Hi all the SWLing post community from Fastradioburst23. Just to let you know the next programmme in the Imaginary Stations series is Radio Clarion. Expect some horn related tunes on 9395 kHz from 2200 utc on Sunday 16th October 2022 via WRMI. Tune in!
Campaign to help WRMI after extensive hurricane damage
Our friend Jeff White, General Manager of WRMI is trying to repair extensive damage to the WRMI antenna farm post hurricane Ian. A GoFundMe has been created to help WRMI with repair costs. Even small donations add up!
Jeff White provides the following details:
Hello,
WRMI has a rich history of supplying news, information and entertainment to the world from our Okeechobee, Florida Transmitters.
Hurricane Ian damage to our antenna farm is so extensive, it has knocked us off the air to Europe and Africa.
We need your help to get us back on the air again to transmit to Europe and Africa news, information, religious programming and entertainment.
We have no insurance for the antenna farm due to the huge cost of insurance premiums.
We are desperately asking for help around the world to get us back on the air again to Europe and Africa. Your help is paramount to WRMI returning to the air in the many countries in Europe and Africa.
Your help will allow WRMI to rebuild the transmission towers destroyed by Hurricane Ian that are pointed towards Europe and Africa.
We thank you for your support of WRMI. Hurricane Ian knocked us down pretty hard. But we know with your help, we can rise back up and provide programming in many languages again to Europe and Africa.
Sincerely,
Jeff White
General Manager WRMI
Okeechobee, Florida
Testing the MFJ-1886 Receive Loop Antenna
By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM
Hang out any place online where shortwave listeners gather, and you won’t have to wait long before you hear something like this: “I recently moved to a condo, apartment, or house where there is a home-owners association. Listening conditions are pretty rotten, and I cannot string up outdoor antennas because of physical constraints or HOA rules . . . help!”
Ever since I got back into SWLing nearly two years ago, I have faced similar issues, as I explained here. During that time, I have frequently read that amplified small loop antennas work pretty darn well, and that has piqued my curiosity.
A couple of days ago, the good folks at MFJ (an SWLing.com sponsor) sent me their MFJ-1886 receiving loop antenna. Weighing just 2.5 pounds, the 1886 is a 36-inch-diameter loop of aircraft-grade with an amplifier attached in a weatherproof enclosure. Designed for receiving only, it covers .5 to 30 MHz.
The fit and finish of the 1886 is, in my opinion, great. Looking at the seamless loop and the molded enclosure for the amplifier, I have no reason to doubt what MFJ has to say about it: the MFJ-1886 is weather-sealed, very ruggedly constructed, and mechanically stable under all weather conditions. In fact, you can mount it permanently on any inexpensive TV rotor and direct it from the comfort of your shack . . . it also installs easily on a tripod or handheld mast for portable use.
Important: the 1886 loop is a directional antenna. If you are looking through the open area in the middle of the loop (the flat side, if you will), you are looking in the direction in which the antenna tends to null out signals . . . in both directions. If you are sighting along the edge of the loop (at right angles to the flat side), that is the direction in which the antenna produces the most gain. As a result, you will get the most utility out of the 1886 if you can mount it in such a way that you can rotate it to maximize gain and/or null out noise or interfering signals as needed.
Since my mission was to test the 1886 indoors, I wrapped some parachute cord around the loop and hung it from a screw attached to the top of a window frame. Obviously, I am not getting the most from the 1886 by keeping it in a fixed position (in fact, I was getting maximum gain to the northeast and the southwest), but I did experiment with the antenna hanging from the ceiling so that it could rotate, and I did, indeed, find that signal strength rose and fell as the antenna changed position.
To see how the 1886 performed, I used my Grundig Satellit 800 as a test bed. The Satellit 800 has three different antenna inputs: a wire input, to which I attached the 50-foot horizontal room loop (an indoor antenna which runs around the perimeter of my radio room at about seven feet in the air); a coax input, to which I attached the MFJ 1886 loop, and the four-foot whip antenna that is built into the Satellit 800. By reaching around the back of the radio and sliding the antenna selection switch, I could easily change from one antenna to another and compare the 1886 loop with the whip and the horizontal room loop at various frequencies and settings.
