Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

The story behind Landon’s Realistic DX-160

Landon's 15 year old son with his Realistic DX-160

Landon’s 15 year old son, Seth, with his Realistic DX-160

After posting Landon Reynold’s excellent listener post a few days ago, Landon added details about his Realistic DX-160. Landon writes:

Something I didn’t share in my original post, was that this DX-160 is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm!

Landon's shortwave listening post and coffee maker. All of the essentials.

Landon’s shortwave listening post and coffee maker inside the aircrew tent during Desert Storm.

I retired from the Tennessee Air Guard/USAF in 2004, having served 20 years as an Aeromedical Evacuation Specialist, flying Air Evac missions. In addition to having served in Desert Storm, I also flew air evac missions during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

But … back in 1990-1991 when I deployed to Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, I took the DX-160 along with me. For an antenna, I used the pictured military surplus antenna, which I would string along our tent, or any other attachment I could find a place to attach it. The antenna was one I had purchased years before, and had used with the AN/GRR-5.

When we were not flying missions, or filling sandbags, we’d often sit around the tent, tuning in shortwave stations, or listening aircraft such as the A-10s calling in their strike reports. They actually used HF radio and sent their reports in the clear on sideband.

I also realized after I had re-read my original post, that I may have led the impression that I purchased this particular DX-160 on eBay. In fact, I purchased it in a thrift shop in Erin, Tennessee back in 1989, before I went off to Desert Storm. I’ve purchased several other radios, such as Realistic Patrolman Scanners, Bearcat Scanners, etc. on eBay for my collection.

Another scan I thought you might be interested in, is the latter, which was from CRB Research Books, owned by the late Tom Kneitel, K2AES. Many DXers who have been around for awhile are most likely familiar with the works of Tom Kneitel, as he wrote many books on the hobby, especially those about monitoring the military and utilities. I have several of his books in my library.

http://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/Tom_Kneitel

Landon, many thanks for sharing this history and photos of your DX-160 throughout the years! It must give you great pride to see your son, Seth, taking an interest in the hobby with the DX-160.

Any other readers have a Monitoring Station Registry certificate from CRB Research? Though I knew about the certificates, for some reason I never obtained one back in the day. And Landon thanks for reminding me about Tom Kneitel; he was certainly one of the pillars of our hobby for many, many years.

The Sony CF-560s: a shortwave favorite in Spain

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Jesus Leal, for contacting me and sharing photos of his Sony CF-560s shortwave receiver. I have never seen the CF-560s before. I believe the its a relatively rare receiver; indeed, I couldn’t even find one in the completed listings on eBay.

The CF-560s covers AM/FM/SW and has a built-in cassette player/recorder. Being a “boombox” style radio, I imagine the SW filter is wide and, when locked into a strong station, provides rich audio.

Mr. Leal, who lives in the La Mancha region of Spain, uses the Sony CF-560s for regular shortwave listening but also has a Grundig/Eton Satellit 750 in his radio arsenal.

Any other SWLing Post readers have the Sony CF-560s? Looks like a gem of a radio. The design certainly has strong 1980s nostalgic value.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Detecting Radio Guyana/Voice of Guyana

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Yesterday I learned that Voice of Guyana (a.k.a. Radio Guyana) is back on the shortwaves after being off-air for many years. Evidently, the station repaired some of its transmitters and antennas with the assistance of station supporter and technician Jamie Labadia. At this point the station is only capable of a 1,000 watt AM signal.

To be clear, 1 kW AM is not an easy catch for most of us in North America unless propagation is in our favor.

Last night while testing a new military-grade SDR (the Enablia TitanSDR) that I’m reviewing, I decided that Voice of Guyana might make for a good weak-signal test.

And so, last night at 21:00 EST (02:00 UTC) I tuned the TitanSDR to 3,290 kHz; I could see a faint carrier on frequency, but the audio was lost in the noise. I could detect talking and music, but I couldn’t base an ID from it. I set the TitanSDR to record a wideband chunk of spectrum throughout the night. This morning, I played the spectrum recording and found that the signal was at its best around 0945 UTC.

Above you can see Radio Guyana’s AM signal on the TitanSDR narrowband spectrum display (click to enlarge). While still quite weak, I could make out station IDs and music quite easily. It was wonderful to hear Voice of Guyana on the air again!

