Radio City is closing shop

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who notes that Radio City in Mounds View, MN, will be closing its doors soon.

Ham City owners, Dan and Maline Fish, are retiring. They posted the following message on their website:

Sept. 11th, 2018

It’s Time to Retire.

Dan and Maline Fish of Radio City

It’s been a wonderful 36 years for us at Radio City and we have decided to retire and close Radio City. 🙁 We are so thankful for the many years of support and we have enjoyed working you, our customers. The technical, intelligent and polite conversations plus advice have been invigorating, thus making this decision extremely difficult for us.

We appreciate all the teachers, Elmers, VE examiners, ham and astronomy clubs efforts in growing new ham radio operators and amateur astronomers into our special community.

We will also miss going to and supporting amateur radio and astronomy clubs all over MN and IA at their events. We will greatly miss all the friendships we have been privileged to maintain with many of our customers.

We plan to exit by this year’s end or a bit sooner as we empty our shelves of new and used materials.

Upcoming Events:

Final Goodbye Tour:

We will be at Smartfest in Cologne, MN on Saturday September 22nd. We will also be in Carlton MN for their Fallfest on Saturday September 29th.

Goodbye Party:

Please come on by on Saturday October 6th for our good bye party. We will of course have cake and coffee for everybody.

Other Necessary Details:

Service:

We will complete servicing items we currently have in the service dept. We will not be accepting any additional ‘Out of warranty’ items. ‘In warranty’ items will be still be processed by Radio City per normal until about October 31st, 2018.

Consignment :

We will no longer accept more items for consignment. All items that have NOT been sold need to be picked up the week of Oct 13th, 2018. We will consider all items not picked up by then to be abandoned.

In closing we will very much miss all of you and perhaps there is someone out there interested in running the store under New Management.

Thanks again for all your support,
Dan and Maline Fish

Link to Fox9 News story about the store closing:
http://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-s-last-ham-radio-store-to-close-its-doors-as-owners-retire

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Radio Deal: Eton Executive Traveler $49.65 shipped

A KiwiSDR Dynamic SNR Map

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who shares the following comment in response to our KiwiSDR post from yesterday:

[T]here are now so many [KiwiSDR] receivers – how do you know which ones are best? Why not use this map as an alternative to sdr.hu/map:

[A]ll the same receivers are shown in a map interface but the receiver signal to noise ratio changes how big each receiver target appears. The bigger the blob, the better the lower the noise which usually equates to a better antenna system etc.

http://sibamanna.duckdns.org/sdr_map.html

Wow! Thanks for the excellent tip, Mark! This map makes exploring the KiwiSDR network much easier. I especially like the full screen option.

Note, too, that Mark hosts a KiwiSDR in Freemans Reach, Australia (near Sydney). Mark sets the default auto logout for 2 hours to better cater to SWLs (which he says only represents about 10% of his SDR guests!). Most KiwiSDRs use the 30 minute default auto logout, which I find frustrating when I’m making broadcast recordings.

Click here to enjoy Mark’s KiwiSDR in Freemans Reach, Australia.

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Hurricane Florence’s toll on radio stations and cell services

Can’t escape the noise? Take an impromptu DXpedition via the KiwiSDR network!

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While I love the Panasonic RF-B65, the Voice of Greece and a St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout: this combo can’t fight the persistent radio interference here at the condo.

Some of you might recall that I’m spending the months of August and September in a condo near Québec City, Canada. We love it here, though it does present some radio challenges. Unlike our rural/remote mountain home in the States, I’ve always had to cope with QRM (manmade radio interference) here at the condo. Not surprising.

I typically bring my PK Loop antenna–it helps lower the noise a tad and is easy to take out on our balcony for optimal reception. Lately, though, the QRM has been even worse on the balcony than inside the condo (more on that in a future post).

Some North American and European stations punch through the noise when propagation is favorable (especially the Voice of Greece and Radio Romania International) but there have been evenings where nothing could penetrate the wall of noise.

One way I escape the noise, of course, is to take my radio to a picturesque remote location for the afternoon or evening. It’s amazing the number of signals you can pull out of the ether when the noise floor is so low.

Back at the condo, though, there’s no easy way to escape the noise.

Or is there?

Impromptu DXpeditions

Perhaps 21st century problems require 21st century solutions.

This year–especially here at the condo–I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring the KiwiSDR network.

