Sony ICF-SW7600GR

I recently received the following message from SWLing Post contributor, Larry Thompson:

I’m 74 and want to pare down my extensive receiver collection. I have a number of receivers and portable shortwaves, as well as antennas that I want to get to good homes. They would be free with the recipient just paying for shipping and packing at my local UPS store.

Wow, Larry! This is incredibly kind of you.

Larry has very few conditions:

Everything is free, but you must pay UPS shipping and packing from St. Louis, Missouri to your address. Keep in mind that if you live outside the USA, it might not make sense in terms of shipping costs and import duties/fees to request an item. At present, international shipping is quite pricey and UPS often requires their premium parcel services for international parcels. Since the UPS Store will also pack these items for Larry, you must assume it might cost an additional $5-15 for the packing depending on the size of the item.
Only one item per person (so find the one item you really want and only send an email for that particular item)
Larry wants these to go to good homes, meaning don’t request one unless you actually plan to use it yourself. Please don’t request one to resell or flip. Larry wants these items to help others who might want or need a good receiver.

Free Items

Here are the items Larry is offering the SWLing Post community:

CountyComm GP5/SSB

Receivers

Grundig G5 great on FM, but I haven’t determined if the SW and AM bands are working properly.
Sony ICF-SW7600GR like new, excellent cond. Outstanding rig!
CountyComm GP-5/SSB like new. Tiny, but powerful, sensitive receiver. Fits in your pocket
Tivoli Audio Pal Red AM/FM/aux Great sound, cool vernier dial like new. Great to play your iPod music.
Icom IC-R71A needs some repairs. Quadruple conversion multi-band communications desktop receiver. Ask about condition.
SDRPlay RSP1 (software defined receiver) like new, hardly been used.

Antennas

MLA-30 amplified magnetic loop
MLA-30+ amplified magnetic loop
AirSpy YouLoop passive magnetic loop
Karas/Doxytronics HF-319 passive magnetic loop antenna and coax

How to request

If you feel like you’d give one of these items a good home, simply send an email to the address below with the following information:

Which item you would like and why you would like it or how you plan to use it.
What you can offer for shipping to your location from St. Louis, MO 63108. Again, keep in mind that Larry will use a UPS Store in his neighborhood for both packing and shipping, so you will need to provide extra funds for them to pack it.

We want to make this as easy for Larry as possible and for him not to end up paying the difference in shipping, so if you ask for an item, please be willing to pay at least the full price his UPS store asks.

Here’s the temporary email address for Larry’s giveaway: [email protected]

When all items have been accounted for, I’ll update this article with a message at the top of the post and delete the email forwarding address.

Thank you, Larry!

My back of the envelop calculations indicate that Larry is easily giving away $700-900+ worth of radio gear.

Thank you so much, Larry, for spreading the radio love!

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Keepa extension & Eton Bundle

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Guest Post by Troy Riedel

Click to enlarge the photo

I decided to compose a post that ‘kills two birds with one stone’.

Almost every time a post appears here that states something like “Amazon its selling WXYZ Shortwave Portable for the lowest price I’ve ever seen”, I typically post a comment “doesn’t everyone use Keepa”?

Okay, lets kill the two birds:

Bird #1: Amazon (3rd party seller fulfilled by Amazon) started bundling the Eton Elite Field BT Radio, a carry satchel & the Eton Elite Mini 30-days ago (how do I know, I’ll explain that below with bird #2). The bundle was introduced at a price of $179.95. Frankly, given the street prices of the Elite Field with satchel & the under $25 street price of the Elite Mini, $179.95 wasn’t a great price. But at the time I start writing this post, 3-hours ago the price dropped to $139.00. That’s a pretty good price IF you’re looking to buy all 3 in this bundle (or even if you want the Field with satchel but choose to gift the Mini as a Christmas gift).

But this opportunity brings me to:

Bird #2: Keepa.

Click to enlarge the photo

Keepa is a great extension (pictured above loaded on my Safari browser). I have Keepa loaded into multiple browser applications. With Keepa loaded, I have a complete history of Amazon pricing. All-time Amazon pricing! Take a close look at the graphic (click to enlarge).

Keepa tells me this item has been listed on Amazon for 30-days. It tells me the starting price was $179.95. It gives me a day-by-day graph of the Amazon price. It shows me that the price dropped to $149.00 on October 26th at 16:56 EDT. And it tells me that, 3-hours ago, the price dropped to $139.00.

