Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

From Moscow With Love: Comments on the future of VOR

RIA Novosti Newsroom, Moscow (Source: Wikipedia)

SWLing Post reader, Richard, writes:

This is apparently a transcript from Vasily Strelnikov’s most recent “From Moscow With Love” that represents, probably as much as anything, the thinking currently within the halls of VoR.

Interesting reading & listening –

Many thanks, Richard, for sharing. Note that you can read and listen to the full show on the Voice of Russia website.

From Moscow With Love is hosted by Vasily Strelnikov and Natalia Stefanova. I thank them both for their refreshingly frank view of the the future of their show and the Voice of Russia.

Click for direct links to their show audio for part 1 and part 2. I’ve also pasted the bulk of the transcript below for the convenience of email subscribers:

(Source: Voice of Russia)

“This is our last show this year and, who knows, probably the last show on the VR.

There’s been a lot of talk on the internet all over the place about the end of shortwave broadcast from the Voice of Russia. Is it going to happen? I don’t know. I haven’t discussed it with anyone around here. Am I worried like some of you are? No. Am I losing sleep over it? No. Am I posting mindless crap about this all over the Internet? No. Do I care? Not really. Do I have a life? Yes, I’d like to think so. So, many stations have already left the shortwave for the same reasons. Are we as shortwave listeners happy? No. But can we put all our emotions aside and deal with reality? You might be asking why there hasn’t been on the air or on the website about this. Good question. I would probably guess it is because folks here don’t make such a big deal out of it. The fact is most of the comrades here at the office will continue working just as they always did. The programs will be carried online, on satellite and on the many local stations around the world in cities like Washington DC, New York, Miami, Chicago. There are DAB broadcasts in the UK and other European cities. The list grows all the time. Yes shortwave listeners are disappointed, I can understand this. But the hobby doesn’t end there. Get a grip.

But what about the merging of the station with RIA or RIA News Agency?

At the risk of sounding like the devil’s advocate, let me say I am not an employee of this radio station for as long as I’ve been a shortwave listener including the very early years as a kid in Maryland in the years I worked at radio Moscow World Service, I’ve always felt there was so much room left for improvement at radio Moscow. Now if this merger with the other Russia news organizations leads to something good, I can only welcome this. It’s been long overdue.

But aren’t you sad at all? This is bad news for the shortwave listeners around the world.

What I am sad about is the yet unconfirmed information dealing with having to move out of this historic building into a new facility several miles away because, maybe it is because we worked here for a long time, our lives are connected with this building at Pyatnitsaya street.

I suppose we feel like the BBC staff when they were forced to leave Bush House. It looks like most of the people are very worried about the future.

And what’s that got to do with leaving the building?
It is everything.

We are talking about our plans for New Year’s holiday as it is a time when the whole country goes on vacation for 10 days and the consequences are felt for the rest of the year. As for yours truly, I’ll probably spend a few days in the country in the fresh air, relaxing, playing with my new radio. But the atmosphere in Moscow if we talk about the first 10 days of January is very nice. It is very quiet during the holidays here. The city is empty, as all the oligarchs are out of here, off-shores. There is no traffic, the lighting is still there, it is magical. I also want to take a late night dinner cruise on the Moskva River aboard the Radisson fleet.

That must be a fantastic experience now that Moscow is sparkling with thousands of lights.

Let’s talk about traditions a bit more. You mentioned the one about throwing all the old stuff away. The one I never understood, I mean tradition speaking was how and why you are supposed to say farewell to the old year by having a drink a few minutes before midnight.

That is very simple, mind you, it is an absolute must to say goodbye to the old year and thank it for all the good things it brought you. After that you must have a shot of vodka or a glass of wine or any other alcoholic beverage provided it is not Champaign. Champaign is something to see the new year in.
I think it is just another excuse to drink. What about all the mythical animals that are always associated with this holiday? It may sound dumb coming from me and it probably is, but I don’t recall paying any attention to these things back in the US but here every year is assigned with an animal, like this time. It is the year of the horse.

