GPS, water technology, radar guns and the microwave oven.[…]
“I put the pic in Lightroom and pulled it out of the shadows.
It is definitely a Skyrider and not an SX-28.”
Wow–I’m amazed there was enough information in that photo to pull it out of the shadows! You can see the silk screening and the SEND-REC. switch in the lower right corner.
Again, here’s my Hallicrafters SX-24 Skyrider Defiant for comparison:
I know why they used a Skyrider in the film; the warm glow of the dials and signal meter were simply irresistible! (At least, they are for me!)
With the recent posts about shortwave radio in films (Star Wars and Star Trek), I remembered a scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron where I thought I spotted a vintage Hallicrafters receiver.
In the scene, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is using an “old school spy method” to find the whereabouts of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). I remembered Haweye sitting in front of a 1940s era radio.
This weekend, I found the clip from the movie (first time I had seen it since the theatre) and sure enough, I’m positive this is a Hallicrafters. Click on the images above or below to enlarge.
I can’t quite determine the Halli model, though–can anyone ID it?
The images aren’t the best: the scene is dark and the radio at quite an angle. Still, there’s no mistaking that Hallicrafters glow.
My Hallicrafters SX-24
I think there’s a good chance it’s the same model I have in my radio shack: the Hallicrafters SX-24 ‘Sky Defiant‘–but I can’t quite confirm. Perhaps it’s an SX-28?
Here’s a similar story that circulated on the Internet around 1990 (pre WEB!). I worked in packet switching at that time and was very impressed with Bob’s achievement (even with a CRAY to work with) .
I reached out to Bob McGwier (N4HY), who is a Facebook friend, and he has kindly given us permission to share his message again here and with a few new comments:
Decoding HF packets in Star Trek IV
Originally posted on December 4, 1989 by Bob McGwier (N4HY)
Several months ago, Harold Price, NK6K, challenged me to demodulate what he thought might be HF packets in Star Trek IV.
During the scenes where Scotty is valiantly trying to beam both Chekov and Uhura back from the U.S.S. Enterprise, where they have been stealing Nuclear vessel high speed photons, Scotty is having a hard time hearing them.
Listen to the audio clip by clicking here or using the embedded player below (target sound is at 5 seconds):
One of the sources of interference is what appeared to Harold to be HF packet. Always being one to rise to a challenge, I took on the job of doing some fancy Digital Signal Processing footwork. Almost from the first I was certain that it must be an HF packet since my very first demodulator attempt clearly revealed flags before the start of a frame and end of frame was also clear. I knew it was HDLC of some variety.
Several things impeded the effort, including Scotty’s voice on top of the packets, some SSB from 20 meters was also nearly on top of the signal. All of this had to be filtered out. I spent an hour of time on the Cray-2 at work and used the fanciest FSK demodulator I could write and I finally had noisy baseband signal plotted on paper in front of me. I did my best to get an integral number of samples per baud as the signal was very noisy, and though the bits could be made out by eye, I could tell that it was going to take another hour of Cray-2 time to get the clock recovered and to make good bit decisions. In a couple of places, HDLC showed me what were clearly bit errors, and these could be done by eye as well.
After the filtering, and building a demodulator for the badly mis-tuned signal (almost 900 Hz below), I took the bits to Phil Karn, KA9Q and he decoded the NRZI data and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed an HF amateur radio packet. It was WA8ZCN-0 sending an RR for NR-3 to N6AEZ on 20 meters. I got Bill Harrigill, WA8ZCN on the phone and he agrees that it was probably him.
Thanks Harold for the challenge and Phil for the help.
Bob N4HY
P.S. A Cray-2 is about 50% faster than the fastest Pentium-Pro computer available today.
Again, keep in mind that the message above dates from 1989! This past week, Bob added the following comment when I contacted him:
The Cray Supercomputer on which the work was done was being operated on behalf of the National Security Agency by my research institute.
I received permission to “to test optimal algorithms for software decoding of FSK transmissions” and this was my test case!!!!
That is why Phil Karn was decoding the AX.25 bits by hand. I did not have permission to develop link layer protocol code, though I tried.
A few years later when half the bad guys in the world seemed to be using AX.25 and cheap ham gear I said “See, I told you so several years ago and you didn’t listen”.
I used that transmission in so many different ways I no longer remember them all.
That’s fantastic, Bob, and so great to know the back story on your decoding process! Thank you again for sharing this with us!
Star Trek fans can find the scene Bob references starting around time mark 1:12 in the film.
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.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
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I can’t quite determine the Halli model, though–can anyone ID it?
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