Setting up the 1886 loop is super easy. First, attach a length of coax to bottom of the amplifier box. (The 1886 uses SO-239 connectors.) Attach that coax to the top of the Bias Tee. The Bias Tee supplies power to the amplifier mounted on the loop using the coax and without introducing noise. Run another piece of coax from the bottom of the Bias Tee to the receiver, and, finally, plug the power supply into the Bias Tee and the house power where you are using the antenna.
Operating the 1886 is even easier. To hear the signal from the loop without amplification, leave the Bias Tee switch in the OFF position. To hear the signal with amplification, just slide the switch to the ON position. That’s all there is to it. There are no fussy adjustments to make.
So how did the 1886 loop perform? Very well, thank you. In all cases, it clearly outperformed the Satellit 800’s whip antenna, providing more signal with less noise. When pitted against the 50-foot horizontal room loop wire antenna, the 1886 typically delivered more signal and less noise. In a few instances, the horizontal room loop was equal to the 1886 loop in terms of signal strength and low noise. In no cases, did the horizontal room loop outperform the 1886 loop.
Tuning around a bit, I found myself listening to a ham from Spain working DX on the 15 meter band. A little further up the band, a ham from central Bulgaria was dealing with a pile-up of U.S. hams trying to reach him. Of the three antennas options I had on the Satellit 800, the 1886 loop offered the most pleasant listening with more signal, less noise.
Then I tried the 1886 with a couple of my portable shortwave receivers. The Bulgarian ham was still on the air and was marginal on one portable and not hearable at all on the other on their native whip antennas. With the 1886 loop connected, however, the Bulgarian was clear and easy to hear. And – thanks to a ham friend who whipped up an additional coax “jumper” with amazing speed – I tried the 1886 loop with the MFJ 1045C active preselector and found the two made a very potent combo for pulling signals out of the mud.
So, would I recommend the MFJ 1886 Receiving Loop for a would-be HF listener who lives in a condo, apartment, or house with antenna woes? Absolutely . . . even if you have to hang it flat in front of a window. And if you can find a way to mount it so that it can be rotated, even better. (Someday, I hope to try the 1886 outside mounted on an inexpensive TV rotator. For now, there simply isn’t room in my cramped radio space.)
Of course, the performance at your location will depend on the conditions where you live. Nevertheless, I found the MFJ 1886 Receiving Loop to be easy to set up, easy to use, and effective.
Click here to check out the MFJ-1886 Receiving Magnet Loop Antenna at MFJ.
Suggestions for MFJ: offer a kit or accessory that would be make it easy to set the 1886 on a desk or table. Likewise a kit or accessory that would facilitate using the 1886 on a camera tripod seems like a good idea.
Additional note: The SWLing forum is a great place for discussing all things related to shortwave listening.
Sangean ATS-909X2: Uli is seeking information about firmware version 78
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Uli (DK5ZU), who writes:
Hi Thomas,
I hope you are fine! I just bought a Sangean ATS-909X2 despite of the mixed reviews it earned in the beginning. There are a lot of reviews as on SWLING and other sources. But I think no newer models have been reviewed.
Mine is build in May 2022 and has a firmware version 078. This is quite ahead of the reviewed versions with 073. Unfortunately, I cannot find any information throughout the net, what changes where made since the version 073.
I just have the radio for one day, but for example the noise when touching the display is gone and I found no birdies so far. The SSB is still low concerning the audio level compared to AM but the SSB sounds much better as on my Tecsun 501x I had once.
As of now, I am really happy with this rig, and if current production line and firmware fixed some issues of the older one’s I guess this should be known since there may be folks interested in the radio which do hesitate to buy one because of the probably outdated reviews.
Do you know a source, where a firmware update log could be found? I just found this:
https://www.qsl.net/n9ewo/ats909x2_firmware_log.pdf
But this one ends with version 073.
Would you mind to post this question on the blog?
If you need more infos please let me know.
Best regards and 73,
Uli
DK5ZU
Post readers: If you can share a link to firmware revision logs or any information regarding the latest firmware updates for the ATS-909X2, please comment!