Note: the TitanSDR was exceptional at pulling the audio out of the static. More about this SDR to come…

Here’s a 27 minute recording I made with the TitanSDR, using its eUSB mode (ECSS), beginning around 0945 UTC:

Voice of Guyana back on the air

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Many thanks to David Goren who shares this dialog between Jamie Labadia and Glenn Hauser via the DX Listening Digest:

** GUYANA. Hi Glenn, I have the Voice of Guyana on the air at, don’t laugh, 400 watts. 3.290 MHz is the freq. I am going to repair a few more amplifiers and get them up to about a kilowatt for now. Have to reconfigure the combiner though. The antenna is in rough shape, but surprisingly being heard well down into interior Guyana, which is the main purpose. (On a portable no less!!) I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. It’s 80 degrees and very “tropical” here now. Best Regards (Jamie Labadia, visiting Guyana, 0147 UT Feb 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Checking around 0300 UT Feb 2, I do have a JBA carrier on 3290- via the DX-398 but not the PL-880 – could be it. Slightly on the lo side; much weaker than 3320 S Africa, 3330 Canada. Will it be on all-night?

After local noise sources diminish, Feb 2 at 0629 I try again, and now a very poor signal on 3290- in English sounds like BBCWS, but not // or not synchro with 9460.

Meanwhile after I post this news ASAP on the DXLDyg, reports come in: Brandon Jordan in TN had it at 0333 on 3289.973, 0359 switching to BBC overnight feed just like they used to do. Bruce Portzer in Seattle also had a carrier around 0500. Daniel Wyllyans in Brasil was already hearing it as an unID. Forwarded these reports to Jamie and he replies at 1127 UT Feb 2:

“Yes, That’s us!! That was a repeat of the Sunday afternoon program. Made for great listening while working on the amplifiers — Nat King Cole, Glenn Miller, Woody Herman. Thanks to all of the great DXers out there. I will be working on the transmitter until just after local sundown, then leave it on the air until the next morning. Glenn, thank you very much for this great resource. Surprised more engineers aren’t using it as their “remote S meter”!! Jamie“

He said he planned to put V of Guyana on a higher frequency for better domestic coverage. 5950 used to be the daytime channel on the originally 10-kW transmitter, and it might be OK in the daytime now with possible het from Bolivia on 5952+, but at night there would be clashes from Germany, Iran, Ethiopia; and R. Pio XII until it closes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

If you like to follow DX news closely, consider joining the DX Listening Digest email list and make sure you listen to World of Radio with Glenn Hauser. Many thanks to GH for permission to re-post this.

Additional note (06 Feb 2015): SWLing Post reader, Harald DL1ABJ, writes:

Dear Thomas,

Guyana was active on 3290 kHz till June 2012 when the transmitter went faulty. It was a new 10 kW unit installed only in April 2010.

Before 2010 the station was inactive on shortwave for a longer period.

Reception on 3290 kHz was quite ok during good dx conditions here in Central Europe. I even managed to catch their signal on 5950 kHz once during the 1980s or 1990s.

Kind regards

Harald DL1ABJ

Daniels’ QSLs from VOA and CRI

Radio Australia back on 9,580 kHz this morning

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It appears it may have indeed been a transmitter glitch that kept Radio Australia from broadcasting into North America with their typical blowtorch signal on 9,580 kHz yesterday.

After publishing a post about this yesterday, I received quite a few reports confirming that RA could not be heard in North America. I even received a report from Mike in New Zealand who couldn’t hear RA on 9,580 kHz with his Yaesu FT-817.

I did, however, receive two reports from listeners stating that they could hear a very faint signal from RA on 9,580 kHz–long after I had tuned off frequency. This might explain the carrier I saw on my spectrum display yesterday. Perhaps Shepparton turned down the power on 9,580 kHz for maintenance purposes?

Either way, I’m simply happy to hear my old friend back on 9,580. Since we are officially under the new (reduced) broadcast plan, I hope this means that we’ll at least Radio Australia until they change the plan again.

Radio Australia silent on 9,580 kHz this morning

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Fullscreen capture 1312015 25334 PM This morning, when I tuned to Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz, they were not transmitting–or, at least, I couldn’t hear them.

I hope this is merely a transmitter glitch (they do happen).

You see, Radio Australia recently issued their new shortwave broadcast schedule which included cuts to the Pacific broadcast footprint. The changes take effect today. 9,580 kHz, however, should still be on the air between 09:00-21:00 UTC–this morning, I was listening at 15:00 UTC.

I can’t think of the last time I couldn’t hear Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz in the morning hours here in the eastern USA. Indeed, some of my earliest memories of listening to shortwave radio include RA on 9,580 kHz.

I need to look further into the changes to the broadcast plan. I’m beginning to wonder if the transmitter output and orientation have been changed. As you can see in the screenshot from my Elad FDM-S2 (above), there is a faint carrier on 9,580, but it’s much too weak to hear. I’ve no clue if it’s Radio Australia or not.

Fortunately, Radio Australia is quite loud on 12,065 kHz and very audible on 12,085 kHz (see below), which means I still get my Saturday morning dose of Saturday Night Country.