Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John, who writes:
The video below started with a curious investigation of a mysterious button found on 1980/90 era cassette recorders…. just to end up as being essential knowledge that we probably never had back on the day during our listening sessions.
I think the blog readers will love the most recent video from VWestlife:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Thank you for sharing, John!
Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Ulis Fleming, Dennis Dura, and Tracy Wood for the following tips:
The prized retro audio components are mostly manufactured in Russia and China. Now, a small Georgia company is rebooting US production.
ROSSVILLE, GEORGIA, ON the border with Tennessee, doesn’t look like a tech town. It’s the kind of place where homey restaurants promising succulent fried chicken and sweet tea are tucked among shuttered businesses and prosperous liquor stores. The cost of living is moderate, crime is high, politics are red, and the population has withered to 3,980.
But in the view of entrepreneur Charles Whitener, Rossville is the perfect place to stage a revival in US technology and manufacturing—albeit with a device that was cutting edge when the Ford Model A ruled the roads.
Whitener owns Western Electric, the last US manufacturer of vacuum tubes, those glass and metal bulbs that controlled current in electric circuits before the advent of the transistor made them largely obsolete. Tubes are still prized for high-end hi-fi equipment and by music gear companies such as Fender for their distinctive sound. But most of the world’s supply comes from manufacturers in Russia and China, which after the transistor era began in earnest in the 1960s helped sunset the US vacuum tube industry by driving down prices.
Whitener, a 69-year-old self-described inventor, vintage hi-fi collector, and Led Zeppelin fanatic, bought and revived AT&T’s shuttered vacuum tube business in 1995. The business has ticked along in the era of cheap overseas tubes primarily by serving the small market for vacuum tubes in premium hi-fi equipment with a model called the 300B, originally designed in 1938 to enable transoceanic phone calls. [Continue reading…]
100 years is an incredible milestone for any business or organization! In this Valley PBS Original Documentary, we take you back in time as we explore the origins of KMJ as a conservative talk radio station as well as the long-lasting legacy and impact of their century-long run on the air and in the hearts & minds of their listeners.
Click here to view on YouTube.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who notes that the 2023 Edition of The Domestic Broadcasting Surve is available for download at:
Many still rely on radio broadcasts for news, entertainment across continent
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Just the size of his hand, the radio set hung in the busy marketplace stall is essential to Mark Nyabanda.
“I can’t do without it,” said the 25-year old, taking a break from selling fertilizer in Mbare market in the capital, Harare, to listen to a radio weather report warning of possible floods.
Radio bulletins also provide him with information on disease outbreaks, political news and entertainment, he said.
“I don’t trust these new technologies,” he said, referring to social media. “They are full of falsehoods. We saw it during the coronavirus outbreak.”
In many Western countries, conventional radio has been overtaken by streaming, podcasts and on-demand content accessed via smartphones and computers.
But in many of Africa’s 54 countries, with a combined population of 1.3 billion people, traditional radio sets are widely used, highlighting the digital divide between rich countries and those still struggling to have reliable internet.
Radio sets are all over the place in Zimbabwe. Rural livestock herders dangle them from their necks while tending animals while those in the cities listen to their radio sets for news. [Continue reading…]
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Cuff, who shares this brilliant article from the archives of NASWA: https://www.naswa.net/journal/1996/04/techtopics199604
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Nick Hall-Patch who shares the following announcement:
The International Radio Club’s Reprints collection of over 1100 articles about antennas, radio propagation, receivers, accessories, plus items of general interest to MW DXers, continues to grow. We’ve published an update to the index, at DXer.ca [PDF] , so that everyone can get access to these latest additions. (also accessible at https://www.ircaonline.org/ “Free IRCA Reprints” button)
The latest update includes items from DX Monitor up the end of June 2022. as well as many items of interest from elsewhere, used with permission.
Added items in this update are marked “(NEW)”, plus there are a few updated articles as well.
Please pass on this information to others as you see fit.
(if you’ve used the index before, you may need to refresh your browser page to see the latest update, dated December 2022)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marwan, who writes:
Hello Thomas,
I hope this email finds you well and you will enjoy the photos I am attaching.
Two weekends ago my wife and I and went to see our grand daughter who lives and hour and a half away. On our way back we decided to drop by my sister in law’s house. I had not seen my sister in law since she moved in with her new boyfriend.
It was a beautiful day and we joined them on their outside porch. The first thing that caught my eye when we arrived were the two 1950’s Fords, and a double rear wheels motorcycle he was working on in his shack. They were beautiful, polished and spot less machines.
I made a comment on how her boyfriend must like to collect old vehicles. My wife said, well you need to take a walk inside the house and see what else he has got in there. My goodness. I really thought I was at some museum of old antique items.
There were too many things to list here so I am going to limit it to the radios he had. One of the rooms he has is filled with old radios, and an old TV. On top of the TV there were three shelves with various old radios that I had to take photos of.
On the other side of the room he had a Crosley Super II. It is not working but still had the speaker(s) on the inside. Gary had ran a cable from an old receiver he had to the speaker(s). He played music from his receiver to the Crosley and oh my.