Right, blue horse.

Are Russians really into that sort of thing?

I think they are and I am very much into this. And I am ready to tell you all that I know about the year of the blue horse and the oriental and occidental horoscopes, and their influence on people. But let’s do it next week because it is a very interesting topic and we simply have no time for it now.

One New Year’s tradition here is to have Santa Claus or Father Frost and his Snow Maiden visit kids from their parents workplace.

In USSR another New Year’s tradition which I hated was watching TV till the early hours of morning. There was nothing to watch but a lame soviet produced New Year’s special called Blue Light made up of ideologically safe jokes and unbearable Soviet singers. And later that night it would be followed by an east German production featuring dancers from the Friedrichstadt-Palast Cancan troop.”

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/radio_broadcast/36578738/256786661/

Popular Communications to end print publication

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As of February 2013, the magazine Popular Communications will become a digital supplement to CQ Amateur Radio magazine.

“Pop Comm“–together with its sister publications CQ VHF and WorldRadio–will now be digital only.

Check out this ARRL News article for details.

A little gift (for you) that keeps on ringing…

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With a nod to the holidays, I thought I’d give a little gift to my readers– just in time to ring in the New Year, too.

One of the quirkier radio experiments I’ve made recently is to create ringtones based shortwave station IDs and interval signals. My favorite, thus far, is that of the Voice of Greece (a.k.a. Radio Station of Macedonia) because it has the hallmarks of a great ringtone: it starts very quietly (giving you time to turn it off if you left it off in a meeting) and is distinctive from practically any other ringtone on the planet. It’s also loud enough to get your attention. Yet it’s wonderfully humble, suggesting a halcyon locale–a shepherd’s pan pipe underscored by the gentle arrhythmic ring of goats’ bells. A Greek vacation in every ring.

I’ve had the Voice of Greece as my ringtone long enough that I was recently listening when the VOG ID hit the radio, and my daughter called out, “Daddy! Your phone is ringing!”

If you would like my VOG ringtone, it’s yours–free! {Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!}

I have links to two formats below: one for iOS and one for Android. Simply right click and save the file to your computer.

Click here to download the iPhone (iOS) version. If you have an iPhone, simply import the downloaded file into iTunes on your PC/Mac. It should recognize the file as a ringtone and place it in your “Tones” category. Once you sync your phone, it should appear in your ringtones on your phone.

Click here to download the Android version. Instructions for adding the ringtone to your Android phone can be found here.

Now, if you’d like to hear something a little more festive than a ringtone, I’d encourage you to listen to this studio recording of beHAVior Night on the SW Radio Audio Archive.

“Sir Scratchy” has kindly shared this with us.

Enjoy!

Kaito able to update PL-880 firmware in-house

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Earlier we posted that Tecsun PL-880s being sold by Kaito Electronics had an older firmware version (#8819) than those being sold by Anon-Co on eBay (#8820).

Fortunately SWLing Post reader, Tim, has been working directly with Kaito in California. Yesterday, he visited their headquarters where they updated his PL-880 from firmware version 8819 to 8820.

Tim writes:

“Just got back with my PL-880 from Kaito. It took about 5 seconds to update the firmware (they let me watch). Tecsun sent them a little silver box with a cord that plugs into the radio just below the LCD screen. After removing the face plate, they merely plug in the cord, press a button and voilà, the firmware is upgraded to 8820, and no more soft mute problems. They told me mine is the first one to get the update and it seems just great so far!

I asked if they will be updating new radios before they ship, and they said, “of course, by all means.” [T]hey are now selling the radio with 8820 firmware. People who bought the radio before are also welcome to send theirs back for the upgrade.”

The review of the Tecsun PL-880 we posted two weeks ago was purchased from Anon-Co and has the newer 8820 firmware version.