Want the average Amazon price over the last 90-days? Easy. What about the average Amazon price for the past 180-days? Easy – I get that, too (note: this item has only been listed for 30-days, so the 90-day & 180-day average pricing is the same).

Some of what I am telling you – re: the exact time of the price drop – is only visible when you’re [live] on the product page and you move your cursor over the graph (that info pops into view).

And here’s the best part: you can Manage Price Watches. What does that mean? I can set a target price and Keepa notifies me if/when the product’s price meets or goes below my target price (what I want to pay for it). I cannot tell you how many times I have had items with price watches set … and a few days … or a few weeks go by and <Ding>, I get an email notification that tells me my desired item has dropped below my target price. I set price watches for radios, tools, tents – even my contact lens solution! I Manage Price Watches for anything that can wait days, or weeks or even months to buy (I let the price dictate when I buy the item). Keepa even gives you 24-hours advance notice of an Amazon Lightning Deal.

In summary, this bundle is a pretty good deal as it includes two SW portables & a carrying satchel for the Field. But this also gave me an opportunity to show everyone how I use Keepa. I use Keepa for every item I view on Amazon. And if you look closely, there is an eBay link in Keepa … with a click of my mouse/track pad, I can compare eBay pricing to Amazon. If this item had ever been listed as “Used”, I could graphically track used pricing. Keepa also tracks Warehouse Deals & even the date, time & price of past Lightning Deals. Why would anyone not use this handy little extension? It’s like tracking a stock’s price history except I’m tracking a specific product’s price on Amazon.

But then again, if everyone did use Keepa … there’d be no point in readers sending Amazon deals to Thomas!

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Update: The Elite Satellit

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Guest post by Troy Riedel

I have badgered people I know – mainly this site’s owner, our friend Thomas. Question: does Eton still plan to bring the Elite Satellit to market?

Image Credit: Eton Corp

I’ve posted here before (in the Comments section of more than one post) stating “I’ll believe it when I see it”.

Last week I emailed Eton Corp and I flat-out asked them if they could provide a “status update” regarding the production of this radio and “do you still plan to bring [this model] to the marketplace”.

Moments ago, I received this email reply:

Hi Troy,

Thank you for your interest in the Elite Satellit radio. Due to the global shortage of chips and the backlog of delivery of materials to our manufacturer, it is taking much longer to bring this radio to market.

Thank you for your understanding and patience,

Esther

This isn’t very definitive … it offers very little detail, and no expected release date – but – it appears this project (proposed new model) has not been tabled, has not been canceled. Seeing as how it’s November 1st … Christmas is less than 8-weeks away – well, this would be a good time to ask the question because surely I would think an imminent release date would be best for business.

As such, I guess I’ll stand-by my comments over the past 18-months … “I’ll believe it when I see it”. The optimist in me is happy the reply wasn’t an outright cancellation of this gorgeous radio!

If there is anyone out there with more information, definitive information, I’m sure the SWLing Post Blog Nation would love to hear it. For now, I guess those of us interested will continue to wait. And those among us who still have doubts, this group “will believe it when we see it”!

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Dan reviews the CountyComm GP7/SSB (Gen 4)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, for the following guest post and review:

CountyComm GP7 / Tecsun PL-368: Is It All You Need?

by Dan Robinson

It’s been a long wait, but CountyComm, that supplier of all kinds of neat and useful stuff, finally released the GP7 SSB (Gen 4).

As the name states this is the 4th generation of the series of radios adapted by the company from the Tecsun PL-36xxx series of receivers (there was at one point a GP6 that was a never-released special project).

All photos by CountyComm

This walkie-talkie style, though receive-only, portable has undoubtedly been a big seller for CountyComm since the first model came out. It’s popular not only with SWLs and amateur operators but also with preppers.

When OEM Tecsun finally did what everyone was clamoring for – redesign the radio with a keypad and including features associated with the PL-880/330/990x/501x receivers – the ground shook. Continue reading →

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Guest Post: Why listen to shortwave radio?

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post:

Why listen to shortwave radio?

By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM

Decades ago, an entrepreneur challenged his audience with a concept of critical importance: “Every once in a vhile, it is important to ask ourselves vhy are we in business?” He had a waaay cool Austrian accent, and his point was valid: every once in a while, we should examine our fundamentals.

So why, indeed, listen to shortwave radio?

For me, the short answer is: because there are treasures out there on the shortwave spectrum, that’s why. Further, with a relatively inexpensive shortwave receiver (even better if you have a receiver with single-sideband – SSB – capability), you hear them too. You can discover things that you are unlikely to find anywhere else, and not only are they fun to hear, they are also fun to find.

So let me present for your approval a shortwave journey that I took on October 24, 2021.

1115Z – It all starts when I am flipping through my old shortwave reference materials, and a copy of a page from Popular Communications magazine, April, 1986, catches my eye: “Handy Ute Finder by Hubble Gardiner, KNE0JX.” Utes are utility stations (as opposed to hams or international broadcasters), like ships at sea, planes in the air, and fixed commercial and military stations, and the like. The article presented places to look in the HF radio spectrum between 4000 kHz and 26960 kHz, for utility stations transmitting in SSB, CW, and RTTY/ARQ modes. Is this chart still valid? I don’t know, but since I enjoy hearing people doing their jobs on the air, why not start tuning from 4000 kHz in upper sideband and see what I can hear? Freeing the Tecsun PL-880 from its case, I extend the antenna, press the power button, punch in 4000 kHz, and start turning the dial. And while my initial impulse was to discover some “utes,” I am open to whatever comes through the headphones.

1128Z, 4426 kHz USB – a ute, super loud and clear, a weather forecast from the US Coast Guard Communications Command, including a forecast of tropical weather from the National Hurricane Center. If I were a mariner, I would be pleased to hear this forecast.

Duties call, and my cruise of the bands is interrupted, to be continued later in the day . . .

2130Z, 7490 kHz AM, — highly unusual music that sounds like a mash-up between 1930s movie music and oompah bands. It’s odd but pleasant and certainly not anything you are going to hear on the “regular” broadcast stations. Turns out it is a program called Marion’s Attic on WBCQ from Monticello, Maine. Two females, Marion (with a high squeaky voice) and Christine, play recordings from yesteryear (including wax cylinders, I think). Evidently, this program has been on the air for 22 years, and it made me smile.

2150Z, 8950 kHz USB, — a ute, European weather conditions for aviators from Shannon VOLMET, Ireland, very difficult to hear on the PL880’s whip antenna, but fully copyable on my Satellit 800 with wire antenna. How cool to hear weather from all the way across the pond!

2206Z, 9350 kHz AM, (back on the PL880) — USA Radio News on WWCR, then Owen Shroyer and a Dr. Bartlett discussing the problem of a hospital in Texas apparently putting plastic bags on the heads of covid patients. Unusual, I think, but I had heard enough about the virus of late and continue to rotate the tuning knob.

2215Z, 9395 kHz AM, — My ears are tickled by cool jazz, a very together group, laying it down with style. “This is cool jazz, jazz from the left coast,” the announcer intones as he cues up another group. It’s WRMI, transmitting from Okeechobee. Hearing it, I flashed back to “The Hawthorn Den, Jazz after Midnight” Saturday nights, listening under the covers when I was a kid.

2226Z, 9830 kHz, Voice of Turkey, in English — A professor presents an analysis of the United Nations, which he thinks needs to be reformed due to the shifting of the axes of power. This is followed by exotic music with nice female singer.

2239Z, 9955 kHz,WRMI, — Glen Hauser hosts The World of Radio, detailing the status of various shortwave stations around the world. Fascinating stuff and well worth the time.

2257Z, 10051 kHz USB, — a ute, weather for aviators again, but this time from Gander, Newfoundland. Makes me glad to be in a nice warm house.

So that’s what a little over an hour of turning the knob yielded, and that’s why to listen to shortwave radio: because you never know what you may encounter. Who knows what you might discover with a shortwave radio and a little wandering around?

Remember what Gandalf said: “Not all who wander are lost.”

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Radio Waves: X-Class Flare & Halloween CME, Ham Callsign History, 2/3 UK Listeners Now Digital, AM/FM Until 2030, and Rampisham’s New Plan

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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!

Significant X-class solar flare (Southgate ARC)

There was a global eruption on the sun today. It started with a powerful X1-class solar flare from sunspot AR2887.

The blast created a massive tsunami of plasma in the sun’s atmosphere, which rippled across the entire solar disk. A CME is probably heading for Earth, raising the possibility of a geomagnetic storm on Halloween. More information and updates @ Spaceweather.com.

Solar Flare Alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and get instant text notifications when solar flares are underway.

History of the Ham Radio Callsign (Southgate ARC)

In this video Mike Ritz W7VO looks at the history of amateur radio call signs in the United States

Every legal amateur radio operator in the world has a unique callsign assigned to them by their government, and many of us are better known by our callsign than our given name. But what world event was it that caused these monikers to be? Why are they constructed the way they are? Continue reading →

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