Category Archives: Radios

The Ten-Tec RX-320D and Model 1254 have been discontinued

Tthe RX-320D black box receiver

I just confirmed with Ten-Tec that the RX-320D PC controlled receiver and the Ten-Tec Superhet receiver kit, the Model 1254, have both been discontinued. A Ten-Tec representative told me the reason both of these models have been discontinued and removed from Ten-Tec’s product line is because one of the parts used in production is now obsolete.

A long run…

The RX-320 and RX-320D have had a very long product life as the RX-320 was introduced in the late 1990’s (1998, if memory serves)–pretty amazing.

I owned an RX-320D for a long time and thought that it was still a great value. Here’s a review I wrote in 2009.

The Ten-Tec Model 1254 Superhet Receiver kit

As third generation SDRs have emerged, and become so affordable in the past few years, it’s hard to justify the purchase of a receiver whose control software was designed for Windows 95.

So long RX-320D, you’ve had a long run…

I have SWLing Post reader, Larry, to thank as his recent inquiry about the Model 1254 Superhet kit prompted me to call Ten-Tec for verification.

A photo tour of the VOA radio shack, K3VOA

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Last week, I visited my friend and fellow radio enthusiast, Dr. Kim Elliott, at the Voice of America headquarters in Washington DC. Kim gave me a tour of K3VOA, the ham radio club station of the Voice of America. K3VOA has a full ham shack, QSL card gallery, an SWLing station, some vintage gear and they even run a repeater site. Kim also took me on the roof to view the K3VOA antenna farm; not only is it impressive, but so, too, is the view of the Capitol Building.

Here is a gallery of the photos I took–click on the image to enlarge:

K3VOA shack

Anyone catch the irony here?

At the SWLing desk, they have one of my favorite tabletops, the Drake SW8

They even have a Hallicrafters S-27 UHF receiver

QSL cards from across the globe

K3VOA antenna farm

The Washington Monument in the distance.

View of the Capitol Building from the roof of the Voice of America on 330 Independence Ave., S.W.

It’s hard to say goodbye: my Alinco DX-R8T lands on eBay

Voice of Russia to cease shortwave radio service

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Voice of Russia Antenna site in Wachenbrunn, Germany (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

It appears the Voice of Russia will cease shortwave radio service on January 1st, 2014. According to this article on RiaNovosti, the shortwave service is closing due to “funding cuts.”

I have listened to the Voice of Russia since they were known as Radio Moscow in the Cold War era. But they’ve been around much longer than the Cold War, indeed, they’ve been on the air since 1922 with their first transmitter station (RV-1) in the Moscow region.

Needless to say, I’m sad to see them leave the shortwave spectrum.

Using a 1938 Philco receiver to decode a digital VOA Radiogram

Jeff designs an SDR “Go Kit” around the Softrock Ensemble

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Jeffrey Fritz (WB1AAL) contacted me with details about his SDR (Software Defined Radio) “Go Kit” and has kindly allowed me to post it.

Jeff writes:

As a reader of the SWLing blog, I know that you are very interested in SDR. And you probably know that a “Go Kit” is a portable ham radio system in a case that can be moved at a moment’s notice and set up at another moment’s notice virtually anywhere.

I have a VHF Go Kit made up for emergency events. It is complete with waterproof carrying case, Aden PCS-7000H two-meter transceiver, a Kenwood VHF tuner, a Kenwood SW-100 VHF SWR bridge and two antennas (a 2-meter J-pole made out of twin lead and a two meter mag mount.) But what if there is a need to monitor the HF bands during the same event?

Now that I own a Flex-1500 SDR transceiver, the Softrock Ensemble SDR receiver that I bought a while ago has become somewhat redundant. It is still a serviceable radio and works fine, but it can’t hold a candle to the amazing Flex-1500. While I could turn it into a panadapter or sell it on eBay, eHam, etc., I had a better idea.

To monitor the HF ham bands, I could use something like my Grundig G3 shortwave radio in my Go Kit. While it is portable, battery operated and will tune LSB and USB, listening to SSB or even CW in an emergency situation with the G3 can be a bit of a chore. (Think of the old boat anchors with their main tuning and fine tuning band spread dials, but now make both dials tiny and you’ll get the idea.) Instead, why not build a 12-volt battery supply with common, easy to obtain batteries? I could connect it to the Softrock Ensemble and then via a USB audio interface to a battery powered laptop. Add a pair of headphones and we are in business.

That is just what I’ve done.

I’ve attached some photos of my most recent project–done this past weekend actually. [Check out photos above and below] It’s an SDR Go Kit. One of the attached photos shows the laptop and the Softrock Ensemble SDR receiving 40-meter band SSB while entirely being operated on battery power. There is no power switch. You simply pull the DC jack out of the Softrock Ensemble SDR radio when it isn’t in use. Simple as it gets! The other photo shows the battery pack built into a (ahem!) Preparation H Pad holder pack. (Now, I am not saying who used this!)

Ah but what will battery life be like with 8 C cells in series driving the receiver? It’s too soon to say because I just put it together an hour ago. But here’s a guess:

The Softrock Ensemble draws 18 mA at 12.6 volts (my measurement.) An Alkaline ‘C’ battery can supply up to 8,000 mAh, so doing some math and assuming fresh batteries, the battery pack should run the radio for roughly 400 hours. (Hopefully my math is correct!) If so, then I think that the laptop batteries will give out long before the life span of the C Cell is reached!

73,

Jeff, WB1AAL

Jeff, this is an excellent use for the Softrock Ensemble. I imagine it will run for a very long time drawing only 18 mA. I have a “Go Kit” for QRP ham radio purposes and one for SWLing during travels. You’ve inspired me to piece together a proper receiver “Go Kit” to be used in case of emergencies.

Readers: If you have a project, like Jeff, that you’d like to share on the SWLing Post, feel free to contact me with details!

The new Tecsun PL-880 sounds promising

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The Tecsun PL-880 (Photo: bbs.tecsun.com.cn/)

Last night, I discovered news of the new Tecsun PL-880 on Jeff’s excellent blog, the Herculodge.

Out of all of the current shortwave radio manufacturers, Tecsun seems to be one of the only companies making new models for the radio hobbyist–models with important features like SSB, bandwidth control, fine tuning steps, capable AGC, etc.

According to a comment Owl left on this post, it sounds like the PL-880 could be a performer:

Two photos of Tecsun’s new model PL880 appeared yesterday. It uses an analog+DSP architecture similar to ATS909X but has made some significant improvements (4 AM bandwidth + 5 SSB bandwidth) and better audio compared to previous Tecsun portables.

http://herculodge.typepad.com/herculodge/2013/08/new-tecsun-pl-880-on-its-way.html

I will plan on reviewing the PL-880, once it hits the market. If it’s no larger than my Sony ICF-SW7600GR, it might make for a great travel radio.