Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of this recent broadcast of the Voice of Turkey.
Carlos notes:
Part of Turkey/Syria earthquake news coverage via shortwave broadcasting of Voice of Turkey, in French.
Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Egil (LA2PJ), who notes that the Retekess V115 AM/FM/shortwave receiver is on sale at AliExpress for $17.90 US. Typically, this radio costs about $24-$25, Thanks for the tip, Egil!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Lin Robertson, who shares a link to the USAGM Congressional Budget Justification for Fiscal Year 2023.
Click here to download the PDF.
If you’re interested in how shortwave services are being affected by the budget, you can do a simple search for the word “shortwave.”
One change of note to the Greenville, NC, transmitting station (page 37):
In FY 2023, USAGM is proposing a realignment of the ERM transmitting station
in Greenville, North Carolina under the USAGM’s Office of Technology, Services,
and Innovation (TSI), which currently is responsible for other of USAGM’s
transmitting stations. The realignment of shortwave resources will effectively
enhance the overall USAGM broadcast mission capabilities by aligning all content
distribution platforms as managed by TSI. This action will decrease OCB’s general
operating expenses by approximately $2.1 million annually
This is a 197 page document and traditional over-the-air services are mentioned frequently.
If you notice relevant points to shortwave services feel free to point them out in the comments and note the page number! Thank you!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pete Madtone, who writes:
I took a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum yesterday on my day off and whilst browsing the galleries spotted this wonderful radio (pics attached)! It was in the Design 1900 to Now display (Room 61) if any of the readers fancies having a look. Talk about a lovely radio, it’s even got a BFO and a range of 3 telescopic antennas!
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O168288/t-1000-weltempfaenger-radio-rams-dieter/
What do you think? I’d love to own one of those.
I’d love to own one as well! Those Braun T 1000s are simply gorgeous. They fetch top dollar on the market as well.
Thank you for sharing this, Pete! One more reason to visit the V&A Museum!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of Radio Vatican.
Carlos notes:
Excerpt from today’s Vatican Radio program, broadcast in Portuguese on shortwave, bringing a message from Pope Francis in solidarity with the thousands of victims of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.
Signal captured in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Sony ICF-SW7600 (Source: Universal Radio)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Wlodek, who has been quite busy repairing vintage receivers and ham radio gear during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Wlod’s neighborhood in Kiev experiences frequent blackouts, thus much of his soldering work must be done while mains power is available.
Wlod just shared the following video documenting a recent repair he did on a new-old-stock Sony ICF-SW7600.
Wlod notes:
One of [my last repairs] was new old stock Sony ICF-SW7600 restoration. One guy watched my past videos and wanted one for himself. I don’t know where he found it in such excellent external condition, but age and typical problems require it to be prophylaxis.
The first turn on and it does not receive the station at all. These receivers have a known problem of leaking electrolytic capacitors. They also need to be alignment.
I demonstrate how to safely remove old capacitors.
Click here to view on YouTube.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Wlod! What a beautiful portable in near mint condition!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who shares the following guest post:
by TomL
This is just an old fashioned band scan to randomly see what I could hear after last week’s solar perturbations when the Solar Flux Index went well over 200. I considered what I could hear on the shortwave broadcast bands, even though the SFI had quieted down to around 135. Would the ionosphere still be holding on to the charge built up during the solar storms? The date and time was January 30, 2023 around 1400 through 1600 UTC. By the way, as of today (February 2), the bands are dead and cannot hear any of these even though the Solar Flux is about the same!
I will not have time to describe my antenna setup now at my noisy Condominium in detail. I have been experimenting with a DX Engineering NCC2 antenna phasing device for the past year with somewhat good results. I had to place dedicated receive antennas in many different ways in order to find an arrangement that works in conjunction with the two Ham Radio antenna wires out on the porch. Sometimes it helps by lowering the noise, sometimes the native antenna by itself, or peaking the signal, has better reception even though it might be slightly more noisy. By matching one of two receive-only antennas (the left Heathkit switch) with one of the Ham Radio antennas (the right Daiwa switch), I can usually eke out some extra decibels of signal-to-noise improvement. Continue reading