UPDATE
Sangean America Notes in our comments:
[S]oftware version 0.78 is a compatibility update for the new LCD hardware in the ATS-909×2 this update is only for units that use the new BU91510KV LCD display. it does not improve the performance of the ATS-909×2
2022 Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following item from Radio Romania International:
Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International
Sunday, the 6th of November 2022, is Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International
Dear friends, Sunday, the 6th of November 2022, will be Listeners’ Day on Radio Romania International, celebrated a week after the Romanian Radio Day marked on the 1st of November.
2022 will go down in history and, equally, in the collective memory, as a very special year, but not like the year when the whole world emerged out of the pandemic, as most of us would have expected.
On the morning of February 24, the old continent was shattered by an armed conflict, after almost 80 years of peace. Large-scale propaganda and disinformation campaigns, meant to create chaos and confusion, have also become part of the confrontation.
The information warfare is not a new kind of reality. However, its effects have become more visible than ever against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, because the war has brought a real explosion of fake news and disinformation with it.
In this year’s edition of Listeners’ Day on RRI we ask you what sources of information about the war in Ukraine are the most reliable for you? How can you identify fake news from real news? How vulnerable you think you are to disinformation? Have you removed from your list the sources of information proven to be spreading fake news and disinform the public? Which is the role that public radio, and an international radio station in particular, plays in your life during this period of time?
We are looking forward to receiving your answers, which will be included in our show on the 6th of November! You can email them to us, at [email protected], post them on Facebook or send them as a comment to this article on RRI’s website at www.rri.ro. If you like, you can also send us pre-recorded answers via WhatsApp, at +40744312650, or you can send us your telephone number so we can call you from the studio and record your opinions. Thank you!
Tokyo Rose: Exploring the Story of Iva Toguri and Genesis of “The Zero Hour”
If you’ve been an SWLing Post reader for long, you’ll likely know that I’m a Word War II history buff and I especially enjoy exploring the deep rabbit hole that is WWII radio and propaganda.
Radio broadcasts were heavily used by all of the players in WWII, and some prominent personalities emerged from the Axis propaganda machines: most notably Axis Sally and Lord Haw Haw in the European theatre, and Tokyo Rose in the Pacific theatre.
Iva Toguri
Although Tokyo Rose was the name given to an array of female personalities on Radio Tokyo (NHK), at the end of WWII Iva Toguri was widely accused of being the “real” Tokyo Rose. After attempting to return to her native US, she was arrested, tried, and became the seventh person in U.S. history to be convicted of treason.
Her trial in 1949 resulted in a conviction on one of eight counts of treason and she received a 10 year sentence. Her sentence was eventually cut to 6 years due to good behavior.
U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri in 1977 based on new evidence that important witnesses in her treason trial had been forced to lie.
The story of Iva Toguri is truly one of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tokyo Rose – Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman’s Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II
If you enjoy comics/graphic novels and WWII history, then you’re in for a treat. Last week, I purchased a new graphic novel about the life and trial of Iva Toguri written by Andre Frattino and illustrated by Kate Kasenow.
This book is beautifully illustrated in black and white and the author does an amazing job of telling the story of Toguri, woven into a narrative, while keeping it historical accuracy.
It’s obvious a lot of research went into this particular graphic novel.
If this sounds like something that would interest you, I highly recommend it.
Twenty Thousand Hertz: Tokyo Rose
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Wilbur Forcier, who recently shared a link to the latest episode of the excellent Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast. This entire episode also explores Iva Toguri’s life and involvement in NHK’s propaganda broadcasts.
I also highly recommend listening to this episode.
Mario shares a short review of the Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who shares the following guest post:
A Short Review of the Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR
by Mario Filippi (N2HUN)
I recently purchased an AirSpy HF+ Discovery. As a SWL for over 60 years who’s owned many shortwave radios by manufacturers such as Drake, Yaesu, Icom, Zenith, Kenwood, Panasonic, Sony, Radio Shack, Grundig, CountyComm, MFJ, Sears, AOR and have used a number of different SDRs such as the RTL-SDR.com, HackRF, NooElec and many other rudimentary inexpensive first generation SDR dongles, I feel the AirSpy was an excellent choice. It cost $169 plus shipping.
