Radio Waves: Honking SOS, Vatican Hosts Shortwave G9, AM Vital in Wyoming, and the Mainstream Transistor

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Supermarket delivery driver saves 90-year-old after ‘SOS’ Morse code signal on car horn (ITV)

A 90-year-old widower was saved by an supermarket delivery driver when he broke his hip – and used his car horn as Morse code.

Retired panel beater Keith Turner was left injured when he slipped on his driveway before he dragged himself to his car.

The quick-thinking pensioner then used the horn to sound out the SOS message in Morse code in a cry for help.

And it was heard by delivery driver Sam Speechley, 45, as she pulled up in her van in the Garden City village in Flintshire, North Wales.

Keith was taken to hospital where he spent three weeks with a broken hip before he was finally allowed home. [Click here to read at ITV…]

Vatican Radio hosts ‘G9’ of short wave media as ‘missionaries of peace’ (Vatican Radio)

Gathered at the historic headquarters of Vatican Radio in the Vatican Gardens, representatives of the nine primary western radio broadcasters meet with Monsignor Lucio Ruiz opening the meeting by recalling the importance of short wave in sending messages of hope and mercy all over the world.

By Michele Raviart

The “G9” group of the primary western radio broadcasters met at the Vatican on Tuesday focusing on a number of issues.

These included the use of short-wave radio in order to render the jamming of international broadcasters less effective through common efforts to coordinate how broadcast frequencies are used and technical cooperation between members.

This marked a key item on the agenda of the meeting which brought together the representatives, including Vatican Radio, in the historic building of the Pope’s radio, located in the Vatican Gardens, a place that housed the first radio station built by Guglielmo Marconi.

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SSTV Fiesta 2022

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes:

For those who’d like to try receiving SSTV images and also get into the holiday spirit, there is an annual SSTV Fiesta from December 12, 2022 to January 6, 2023. The Fiesta is sponsored by the Azteca DX’ers. The frequencies are 14.230 MHz in the 20m amateur band and 27.700 MHz, just above the US Citizen’s Band.

An excellent decoder is MMSSTV available free on line.

I’ve monitored 27.700 MHz the past week and have decoded the images below using an Airspy HF + Discovery, 31 foot ground mounted vertical, MMSSTV software and VB cable for piping the audio from the Airspy to MMSSTV.

Note that you have to set your receiver to USB. With MMSSTV you can set your receiver on the frequency of choice and just walk away like I did and the software will store any images received. Image clarity depends on propagation, just like other modes.

Good luck, thanks go out to the Azteca DX’ers for this enjoyable event and 73’s.

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Georges repairs and enjoys this vintage Hallicrafters SX-130

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Georges Ringotte (F6DFZ), who writes:

Recently my “radio brother” Bruno F6CRN gave me a vintage Hallicrafters SX-130 from the mid seventies. The receiver was extremely nice for a 55 years old rig, had never seen a soldering iron for repair and had original Hallicrafters tubes but was not performing very well.

After some research , I found a solder joint between 2 pins of a tube support, and this solder joint was done during manufacture!

After alignment, the receiver performed relatively well for that kind of somewhat low cost receiver.

These low to mid cost receivers, made by Hallicrafters, Hammarlund and National are single conversion design, with a low frequency IF near 455 kHz or 1.6 MHz. Their frequency calibration is rather poor, they drift, and have poor image rejection, but can perform reasonably well on AM, and also on SSB and CW on the lower bands. Generally, these American receivers are powered on 117 VAC, have no built in speaker, and the crystal calibrator was optional or an outboard accessory.

To use it, I decided to built a small console with an isolation transformer to reduce the European mains from 230 to 117 VAC, a good quality 4 ohms speaker, and a 1 MHz calibrator Manhattan style.

With this console, the receiver looks great, give a taste of the few remaining broadcast stations and warm the shack.

Oh wow! What a beautiful SX-130, Georges! What a great friend you have in Bruno.

