Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

Radio World: Dr. Benway’s Good Deed

Many thanks to Ulis for sharing this article from Radio World about pirate radio broadcaster, Dr. Benway (of Undercover Radio), and his quest to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project Inc.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

“Recently Dr. Benway began offering T-shirts, featuring his station logo, for sale on the fundraising website booster.com. While the shirts promote the station, the proceeds, Benway says, will go to the Wounded Warrior Project to help veterans who have been injured in combat overseas.

This type of fundraising is unusual for a pirate radio operator, but there is nothing illegal about selling shirts and booster.com handles all the orders and shipping, making the entire process anonymous.

“I selected the Wounded Warrior Project Inc. because I have been involved in other efforts with them over the years,” he said. “It just seemed like a natural fit. Pirate operators fight for free speech, and our warriors fight for the freedom of our country.”

The Wounded Warrior Project serves warriors and their families through a holistic approach, nurturing the mind and body of injured soldiers. According to the WWP website, it hopes to “foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history.”

Read the full interview on Radio World’s website…

Click here if you would like to buy an Undercover Radio t-shirt through Booster.com.

VOA Radiogram this weekend, July 5/6

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(Source: VOA Radiogram)

VOA Radiogram this weekend will include news about reductions to the shortwave transmissions of VOA and other stations of US international broadcasting. These cuts were effective on 30 June.

Fortunately, VOA Radiogram remains on shortwave, at least for now.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 66, 5-6 July 2014 (all in MFSK32 except where noted):

1:33 Program preview
2:45 Major reductions to US shortwave broadcasts, with image
8:10 Car fumes affect pollinating insects
10:10 Test of Mars landing craft a success, with image
14:23 India launches satellites at low cost, with MFSK64 image
20:32 Spanish: Triple black hole discovery, with image
25:59 Closing announcements

Please send reception reports to [email protected]

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK64 Saturday at about 1130 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday about 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz. Both frequencies via Germany. Reports to [email protected].

The CC Skywave: C. Crane’s latest shortwave portable

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The CC Skywave is the latest shortwave portable from the manufacturer and retailer, C. Crane. While this radio’s form factor looks a lot like the CCRadio-SWP, you can tell, based on features, that this is a complete re-design internally. Indeed, the Skywave sports an NOAA weather radio–and an aviation band–as well as AM/FM and shortwave.

Here are the features C. Crane lists for the CC Skywave:

AM, FM, Weather plus Alert, Shortwave (2.3-26.1 MHz) and Air Aviation Band
Direct Entry of a Frequency plus Auto Scan and Store
Lighted LCD Display
Selectable Fast or Fine Tuning on all Bands Except Weather
400 Memory Presets
Runs on (2) AA Alkaline batteries (not included)
(Optional) CC Skywave Power Adapter w/ Mini USB Plug Required for Charging NiMH Batteries.
Stereo Headphone Jack and Fold-Out Back Stand
Clock with 12/24 hour format, Alarm
Rotary Volume Knob
High Quality CC Buds Earphones and radio Carry Case included
One Year Limited Warranty
Dimensions: 4.75″ W x 3″ H x 1.1″ D
Weight: approximately 5.5 ounces without batteries
Click here to download the user manual (PDF)

The Skywave is now available to order on the C. Crane website. Since availability is scheduled for July 14, 2014, ordering online is a means of reserving your unit. I would expect C. Crane to ship on time; this is a retailer with a good track record.

I do hope to review the Skywave in the coming weeks. Update: Click here to read a full review of the CC Skywave.

NY Times: Journalists “at Odds With Union” over VOA’s role

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The New York Times, in a recent article, describes a growing split between the VOA Union (American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812) and VOA journalists over the proposed changes to the VOA mission (via H.R. 4490), which would make it an active voice of American policy. (Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Marty, for sharing this relevant article).

Below is an excerpt from The Times; click here for the full article:

WASHINGTON — Voice of America journalists who are fighting to maintain what they say is their editorial independence are now at odds not only with Congress, but also with their own union.

