Mark your calendars: WWV Special Event Amateur Station Sep 28 – Oct 2, 2019

WWV building in Fort Collins, Colorado (photo courtesy: NIST)

(Source: Dave Swartz, W0DAS)

NCARC WWV Committee
Fort Collins, Colorado:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JANUARY 11, 2019

WWV Centennial Celebration and Special Event Amateur Station September 28 – October 2, 2019

The Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club (NCARC) will operate a special event amateur radio station in conjunction with the WWV Centennial Celebration, a tribute to radio station WWV, the oldest continuously broadcasting radio station in the world, as it turns 100 years old on October 1, 2019.

Operating from alongside the historic and scientific long wave (WWVB) and short wave (WWV) radio stations, the NCARC effort will use 4 simultaneous operations on a variety of amateur shortwave bands. The goal is to contact as many amateur radio stations in the world as possible during the 5-day operating period, September 28 through October 2, 2019, using a variety of operating modes (Morse code, voice, and data).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, (US Dept of Commerce) lists the official 100t?h celebration on their events calendar from 8am until 7pm, October 1, 2019.

NCARC and NIST are working on coordinating the celebration and the special event amateur station. Because of the present shutdown of the US Government, planning and discussions have been put on hold. We look forward to the end of the shutdown, a future press release from NIST, and getting back to work on planning the celebration of this historic event.
NCARC deemed it necessary to issue this press release on our own due to the uncertainty of the length of the shutdown and the need to get this event, at least the special event station, on everyone’s planning calendar as soon as possible.

The exceptional challenge of operating this station will require the help of amateurs and radio clubs throughout Colorado, the surrounding states, and from across the country. Amateurs who are interested in traveling to Fort Collins this fall and taking part in the operations are encouraged to apply starting February 15, 2019. Please see the Operators page on the website.

For more information, please visit the WWV Centennial Celebration website,? ?WWV100.com?.

The Prof recommends the Sangean DAR-101

3 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, The Professor, who writes:

I’ve had one of these for along time, and it’s been pretty much the only way I’ve recorded radio for years. It’s an easy to use rock solid workhorse.

My biggest complaint is the lack of recording format choices, and I’ve long hoped there would be a firmware update to expand them. Sure, being able to record WAV files would be welcome, but I’m not really in need of that. What I would like is a broader range of MP3 encoding options, up to 320kbps. And of course, to be able record in mono or stereo. All MP3 options on everything are just stereo by default, because almost everybody is dealing with post 50s music in the MP3 format, and that’s always stereo. But AM and shortwave radio are of course only mono, as are phone conversations, which this device is specially outfitted to record.

It’s a waste of a channel. If it’s a mono source it’s a waste of space on the SD card just for starters. But don’t forget that the encoding rate is divided by two in a stereo format. A 160kbps mono file is equal to a 320kbps stereo file. So, a 192 mono file would be superior to a 320 stereo file. Of course, I could get into “joint stereo” and VBR and throw in more variables, but what I’m saying here is pretty much on point.

That said, AM broadcasting is rather limited in acoustical dynamics, at least as we know it. I’ve found that it’s very hard for almost anybody to hear any artifacts in a 32kbps mono recording of AM radio. It stands up to compression well. And it also stands up well to RE-compression. I often expand the MP3 files I make on this into mono WAV files and tidy them up and normalize and edit them. I never notice any artifacts in the MP3 encode I make of the resulting file(s). So, I’d like more encoding formats, but the 192kbps stereo option on the DAR-101 is fine for me in the end.

This recorder also makes a fine speaker for a laptop. When you hit record the first time the speaker monitors the audio source out loud. You press record again and it starts to lay down audio on the card. So if I want to use it as a speaker I just leave it in “ready to record” mode. Works fine.

And for you old cassette heads, it looks enough like a cassette deck, which is comforting I suppose. I think the wall wart AC power adds a little noise. I just make sure the batteries are charged when I’m going to use it. And sometimes it makes a difference to keep it a couple feet from your radio to avoid any little bit of RFI.

In general, I highly recommend the DAR-101. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for sharing your review of the DAR-101 and your recommendations for recording amplitude modulation!

The DAR-101 is currently $87.95 on Amazon (affiliate link) and $99.95 at Universal Radio. I’ve also found used ones on eBay for as little as $50.70.

M.I.T. Radio Society: Public lectures covering all aspects of radio

1 Reply

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jennifer Waits, who notes that The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radio Society (W1MX) and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) are presenting a series of radio-related lectures covering a wide array of topics, “from the design of modern wireless communications systems and 5G, to software defined radio and satellite communications, to shortwave radio propagation, space weather, Radio Astronomy and more.”

The public lectures are announced here: http://student.mit.edu/iap/ns313.html

All lectures are streamed live and archived on YouTube.

Jennifer notes that one of the most recent lectures focuses on shortwave radio and propagation:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Click here to view the entire lecture playlist.

Thanks for the tip, Jennifer!

Tivdio V-115/Audiomax SRW-710S: Keith approves of everything save battery performance

5 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Keith Stephens, who writes:

Regarding the Audiomax SRW-710S radio.

I was very pleasantly surprised at more than one aspect of this radio. First, it sounds like something with a much larger speaker. It has the base capability of at least a 6″ speaker. My favorite FM music station comes from a mountaintop repeater over 70 miles away. The 710S is one of two radios I have tried through the years that brings it in clear and clean. The other is a much bigger more expensive radio. And of course, the voice quality of the local AM talk shows is excellent. I lost my instruction booklet (as usual) but I do want to record the FM station for times when I am out of range.

It is a pity that I have to tell of a bad shortcoming on this wonderful radio. Alas, I couldn’t believe it the first time it died at the end of three hours. I thought I had a bad battery, but a fully charged new battery only lasts 3 hours! I would pay twice the price for the same radio if it had a better battery life. Please let me know if there is a better battery or the same radio with a larger battery.

Thanks for your mini review, Keith! Admittedly, I’ve never tested the battery performance of this set because I typically use it for short (1 hour) recording sessions.

Click here to read other reviews of the Audiomax SRW-710S/Tivdio V-115.