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My weekly radio show “VORW Radio International” has now expanded with additional transmissions to Europe and even a transmission to Australia!
Each broadcast features a mixture of my commentary and listener requested music. You’ll hear a great variety of music in this program, from Classical to Classic Country, from Rock to Smooth Jazz, you’ll hear it all!
If you’re interested in listening, the updated broadcast schedule is as follows:
Thursday 1300 UTC – 1400 UTC – 6070 kHz to Europe
Thursday 2000 UTC – 2100 UTC – 6070 kHz to Europe
Friday 0100 UTC – 0200 UTC – 7490 kHz to North America (8 PM – 9 PM Eastern, Thursday)
Friday 1130 UTC – 1230 UTC – 3210 kHz to Northwest NSW, Australia
Questions, comments, reception reports and music requests may be sent to [email protected]
Reception reports will receive a QSL!
Very cool and bravo for expanding your broadcasts, John!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow, who writes:
From DXLD today in case you missed it . Well at least CKZN St. Johns [also on 6160 @ 1kw] is still on (last I checked) , the one I can hear at my QTH.
*************************************************** Bad news re: CKZU 6160 Khz
Volodya S
Fellas, from an insider at the CBC. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good for CKZU ever returning to the air. 🙁 Thanks to Colin Newell for digging into this further.
Walt Salmaniw, Victoiria, BC
Got the answer.. not gonna like it.
Basically, it broke and they don’t have parts to fix it because it’s too old and no parts available. The money required to purchase a new transmitter doesn’t make sense because of the low numbers of people who use it (changing world, everything’s online, blah blah). Before you say it, yes I know, I know.
Anyway, there is no other way to voice your displeasure than the 1-866-306-4636 audience relations number. If enough people call, they might notice, but I doubt it.
Sorry to be the bad news messenger. I kinda figured that was the deal of why it was off the air.
This is sad news indeed for those who enjoyed CKZU. What amazes me, is how a 500 watt shortwave relay covered such a large broadcast footprint in British Columbia and western North America.
On that note, I just discovered this post by Colin Newell (referenced above) on his blog, the Coffee Crew Blog. Colin mentions when he started listening to CKZU and what it meant to him. Check out his post.
CKZU was a reasonably tough catch here on the east coast of the US–especially due to CKZN who shared the frequency–though I’ve heard them numerous times. Indeed, this will prompt me to go back a few years in my SDR spectrum archive recordings and tune them in once again–sort of a postmortem DX–? I’m sure I’ve captured them.
As Dave mentions above, CKZN St. Johns is still on the air and, perhaps, listeners on the west coast will have a better chance snagging their 1 kW signal now. According to an article about CKZN in the latest WRTH, the station should be around for many years to come.
Thanks again, Dave, for the tip and many thanks to Colin for the research.
IHSG and Vibroplex/INRAD announce the release of a new accessory product for the Icom IC-7300 which provides a receive antenna socket on the rear of the radio.
The INRAD model RX7300 allows the user to add a receive-only antenna jack to the Icom IC-7300. This easy to install plug-in modification requires no soldering and is simple to install and easily reversible. The RX7300 can also be used for the insertion of accessory items into the receiver chain on the IC-7300 like receive-only bandpass filters, low noise preamps, etc.
When installed, the transceiver will use the SO-239 antenna connector on transmit, and one RCA phono jack on the RX7300 for receive. To use the transceiver in normal operation via the SO239, leave the RG-174 coax loop installed between the 2 phono sockets.
The RX7300 retails for £49.95 or £99.95 fitted and is only available through HIS group affiliated stores. Customers who purchased their IC-7300s via an IHSG store will receive a £5.00 discount from the supply only price and £15.00 discount from the installed price.
On Sunday, February 26 at 1500-1600 UTC, Spaceline will be doing a test transmission on 9400 KHz from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria using an episode of From the Isle of Music, a program dedicated to the music of Cuba which is heard weekly on WBCQ and Channel 292. This transmission will be aimed primarily at Russia and Ukraine but may be audible in other areas. (From the Isle of Music will continue on WBCQ and Channel 292 for their target areas regardless of the results of this and a subsequent test. )
If you monitor this broadcast, reception reports can be sent to
1. Spaceline at [email protected]
2. From the Isle of Music at [email protected]
From the Isle of Music in particular would be grateful for any reception reports from the test, especially from the Balkans, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey etc, and will respond with an eQSL.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Cooper, who writes:
Greetings fellow DXers and SWLers.