For those of you not familiar, the KiwiSDR is a self-hosted WebSDR which operates much like a mini U Twente WebSDR. KiwiSDR owners install their SDRs at home–or in other favorable locations–then share control of their SDR with the world via the the Internet.

Like the U Twente WebSDR, KiwiSDRs allow multiple simultaneous users to control the SDR independently of each other. Each KiwiSDR can allow up to four simultaneous guests (the U Twente WebSDR can allow hundreds of simultaneous users, but it’s also a university-supported bespoke SDR with fantastic bandwidth!).

Over the past few years, the KiwiSDR network has grown almost exponentially. There are Kiwi SDRs on every continent save Antarctica (someone remedy that, please!).

Each red pin represents a KiwiSDR installation.

Other than the fact that the SDR audio is piped through the Internet–and you can’t walk outside and adjust the antenna–there is no difference between using a KiwiSDR remotely or locally.

In fact, the KiwiSDR only has a web browser-based application, there is no downloadable application for local use. So quite literally, the experience of controlling and using a KiwiSDR locally or globally is identical.

And it’s so much fun! I browse the KiwiSDR network via the map above, select an interesting location, and virtually travel there for an impromptu DXpedition. I can travel to India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, or Hawaii via the network and be back in time for dinner here in Canada without breaking a sweat or even using frequent flyer miles!

I’ve found that the combo above makes for an immersive experience. I use Bose Quiet Comfort noise-cancelling headphones paired with my iPad Air (which I have enclosed in a Zagg Rugged Book). With a reasonable Internet connection, it truly feels like I’m there.

Of course, you don’t need an iPad, or any special equipment. The KiwiSDR application works with pretty much any computer, tablet or smart phone that has a web browser. For the best experience, however, I would suggest connecting a good external speaker, bluetooth speaker or headphones.

I know many of you are thinking, “But Thomas! This isn’t real radio!”

But I would argue that it is real radio! It’s a real radio, connected to a real antenna that you’re simply controlling via the Internet with a web-based SDR application. Instead of the audio going through a sound card into your headphones, it’s going into a soundcard, piped through the Internet, then into your headphones.

Give it a try! You might find an impromptu DXpedition is the perfect remedy to your QRM and RFI blues!

Post readers: Any heavy KiwiSDR users out there? Or do you oppose using WebSDRs? What are your thoughts? Please comment!

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Radio World: “Who’s Got the Biggest, Meanest AM Flamethrower?”

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(Source: Radio World)

More broadcasters than you might realize are helping keep the ionosphere warm (and the power companies happy)

In the May 9 issue of Radio World, I reported on a recent power upgrade at TWR’s Bonaire AM facility that brought that station close to the half-megawatt level (440 kW), allowing the station to make the claim that it is the most powerful medium-wave (MW) operation in the Western Hemisphere. After the dust settled, I thought it might be interesting to poke around a bit in the data available to see if they have a close (or even not-so-close) contender for second place for this title.

With only a few exceptions, U.S. stations have been capped at 50 kW since this power level was authorized by the Federal Radio Commission in the late 1920s. Powel Crosley Jr.’s WLW 500,000 kW 1930s “experimental” operation is one very well-known example, as it received a lot of publicity during the five years or so during it operated before being powered down. However, there was another much less well-known superpower operation during that period (it actually beat WLW to the punch by putting 400,000 Watts on the air about three years before Crosley was ready to belt out his hundreds of kilowatts).

[…]Surprisingly, there is one U.S. AM station that has the necessary paperwork and equipment to operate at 100 kW full-time. However, it’s not listed in the FCC’s AM database. I’m referring to the VOA’s “Radio Martí” in Marathon, Fla. which operates on 1080 kHz.

The VOA station (it sports no call sign) appears to be the only operation in its class in the U.S. and Canada, but it if you cross the border into Mexico, you’ll find “muchas estaciones de radio” that emit lots more than a puny 50,000 “vatios.”[…]

Click here to read the full story at Radio World.

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Just for fun: cat approves of Radio Taiwan’s English Service

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marcus Keulertz, who writes:

I would like to [share a] picture of our other female family member. I’m not quite sure if she loves the shortwave chirping signal which was emitted from Radio Taiwan’s English Service.

What I observed is that she stayed calm while listening to their evening broadcast.

In other words, RTI can entertain even a furry feline friend––right, Markus? She certainly seems to have her ears in the listening position. Thanks for sharing!

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