For LW/MW/HF reception, I use a 30’ ground mounted vertical with about 50 buried radials in different stages of decomposition hihi. For VHF, a roof mounted 2m/70cm SlimJim antenna is used, but I haven’t done much listening in that portion of the spectrum yet except for occasional foray into the aero, 2m ham, NOAA satellite and public service bands. Note that the AirSpy also covers 60 – 260MHz.
An older Dell Inspiron laptop and SDR# are used in conjunction with the AirSpy. For decoding, MultiPSK, FLDigi, MTTY, Yand (for NAVTEX), along with VB cable are the accompanying software to make the digital modes intelligible.
So far I’ve logged a few local LF aeronautical beacons and some DGPS beacons on longwave but will be in a better position to judge its performance when winter sets in. As for the medium (520 – 1710 kHz) wave AM broadcast band, the AirSpy easily brings in both local stations during daytime and distant stations at night with no adjacent channel interference whatsoever. Even low powered community Emergency Alert Stations in the 1600 – 1710 kHz portion of the band can be heard daily from this QTH. A rotatable loop would certainly improve reception though.
As for shortwave listening the AirSpy HF+Discovery is, in my opinion, great for listening to both shortwave broadcasts and utility stations though I tend to concentrate on UTES mostly such as VOLMET, WEFAX, RTTY (the few that remain unencrypted), CW marker stations (e.g. XSG and XSQ from China) NAVTEX (519 kHz), aero/maritime SSB, time signal stations (WWV, CHU) and many of the other esoteric digital utility signals populating the band. As for SW broadcast stations, WRMI, Radio Exterior, RFI, R. Marti, BBC, WWCR and Radio Algerienne, to mention a few have been received. The Frequency Manager (memory storage) in SDR# has quickly filled up with intercepts using the AirSpy.
As a ham and CB operator (yes, the two can mutually coexist in the same human body), I’ve found the AirSpy HF+ Discovery to be a trouper on all the HF ham and CB bands. One of my favorite hangouts is the 28.100 – 28.300 MHz slice of 10m where domestic and international low power CW beacons transmit their callsigns (and at times their grid squares and power output) into the ionosphere and achieve great distances. Recently, beacons from 5, 6 and 7 land in the US along with DX prefixes ED4, PY4 and XE1 were logged. If you’re into 10m FM operation you can also tune the AirSpy to hear local and distant repeaters on 29.62 – 29.68 MHz. When the band is open, .62 and .64 seem to be the most active here in Central NJ.
If you’re a CB (aptly named the Citizen’s Band) op, the AirSpy HF+ Discovery does a stellar job on Channels 1 – 40 which is especially exciting when the band’s open. While domestic (USA) CB’ers are limited to frequencies from 26.965 – 27.405 MHz you’ll nonetheless hear DX ops below our (USA) channel 1 and above channel 40 conversing in French, Spanish and German in LSB/USB. Add to this mix the fact that the FCC dropped the 150 mile limit for US ops a few years back and now the advent of the FM mode operation in the US, you’ll find the AirSpy won’t disappoint. In my opinion the AirSpy HF+Discovery was an excellent choice and I’m more than satisfied with its performance.
In the matter of honesty and full disclosure, I purchased the AirSpy HF+ Discovery completely on my own in an effort to upgrade my station. My choice was based on information gathered from the Internet and YouTube video reviews. The performance of this receiver was based on my experience using the vertical antenna described earlier, the hours spent at my QTH (location) listening to stations of interest to me and my six decades experience as a SWL. No test equipment to assess sensitivity, selectivity or other empirical methods to measure performance was used. That information can be found on the Airspy website. The main purpose of this article was to craft a rudimentary review for those interested with the caveat that reception will vary depending on many factors such as location, antenna, ionospheric conditions, feedline quality, computer/software variations, QRN, QRM, and operator experience. The results presented in this article are typical for my location; others may experience different results. Thanks very much.