Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who writes:
Our greatly “Updated” SDRplay RSP1A review is now available (with new number two 2019 manufactured test sample). As usual with our web pages be sure and have pop up blocker on full (allow no pop ups) and browser security settings at default or above.
Thanks for sharing this, Dave!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Emilio Ruiz, who notes:
Searching archive.org found this [compilation] book: 50 Years of Wireless Design (click to view on Archive.org)
Click here to download a PDF copy.
I hope it will be interesting for you and the readers of the blog.
[The attached] cartoon is very funny… How eliminate “the hand
capacity”:
Excellent find, Elilio! Thank you for sharing!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Thomas Ally, who notes that Andrew Yoder has released the 2017-2018 Pirate Radio Annual.
Here’s the announcement from the Hobby Broadcasting Blog:
2017-2018 Pirate Radio Annual is done and I’ve received the copies back from the printer already! This edition is 308 pages and contains an audio CD-R (playable on standard CD players) with clips from 87 different pirate stations from around the world, nearly all from 2016 and 2017. This edition contains 181 illustrations and entries for approximately 307 stations reported in North America in 2016 and 2017 (280 North American shortwave stations and 27 from Europe and South America).
It also contains some “articles” on the Common and Precious Beacon, Radio Pirana International from South America, and upcoming Global HF Pirate Weekends/propagation for reaching different parts of the world.
This edition will cost $20 ($16.50 + $3.50 shipping) in the U.S. I took the packed book to the post office for the international shipping cost and was shocked to discover that it will cost $24 to ship it anywhere in Europe (so, $38.00 = $16.50 + $21.50 to Europe) I’ll eat a couple dollars of the cost because the shipping is so high. It’s so expensive that it will soon pay for airfare to Europe just to deliver copies!
This price is good for the next month (up through 5/1/2019). I’m not sure if I’ll keep the price the same or raise it at that time.
Please send check or money order to:
Hobby Broadcasting
PO Box 109
Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214or send the money via PayPal to info [at symbol] hobbybroadcasting.com. If you trust that I won’t run off with the money to Sealand, please use the “Friends and Family” option so that PayPal won’t charge a fee.
4/2 update: One final note about ordering via PayPal: Could you please include your shipping address with the PayPal order? The PayPal messages haven’t included addresses and when I sign into PayPal and click on the “more information about this transaction,” the address still isn’t coming up. So, I’ve been e-mailing people for addresses, which could delay shipping.
Thanks for the tip, Tom! I just ordered my copy!
One of the images to be transmitted: Image 1 ~ 1955-1970, Þórsmörk. A lightly dressed elderly man looks at Eyjafjallajökull glacier
Many thanks to Lucy Helton (KD2MFV) who writes:
Dear Thomas,
Between April 9th – 23rd 2019, I’m artist-in-residence at SIM, in Reykjavik, Iceland, to partner with Jón Þ Jónsson, TF3JA, an Icelandic Radio Amateur and member of Icelandic Radio Amateurs ÍRA, to transmit images via SSTV . The images, appropriated from the Reykjavik Museum of Photography’s collection, are of Icelandic glaciers photographed in a time before we knew climate change existed. I’m asking HAM radio operators who receive my long-range image transmissions, to print out the images received and mail them back to me, using instructions on my website (www.lucyhelton.com). I will be updating the blog daily.
In exchange, when I have assembled the printed pieces to reconstruct the whole image transmitted, I will make QSL postcards of the completed images and mail them back to the participating HAMs. The resulting artwork will be a collaborative fine art example of long-range communications between humans, concerning accelerated environmental change.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could please notify HAM’s of the existence of this project by announcing it on the blog?
Transmissions
Each single transmission consists of 12 x SSTV images. I will be transmitting 5 different glacier images over 15 days.
SSTV calling frequency and daily transmission times are (the frequency will be + / – 5kHz):
20 meters: (USB) 14.230 MHz @ 1pm / 6pm / 11pm GMT
For more project information on please go to: www.lucyhelton.com
Many thanks,
Lucy Helton KD2MFV
(Source: ARRL News via Eric WD8RIF)
The US Department of Defense (DOD) plans to start making use of a provisional time slot on WWV and WWVH to announce upcoming HF military communication exercises and how the Amateur Radio community can become involved in them. The announcements will occur at 10 minutes past on WWV and at 50 minutes past on WWVH. WWV and WWVH transmit on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz.
“DOD’s use of the broadcast time slot on WWV/WWVH will benefit the MARS program’s mission of outreach to the Amateur Radio community,” said US Army Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY. “The actual messages to be broadcast are coordinated by the DOD Headquarters that the MARS program supports.”
The initial announcements are set for the period April 20 – May 3, which coincides with the “Vital Connection” interoperability exercise to be held in Wisconsin. Future time slots will coincide with the Vital Connection exercise Ohio in June; DOD COMEX 19-3 in August, and the DOD COMEX 19-4 in October. Following the proof of concept this year, DOD anticipates making use of the WWV/WWVH broadcast time slot full time, year-round.[…]
Location of Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.
Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post contributors who share the following story from Radio World magazine (this summary via Southgate ARC):
Managing short wave broadcasts from Ascension Island
Radio World reports on the remote Atlantic Relay Station that transmits critical radio broadcasts to millions in Africa and beyond
A six-mile stretch of volcanic rock in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean is home to the BBC’s Atlantic Relay Station.
Now managed and operated by Encompass Digital Media on behalf of the BBC World Service, the stations’ six powerful shortwave transmitters on Ascension Island beam program in a dozen or more languages to some 30 million listeners in north, west and central Africa.
The shortwave transmitters include two 250 kW Marconi BD272 transmitters originally installed in 1966 (and still in daily use) and four 250 kW RIZ K01 transmitters, which are also capable of transmitting in Digital Radio mode.
Read the Radio World story at
https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/managing-sw-broadcasts-from-ascension-island
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who writes:
[A] great aircraft hijacking story with a shortwave twist….
Read the full article from NK News on the link below–the shortwave twists are here in two interesting paragraphs…
“Two fight attendants from the YS-11 eventually emerged as announcers on the “Voice of the National Salvation,” a North Korean propaganda radio station targeting South Korean audiences.”
“The station claimed to be a voice of the alleged South Korean underground Juche resistance, and thus it badly needed broadcasters who were capable of speaking polished, Seoul-style Korean.”
Take to the skies: North Korea’s role in the mysterious hijacking of KAL YS-11 | NK News – North Korea News
Thank you, Mark. I was not aware of this story. It was too bad for those flight attendants that they had a skill the North Korea propaganda machine needed.