FTIOM & UBMP, March 14-20


From the Isle of Music, March 14-20:

This week our special guest flautista René Lorente, a veteran of Orquesta Aragon, Orquesta America and Senen Suarez’ combo among other groups, shares some of his solo project recordings as we converse about his career.
The broadcasts take place:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in most of the Eastern Hemisphere (including parts of East Asia and Oceania) with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Sofia, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 on WBCQ (NEW UTC), 7490 kHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US).
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1300-1400 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/fromtheisleofmusic/
Our V-Kontakte page is https://vk.com/fromtheisleofmusic
Our Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/tilford

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, March 14-20:
In episode 208, we enjoy some popular discotheque music from Russia in the 1980s and 1990s with the help of some excellent suggestions from our listener Konstantin Barsenkov.
The transmissions take place:
1.Sunday 2200-2300 (NEW UTC) (6:00PM -7:00PM EST) on WBCQ The Planet 7490 kHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesday 2000-2100 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe.
3. Saturday 0800-0900 UTC on Channel 292, 9670 kHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe with a directional booster aimed eastward.
Our Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/UncleBillsMeltingPot/
Our V-Kontakte page is https://vk.com/fromtheisleofmusic
Our Patreon page is https://www.patreon.com/tilford

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Radio on TV: Science Channel Segment

Image Credit: Wiki Logos Public Domain

Guest Post by Troy Riedel

In keeping with a popular theme here – “radio in/on TV & movies” – I wanted to share the following that I saw on the Science Channel (part of the Discovery Network):

Show: What on Earth?
S5 Ep2
Originally aired 1/15/19

The above referenced episode has a segment on Cuban Numbers Stations – it’s at minute-45 in the 60-minute broadcast version with commercials.

Of course the show’s premise is “what’s this” so the segment starts out (as every segment does) analyzing a satellite photo and shapes (that turn out to be antennas). This segment is more about the “set-up” than the numbers stations themselves. It’s not really geared for radio enthusiasts but rather as something that may interest the general viewer – that there are active “espionage” Cuban Numbers Stations, when & why they started, and a brief mention of the arrests of what eventually became known as the Cuban Five.

The entire segment is only 5-minutes (approximately the same length as their “non-feature”, or minor segments).

I know it’s available free On Demand via Dish Network & is likely available for free on other services. Again – this won’t enlighten anyone who already knows there are “Cuban Numbers Stations”, but it is nice to see shortwave radio on mainstream “educational” TV programs.

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The “Signal Sweeper”: How to build a portable Wellbrook loop antenna

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Matt Blaze, for the following guest post:


The “Signal Sweeper”, a portable Wellbrook antenna setup

by Matt Blaze

Here’s a very simple construction project that’s really improved my travel shortwave and mediumwave listening experience.

When I go somewhere interesting (whether a day trip on my bike or a longer excursion to an exotic locale), the two things I’m sure to want with me are my camera gear and at least one good receiver. Fortunately, there are plenty of good quality shortwave receivers to choose from these days; the hard part is packing a suitably portable antenna that can do justice to the signals wherever it is I’m going.

I’ve long had a Wellbrook antenna on my roof at home. These wide-band amplified loops famously enjoy a reputation for excellent intermod and noise rejection, as well as an almost magical ability to pull in signals comparable to much larger traditional HF and MF receive antennas. A portable Wellbrook – something I could pack in my luggage that performs as well as the one on my roof, would be just ideal.

Fortunately, Wellbrook sells a “flex” version of their antenna intended for just this application, the model FLX1530LN. It’s essentially just the amplifier of their fixed-mount antennas, equipped with a pair of BNC connectors for you to attach a user-supplied ring of coaxial cable that serves as the antenna loop. This way, you don’t need to travel with the awkwardly large 1 meter diameter ring of aluminum tubing that makes up the normal Wellbrook. You can just bring a compact spool of coaxial cable and configure a loop out of it when you arrive at your destination.

The tricky part is how to actually form a stable loop out of coaxial cable without needing lot of unwieldy supporting hardware. In particularly, I wanted something that could be set up on a camera tripod to be freestanding and easily rotated wherever I happened to find myself wanting to play radio. The key would be finding or making some kind of mostly non-metalic support for the coaxial loop that could be folded down or collapsed to fit in my baggage or backpack for travel.

And then I found it: a humble 3-section telescoping broom handle sold on Amazon for about $15 that’s exactly the right size: the “O-Cedar Easywring Spin Mop Telescopic Replacement Handle“. It collapses to 22 inches (just short enough to fit in my suitcase), and extends to 48 inches (comfortably long enough for a one meter diameter loop).

Normally, a wire loop would need both vertical and horizontal supports in a cross configuration, but by using a reasonably stiff coaxial cable, I figured I could get away with just using the broom handle vertically. I found that LMR400 (the basic kind, not the “Ultraflex” version) holds its shape quite well in a one meter loop supported this way.

At this point, it was just a matter of the details of attaching and mounting everything together into a portable package.

A one meter diameter loop, which is the ideal size for the Wellbrook amp, can be made from 3.14 meters of cable (ask your middle-school math teacher). That’s about 10 feet for Americans like me. High precision is not required here, so I just cut 10 feet of LMR400.

The next step is to attach the middle of the cable to the top of the broom handle. The O-Cedar handle has a loop at the end for hanging it on a hook in your broom closet. It happens to be just the right diameter for LMR400, but not with BNC connectors attached. So you’ll have to thread the cable through before you crimp or solder on the with connectors. (See photo above). I used the Times Microwave crimp-on BNC connectors, which I had some extras of lying around. I also put some shrink wrap on the cable at either side of the broom loop, just to keep it from slipping out and becoming unbalanced, but that was probably unnecessary.

Now I needed a way to to attach the Wellbrook amplifier to the other end of the handle, as well as some way of mounting the whole thing to a camera tripod. My first thought involved a lot of duct tape. But I wanted something more permanent and reusable.

The key is something called an “L-Plate”, which is a piece of hardware intended to allow you to mount a camera to a tripod in either “landscape” or “portrait” mode. It’s basically two tripod dovetail mounts attached at a 90 degree angle. I used one that was in my junk box, but you can buy them new or used on eBay. I also needed a clamp to attach the L-plate to the broom handle. I used the Novoflex MiniClamp 26, which I got from B&H Photo. The clamp attaches to the inside of the L-plate with a captive screw. (See photos)

Next, I attached the amplifier to the other side of the L-plate using an ordinary screw-on hose clamp. Easy enough, and surprisingly sturdy.

And that’s it. To assemble the antenna, just extend the broom handle to about one meter, allowing for a roughly one meter diameter loop that’s as round as you can make it with the amplifier at the bottom. Then clamp the L-plate to the bottom of the handle so that the handle is just above the base of the plate, and attach to the tripod. (See the photos).

The Wellbrook is powered over the feedline with a 12VDC bias-T injector. So you need a clean source of 12 volts. I use a cheap Talent Cell battery pack (available on Amazon in various capacities). These actually deliver 11.1 VDC (3x 3.7V), rather than the 12V the Wellbrook calls for, but it works fine in practice. I can also use the same pack to power the radio and digital audio recorder.

In the photos, you can see the finished antenna setup on my roof, with my permanent base Wellbrook on the rotor in the background. The performance of the two antennas is quite comparable.

(Note that there’s an eBay seller that makes a somewhat similar travel loop. The performance is quite good under normal conditions, but it is a bit more subject to MW overload when near a transmitter site. So I prefer the Wellbrook, which is much less susceptible to overload, I’ve found.)

My usual complete travel setup is either a Reuter RDR Pocket C2 radio or a Sangean ATX-909X (recently upgraded to the X2 model). Both these radios work well with the Wellbrook. I use a Sound Devices Mixpre 3 to record airchecks in the field. In the photos, I’m on a rooftop DXpedition listening to Toronto traffic and weather from CFRX on 6070 kHz on a warm later winter afternoon.

The whole setup breaks down for travel pretty easily, and fits easily in my suitcase, backpack, or bike bag (see photos). I usually bring a larger tripod than this if I’m also taking my camera.

The Wellbrook setup has really made bringing a receiver into the field a lot easier and less uncertain. There’s no worry about finding trees or other supports for wires, and packing and unpacking is quick and easy. Have fun!

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Radio Northern Europe International Show #15

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roseanna, with Radio Northern Europe International who shares the following announcement:


Hei alle,

We have put together a packed show for March for all the wonderful RNEI listeners ?

