Category Archives: Nostalgia

AWA Presentation: The origin of breadboarding

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark (AE2EA), who writes:

Hi Thomas,

FYI, The AWA just posted a presentation by Andy Flowers, K0SM, about amateur radio transmitters from the 1920s & early 30s. Andy is a builder of beautiful early transmitters, among other ham radio pursuits like 10GHz and up microwave work.

Here’s the latest blurb from the AWA:

If you were an amateur radio operator 100 years ago, and wanted a transmitter, you had one choice, you built a breadboard transmitter from scratch, often with components you made yourself. Today, some hams still do this, with designs from the early years of ham radio. AWA member Andy Flowers, K0SM, is one of those modern day vintage transmitter breadboarders.

Join Andy as he explains how early radio amateurs built their own breadboard transmitters with handmade parts, and put them on the air without killing themselves (well, most of the time.)

Watch it here:

We also have an earlier piece about Andy here:

73, Mark ~AE2EA

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this, Mark!

Radio Waves: RNZ & TVNZ Merging, Tech Keeping Ukrainians in Touch, Solar Storms Documentary, and Aspidistra

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

RNZ and TVNZ to merge (RadioInfo)

New Zealand’s Minister for Broadcasting and Media Kris Faafoi has announced the government’s decision to create a new public media entity by merging RNZ and TVNZ.

According to Faafoi, ensuring New Zealanders continue to have access to reliable, trusted, independent information and local content sits at the heart of the decision.

“The public media sector is extremely important to New Zealanders in providing them with high quality, independent, timely and relevant media content,” Faafoi said.

“But we know the media landscape is changing and the sector is having to adapt to increased competition, changing audience demands and ways of accessing media, falling revenue, and new and emerging digital platforms. We need public media which is responsive to these changes and can flourish.

“RNZ and TVNZ are each trying to adjust to the challenges, but our current public media system, and the legislation it’s based on, is focused on radio and television.

“New Zealanders are among some of the most adaptive audiences when it comes to accessing content in different ways; like their phones rather than television and radio, and from internet-based platforms. We must be sure our public media can adapt to those audience changes, as well as other challenges that media will face in the future.”

“The new public media entity will be built on the best of both RNZ and TVNZ, which will initially become subsidiaries of the new organisation. It will continue to provide what existing audiences value, such as RNZ Concert, as well as better reaching those groups who aren’t currently well served; such as our various ethnic communities and cultures,” Faafoi said[…]

Read more at: https://radioinfo.com.au/news/rnz-and-tvnz-to-merge/ © RadioInfo Australia

Technologies old and new keep Ukrainians in touch with the world (The Economist)

Battery radios and satellite internet both have jobs to do

In communist Eastern Europe a shortwave radio was a vital piece of equipment for anyone wanting to stay ahead of the censors. Stations such as the bbc World Service, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America broadcast news, entertainment and rock-and-roll across the Iron Curtain.

After the cold war ended, shortwave radios gave way to television and the internet, and the broadcasts were wound down. But on March 3rd, in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bbc announced their return. The World Service has begun nightly news broadcasts into Ukraine and parts of Russia (see map). Continue reading →

“Lies, Spies and Secrets – Hidden History of Cincinnati Radio”

2 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Lee Hite, who writes:

Following up on Dave Snyder’s WLW post, here is the rest of the story about WLWO.

Click to download: Lies, Spies and Secrets – Hidden History of Cincinnati Radio (PDF in Google Drive)

Thanks

Lee Hite

What a fascinating read! Thank you for sharing, Lee.

International Radio Club’s Reprints collection of 900+ articles

4 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Nick Hall-Patch, who shares the following announcement:

The International Radio Club’s Reprints collection of 900+ 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 https://www.ircaonline.org/editor_upload/File/reprints/irca-reprint-index.pdf , so that everyone can get access to these latest additions.

We’re also pleased to start offering reprints that did not initially appear in IRCA’s DX Monitor, but are not easily found elsewhere. For example, we’ve obtained permission from the family of the late prolific author, Dallas Lankford, to organize and republish his out of print articles.

(if you’ve used the index before, you may need to refresh the browser page to see the latest update, dated December 2021)

Click here to check out the IRCA Index (PDF).

Video: WWII Bunker Hidden Inside Gibraltar’s Rock

5 Replies

An aerial view of Gibraltar. Photo by Adam Cli.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John (KC8RZM), who writes:

Hi Thomas,

[The following] is a fascinating little documentary I found on YouTube.

A secret bunker hidden inside Gibralter’s rock with a self-contained transmitter and self-generating power source (a bicycle frame).

The radio details start at the 11 minute mark:

Just thought some SWL might find it interesting, I sure did.

Best,
John
KC8RZM

A fascinating documentary! Thank you for sharing, John!

Cities and Memory Shortwave Transmissions released to mark World Radio Day!

2 Replies

We at the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive are truly honored to have been a resource for this incredible and diverse sound project organized by Cities and Memory.

We encourage you to explore the creative work from over 120 artists and composers.

A great many of these remarkable dynamic works draw on a wide array of recordings from the SRAA; the resulting compositions and soundscapes are rich with sonic textures, evocative collages of sound and memory, which emerge into further sources of inspiration.

Our profound thanks to Cities and Memory––and all of the participating artists––for this truly brilliant collection:

13 February 2022

UNIQUE ARCHIVE OF SHORTWAVE RADIO COMPOSITIONS LAUNCHED TO MARK UNESCO WORLD RADIO DAY

To mark UNESCO World Radio Day on 13 February, a unique collection of compositions built from eight decades of shortwave radio recordings is being released.

Shortwave Transmissions, a project by one of the world’s biggest sound projects Cities and Memory in collaboration with the Shortwave Radio Archive, sees more than 120 artists remix and recompose iconic shortwave recordings to create brand new compositions reflecting on and celebrating our relationship with radio.

The project can be explored in full at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave and features:

Recordings from the mysterious spy radio and “numbers stations” around the world
Coverage of world-changing events such as 9/11, the invasion of Kuwait, Kennedy’s assassination, Tiananmen Square protests, the death of Fidel Castro and many more
Rare international recordings from North Korea, Saudi Arabia, St. Helena, the Falkland Islands and Antarctica
Recordings covering a huge period of time from 1934 through to the present day
Space travel documented including the Sputnik, Apollo and Challenger missions
Recordings of famous voices such as Winston Churchill and King George V
Station IDs, interval signals and final broadcasts from radio stations
Stuart Fowkes, founder of Cities and Memory, said:

“Shortwave radio is one of the most fascinating sonic worlds – each recording is a unique time capsule capturing vital moments in world history as well as the thrill of pirate radio, clandestine radio stations, secretive number stations and military and spy radio.

These are sounds to be treasured: all of humanity is truly out there to be listened to at the turn of a dial – and is source material for some extraordinary compositions.”

Taking the world of shortwave radio to an entirely different place, each recording has been reshaped and reimagined as a creative recomposed sound by more than 120 musicians and sound artists, in turn reflecting on current concerns covering everything from climate change to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shortwave Transmissions is the latest project from Cities and Memory, a global, collaborative network of sound recordists and artists based in Oxford, UK. Previous global sound projects have included #StayHomeSounds (a global mapping of the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdown), Protest and Politics (the biggest ever collection of the sounds of protest) and Sacred Spaces, the first global survey of the sounds of churches, temples, prayer and worship.

It has more than 5,000 sounds on its global sound map covering more than 100 countries and territories, and more than 1,000 worldwide contributing artists since its launch in 2015.

Radio Waves: Russia Shuts Down DW, History of WGY, W2AN/1BCG On The Air, and Summits On The Air

6 Replies

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

German anger as Russia shuts international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (BBC News)

Germany and the EU have condemned Russia’s decision to shut down the Moscow bureau of international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

All DW’s staff have lost their press accreditations and the channel is barred from broadcasting in Russia.

Germany’s culture minister said the move was “not acceptable in any way”.

Russia argued it was retaliating after German regulators decided a new Russian state-run TV channel, RT DE, did not have a suitable licence to operate.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova appeared to offer an olive branch to the German government on Friday, saying that if Germany moved to “normalise the situation”, then Russia would too.

RT has channels in English, French and Spanish and launched its German-language satellite channel in December 2021, using a licence from Serbia, outside the European Union. [Continue reading…]

Exhibit showcases history of radio station WGY (WAMC)

The City of Schenectady, home of General Electric, was once a nursery for broadcasting. One of the nation’s first commercial radio stations began broadcasting 100 years ago. A new exhibit at the Museum of Innovation and Science is celebrating the history of WGY.

WGY was created by GE in 1922 and still operates today under different ownership as a news/talk station. The station’s history is currently on display at miSci in a photo exhibit called WGY: Radio’s Laboratory Celebrates Its Centennial.

Chris Hunter, the museum’s Vice President of Collections and Exhibitions, took me on a tour of the exhibit located in a new gallery inside the museum.

“So, it was about 10th commercial station licensed in 1922. And because it was formed by GE’s publicity department, and not so much the engineers that formed a lot of the other early radio stations, they really placed a premium on entertainment and, kind of, the development of broadcasting.” [Continue reading…]

W2AN/1BCG On-The-Air Again for two-Way QSO’s (AWA)

After a successful AWA on-air sending of the historic 1921 Trans-Atlantic message in December of last year, using the AWA replica of the 1921 transmitter, plans are now in place to do it again only this time to offer two-way QSO’s with all stations wishing to participate.

The QSO party begins on Saturday evening, February 26, at 6:00 p.m. EST, or 23:00 GMT. AWA operators at the museum site in Bloomfield, NY will begin calling CQ on 1.821 MHz, CW, and will listen on or about that frequency for callers. We will work as many folks as we hear in order received and continue to do so until all amateur stations on the planet are in the log or propagation goes away, which ever happens first!

No QSL’s are required for you to receive a nice full sized color certificate confirming your QSO with W2AN/1BCG. Simply send your QSO information via email to [email protected] and the personalized certificate will be sent to the sending email address.

Inside the Summit-Obsessed World of Ham Radio (Outside Magazine)

n a gray Friday afternoon last spring, Steve Galchutt sat high atop Chief Mountain, an 11,700-foot peak along Colorado’s Front Range. An epic panorama of pristine alpine landscape stretched in almost every direction, with Pikes Peak standing off to the south and Mount Evan towering just to the west.

It was an arresting view, and the perfect backdrop for a summit selfie. But instead of reaching for his smartphone, Galchutt was absorbed by another device: a portable transceiver. Sitting on a small patch of rock and snow, his head bent down and cocked to one side, he listened as it sent out a steady stream of staticky beeps: dah-dah-di-dah dah di-di-di-dit. “This is Scotty in Philadelphia,” Galchutt said, translating the Morse code. Then, tapping at two silver paddles attached to the side of the radio, he sent his own message, first with some details about his location, then his call sign, WG0AT.

At this point, a prying hiker could have been forgiven for wondering what, exactly, Galchutt was doing. But his answer—an enthusiastic “amateur radio, of course!”—would likely only have further compounded their confusion. After all, the popular image of an amateur-radio enthusiast is an aging, armchair-bound recluse, not some crampon-clad adventurer. And their natural habitat is usually a basement, or “ham shack,” not a windswept peak in the middle of the Rockies. [Continue reading…]