Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of FEBC (December 28, 2022)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares his radio log art of a recent NHK World broadcast.

Carlos’ goal is to vividly illustrate the broadcaster’s message in his own unique artistic style and is not a reflection of his own beliefs or those of the SWLing Post. His objective is for his artwork to add historical context and put a visual with the news, reporting, and broadcast content:

Carlos notes:

Listening in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, on shortwave frequency of 12095 kHz, US-based Cold War-era evangelical radio station FEBC, broadcasting from The Philippines to Hmong mountain tribes.

Click here to view on YouTube.

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BBC Radio 4 – Lights Out: Call Signs

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My dear friend and SWLing Post community member, Volodymyr Gurtovy (US7IGN), has been featured in another brilliant documentary on BBC Radio 4 called Call Signs.

This documentary was produced by the talented Cicely Fell with Falling Tree productions for BBC Radio 4. Note that Cicely also produced a BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts earlier this year featuring Vlad as well. Enjoy:

BBC Radio 4 Lights Out: Call Signs

A man, a Mouse and a morse key: the story of a radio amateur in Kyiv as the Russian invasion unfolds.

When his wife and two children flee Kyiv to escape the war, Volodymyr Gurtovy (call sign US7IGN) stays behind in their apartment with only his radios and the family hamster, Mouse, for company.

Before the war, he used to go deep into the pine forests, spinning intricate webs of treetop antennas using a fishing rod, catching signals from radio amateurs in distant countries.

Prohibited by martial law from sending messages, he becomes a listener, intercepting conversations of Russian pilots and warning his neighbours to hide in shelters well before the sirens sound. After three months of silence, he begins transmitting again. Switching his lawyer’s suit for a soldering iron, he runs a radio surgery for his friends and neighbours, dusting off old shortwave receivers and bringing them back to life.

During air raids, he hides behind the thickest wall in his apartment, close to his radios, their flickering amber lights opening a window to another world. A story of sending and receiving signals from within the darkness of the Kyiv blackout.

Music: Ollie Chubb (8ctavius)
Producer: Cicely Fell
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Listen to Call Signs on BBC Sounds by clicking here, or via the embedded player below:

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Today: HAARP to bounce signal off asteroid; SWLs/Hams asked to listen and record results

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Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post readers who share the following announcement–also previously noted by Robert–from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (followed by an announcement from the ARRL):

HAARP to bounce signal off asteroid in NASA experiment (UAF News)

An experiment to bounce a radio signal off an asteroid on Dec. 27 will serve as a test for probing a larger asteroid that in 2029 will pass closer to Earth than the many geostationary satellites that orbit our planet.

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program research site in Gakona will transmit radio signals to asteroid 2010 XC15, which could be about 500 feet across. The University of New Mexico Long Wavelength Array near Socorro, New Mexico, and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array near Bishop, California, will receive the signal.

This will be the first use of HAARP to probe an asteroid.

“What’s new and what we are trying to do is probe asteroid interiors with long wavelength radars and radio telescopes from the ground,” said Mark Haynes, lead investigator on the project and a radar systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Longer wavelengths can penetrate the interior of an object much better than the radio wavelengths used for communication.”

Knowing more about an asteroid’s interior, especially of an asteroid large enough to cause major damage on Earth, is important for determining how to defend against it.

“If you know the distribution of mass, you can make an impactor more effective, because you’ll know where to hit the asteroid a little better,” Haynes said.

Many programs exist to quickly detect asteroids, determine their orbit and shape and image their surface, either with optical telescopes or the planetary radar of the Deep Space Network, NASA’s network of large and highly sensitive radio antennas in California, Spain and Australia.

Those radar-imaging programs use signals of short wavelengths, which bounce off the surface and provide high-quality external images but don’t penetrate an object.

HAARP will transmit a continually chirping signal to asteroid 2010 XC15 at slightly above and below 9.6 megahertz (9.6 million times per second). The chirp will repeat at two-second intervals. Distance will be a challenge, Haynes said, because the asteroid will be twice as far from Earth as the moon is. [Continue reading…]

The ARRL provides the following specific information about how SWLs and Hams can participate:

Amateur Radio Operators Invited to participate in Asteroid Bounce Experiment (ARRL News)

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) will be conducting a research campaign/experiment on December 27, 2022, with transmissions between 1100 – 2300 UTC (0200 – 1400 AKST).

[…]Actual transmit times are highly variable based on real-time ionospheric conditions and all information is subject to change. Currently, the Asteroid Bounce (2010 XC15) experiment will take place Dec. 27, 2022, from 1100 UTC to 2300 UTC; 9.6 MHz, LFM (linear FM), 0.5 Hz WRF (waveform repetition frequency), 30 kHz bandwidth. Reports recording echo are encouraged; demodulated recordings in .wav or .mp3 are recommended.

For real-time ionospheric conditions in Gakona, please consult ionograms from the HAARP Diagnostic Suite at https://haarp.gi.alaska.edu/diagnostic-suite.

Amateur radio and radio astronomy enthusiasts are invited to listen to the transmissions/echoes and submit reception reports to the HAARP facility at [email protected] and request a QSL card by mailing a report to:

HAARP
P.O. Box 271
Gakona AK 99586
USA

Click here to read this announcement on the ARRL News website.

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Alexander’s POV: Community disaster preparedness favors ham radio in Germany

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alexander (DL4NO), who writes:

A Message from Germany: Growing Disaster Preparedness favours Ham Radio

For a long time most radio amateurs in Germany found themselves in the defensive: Building regulations, combined with EMC standards, heavily restrict antenna possibilities. Neighbors fear “dangerous” radiation, often going to court without any legal reasons. Emergency services got a much improved digital communication systems (TETRA), removing many of the artificial borders where they sometimes used ham radio to build bridges.

This could be quite different, as you can see in Austria. If radio amateurs organize a congress about emergency traffic, even the federal government and the Austrian army send competent representatives.

But the political turmoil and the connected energy crisis change attitudes in quite some branches of administrations:

The county of Soest urges citizens to buy license-free PMR handheld radios so they can reach the “light houses” that the county of Soest is creating all over its area.

The county of Ebersberg, east of Munich, is well known for its initiatives. Recently they invited the regional chapter of DARC, our German ham radio society, to discuss the build-up of a resilient data net for the county. In normal times, this data net could be used as part of HAMNET, our part of 44net. The county and towns would help to get access to suitable positions, including power supply. Some of the stations, for example on town halls, might be dormant most of the time. But as soon as power goes out, local radio amateurs are to activate the emergency net. The first application is to be VoIP, i.e. a independent phone service.

The county of Freising, a few km to the north, is also interested in working together with radio amateurs. We are just building a task force for this.

These activities are quite different from traditional emergency traffic. The most important difference: We work as enablers, not as radio officers. Our task will be to maintain the system, make it operational in case of an emergency, and introduce the officials to its use.

This is critical as we do not have enough radio amateurs to get the messages, send them over our system, and hand them down to the respective officer: Multply 2 radio amateurs by 3 shifts per day by a new crew every second day by the number of sites.

And in normal times, we can enjoy a much improved HAMNET coverage. Until now, most radio amateurs only had to access 44net through VPNs over the Internet.

Please comment!

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HAARP to Ping Passing Asteroid with Shortwave Signals

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HAARP IS ABOUT TO PING AN ASTEROID:

“Researchers from NASA and the University of Alaska are about to perform an unusual radar experiment. They’re going to ping a near-Earth asteroid using shortwave radio. The target is a 500-ft-wide space rock named “2010 XC15.” When it passes by Earth on Tuesday, Dec. 27th, the HAARP array in Alaska will hit it with a pulse of 9.6 MHz radio waves.”

“Radio astronomers ping asteroids all the time. What’s unusual about this experiment is the frequency: 9.6 MHz is hundreds of times lower than typical S-band and X-band frequencies used by other asteroid radars. The goal is to probe the asteroid’s interior.”

This might be an interesting catch on our shortwave receivers?!

(Read the full article at Spaceweather.com)

Robert Gulley, K4PKM, is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post.

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Dan notes an interesting development at the Japanese Buyee auction site

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following post:

Japan Buyee Site Halts Shipment of Amateur Equipment

by Dan Robinson

As readers of SWLing.com know, the Buyee website has provided a way for those who view it to see and purchase a range of equipment including premium receivers and items previously unseen on the global used market.

I discovered Buyee a few years ago and have used it to acquire some truly exotic communications receivers, along with rarely-seen shortwave antennas, spare parts for some of the most sought after JRC and other receivers, and other things.

Using the Buyee site required nothing more than establishing an account linked to a funding source. The site has a translation function that translates Japanese descriptions to English and other languages.

So, I was puzzled a few weeks ago when I noticed that many if not all items under my one of my primary search parameters (RECEIVERS, under AMATEUR RADIOS) began showing the following notice: “You cannot bid on because it contains a prohibited item.”

An example from the Receiver sub-category of Amateur Radio

This notice appears now on every single item on this search, ranging from classic older receivers such as a Yaesu FRG-7700, to an ICOM IC-R8600 or rare old JRC or Anritsu receivers. A JRC NRD-515 receiver listed as of the time of this writing is also on the banned list.

I sent a note into the Buyee system inquiring why this sudden block on bidding was imposed. The response I got was polite, asking me to “provide us with the item link and screenshot of the error you have encountered so that we can check and assist you accordingly and avoid misinformation and mistakes.”

Buyee responded to another followup, after I provided them with a screenshot of the banning statement, as follows:

“We understand the importance of this matter to you. In response to your concern about not being able to bid on the item . . .we apologize because amateur radios and other related items are prohibited from being shipped internationally. Please refer to the below link(s) https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/anpo/englishpage.html and https://buyee.jp/help/yahoo/guide/prohibited. Thank you for your understanding.”

When I inquired yet another time, Buyee responded: “Regarding your concern, please be informed that we cannot ship transceiver-related items internationally anymore in the future in accordance with Japanese laws and regulations for exporting this kind of item. You are able to provide the link below to the user and ask them to confirm more details” and provided the same URL.

Following the first URL takes one to a Japan Export Control web page which states:

“The Security Export Control in Japan is implemented for the purpose of enabling proper development of foreign trade, and maintaining peace and safety in Japan as well as in the international community by exercising the minimum necessary control based on the FEFTA (Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act) under international export control regimes.”

And a pdf on that page takes one to a document containing a long list of prohibited end users with a fairly recent review date listed of November 2022. The list contains no fewer than 670 prohibited end users, located in Afghanistan, the UAE, the Republic of Yemen, Israel, Iran, India, Egypt, North Korea, Syria, China, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Lebanon, and the Russian Federation.

Wow. Why a blanket ban would be placed on export of amateur radio equipment from Japan and/or Japan sellers is puzzling. Items I have purchased included TEN-TEC receivers, a Drake SPR-4, two Anritsu receivers, several rare Japan Radio Company items, and some spare parts for Harris RF-590 receivers, along with other items.

Based on my reading of descriptions, items were sold by Japanese amateur operators, or longtime shortwave enthusiasts in Japan, or by shops specializing in used equipment in various locations in Japan.

Caught up in this blanket ban are such things as VHF/UHF Talkies, Tecsun receivers, an XHDATA D-808, R-390/A receivers, a Collins 75-A4, and a AOR 3030 and various SONY shortwave antennas such as AN-1 and other models, along with Kenwood RZ-1s and a Yaesu FRG-965.
This is indeed a strange development, and I have sent an additional inquiry to the Buyee site, the outcome of which I will update readers on. If this truly marks the end of the ability of overseas buyers to access the Japan used market, it will be a sad day.

Update–The following is the latest message received by Buyee Customer Service:

Dear Customer,

This is the Buyee Customer Support.
Please kindly understand that there is a part of items which have been restricted by Japanese laws and regulations (export trade management ordinances) (originally cannot be exported without the permission of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), are unable to export out from Japan.

We are afraid amateur radio-related items are restricted by export and trade management, and if shipping these items out to Japan may cause our service been restricted and ban by the law, we are afraid we are unable to take such risk thus we have stop our proxy purchase service for these items.
(*What are the items that are restricted by export and trade management?
Weapons related, items and technologies which may possible use for military purpose, which may threaten the safety of Japan and other countries, these kinds of item will be restricted by the law.)

Please kindly confirm the following link from Japan – Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry website regarding the restricted item for more information:
https://www.niigata-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/beppyouyouyakuban02.pdf

We apologize for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your understanding.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any other questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Coco
Buyee Customer Support

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