The crisp sound that came out of that cabinet was amazing. I could not believe how crisp the sound was, made me wished I had a Crosley like that one. The sound filled the room, it was so magical to listen to it.
I was so exited and grateful we passed by their house and wanted to share some of the photos I took with you and your subscribers.
Cheers,
Marwan
Thank you for sharing these, Marwan. I hope that he restores that Crosley Super II. That is certainly a magnificent console radio! He’s got some beautiful radios in his collection!
A Cuenca Artisan Market
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Don Moore–noted author, traveler, and DXer–for the latest installment of his Photo Album guest post series:
by Don Moore
In the song Por Eso Te Quiero Cuenca (That’s Why I Love You Cuenca) the singer recites a litany of the many reasons to love this city. What do I love about Cuenca? Well, unlike the song, I won’t include well-roasted guinea pig.
The elevation of 2560 meters (8,400 feet) gives Cuenca a comfortable spring-like climate year-round. Daily highs are usually around 20C/70F. Nights are chilly but not cold. Most days have at least several hours of sun, even during the rainy season (as it is now). There are numerous green parks and plazas including long tree-lined walking paths along the two main rivers that run through the city. The drinking water, which comes from high up in the mountains, is the best in South America. Yes, you can drink it right from the tap.
A walking/bike path runs along the Yanuncay River for over six kilometers through the south side of Cuenca. A similar path runs along the larger Tomebamba River in the center of town.
The people of Cuenca are among the friendliest I’ve found anywhere. It’s a well-run, educated city with lots of civic pride. The metro area population is only about a half-million so it’s small enough to easily get anywhere but large enough to have the benefits of a city. Cuenca has several good universities and theaters and the symphony orchestra gives free concerts most Friday evenings. It’s a pleasure to simply stroll through the beautiful architecture in the old centro neighborhood.
One of many beautifully restored buildings in Cuenca’s old centro.
Getting around Cuenca is easy. A ride on the excellent bus system costs just thirty cents and taxi rides usually run under two dollars. And, unlike the much larger cities of Quito and Guayaquil, Cuenca has a mass transit system. In 2013 city leaders voted to put in a light rail line. Doing so required digging up two of the main streets through the old downtown but rather than just dig up two streets they decided to dig up the entire old downtown … to replace the aging water and sewer systems, move all electric lines and cables underground, and install high-speed fiber optic Internet. (Fiber optic Internet was also run above ground in the newer neighborhoods outside the centro.) The result is one of the few places in Latin America where one can enjoy beautifully restored architecture and colonial churches without the views being marred by powerlines. And the Internet here is better than most places I’ve stayed at in the United States.
Those are just a handful of the reasons that I love Cuenca.
Radio broadcasting in Ecuador started in 1925 with Radio El Prado in Riobamba, a small city in the center of the country. Other stations soon started up in Guayaquil and Quito, including HCJB in 1931. Broadcasting came to Cuenca in 1934 when a group of friends purchased a homemade ten-watt transmitter from an engineer in Guayaquil and put it on the air as La Voz de Tomebamba. The name came from the main river flowing through Cuenca. At the time there were only four receivers in the city so the audience was rather sparse. La Voz de Tomebamba initially broadcast for only one or two hours a night and most of the musical selections were done live as there weren’t many 78 RPM records in town. Years later one early listener reminisced, “It was sixty percent noise. Only radio fanatics could be entertained by listening to such a thing.”
Old studio equipment from La Voz de Tomebamba
Gradually, the owners added new equipment and expanded the daily schedule. A fifty-watt transmitter was added in 1938 and by 1947 the power had been increased to two hundred watts. The first frequency listing that I’ve found for La Voz de Tomebamba was for 4200 kHz in a 1944 FBIS newsletter. The 1947 WRTH listed it as on the air from 0000 to 0430 GMT on 4200 kHz. And that was the station’s only frequency. Until the 1960s it was very common for radio stations in Ecuador to only broadcast on shortwave and not on medium wave. For example, the 1957 WRTH lists eighty Ecuadorian stations on shortwave (not counting HCJB) but only fifty-nine on medium wave.
Sometime in the early 1960s La Voz de Tomebamba made the switch to medium wave and left shortwave. Their 4200 kHz frequency is not listed in the 1965 WRTH, nor are they listed in any later ones. (I would be interested to hear from anyone who remembers listening to them on shortwave.) The changes may have had to do with financial problems the station was having. It closed in 1967 and remained off the air until returning under new ownership four years later. Today La Voz de Tomebamba is one of the most popular radio stations in town and has an excellent news department. Their sister station, Super Rock FM 94.9, is very popular with younger listeners.
La Voz de Tomebamba today.
The second station in Cuenca was Radio Cuenca, which began broadcasting in October 1945 on 2830 kHz with two-hundred watts. It was included in a 1953 list of stations logged by the Universal Radio DX Club of Indiana. To the local audience, Radio Cuenca was best known for its many live music broadcasts. Continue reading
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bob Zanotti (HB9ASQ), who has, at my request, shared a video recording of a presentation he gave to the Fairlawn ARC last year.
This is part two. If you missed part one, you can view it by clicking here. Thank you, Bob! Enjoy: