Don Moore’s Photo Album: Costa Rica (Part One)

Radio Reloj, Costa Rica (1990)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Don Moore–noted author, traveler, and DXer–for the latest installment of his Photo Album guest post series:

Don Moore’s Photo Album: Costa Rica (part one)

by Don Moore

Costa Rica is one of the most visited countries in Latin America. I only visited there once, for three weeks in May-June 1990 when the country was just beginning to become a major international eco-tourism destination. Visitors were few and prices very affordable. Except for a short trip to the Monteverde cloud forest, we spent all our time in the central valley, staying in San José and nearby Heredia. Rather than nature, our visit focused on cultural and historical sites … and a lot of radio stations.

Since the 19th century, Costa Rica has been one of the most literate and educated countries in Latin America. That quality is reflected in its radio broadcasting industry, which has always been very professional. Curiously that’s even reflected in station verifications. Almost every Costa Rican shortwave station that I’ve verified had a professionally printed QSL card.

Despite being one of the smallest countries in Latin America, Costa Rica had a lot of shortwave radio stations. I have fifteen in my logbooks and some of the most famous ones were already off the air when I started DXing. Unfortunately, shortwave broadcasting from Costa Rica ended almost twenty years ago so there’s no more to be had. It is still possible to log Costa Rica on medium wave but it’s not as easy as it once was. When I started DXing in the early 1970s, stations in the San José were spaced twenty-five kilohertz apart. That meant that every other station, such as Radio Sonora on 675 kHz and Radio Columbia on 725 kHz, was on a split frequency that fell between the normally assigned 10 kHz channels. I logged nine Tico stations on medium wave while DXing from Pennsylvania in 1972-1981 and only one of those, Radio Reloj on 700 kHz, was on an even channel. Those split channels were eliminated in the 1980s so logging Costa Rica on medium wave is no longer a slam-dunk.

I visited a lot of radio stations and took a lot of photos on my one long-ago trip to Costa Rica. I’m going to focus on just five shortwave broadcasters in this first look at Costa Rica. The others will be featured in two or three future columns.

In the 1970s the first Costa Rican station most shortwave DXers heard was Faro del Caribe, or Lighthouse of the Caribbean. This religious station used two kilowatts on 9645 and 6175 kHz and got out surprisingly well as long as there wasn’t a more powerful international broadcaster also using the same frequency. In the late 1970s they added 5055 kHz in the sixty-meter band.

When I visited in 1990 the antennas were located right next to the studio building. The site was outside the city of San José when the station was founded but gradually a residential area built up around it.

Engineer checking one of Faro Del Caribe’s shortwave transmitters.

Fortieth Anniversary pennant from 1988. When Faro del Caribe began broadcasting on February 23, 1948, it was the first Evangelical Protestant radio station in Central America.

For DXers, Radio Reloj was one of Costa Rica’s best known radio voices for several decades. The station was founded as Radio Cristal by Roger Barahona in 1945. The shortwave frequency of 6006 kHz was added in the early 1950s. In 1958 the station was renamed to Radio Reloj when the format changed to focus on news and community announcements with very frequent time checks. (Radio Reloj means Radio Clock.) Roger’s brothers Isaac and Francisco had joined the broadcasting company and Radio Reloj was assigned the callsign TIHB for Hermanos Barahona (Barahona Brothers). Continue reading →

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Return of Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot!

Remember the good olde days with a lovely cup of tea

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Hi to all of the SWLing community, Fastradioburst23 here with news about Imaginary Stations on the shortwaves this Sunday 20th August 2023. The first show will be beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany at 2000 utc on 6160 khz and will feature another transmission of WREN, this time it’s music of a Renaissance style, so turn back the hands of time to ye days of olde and tune in. You will get more out of the broadcast if you have a lute, recorder or a harpsichord handy.

Then later at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI we bring you the debut of WTBR, your only official tea and biscuits radio show. There will an assortment of plain and fancy tunes and all the tea you can drink so make yourself (a tea) cosy and enjoy a nice relaxing time via the shortwaves. Even the Ionosphere will enjoy a little tea break to recharge its batteries.

For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here. Here’s the trailer for the show.

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Audio Plugins For Radios, Part 3 – VST Technical Setup

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who shares the following guest post. Click here to check out all of the posts in this Audio Plugin series:

Audio Plugins For Radios, Part 3 – VST Technical Setup

by TomL

Processing legacy audio still has a place in an increasingly digital world for the time being. The first article on this topic was strictly using the speaker jack output from an old Kenwood transceiver using a simple Behringer UCA-202 RCA-to-USB converter. However, my main receive radio is the SDR based AirSpy HF+. Either type of radio should work with the apps discussed below as long as the audio gets to your Windows computer unmolested. There are VST apps for Mac and Linux, too.

VST apps: VST3/VST2/DLL files

Also mentioned was how to install VST Host and the VST apps run inside it. A simple reminder is that VST Host does not really install. It just resides in any one Directory/Folder you want and you create a shortcut to run VSTHOST.EXE. All the .XML files and profiles will be stored there.

I like tinkering with many apps but you may prefer things a lot simpler. I use 64-bit versions when possible, like VST3 and x64 DLL files. Because of the myriad settings involved, I will just list the apps in order of processing with brief comments. The second icon on the top of each app opens up its control panel and the bottom left icon will Bypass the app as if it is not in the audio chain. The top-left icon Links to the Preceding app in the audio chain. Most controls inside the apps let you double-click on that control to reset to a default.

The general functional order of these apps is:

Limiting/Compressing volume – dealing with shortwave signal volume spikes plus judiciously squeezing high & low volumes for a more even sound.
High Pass & Low Pass Filters – limit the frequency range apps will need to work on.
De-noising – the biggest challenge in shortwave is to reduce static and local noise without damaging the wanted audio.
EQ adjustments – frequency tweaks.
De-essing – getting rid of screechy “sss”, “shhh”, and “squeak” noises as well as fading distortion, perhaps the second hardest thing to do.
Then a final Drive/Gain control to feed into the Windows mixer.
Special Effects apps, like adding stereo, or reverb, etc.

I would suggest not to spend any money until you get to use apps from each of these broad categories to understand how they work. It is very easy to destroy the audio with a couple of offending settings. If you need help with understanding how plugins work, there are plenty of YouTube videos available. One channel I like is “In The Mix” from a Scottish music production engineer, Michael Wynne (over 1 million subs!). He gives simple to understand instruction videos (especially EQ and Compressors), among other topics.

Check out: YouTube – In The Mix

Welcome to the world of Audio Production. Here are some plugins (most are FREE!):

Reaper ReaComp – A Compressor which I am using to limit volume spikes in the <300 Hz range.

Kotelnikov – A great dynamic Compressor that helps compress volume peaks in both Peak and RMS (average) levels. Useful for highly variable signals and highly recommended.

Reaper ReaFir – A dynamic processor, the Subtract feature is a special “negative EQ” which only reduces specified frequency “Points”. It is also used as a brick filter for low & high frequency limits.

Klevgrand Brusfri Denoiser – In Swedish, “brusfri” means “noise free”, and is a Denoiser app that functions similarly to Audacity’s Noise Reduction feature but works in real time. I move to a blank frequency on the same shortwave band, have Brusfri “Learn” for about 5 seconds, and it starts working.

Bertom Denoiser Pro – A good Denoiser app but on noisy shortwave it can have digital artifacts that get very loud. I use it sparingly immediately after Brusfri.

Bitsonic Sound Recovery – This app beings midrange more forward and can brighten up dull audio. However, it can lead to increased sibilances, accentuated fading distortion, and “boxy” sounding voices.

TDR Nova – A clean sounding parametric EQ; my settings are a work-in-progress for best settings. I am experimenting with having the Wideband setting do most of the work with a slight expansion of the audio coming from the SDR. Also used as a better Gain control for Bitsonic.

Modern Exciter – Set to MIN for shortwave, this app can enhance the extreme low and extreme high frequencies without increasing noise.

LOADES – A DeEsser from Analog Obsession, controls sibilance and squeaks (beware of wonky controls!).

