Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura who notes that Hackaday recently featured a clever DIY receiver project based on the Si5351 and ESP32 that covers shortwave, mediumwave, and more. It has a nice retro look, plenty of modern features, and even includes an SDR mode for use with a computer.
If you enjoy homebrew radio projects, this is well worth a look:
Photo by Brock Wegner on Unsplash
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura, who shares the following two articles that may be of interest to readers:
The first, from Radio World, highlights a new broadband AM antenna system designed for the upper end of the mediumwave band. The compact design promises easier installation, lower infrastructure requirements, and could offer broadcasters a practical solution where traditional AM tower installations are impractical or prohibitively expensive:
https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/products/new-antenna-for-upper-am-band-nears-readiness
Dennis also points to a recent Westwood One analysis examining the listening habits of Tesla drivers. Despite Tesla’s increasingly streaming-focused infotainment systems, the data suggests AM/FM radio remains the dominant source of ad-supported in-car audio among Tesla owners:
https://www.westwoodone.com/blog/2026/06/29/reach-future-tesla-buyers-on-am-fm-radio-the-medium-tesla-drivers-listen-to-most/
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura, who shares the following article about a growing trend among automakers: removing not only AM receivers from new vehicles, but FM as well. This is in favor of internet-connected streaming services. While the shift may seem inevitable, it raises important questions about emergency communications, rural connectivity, and the future of free over-the-air broadcasting.
Read the full article here: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/06/16/fm-radio-excluded-from-new-vehicles/
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura, who shares news from Radio World that DXing will be featured for the first time at the Midwest Regional Broadcasters Clinic (“Madison Clinic”) this September. The presentation will introduce broadcast engineers and industry professionals to the fascinating world of radio signal propagation and DX reception—and perhaps inspire a few new DXers along the way.
Read the full article at Radio World: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/show-news/dxing-will-be-featured-at-the-madison-clinic
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura, who shares this article from Hackaday that explores the fascinating “last gasp” innovations of vacuum tube technology long after transistors had already begun taking over the electronics industry. The article dives into late-era tube developments like compactrons, lighthouse tubes, and RCA’s remarkable nuvistor—tiny, rugged, low-noise tubes that pushed thermionic technology to its limits in applications ranging from military gear to high-end audio and RF equipment. It’s a terrific read.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who shares this bit of radio nostalgia made real. Nearly 50 years after the iconic TV series WKRP in Cincinnati first aired, the call letters have officially returned—this time on a real FM station in Cincinnati. The new WKRP(FM) launched on 97.7 MHz, even featuring a familiar voice from the original show to mark its debut.
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 contributor Dennis Dura for the following tips:
The internet has aged to the point where it is easy to fall into a rabbit hole, reminiscing about websites from decades past.
The site that fuels those scrolling endeavors is the Internet Archive — a nonprofit that hosts a digital library of internet sites and other artifacts in digital form. The project began in 1996 to archive the web.
Today, it contains one trillion web pages through its “Wayback Machine,” as well as 56 million books and texts. It also works with approximately 1,400 libraries through its Archive-It program to identify and preserve important digital history.
Kay Savetz (K6KJN) freely admits to having been an Internet Archive power user. Savetz used not just the archive.org website, but also its command line interface to upload many documents. [Continue reading…][Continue reading…]
Beyond their love of radio, amateur radio operators and shortwave radio broadcasters have one thing in common: They rely on the ionosphere to refract or bend their signals back to Earth, so that they can travel beyond line-of-sight distances.
In turn, the ionosphere’s ability to refract radio signals depends on its level of ionization or charge. The more ionized the ionosphere is, the more likely it is to bend signals back to the ground rather than let them pass through.
Here’s where the sun comes in. The number of sunspots on the solar surface rises and falls over an 11-year period, during what is known as a solar cycle. The more sunspots, the more solar radiation comes to Earth. [Continue reading…]
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The city of Delano is looking to keep a portion of the former Voice of America property for “future park purposes” and sell the rest, according to the Delano City Council agenda for Monday.
The property is on about 800 acres bordered by West Garces Highway, Woollomes Avenue, Melcher Road and Casey Avenue.
It was home to the Delano Transmitting Station, built in 1944 to broadcast Voice of America programming worldwide. It stopped operating in 2007 and was demolished shortly after.
The City Council is set to consider whether it should retain about 20 acres of that property for park-related reasons and designate the remainder as “surplus land” and approve selling it. [Continue reading…]
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