Thank you for sharing!

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Inaugural DX Central MW Daytime Challenge starts today!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Loyd Van Horn at DX Central who shares the following announcement:

The Inaugural DX Central MW Daytime Challenge

What a great season of DX Central Live! and the MW Frequency Challenge it has already been and we are just getting started! This season, you helped us cross 1,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, have brought in a record number of MW Frequency Challenge submissions thus far, and have helped to generate a lot of energy around this DX season! We couldn’t do it without your support, so thank you!

First, a little housekeeping. We will be taking some time off to spend the holidays with family and of course – some DX! As such, there will be no DX Central Live! on Friday, December 23 or 30th. We will return on Friday, January 6, 2023.

Also during this time, we will be taking a brief pause on our weekly MW Frequency Challenge as well. I will be announcing the results from week 12 (576-600) when we return on Jan 6, as well as the next frequency range at that time.

Don’t worry, we have a challenge for our little break that should provide all of the fun and difficulty to push DXers to scratch new ones in their logbooks: The Inaugural DX Central MW Daytime Challenge.

The premise: Log as many stations as you can during daytime conditions. That’s it!

Nothing but daytime DX (period from 2 hours after local sunrise to 2 hours prior to local sunset) starting at 0200 UTC Saturday, December 17 and ending at 0200 UTC Monday, January 2, 2023. This challenge is open to all DXers around the world!

A few rules:
– Loggings must be during your local daytime period (2 hours after local sunrise to 2 hours prior to local sunset)
– Loggings must be from between 0200 UTC Saturday, December 17th and 0200 UTC Monday, January 6.
– Any stations are allowed for this challenge: local stations, TIS/HAR, part 15 transmitters not to mention anything distant you might be able to pull in!
– Stations do not need to be “new to you”, relogs are allowed
– Stations need to be on any mediumwave frequency between 530-1710 kHz.
– Loggings should be from a location within 50 miles of your home location. This includes use of online SDRs, portable operations, etc.
– If you are traveling for the holidays and will be away from home but have access to either your station remotely or another online SDR from your home location, those submissions will be allowed.
– Only submissions made using the Google Form sheet (link below) will be considered for the challenge. Social media posts, emails, etc will not count.

Categories for this challenge will include US and international versions of:
– Most stations logged
– Most US States/Canadian Prov logged
– Most countries logged
– Furthest reception
– Most frequencies with at least one logged station

Google Form for entries: https://forms.gle/TVgCPrHMpfDAzbzb6

I hope this challenge will be a fun one for all!

To all of our fellow DXers, supporters, family, friends….Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and may your logbooks be filled with DX and your hearts filled with joy and love!

73,

Loyd Van Horn
W4LVH – Mandeville, LA

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Alan Roe’s 2022 Holiday Programmes on Shortwave (Version 2)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares Version 2 of his annual Holiday Programmes on Shortwave schedule. This guide is chock-full of numerous shortwave holiday programs Alan has curated for us all to enjoy on the air!

Click here to download Holiday Programmes on Shortwave V2 (PDF).

Thank you so much for sharing, Alan!

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Adi’s universal solution to various charging plugs

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adi, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

In one of the comments to your CC Skywave SSB 2 report I read, “Micro-USB is the worst connector ever” so I thought I might send you this solution, a magnetic cable

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000478737800.html

I’m using this on all my phones, tablets and radios.

One fits all and it works great.

Best regards, Adi

What a great tip. I suppose another benefit is the mag lock will break easily if someone trips on the charging cord. Might save a radio, tablet, or phone from a fall!

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AWA Video Presentation: Patrolling the Ether in WW2 – Radio Intelligence for the War Effort

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark (AE2EA), who writes:

One of our AWA Members recently made this video on the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service (FBMS) and the Radio Intelligence Division (RID) during World War 2. I think it might be of interest to your SWLing enthusiasts: