Travel discovery: the Telefunken Superheterodyn Caprice 5451W

20 Replies

I’ve been traveling along the coast of South Carolina this week, and on Thursday, I found myself in the historic town of Conway, South Carolina. I parked downtown and strolled into the past via Papa’s General Store, a small local store with a lot of merchandise––and a lot of charm.

IMG_20151112_141930198

While browsing a display of antiques, I happened to notice a vintage radio perched on a high shelf. Here’s what caught my eye:

IMG_20151112_140636237_TOP

I asked, was the radio was for sale? And, indeed, it was. One of the sales clerks pulled it from the shelf, dusted off the top, and read the price: $74. I noted that it was a West German Telefunken receiver.  I asked the clerk, Chris,  if it worked, and he confirmed that it did; it belonged to his uncle, who had clearly taken very good care of it.

Chris allowed me to plug it in, turn it on, and tune in a couple of local stations…The Telefunken produced beautiful audio without even the slightest hint of a hum. Chris was pleased that I appreciated the radio, and sincerely wanted me to take it home, so he lowered the price a bit further.  I agreed, and purchased it without hesitation. Just couldn’t help it…

That's Chris behind the counter.

Chris behind the counter with his uncle’s classic Telefunken.

The Telefunken Superheterodyn Caprice 5451W covers the AM/mediumwave band and FM. It’s a tube radio produced in the early 1960s in West Germany, and is now the only tube-based radio I own that covers the FM band.

IMG_20151112_195818546_TOP

Of course, I was very eager to get the Telefunken on the air, so that afternoon I headed to our balcony overlooking the Atlantic, tuned around a bit on the mediumwave band…and was simply amazed at all it could receive.  I picked up my smart phone, and with it made a very short recording of the Cuban station, Radio Reloj, on 820 kHz:

My smart phone’s microphone doesn’t begin to do the Telefunken’s rich audio justice, but you can clearly hear Radio Reloj’s ticks and “RR” in Morse Code at the top of the minute (indeed, if you’re listening with headphones, you may also hear crashing waves in the background). Something nearby generated a lot of RFI right on frequency, too , but the rest of the broadcast band had a surprisingly low noise floor.

I also spent some time with the Telefunken on the FM broadcast band; with a simple wire antenna, this worked wonders.

In my humble op, the audio the Telefunken produces is simply beautiful.  And so, I’ve got to add, is this vintage radio. See for yourself.

IMG_20151113_083744302_HDR

IMG_20151113_083645909IMG_20151113_083653301 IMG_20151113_083619896 IMG_20151113_083615824

Last minute changes to special PCJ broadcast to Europe

2 Replies

pcj(Source: Keith Perron via Richard Langley)

At the last minute we had to make a frequency change for our special broadcasts to Europe.

The time will remain the same: 0900 to 1000UTC

But we will not be using 17825 khz.

The new frequency is 11580 khz.

Nothing else has changed.

As a reminder, here’s the weekly schedule:

Time: 0900 to 1000 UTC

November 14th – Say It With Music
November 21st – Call it Ukraine
November 28th – Rockin’ with Raoul
December 5th – Classics with David Monson
December 12th – Special Jazz For The Asking
December 19th – European radio during WW2 (documentary)
December 26th – Special listeners programs

Richard points out that PCJ has switched their transmitter site from Trinco to WRMI; because of this, listeners in North America might also be able to hear the programs.

HDTV via an SDRplay RSP

2 Replies

tvpic2

Check this out: a tutorial on decoding ATSC HDTV via the SDRPlay RSP software defined receiver.

(Source: coolsdrstuff.blogspot.com)

One of the main reasons I got the SDRPlay RSP was its wide bandwidth. It can show up to 8 MHz of spectrum at once. I figured it should be able to watch TV. Turns out it can, but it’s only designed to receive DVB-T.

Unfortunately, they only use that in Europe and a few other places. In North America we use ATSC.

In this article I will show how to use it to watch ATSC.

Click here to read the full tutorial…

This is one of the things I love about SDRs: in many ways, their applications are only limited by your imagination.

Click here to read our review of the SDRplay RSP.

A timeline of radio in the UK

1 Reply

Crosley-Dial

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Daniel, who shares a link to this article on the BT website:

From Marconi and the transistor radio to DAB: the history of radio in the UK

93 years ago this week, the BBC made its first radio broadcast. We look back at some of the most significant events in radio’s history.

On November 14, 1922 the British Broadcasting Company began its first radio broadcast. Since then the radio landscape has changed dramatically.

Radio is still an incredibly popular medium. According to Ofcom’s 2015 Communications Market Report, nine in ten UK adults listen to the radio each week. We listen for an average of 21.4 hours a week, but the way we do this has changed.

Families had to huddle around the radio in the 1930s, but now we can listen to the radio anywhere, anytime using our smartphones. We look at some of the most significant milestones of British radio over the last 93 years[…]

Click here to read through the entire article and timeline at BT.com.

Not all Degen DE1103 eBay listings are the new DSP vesion

1 Reply

de1103-dsp

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Eric Weatherall, who writes:

I’ve been interested by news of the updated DSP version of the Degen DE1103.

I just saw an eBay auction for a used DE1103 which listed “DSP” in the title. But I looked at a photo of the product and it showed the labeling of the original product. If you look at the bottom left of the unit, the older radios have two lines of product description printed in black, and the newer radios have one line.

Based on photos I found online, here is the old product’s description (which applies to both the Degen and Kaito versions)

“PLL FM STEREO/SW MW LW DUAL CONVERSION SYNTHESIZED WORLD RECEIVER”

And here is the new product’s description.

“FM STEREO/SW MW LW DIGITAL WORLD RECEIVER”

I thought this would be useful for anyone wishing to buy the new DSP version of this radio where a photo of the actual unit is shown.

Eric has a good point–many times on eBay, sellers simply copy descriptions from previous or existing listings. You my find a used DE1103 listed as a unit with DSP. It’s best to confirm the version with the seller before purchasing. To my knowledge, only the 2015 version of the Degen DE1103 has DSP.