From SolderSmoke: Watching Shortwave Broadcast Stations on the TinySA Spectrum Analyser

Curtain Antennas at VOA Site B: Greenville, North Carolina.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and friend, Bill Meara, from the amazing SolderSmoke podcast who shares the following post that originally appeared on the SolderSmoke Daily News:

Watching Shortwave Broadcast Stations on the TinySA Spectrum Analyser

by Bill Meara

November 18, 2022 1244 UTC. I was using a TinySA spectrum analyzer to look at noise levels on the 40 meter ham radio band. I also wanted to take a look slightly above the band (in frequency) to see Radio Marti at 7355 kHz. As I was doing this I remembered that Vatican Radio was on the air at 7305 kHz from 1230 UTC to 1245 UTC. So was just going to catch the last moments of that day’s transmissions. Sure enough, I caught it, and watched it disappear from the TinySA screen. See the video below:

Click her to view on YouTube.

Radio Marti continued on. In the morning we can hear the rooster recordings from that station. We are using it to test how well our homebrew Direct Conversion receivers avoid AM detection. In the video I mistakenly said these two transmitters were on the air with 250 megawatts. The correct power is 250 kilowatts. Both transmit from Greenville NC. I think the signal from Vatican Radio is stronger here because they are using a different antenna pattern — Radio Marti is aimed at Cuba.

This reminds me of a cool project I have not yet done: modifying the TinySA to allow the user to listen to the station: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-listen-with-your-tinysa.html I notice that Dean KK4DAS (my colleague in DC receiver design) was the only commenter on the blog post describing the TinySA mod. TRGHS. We need to to do this.

Here are the reports showing when Vatican Radio and Radio Marti were on the air on November 18, 2022:

Thank you for sharing this, Bill. I love it! The TinySA is such an affordable and useful workbench tool.

Post readers: If you love building things and exploring a wide range of radio projects, I highly recommend bookmarking the SolderSmoke Podcast and website.

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Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of KCBS Pyongyang and the Voice of Korea (November 20, 2022)

Radio physics explained: The Luxemburg-Gorky effect

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Get it while you still can: The Luxemburg-Gorky effect

by 13dka

The Radio Luxembourg longwave transmitter Junglinster in the 1930s [RTL Group]

“In radiophysics, the Luxemburg-Gorky effect (named after Radio Luxemburg and the city of Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod)) is a phenomenon of cross modulation between two radio waves, one of which is strong, passing through the same part of a medium, especially a conductive region of atmosphere or a plasma.” (Wikipedia)

That sounds pretty abstract, right? In my own words, imagine your radio is tuned to a station on let’s say 162 kHz, 500 miles away. Somewhere in the middle between your receiver and the 162 kHz transmitter is a station transmitting on a different frequency, let’s say 234 kHz. The Luxemburg effect is that you can hear the modulation of the 234 kHz transmitter in the middle, on the 162kHz station you are receiving. The effect is not depending that much on the frequency/wavelength though, the longwave station could affect medium wave stations and it has been created using shortwave frequencies far apart.

It was observed first in 1932, when listeners of the Swiss Beromünster 60kW medium wave station built just one year prior also heard a bit of Radio Luxemburg’s longwave transmitter (250kHz) on the Beromünster frequency (653kHz until 1934). Of course this was assumed to be some kind of crosstalk within the receivers and probably drove radio engineers insane until 1933, when Bernhard D.H. Tellegen, a Dutch electrical engineer and inventor suggested the true origin of the effect: The new (1932) 150kW Radio Luxemburg longwave transmitter in Junglinster was directly modifying the ionosphere hundreds of kilometers above, it “heated” the ionosphere in a way that it made the plasma’s charge and reflectivity follow the amplitude modulation of Radio Luxemburg, thus modulating waves of other wavelengths crossing this part of the ionosphere.

Practical demonstration

Even if you’re living in Europe, you may never have witnessed that effect and according to this article by Paul Litwinovich, chances to observe this in the US are rather slim, due to the relatively low power of the stations. I’m in Europe but never noticed it either – until recently: Continue reading →

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WRMI’s new broadcast schedule for Ted Randall & Co

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Pietschman, who shares the following schedule from Jeff White at WRMI:

WRMI Legends (Ted Randall & Co.) is on:

- 5:00-6:00 pm Eastern Time daily on 9395 kHz
- 6:00-7:00 pm ET daily on 5950 kHz
- 6:00-11:00 pm ET daily on 9455 kHz
- 9:00-10:00 pm ET Saturday on 5850 kHz

I know a lot of readers will be happy to hear Ted Randall’s tunes on shortwave after the demise of WTWW’s shortwave service. Thanks for the tip!

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Alan Roe’s B22 season guide to music on shortwave (version 1)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares his B-22 (version 1) season guide to music on shortwave. Alan provides this amazing resource as a free PDF download:

Click here to download Music on Shortwave B-22 v1 (PDF)

Thank you for sharing your excellent guide, Alan!

This dedicated page will always have the latest version of Alan’s guide available for download.

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The International Radio Report’s 35th Anniversary!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Sheldon Harvey–creator, co-host and co-producer of the International Radio Report–who shares the following announcement:

Almost impossible for me to believe it, but Sunday’s upcoming edition of the International Radio Report on CKUT-FM in Montreal will be our 35th anniversary edition of the program. The first edition of the program aired on Thursday, November 19, 1987, our old time slot. That week in 1987 CKUT was also born, going on the air on 90.3 FM, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

International Radio Report is one of only a couple of programs to have been continually on the CKUT schedule since the beginning. Our hosts have changed from time to time over the years, as did our time slot, moving from Thursday afternoons at 2:30 PM Eastern to Sunday mornings at 10:30 AM Eastern.

I’d like to thank everyone who has been a part of the program over the 35 years; the various hosts, the numerous guests, and the support of CKUT for standing behind us and providing us with an outlet to bring our program to the listeners, not just here in Montreal but, literally, around the world.

And, to the listeners, a big thank you to everyone who tunes in, whether Sundays on the radio, through online streaming, downloading the program, or tuning in through our YouTube channel. We thank those who have taken the time to submit stories and material for the program. It’s a great help.

Whether you’ve been with us since the early days, or whether you’ve discovered us and come on-board recently, without an audience and your support, we wouldn’t be here. And a very special thanks to those of you who have supported our program and CKUT over the years through the annual CKUT Funding Drive. It costs money to run a radio station. It certainly doesn’t all happen for free! Our listeners have been most generous over the years, making our 30-minute program one of the most successful programs on CKUT at bringing in funds to support the cause.

So, we hope you will tune in, by whatever means you tune in, on Sunday, November 20th to help us celebrate as we mark our 35th anniversary of the International Radio Report on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal.

Sheldon Harvey
Creator, co-host and co-producer
International Radio Report

Click here to listen to CKUT live.

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Carlos’ Shortwave Art and recording of NHK World (November 18, 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 Voice of Korea broadcast.

Carols notes:

Listening in Porto Alegre, Brazil, news about an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched by North Korea, via NHK World – Japan radio, broadcasting in Vietnamese, on shortwave frequency of 13705 kHz.