Klevgrand Brusfri Denoiser & Bertom Denoiser Pro run a second time. More Denoising is needed after the processing done by Bitsound, TDR Nova, and Modern Exciter.

Klevgrand FreeAmp – A simple Drive and Gain control that was free when I purchased Brusfri. It makes sure audio is driven correctly into Voicemeeter AUX Input.

Voxengo Stereo Touch – Allows adding “stereo” to a mono signal. Various Presets are available, from narrow (Voice or Guitar) to wide soundspaces (Stage, Surround, and Wide). Very interesting!

Here are three VST Host processed .MP3 files from an IQ recording of Radio Amazonia using 5.3 kHz & 7kHz filters in SDR Console 3.2 (Noise Reduction 4 was used but only 1dB Reduction). The third one is using the Stereo Touch app using just the lowest setting (Voice). I like it! 🙂 :

VST processed 5.3k:

VST processed 7 kHz:

VST processed 7 kHz with Stereo Touch:

Click here to download all VST processed 5.3k & 7k .MP3 files

Happy Listening & 73’s,

TomL

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Canadian Content Radio Returns To The Airwaves!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fred Waterer, who shares the following announcement:

Back by popular demand, starting Thursday, August 17th 2023 at 8:00 PM Eastern Time (North America) and every third Thursday of the month thereafter, Canadian Content Radio returns to the shortwave airwaves via WRMI, Radio Miami International on 9395 kHz in the 31 meter band.

The one hour, monthly program was first aired as part of the Radio Angela experiment on WBCQ in 2022 and gained a world wide following as one of RA’s more popular programs. During its hiatus, Canadian Content Radio host and producer Sean Welsh, has been retooling to the program to offer a more eclectic mix of Canadian music, songs with a Canadian connection, commentary, insights, and an expansion of the “WILT” feature (What I’m Listening To) featuring different styles of music from around the world.
Your requests, comments and all feedback are always welcomed via email at: [email protected]

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Guest Post: A review of the Chaoyuan LC90 Hybrid Shortwave/4G/Internet Radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Michael Ye (BD4AAQ), for the following guest post:

The LC90, a Great Radio Spanning Two Worlds

by Michael Ye (BD4AAQ)

It is an awkward era for radio receivers. Although technology becomes more and more advanced and increasingly sophisticated radios are made, there are fewer and fewer stations to listen to. But hardcore radio hobbyists, mostly hams and shortwave listeners, would not give up the hobby. They continue to look for and enjoy stations among noises in the airwaves. Although Internet radios have been around for a long time, I never thought seriously about them. Perhaps I was stubborn, but in my mind, radios were noises and noises were radios and it’s the stations among the noises that I enjoyed. Receivers without noises were hardly real radios.

Until I got my first full band radio with Internet features. The LC90 was a pleasant surprise, completely changing the way I look at radio receivers. The LC90, or “full band smart Internet radio”, is my first shortwave radio AND Internet radio in one. There may be other radios with Internet features, but I have heard of few receivers that integrate the traditional radio (shortwave in particular) and the Internet. The LC90 was launched in China in early 2023, and quickly became popular among hobbyists thanks to the unique combination. News has been confirmed that the overseas version of the LC90 will be launched later this year. It provides more options for users at a time when shortwave broadcasters continue to shut down transmitters and bid final farewell.

Chaoyuan Company

The manufacturer of the LC90 is Chaoyuan, an electronics company based in Shenzhen, China, known for mobile phone design and Hi-Fi equipment. In recent years they started to design and make radios. And they are serious about the business, too.

The LC90 full band smart Internet radio

The Radio at a Glance

The radio is of regular size. A computer mouse is placed in the picture above, so you have an idea of not only the radio’s looks but also its size. The exact dimensions are 200x122x40mm. Its weight is 640 grams. The radio has a built in 4G SIM card, with 3G prepaid data. You have to add credit to the card in time by scanning a QR code on the screen before the built-in SIM card expires. You can also use your own SIM card by inserting it to a slot at the bottom of the radio. And of course, you could use Wi-Fi at home.

