Tag Archives: Bill Meara

Bill’s Shortwave Listener QSL Cards

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares the following article from the SolderSmoke Podcast:

Some Short-Wave Listener QSL Cards

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I haven’t received many, but I always like QSL cards from shortwave listeners. Someone out there is listening!

The top one is from recent contact. It arrives from Hungary via the W2 QSL bureau. Here is Tamas HA00001:

https://www.qrzcq.com/call/HA0002SWL

https://www.c3.hu/~ha0khw/ha00001.html

The middle one is from my youth.  in 1975 Nick in Moscow USSR heard my contact with OD5IO.   I didn’t remember the contact with Lebanon.  It turns out that the operator was K4NYY (who is now a silent key.  See https://www.qrz.com/db/K4NYY/?mlab=).

The bottom one pre-dates me by more than twenty years. It comes from Berlin in 1936. W5AIR was heard working EI7F. on 20 meter CW. Does anyone have any info on this SWL?

1971 “Hippy” Shortwave Listening

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares this story on the SolderSmoke Podcast and notes, “With more to follow…”

 

From the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971) — Short Waves — Part 1

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Having recently returned from San Francisco, it seemed somehow appropriate for me to take a look into the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971). I picked a copy of this book up some time ago. There is some radio stuff in it, a lot of it on shortwave listening. [To the right] is one article. I’ll post more in the days ahead.

It was around 1973 that I gave my cousin’s husband Mike an S38-E shortwave receiver. It is a wonder that he survived. He did report electrical shocks.

Click here to read this article and listen to the episode via the SoderSmoke website!

Soldersmoke: Mattia Zamana’s Amazing Direct Conversion Receiver

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and Soldersmoke host, Bill Meara, who shares the following from the Soldersmoke blog:

Mattia Zamana’s Amazing Direct Conversion Receiver

Thanks to Ed KC8SBV for sending me this awesome video. It looks like Mattia built this receiver way back in 1995. The tuning indicator is very cool, and I had not seen a similar indicator before (could this be a way for us to escape the clutches of the San Jian counters or the Arduinos?) The Italian ham magazine articles are great, and you can follow the rig description even if you can’t read the Italian. The pictures in in the attached drive are also very good.

I have been in touch with Mattia via YouTube: He reports that he has done other electronic projects, but he considers this to be the most interesting. He does not have a ham license — he has a Shortwave Listener license. His father was a ham: I3ZQG.

This is one of the rare cases in which the builder should — I think — be issued his ham licence purely on the basis of this build. [Continue reading for details about this direct conversion receiver…]

Readers, if you haven’t already, you should bookmark the Soldersmoke website and listen to the Soldersmoke podcast!

From SolderSmoke: Watching Shortwave Broadcast Stations on the TinySA Spectrum Analyser

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Curtain Antennas at VOA Site B: Greenville, North Carolina.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and friend, Bill Meara, from the amazing SolderSmoke podcast who shares the following post that originally appeared on the SolderSmoke Daily News:

Watching Shortwave Broadcast Stations on the TinySA Spectrum Analyser

by Bill Meara

November 18, 2022 1244 UTC. I was using a TinySA spectrum analyzer to look at noise levels on the 40 meter ham radio band. I also wanted to take a look slightly above the band (in frequency) to see Radio Marti at 7355 kHz. As I was doing this I remembered that Vatican Radio was on the air at 7305 kHz from 1230 UTC to 1245 UTC. So was just going to catch the last moments of that day’s transmissions. Sure enough, I caught it, and watched it disappear from the TinySA screen. See the video below:

Click her to view on YouTube.

Radio Marti continued on. In the morning we can hear the rooster recordings from that station. We are using it to test how well our homebrew Direct Conversion receivers avoid AM detection. In the video I mistakenly said these two transmitters were on the air with 250 megawatts. The correct power is 250 kilowatts. Both transmit from Greenville NC. I think the signal from Vatican Radio is stronger here because they are using a different antenna pattern — Radio Marti is aimed at Cuba.

