When Dagwood decided to become a radio repair technician

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow, who shares a link to this 1947 “Blondie & Dagwood” episode #21. Dave notes that the part of the episode with a radio slant starts at approx. 24:22:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thanks, Dave! I’m not sure I’ve ever watched an episode of Blondie and Dagwood, although I’ve certainly read hundreds of the comic strips and listened to many episodes of the OTR shows.

In fact, if you’d like to listen to some of the Blondie and Dagwood radio shows, the Internet Archive has a collection of 42 episodes that you can stream or download.

I’ve embedded the Internet Archive Playlist below for your convenience:

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The story of a 1970s CB Radio QSL card print house

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ulis (K3LU), who shares the following story of a popular CB Radio QSL Card design and print house:

73s and 88s :: The Ballad of Runnin Bare and Lil White Dove

We set a custom screensaver on Our AppleTV. Told it to pull images from Flickr tagged with “British Columbia.” After my wife and kids and I spent a few weeks in Vancouver and in various places on Vancouver Island, it had become one of our favorite places. We missed it.

And so, at night, after a show or movie ended and the AppleTV sat idle for a few minutes, a slideshow would automatically begin. The Parliamentary Buildings in Victoria, the Inner Harbor, the wild, rocky, tidepool-rich shores of Tofino, the murals of Chemainus.

Then, every once in a while, an illustration of some sort. I couldn’t tell what. A one-panel comic? Some kind of advertisement or flyer? It would be gone from the screen before I could really get a good look. Weeks would go by and I wouldn’t see it until, once again, there it was. It looked old, like something from the 60s or 70s. And it had numbers on it, like a code or a message: 73s and 88s.

It was the numbers that got me. Like the park rangers in The Shining calling for Wendy Torrance on the radio: “This is KDK-1 calling KDK-12. KDK-1 calling KDK-12. Are you receiving me?” They seemed to be saying something. But what? I had to find out. So, I took to Google, and began my search.[…]

Click here to continue reading the full article.

FYI: Although the CB Radio landscape is quite different than it was in the 70s, most modern shortwave radio receivers can tune to CB channels. Here’s a quick tutorial from our archives.

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Special Radio Event: WBCQ’s Big Broadcast of 2020

The Tecsun PL-330: Some details about this compact shortwave portable in development

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Source: tecsun.com.cn

Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post readers who shared a link to this website (in Chinese) with photos and details of the new Tecsun PL-330. Note: The server hosting the PL-330 page has been unreliable the past few days.

Some of you might recall the PL-330 in photos of the new Tecsun product line we posted last year. Recently, a handful of preliminary working prototypes have been produced, so I reached out to my trusted Tecsun contact for more information. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Position in Tecsun product line

In terms of the Tecsun product line, the PL-330 appears to be the successor to the venerable Tecsun PL-310ET and/or PL-380.

The PL-330 will have features these legacy Tecsun models do not have, namely:

synchronous detection,
single-sideband reception,
and an upgraded ETM (auto tune and store) feature.

It also appears the SSB tuning steps could be as fine as 10 Hz. Most impressive, if true.

Size

Size comparison: PL-330 (left), PL-990 (middle), H-501 (right)

I refer to radios in this size class as “ultra-compact.”

The PL-330 measures 139 × 85 × 26 millimeters (5.5 x 3.3 x 1 inches). Its form factor is very similar to the PL-310ET, but much thinner in profile. The total depth of the radio is only 26 mm.

I love the idea of an even thinner profile, although this certainly limits the type of internal battery that can be used.

Battery

The PL-330 is powered by a single BL-5C lithium battery.

In my world, this is a bit of a negative, but I’m sure the BL-5C was one of the only viable battery options for a radio that’s only 26mm thick.

On the plus side, the BL-5C is widely available, affordable, and can be charged internally.

On the negative side?

Well, I find that the overall capacity doesn’t match that of, say, three AA batteries. Also, I find that the battery’s longevity (meaning, how many charge cycles it can handle) is not that impressive–arguably worse than any other rechargeable battery system I’ve used.

Another reason I prefer AA batteries in compact portables is I know no matter where I travel, I can easily purchase them at almost any retailer, airport, or even hotel, in a pinch. In the past, when I’ve traveled with radios that use the BL-5C, I simply carried a fully-charged spare in a poly zip-lock bag (to protect the battery contacts from inadvertently shorting.

In addition, when I fly, I like to carry as few Lithium batteries as possible.

Perhaps, however, I can find a very high quality BL-5C to use in the PL-330? I would appreciate any leads from readers.