The union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812, recently endorsed a bill that would change language in the charter for the 72-year-old news agency and require it to actively support American policy. That came as a surprise to some Voice of America employees, who said the legislation would make them mouthpieces for government policy. They want the union to withdraw its letter of support.

“A lot of us would welcome change and reform, but not at the cost of undermining V.O.A.’s journalistic credibility,” said Jim Malone, a senior national correspondent at the government-financed news agency who is not a member of the union.

In its letter, union leaders said the agency’s managers had lost sight of their mission and were trying to turn the “V.O.A. into something they envisioned as a global variant of CNN.”

“In the end, some of the currently entrenched senior management represent a far greater threat to V.O.A.’s journalistic independence, indeed to the very existence of the V.O.A.,” the union wrote.

The danger, said the union’s president, Tim Shamble, is that the government could withdraw its financial support if the agency continued its current course. The federation represents about 40 percent of all Voice of America workers and 11 percent of the journalists in the central news division.

Continue reading…

For other posts about this topic, please follow the tag: HR4490

WRTH : A14 updates are now available for download

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WRTH has just announced that updates to the A season international radio broadcasting schedules are available to download on WRTH’s website.

This update includes the cuts and changes to VOA/RFA/RFE etc.

SDR# on a Toshiba Encore tablet PC

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SWLing Post reader London Shortwave recently moved the Software Defined Radio (SDR) application SDR# (“SDR Sharp”) off of his MacBook Pro and onto a Toshiba Encore 8″ tablet PC. He recently posted this video of SDR# running his FunCube Dongle Pro+ on the Toshiba Encore tablet:

His reception of the Voice of Korea’s Spanish service is most impressive, especially considering the high level of RFI (radio noise) he must cope with at his home in London, England.

Click here to follow London Shortwave on Twitter.

Listener Post: Jeff Zang

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Jeff Zang’s radio story is the latest in our series called Listener Posts, where I place all of your personal radio histories. If you would like to add your story to the mix, simply send your story by email!

In the meantime, many thanks to Jeff for sharing his personal radio history:

Jeff Zang

I have enjoyed your blog…indeed it has been a major factor in my getting the bug again after being away from shortwave for about 20 years.

I had played around with DXing AM stations at night when I was around 10 or 11; I lived just outside of Washington DC and remember hearing WLS and WCFL at nighttime once WLMD went off the air (a daytime station only). Also WBZ in Boston and WBT in Charlotte were pretty easy to hear, as well as KMOX in St Louis.

The original Happy Station Show host, Edward “Eddie” Startz. Photo courtesy of RNW.

I first remember hearing shortwave on a trip to see my uncle circa 1973. He had a shortwave radio. I clicked it on and was fascinated to hear all the different languages and odd music coming from Middle Eastern stations. I also quite clearly remember stumbling on some bagpipe music; I first thought this must be from Scotland but it turned out to be the “Happy Station” show on Radio Netherlands. Straight away I was hooked.

My parents got me a cheap shortwave radio (can’t remember the make, it wasn’t very good). It did however pull in the BBC and Radio Australia well enough and I became a devoted fan of both stations. I quickly moved up to the Realistic DX 160 once I’d saved a bit of money. This was a great radio to do serious Dxing with; especially later in the ’70’s when the sunspot numbers really went through the roof during the solar max at that time. I remember hearing Uganda, All India Radio, Radio Cairo came in fairly well at the time…Plus I was able to hear some Pirates on the weekends and since it had a BFO I could listen to Hams for the first time.

Somewhere around the early 1990’s I fell out of the hobby; had to concentrate on other things for a while. About 3 or 4 months ago I came across your blog and found myself getting the itch again. I now have a Kaito KA1103; amazing such a little radio can pull so much in. I’ve been reading your tips on what to listen to, have managed to catch some pirates and have enjoyed hearing Radio New Zealand in the mornings along with Radio Australia. I am sorry that so many of the stations I heard when I was a kid are now gone, SRI, Radio Netherlands, Radio Sweden, Radio Finland (I used to be a big fan of the latter two). But I have made up for this by doing some more ham DXing and also checking the Utility stations more often than I did years ago.