For your listening enjoyment: Voice of Greece (9,420 kHz), Radio Croatia (9,925 kHz) and Radio Romania International (9,700 kHz). The Voice of Greece and Radio Croatia broadcast an extensive mix of music; while Radio Romania International offers their English and French hours.
I recorded these broadcasts simultaneously via my WinRadio Excalibur, yesterday at 00:00 UTC.
Click to enlarge
Erin, with TecsinRadio.com, sent me this graphic with English translations for the Degen DE1129’s front panel (which is silk-screened in Chinese).
This could come in handy for future DE1129 owners less familiar with Chinese.
I’ve also added this image in our Shortwave Radio Index.
(Photo source: TecsunRadio.com)
TecsunRadio.com has posted the new Degen DE1129 shortwave radio on their website. Though they have not yet posted pricing, it appears pre-orders are being taken.
The DE1129 looks like a decedent of the Degen DE1128 that has not exactly been a market success in North America. The DE1128 lacks medium wave (AM) 10kHz steps (spacing) that allows it to be useful in the North America AM broadcast market. It also lacks English as a selectible language on the display. (The Grundig G2 Reporter, however, does have the features and is, in essence, the North American version of the DE1128).
The published features/specs of the new DE1129 do not reveal if AM spacing or English language will be an issue in the DE1129. I will try to contact the manufacturer. Until then, I would keep this in mind if pre-ordering. UPDATE: The DE1129 does have 10kHz spacing.
UPDATE: Vimal points out pricing is $102 US/each with shipping.
Thanks for the tip from the excellent Herculodge blog!
Features (per retailer)
Click here to download your copy.
Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated radio historian and author, Jeff Cant, you can download and read an excellent history of the first fifty years of the BBC’s Woofferton transmission station. Cant began his history as an internal document to the station; he later finished it in his retirement. I wish every shortwave transmitter station had such a well-documented history providing a perspective on the station’s broadcasting. We owe Mr. Cant a profound debt of gratitude.
To download the PDF, simply click here.
A special thanks to Jonathan Marks for finding and sharing this great bit of radio history.
Should the link to the PDF above ever become inactive, I’ve placed an archive copy available for download on the SWLing Post server.
SWLing Post reader, Jeffrey Fritz, sent me the following message and has kindly allowed me to share it with other readers. I’mthoroughly inspired!
Bottoms up! Considering how old this receiver is, the chassis bottom (still with the original power cord) really is clean. This is how the bottom of the chassis looked when I removed the receiver from its metal cabinet.
As a teenager in the 1960s I spent a considerable amount of time SWLing on a Hallicrafters SX-110 communications receiver. I collected QSL cards from all over the world and loved being an SWL.
The SX-110 was purchased on 9 September 1961 from Gem Electronics in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. My parents bought it for me, probably after a great deal of whining and cajoling on my part. Although much of my gear has long since been sent to some landfill by my parents, like my precious Lionel trains, I would not allow them to trash the SX-110.
The top of the chassis, however, is not as clean. Some elbow grease will clearly be required.
The radio has been sitting in one basement or another, unused for the better part of 30 years.
Yesterday I decided to try bringing the radio back to life. Restoring this kind old receiver was a labor of love. The receiver was carefully looked over and tested with a VOM for bad components and the top of the chassis cleaned as best I could. The bottom was pristine. I just needed to clean out a few cobwebs and replace the power cord.
All eight tubes. Note the three original Hallicrafters tubes with the orange labeling.
After being cleaned up and several components tested, the SX-110 was slowly brought back to life on a Variac. I started at 10 volts AC and slowly increased the voltage every ten minutes by another ten volts. When I got to about 90 VAC, I could hear static and distorted audio coming out of the speaker. It was a good sign that the radio would come back to full operation once I reached the normal 110 VAC input–and that is exactly what occurred.
I am happy to report that, with a little patience and love (and a good cleaning) –and with three of the original Hallicrafters tubes still in place, my trusty old Hallicrafters SX-110 shortwave receiver is happily working today. I have it connected to its original Hallicrafters R-47 3.3 ohm speaker.
The top chassis is cleaned as much as possible. Not perfect, but a little cleaner than before. We now have about 110 volts applied through the Variac. No smoke but we do have lights!
Yesterday evening I listened to Radio Taiwan, Radio China International, Radio Havana Cuba, The Voice of Turkey and The Voice of Russia. The audio quality was rather decent without a hint of AC hum. The radio is probably due for a good alignment. I am running the radio on the Variac set at 110 volts AC and will probably keep it on the Variac because the AC voltages today in the U.S. are significantly higher than they were in 1961.
Even the XYL thinks that the radio sounds terrific! What better recommendation can there be for this old, vintage receiver?
73, Jeffrey Fritz, WB1AAL
The restored SX-110 sitting on the bookshelf in the shack. No one would mistake this for a new receiver, but it works just fine.
PS–Jeffrey also mentioned to me: “If you look closely at the chassis stamp photo of the SX-110, you can see a stamp that reads ‘199117 C.’ This is the manufacture date of the receiver. The fourth digit is the year, and the fifth and sixth digits are the week of the year. So, 199117 is the 17th week of 1961 or the week of 23 April 1961.”
Very interesting. Now I need to examine a few of my own Hallicrafters receivers…
Close up of the inspection stamps. Do modern rig manufacturers take time to do this now?
The Quantum FX J-114U portable analog shortwave radio features an analog radio dial, but USB/SD media playback. Who knew?
Several of you have written to me in the past few months asking about the new Quantum analog shortwave radios found on eBay. The prices for the various models are anywhere between $20-40 US.
I’ve resisted checking into these radios as they have very little technical information available and I assumed would not be worth the bother. In fact, sellers don’t even list the frequency coverage of the shortwave bands, only how many “bands” each unit has (i.e. “SW 1-7”). However, one unit (the Quantum FX J-114U) is available on Amazon, and there have been a few favorable reviews. Now I’m a bit curious.
Do you have experience listening to shortwave on one of these radios? If so, please share your comments.
I just added three of them to the Shortwave Radio Index:
Joshua Goldman, with CNET, has written a review of the Grundig G2. What’s more, he offers a fairly thorough review of the Grundig G2’s features and design.
First of all, I’m very impressed that CNET would bother reviewing a shortwave radio at all. Typically, I look to CNET for reviews of portable hi-tech like cell phones, iPods, cameras, computers, and the like; to see them review a shortwave seems like a broad-minded effort.
However, the focus on the G2’s actual shortwave performance was glossed over, at best. The reviewer merely writes:
If you’re most concerned with pulling in FM stations, you’ll be happy with the G2 Reporter. Even some stations that I’ve found difficult to tune with other portables came in strong. Tuning of AM and SW was good, too, but less reliable than FM.
And…that’s it. So much for the G2’s shortwave.
So, though this is not a review of the merits of the Grundig G2 as a shortwave radio, it does cover the radio’s recording features, battery, .mp3 and .wav file playback, battery, design, and similar features. Which, at least, is a step in the right direction.