Performance

Since the preliminary prototypes were more or less mechanical prototypes and lacked most of the features planned for this model, there are no performance reports as of yet. In fact, I would be skeptical of any reports you might read in advance of the final production model.

Availability

Like the PL-990 and H-501, there are no reliable estimates for availability or shipping yet. The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down this process. Most likely, the PL-330 will be released after the PL-990 and H-501, but that isn’t even certain.

Stay tuned!

The PL-330 will have a number of other features and specs, but these are early days and I prefer sticking with what we do know now. As soon as I learn more, I’ll post updates–bookmark the tag PL-330.

Note this reddit thread with an English translation of the Chinese page I mentioned at the beginning of this article (thanks, Tom Daly). It mentions more details, but again, it’s such early days I prefer to stick with what has been confirmed. As with any product in development, a number of changes could occur before the first production run.

Of course, I will review and evaluate the export version of the PL-330 when as soon as it’s available. Stay tuned!

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John adds a pre-amp and rotatable stand to his homebrew NCPL antenna

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A couple weeks ago, we featured John Mills’ homebrew Noise-Cancelling Passive Loop (NCPL) antenna (see photo above) in a post with two other Post community designs.

John recently shared an update to his project:

As promised, some more pictures of my antenna mounted on a rotatable stand. I have used standard (in the UK) 20mm electrical plastic conduit and fittings to make the frame.

Fitted a small plastic box to house the balun and have put a BNC socket on the underside of it for connection the coax cable to my Rx.

I have also been experimenting with cheap low cost amplifiers (LNA) found on eBay (see picture) which do seem to improve the general strength of signals by 10-15db, but the baseline noise also rises.

I did manage to hear a QSO on 160M using one of these which was inaudible without the LNA but I cannot say for sure yet if they are worth the extra noise introduced.

Thank you for sharing your update, John! The plastic conduit support is simple and effective! Indeed, it looks very professional. What I love about your NCPL build (loop, stand, and LNA) is it that it’s all incredibly affordable as well.

Post Readers: Has anyone else experimented with implementing a pre-amp in their NCPL antenna design? Please comment!

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Please consider supporting us via Patreon or our Coffee Fund!

Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!

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Trans-Oceanic spotted in 1959 film “On the Beach”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes:

Maybe this is old news but in the 1959 film “On the Beach” which was from the book by Nevil Shute, there is a Zenith transoceanic shortwave radio in this clip from the film. It is inside the lighthouse and appears just about five minutes into the film.

Big stars in this one, Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins.

Thanks for the tip, Mario! I love classic films, but I don’t think I’ve seen On the Beach. I’ll put this on my watch list!

I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

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Got some extra time to read? Subscribe to The Spectrum Monitor!

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While most of us across the planet are sheltering at home due to the C-19 pandemic, we have a little extra time to catch up on reading.

I subscribe to (and write features for) a number of radio publications, but the best bargain on the planet must be The Spectrum Monitor Magazine (TSM).

Issues of TSM are a mere $2 each if you purchase an annual subscription ($24). Don’t care for an annual subscription? You can buy issues á la carte–preview an issue on the TSM website then purchase it for $3.

As a writer, I love TSM because 1.) they cover an impressive variety of radio topics and 2.) there is no real word limit on articles. I can take my readers on a truly deep-dive into a review or topic and not have to worry that portions will be cut to meet page margins for print. As long as content is relevant and informative, TSM keeps it.

In addition, TSM is published as a PDF which means it can be read with any computing device–desktops, laptops, tablets, eReaders, and smart phones. There’s no need to load a proprietary publisher app–it’s a truly portable electronic issue. PDFs are also the easiest of all formats to print at home if you want to archive a paper copy of an article or entire issue.

If you haven’t subscribed to TSM before, you may be especially interested in their annual archives. I recently discovered you can purchase an entire year of archived issues for $12…that’s only $1 per issue!

Check out the annual archives in the left sidebar of the TSM website. When you click on a year, you can browse an index of all topics and features before making your purchase. The $12 price is valid for the 2014-2017 years.

TSM Publisher and Managing Editor, Ken Reitz (KS4ZR), has done a fabulous job collecting a group of writers who are not only experts in their respective fields, but are effective writers as well. These two qualities do not always go hand-in-hand.

At $24 ($2/issue) per year, I think TSM is one of the best radio bargains out there. While you’re sheltering at home, why not explore the full spectrum of radio via TSM?

Click here to visit The Spectrum Monitor.

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