Although the radio is a combination of the traditional radio and the Internet, it is very ingeniously designed and does not put off the user with too many bells and whistles – you could press the tuning button to change the shortwave band and the fine tuning button to change the band width. The tuning button also serves as an “enter” key. These are clever designs that effectively save extra buttons. I have not seen a similar design in other radios.

For those who do not read Chinese, the upper five buttons are, roughly, “Configure”, “Timer”, “Setup”, “History” and “Favorites”. The four buttons on the left: “Confirm”, “Stations”, “News” and “Menu”. The four buttons on the right: “Back”, “Sequence”, “Rewind” and “Fast Forward”. The button with a globe says “Internet”.

The radio has excellent audio quality, rich bass, with a well-balanced frequency response. It is powered by two 18650 rechargeable lithium batteries. The radio has no back stand.

Traditional Radio

All three modes (or bands) are available, FM, MW and SW, as shown in the three buttons on the upper right (to get LW just press MW again). The FM band covers 64-108MHz, which includes Japan’s FM band. During the FMDX season you could have stations from Japan and other countries to explore. The SW band covers 2300-26100KHz, continuous, almost the entire shortwave band, more than enough for broadcast listening. The antenna jack works for all three modes (or bands).

Excellent Shortwave Performance

As a shortwave listener of many years, I am most interested in the radio’s performance in shortwave reception. Well, it is indeed very good in terms of sensitivity, selectivity and audio quality, with no compromise although the radio has an Internet section which requires additional space and resources.

When you use the radio indoor, reception could be poor and you can insert an external antenna to the antenna jack. Unfortunately, I cannot connect my AOR LA400 loop antenna to it as the antenna jack is too close to the tuning knob and so there is not sufficient space for the plug (see picture). Generally, a 3.5mm plug with a wire should work well if you extend the wire outside.

The external antenna jack

If there is a disappointment, its shortwave reception does not decode SSB signals. If the user is not a ham radio hobbyist, SSB reception may not be really needed anyway and the buttons, circuits and space can be saved accordingly.

Fair FM Reception

FM reception is good, but there is no obvious improvement of reception when an external plug is inserted in the antenna jack.

Mediocre MW Work

Reception on the lower bands, e.g., the medium wave band, is always a challenge in cities. It is not surprising that medium wave performance of the LC90 is mediocre at best. I don’t do much MW DXing but nowadays for each MW frequency there is almost always an FM frequency. Let’s face it – we should perhaps forget about medium wave reception in cities where there is excessive low band EMI.

However, if you go outdoor with the radio, medium wave reception can still be a lot of fun. And, contrary to FM reception, an external antenna significantly improves its performance!

Internet Radio

Admit it or not, the best days of traditional radio are gone, and while we continue to have fun on the old time radio, we should not hesitate to embrace newer technologies such as the Internet. By launching the LC90 and combining the two, Chaoyuan has made a significant move.

The Internet radio is an integrator of many online stations on the Internet, and more. It is completely different from the traditional radio which receives radio signals transmitted on air. The Internet radio, which relies on the Internet, provides much better audio quality, no noise, customizable and replay-able.

If you want to kill time and look for signals from noises, turn to shortwave and enjoy DXing. If you feel like listening to solid content or enjoying noise-free music, the Internet radio is there for you. This Internet radio integrates major web stations in China and on that basis the user can further select and configure their own favorites. Among apps that are built-in is Ximalaya FM, the leading audio platform in China. Due to requirements of policies and regulations in China, the user does not have much discretion to include foreign stations in the radio. However, Chaoyuan has indicated that they are working in an effort to secure authorizations from Spotify, Alexa and Pandora which they hope could be incorporated in the overseas version of the LC90. The future overseas version is expected to give the user more discretion to include online stations of their own choice.

A closer look at the display of the Internet Radio

Two buttons, Ai1 and Ai2, are voice assistants. Activate and speak to them and the radio directly plays the content (Ai1) or displays their findings for you to choose from (Ai2).

Finally, this is a radio with the most accurate time. There is no need to set the time for it, as it is based on the Internet.