This reminds me of a cool project I have not yet done: modifying the TinySA to allow the user to listen to the station: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-to-listen-with-your-tinysa.html I notice that Dean KK4DAS (my colleague in DC receiver design) was the only commenter on the blog post describing the TinySA mod. TRGHS. We need to to do this.

Here are the reports showing when Vatican Radio and Radio Marti were on the air on November 18, 2022:

Thank you for sharing this, Bill. I love it! The TinySA is such an affordable and useful workbench tool.

Post readers: If you love building things and exploring a wide range of radio projects, I highly recommend bookmarking the SolderSmoke Podcast and website. 

WU2D and “Dream” SW Receivers of the 1960s and 70s

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara, who shares this most recent post from his excellent SolderSmoke Podcast blog:

Mike WU2D Looks at the “Dream” SW Receivers of the 1960s and 70s (Video)

Wow, I really liked Mike’s walk down memory lane. I saw several of my own dream receivers:

S-38E. Indeed, this little monster did add some danger to your life. AKA “The Widow Maker,” I gave one to my cousin’s husband so he could listen to what the commies on Radio Moscow were saying. He later told me that the receiver had given him a shock. I now have TWO S-38Es in my shack (two more than I really need). I have installed isolation transformers in both of them, so they have lost the one element (danger!) that made them attractive.

HA-600A. I got this one for Christmas in 1972. The A model is MUCH better than the plain vanilla HA-600. I recently got another HA-600A and found serious deficiencies in the Product Detector. Has anyone else noticed these problems? BACKGROUND INFO AND A PLEA FOR MORE INFO HERE: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=HA-600A+Product+Detector

HQ-100. Got one in the Dominican Republic. Fixed it up, repairing damages caused by radio life in the tropics. Disabled the goofy audio amplifier circuitry. I now wonder if this receiver might benefit from the insertion of a 455 kc ceramic filter.

NC190. Wow “Cosmic Blue” Perhaps this was an early influence that led to “Juliano Blue?”

HQ-180. “18 tubes and almost as many knobs!” FB!

HRO-500. Love the dial.

Transoceanic. Never had one, but built a BFO for the Transoceanic that W8NSA took with him to SE Asia during the war.

R-390A. I don’t have a crane for the workbench.

Thanks Mike — that was a lot of fun.

With your help, Bill would like to take a deep dive into Mailbags!

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Original image by Sigmund via UnsplashMany thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara, from the excellent Soldersmoke Podcast, who writes:

Thomas:

A recent comment on the SS blog about the roots of our podcast got me thinking about one of our favorite segments: the Mailbag.

I know that in coming up with this segment — and its name — I was influenced by the shortwave broadcast stations I listened to as a kid.

Today I did a bit of Googling to find out which ones had Mailbags.

Turns out that the practice and the term almost certainly originated at Radio Moscow. You will find this interesting:

https://rijmenants.blogspot.com/2020/05/radio-moscow-and-cold-war.html

HCJB had DX-Party Line, but I don’t know if they had a segment called Mailbag. It may have been just one big mailbag!

Radio Romania still has one (I think). As does Radio Havana Cuba.

I saw one reference to a Canadian “Maple Leaf Mailbag” but I don’t recall ever hearing this.

Any other Mailbags out there?

73 Bill

I, too, have a lot of nostalgia for Mailbag shows. As you note, there are still quite a few on the air. Radio Romania International always comes to mind and also the many reader notes Jeff White addresses in Wavescan on WRMI. I was called out on the Maple Leaf Mailbag a number of times, but that was more than a decade ago now (wow–next year, RCI will have been off the air for a decade! Let that sink in!).

I’m sure there are many more.

SWLing Post readers: Can you please comment with any active Mailbag shows you know of currently on the shortwaves? Perhaps mention the broadcaster and program name and any of your favorites. Thank you in advance!

While you’re at it, check out the Solder Smoke podcast!

Bill solves the CRI echo mystery

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Earth

A few days ago, I posted an article about Bill Meara (producer of the SolderSmoke Podcast) who was hearing audio echoes on his home brew regenerative receiver.

Bill has now solved this mystery (hint: it’s all about the receiver):
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2014/09/radio-china-international-echo-mystery.html