If you enjoyed Garth Mullins’ radio documentary “End of the Dial” you might also enjoy his follow up, “Snow on the Dial-The Voice of Denendeh Falls Silent.”
Mullins also produces the podcast, East Van Calling, which focuses on radio and various social justice issues in Canada. Subscribe to East Van Calling via SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/garthmullins/sets/east-van-calling-podcast
(Source: Russia Today via YouTube)
“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.
Regarding Garth Mullins’ radio documentary, SWLing Post reader, David Korchin, comments:
“I got my start in a small FM station in Saskatoon—CFMC, doing overnights, then drive, then mornings.
Kind of a loose format, and with such a small staff that we were all doing each others’ jobs. When the news guy went on vacation, I got to rip-and-read.
Later I moved to another market, with a bigger transmitter and more audience, a tighter format and rules about what you could say and play—but the lone magic of talking into the mic and being in the ears of a complete stranger never left.
It’s why I’m a Ham, I suppose. It’s already depressing that the biggies like Netherlands and Canada and others have tuned out. I hate to ponder the End of Radio—it’s like losing an untouchable, rare dimension to our human experience.”
David Korchin (K2WNW) is also a talented photographer; check out his website–One Camera One Lens–and especially his photography project, The Hamateur. Amazing images…
Many thanks for sharing your thoughts, David!
Garth Mullins
Garth Mullins is an SWL and a radio geek: yes, he’s one of us.
What’s more, Mullins believes that radio is now experiencing a renaissance. Listen to his brilliant documentary, End of the Dial, which was recently re-broadcast on the CBC program Ideas with Paul Kennedy. Best 54 minutes you’ve ever spent.
Be sure to check out Garth’s website: http://www.garthmullins.com/
While many SWLing Post readers have reported positively about their experience with the online discount retailer Blinq.com, several buyers have not been happy with the used/open box Grundig G5 units Blinq is selling for $45 US each.
Mike (K8RAT) noted that his G5’s “audio distorts when volume greater than 10 on the numerical read-out […] higher level sends the audio into oscillation.” Another buyer noted his G5 was nearly deaf on AM.
If you order a G5 from the Blinq, check out the radio thoroughly before tucking it away on a shelf somewhere. Or, better yet, just pass on this particular deal.
Fortunately, I’ve only received excellent reports of Blinq’s customer service. They’ve happily refunded consumers money for defective products in a timely fashion.
On a side note, I can only report negatively about the retailer 1Sale.com. I’ve been trying for six weeks to receive a refund on a defective (non radio) item I purchased. I’ve still haven’t received a response from customer service. I’m sending my 6th request today; I’ll never purchase from 1Sale.com again.
I’m plotting travels soon and plan to take my RF Space SDR-IQ along for the ride.
I’ve noted a number of excellent open source applications that work with the SDR-IQ, but many of them don’t work on the Mac OS X operating system. Those that do work on Mac OS X seem to lack the ability to make spectrum and audio (AF) recordings.
I had considered installing Windows 7 on my MacBook Air (as a dual boot) and running an app like SDR#, but I simply don’t have the storage space to effectively house two operating systems on the Air’s solid state drive.
I’m curious if anyone has an SDR application recommendation. Please comment if you do!
Is this the TRX-305? We might not know until the Tokyo Ham Radio Fair.
According to Dave Zantow (N9EWO), AOR plans to announce two new products this year at the Tokyo Ham Radio Fair: the AR-DV1 receiver and the TRX-305 transceiver.
For more information, check out the news section onDave’s website.