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From the article: “Radio JOVE hopes to improve our understanding of the ionosphere… if you’re a ham radio operator, you can get involved with HamSCI, which also plans to observe the upcoming eclipse.”
Sounds like fun!
Regards,
Marty
This is a brilliant idea and Radio Jove is a solid project. You’re right that enthusiasts should also follow HamSCI as they have many opportunities to be a citizen scientist in the radio realm! Thank you for sharing, Marty!
Hi all of the SWLing Post Community, FastRadioBurst 23 bringing you news of this week’s Imaginary Stations broadcasts. On Sunday 1st October 2023 at 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 & 6160 kHz we have The Imaginary Stations Polka Party beamed to Europe via Shortwave Gold. Get the tankard out and get ready for one exciting polka party!
From this weekend the times they are a changing for Imaginary Stations on WRMI. No, you don’t need to set your clocks to fall backwards just yet, but depending on where you have your listening post, you might want to grab some tea and biscuits for some later night listening.
The show will now go out on 0200 UTC Mondays on 9395 kHz and then repeated at 0300 UTC on 9455 kHz. That is four hours later than the time you all have become accustomed to, so translated into Eastern Time we will now be on at 10 pm Sunday evening. This is good news for all the night owls out there, and also good news for those on the West Coast where the show will air at 7 pm Sunday Evening.
The first show for the new times is the debut of WMMR – Mystery Mix Radio where DJ Frederick will be putting together a mix up show from his eclectic record collection, so expect an interesting selection.
For more information on the shows please email [email protected] and check out our old shows here.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gérard Koopal, who notes that Radio Northern Europe International will be broadcasting from Woofferton today beaming to Europe. Here are details from the RNEI Twitter page:
Woofferton confirmed: 3955kHz, 19:29:30UTC, 28th September! Europe beam 🙂
ITS HF application’s prediction of 3955kHz; we’re feeling it’s going to go further than this but this is the “guaranteed” reception areas! 🙂
The “grey line” is a band around the Earth that separates daylight from darkness. Propagation along the grey line is very efficient. One major reason for this is that the D layer, The “grey line” is a band around the Earth that separates daylight from darkness. Propagation along the grey line is very efficient. One major reason for this is that the D layer, which absorbs HF signals, disappears rapidly on the sunset side of the grey line, and it has not yet built upon the sunrise side. Ham radio operators and shortwave listeners can optimize long distance communications to various areas of the world by monitoring this band as it moves around the globe. which absorbs HF signals, disappears rapidly on the sunset side of the grey line, and it has not yet built upon the sunrise side. Ham radio operators and shortwave listeners can optimize long distance communications to various areas of the world by monitoring this band as it moves around the globe.
Elliott’s short version: Some funky stuff can happen with propagation when the grey line is passing through your location.
So let’s have some fun for a couple of hours chasing MW DX along the grey line.
Here are the rules:
Frequency range is the medium wave band: 520-1710 kHz
From one hour before Civil Twilight your local time on Saturday, October 14, to one hour after Civil Twilight at your location.
Any radio with any antenna, but must be the radio at your location (no using remote internet radios)
The listener must hear the signal in real time
The stations must be ID’ed by listening to the signal.
Your report should include:
Your name (or Internet handle)
Your receiver and antenna (stay with the same setup from beginning to end; if you use multiple setups, provide a separate report for each).
Your location
The time, the frequency, and the ID of each station heard
The total mileage of your top five most distant stations.
A final point: this is not a contest; it is a challenge. The reward for every participant will be fun and fellowship.
You can find when Civil Twilight begins at your location by visiting www.wunderground.com . Enter your location, click on “Full Forecast” then scroll down to the “Astronomy” section.
Gaston County resident Oscar Norris, also known by his call sign W4OXH, is turning 106 on Sept. 25.
Norris is not only the oldest living amateur radio operator in North Carolina, but according to information from the American Radio Relay League he is also the oldest living operator in the United States.
The Gaston County Amateur Radio Society and the Gaston Radio Club, both of which Norris is a long-time member, have come together to host a special airwave event for him from Sept. 20 – Oct. 1.
This event will honor Norris and his life, and will be hosted by operators in three different states, according to Gaston County Amateur Radio Society president Tony Jones.
Both on and off the air, Norris “is one of the most gentle and kind people,” a person could encounter in life, according to fellow amateur radio operator and friend, Mike Harvey. [Continue reading…]
Radio Taiwan International (Rti) celebrated its 95th anniversary with an event featuring remarks by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday. Additional speakers included Legislative Speaker You Si-kun, Ambassador of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to Taiwan Andrea Bowman, and Rti Chairperson Cheryl Lai.
In her speech, President Tsai said that Rti has witnessed important events in the development of Taiwan’s democracy over its 95-year history. Tsai says Rti has carried out its responsibilities from then until now by continuing to cover Taiwan’s growing engagement with the world. Tsai also said Taiwan’s ability to connect people all over the world was demonstrated by the many postcards received in various languages on display at the event. She thanked Rti for its past work and says she hopes Rti will continue to bring the voices of Taiwan to the world.
Rti Chairperson Cheryl Lai also gave remarks at the event. Lai says Rti is Taiwan’s only public media company to broadcast in 20 languages across multiple platforms. Lai says Rti has been an important channel for people in Southeast Asian countries to understand Taiwan. She says the Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Thai language services have a long history at Rti, and are important resources for Taiwan’s new immigrants and migrant workers. Lai says that Taiwan also began a Ukrainian language social media service following the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Lai concluded by saying that as Taiwan grows more vibrant and diverse, Rti will continue to spread Taiwan’s voices to all corners of the world.
Ambassador Bowman said in her speech that reaching 95 years of service is not an easy accomplishment to achieve. She says Rti represents an excellent model for how to spread the message of democracy and peace across the globe. [Read this article on the Rti website…]
It was 1923, and radio was the phenomenon of the day. Over 600 broadcast stations were on the air, and Americans bought 100,000 receivers that year. (Sales would jump to 1,500,000 in 1924.)
This new instant mass medium flashed news of important events around the country in minutes instead of days. In addition to news, tens of thousands tuned in to hear music and learn from lecturers holding forth on their areas of expertise. A few tried to make sense of broadcast guitar or swimming lessons.
Those without radios gathered in taverns and restaurants to listen to election returns and descriptions of baseball games.
New radio owners everywhere strung wire across their rooftops to make aerials, and then puzzled out how to connect a loudspeaker to the set, along with the A, B, and C batteries the setup required. (Soon enough, “house-current” radios would come along; most of the early ones were designed to draw power from fittings screwed into lamp sockets.)
Once the radios were set up, many owners hosted “radio parties” and danced to the latest jazz music with their friends.
At the same time, the game of Bridge was sweeping the country. It had been brought to New York from England in 1893. Here, as across the Atlantic, Bridge replaced the popular game of Whist as a top pastime, and quickly spread across the nation. [Continue reading…]
To paraphrase a line from John Fitzgerald Kennedy: “Ask not what your station can do for you, ask what you can do for your station.”
Think of this as a reverse QSL program . . . but I get ahead of myself.
I was perusing the news a while back, reading about the closure of radio stations in the U.S. and how e-vehicle manufacturers did not want to include AM (MW) radios in their vehicles . . . and . . . I snapped.
“The reason they are closing,” I snarled, “is that they think no one is listening . . . but WE listen!”
So I offer, for your consideration, a modest proposal . . . the “I listen” project.
Let’s do this!
All I ask is that each and every one of you who reads this is that you send a postcard or a letter to your favorite station – AM, FM, or shortwave – that says in BOLD letters at the top I LISTEN! Further down on the postcard or letter, you should explain what you listen to, and what you enjoy.
So here would be a sample from me:
From: Jock Elliott, Upstate New York
To: Talk 1300 AM & 98.7 FM WGD, 11 Dennis Terrace Schenectady, New York 12303
I listen!
To Talk 1300
To the Jack Catham show because I really like the calm way he presents the issues and interacts with callers.
That’s it. Of course, if you want to send more than one postcard or letter, great!
The point is to let the station know without a doubt that you listen. Why a postcard or letter? Because it is a physical piece of mail that is hard to ignore. By contrast, an email or a text is much easier bypass or ignore.
So make sure that your favorite station or two knows that you listen, and let me know here.
I’ll end by paraphrasing Arlo Guthrie: “Can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day, sending “I listen” postcards to their favorite stations? And friends, they may think it’s a movement!”
And bear in mind, this is not the time to be asking for goodies in return.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Martin Tobisch, who shares the following guest post and videos from his home in Malta:
New AM Signal Coupler
Many AM medium wave listeners are looking for solutions to improve the reception performance of their radios.
After many attempts, which I don’t want to entertain anyone with, a coupler was created that feeds the external antenna directly into the ferrite antenna. I use my 66 foot long wire antenna on 50 ohm RG-58 cable, but other antennas will have similar success.
The clips available on YouTube speak for themselves:
https://youtu.be/FIylJk3F9Xk?si=Kp7SowdUXI5i5QAV
https://youtu.be/RHAla9jPoi8?si=VoG3w274k08Ul8Q4
Experiments with smaller ferrites and antenna rods met with no success. It is important that the coupler still works even at a distance from the ferrite antenna and without precise alignment.
With tube radios it easily bridges the distance from the housing to the ferrite rod Antenna
The finished coupler consists of 6 NiZn ferrite cores, which are connected with glue to form a rod. 8 turns of wire are wound over this and soldered to an RG-58 cable. Some electrical isolation tape and ready. So far I’ve just put it in a box. Of course there are finer solutions and it should be protected against shock. Ferrite cores are notoriously brittle.
Advantages: Advantages to what? Nothing comparable exists.
So there are advantages to feeding via an antenna socket. The signal coupler is also good for radios without an antenna socket. But in case of using an antenna socket, common mode wave interference picked up in the house goes unlimited into the radio. Due to the magnetic coupling to the ferrite antenna, common mode waves are completely suppressed. They do not create a magnetic field in the coupler.
No changes are necessary in the radio
The biggest advantage is, that you can listen to distant stations loud and clear, which previously only produced a quiet scratching noise.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Marty, who writes:
