(Source: Mike Terry)
The next broadcasts of Marconi Radio International are scheduled as follows: today, Sunday, 3 December 2017, from 1100 to 1400 UTC on 11390 kHz and from 1415 to 1630 UTC on 7720 kHz (USB mode) and on Saturday, 9 December 2017, from 1415 to 1630 UTC on 7720 kHz (USB Mode).
All reception reports are verified with eQSL. However, a limited number of listeners will also receive a printed QSL card. E-mail address: [email protected]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Daniel Hawkins, who shares the following guest post:
by DanH
The LE Book Light (Lighting Ever, LTD.) is a handy portable LED lamp that provides light for reading, music stands, or even use with portable radios. I have run into very bad luck in the past with cheap LED reading lights that run directly from USB power. The LEDs always burned out after a couple of days or weeks making me very nervous about putting my computer power supplies at risk by using these things. This LE light is very different. The LE lamp runs from a rechargeable built-in Li-ion battery. This battery may be charged by plugging the included USB cable to USB or the included AC power adapter.
LE makes a few different models of book lights. This model features two lighting pods on sturdy goosenecks. These pods look like classic cobra head street lights to me, which I kind of like. Each pod includes four bright white LEDs and an OFF/LOW/HIGH switch. The lamp will stand unaided on a flat surface and features a clip for temporary mounting. The end of the clip is jointed and padded for improved grip. I purchased a pair of these LE lights early in 2017 and have used them often for eleven months. Each lamp has been charged at least a half dozen times since then. I get about ten hours of light if one pod is lit at low power. Charging time from dead battery (no light) is about two and a half hours. I keep one LE light in use and another charged and ready to go when needed.
My Sangean ATS-909X has a very nice display for use in the dark but the front panel controls are not lit, just like every other multi-band portable I know of. Just try to use keyboard frequency entry or enter a station into memory in the dark! The LE Book Light comes in handy for using portables at home or on field trips in low to no light. Likewise, the meter light on my vintage Hammarlund SP-600 is unlit. I simply clip the LE lamp onto the side panel of the SP-600 for that. There is no way that I’m going to drill into that Marion Electric meter to hack in an indicator light. I can also read the WRTH from the LE Book Light.
This is a nice accessory for portable radio listening at night and many other jobs. I paid $10.88 plus shipping for one of these on eBay in January. I think that was a good deal. Here is $9.99 with free shipping from the Walmart online store. Sold directly by LE from Walmart. The LE Book Light is a very nicely made little light and small enough to make a nice stocking stuffer.
DanH
No doubt a great accessory for the SWL! Thanks for the review, Dan!
(Source: The Tablet via Richard Cuff)
With a powerful shortwave radio and a battery of TV screens, he broke national news long before the internet, scooping everything from the Entebbe raid to the first Gulf War
Had he been born two or three decades later, Miki Gurdus would probably have been just another middle-aged man glued to his smartphone, scrolling through endless torrents of social-media ephemera. But Gurdus, who passed away in Israel this week at the age of 73, was born with a radio. And early on, he knew the device would change his life.
[…]And listen Gurdus did. Commanding six languages—Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Russian, and Polish—as well as numerous shortwave radios and as many as 11 television sets, he tuned in not only to broadcasts from far and wide but, often, to private conversations, military wire exchanges, and other dispatches not meant for public consumption. In late June of 1976, for example, he interrupted a radio broadcast to announce that he had just picked up a conversation between Palestinian terrorists and an air traffic controller in Libya announcing that they had just hijacked an Air France flight and intended to land it in Benghazi en route to Entebbe, Uganda. It wouldn’t be his last scoop: In 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Israeli military intelligence got the news from Gurdus, who had intercepted the transmissions of the Iraqi army.
[…]With each passing decade, Gurdus’ fame grew. A reporter interviewing him in 2003 described his office as “half Aladdin’s cave and half control tower, a labyrinth of television screens, radios, remote controls, electric wires, speakers, model airplanes and photos of Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush stuck on the walls.” And in the center of it all was Gurdus, tartan slippers on his feet and dark shades covering his eye, to protect his vision from the glare of a dozen screens. Even as Israel’s media landscape flourished and more and more commercial radio and television channels debuted, giving rise to new generations of reporters, anchors, and celebrities, Gurdus remained a national treasure, a name you knew even if you weren’t sure exactly what “our listener” did.
And then came the internet.
