(Source: ?Victor Goonetilleke via the WRTH Facebook page)
We have the DRM test in place for 9 – 13 Jan 2017. Please pass thisonto those you know who may be able to send in reports.Details are here below.
DRM test broadcast form KTWR Guam
Date 9 – 13 January 2017
Time UTC 1445 – 1515
Freq 9910 KHz
Power 90 KW
Mode B 64 QAM
Azimuth 290
Target South Asia (Ciraf 41)
Dates 9-13 January 2017Shakthi Varma TWR India
NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson’s 7th Spacewalk (Image source: NASA)
Last night, my buddy Eric McFadden (WD8RIF) notified me that the International Space Station would be making a pass this morning and doing an ARISS contact with three schools in Belgium.
It appears this pass will create an opportunity for some of us at least in eastern North America (and elsewhere) to listen to the transmission live.
Eric notes:
The frequency of the downlink should be 145.800MHz. As the ISS climbs above your horizon, because of doppler-shift, listen on 145.805. Switch to 145.800 as the ISS approaches zenith. Switch to 145.795 as the ISS drops toward the other horizon. You’ll know when to switch frequency when the audio gets bad.
[…]The ISS runs real power so an HT with anything but the shortest rubber duck should be OK, particularly when the ISS is well above the horizon. A 1/2-wave whip on the HT is better.
The contact starts at 13:47 UTC (08:47 EST)–about one hour from time of this posting.
As Eric notes, pretty much any VHF handheld radio or scanner can easily receive this contact as long as you can tune to 145.80 MHz +/-.
Last time I was in a place to tune to the ISS, it was with my kids and we all got a kick out of hearing astronauts answer questions from children here on Terra Firma. I wrote a short post about this.
Don’t worry if you miss this ARISS contact–they happen all the time. Check the ARISS “Upcoming Contacts” (http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html) page where future ARISS QSOs are listed. No doubt, it will pass over your part of the globe at some point!
Southgate ARC also posted the following announcement with a link to the live webcast:
ARISS contact webcast
On Thursday 12 January 2017, an ARISS contact is scheduled with three schools in Belgium.
Two schools will operate from the Euro Space Center.
The event will be web streamed live on:
https://www.facebook.com/eurospacecenterThe radio contact is scheduled at 13.47 UTC, which 14.37 CEWT.
The web streaming will start around 14.00 local time.
73,
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS past chairman
Thanks again, Eric, for the tip!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who writes:
Hi Thomas:
As every year, Radio Prague has a new collection of QSL cards for its listeners.
This year, this eight different QSL cards show Means of Public Transport in the Czech Republic.You can see them at:
Thanks for the tip, David! I love Radio Prague QSL cards.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Schreiber (KE7KRF), who shares the following guest post:
Yet Another Internet Radio!by Richard Schreiber (KE7KRF)
After deciding that an internet radio could be an important source of entertainment in our household, we formulated a few general guidelines:
After some research, coupled with the fact I already had some experience with Raspberry Pi computers, that small device appeared to be our best choice. I had recently purchased the newer 2 B model, which has plenty of computing power, and had installed Ubuntu Linaro as the OS. (As an aside, this OS has not to my knowledge been upgraded for the latest Raspberry Pi 3). There are several other operating systems that will work just as well including the official Raspbian OS available through the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
I installed the MPD music player daemon and its client MPC, which is used to add to and delete station URL’s from the playlist, control volume, etc. An important find was the iPhone app called MPod which provides remote wireless access to the features of MPC. At the moment it is a free app for the iPhone (in my case the iPod Touch).
For portability, my Raspberry Pi is being used “headless”, meaning it is not connected to a monitor, keyboard or mouse. If maintenance is required you can use PuTTY, a SSH and telnet client, wirelessly from a Windows (or MAC?) PC, using a command-line interface. Mainly this is needed to shut down the Raspberry Pi properly before turning off the power, but it boots completely on its own when powered up. The MPod app will then load the playlist of stations and let you start playing the radio without direct access to the Raspberry Pi.
The sound output of my Raspberry Pi is connected to the auxiliary port of our Bose SoundLink Mini Bluetooth speaker. But instead of trying to implement Bluetooth on the Raspberry Pi, I took the easy way out and use a direct connection. The sound reproduction from this setup is very good, though audiophiles might be somewhat more critical.
The above represents a minimal investment if you already have a good speaker on hand. It does require some on-line research and learning at least enough to install the OS and software. The good news is that there are many websites and forums providing step-by-step instructions and helpful hobbyists willing to explain some of the more cryptic aspects. A few of the websites that I found to be helpful:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Raspberry-Pi-Internet
http://cagewebdev.com/raspberry-pi-playing-internet-radio
https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-radio-player-with-touchscreen
A couple of these also explain how to add a display to your Raspberry Pi internet radio.
Our Raspberry Pi radio is on each evening and has been trouble free. It is worth mentioning that this is a very portable setup, and can even be powered by a battery pack (the kind used for recharging tablets and cell phones) for a few hours. Of course you need to be near a wifi hotspot.
Thank you, Richard! What a great way to use the inexpensive Raspberry Pi. I have a spare Pi2 and an amplified speaker here at the house. Though I don’t need another WiFi radio, it would be fun putting this little system together.
The following information was first shared with me by SWLing Post contributor, Harald Kuhl. As I looked for more details, I discovered the following note in the excellent CIDX Messenger:
From Alan Roe of Teddington, UK, here is information on new transmissions targeting
Antarctica:
According to posting on “Shortwave Airtime” Facebook page:
“Spaceline Ltd and Radio Nova News are to start transmissions to Antarctica for campaign for access of information to the Bulgarian Antractic base. Shortwave is the only media that can reach directly Antarctida at the distance of 13.000 km. Transmissions will start on 1’st of January, 01.00 – 02.00 UTC daily on frequency 11600 kHz. For more information visit www.spaceline.bg”
I couldn’t find any more information at either the Spaceline website or the Radio Nova news
website at https://nova.bg/However, I received today the following reply (below) from Spaceline:
Hello Alan,
The information on the Facebook page is correct, and Space Line will start the transmissions of Nova News to Antarctica very soon.It was been planned to start the project on January the 1’st, but due to some logistic problems with the base, is postponed for middle or the end of January this year, but there was a test transmission on January the 1st 2017 on 11600 kHz. After the test it appeared that here may be a frequency change from the announced one, due to some propagation anomalies.
The retransmission of Radio Nova News on shortwave is a common project between Nova, Spaceline Ltd. and Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, for reaching the scientists in Bulgarian Antarctic Base on South Shetland Island with fresh news information feed about the social life in Bulgaria.
Stay tuned to the shortwave.airtime FB page for more information about the project.
Best Regards,
Ventsislav Georgiev
Manager R&D
SpaceLine Ltd. | www.spaceline.bg
Mob : +359 888 554 297
E-mail: [email protected]
James Baucher blvd 71, Fl. 6, Office 5,
1407 Sofia , BULGARIA
Thank you Harald and Alan for the tip!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Figliozzi, who writes:
This [company] was mentioned in regard to the CES show out in Las Vegas:
It’s a Chinese company with a rather novel approach to the design of modern radios — AM/FM/Internet Bluetooth, along with the use of tube amplifiers in some models. The web site is almost all in Chinese but the pictures are cool.
Air Smart Audio is the parent company; Muzen Audio the subsidiary.
John also shared the following item from Radio World:
Muzen Audio Group’s founder Dejun Zeng, referred to as the “Father of the Tube Amplifier” in China, is looking forward to the new challenge, saying in a statement: “It is my greatest desire to build a legacy with this organization that will lead customers to say, ‘I am proud to have a Muzen radio.’”
The company received a 2017 CES Innovation Award for their new AM/FM/internet radio and Bluetooth speaker lines, the fifth CES Innovation Award received by Zeng. Muzen Audio also designs a series of vintage-style tube amplifier radios and what the company calls “on-the-road” radios.
(Source: Air Smart Audio)
Thank you, John!
From what I gather, Muzen radios are very much “boutique” radios, thus come with a “boutique” price tag–some models costing as much as $500 US.
Still: it’s refreshing to see a Chinese radio manufacturer marching to their own beat, making handcrafted products in small batches.
According to Twice.com, Muzen recently introduced the “Classic 1” AM/FM radio with Bluetooth speaker that is powered by a “fluorescent display tube amplifier.” Twice notes:
The Classic 1 is handmade and crafted with real rosewood, and every unit comes with a unique code verifying its hand craftsmanship.
Frequency response of the speaker is 75Hz to 16KHz, of the amplifier, 30Hz to 20KHz.
Pricing and availability will be announced during CES 2017.
I’m looking forward to learning more about Muzen radios! I do love the designs.
Click here to view the Air Smart Audio website (in Chinese).
Post readers: Anyone familiar with Muzen Audio or own one of their products? Please comment!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Lennart Weirell, who shares the following:
Some Radio St. Helena History
The idea to put St. Helena on the shortwave map came up in conjunction with the preparations for the Nordic Championships in DX-ing in 1990 arranged by Stora Tuna DX-klubb.
The two Swedish dx-ers Jan Tunér and John Ekwall wanted to add a special station into the competition. John was also the person behind the shortwave transmission from Radio Syd in Gambia in 1984.
The first shortwave transmission from St. Helena took place in the evening of 1990-10-06. I participated myself in the competition, but I did not manage to hear the station at that time. The response for the Radio St Helena was so good that they decided to continue once a year with what was known as Radio St. Helena Day.
In 1993 I managed to hear the station and I got it verified.
More about Radio St Helena can be found at http://www.sthelena.se/radioproject/
Lennart also included scans of Radio St. Helena’s 1993 newsletter (click on each page to enlarge).
Thank you for sharing this with us, Lennart. Honestly, much of these hidden, fascinating bits of radio history would be lost and forgotten if it weren’t for folks like you and our other contributors who share them with the world!
