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WASHINGTON, November 30, 2020—Today, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he intends to leave the Federal Communications Commission on January 20, 2021. Chairman Pai issued the following statement:
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve at the Federal Communications Commission, including as Chairman of the FCC over the past four years. I am grateful to President Trump for giving me the opportunity to lead the agency in 2017, to President Obama for appointing me as a Commissioner in 2012, and to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate for twice confirming me. To be the first Asian-American to chair the FCC has been a particular privilege. As I often say: only in America.
“I also deeply appreciate the chance to have worked alongside the FCC’s talented staff. They are the agency’s best assets, and they have performed heroically, especially during the pandemic. It’s also been an honor to work with my fellow Commissioners to execute a strong and broad agenda. Together, we’ve delivered for the American people over the past four years: closing the digital divide; promoting innovation and competition, from 5G on the ground to broadband from space; protecting consumers; and advancing public safety. And this FCC has not shied away from making tough choices. As a result, our nation’s communications networks are now faster, stronger, and more widely deployed than ever before.
“I am proud of how productive this Commission has been, from commencing five spectrum auctions and two rural broadband reverse auctions in four years, to opening 1,245 megahertz of mid-band spectrum for unlicensed use, to adopting more than 25 orders through our Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, to aggressively protecting our communications networks from national security threats at home and abroad, to designating 988 as the threedigit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and much, much more. I’m also proud of the reforms we have instituted to make the agency more accountable to the American people. In particular, for the first time ever, we’ve made public drafts of the proposals and orders slated for a vote three weeks before the agency’s monthly meetings, making this the most transparent FCC in history.
“Last but not least, I want to thank my family for all they have done to enable me to serve at
the agency. The public service of one generally results from the private sacrifice of many, and
I’m grateful for their love and support.”
I just received an announcement from C.Crane noting that their Cyber Monday sale discounts everything in their catalog by 10%. If you’ve been considering one of their radios or accessories, today is a great day to pull the trigger. It’s rare that C.Crane discounts are lower than 10%.
I just received an email announcement from Radioddity noting their holiday sale which lasts through November 30, 2020. Much of their inventory has been discounted.
They’ve also added “Flash Sale” packages which include the Xiegu G90, Xiegu X5105, and the new GSOC. If you’ve been considering the purchase of any of these items, I’d encourage you to check them out:
I’ll post more about this in the coming days, but I updated the firmware in the GSOC controller this weekend and am now testing the new functionality. A few features have been added and a few bugs fixed. I’m still finding CW operation a bit tricky–I believe there may still be some latency in the sidetone audio. For updates, follow the tag: GSOC
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Matt Blaze (WB2SRI), for sharing another brilliant audio comparison featuring benchmark portable radios:
Medium wave selectivity shootout
by Matt Blaze
I did another monster medium wave portable receiver comparison, this time with the aim of comparing receivers’ ability to deal with weak signals in the presence of strong adjacent channels.
Once again, I went up to the roof with eight MW portables with built-in antennas and recorded them simultaneously along with my “reference signal”, from an Icom R-9500 with an active loop on the roof. As before, I recorded a narrated stereo mix with the Icom on the left and the rotation of radios for a minute or two each on the right, but have “solo” tracks available for the full time for each radio. The nine receivers in the lineup this time included:
Icom R-9500 (with amplified Wellbrook loop antenna on roof)
Potomac Instruments FIM-41 Field Intensity Meter (my personal favorite)
Panasonic RF-2200
Sony IC-EX5MK2
C.Crane Radio 2E
Sangean PR-D4W
Sangean ATS-909X
Tecsun PL-990X
XHDATA D-808
I recorded two signals, one at night and one during the day.
Nighttime Signals
The first was at night: WWL New Orleans on 870 KHz. This signal is usually weak to medium strength here, but is a challenge for two reasons: first, it shares the frequency with Cuba’s Radio Reloj, and it is squeezed between two much higher strength signals: Toronto’s CJBC on 860, and NYC’s WCBS on 880. So you need a decent receiver and careful antenna orientation to receive it well here. That said, everything did pretty well, though you can see that some radios did better than others.
The mix
Solo tracks
Icom IC-R9500
Potomac Instruments FIM-41 Field Intensity Meter
Panasonic RF-2200
Sony IC-EX5MK2
C.Crane Radio 2E
Sangean PR-D4W
Sangean ATS-909X
Tecsun PL-990X
XHDATA D-808
Daytime Signals
The second signal was during the day and was MUCH more marginal: WRJR Claremont, VA on 670 KHz. This was real challenge for any receiver and antenna. The signal was weak, and overshadowed by WCBM Baltimore on 680, a 50KW daytimer that is very strong here. (I’m not 100% sure that we were actually listening to WRJR – I never got an ID, but the station format and signal bearing was right). We can really hear some differences between the radios here.
The mix
Solo tracks
Icom IC-R9500
Potomac Instruments FIM-41 Field Intensity Meter
Panasonic RF-2200
Sony IC-EX5MK2
C.Crane Radio 2E
Sangean PR-D4W
Sangean ATS-909X
Tecsun PL-990X
XHDATA D-808
Everything (except the Icom) was powered by batteries and used the internal MW wave antenna, oriented for best reception by ear (not just maximizing signal strength, but also nulling any interference). The loop for the Icom was similarly oriented for best intelligibility.
For audio nerds: The recording setup involved a lot of gear, but made it fairly easy to manage capturing so many inputs at once. The portable radios were all connected to a Sound Devices 788T recorder, with levels controlled by a CL-9 linear mixing board control surface. This both recorded the solo tracks for the portables as well as providing a rotating mix signal for each receiver that was sent to the next recorder in the chain, a Sound Devices 833. The 833 received the mix audio from the 788T, which went directly to the right channel. The left channel on the 833 got audio from a Lectrosonics 822 digital wireless receiver, which had the feed from the Icom R-9500 in the shack (via a Lectrosonics DBu transmitter). The center channel on the 833 for narration of the mix, which I did with a Coles 4104B noise-canceling ribbon mic. This let me record fairly clean audio in spite of a fairly noisy environment with some wind.
All the radio tracks were recorded directly off the radios’ audio line outputs, or, if no line out was available, from the speaker/headphone jack through a “direct box” interface. I tried to make the levels as close to equal as I could, but varied band conditions and different receiver AGC characteristics made it difficult to be completely consistent.
Making the recordings was pretty easy once it was set up, but it did involve a turning a lot of knobs and moving faders in real time. I must have looked like some kind of mad scientist DJ to my neighbors, some of whom looked at me oddly from their own roofs.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
Thank you, Matt, for another brilliant audio comparison! I appreciate the attention and care you put into setting up and performing these comparisons–not an easy task to say the least. That Potomac Instruments FIM-41 is an impressive machine!
By the way, I consider it a badge of honor when the neighbors look at me as if I’m a mad scientist. I’m willing to bet this wasn’t your first time! 🙂
Post readers: If you like this audio comparison, please check out Matt’s previous posts as well:
