Radio Waves: UNESCO on Radio, Fallout After Reciva, Local Radio Appeal, 2022 Hamvention a Go, and Pandemic Ham

Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Why UNESCO Believes in Radio (Red Tech)

Chief, Media Development and Media and Information Literacy at UNESCO Mirta Lourenço shares insight on radio’s evolution and challenges. She explains how the international organization is working to support radio stations around the world to ensure they’re able to accomplish their crucial mission.

RedTech: How do you view the role of radio in our society?

Mirta Lourenço: Thanks to radio, we benefit from many essential public services that we seldom reflect on. These include global positioning systems, satellite navigation, environmental monitoring, intelligent transport systems, space research, etc. Radio broadcasts offer information and the possibility for people to participate, regardless of their literacy levels and socio-economic situation.

The medium is also especially suited for multilingualism. Audiences may need to hear programs in their primary language, particularly if said language is local and endangered, or in the case of refugee radio or isolated communities. Also, when literacy levels are low, local languages are crucial to the populations’ access to information, as radio constitutes the main source for reliable journalism. History has shown us that radio is the most effective emergency communication system and in organizing disaster response.

All this does not mean that radio broadcasting is free from challenges. Continue reading →

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CC WiFi 3 firmware upgrade improves stability

4 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark, who writes:

Tom,

I would like to think that owners of the CCWiFi3 are recipients of an early Christmas present!

Approximately 2000 EST during the evening of 16. November I turned on my CCWiFi3 and was alerted to the download of an update.

My CCWiFi3 is suffering a problem that might be called stuttering; parts of speech are repeated in quick succession three or four times. The problem can be lived with but when it happens as a normal course it becomes a serious annoyance.

After the update was installed the radio operated normally and I resumed listening to the broadcast. About 15 minutes into the broadcast I realized that stuttering had become absent.

I did an internet search regarding recent CCWiFi3 updates but found nothing.

I thought it prudent to wait before making an announcement. After many hours of listening I have come to the conclusion that the update solved my CCWiFi3 stuttering problem—I have not heard it again on any of the internet broadcasts I monitor.

I have already made a comment to Rob’s post: “Reciva Gateway not responding.” Perhaps your connections can provide further details of the problem and the update.

I want to thank whoever is responsible; have a nice Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.

Sincerely,

Mark

Thanks so much for the tip, Mark! I have not had this issue with my CCWifi3, but admittedly my internet connection at home is so poor I’m used to hearing dropouts no matter the platform. I haven’t noticed the particular issue you describe, but I’m pleased to hear it’s been sorted out! Thanks for sharing this!

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Jason seeks advice about hazy PL-680 LCD screen

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jason, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

Recently I was cleaning and foolishly decided to clean the face of my Tecsun PL680 with 90% iso alcohol using an ear cleaner / Q-tip. Now the LCD has a smudge look to it, almost like a fog. The display is still legible thankfully, but only when looking head on. I quickly wiped it down with a cloth and left it in an airtight container filled with silica gel packets for a week.

Would you or other SWLING readers have any idea how to remedy this? It is my understanding that this is just cosmetic damage and shouldn’t impact the usage of the radio.

Regards,

– Jason

Sorry to hear about this, Jason. Yes, isopropanol/isopropylalcohol is a solvent and can corrupt plastic surfaces like this. I’m familiar because my wife once tried to clear a DVD with 90% isopropylalcohol and it made the surface so hazy, the DVD player could no longer read it. I don’t think this will have any impact on the radio itself since you didn’t exactly did it in iso alcohol.

I understand that in some cases, polishing the surface can minimize the haziness, but how to do that, I’m uncertain. My hope is, another SWLing Post contributor can chime in with some real-life experience!

Please comment if you can help Jason!

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Radio Carillon via Channel 292 on December 5 & 12, 2021

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fastradioburst23, who shares the Radio Carillon flyer above announcing a broadcast on Monday, December 5th and 12th, 2021 at 1800 UTC on 3955 kHz via Channel 292. Make sure to mark your listening calendar!

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AGA Nostalgia Trip: Haluk soon to be reunited with his childhood radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Haluk Mesci, who shares the following guest post:

AGA is the agha of radios…

by Haluk Mesci

Full disclosure: Contains nostalgia of ‘my parent’s radio’ and some 36 ‘and’s…

I was born and raised in Turkey. Throughout some part of my primary and secondary school years–between 1960 to 1968–we enjoyed listening to an AGA tube radio in the family room.

Although AGA is mainly Swedish as far as I know, I re-discovered a stock photo of it on agamuseum.nl which is Dutch:

Ours had a ‘magic eye’ just above the tuning knob on the right

I remember, at age 9, trying to listen to a live broadcast of a soccer match between Fenerbahce–my favorite team–and the French team of Nice: There was a ‘Nis’ -Turkish spelling- on the MW screen, so there had to be a broadcast, right? Wrong.

I learned much later that it wasn’t that easy on radio. (Alas, my team was devastated 5-1 anyhow.) Similar ‘search’ for ‘Russian Sputnik sending messages to the world’ yielded nothing but strange sounds like ‘a diesel engine working loudly’… I wasn’t a silly kid, but nobody taught us basic radio then.

Years passed and my family relocated to Samsun, another city by the Black Sea, because of my father’s work. I was about to graduate from ODTU and there was the famous leftist (anti-US etc) ‘boycott’s of 1968 and later, I had to go live with my parents while my university courses remained suspended.

Ironically, the city had a US radar base; the base had a low power MW radio station broadcasting news and music -rock and country etc- 24 hours in English to the base staff: AFRTS 1590 kHz.

Shortly thereafter, the base was closed and the radio station went off the air, maybe because of the boycotts and the political winds in Turkey, so I had to look up another such station. Continue reading →

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Alan Roe’s B-21 season guide to music on shortwave

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares his B-21 season guide to music on shortwave.

Click here to download Music on Shortwave B-21 (PDF)

Thank you for sharing your excellent guide, Alan!

Note that this dedicated page will always have the latest version of Alan’s guide available for download.

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Giuseppe’s Homemade “Magic Tablet” Antenna System

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:

Dear Thomas,

This is Giuseppe Morlè, from Formia central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea,

I built this “Magic Tablet. during a rainy afternoon to test various portables I have.

The tablet is composed of 2 separate circuits: one for the short waves, a single coil along the entire perimeter of the tablet, and another with 2 ferrites wrapped around 36 turns of telephone cable for the medium waves.

The heart of the system is a 1050 pf variable capacitor with its old wheel.

To listen to medium wave I have to exclude the short wave loop with a switch on the loop.

I also added another small switch to connect it to a capacitor for more or less capacity, but this I will do later.

I can test my portables like this because the tablet tunes very well from 500 kHz to 18 MHz. I spent very little to make all this as it is all recycled stuff.

You can see the first tests on the balcony of my house with a Tecsun H-501 via my YouTube channel:

Note: this video is in Italian, but you can turn on closed captions and have it translate into the language of your choice.

As I always say, I am not a technician and I have little manual skills in building things, not having a proper laboratory. When I get an idea, I put it on paper and I start to find all the materials and then see if they work. Not all of us are of the experts in electronics–what drives me is a passion for radio listening. Now being retired, I have more time to devote to it.

Thanks to you and hello to the whole SWLing Post community …

73. Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW)

I love this, Giuseppe! What a clever all-in-one portable antenna system for your shortwave radios. I especially love the fact you were able to create all of this from parts you have at your home. You’ve got a winning attitude, too: build and experiment! Thank you for sharing.

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