Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ben-Zion, who writes:
I love your website and wanted to contribute a radio in cinema sighting from the 1980 South African film The Gods Must Be Crazy.
I look forward to your readers feedback regarding this SONY unit.
Kind Regards.
Ben-Zion
Thanks for the tip! Oh I do love that particular Sony model! Can anyone ID it?
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pavel, who shares the following message and images. Note that this message was originally sent to me prior to Christmas, but never arrived in my inbox. Thank you, Pavel, for the follow-up:
Hi Thomas,
First of all, I wish you and your entire family and all blog readers a wonderful rest of the Christmas holidays, all the best for the new year 2023, lots of health and well-being and many beautiful moments listening to the radio.
Some time ago I became the owner of the last type of Belky. I’m excited about her. So I immediately made an advertising poster with my wife and Belka :-).
I made a small docking station for the Belka – it has a built-in stereo amplifier, speakers and a battery with a charging circuit and a Dc-Dc converter for emergency charging of the Belka in the field. The status of the battery is indicated by LEDs. The Belka holder itself is made on a 3D printer.
Maybe it can serve as inspiration for blog readers.
Hi
Pavel Kraus
Thank you for sharing this, Pavel. We all love both your creativity not only in your photos, but the amazing radios you produce. We love how you use your wife as your model in your work!
Fastradioburst23 here to let you know of the return of the Shortwave Music Library this Sunday 5th February 2023 via WRMI at 2300 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz. This week we delve into the library shelves for some pop music remixes and a few instrumental jazz pieces – perfect for a relaxed evening. Tune in!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jeff (KJ7LTU), who writes:
Thomas,
I was wondering if you, or your readers, know if Radio Tamazuj and Radio Dabanga are coordinating their broadcasting efforts? This last Sunday I picked up their transmission on 15550 kHz. Radio Tamazul signs off at 15:57 UTC and Radio Dabanga signs on at 15:59 UTC.
Some quick research indicates that this is the intended broadcast schedule. The times, and shared frequencies, seem to allude to a joint effort. Other than these are both Sudanese broadcasters, I can’t seem to find any additional evidence to support this. Wondering if you might be willing to put this out there to see if anyone has any information to satisfy my curiosity.
Here’s a link to the transmission for reference: Radio Tamazuj & Radio Dabanga
Again, appreciate your many contributions to our listening community!
Best Regards,
Jeff Cooper
KJ7LTU
Thank you, Jeff!
Readers: Please feel free to comment with any insight!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Frans Goddijn, who writes:
Hi Thomas:
I bought a vintage antenna tuner, one that does not need a power source, very basic just a box with some beautiful coils and nice big variable capacitors and it works for the big magnetic loop antenna here.
I have four GRAHN loop antennas which each have their box with dials to fine tune the signal but the big loop didn’t have that yet.
The tuner works well, filters out some noise but I must say the iCOM radio also managed to select good signal from the loop with its own tuner system and the DSP noise filter at the speaker end of the system further clears up the voice sounds.
Best regards,
Frans
The internals of manual antenna tuners are simply hypnotizing, aren’t they? You’ve a beautifully-built tuner there that is functional and will outlive us all!
Thank you for sharing!
Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dennis Dura, JP, NT, and Paul for the following tips:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, JP, who shares a link to the FCC Pirate Radio database:
Pirate Database
In accordance with section 511(g) of the PIRATE Act, the following databases are provided to identify (i) each entity against whom an enforcement action for pirate radio broadcasting has been issued, and (ii) licensed radio stations.
Pirate Radio Database
Licensed AM and FM Radio Station Database
As far as islands go, Manhattan is one of the most famous and instantly recognisable. But if you were to charter a boat and sail around its coastline and through New York’s natural harbour you’d come across many more islands so small that hardly anyone knows are there. There are around thirty or so of these odd little islands, all mostly uninhabited or privately owned and strictly off limits, but filled with strange tales and peculiar histories.
Many of these islands are tantalisingly close to New York City, but remain out of reach. As travel writer Robert Sullivan put it “the islands are our silent neighbours. It is easy to live here and never notice them.”
