Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

A selection of Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021 Radio Deals

While I’m not exactly in the market for anything other than a few radio accessories, I have been checking out some Black Friday Deals online. I must admit that there seems to be even more deals this year than there were last year.

A few retailers worth checking out (in alphabetical order):

Airspy

As we mentioned in a previous post, AirSpy is once again offering huge discounts via their international distributors. This is a great time to snag the HF+ Discovery.

C.Crane

C.Crane has a small selection of items on deep discount for Black Friday including two of their popular SoftSpeaker pillow speakers and an LED flashlight. Click here to check out their deals.

Elecraft

US manufacturer, Elecraft, has included a number of products in their Black Friday sale. Note that some items may have a 6-8 week lead time. I’m a massive fan of their KX2 and KX3 transceivers–they currently have shack-in-a-box KX2/KX3 packages in their promotion. Click here to check out their sale.

GigaParts

GigaParts always has an impressive number of items in their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. They have the super popular Yaesu FT-891–which is a great general coverage transceiver for broadcast band listening–for $629.95. I also noticed they have the Icom IC-R6 wideband handheld receiver in stock for $185.95. Click here to check out all of their deals.

Ham Radio Outlet

HRO has a number of radio items in their Black Friday sale. In particular, they have the SDRplay RSP1A wideband SDR for $99.95. They also have the Yaesu FT-891 for $629.95. They’ve many more deals, so check out their homepage for details.

Ham Test Online

Ham Test Online is offering a sale on their online license self-paced programs. Everyone in my family used this system for at least one license level and it worked brilliantly. From their newsletter:

Take advantage of our Black Friday Cyber Weekend Sale from Black Friday through Cyber Monday (November 26-29). If you’ve been wanting to get your license or upgrade, do it now and save $10 on each of our courses and $35 on the FCC fee:

Technician — $19.95 (33% off the $29.95 list price).

General — $24.95 (29% off the $34.95 list price).

Extra — $29.95 (25% off the $39.95 list price).

Renewal — $14.95 (50% off the $29.95 list price).

Click here to check it out at Ham Test Online.

Main Trading Company (MTC)

Two readers note that MTC is having a year sale which includes a Tecsun PL-880 for $169 and a number of radios and accessories.

Click here to check out their home page.

Radioddity

Radioddity’s Black Friday sale includes 15% off site-wide. They’re one of the biggest Xiegu retailers, so if you’ve been considering a G90, X5105, or the new X6100 for example, this would be a great time to purchase. Click here to check out their deals (use the discount code BFCM).

Any others–?

Please comment with any special deals you’ve found and I’ll add them to this post!

Top 10 DX of the Year SWL Contest 2021

The annual TOP 10 DX OF THE YEAR contest will start soon.

From 1 December 2021. 00:00 UTC to 31 December 2021 24:00 UTC.
The contest is open for all shortwave listeners and free of charge.

All the information is available on our website: www.topdx-radioclub.com/top10dx.html

Thanks for sharing, Istvan! A number of SWLs here in the SWLing Post community truly enjoyed participating in the past! Click here for all contest details.

Radio Waves: Radio 77, RRI Personality of the Year, Radio Repair in Iraq, and Bernard’s Collection of 500+ Radios

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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!

The DJ Who Broadcast to One Listener for 40 Years (Narratively)

The Deke Duncan show on Radio 77 had it all — the latest hits, bouncy jingles, and a DJ who was born to be on the airwaves. In the 1970s it ran around the clock, several days a week, playing to the smallest audience in the world: Deke’s only listener was his wife. Radio 77 was based in a shed in Duncan’s backyard in a small English town, and everything on the show was a figment of his imagination. “My ultimate ambition would be to broadcast my radio station to the rest of Stevenage,” he told the BBC’s Nationwide TV show, when they visited his shed in 1974.

In a new podcast episode from Snap Judgement and Narratively, Duncan, now 75, reveals how he made up the news, the weather, and even the commercials — and kept Radio 77 alive for over forty years. It was Britain’s ‘pirate’ radio stations that inspired him, he said, recalling the rock’n’roll ships that broadcast illegally from international waters in the 1960s. But the young DJ’s dreams had been dashed when the BBC turned down his job application.

“They said, ‘I suggest you go away and get yourself a real job,’” Duncan recalled. (Check out an original Radio 77 show, recorded in 1974.) [Continue reading…]

RRI Personality of the Year (Radio Romania International)

Dear friends, RRI continues its traditional polling of listeners on short wave, the Internet and social media, with a new challenge, in a further complicated context generated by the Covid-19 pandemic. We would like to ask you which person you think left their imprint on the world in a positive way in 2021.

