Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Don, who notes that W2ENY has developed a full suite of products for the Mission RGO ONE (click here to read our review of the RGO One).
Don notes that W2ENY is producing a military handset, desk mic, headset with boom mic, and PTT cable.
Click here to check out these products at W2ENY.com.
Thanks for the tip, Don!
(Source: Terry Colgan via FB)
LADIES OF TEXAS MUSIC TRIBUTE ON WRMI TONIGHT
Cap’n Ric is pleased to announce the artists featured in the upcoming Ladies of Texas Music
Tribute:
Jeanie C. Riley
Jamie Lin Wilson
Sunny Sweeney
Lisa Loeb
Norah Jones
Lydia Mendoza
Marcia Ball
Lucinda Williams
St. Vincent
Barbara Lynn
“Sippie” Wallace
“Big Mama” Thornton
Bessie Tucker
Janis Joplin
Lacey Sturm.
Cap’n wagers you haven’t heard of many of these female artists, and also wagers that you’ll enjoy their music.
The tribute program will air several times:
March 7 – 0200 UTC 5950 kHz via WRMI
March 20 – 0900 UTC 6070 kHz and 1800 UTC 3955 kHz via Channel 292 in Germany
March 28 – 0200 UTC 6160 kHz via WBCQ.
Third Mate Susan designed a special limited edition eQSL to be sent to listeners who submit correct reception reports to [email protected].
Sometimes we radio enthusiasts discover odd things on the air.
We’re listeners and we notice things.
A few days ago our friendy, Matt Blaze, tweeted this:
Yep, for eight years a DDOT TIS (Traffic Information System) transmitter has been broadcasting the same repeating message and few have noticed.
You can read Matt’s whole Twitter chain here.
Matt has also kindly shared an audio recording of this transmitter. He notes that the reception “was weak but readable” from his home:
What’s more, Matt’s tweet was picked up by The Drive and turned into a post, thus exposing our radio geekery to the populos at large. Many thanks to the numerous SWLing Post readers who shared a link to the article.
I have to assume someone from the DDOT was paying attention too because Matt posted that as of March 3rd, it appears the transmitter has been taken off the air:
This reminded me of another transmitter stuck in time that I thought David Goren once mentioned. I checked with him and he confirmed:
Yes, there’s a transmitter somewhere on MW in NYC that has been broadcasting: “this is a functional test of the text-to-speech capability of the [VR or BR 2000] software package”. They’ve probably been on at least 10 years.
Many thanks to David for sharing the following recording:
Have you ever heard a forgotten transmitter? Please comment with details!
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!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors David Iurescia, William Lee, and Radio Ado for the following tips:
Saturday, March 27 at 2:00 p.m. via Zoom – Learn the true and inspiring story of centenarian Agnes Joan Negra. During World War II, using her shortwave radio from her home in Nutley, NJ, Agnes listened to Radio Berlin each night and notated the names of U.S. Prisoners of War as they were announced. Agnes then went on to send personal letters to each family to inform them that their loved ones were still alive. Author, Nutley native, and Son of Agnes, Ronald along with his wife Valerie, will discuss the creation of this book and this inspiring story of his mother. You must register in advance at nutleypubliclibrary.org/waves-of-hope to attend. When registering you will receive a confirmation and one day before the event you will receive an email with log-in instructions through Zoom.[…]
“People have learnt that they can listen to radio in new ways and they will be listening to more, not less, when the pandemic is over,” according to HT&E chief executive Ciaran Davis.
Speaking to radioinfo this week, Davis explained that the company had “a very tough second quarter” in 2020, but the rest of the year turned out better than expected.
“There was a huge improvement in quarters 3 and 4, compared with that horrible quarter 2 where radio revenue was back 46%,” said Davis.
With about 30 people losing their jobs at the height of the pandemic, “regular communication and honesty was important in getting the staff through the worst of the pandemic.” It was “a very unsettling time” but the company “kept people involved and focused on the positive,” which kept the company performing well despite the tough economic conditions.
After early pay cuts, salaries have now returned to normal. “The revenue book was empty, so we had to take the decision to cut pay, but radio listenership and advertising has come back strongly and more quickly than we thought it would then… we were looking at some troubling numbers if the pandemic had of kept going.”
Luckily, the worst fears were not realised. HT&E revenue was 22% down on the previous year, but could have been a lot worse. The outlook seems positive for 2021.
“I think there was a perception that radio would suffer the same fate as out of home because people were not listening in the car during lockdowns, but it didn’t.
“We in the industry knew that our content is engaging enough, strong enough, local and live enough to be resilient. The emotional bond between listeners and their favourite stations and personalities meant that they easily switched to new platforms when they were at home. It took some convincing for the ad market to understand that this had happened, but they understood in the end.
“This is an exciting time. I think people have learnt that they can listen to radio in new ways and they will be listening to more not less when the pandemic is over.”[…]
Read more at: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/people-will-be-listening-more-radio-when-pandemic-over-ciaran-davis © Radioinfo.com.au
RTÉ is to cease transmission of its radio services on the Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) network on 31 March.
However, its digital radio services, RTÉ Gold, RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ Pulse, and RTÉjr Radio, will remain available on other platforms.
In a statement, the broadcaster said the move to cease DAB transmission was driven by three main factors – the fact that DAB was the least utilised platform in Ireland; that RTÉ is the only Irish broadcaster on the DAB system, and cost avoidance.
A public information campaign will be held to show customers how they can continue to access the digital stations.
In 2019, RTÉ had announced that its digital radio services would cease transmission as part of cost cutting measures.
However, although the DAB service will stop in March, the stations will now still be available on other platforms.
The broadcaster said this is due to the value audiences still derive from them.
The latest JNLR report, Radio in a Digital World, compiled by Ipsos/ MRBI, found that while 8% of the population in Ireland (330,000 people) are accessing radio stations via digital means, the smallest number in this cohort opt for DAB.
According to the report, just under 5% of adults in Ireland listen to radio via a mobile device, 2% listen on a PC, around 1.5% listen on a smart speaker, 0.6% listen on a TV set and 0.5% DAB. 77% of adults in Ireland listen to radio on FM.
For details on how to continue to listen to RTÉ digital radio services visit www.rte.ie/keeplistening
In 2007, the Voice of America ceased operations at the Delano Relay site in Central California. The site is destined to be bulldozed along with several relics of Collins Radio Company’s Broadcast Communications Division. The Collins Collectors Association, with assistance from the Antique Wireless Association, hatched a plan to retrieve one of the Collins 821A-1 250 KW Shortwave Transmitters from the site and place it on display for all to see. This presentation gives some history of VoA and the Delano site and follows the disassembly and relocation of Delano Relay DL-8.
Dennis Kidder, W6DQ, is a retired Aerospace Engineer, having spent nearly 45 years in System Engineering. His career spanned many fields – from building and operating large scale sound systems, computer systems used to publish newspapers and control communications satellites, 4 years as the Chief Telecom Engineer during the construction of the New Hong Kong International Airport, and finally, air defense radar systems and networked radio communications systems used by the military. First licensed as WN6NIA then WA6NIA over 50 years ago, Dennis was granted the callsign of one of his High School Elmers, Chek Titcomb (SK), W6DQ. Amateur Radio has been a nearly life-long passion.
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I just received the following comment from Richard Levenson posted with this off-air recording of Radio Tirana on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive:
Lots of fond memories listening to Radio Tirana, Albania going back to the late 1950’s. Their broadcasts back then were loaded with anti-West propaganda and more. Their interval signal is a classic to SWL people. Always remember the female announcer on the station. Her sign-off phrase was “and goodnight dear listeners.” This came after much in the way of negative propaganda. When she would say her sign off you got the idea she was tucking you into bed for the night. It had that quality and sincerity to it. Love to know who this person was or if she is still alive. Give you an idea how much SWL I did since around 1953 to present day.
Thank you for your comment, Richard! If you can identify this announcer with Radio Tirana, please comment with details!
In January 2021, C.Crane announced the latest addition to their radio line-up: the C.Crane CC WiFi-3.
C.Crane was one of the first radio manufacturers that embraced the world of Internet radio with their CC WiFi product line.
The WiFi-3 is the latest iteration and offers the following upgrades over previous models:
Before we dig into the CC WiFi-3, however, let’s first take a step back and talk about the current state of WiFi radios in general. This is an important consideration with any WiFi radio purchase these days.
Those of us who like WiFi radios appreciate a dedicated device that gives us the tactile experience of turning the knobs of a radio. We appreciate the simplicity of a dedicated listening device that doesn’t rely on a connected computer, tablet, or phone. In addition, most WiFi radios like the CC WiFi-3 don’t track your listening activity/habits like many internet radio listening apps and digital assistants do. They also don’t force feed you click-through ads.
But let’s face it: any of us who own Internet or WiFi Radios have had a rough couple of years. While WiFi radios can open the door to tens of thousands of radio stations across the globe, they do have an Achilles’ heel.
WiFi radios are Internet appliances with the ability to stream Internet content, but they’re not endowed with the ability to seek out stations in the wild and import their audio streams. WiFi radios rely on “aggregators,” or online databases of curated links to radio stations.
In the early days of WiFi radio, there were several models of radios on the market that linked to proprietary/niche aggregators, many of which eventually closed down without warning. When a WiFi radio loses its ability to link to an aggregator, it becomes no more than a pricey paperweight, especially if the WiFi radio doesn’t have traditional AM/FM reception as a backup or a back-end means to program radio station stream URLs directly.
Over the past two years, some of the major radio station aggregators have experienced issues that have truly frustrated their users. Most notably:
With this aggravating aggregator history, why would anyone want to invest their money in another WiFi radio? Let’s take a closer look at this new device from C.Crane so you can decide.
When C.Crane introduced the CC Wifi 3, they acknowledged the inherent issues with WiFi radios and how the Reciva closure affected their customers up-front. Here’s a statement they released:
We were happy to be one of first companies to offer ad-free Internet radio because it allowed anyone to listen to the world without a fee. Fifteen years ago, Ben, the founder of Reciva, had a small staff to create the software and volunteers around the world to help manage the station streams. We are sorry, but Reciva’s software will soon not work anymore. The software would need to be recreated from scratch. Even If this was done, it would not be possible for the existing radios to be compatible with this new type of software. This is the same way Apple and Microsoft might release a new operating system that is not compatible with older hardware.
We are working on a new radio called the CC WiFi-3. We will be testing the first pilot run of the new CC WiFi-3 in January with the first delivery by April if all goes reasonably well. There are still no ads or graphics to annoy you and nobody tracks your habits for advertising offers. It looks almost the same as the previous CC WiFi but has been upgraded in several ways:
- It uses a new 3rd party stream provider called Skytune.
- You can add your own streams (URLs) yourself so you are somewhat protected if the service fails for any reason.
- It is a little easier to use and it has a good built-in equalizer available.
- This radio comes with a 2 year limited warranty.
[…]The CC WiFi-3 comes with the risk of losing connection to Skytune’s server if they were to shut down in the future. As we have previously documented in our catalog and on the web: C. Crane has no control over content or the stream provider for Internet radios and cannot be responsible for Internet radio programs or availability.
I love this about C.Crane: they’re honest and transparent with their customers even during a new product release.
In January (2021), C.Crane sent me a pilot run, pre-production CC WiFi-3 for review and a thorough evaluation at no cost to me. Of course, I don’t typically share reviews of pre-production radios, but in this case, I believe the production model should function identically–or perhaps better–than my pilot model. I’m not concerned with variations in receiver sensitivity, selectivity, filtering, AGC, and noise floors as I would with a legacy receiver.
At first blush, the CC Wifi-3 could be mistaken for the CC WiFi-2. Other than the prominent model number, it has an identical form-factor and interface. Inside, though, there have been a number of updates we’ve already mentioned.
First thing I did, of course, was connect the CC WiFi-3 to the internet. It was a pretty simple process to go into the settings, have the radio find my WiFi service, and input the network password. If you have a long or complicated password, allow a few minutes to do this as the input method is character-by-character using the main front panel knob.
Once connected, the radio has access to the new Skytune aggregator to search for radio station streams. I’m familiar with Skytune because they are the aggregator also used by my recently reviewed Ocean Digital radio. I like how Skytune organizes their database allowing users to search by by location/region, popularity, genre, etc. I found most of the stations I enjoy in short order.
