Matt’s review of the BST-1

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Matt, who shared this review of the BST-1 car shortwave receiver:

Overall: a good sensitive receiver, with a very inventive interface. I am looking forward to my long commutes for a change.

Using the FM RDS info on the car radio is a stroke of genius.

Performance: Miles ahead of my old MFJ 3 band heterodyne converter. I could hear 2 or 3 stations in the day, maybe 6 or 8 at night. With this new receiver during my morning and evening commutes in the NE US, I can hear dozens of stations day or night. Performance is roughly on par with a decent shortwave portable using the built in whip. I get 6070 Canada listenable 2 out of 3 days, 9580 Australia one out of 4 days in the morning, Radio Romania is an S5-8 beacon in the evenings.

Quirks: when the receiver is powered down, it does not save the music/speech bandwidth setting. It always comes up in the speech mode.

Also, when you are in tune mode and wrap around from 0 kHz to 33 MHz or vice versa, there is a glitch. Instead of scanning on the even 5 kHz intervals, it changes to scanning on the 3 and 8 kHz or 2 and 7kHz intervals: 32.003, 32.008, 32.013, 32.018, etc. instead of 32.000, 32.005, 32.010, etc. If you go back to preset frequencies, scan, and then go back to tune mode, it is back to normal.

I have only seen spurious signals around 2 MHz or so. I think it is some 15 MHz broadcasters bleeding through – only one or two usually. No other spurious signals apart from this seen yet.

Suggestions: restrict the tune mode to the shortwave bands to save time slogging through all that dead space between broadcasting segments (toggle all or band only tune?)

Make it so you can switch the AM broadcast filter in and out, maybe with an attenuator. I live over 50 miles from the nearest high powered AM station, and it would be nice to be able to BC/LW DX. The receiver is quite sensitive down there. On 1700khz where the filter doesn’t have much of an effect I can hear an AM station 80 miles away. Instructions on putting in a manual switch to do the same would be good as an alternative to this.

Thanks for sharing your review, Matt! I agree that the BST-1 is surprisingly sensitive, especially for a mobile receiver.

Click here to view the BST-1 order/information page.

Click here to view our review of the BST-1.

Thump interviews filmmaker Amanda Dawn Christie

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View of the western cluster of curtain antennas from the roof of RCI Sackville's transmissions building. (Photo: The SWLing Post) --Click to enlarge

View of the western cluster of curtain antennas from the roof of RCI Sackville’s transmissions building in 2012. (Photo: The SWLing Post) –Click to enlarge

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Barraclough, who shares this Thump interview with Amanda Dawn Christie:

For her latest documentary, Spectres of Shortwave, Moncton-born experimental artist and filmmaker Amanda Dawn Christie spent the last seven years exploring this otherworldly phenomenon. While working at Sackville’s Struts Gallery in 2009, she heard stories from local residents about voices in sinks where “pipes acted like antennas and the bowl became a gramophone speaker.” Christie was jealous that hers didn’t pick it up, so she spent her pay cheques for the rest of the summer at a plumbing store, extending her pipes to bring the sink to the marsh.

Sackville is also home to SappyFest, a beloved music festival taking over the town every August since 2006, with performances from local and internationals artists. Fred Squire is one of the former, and it’s his story of dreaming in foreign languages—due to transmissions from an amp in his bedroom entering a hypnagogic mindstate—that provides the documentary’s centerpiece.

“Fred would fall asleep and dream perfectly coherently in Chinese or Russian,” [film maker Amanda Dawn] Christie explains. “He decided to call the radio towers to see if they were doing anything that would cause it. Then about 40 minutes later in the film there’s a story from a technician who describes his call from a guy dreaming in different languages. The stories are similar but contradict each other, leaving the viewer wondering which one is telling the truth.”[…]

Click here to read the full interview on Thump.

George Knudsen (W4GCK): A Life in Apollo

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I’m very proud to note that my good friend, George Knudsen (W4GCK), has been featured on the excellent omega tau podcast.