We’ve got lots of extras including:

 Folk listening on-demand ? and on WRMI ? will get to hear a pretty piece of music from the game Unravel TWO along with a Feature from our new guest presenter, Stephen who also presents 16 Gwendoline Street on 9510KHz, 12:30UTC Sundays!

 Listeners tuned to Channel 292 or Radio Onda ? will get to hear another instalment of This is an Express Music Show featuring fantastic music and some MFSK 64 data!

 For those listening on shortwave ?: HamDRM data at the end of the show (292 & Onda) / hour(WRMI) & Comb Stereo encoding allowing a stereo version of the show to be heard over shortwave with a simple plugin, no special equipment needed! (https://rnei.org/stereo)

 For everyone: Some MFSK 64 data and fantastic show presented by me with music like:
 A haunting song from iris ?.
 Some cute Finnish ?? music.
 An Icelandic ?? bop.
 A massive Sea Shanty ?.
 Some pretty video game ? music.

Coverage Predictions

This is the last of the Winter times, Our summer schedule will be announced soon ?

You can find our full up to date frequency schedule here: (https://rnei.org/listen)

Can’t tune into a radio or just want the music without the extras? We also have Spotify Playlists of all of our broadcasts available here: RNEI Spotify Profle with the latest show being added a few days after broadcasting!

Wishing you all the best for this month and look forward to hearing from you again,
Roseanna

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Photos from an Antique Wireless Association meeting in 2000

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David, who shares the following random photos he recently inherited and scanned. These were taken at an Antique Wireless Association meeting (AWA) from 2000. Click on images to enlarge:

Thank you for sharing these David!

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Dan discovers a Squires Sanders SS-1R on eBay

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson who notes that there currently a Squires Sanders SS-1R on eBay. He notes:

Ultra rare amateur receiver. The only thing rarer is a SS-IBS, the SW bands version.

This is certainly a “fixer upper” in that it will need a re-stringing and likely at least a recapping. The chassis is super clean, though, and the internals look great.

Click here to check it out on eBay (partner link).

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Looking for Linux Mini PC recommendations

Mintbox Mini

Even though I do most of my blogging from a MacBook Air and use a Windows 10 PC in the shack for SDR work, I’m a huge fan of Linux.

Over the past decade, I’ve used a number of Linux distributions including Puppy Linux, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Raspian.

The past few years, I’ve been doing most of my Linux work with a Raspberry Pi running Raspian. I probably own ten or more Raspberry Pi models; some have one dedicated task (like the Raspberry Pirate, my ADS-B feeder, or one that feeds LiveATC) while others, like the Pi4 4GB models, are serving as primary personal computers for my daughters. I’ve been trying to up my command line game so I can continue teaching it to my daughters–the Pi has been perfect for this.

Why a mini PC?

While I love the Raspberry Pi, I would like a dedicated device in the shack that sports more horsepower and a better integrated sound card. I also want something compact.

In the past, I have, of course, resurrected old PCs by installing Linux and I’ve even turned my primary shack PC into a Windows/Linux dual boot system. I’m not the biggest fan of dual boot, though, because I have run into problems when I needed to do a full re-install of Windows and/or Linux–all of that partition management gets tricky for me. I’ve even found a few PCs (guessing it’s the BIOS) that reject the dual boot loading system.

I simply don’t have the desktop real estate for another revived desktop or tower PC.

Spoiled for choice

I like the idea of a Mini PC dedicated to Linux but there are a dizzying array of devices on the market ranging in price from $100-$700. I don’t need a lot of horsepower, just enough to run SDR apps, potentially playback spectrum recordings, stream videos, and occasionally manipulate graphics and images. The Pi can do many of these tasks to an extent, but it’s not always terribly stable.

I’ve been tempted by this mini PC because the reviews seem positive (although I don’t always trust Amazon reviews) and the price is right at $129.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n IoT

I’ve also read positive comments from folks who’ve loaded Ubuntu on a base version of the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n IoT.

Of course, I know I can also buy Mini PCs that have Linux pre-loaded and part of the proceeds support development of the distro like the Mintbox Mini pictured at the top of this page. I do like the idea of my purchase directly supporting the distro.

I also like the Intel NUC, but once configured it can be a bit pricey for my purposes. I don’t want to exceed $300.

Any recommendations?

If you have any advice, I’m all ears! I’m especially interested in any first-hand experience with a Mini PC model running Linux. Please feel free to comment with your suggestions and links.

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