Many thanks to Dan Greenall, one of our dedicated Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributors, who shares the following guest post:
by Dan Greenall
Sometime in the mid 1960’s, I acquired a Japanese made AM only transistor radio similar to the one pictured.
I was entering my teenage years and living in southern Ontario, Canada in relative proximity to the U.S. border, and was immediately fascinated that I could receive American stations from places such as Buffalo and Rochester NY as well as Detroit MI with amazing clarity.
Before long, I discovered that signals from much further afield would begin to come through at dusk and throughout the night time hours. Although I was unaware at the time, many of these would be from so-called “clear channel” stations, those operating on frequencies with the highest level of protection from interference from other stations.
In addition, many of these stations ran a full 50 kw of power. Signals from the Atlantic seaboard to the Midwest could often be heard at near local strength if I turned my radio to just the right angle. At this point, I was beginning to learn about the directional properties of the built-in ferrite rod antenna. It gave me great pleasure to be able to listen to their local ads, newscasts, or a far away sporting event from the comfort of my home.
I recall listening regularly to WOWO in Fort Wayne IN on 1190 for their play by play announcements of the Fort Wayne Komets hockey games. Then there was a station identifying as WFAA in Dallas. That was back when they shared 820 kHz with WBAP whose famous cowbell you can hear in one of the audio clips below.
By the end of 1969, a friend of mine had encouraged me to try shortwave, and I “borrowed” my parents Philips kitchen radio for a few months, but that is another story. I wonder how many others got “hooked” in this manner?
A few brief recordings of clear channel stations that I made in the early 1970’s are presented here. Many, but not all, of the stations heard in the last two links are from clear channel stations. Reception for these recordings was made using a Realistic DX150A or a Hallicrafters S-52 receiver hooked up to an outdoor long wire antenna.
KFI Circa 1971:
WOAI Circa 1973
KSTP Circa 1970s:
Vintage AM Radio Airchecks 1973:
Vintage AM Radio Airchecks 1973 Part 2:
As a sidebar, the National Radio Club has put out a number of books showing the daytime/nighttime directional antenna patterns of AM broadcasting stations in the USA and Canada.
I gave up my copy from 1973 a number of years ago, but you can find this one and others online. I found this very useful.
For example, it is easy to see why I was more likely to hear WBT Charlotte NC on 1110 kHz from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada, rather than KFAB Omaha, NE.
The links below will take you to the 1973, 1975 and 2018 versions of these books.
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Logbooks/NRC_Logs/NRC-Pattern-Book-First-1973.pdf
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Logbooks/NRC_Logs/NRC-Pattern-Book-8th-2018.pdf
If you happen to be in or near Asheville, North Carolina area this Saturday, I would encourage you to check out the Asheville Radio Museum’s Vintage Radio Market this weekend at AB Tech Community College.
Click here for full details and photos.
I’ve been a member of this wonderful museum for many years and volunteer for them as often as I can. We’ve just moved into a bigger area on the third floor of AB Tech’s Elm building and staff will be giving tours tomorrow morning as well.
In addition to the tailgate flea market, I helped prepare over 60 items that we’re selling in order to support the museum’s mission. We set the prices low so that we can clear our storage space for upcoming radio donations.
The SWLing Post has a very international readership, so I know only a small fraction of you may be able to check out the Vintage Radio Market, but since this museum is so near and dear to my heart, I just had to share details here! Thank for reading!
Cheers,
Thomas (K4SWL)
SS-GB is a British mini-series from 2017 in which a British homicide detective investigates a murder in a German-occupied England in a parallel universe where the Nazis won World War II. The show reminds one of the fantastic Man in the High Castle which ran from 2015 and 2019 and similarly created a world in which Germany and Japan had won WWII. In one scene, the detective, played by British actor Sam Riley, is shown listening to a radio — which model will surely be immediately recognized by most of us who have been in the SWL hobby for many years . . . see how long it takes for you to win the prize!
by 13dka
Doing some research on other old technical gems from Japan I stumbled upon this 1976 National/Panasonic TV commercial running on the domestic TV networks back then. While watching, I smiled and thought “only in Japan…” …it would’ve been perfectly normal to advertise something like a shortwave receiver in this fun (and funny) way. Anyway, I think RF/DR/Cougar 2200 owners and collectors (also the resident one on this blog , the blog owner) may want to have this link in their bookmarks!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce, who writes:
Here is an unknown radio from the recent Netflix mini-series “Ripley”. The setting is early 1960’s Italy.
IMO this show was very good and artistically filmed in black & white.
Beautiful radio–thanks, Bruce! Readers: can you ID this vintage model? Please comment!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Julian Stargardt, who writes:
SWLing fans might like to know that at the moment on eBay there are about a dozen Sony ICF 6700 receivers for sale [eBay partnership link].
The ICF 6700 is the more reliable version of the better known ICF 6800 – the ICF 6800 is notorious for failing detector circuits and the complexity and difficulty of repair.
Hitherto the ICF 6700 has been less commonly seen.
I have an ICF 6700 it’s an interesting receiver designed to look like a professional rig but lacking features like passband and notch that a pro rig of the day would have. It’s not a bad receiver and with its preselector system of tuning has an extremely quiet noise floor. It also is rather stable.
How does it compare with a good modern DSP, eg, Tecsun PL 330, PL 880, PL990, or PL8800? No comparison. The current crop of top of the line receivers are better. As is the Sony 2010 / 2001D.
But if you’d like a nice looking table top with good audio and you like retro solid state, then the Sony ICF 6700 is not a bad choice.
Cheers
Julian
Click here to search for the Sony ICF-6700 on eBay.
[this partnership link supports the SWLing Post.]
Thank you for the tip, Julian! I would also note that, as with any eBay item, you should check the seller’s feedback score and read the description of the item carefully. Some units are in excellent condition and some need repair. Also, shipping varies greatly with these listings.