The interview is absolutely fascinating–here’s a description:

George Knudsen started working in 1958 on the Redstone missile, and moved on to working on the Atlas ICBM. Later he worked on the Saturn 5 launch vehicle, where he was responsible for the fuel tanks. He was on the launch team at Cape Canaveral for various Apollo missions. In this episode [we] talk with George about his work in this fascinating period of science and engineering history.

Click here to listen via the omega tau site.

omega tau, hosted by Markus Völter, covers a wide variety of topics from engineering and science. It’s one of my favorite podcasts, so I would encourage you to not only listen to this episode, but subscribe to the podcast.

WRMI: Back on the air

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who notes that the following update posted on the WRMI Facebook page:

“WRMI went back on the air around 1600 UTC Friday when our power came back on. All transmitters except #4 are now back on the air, and we hope to have #4 back on later today.”

I’m happy to hear WRMI made it through Hurricane Matthew relatively unscathed!

The Icom SP-38: A matching external speaker for the IC-7300

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(Source: Southgate ARC)

Icom are introducing a new external speaker for its revolutionary IC-7300 Software Designed Radio.

The new SP-38 complements the appearance of the IC-7300 as well as improving the listening experience from its large diameter speaker.

The SP-38 external speaker will be available in October with a suggested retail price of £156.00 inc.VAT from all Icom Authorised Amateur radio dealers.

Specifications about this new external speaker can be downloaded from the SP-38 data sheet.

Click here to view this article on the Southgate ARC site.

Hurricane Matthew: WRMI battons down the hatches

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(Source: WRMI at 23:00 UTC, 06 October 2016)

Our windows are boarded up, but we are still on the air here at WRMI as Hurricane Matthew approaches the east coast of Florida at 2300 UTC Thursday, October 6. The worst winds and rain are expected during the next several hours.

Nuestras ventanas estan protegidas por planchas de madera, pero todavia estamos en el aire aqui en WRMI mientras el Huracan Matthew se acerca a la costa este de la Florida a las 2300 UTC el jueves 6 deoctubre. Los vientos y las lluvias mas fuertes se esperan durante las proximas horas.

I’m very happy to hear that WRMI has prepared for this storm and I certainly hope they’re able to stay on the air and have and suffer no storm damage.

Yesterday, WRMI posted the following notice:

To WRMI listeners: As of 1600 UTC Wednesday, October 5, Hurricane Matthew appears to have a path which will take the center of the Category 4 storm very near Okeechobee. We will have extremely strong winds and rain during the next few days, and there is the possibility of the loss of electrical power and/or Internet service. We will keep all of WRMI’s transmissions on the air as long as we have electrical power and it is safe to operate. But if you find that we are off the air sometime within the next 48-72 hours, it will be due to the hurricane, and we will attempt to resume regular operations as soon as possible after the hurricane passes and power is restored to our transmitter site. Thank you for your understanding.

I expect WRMI/Okeechobee will have to cope with hurricane force winds tonight. The west wall of the hurricane eye is currently travelling up the eastern Florida coast and is sure to tax the WRMI antenna farm.

Here’s hoping our friends at WRMI make it through unscathed.

Is Hurricane Matthew affecting any SWLing Post readers? Please comment!

UPDATE: (Source: WRMI at 7:45 UTC, 07 October 2016)

As of 0630 UTC Friday, our electricity is out at the WRMI transmitter site in Okeechobee. We are operating on emergency generator power, which powers our lights, air conditioning and computers. However, all transmitters are off the air except 6855 kHz, which remains on the air on extremely low power. Winds are extremely strong here, and we do not have an estimate of when electricity will be restored. The center of Hurricane Matthew is northeast of us now.

KBS seeking reports for test transmissions this week

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, @andy_fab, who shared the following press release from KBS via Twitter:

Test Transmission Notice

KBS World Radio English Service will carry out test transmission from October 3 to 8 ahead of the B16 shortwave frequency adjustment. Please tune into the following frequencies and send us your reception reports. Your feedback will help us greatly in choosing the best frequency option for the new season. Thank you!

Click here to submit a KBS listener report.