Category Archives: Videos

Cold War Echo: RT investigates UVB-76

“From a lonely rusted tower in a forest north of Moscow, a mysterious shortwave radio station transmitted day and night. For at least the decade leading up to 1992, it broadcast almost nothing but beeps; after that, it switched to buzzes, generally between 21 and 34 per minute, each lasting roughly a second—a nasally foghorn blaring through a crackly ether.

The signal was said to emanate from the grounds of a voyenni gorodok (mini military city) near the village of Povarovo, and very rarely, perhaps once every few weeks, the monotony was broken by a male voice reciting brief sequences of numbers and words, often strings of Russian names: “Anna, Nikolai, Ivan, Tatyana, Roman.” But the balance of the airtime was filled by a steady, almost maddening, series of inexplicable tones.”

Click here to watch the video on YouTube, or view via the embedded player below:

If you can’t hear UVB-76 from where you live via shortwave radio (4,625 kHz), you can always listen to this live stream.

A chat with Peter Homfray

1 Reply

On the topic of Radio Australia, Jonathan Marks writes:

“It doesn’t seem like 10 years ago that I sat down with Peter Homfray to discuss the early days of Radio Australia. What a truly fascinating person.”

A Chat with Peter Homfray from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

BBC World Service Documentary: “Hang On, I’ll Just Speak to the World”

2 Replies

Many thanks to Mike Barraclough who shares this documentary about the BBC World Service from 1982: “Hang On, I’ll Just Speak to the World.”

I’ve embedded video players and linked to each of the four parts on YouTube:

SDR# on a Toshiba Encore tablet PC

Video: Review of the DX Patrol SDR dongle

10 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, John, for sharing this video review of the DX Patrol SDR receiver.

The reviewer gives the DX Patrol high marks on shortwave performance, but admits that there is a significant learning curve in terms of software installation and tweaking settings for performance.

At 79 € ($110 US) the DX Patrol is certainly an inexpensive wide band SDR. Unlike the $20 RTL-SDR dongles, the DX PAtrol requires no external up-convertor.

Click here to purchase the DX Patrol online, but keep in mind that the reviewer above noted a 6 week turn-around time for shipment.

If you have experience with the DX Patrol SDR, please comment!

Monitoring while recording on the Tecsun PL-660

1 Reply

London Shortwave has discovered an innovative way to monitor broadcasts while recording from his Tecsun PL-660. He writes:

“Tecsun PL-660 doesn’t have a line out, which means that when recording from it one has to use a pair of headphones to listen to it simultaneously.

Most portable speakers I’ve tried generate tremendous amounts of RFI when connected directly to the receiver. I solved this problem by using TaoTronics BA-01 Bluetooth audio transmitter and a Bluetooth enabled portable speaker, together with a cable that splits the audio output into two, so the transmitter and the audio recorder can both be connected to the radio.

The recording [in this YouTube video] is of Radio Australia and was made in London, UK on 09/04/2014 at 1543 BST.”