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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Schreiber (KE7KRF), who shares the following:
Here [above] is the QSL card I received in 2004 for the 1998 St Helena Day shortwave broadcast. There were, I recall, some staff changes and other issues that delayed many reports from being verified, but resubmitted everything in 2004 and they promptly verified.
For the 1998 broadcast I actually phoned the station in St Helena and was put on the air, but unfortunately didn’t record the broadcast.
This is one of my most prized QSLs.
Thank you, Richard. It would be one of my most prized QSLs as well! What a great memory–thank you for sharing!
The current listening post and ham radio shack of Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW) from Ponza Island, Italy.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who shares the following short recordings of Radio St. Helena day in 2006 and 2009. These recordings were made from his home on Ponza Island, Italy using the Yaesu FRG-7 and FRG-100 and a 30 meter length of wire antenna:
Is the irony of this really lost on the ABC management? Replace shortwave radio (~$20) with a sat phone (~$700+subscription) @Malarndirri19https://t.co/kzWRDbvQ7d
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Bob Heil (K9EID), who writes:
You may be interested to know about the Saturday evening Theatre Organ shows on the 100KW of WTWW:
Bob Heil at a Sacramento Wurlitzer Console
“Theatre Organ from the Ozarks” each Saturday at 8PM CST (0200 UTC Sunday) on WTWW shortwave 5.085 MHz.
Many readers might not know that Bob Heil is a man of many talents. Not only is he the founder of Heil Sound, and a host on HamNation, but Bob is an incredibly talented organist.
Just FYI. Yes, the Icom IC-7200 is “Back in Production”
” The Icom IC-7200 HF DSP Transceiver is back in production once again (at least for now). Unknown if any part / design changes had to be made to make this possible ? Let’s hope they are using better quality Chinese fans ?? We TRIED 2 brand new samples near the end of the last run and it’s internal “Dual Mini Chinese Fans” BOTH squealed like a pig.[…]”
See my news page for the latest info on this (among other latest happenings including a bit more on the Sangean 909X saga).
I believe the Icom IC-7200 has one of the best general coverage receivers on the market under $1000. I pointed this out in my General Coverage Transceiver review from 2014. I should hope that ham radio clubs might take note about the re-introduction of the IC-7200 and consider purchasing it over the less expensive IC-718 for Field Day or club station use. I’m no fan of the IC-718 as it’s a miserable performer in RF-rich environments like Field Day and radio contests.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Phil Brennan, who shares the following press release from ABC Friends.
ABC Friends represents the community’s interest in independent national public broadcasting:
MEDIA RELEASE
5/1/2017
NEW THREAT TO LIVES IN OUTBACK PLEA FOR URGENT MINISTERIAL ACTION
An urgent call for ministerial action to protect short wave services in Northern and Central Australia has been made by ABC Friends National.
“It is the responsibility of both the Minister for Communications Senator Fifield and the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to respond to this very real need with urgency,’” said ABC Friends National President Margaret Reynolds today.
ABC Friends National sent a letter in December to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, urging him to intervene so as to guarantee the ABC had sufficient funding to maintain the short wave service – which is so essential in rural and remote areas.
“Furthermore a number of Pacific Island states also rely on this service especially in the current cyclone season,” Margaret Reynolds said, “Pacific leaders have expressed concern about a loss of this service.”
”It is unacceptable to simply blame the ABC when government funding has been reduced so severely in recent years.”
“The ABC cannot provide adequate communication services for all Australians in isolated regions as well as support our Pacific neighbours if it is constantly facing funding cutbacks.”
“The Australian Government must accept that, ultimately, short wave services can provide early warning and be an important preventative disaster measure,” she said.
Some of you might remember the extensive tests I conducted last August, comparing this great portable receiver against the model it was introduced to replace – and arguably one of the best-ever portables – the Sony ICF-2001D/ICF-2010. I conducted a back-to-back series of comparison tests at the very quiet wood in Oxfordshire I use for my DX’peditions, using the same antenna for both recievers – the excellent Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop. In total, I made fourteen reception videos comparing the ICF-2001D and ICF-SW77 and posted them to my Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel. Both receivers performed very well, delivering excellent reception on the Tropical Band and elsewhere on the shortwave spectrum, however, the ICF-2001D proved to be the clear winner, with what proved to be far superior synchronous detection.
But that wasn’t the end of the road for my ICF-SW77. It remains a very capable receiver (one of my all-time favourite portables) and one which I continue to use regularly. However, every now and then, it surprises me with something exceptional. Since conducting the tests against the ICF-2001D, the SW77 has brought in my best-ever indoor reception of Radio Verdad, Guatemala on 4054.8 kHz….and when I say best-ever, I really do mean it; the audio was significantly clearer than anything I had copied previously at home with the Elad. More recently, I copied Zambia NBC Radio 1 on 5915 kHz on a DX’pedition with a far superior signal to anything I’d previously heard, with any other reciever, including the ICF-2001D and the Elad FDM DUO. Some of this of course is down to short-term conditions of propagation, however, the SW77 continues to prove why it has such a loyal following and continues to command premium prices on eBay. Text links and embedded videos to both reception videos on Oxford Shortwave Log follow below:
Further to these recent catches, I promised some of my YouTube subscribers that I would conduct another, similar test with the ICF-SW77, but against it’s cheaper ‘sibling’ the ICF-SW55. A review at the time of the ICF-SW55’s introduction concluded that the price premium of the ICF-SW77 may not be justified since the performance of the two receivers was very similar, despite the SW55 lacking synchronous detection. As someone who has extensive experience with the SW55 out in the field – it was my mainstay DXpedition receiver for more than a year – I was just as interested as my subscribers in how these two vintage Sonys would measure up against each other. The lineage is all very obvious from their respective industrial designs, but the lack of Synchronous detection on the SW55 might have been the one element of functionality resulting in poorer performance, particularly in challenging band conditions and in the presence of adjacent channel QRM etc. To mix things up a little, I have also thrown the brilliant Tecsun PL-310ET into this test. Such a sensitive and selective receiver for less than £40, it has provided more surprises with regard to it’s performance than just about any other radio I’ve owned. How would the Tecsun compare to these two vintage, but high-end Sony portables? Stay tuned to find out! Two reception videos follow, using signals from ABC Northern Territories (4835 kHz) and Radio Mali (9350 kHz), with more to follow on Oxford Shortwave Log and a further posting on swling.com/blog. Thanks for watching/reading/listening.
Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.