[…]This story however, is about one such tiny island, just 150 feet square, and so small you can barely spot it on Google Maps unless you knew where to look. Once known as Little Pea Island, it is located about a mile off shore from Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, and has room enough for just one building. It has been home to a Jazz Age era swanky yacht club, a radio station and for a while, the home to a glitzy Hollywood showbiz couple who ran a morning radio show from their home on the island. The last owner recently renovated the island into a self-sufficient, five thousand square feet luxury home, which today lies empty. [Continue reading the full story…]
A new ultra-low-power method of communication at first glance seems to violate the laws of physics. It is possible to wirelessly transmit information simply by opening and closing a switch that connects a resistor to an antenna. No need to send power to the antenna.
Our system, combined with techniques for harvesting energy from the environment, could lead to all manner of devices that transmit data, including tiny sensors and implanted medical devices, without needing batteries or other power sources. These include sensors for smart agriculture, electronics implanted in the body that never need battery changes, better contactless credit cards and maybe even new ways for satellites to communicate.
Apart from the energy needed to flip the switch, no other energy is needed to transmit the information. In our case, the switch is a transistor, an electrically controlled switch with no moving parts that consumes a minuscule amount of power.
In the simplest form of ordinary radio, a switch connects and disconnects a strong electrical signal source – perhaps an oscillator that produces a sine wave fluctuating 2 billion times per second – to the transmit antenna. When the signal source is connected, the antenna produces a radio wave, denoting a 1. When the switch is disconnected, there is no radio wave, indicating a 0. [Continue reading…]
Is AM radio dying? If you ask Tesla, it’s already dead. But what does that mean for the hundreds of local AM radio stations across the US?
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By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM
It was a reader, Mario Filippi, who set me on this path. He posted a comment that said, in part: “An interesting place to DX would be the segment between 1500 – 1590 kc’s where there are a number of news stations, one being federal news on 1500.”
Huh, I thought, federal news? I wonder if I can hear that. So I hooked up the MFJ 1886 Receive Loop Antenna to my Grundig Satellit 800 receiver and tuned to 1500. With the 800’s whip antenna, I heard mostly static; switching to the 50-foot indoor room loop, pretty much the same; same thing with the 1886 with the amplifier turned off. But turn the 1886’s amplifier on, and it was like getting slammed against the wall by the schoolyard bully: LISTEN TO ME! A big, fat, S9 signal, sounding like WGY 810 just a few miles from me. Wow, I thought, this loop can really pull out a signal.
A little research revealed, as nearly as I can tell, that Federal News 1500 is in Washington, DC, over 300 miles from me. Over the next few days I would occasionally check on Federal News 1500 using the 1886 loop, and typically it was loud and clear here in Troy, NY.
Hidden behind a curtain, the 3-foot aluminum loop of the MFJ 1886 works well for MW DXing.
Early this morning, Jan. 28, 2023, a thought crept into my brain: how many big, fat, MW signals could I detect with the combo of the Satellite 800 and the MFJ 1886 loop antenna? (Bear in mind that my 1886 rests flat against a window and is NOT rotatable in its current configuration.) Here’s the log, with station IDs when I could get them.
Time Frequency Station
1100Z 1520 WWKB Buffalo
1102Z 1530 Milwaukee? Sports, Australian open
1106Z 1540 CHIN Toronto, old time radio programs
1112Z 1560 religious music
1115Z 1660 orchestral music, Strauss waltzes
1118Z 540 middle eastern music
1121Z 660 WFAN, NYC
1124Z 700 WLW, Cincinnati
1127Z 710 WOR, the Voice of New York
1129Z 730 French language, Canada mentioned
1132Z 750 WSB, Atlanta
1134Z 770 WABC, NYC
1135Z 790 ortho doctor show
1138Z 860 French language, Canada mentioned
1140Z 880 WCBS, NYC
1142Z 1010 WINS, NYC
1144Z 1020 Talk
1146Z 1030 WBZ, Boston
1148Z 1050 WEPN, ESPN radio, New York
1149Z 1060 KYW, Philadelphia, PA
1153Z 1090 WBAL, Baltimore
1154Z 1110 WBT Charlotte, NC
Bottom line: it was immense fun, tuning around for “fat” MW stations in the early AM. Periodically I checked the other antennas as I traversed the band, but universally the MFJ 1886 was better at pulling them in.
Fat station DX? You bet! Try it; you’ll like it!