Tim, many thanks for the report!

Voice of Russia to remain on the air in 2014

14 Replies

RIA Novosti Newsroom, Moscow (Source: Wikipedia)

This year has been a confusing one for Voice of Russia listeners. At least two separate news sources–in August and December–announced that VOR would be leaving the shortwaves effective Jan 1, 2014, but VOR couldn’t confirmed or denied the news.

Then, only two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised us all by essentially liquidating the Voice of Russia and merging it with Rossia Segodnya newswire in sweeping changes affecting all Russian state media.

I was curious if this move might have changed VOR’s outlook on the shortwaves, so I contacted VOR to see if they had any official word. I received the following response this morning:

“We are glad to let you know that the Voice of Russia will stay on the air in 2014, however, considerable changes in our frequency schedule are expected. The information on the updated frequency chart will become available on the Voice of Russia’s web site before the New Year at http://voiceofrussia.com/radio_broadcast/frequencies/ , so please stay logged in.

You may have already read about the planned merger of the VOR an RIA Novosti Press Agency in the upcoming year, for details please see the article at http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_09/President-Vladimir-Putin-issues-decree-to-reorgonize-Voice-of-Russia-RIA-Novosti-to-Rossia-Segodnya-news-wire-1689/

Repairing the Tecsun PL-600 after electrostatic discharge (ESD)

13 Replies

SWLing Post reader, Michael Taniwha (NZ1MT), has kindly documented how he repaired his Tecsun PL-600 after it went silent on the shortwave bands. If this has happens to you, don’t toss your PL-600, use Mike’s excellent guide below for an inexpensive repair.
(Click on images to enlarge)

TECSUN PL-600 – Electrostatic Discharge Repair

My TECSUN PL-600 had been a trusty bedside radio companion for the last two years. The radio is also my alarm clock and I use the timers to wake me up each morning to my local AM station WHYN or Radio Australia on SW.

On November 29, 2013 I turned the TECSUN PL-600 on and attempted to tune into some SW stations and was surprised to find the radio stone deaf on all the SW bands….similar to the Steely Dan song FM (No Static At All) except in this case it was SW (No Static At All). Immediately my first thought was that the radio had probably suffered an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) when I had touched the external antenna while moving it around earlier in the day. I reset the radio and tested all the bands, AM and FM bands seemed to be working OK, yet SW remained dead.

My next step was to open up the radio and look for the obvious.

Upon opening the radio I was surprised to see two back-to-back IN4148 diodes (D17 & D18) fitted across the external antenna input to ground and that the diode D17 was cracked in half. The back-to-back diodes offer a very high resistance at the micro-volt RF level, but will conduct once the forward voltage (Vf) raises above 1.0V. So for the cost of a few pennies we have a relatively cheap and dirty ESD protection circuit.

My first thought on the cause of the cracked diode was a manufacturing defect when the diode was soldered in at the factory (in fact I later discovered it was likely broken during assembly of the rear cover at the factory – read on). My next thought was just my luck that the broken diode was probably in the polarity direction that I needed the ESD protection.

The next step was to locate a schematic diagram and start circuit tracing to find the likely blown front-end RF pre-amplifier FET/MOSFET that had been damaged. As luck would have it a schematic of sorts is posted in the TECSUN PL-660/PL-600 Yahoo Groups. See the following Link.
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TecsunPL660TecsunPL600/files/PL%20600%20Schematics/

The only issue is the text is mostly in Chinese! However, the parts on the radio PC board are clearly labeled as are the parts on the schematic.

