Tag Archives: Balázs Kovács

A Panasonic RF-2200 in “The Walking Dead”

Panasonic RF-2200

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs, who adds the following note to his recent radio sighting (of a Hallicrafters HT-32 Transmitter) in the series “The Walking Dead.”

Balázs notes that in the season nine finale, he spotted the previously mentioned HT-32 (see image below), in addition to the iconic Panasonic RF-2200 (see image above).

Hallicrafters HT-32 Transmitter

Honestly, I think both of these radios would serve you well in a post-apocalyptic world!

Turns out, The Walking Dead is filmed in Senoia, and Fayetteville, Georgia, USA and SWLing Post contributor, Steve Yothment, lives nearby. As the then president of his radio club, he was consulted last year about radio gear to use on The Walking Dead set. He tells us to look out for an HF amplifier and field strength meter in future episodes! How cool is that?!

I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

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Balázs spots a Hallicrafters in “The Walking Dead”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

Some radio fixing and a plan to create a radio connection between the survivor settlements in the latest (shocking) episode of The Walking Dead (S09E15):

Very cool, Balázs–thanks for sharing!

So can anyone name the model of the Hallicrafters rig on the table? Please comment!

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Balázs spots a wide variety of radios in film

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who shares the following radio sightings and notes:

The Priest’s rig from the last episode of “The Walking Dead“

A Yaesu in “Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom“

Some emergency/weather radios in the “The Darkest Minds“

The Last Ship S05E01
After a cyber attack a backup comm solution for the US Navy.

Night of the Living Dead (1968/1990)
In the original a radio broadcast was the first information source, in the remake only a small one was used at the end.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
In a remote shack.

+1: The “Álmodozások kora” (Age of Illusions (US) / The Age of Daydreaming (Int)) was the first (Hungarian) feature film of the director István Szabó (winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981 (Mephisto), English language films: Meeting Venus (1991), Sunshine (1999), Taking Sides (2001), the Oscar nominated Being Julia (2004) and The Door (2012)) in 1965 about a group of young electrical engineers. Two scenes from it about the radios, unfortunately I found the hungarian speaking version only online, but I think maybe it can be still interesting: https://ok.ru/video/228250552961

33:58-35: A custom rig receiving 4 european stations (Paris, London, Rome, Prague) on different speakers at the same time

1:05:43-1:07:20: “How radio works” animation

(and there was a short scene also where they talk about the The Pioneer Railway and how they learned the morse code there)

I found another (splited) version of the movie now with english subtitles, the new links and timings:

https://ok.ru/video/904027376280
33:58-35:28: A custom rig receiving 4 European stations (Paris, London, Rome, Prague) on different speakers at the same time

https://ok.ru/video/904028097176
20:00-21:39 “How radio works” animation

The same actor (András Bálint) 13 years later have a short ham radio scene (new year greetings in english) in another movie (BUÉK, 1978). I checked the callsign from the wall (HA5FA) and probably it was already a real one, belongs to Jen? Matzon, active member of the radio amateur community (DXCC Honor Roll, etc.) now a Silent Key.

Wow! Many thanks for sharing all of these radio spots, Balazs! Funny thing is I remember so well those shots from Night of the Living Dead even though I likely watched it 40 years ago! I guess I never forget a Zenith!

Of course, I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 payload includes the HawkEye 360 radio-wave emission seeker

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who shares the following:

Hi Thomas,

Just found: the launch of the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was delayed today, part of the load is a new radio-wave emission seeker satellite system the Pathfinder from HawkEye 360:
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-to-launch-70-satellites-radio-tracking-2018-11

Some parts from the article:

“An unprecedented rocket mission for SpaceX, called SSO-A, will launch 71 small satellites at once on Monday. Three of the satellites belong to HawkEye 360, a startup that aims to “see” radio-wave emissions all over Earth. HawkEye 360’s software will identify each unique radio signal and use it to track “dark ships” that may be trying to hide illegal activities.”

[..] The antennas of Pathfinder can detect a wide range of radio signals above about 1 watt in power. [..] This means the cluster can triangulate normally hard-to-pinpoint signals from satellite phones, push-to-talk radios, and marine radar. [..] In the future, they aim to launch five more three-satellite clusters, which will create a constellation that can map Earth’s radio signals once every 30 to 40 minutes. [..] Another planned use of Pathfinder is more down-to-earth: The technology could detect improper use of the radio-frequency spectrum, including interference between cell-phone towers.”

Thank you for the tip, Balázs!

I also discovered the following short video which introduces and describes the system:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Sounds like an amazing system although it certainly does feel a little “big brother”–!

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Balázs spots a vintage receiver in “Jakob the Liar”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who writes:

Jakob the Liar (1999)

A radio receiver plays a main role here next to Robin Williams in a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland in the second world war.

Here I added three additional photos about the radios from the last year when we visited the Kraków area, the museums of Oskar Schindler’s Factory and Auschwitz.

Thank you for sharing your images, Balázs. I do not recognize the tube radio in Jakob the Liar. I do love the tuning eye. Anyone know the model? Please comment!

Of course, I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!

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Balázs spots a number of radios in “Fear the Walking Dead”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who discovered a number of scenes in Fear the Walking Dead that feature various radios. Balázs notes: