Frugal Radio’s Loop On Ground (LoG) Antenna

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Rob, with Frugal Radio, who writes:

On New Year’s Day I decided to spend some time make a Loop on the Ground HF antenna. It had been a project I had wanted to undertake for a while, after seeing the KK5JY web site.

The LoG is supposed to work fairly well in noisy RF environments, and with my house being in suburbia,I thought it would be worth a shot.

I use some old speaker wire, RG6, some connectors I had lying around, and some random items from the back yard (old tyre, flower pot etc). It only took about 30 minutes to build with the stuff I already had lying around. I used a NooElec balun as my transformer.

Despite the snow on the ground, it all worked.
I made a video showing the construction and initial testing which your readers may enjoy.

As you mention, Rob, the LoG has become a very popular antenna for folks living in an urban RFI jungle. Paired with a nice high dynamic range SDR, the results are quite impressive and the noise floor much lower than it would be with a traditional wire antenna or even a sky loop. I am curious how it compares with any other antennas as your home. Thanks for sharing!

Spread the radio love

RBI: “The radio station at the heart of an India-GDR friendship”

The radio station at the heart of an India-GDR friendship

The untold story of a shared history is now coming to light.

Berlin, Germany – The 1980s represented a turbulent and transitional period in global affairs. The end of the Cold War was drawing closer, a new era of Thatcher-Reagan neoliberal economic politics was being ushered in, and India was reeling following the assassination in 1984 of its prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Keen to keep up with global current news and affairs, Arvind Srivastava, then a young student studying for a master’s degree in history in Madhepura, a town in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, would gather daily with a group of fellow students. Together, they would tune in to Radio Berlin International (RBI) and its Hindi-language socialist-tilting radio programmes.

From 1959 until German reunification in 1990, RBI served as the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR, or East Germany) international mouthpiece, transmitting news, views and values across the world through its multilingual broadcast platform.

For Srivastava, now 57, and a writer and poet, RBI played a pivotal role in illuminating his global vision during the Cold War.

“In the eighties, most of my friends and I were undergraduate or postgraduate students studying history and political science. In that era of information technology, radio was the only powerful medium,” he tells Al Jazeera.

“When the world was divided into two camps, by nature our country was very close to Soviet ideology. We were curious, and it was a matter of urgent pride for us to be part of the global mobilisation against imperialism, colonialism and racism.”

Srivastava founded the local listeners’ club, also known as a Lenin club, in Madhepura. The club was one of many across India’s Hindi-speaking regions including Punjab and Haryana in the north, Bihar in the east, and the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where students and workers who shared the GDR’s political values listened to RBI together. [Continue reading and listen to this story on Al Jazeera…]

Trailer

Note: if you turn on subtitles, YouTube will translate the dialog in this video.

Spread the radio love

Guest Post: Following the Ethiopian war over shortwave radio

5 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following guest post:

Carlos Latuff at Catacumba Park in Rio de Janeiro, monitoring Ethiopian broadcasts.

ETHIOPIA: A WAR THROUGH RADIO

by Carlos Latuff, special for The SWLing Post

We just entered 2022 and the civil war in Ethiopia has already completed 1 year. On the one hand we have the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) guerrillas from northern Ethiopia and its allies, and on the other hand we have the armed forces of Ethiopian government and its allies. The dead are piling up, accusations of war crimes from both sides, local and international political interests at stake, and no perspective for a peaceful solution. Without going into the reasons for this new war in Ethiopian territory, I’d like to focus on the use of radio waves by both parties of this conflict.

I monitored shortwave broadcasts from Ethiopia and to Ethiopia between October 21, 2021 and January 4, 2022. The receivers were Tecsun PL-606 and XHDATA D-808, using both the telescopic antenna and a long wire. In all cases, listening was carried out in Brazilian cities.

Carlos at Catacumba Park monitoring and recording clandestine Ethiopian broadcasts.

The monitored stations were: Continue reading →

Spread the radio love

Ernie’s portable Youloop antenna deployment system

11 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ernie (NH7L), who shares the following photo and notes that this is his solution to “Youloop strain relief.”

I love it, Ernie! Very practical, affordable, accessible, and portable! Perfect for hanging on the curtain rod in your hotel room as well!

Thanks for sharing your tip!

Spread the radio love

Schulman Auctions posts new lots of radio gear for January 2022

4 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi, who writes:

There is a lot of gear for auction from Schulman Auctions. There are several shortwave radios and other vintage gear, even crystal radios. Eye candy for radio buffs.

73’s,

Mario, N2HUN

Thank you for the tip, Mario! Click here to check out the catalog of radios up for auction.

Spread the radio love

KMRT “New Year Savings Show” January 10, 2022

2 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fastradiobust23, who notes that KMRT’s “New Year Savings Show” will take place on January 10, 2022 at 0000 UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI.

Thanks for the tip!

Spread the radio love

Alan Roe’s B21 season guide to music on shortwave (version 3 update)