Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

Video: Tube radio transmitter designs from the 1920s

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans (W4/VP9KF), who shares the following article from Hackaday:

The origin of the term “breadboard” comes from an amusing past when wooden bread boards were swiped from kitchens and used as a canvas for radio hobbyists to roll homemade capacitors, inductors, and switches. At a period when commercial electronic components were limited, anything within reach was fair game.

[Andy Flowers], call sign K0SM, recently recreated some early transmitters using the same resources and techniques from the 1920s for the Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party. The style of the transmitters are based on [Ralph Hartley]’s oscillator circuit built for Bell Telephone in 1915. Most of the components he uses are from the time period, and one of the tubes he uses is even one of four tubes from the first Transatlantic contact in 1923.[…]

Click here to continue reading at Hackaday.

https://youtu.be/Lli4DI2XFMQ

Norddeutscher Rundfunk Christmas Eve Broadcast

“Greetings on board”: How to receive the broadcast

It has tradition and exudes a very special pre-Christmas mood: On Christmas Eve greetings are sent to the seafarers around the world from 8:05 pm – 10:00 pm and from 11:15 pm – midnight on NDR Info. And on the most different channels and technical ways, so that the greetings and messages can be guaranteed to be received on all seven seas.

The ship’s crews have several options to receive the program “Greeting on board”. Also the shortwave belongs to it.
The livestreams of the program (20.05 to 22 clock and 23.15 clock to 24 clock MEZ) can be found here: NDR Info and NDR Info Special. In addition, there is the possibility to listen to the program via the NDR radio app. NDR Info can also be received via FM, DAB + and DVB-S radio, NDR Info special only via DAB + and DVB-S radio.

So that all crew members on board – on the seas or in the harbors – can receive the traditional program, the NDR radio has also rented shortwave frequencies:

From 19:00 to 21:00 UTC (20:00 to 22:00 CET), the shortwave transmits over the following frequencies (UTC is the abbreviation for Universal Time Coordinated):

“Greeting on board” via shortwave

Frequency target area
6.080 kHz Atlantic – North
11,650 kHz Atlantic – South
9,800 kHz Atlantic / Indian Ocean (South Africa)
9,740 kHz Indian Ocean – West
9,570 kHz Indian Ocean – East
6.030 kHz Europe

Between 21:00 and 23:00 UTC (22:00 – 24:00 CET) the shortwave transmits over the following frequencies:

“Greeting on board” via shortwave

Frequency target area
6.145 kHz Atlantic – North
9,830 kHz Atlantic – South
9,590 kHz Atlantic / Indian Ocean (South Africa)
9,740 kHz Indian Ocean – West
9,675 kHz Indian Ocean – East
6.155 kHz Europe

NDR Info sends the “Greeting on board” from 20:05 to 22:00 CET. This is followed by the transmission of the Christmas Mass from the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Bochum-Wattenscheid from 22 to 23.15 CET. Then you will hear the second part of “Greetings on Board” until midnight CET.

VE7SL explores DXing the utilities

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Photo: US Coast Guard

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), who shares a link to this excellent article by Steve (VE7SL) where he explores his success DXing utility stations on shortwave:

(Source: VE7SL)

DXing The Utilities (Part 1)

After building the house here on Mayne Island, in the early 90’s, it was several years until I was able to set up a dedicated station. In the meantime, I limited my radio activities strictly to listening. I had a nice Icom R-71A set up in a hall closet and spent my radio-time, mostly on weekend evenings, listening to maritime CW, HF aeronautical traffic and, of course, NDBs below the broadcast band.

My HF receiving antenna consisted of three inverted-V’s … one for 160m, the second for 80m and the third for 40m … all fed from the same coaxial line at the top of a 70′ Balsam. It didn’t take long to realize what an exceptional radio location I had, living right at the edge of the ocean, with dozens of miles of saltwater in most directions other than due west.

I really enjoyed following evening airline flights across both the North and South Atlantic, and in the early winter afternoons, following the commercial air-traffic all over Africa. Even though listening on 5 or 6MHz, I was amazed at how strong the signals from airliners over Africa at 30,000 feet or more could become, this far to the west. In the early mornings, directions were reversed and traffic from the far east, right into India, was fairly common. Often, small single-engine planes, usually run by various missionaries, could be heard while on the ground, taxiing at remote field locations and calling in via HF radio to request takeoff and flight-following.

Now QSL’s have always been one of my top radio interests and it wasn’t long before I started sending and collecting verifications for both the aircraft and the ships I was hearing … once I had figured out how to get my reception reports to their proper destinations.[…]

Click here to continue reading Part 1 of “DXing the Utilities.”

Click here to read Part 2.

Jeff’s Drake R8 has been online for 24 years and counting

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jeff Chilton, who writes:

I’ve been finding myself at your excellent SWLing Post site frequently of late.

I wonder if you’ve seen my online shortwave receiver website. It’s been online since 1995, when it looked like this:

It still controls the same old Drake R8 receiver at my house, but I recently rebuilt the pages and server code to make the interface more interactive and improve the audio streaming. It’s now at:

https://www.chilton.com/R8

It is still new, and there’s a lot of Javascript involved so could be a compatibility issue but please do give it another try.

Thanks, Jeff! I’ve spent a little time tuning the R8 and the interface is quite intuitive. With that said, readers, ergonomics was not the original Drake R8’s strong suit. If you’ve never used one, it takes a while to learn to use change filters, select modes, etc. via the row of six buttons above the keypad and encoder.

Also, Jeff’s R8 is not the U Twente web SDR–I’m guessing it can only handle one operator at a time, so we’ll see how this goes as everyone checks it out today!

Click here to check out Jeff’s Drake R8.

Free Radio Skybird returns December 8th and 15th

Los Altos History Museum features “Ham for the Holidays”

“The Spy” dramatizes careless use of covert QRP HF CW transmissions

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

The new 6-part Netflix series ‘The Spy’ about the Mossad agent Eli Cohen (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) who infiltrated Syrian military intelligence from 1962-1965 dramatizes his careless use of QRP HF CW transmissions in Damascus, which were DF’d to track him down.

SWLing Post readers might find the series interesting, especially segments depicting Mossad’s use of covert QRP HF CW transmissions.

Radio-savvy viewers will find unintended humor in the use of a transistor AM radio circuit board, tiny batteries, and no antenna(!) to send CW messages from Damascus to Israel–and in the comical depiction of a Soviet/Syrian radio HF DF van. You’d think a TV series with star power could’ve found a willing ham or film crew member to lend some basic technical expertise.

Links:

https://www.netflix.com/title/80178151

https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Eli-Cohens-radio-operator-Spy-determined-Israels-destiny

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1909526/exclusive-10-factual-errors-committed-%E2%80%98-spy%E2%80%99-series-eli-cohen

Thanks for sharing, Ed! I’m sure this is a great series. And, yes, I suppose this wouldn’t be the first time the movie industry made an attempt at authenticity but fell just a little short! Since that’s such a key part of the film (no pun intended!), you would think they could have consulted an expert to make the setup authentic while preserving the integrity of the scene.