If Skytune doesn’t have the station you’re looking for, they make it easy to suggest an addition via their website.
Adding Presets couldn’t be any easier. I’ve been using the most simple method: finding a station, then pressing and holding the PRESET button. This will save the radio station to the next available preset with more than 100 slots available.
As C.Crane mentioned in their statement, even if the Skytune aggregator were to shut down in the future, the CC WiFi-3 makes it relatively easy to directly add your own streams by logging into the radio from a web browser.
First, make sure you’re using a computing device that is connected to the same WiFi network as the CC WiFi-3.
Secondly, find the IP address of your CC Wifi-3 by pressing the HOME button, then selecting SETTINGS -> INFORMATION -> NETWORK INFORMATION -> IP: (immediately below the signal strength information).
Note the IP address. Mine is currently 172.20.10.5 but yours will likely be a different number.
Next, open a web browser and in the URL bar, type in the IP address of your CC WiFi-3 radio and press Enter:
Your web browser will then load a page served up by your radio’s CPU (allow time for it to load):
From this page you can add, organize, and label your station presets manually.
The CC WiFi-3 owner’s manual actually gives you hints about how to find URLs for radio stations. There’s certainly an art to it.
First thing I did, in fact, was add one of my favorite AM radio stations (WAIZ) to the WiFi-3 directly by finding their main and backup stream URLs and adding them manually via the presets page. This instantaneously added them to the WiFi-3 presets:
This pleases me to no end because I’ve never been able to play WAIZ from one of my WiFi radios.
From the presets web page you can also control some basic radio functionality like volume up/down, mute on/off, and channel selection.
While this isn’t quite as handy as a dedicated app, I like the fact that I can load this presets page from my phone, tablet, PC, Mac, or Linux box. It’s universal and simple.
I’m happy C.Crane added Bluetooth to the CC WiFi-3 because it makes this already capable radio even more useful. As I write this portion of the review, in fact, I’m listening to music from YouTube via my MacBook Air streaming to the CC WiFi-3 via Bluetooth. Handy!
I prefer the audio from the CC WiFi-3 over previous models. It’s balanced and has hints of bass and treble. It is robust enough to fill a sizeable room with audio.
It isn’t anything that would impress my audiophile brother-in-law because, in the end, the speaker and enclosure are not very large. It does reproduce voice and music with ample fidelity for casual listening, however.
You can tailor the audio with 12 EQ settings included in the WiFi-3 settings menu. I like the Jazz preset.
In addition, the CC WiFi-3 has a line-out and headphone jack that makes it easy to export audio to a component stereo system or amplified speaker system. (Note above the “Not For Resale” label on the back of this pilot/pre-production unit.)
The CC WiFi-3 also ships with an excellent full-size remote control. I love how much functionality this remote offers, making it much easier to navigate and control the radio from across the room. I also much prefer the form factor of this remote compared with the small credit card-sized remotes with membrane buttons.
Every radio has its pros and cons. When I begin a review, I take notes from the very beginning so that I don’t forget some of my initial impressions. Here are the notes I made for the CC WiFi-3 pre-production/pilot model:
Pros:
Cons:
If you’re not intimidated by the “aggregator aggravation” we mentioned early in this article, I would suggest you give the CC WiFi-3 a try. Since the WiFi-3 offers easy, open access to add your station streams manually, you always have a backup if, for instance, the Skytune service were to unexpectedly close down in the distant future.
For $119.99 US, you’ll be purchasing a radio from a company that takes care of their customers.
Indeed, C.Crane was so upset by the unexpected closure of Reciva, they have offered their existing CC WiFi customers the following options:
This is a one-time offer from C. Crane. This offer will end June 1, 2021.
To my knowledge, no other radio manufacturer or retailer has made an offer like this to compensate for the loss of the Reciva service. Kudos to C.Crane for giving their customers options and discounts.
C.Crane expects to have the CC WiFi-3 in stock and shipping in June 2021. We’ll post updates on the SWLing Post when they become available.
Click here to check out the CC WiFi-3 at the C.Crane website.