Gurdus, in his typical tough manner, minimized it, calling it just another arrow in his quiver. “The internet is just another tool for me,” he said in a recent interview, “and not a major one at that because you can’t compete with what’s broadcast on all these satellites. Besides, neither the internet nor anything else can make me stop working, or make me irrelevant. I’ll continue to report the news, to listen, and to try and deliver scoops. I’ll be there for as long as I’m breathing.”[…]
Earlier this week, Gurdus passed away in his home in Yehud. Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Rivlin both eulogized him, the latter calling him “our mythological listener, the man who brought into our nation faraway voices even before the internet.”[…]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who writes:
I think you might like the [link] below, I’m thinking that the British Vintage Wireless Society’s auction would be of much interest to your readership:
https://www.bvws.org.uk/auctions/photos.php/2017-12-03-royal-wootton-bassett
Wow–thanks, Kris! What a fantastic array of vintage radios. I’m so happy I don’t live anywhere near Royal Wootton Bassett–the last thing I need right now is that sort of temptation! I’m afraid I’d walk away with a few vintage goodies if I attended.
Kris also points out one radio in particular: the Televisor-type chassis and Schaub Lorenz Music-Center (48 hour recording Radio):
He included a link to this video of the Schaub Lorenz Music-Center in action. An amazing bit of mechanical engineering:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov (NO2CW), who shares the following video and notes:
Comparing side to side reception performance on RSP1A vs. RSP1 on medium wave and shortwave using SDR Console 3.
Audio level is uneven because two laptops were used. Antenna is the same, 80m OCF dipole.
In today’s episode of absurd eBay prices, I present the Tecsun PL-680:
A price of $513.03 US (shipped) from an eBay seller with a 96.3% approval rating, when you could purchase the same radio from the excellent Anon-Co for $111 US shipped?
When I see over-inflated eBay listings, I feel so sorry for the unlucky person who pulls the trigger and buys an item at five times the retail price. I must assume–based on the sheer number of these listings on eBay–people are indeed purchasing grossly overpriced items.
No matter what sort of radio you’re seeking on eBay (or elsewhere) please do your research in advance. Check reliable retailer prices (Anon-Co, Universal Radio, Ham Radio Outlet, DX Engineering, Amazon, ML&S, Nevada Radio, RadioWorld, etc.) prior to purchasing anything that’s currently in production.
If you’re seeking a vintage or rare unit, use eBay’s excellent price research tools that reference past sold listings. In addition, consult Fred Osterman’s excellent book: Shortwave Receivers Past & Present.
This has been an SWLing Post Public Service Announcement! 🙂
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Luke Perry, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
Just [wanted to share] a little bit of shortwave good luck that I had when tuned to 3925 kHz. That is the frequency for Radio Nikkei 1 if I am not mistaken. They have a similar frequency that I can usually get at about the same time in 3945, but from my location in the Pacific Northwest the former usually comes in better until about 13:00 UTC or so.
To any SWL listeners on the west coast can tell you, there are not a whole lot of choices anymore for the listeners who like the exotic DX catches, whereas 20 years ago you had many choices like Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Radio Vladivostok on 5015 kHz that was a special station for Russian boats at sea, etc. These stations all played exotic and sometimes even current music, not to mention lots of ‘oldies’ and classics.
So I am left with the few that are left and I usually tune in late at night as the static lulls me to sleep.
Last night, I was listening to 3925 kHz at about 12:00 UTC or so and I got quite the surprise. Usually when I tune in at about 2:30 AM my time they are playing classical music or some other relaxing music. I think their sister station on 3945 kHz plays more of the current music and I believe that they even have a special hour or more that they play newish music. When I first tuned in it was their typical show where they start with about an hour or so of relaxing music and then the announcers come in with news, talk, or whatever? Truthfully, I don’t speak Japanese so I really can’t say! I do remember reading somewhere though that they broadcast horse races on that channel and sometimes it does sound like that.
But last night I still hadn’t fallen asleep for whatever reason so I kept hitting the ‘Sleep’ button on my trusty Panasonic RF-9000. After the announcers talked for a bit they played a few hard rock songs back to back. Quite a few of them but a couple that I remember off of the top of my head were “Smoke On the Water” and “I Remember You” by Skid Row. That kind of stuff and this went on for a good half hour or so uninterrupted so my ears were perked up at this point. What came next really blew me away and really made my staying up worthwhile.
They first started off with Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times”, and then proceeded to play the whole first Led Zeppelin album straight through! No interruptions and they went straight from Side A to Side B with only a moment pause. After that, they started in on Led Zeppelin III but after “Immigrant Song” the signal was really fading bad but I could still make out that it was the might Zeppelin. It kind of reminded me of old pirate radio stations on shortwave or even FM radio in the 70’s when they would play whole album sides.
So anyway, just a quick update on that station and for people who have given up on finding good programming on shortwave radio…it is still out there, but it takes a bit more time to find nowadays.
Thank you for sharing your listening experience, Luke! Yes, shortwave is still a medium for this sort of serendipity–a space where you can listen to broadcasts that are free of commercial breaks. I image Led Zeppelin must have sounded pretty amazing on that Panny RF-9000!