SWLing Post reader, Tom, writes:
The Happy Station Show from Tawain just started testing its show on 11880 for a time via WRMI facilities in Okeechobee FL, ex-WYFR
Broadcast schedule can be found here: http://www.pcjmedia.com/
Also looks like they plan on giving away a shortwave radio [CCRadio SW Pocket] this week from their twitter account post at https://twitter.com/PCJMedia/status/418955953807962113/photo/1
Many thanks, Tom!
Brian Justin with his homebrew transmitter (Source: http://w4dex.com/500khz/wd2xsh31.htm)
A few weeks ago, I posteded an article about Brian Justin’s holiday longwave broadcasts commemorating Reginald Fessenden’s Christmas Eve 1906 AM voice transmission.
I don’t spend a lot of time in the longwave portion of the radio spectrum, so this special event station gave me an excuse to venture a little lower on the radio dial. Fortunately, LW propagation was in my favor, and Justin’s signal made it the 215 miles to my home. While it’s not armchair listening, it’s most impressive, especially considering the transmitter used is “home-brewed” with modest output power.
This recording of WG2XFG was made when the signal seemed to be at its strongest on December 26th, 2013 starting around 12:40 UTC (Christmas evening, EST). Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
For those of you who aren’t satisfied with the PL-880’s internal ferrite antenna for mediumwave and longwave reception, here is a video explaining a work-around that will force the PL-880 to use an external antenna on those bands:
Many thanks to YouTube user pesnyaozemle for posting this video and to SWLing Post reader Jon for sharing.
Christos’ trusty Tecsun PL-390 started having a problem recently. He writes:
“My PL-390 can no longer shift from MW [mediumwave] to LW [longwave]. I left it without batteries for some hours in order to achieve a sort of reset, but nothing happened. If I press the MW/LW button longer than usual, then it start presetting stations.”
I suspect this could simply be a problem with the contact underneath the LW/MW button. Has anyone else experienced this problem or found a way to fix it? Please comment!
Yesterday–New Year’s Eve, 2014–I spent some time listening to a few broadcasters as the new year passed through their time zones. While I missed hearing Radio New Zealand International (the first to welcome the New Year on the air), I did manage to catch Radio Australia, and the New Year was celebrated with no fanfare; one program merely ran into the next, and there was a brief mention of 2014’s arrival in the headline news.
Oh, but it wasn’t that way when we moved into the year 2000…
Back in December of 1999, before setting off to visit family for the New Year, I had a sudden notion: I decided it would be fun–and a bit novel–to record radio broadcasters as each moved into the new millennium. As we were packing the car to travel, I changed my mind about using my Grundig Yacht Boy 400 to accomplish this fairly ambitious, round-the-world listening/recording endeavor; instead, I grabbed my ham radio transceiver, an Icom IC-735, and packed it, along with a hefty 12-volt power supply. While my IC-735 lacked AM filters (at the time) it had much better sensitivity than the YB400, especially when hooked up to a decent antenna. I also had the foresight to take along a few odds and ends, including a mechanical antenna tuner and a spool of long wire.
The Icom IC-735
To record the broadcast, I used my trusty Aiwa AM F70 MiniDisk recorder–remember those? Upon arrival at our extended family’s home, they kindly permitted me to erect a long wire antenna in a sloping configuration in their yard. It did a fine job netting the airwaves. The MiniDisk recorder recorded brilliantly, allowing me to monitor levels and even edit afterward.
As a result, I spent New Year’s Eve 2000 recording station after station as the earth turned. It was great fun, and meanwhile had very little impact on our family celebrations as I simply left the recorder running for long periods of time.
My trusty Aiwa AM F70 MiniDisk recorder.
While I have yet to dissect the many hours of recordings, if memory serves, I think I managed to record Radio New Zealand International, Voice of Russia, Radio France International, NHK, Voice of America, and Radio Canada International as each rang in 2000. The IC-735 performed quite well, save a lack of bandwidth filters, as I only really had two–very wide, and very narrow.
So, for your New Year’s Day listening pleasure: I hope you’ll enjoy, as much as I did, listening to Radio Australia ring in the new millennium yet again. In the news items, you’ll hear that Russian President Boris Yeltson has handed the reigns over to Vladimir Putin, and remarks about the (lack of) problems resulting from the infamous Y2K threat.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen below:
(Source: WoodBoxRadio Facebook Page)
Front-end
ADC Linear LTC2165-16bit 122.88MHZ clock
DDC FPGA Spartan 6 XC6SLX25 + Serial Flash for stand-alone mode.
USB IQ path through CY68013 for RX bitstream (192KHz up to 6.144Mhz single channel and 384KHz dual channel in PC mode)
Stand-alone RX IQ path STM32F4 ARM floating point microcontroller
LCD Controller Keyboard controller LPC1766 Cortex M3
TX modulator use a second STM32F4 Floating Point microcontroller + AD9957 DDS clocked at 368,64 MHz
Clocking source Si5338 drived by 10MHz TCXO or External reference input
TX modulator use I2S sourcing from MIC input (Cirrus CS5346) or USB input (CODEC CM6510B with customized firmware)
The third USB is a FTDI controller for CAT interface
This versatile platform allow transceiving in stand alone mode or in PC mode or in dual mode.
Frequency range: RX 9Khz to 52MHz direct sampling receiver
TX 160m to 6m others frequency to be defined
MDS: -132dBm
BDR: +115dB (500Hz)
Power output 5W
There is available a secondary SMA connector output with 0dBm level for use or as generator
open from 400Khz to 150Mhz (TBD)
2m VHF RTX will be an option as a board to fit (TBD)
The RTX have 2 Antenna inputs and can work as single RTX antenna or separate RX and TX antennas
(selectable by front panel or by CAT)
Standalone MOdes: CW CW+ CW- LSB USB AM
Firmware upgrade:
Cortex M3 by CAT
CY68013 by PC
STM32 RX or TX USB by memory stick through internal dedicated USBs
FPGA by PC
St-alone PROM TBD
When working in ST-Alone mode it is possible to connect an Android tablet (for example a Samsung Galaxy) to see the 192KHz spectrum and send some commands to FDM-DUO. Connection is made done through USB host of the Android and a TTL FTDI cable to EXTio connector of FDM-DUO
In dual mode PC software can show the 192KHz bandwidth of the FDM-DUO and it possible to demodulate with PC Software and with FDM-DUO with internal demodulator
In PC mode the RX bandwidth may have up to 6MHZ and internal demodulator is disabled.
This is a Software Defined Radio and these mode can be changed depending on new software that will be available from ELAD or for from who want to use Extio Dlls.
For using existing programs like HRD and FLDIGI….It will be very simple to plug the USB for CAT and USB TX like an external sound card.
FDM-DUO will be available also as Receiver only as FDM-DUOr name
From aesthetic point of view the box will be available SIlver or Black.
Price: 1159,00 Euro VAT included
Availability: 2/2014
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Alex, who shares this essential listening: an audio report aired at 17:45 GMT today by Lucy Burton of the BBC World Service.
In this report, Burton discusses the future (or lack thereof) of shortwave radio. Burton interviews staff at Radio Romania International and even Glenn Hauser. To listen, just click:
The report reminds me that shortwave radio is often viewed as only legacy technology, when, in fact, shortwave has many advantages over digital options and is as relevant as ever.
This photo was taken in rural South Sudan, after Ears To Our World had distributed hundreds of radios via our partner Project Education South Sudan. This photo was taken prior to the recent outbreak of violence the country is currently enduring. Can you imagine the power of information just one radio can provide to a community during these turbulent times?
As I’ve mentioned before, Gareth Mitchell once interviewed me for the BBC World Service technology program Click. Mitchell’s interview focused specifically on my non-profit, Ears To Our World, which uses self-powered shortwave radios to further its mission. His description of our radios during his introduction was as insightful as it was humorous:
“…Portable battery powered devices that can stream audio in real time all via an intuitive touch interface.”
Aptly put. Shortwave radio, after all, has several profound benefits over the Internet, the three most significant being: 1) radio has no regard for national borders, and crosses them effortlessly; 2) listeners retain anonymity (thus cannot be readily tracked nor penalized by repressive authorities); and 3) radio requires no apps nor subscriptions to work. Nor even, for that matter, a power grid. It’s “just” an inexpensive “battery powered device” that can bring listeners vital lifesaving information, and, well…the world.
In short, I continue to stand by what I reported to UNESCO last year:
This post joins our popular tag: Why Shortwave Radio?