155th Birthday Heinrich Rudolf Hertz

Recently I have spent a little more time listening out for Tropical Band stations from my shack in Oxford UK, attempting to emulate some of the very nice signals I have previously recorded out on DX’peditions. The obvious problems with this (and they are numerous) include the relatively weak signal strength of many tropical band stations, the ubiquitous blanket of QRM, resulting in generally poor SNR, lack of space for a large antenna……need I go on?! Fortunately, the Elad FDM DUO has proven to be a very senstive and selective receiver, capable of, at times, incredible SNR, coupled with almost limitless signal conditioning options and SSB, SYNC, ECSS etc. Throw the Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop into the mix (not literally!) and you have a very powerful Tropical Band receive set-up. The Wellbrook is able to null most (although not all) QRM in my shack and that really can make the difference between simply observing a carrier and actually hearing audio. Clearly one cannot expect to hear DX at home under heavy QRM as well as you might outdoors, however, the following stations were logged in the past month or so, with respectable signals, with the ALA1530 indoors:

Video links also follow below, thanks for reading/ watching.

Direct link to Oxford Shortwave Log video; Radio Logos 4810 kHz, Peru

Direct link to Oxford Shortwave Log video; Radio Cultura Ondas Manaus 4845 kHz, Brazil

Direct link to Oxford Shortwave Log video; AIR Bhopal 4810 kHz, India

Direct link to Oxford Shortwave Log video; Rádio Educação Rural 4925.2 kHz, Tefé, Brazil

Direct link to Oxford Shortwave Log video; Radio Mosoj Chaski 3310 kHz, Bolivia

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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If you visit Google’s home page today, you’ll notice that their typical logo has been replaced with an animation of an undulating, multi-colored wave.

If you click on the wave, you’ll be taken to sites telling the story of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.

We should all take a moment today to thank Hertz for his contribution to the radio spectrum. Indeed, it was Hertz who showed that electricity could be transmitted via electromagnetic waves. This laid the groundwork for developing wireless telegraph and radio. In the 1930’s the International Electrotechnical Commission decided that Hertz’s name would become the unit of frequency for our electromagnetic spectrum–the hertz (Hz)–about four decades after the his death.

To read the story of Hertz, I would suggest browsing his Wikipedia entry.

If you missed seeing the Google Doodle animation, check out the video below:

This isn’t the first time Google has honored an influential innovator in our radio world, a few years ago we posted their Google Doodle tribute to Samuel Morse.

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