DXing with Cumbre program 710 is now available as an mp3 download.
Click here to download and listen!
DXing with Cumbre, for those of you who are not familiar, is an excellent program for anyone interested in the shortwave radio listening hobby. Best of all, it’s free to everyone!
John Figliozzi’s The Worldwide Listening Guide is now available for order at Universal Radio. This is the 5th edition of Figliozzi’s book and is unique in that it not only offers shortwave radio listings, but also provides podcast, terrestrial, satellite, Internet, digital, analog, AM, FM and other format schedules.
John Figliozzi is a life-long shortwave radio enthusiast and an excellent writer. His guide is 160 pages, wire-bound and easy to lay flat on your desktop.
Click here to view more details at Universal Radio.
Update: Be sure to check out RNW’s review of The Worldwide Listening Guide.
Silicon Labs, a manufacture of DSP (Digital Signal Processing) chips that are in many of the shortwave radios we feature here on SWLing.com, is now taking their technology to car radios. They have announced the Si476x chip family which features AM/FM, longwave, shortwave (SW), NOAA weather band, FM RDS decoding and AM/FM HD Radio reception.
To my knowledge, this is the first time in years that shortwave has been strategically implemented in a car radio product.
Read their full press release below:
(Source: SiLabs Press release via Kim Elliott)
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today introduced the industry’s most advanced automotive tuner IC family designed to deliver the highest RF performance coupled with advanced signal processing while reducing the cost and complexity of car radio systems. Offering superior price/performance for the global car radio market, the new Si476x tuner family provides a best-in-class multiband receiver solution for automotive infotainment head-units and AM/FM car radios from all classes of providers ranging from Tier 1 suppliers to aftermarket car radio makers.
According to J.D. Power and Associates, the global automotive market is expected to exceed 76 million light-vehicle unit shipments this year. The car radio technology deployed in these vehicles is evolving rapidly as innovations in communication technology proliferate in the automotive infotainment market. The basic car radio has been transformed into a sophisticated infotainment system that includes multiple tuners to deliver FM phase diversity reception, receive radio data system (RDS) data for info-navigation systems, support AM/FM HD Radio technology and provide detailed station quality metrics for living lists of broadcast content. These strenuous broadcast performance demands require advanced silicon innovations to enable a superior in-vehicle audio experience.
Silicon Labs developed the Si476x receiver family to address these major automotive industry trends. The Si476x receivers leverage Silicon Labs’ patented digital low-IF technology and combine most of the traditional external bill of materials into a highly integrated, single-chip CMOS solution. The receivers provide unprecedented flexibility, offering a modular architecture that supports scalable multi-tuner designs. The Si476x supports all worldwide broadcast radio bands including AM/FM, college FM, longwave (LW), shortwave (SW), NOAA weather band, unparalleled FM RDS decoding and AM/FM HD Radio reception. iBiquity Digital Corporation, the developer of HD Radio technology, has certified the Si476x family to provide AM/FM HD Radio tuner outputs and reception with compatible HD Radio demodulator ICs.
“The introduction of the Si476x tuner family represents a major new product offering from a world leader in RF products and a global player in the HD Radio market,” said Jeff Jury, chief operating officer of iBiquity. “Automakers are continuing to embrace HD Radio technology, with more than 20 automotive brands to date announcing the technology as a factory-installed infotainment feature. The Si476x family offers a compelling new solution for this market.”
The Si476x family represents the automotive industry’s first viable receiver alternative to enable developers to pair a best-in-class tuner IC with the optimal choice of audio digital signal processors (DSPs) to create highly cost-effective back-end audio processing designs. Silicon Labs has worked with leading silicon providers such as Cirrus Logic and Freescale Semiconductor to deliver comprehensive audio system solutions that break the expensive partitioning approach required by current car audio solutions.
“The combination of Cirrus Logic’s broad portfolio of audio ICs and Silicon Labs’ Si476x radio ICs provides automotive OEMs with a very powerful platform for building highly differentiated in-car entertainment products,” said Carl Alberty, director of marketing for audio products at Cirrus Logic. “By working closely with Silicon Labs, we have developed an optimized car radio platform that delivers best-in-class audio and RF technology, enabling our customers to build outstanding products.”
The superior linearity of the Si476x tuner’s integrated RF front-end, combined with a high-performance on-chip radio DSP and microcontroller, delivers outstanding RF dynamic range and immunity to multi-path fading. With this innovative architecture, the Si476x family raises the bar for such key features as selectivity, sensitivity, IMD3 break-in, desensitization, noise blanking, weak signal processing, dynamic channel bandwidth control and advanced dual-tuner FM phase diversity reception.
“The Si476x family not only delivers superior radio reception performance at the best system cost, it also provides unprecedented flexibility in audio processing solutions for car radio designs,” said Diwakar Vishakhadatta, general manager of Silicon Labs’ broadcast audio products. “With the introduction of the Si476x family, automotive developers are no longer locked into using more expensive bundled audio/radio solutions that may not address the audio processing requirements of their infotainment platforms.”
Pricing and Availability
Samples and production quantities of the Si476x car radio tuner ICs are available now in a compact 6 mm x 6 mm 40-pin QFN package. Pricing for automotive-grade Si476x tuner ICs begins at $11.62 (USD) in 10,000-unit quantities. The Si4763LNA-A-EVB and Si4767PD-A-EVB evaluation boards are available to automotive customers for $450 (USD).
The Si476x family, the latest addition to Silicon Labs’ portfolio of automotive-grade radio tuners, complements the company’s popular Si474x and Si475x tuner families, which target cost-sensitive entry- and mid-level radio designs. The Si476x family addresses premium-grade, performance-intensive automotive radio and head-unit requirements. For additional Si476x product information, please visit www.silabs.com/pr/automotive-tuner.
Silicon Laboratories Inc.
Silicon Laboratories is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of patented semiconductor solutions offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com.
(Source: Delmarva Now)
A fat and sassy black cat purrs in John Allen’s lap. Relaxing in his favorite chair, Allen’s fingers vanished into the silky fur as he stroked his cat while listening to the Big Band sounds coming through a 1930s radio.
With its warm wood finish and the soft yellow glow of light from the dial, the vintage radio is as soothing as the thin shadows in the room.
[…]Stacked neatly in his living room are a dozen or so radios from the past. The sets are piled several deep. Other are stored in his shop, tucked tightly on shelves.
[…]”Maybe if you count the regular radios, the military radios, and the spy radios, I might have a little more than 200,” he said.
That’s right, he said “spy radios.”
Click hear to read the full story on Delmarva Now. If you like this sort of article, you have to check out the BBC radio documentary on Gerry Wells.
(Source: The Telegraph)
The man who helped turn the Wind-Up Radio into a global success in the 1990s has invented a radio that is powered by the motion of water flowing into a shower.
The H20 water-powered radio clips onto the water pipe that runs up to a shower head. Using micro turbine technology, the radio is powered by the water pressure running up a pipe.
[…]Tango hopes that the waterproof radio will enjoy the same success as the Wind-Up Radio. The H20 was invented by Vivian Black, a former director of Freeplay Energy Group, which helped turn Trevor Baylis’s Wind-UP Radio into a commercial success in the 1990s.
While shower-powered radio is certainly an inventive use of flowing water, I seriously doubt the technology will enjoy the overwhealming success of wind-up radio. Wind-up or crank-powered energy generation can be used pretty much anytime, anywhere. It’s also a very appropriate technology for the developing world.
In situations where one lacks access to power, there will most likely be a lack of water. However, for those of us who love listening to radio in the shower, this may be worth the investment. (I do wonder if how “green” this product will be if it keeps you in the shower a bit longer.)
(Source: TextFiles.com via Radio Survivor)
Since the 1990s, a fellow named Sealord has been recording pirate radio broadcasts coming across shortwave bands. Without authorization, license, or any sort of oversight, all manner of folks have been broadcasting illegal but probably not overly immoral shows out into the air. This collection, which is over 11 gigabytes and counting, has hours and hours of radio broadcasts, crackling with the sound of distant voices shouting over static and electromagnetic corruption. With names like XYZ Digital Pirate, Wolverine Radio, Whispery ID, Thinking Man Radio, The Voice of the Last DJ…. you’re talking some strange and mysterious personalities out there.
Not only is this collection worth checking out, but the whole of archive.org is an amazing collection of similar digital archives. I have listened to some of Sealord’s collection in the past but never recognized the extent of the total anthology. What an amazing service to us in the radio community who believe in the importance of preserving the sounds of the shortwaves.
On that note, I humbly ask that if you ever record shortwave audio, please consider uploading the uncompressed file to archive.org so that your recording can be shared and properly archived. I’ve certainly uploaded many hours of shortwave radio recordings on behalf of SWLing.com (though, nowhere near 11GB and counting!).
Mario Monti, Prime Minister of Italy
(Source: Kim Elliott via ABC)
Italy’s Mario Monti, the sober economist nominated to replace the larger-than-life Silvio Berlusconi, is a former European commissioner who is markedly different from the outgoing premier.
[…]Asked about any acts of rebellion in his youth, he conceded that there really were none and said he just studied hard, enjoyed cycling and was passionate about listening to foreign news on his short-wave radio.
Read the full article here. As Kim Elliott pointed out, it’s a shame he became prime minister four years after Italian public broadcaster RAI abandoned its extensive international shortwave broadcast schedule.