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Radio Waves: Great Solar Storm of 1940, Hawaii DJ’s Lack Vital Info, Edison Claims AM/FM Audio Usage Surpasses YouTube, and Radio 4 Longwave Reception

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Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Troy Riedel, Dennis Dura and David Shannon for the following tips:

The Great Solar Storm of March 1940 (Spaceweather.com)

This story is shocking. On March 24, 1940, a solar storm hit Earth so hard it made copper wires in the United States crackle with 800 volts of electricity. A New York Times headline declared that a “sunspot tornado” had arrived, playing havoc with any signal that had to travel through metal wires.

“For a few hours it completely disrupted all long-distance communication,” wrote astronomer Seth B. Nicholson in a recap of the event for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Radio announcers seemed to be “talking a language no one could understand.” The New York Times reported that more than a million telephone and teletype messages had been garbled: “Veteran electrical engineers unhesitatingly pronounced it the worst thing of its kind within their memory.”

So why have you never heard of this storm? Even in 1940 it was fairly quickly forgotten. World War II was underway in Europe, and the USA was on the verge of joining. People had other things on their minds.

Modern researchers, however, are paying attention. A team led by Jeffrey Loveof the USGS Geomagnetism Program just published a new study of the event in the research journal Space Weather. Their work confirms that it was no ordinary solar storm.

“It was unusually violent,” says Love. “There were very rapid changes in Earth’s magnetic field, and this induced big voltages in long metal wires.” [Continue reading at Spaceweather.com…]

[…]Read Love’s original research here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022SW003379

A valued source of communication, Maui radio DJs grapple with lack of information (Hawaii News Now)

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – From taking calls of desperation, to sharing what they know when they know it, local radio hosts have long been a valued source of communication, especially during disasters.

However in light of the recent fires, many on Maui have expressed concerns that information from the government in times of disasters is far too sparse and delayed.

Lines of communication remain severed with cell towers burned to the ground. That’s leaving radio as one of the few dependable sources of communication, which is putting added pressure on local outlets.

Veteran radio host Ed Kapoi of KISS took a call from Napili, North of Kaanapali.

“People are desperate. Babies need diapers and formula. The elderly need their medication,” one caller said through tears.

It just rocks you to your core it really does. It’s hard to take those kind of phone calls,” Kapoi said.

Fellow KISS radio host Brandee Carvalho added, “We hear their crying, their tears, their desperate pleas. It is real. It’s very real for me.” [Continue reading…]

Hawaii residents turn to radio station for vital updates (YouTube)

Click here to watch on YouTube.

AM/FM Radio Is Most Listened to Audio Source in U.S. (Radio World)

Edison Research says streaming music and YouTube claim 2nd and 3rd place

Edison Research just released its latest “Share of Ear” findings. The quarterly study determines what portion of all audio time is spent with different platforms.

The analysis looks at all audio usage across the United States among Americans age 13 and older. The data is gathered from a detailed one-day diary entry administered either online or via mail. Share of Ear data has been continuously updated since 2014. Find this quarter’s insights compiled in the graph below.

Per Edison’s findings this quarter, AM and FM radio (counting both over-the-air and streams) accounted for 36 percent of all listening for Americans age 13 and older. Streaming music via platforms like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music, among others, accounted for 18 percent of all listening time. Using YouTube for music and/or music videos accounted for 14 percent of all listening time; followed by podcasts, SiriusXM and “owned music” — a.k.a. CD’s and other digital music files.[Continue reading…]

“Radio 4 gets a terrible reception over scrapping long wave amid fears older people will struggle with digital radio” (Daily Mail)

[Editor’s Note: Per Wikipedia, “The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news website published in London.”]

Listeners have criticised Radio 4’s retreat from long wave amid fears that older people will struggle with digital radio.

The BBC said last year it will stop scheduling separate content for the long wave version of the station in ‘anticipation of the closure’ of the platform.

Programmes which are on long wave but not Radio 4 FM include Test Match Special, editions of the Shipping Forecast, the Daily Service and a longer version of Yesterday in Parliament.

These shows will be available on other platforms once separate scheduling for long wave ends next March.

It is expected that listeners will be directed to the digital BBC Sounds audio platform to find these programmes. [Continue reading…]