The North American Shortwave DX Contest, “The Final Countdown,” has come to a close. Participation expectations were high with 50 requests for Contest form packets being received and sent out to prospective contestants.
The actual contest participation in the contest was another matter with only 10 contestants completing out of 13 competing which equaled out to a final 20% participation rate in the contest. 3 contestants dropped out, 1 due to a personal issue, 2 equipment failures due to blizzard conditions in Utah destroying a rooftop antenna, and 1 SW receiver failure.
The question I have is why the lack of actual participation? Was the contest to hard? Or as I have the sinking gut feeling, the Shortwave hobby truly is dying a slow painful death? Thus the contest name “The Final Countdown,” sounds prophetic.
Although Propagation conditions were lousy during the 21 days. of January the contest was held on, there were several days of good DX openings as I participated as an observer, and was able to score high. I would have personally placed in the top 5 if officially entering.
There were 3 great prizes donated by Universal Radio Inc., for the top three finishers, and they were a main sponsor along with NASWA who donated several months of Journal space for the contest packet forms and CIDX who also published the contest forms packet in their excellent monthly electronic newsletter. These are the largest Shortwave Clubs/Associations in North America. Additionally I want to thank Thomas Witherspoon for posting several announcements, reminders, and contest form packets on the SWLing Post, one of my favorite sites for radio information.
The bottom line is those that did participate stated they enjoyed themselves and in some cases the joy of SWLing and DXing were rekindled again after many years of inactivity. That’s a good sign!
73
John P. Cooper
Contest Manager
“The Final Countdown”
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Eric McFadden (WD8RIF) and Randy Moore (KS4L) who share a link to this rare find on eBay: a New Old Stock (NOS) Drake SW4A.
New in original box and packing, R.L. Drake Short Wave Receiver – model SW.4A. With manual. Old stock, never used. Stored in a safe/dry place.
Being sold AS-IS!
The seller doesn’t have a deep history on eBay, but 100% positive feedback.
I fully expect this price to rise way beyond a figure I could appropriate, but I would certainly love to purchase it. I know this: I wouldn’t leave it in the box for long. After carefully checking it and bringing the voltage up slowly, I would put it on the air. What a beautiful receiver.
At time of posting, the price was $322 US (free shipping) with one day, 10 hours to go. Click here to view.
Hi there, I’ve been rather preoccupied of late, initially with the brilliant Tecsun PL-310ET and latterly with the even more brilliant Eton Satellit. However, in the background (as always), I’ve been trying to catch transatlantic medium wave DX. My listening schedule is broadly based on shortwave DXing during daylight hours – when I’m not at work of course, typically a Friday afternoon or at weekends – and always with a portable. Evenings usually start off with a tune around the tropical bands, followed by setting up the Elad FDM DUO to run some medium wave spectrum recordings overnight. In the past few days though, my daylight DXing has been bolstered by my NooElec RTL-SDR and ‘Ham it up’ upconverter. I bought the device over a year ago and after some initial exceitement, it quickly became quite obvious that I needed a reciever with a bit more ‘oomph’! However, it’s actually proving very useful to view signals on a spectrum, even when I’m conducting most or all of my listening on a different (i.e. higher performing) receiver. Ultimately, the RTL-SDR is always going to be a compromise, with relatively limited sensitivity, but because by it’s very nature it has excellent selectivity, overall it’s a reasonable performer. My particular RTL-SDR performs quite well if a decent antenna is employed with it, such as a longwire or the Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop.
Anyway, back to the medium wave DX. In the past month or two, I’ve copied a number of stations from North America, with really nice signals, including WRCR Rampano – New York, WFED Federal News Radio – Washington DC, WENE – Endicott and WUNR – Brookline from Newton, Mass. I’ve also recorded a lovely interval signal from RAI Radio 1, Milano and further European signals from Magyar Radio, Budapest and Radio Slovenija 1, from Ljubljana. During the past 18 months or so of DXing, I have been mostly ignoring signals coming into Oxford from the continent. However, that changed a little after I stumbled across the RAI Radio 1 interval signal, which complete with the rather rousing Italian National Anthem, inspired me to dig out some more European DX. I’m actually finding European DX quite rewarding, particularly because it feels new again – not surprising since I haven’t listened to Europeans on medium wave for any length of time since the 1980s. I hope you enjoy the reception videos – embedded video and text links follow below and I wish you all the very best DX.
Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John from VORW Radio International, who writes:
