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I received the following message/announcement below from Ethan at Ham & HiFi regarding some inventory they have of the original Chameleon CHA RXL loop antenna. This antenna is the one Dan Robinson originally reviewed and Josh at Ham Radio Crash Course demonstrated in a video.
Note that they’re offering this deal as an exclusive to SWLing Post readers and also volunteered to give back a modest percentage of the sales to the SWLing Post coffee fund. They would obviously like to move this inventory, hence the discounts, etc.
This antenna would benefit from a BCI filter especially if you live near a broadcast station; something like this one (you would need adapters for SMAs). As Ethan notes this loop has been replaced by the CHA RXL-Pro at Chameleon (click here to read Dan’s review of the new loop).
Many thanks to Ethan for sharing the following announcement/promotion:
Here’s a great chance to pick up a Chameleon RXL LOOP antenna at an unbeatable price! This broad-banded receiving antenna is perfect for shortwave listening and other applications as it covers 137.5KHz through 30.0MHz. The only difference between this antenna and Chameleon’s new RXL PRO is the preamp design, otherwise its construction is identical.
Ham & HiFi is making these RXL LOOP antennas available to SWLing.com subscribers for $320 + shipping. The new RXL PRO retails for $525, so this is a great chance to save some money! Again, this price is only available to SWLing Post subscribers, so please be sure to reference this promotion.
Place your order by contacting Ethan at 866-988-0073 or email at [email protected].
Internet Archive has begun gathering content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), which will be a massive online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The DLARC is funded by a significant grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a private foundation, to create a digital library that documents, preserves, and provides open access to the history of this community.
The library will be a free online resource that combines archived digitized print materials, born-digital content, websites, oral histories, personal collections, and other related records and publications. The goals of the DLARC are to document the history of amateur radio and to provide freely available educational resources for researchers, students, and the general public. This innovative project includes:
A program to digitize print materials, such as newsletters, journals, books, pamphlets, physical ephemera, and other records from both institutions, groups, and individuals.
A digital archiving program to archive, curate, and provide access to “born-digital” materials, such as digital photos, websites, videos, and podcasts.
A personal archiving campaign to ensure the preservation and future access of both print and digital archives of notable individuals and stakeholders in the amateur radio community.
Conducting oral history interviews with key members of the community.
Preservation of all physical and print collections donated to the Internet Archive.
The DLARC project is looking for partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives, and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small. In addition to physical material to digitize, we are looking for podcasts, newsletters, video channels, and other digital content that can enrich the DLARC collections. Internet Archive will work directly with groups, publishers, clubs, individuals, and others to ensure the archiving and perpetual access of contributed collections, their physical preservation, their digitization, and their online availability and promotion for use in research, education, and historical documentation. All collections in this digital library will be universally accessible to any user and there will be a customized access and discovery portal with special features for research and educational uses.
We are extremely grateful to ARDC for funding this project and are very excited to work with this community to explore a multi-format digital library that documents and ensures access to the history of a specific, noteworthy community. Anyone with material to contribute to the DLARC library, questions about the project, or interest in similar digital library building projects for other professional communities, please contact:
Kay Savetz, K6KJN
Program Manager, Special Collections [email protected]
Twitter: @KaySavetz
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Garr, who writes:
I have some interesting news for all of those Belka DX fans, Alex the guy behind this magnificent receiver has just announced the introduction of a new model. Ok so it is still called the Belka DX but it has now got a total frequency coverage of 100KHz to 31MHz so those that have put off buying because of lack of Long wave and Medium wave have now had their prayers answered. There has been no fanfare announcement about this but they have just updated their website with the new added frequency range. I am just waiting for the first review to appear before committing my hard earned cash.
Regards
Dave Gurr
Excellent news. I’m sure this will make the Belka DX even more popular than it already is. I have to assume a ferrite bar hasn’t been added (there isn’t much room for one in the Belka series) so you would need to pair a proper MW/LM antenna antenna in order to fully take advantage of the new bands.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike (VE3MKX), who shares photos taken during the Hamilton, Ontario hamfest which took place on October 1, 2022.
Readers: This is a large gallery of 40 photos courtesy of Mike (VE3MKX). If you would like to view the entire image gallery click on the link to see more.
Excellent Nick! Thank you so much for sharing this and for demonstrating some weak signal work. You were certainly pitting the Skanti against some benchmark performers!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Yowell, who writes:
Tom – someone posted this week a rarely seen 1986 commercial for Eveready Batteries featuring the GE World Monitor radio (and Gold medal Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton!)
Thank you so much for sharing this, Robert. I have a special affinity for my GE 7-2990A as it used to belong to my dear friend, Michael Pool (The Professor). It’s quite a workhorse of a radio with excellent mediumwave chops and it packs some amazing audio fidelity. Of course, with the right batteries, it’ll keep you on the air for weeks or months at a time! 🙂
An intracellular antenna that’s compatible with 3D biological systems and can operate wirelessly inside a living cell.
A new study could allow scientists to create cyborgs at a cellular scale, thanks to MIT Media Lab for designing a miniature antenna that can operate wirelessly inside a living cell. This could have applications in medical diagnostics, treatment, and other scientific processes because of the antenna’s potential for real-time monitoring and directing cellular activity.
Scientists named this technology Cell Rover. It represents the first demonstration of an antenna that can operate inside a cell and is compatible with 3D biological systems.
Deblina Sarkar, assistant professor and AT&T Career Development Chair at the MIT Media Lab and head of the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek Lab, said, “Typical bioelectronic interfaces are millimeters or even centimeters in size and are not only highly invasive but also fail to provide the resolution needed to interact with single cells wirelessly — especially considering that changes to even one cell can affect a whole organism.”
The size of the newly developed antenna is much smaller than a cell. The antenna represented less than .05 percent of the cell volume in research with oocyte cells. It converts electromagnetic waves into acoustic waves, whose wavelengths are five orders of magnitude smaller, representing the velocity of sound divided by the wave frequency — than those of the electromagnetic waves. [Continue reading…]
This episode was written and produced by Jack Higgins.
We’ve all heard the iconic recordings from the Apollo missions. But how exactly does NASA manage to run live audio between Earth and the moon? And how might we chat with astronauts on Mars and beyond? Featuring Astronaut Peggy Whitson, NASA Audio Engineer Alexandria Perryman, and Astrophysicist Paul Sutter.
Australia’s communications regulator ACMA has asked radio amateurs to comment on their proposed amateur class licence and considerations for higher power 1 kW operation
The ACMA say:
Following the extensive 2021 public consultation and associated response to submissions, we have released a consultation paper on the proposed amateur class licence and supporting operational arrangements, along with considerations for higher power operation. This is the next step in our review of regulatory arrangements for the operation of non-assigned amateur stations.
The draft class licence for amateur radio has been amended to incorporate changes suggested by representative bodies, amateur radio clubs and individual amateurs during the 2021 consultation.
Questions about the consultation
If you have an important question about this consultation, please send it directly to [email protected]. Please note, we may use the Amateur radio update e-bulletin to answer frequently asked questions.
In the late 1950s television networks ruled the airwaves from 7 to 11 PM, but outside of that timeslot television was live, local and unpredictable.
Jim Hanlon, W8KGI, worked as a summer relief engineer at Cincinnati’s WCPO-TV from 1956 to 1958. At that time WCPO-TV did not have any video recording technology, so all local TV was live TV and provided a refreshing dose of live programming, equipment failures and production creativity that been lost in today’s pasteurized, homogenized TV ecosystem.
Join Jim as he recalls what it like producing live TV programming in the early days of television broadcasting.