What I quickly notice is that the schematic shows no ESD protection on the front end (upper highlighted circle), but in fact the radio has additional parts D17and D18 (the back-to-back diodes), and C57 on the PC board coming from the external antenna jack. Whenever the external antenna jack is used the jack disconnects the radios telescopic antenna which is connected to C68 to the antenna jack switch circuit. After this antenna switch the schematic from C126 onwards is correct. Following the schematic we see that both the telescopic antenna and the external antenna go through the DX/NORM/LOCAL antenna switch to the IQ3 (AGC?) transistor and then to the RF pre-amp 2Q1 FET (lower highlighted circle). My educated guess was that the 2Q1 FET type 2SK2394 was damaged by the ESD. Yes the 2Q1 it is a very small SMD type FET.

My reasoning for the 2Q1 having failed is that FM reception was not affected as the antenna circuit goes directly to the TA75358AP FM decoder chip IC1.

Similarly, AM reception was not affected as the AM signal is primarily from the ferret bar AM ANT coil that uses the 1Q1 FET for RF pre-amplification.

At this stage I contacted Kaito Electronics Inc. the official US based distributor of TECSUN radios and inquired if they provide component level repairs or provide replacement SMD components. The answer was no to both questions.

I then started hunting around online to locate a replacement 2SK2394 FET which is a Sanyo manufactured FET and finally found one for sale on eBay from hkutsource (Hong Kong UT Source) for $2 + $4 shipping. See following eBay link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2SK2394-7-Manu-SANYO-Encapsulation-SOT-23-High-Speed-High-Current-Switching-/130835554230?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:US:1120

This FET is listed as a 2SK2394-7 but all the specifications line up against the specifications for a 2SK2394. I ordered it on December 6th and it arrived 10 days later enclosed in an ESD bag and packaged in a sturdy little box.

Now the fun starts. To replace the 2Q1 SMD FET I used my needle nosed 40W soldering iron, vacuum pump solder remover and wore my ESD strap to stay grounded. First step was to remove the existing 2Q1 FET.

Next step was to install the replacement 2Q1, if you haven’t worked with SMD devices before let’s just say it is like working with a live insect, they are small and seem to move around on their own accord.

After much tooth pick (my hi-tech SMD tool) maneuvering I finally had it installed. OK I admit it is a little skewed. Have you noticed I have also installed a replacement D17 diode at the top right of the picture?

The moment of truth! At this stage I did a quick radio check and fired up the PL-600 on the SW band and tuned into CHU, the Canadian Time Station on 3330 kHz, and picked up a time pip signal. In addition I was tuning into other SW stations and had plenty of static as well.

I now decided to install additional ESD protection on the telescopic antenna input as well using two IN4148 back-to-back diodes. After a quick hunt around in my junk box I located an old PC board with a few IN4148 diodes attached. Quickly removed and tested them using my multimeter diode checker.

I then installed the additional ESD diodes as shown below (the ATN label on the PC board is where the antenna wire from the telescopic antenna on the back over is attached).

Finally it was time to reassemble the radio. This is when I started having real problems as the rear cover just would not reattach. When I looked closely I could see that the plastic support screw hole on the rear cover for the telescopic antenna sits partially against the PC board where the D17 diode is located. Now that explains why that diode was cracked when I first opened up the radio at the beginning of this repair. It appears the two ESD diodes were probably a design afterthought and the rear case wasn’t adjusted to accommodate their location on the PC board.

To get around this issue I removed the replacement D17 and relocated it to the lower part of the PC board below C57. Once I had moved D17 I could now reassemble the radio and again tested the radio. My TECSUN PL-600 is now back to its trusty role beside my bed and picking up SW stations.

In summary if you have a TECSUN PL-600 or PL-660 that is deaf on the SW band it is likely to be an ESD damaged 2Q1 RF pre-amplifier 2SK2394 FET. For $6 and some time and effort you can replace the FET and have your radio back up and running like new.

Michael Taniwha – NZ1MT
Email: To send Michael an email, simply insert his callsign @YMAIL.COM
December 17, 2013

Many thanks, Mike, for the excellent documentation and detailed photos!

Note that you can also download Mike’s guide as a PDF on the Tecsun PL-660/600 Yahoo Group (membership required).