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Save the Date: A WBCQ Thanksgiving
0300-0400 UTC, November 27, 2020 (10pm-11pm EST November 26)
6160 and 7490 kHz
Even in a year like this one, there is much for which we can be thankful, and in that spirit, WBCQ The Planet, courtesy of time donated by Allan and Angela Weiner, will present A WBCQ Thanksgiving Thursday, November 26 from 10pm-11pm EST (3am-4am UTC Friday, November 27). If propagation conditions are favorable, 6160 might be listenable in parts of Europe at that hour.
This very special broadcast will present a variety of content. Marion’s Attic and Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot will present music for the occasion, The beHAVior Night Players Tell The Thanksgiving Story will present a scripted short play, and The Lumpy Gravy Radio Show will serve up some helpings from both Area 51 and Area 61, a mix of music and old time radio content.
May thanks to SWLing Post reader, Aaron, who writes:
Hello Thomas,
We are moving to Panama full-time come January and I am a news junkie. The rural area we are moving to only has satellite internet which is very expensive and in not unlimited. Therefore I desperately need to figure out if I can short-wave Armed Forces or NPR directly in Panama?
Any help?
Thanks, Aaron
Wow–good question, Aaron.
Before I begin looking at options, keep in mind that the SpaceX Starlink system is being rolled out to beta testers now and will likely be public next year. There’s an initial investment involved with equipment, but the monthly pricing is much more attractive than traditional sat internet providers and latency is also much lower. I, for one, will be looking into Starlink due to the terrible Internet options I have from home.
But back to your question…
So I’m not entirely sure the AFN still broadcasts regularly (or at all) from Guam and Diego Garcia on shortwave these days. I haven’t checked on this in a long time. I hope readers can confirm for us. Over the past couple of decades, AFN shortwave has trimmed and closed many of their sites/broadcasts.
If they covered Central America (they don’t) one option would be satellite radio. Sirius XM has an NPR highlights channel called NPR Now.
One thought I had though was FTA (Free To Air) satellite. This would require investing in a small satellite receiver and dish, but sometimes news audio feeds can be found for free via satellite. I wouldn’t be surprised if NPR has an accessible feed. Plus, you’d then also have access to other live satellite programming and channels from across the globe. My hope is that our FTA-savvy Post readers might comment and help us out here! Click here to read a post by Mario about using FTA to listen to radio stations.
Readers: Please feel free to comment if you have other ideas for listening to NPR from Panama (or other rural/remote parts of the world).
I recently re-acquired a Yaesu FT-817ND general coverage QRP transceiver. I wrote a post with some info about this radio and how it came into my possession over at QRPer.com, if you’re interested.
My question here: Have any folks in the SWLing Post community ever used the FT-817 or FT-818 series transceivers for serious shortwave broadcast listening?
I originally owned a first production run FT-817 back in 2000 when I lived in the UK. I did quite a bit of SWLing with it then, but I never compared it with other radios. I do recall feeling it was a very capable general coverage transceiver, though, and remember logging a number of broadcasters (although I can’t seem to find those logs these days). Of course, propagation was quite a bit better back then, too!
Please comment if you use or have used the FT-817/818 for shortwave listening!
This deep image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the Vela pulsar, a neutron star that was formed when a massive star collapsed. (Source: NASA)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Roger, who writes:
Hello Thomas,
I thought you, along with some others in the SWLing community, might be interested in the musical renditions, or sonifications, that were released 9/22/2020 by NASA’s Chandra X-ray
Many thanks, Roger for sharing this! Below, I’ve copied one excerpt with one pulsar sound. I’d encourage you to check out the others by clicking here.
Listen to a Pulsar Clock
Turning a pulsar’s rotational data into sound makes it easier to observe patterns and make comparisons between different nebulous pulsar rotational speeds. as a pulsar ages it spins at a slower speed. listen to the different pulsar heartbeats. what can you guess about how fast these different pulsars rotate? Which pulsar is the oldest? How about the youngest?
Neutron stars are strange and fascinating objects. They represent an extreme state of matter that physicists are eager to know more about. Yet, even if you could visit one, you would be well-advised to turn down the offer.
The intense gravitational field would pull your spacecraft to pieces before it reached the surface. The magnetic fields around neutron stars are also extremely strong. Magnetic forces squeeze the atoms into the shape of cigars. Even if your spacecraft prudently stayed a few thousand miles above the surface neutron star so as to avoid the problems of intense gravitational and magnetic fields, you would still face another potentially fatal hazard.
If the neutron star is rotating rapidly, as most young neutron stars are, the strong magnetic fields combined with rapid rotation create an awesome generator that can produce electric potential differences of quadrillions of volts. Such voltages, which are 30 million times greater than those of lightning bolts, create deadly blizzards of high-energy particles.
These high-energy particles produce beams of radiation from radio through gamma-ray energies. Like a rotating lighthouse beam, the radiation can be observed as a pulsing source of radiation, or pulsar. Pulsars were first observed by radio astronomers in 1967. The pulsar in the Crab Nebula, one of the youngest and most energetic pulsars known, has been observed to pulse in almost every wavelength—radio, optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who writes:
Last night I sent the link to the SWLing Droitwch item to a former colleague. He replied this morning, reply below, and includes a couple of useful links. I’m very sure the SWLing Post knows about MB21.
Thinking that maybe the item on Crowbourgh will be of interest to SWLing readers. It contains the ‘magic’ word “Aspidistra” ! Lot of SW history there.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pawel Kita, who writes:
Good morning Thomas.
I bought a Tecsun PL-330 firmware 3303.
Do you remember when I once reported a bug in one of the versions of the
Tecsun PL-880 radio? This error was later named as “fine tuning TECSUN reversed bug”
The same error occurs in the following Tecsun radios: PL-365 and PL-330
firmware version 3303.
Thank you for the tip, Pawel. That is an odd and slightly obscure bug that Tecsun obviously has yet to address.
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