We are preparing to designate, based on your options, “The Personality of the Year 2021 on RRI”. Will this person be a public person, an opinion leader or a regular person with a special story? The decision is yours. We would also want to ask you why you picked that particular person. Continue reading →

Pre-order the 10th Edition of The Worldwide Listening Guide

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Ally, who notes that Universal Radio is accepting pre-orders for the 10th edition of John Figliozzi’s The Worldwide Listening Guide.

Click here to check out the WWLG at Universal Radio.

Note that Universal Radio closed their main store in Ohio, but continue to offer select radio products via their website.

Thanks for the tip, Tom!

Postcard Panorama: A new mailbag program with a twist!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, T.D. Walker, who writes:

Greetings, Thomas. I’m writing to let you know about a program for shortwave radio I’m curating, Postcard Panorama, which is scheduled to air beginning January 2022.

Postcard Panorama is a listener mailbag program with a twist. We’re collecting postcard-size stories from radio enthusiasts for broadcast over shortwave radio. Rather than focusing on a particular broadcaster or program, though, we’re grouping the stories together by theme.

My aim for the program is to find common threads between stories and create a show that connects a diffuse and dedicated audience around the world.

Our first theme is “In with the New.” We’d love to hear your radio origin stories, as listeners, broadcasters, or technophiles. Tell us who got you involved or how are you getting others involved. What new technologies are you using? Or new-to-you tech? What new broadcasters or shows are you listening to? How has radio changed for you since you began listening?

Our themes can be interpreted broadly, so even if your anecdote might be tangential to the topic, send it in. Announcements for upcoming events and anniversaries of note are also welcome.

We’re fans of shortwave, but we’re happy to hear about anything radio related for the show.

Stories can be emailed to [email protected] Please keep your stories around 500 words, and include your name and location if you’d like that mentioned on air or online. As this will be a 15 minute show, not all submissions can be read on air, but we’ll archive them on the website as we can. Submissions for the January show must be emailed by December 15th.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.postcardpanorama.com. You can find out more about upcoming themes on our site, as well as more about our other show, Short Waves / Short Poems.

Air dates, times, and frequencies will be posted on our website and to our email newsletter soon.

I appreciate your help spreading the word about Postcard Panorama!

Thank you,
T.D. Walker

Sounds like a fascinating shortwave project and nostalgia trip!

SWLing Post community: Let’s help fuel her project by sending our “postcard-size stories” to [email protected]. Check out the Postcard Panorama website for information on each theme!

Radio Waves: UNESCO on Radio, Fallout After Reciva, Local Radio Appeal, 2022 Hamvention a Go, and Pandemic Ham

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Why UNESCO Believes in Radio (Red Tech)

Chief, Media Development and Media and Information Literacy at UNESCO Mirta Lourenço shares insight on radio’s evolution and challenges. She explains how the international organization is working to support radio stations around the world to ensure they’re able to accomplish their crucial mission.

RedTech: How do you view the role of radio in our society?

Mirta Lourenço: Thanks to radio, we benefit from many essential public services that we seldom reflect on. These include global positioning systems, satellite navigation, environmental monitoring, intelligent transport systems, space research, etc. Radio broadcasts offer information and the possibility for people to participate, regardless of their literacy levels and socio-economic situation.

The medium is also especially suited for multilingualism. Audiences may need to hear programs in their primary language, particularly if said language is local and endangered, or in the case of refugee radio or isolated communities. Also, when literacy levels are low, local languages are crucial to the populations’ access to information, as radio constitutes the main source for reliable journalism. History has shown us that radio is the most effective emergency communication system and in organizing disaster response.

All this does not mean that radio broadcasting is free from challenges. Continue reading →

Jason seeks advice about hazy PL-680 LCD screen

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jason, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

Recently I was cleaning and foolishly decided to clean the face of my Tecsun PL680 with 90% iso alcohol using an ear cleaner / Q-tip. Now the LCD has a smudge look to it, almost like a fog. The display is still legible thankfully, but only when looking head on. I quickly wiped it down with a cloth and left it in an airtight container filled with silica gel packets for a week.

Would you or other SWLING readers have any idea how to remedy this? It is my understanding that this is just cosmetic damage and shouldn’t impact the usage of the radio.

Regards,

– Jason

Sorry to hear about this, Jason. Yes, isopropanol/isopropylalcohol is a solvent and can corrupt plastic surfaces like this. I’m familiar because my wife once tried to clear a DVD with 90% isopropylalcohol and it made the surface so hazy, the DVD player could no longer read it. I don’t think this will have any impact on the radio itself since you didn’t exactly did it in iso alcohol.

I understand that in some cases, polishing the surface can minimize the haziness, but how to do that, I’m uncertain. My hope is, another SWLing Post contributor can chime in with some real-life experience!

Please comment if you can help Jason!