Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
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 contributors Richard Cuff, Jason Shultz, David Iurescia, Tracy Wood, and Carlos Latuff for the following tips:
During a once-in-centuries eclipse, CWRU radio club ran a cross-country experiment—and found a surprise overhead | CWRU Newsroom | Case Western Reserve University (CWRU Newsroom | Case Western Reserve University)
Study coauthored by students from high school to grad school finds the moon’s shadow took a different path overhead than on the ground
Minutes after totality swept past Cleveland on April 8, 2024, Laura Schwartz and Maris Usis leaned over a laptop on the roof of Case Western Reserve University’s Glennan Building. Data from receivers hundreds of miles away were streaming in.
Then a small change appeared in the recorded radio signal.
“It was very exciting,” recalled Usis (CWR ’24; GRS ’25, electrical engineering). “At the very least, it was an early indication that our experiment may have worked.”
Nearby, David Kazdan, MD, PhD (GRS ’92, biomedical engineering), watched the graphs take shape.
“It really was just a magic moment,” said Kazdan, an adjunct professor at the Case School of Engineering and faculty advisor to the Case Amateur Radio Club, W8EDU.
Skywave, a free browser player for public KiwiSDRs with a live “strong signals now” scan (Skywavehf)
This tip was submitted by a developer promoting his AI-created app, and it caught my attention. It’s called skywave (http://skywavehf.com), a free web app that plays public KiwiSDR receivers right in your browser. Press “Listen” and it finds the receiver with the best reported signal-to-noise on your frequency, moving to the next one if a Kiwi is full or refuses the connection.
There’s a searchable list and a map that shades where it’s currently night, which is a nice touch for propagation, and about ten seconds after a receiver starts playing, skywave scans the medium wave and fourteen shortwave broadcast bands, listing the strongest signals it hears, labeled with station names from the EiBi schedule. You get a waterfall with a live spectrum trace and an S-meter, and the AM, SSB, and CW demodulation is done in the developer’s own code, with the Kiwi only sending raw I/Q.
Jason has also been considerate of the volunteers who run these receivers: skywave takes at most one listener slot per Kiwi, identifies itself as “skywavehf.com” in the user list, and there’s a page for owners explaining all of this, including how to opt out.
The developer built it with an AI coding assistant, something he’s upfront about, the code is public on GitHub, and as far as I can tell it’s free, runs no ads, and requires no account. Since these receivers are run by volunteers, do be a good guest and disconnect when you’re finished.
FEBC Philippines to Conclude Shortwave Broadcasting in 2027 (Febc)
After decades of using shortwave radio to carry the Gospel across geographic boundaries, FEBC Philippines will conclude its shortwave broadcasting operations at its facilities in Iba, Zambales, and Bocaue, Bulacan, effective April 1, 2027.
The transition stems from a strategic decision by the FEBC International Executive Committee in March 2026, informed by collaborative research with InterSearch, an international partner of FEBC. The findings showed that global shortwave listenership continued to decline. After reviewing the results, all FEBC member fields unanimously agreed to phase out shortwave broadcasting.
NASA’s Voyager 1 closes in on a light-day in interstellar space for a new distance record (AP News)
NASA’s Voyager 1 is about to become humanity’s first object to reach one light-day from Earth. That’s a mind-blowing distance of more than 16 billion miles. (AP Video/Shelby Lum)
This image, provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech and taken on April 27, 1977, shows one of the Voyagers in the 25-Foot Space Simulator thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
Asheville radio station preserves broadcasting history with museum (WLOS)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Radio Asheville 103.7 FM first hit the airwaves back in 2003. By 2014, they had suffered financial difficulties to the point where they were going to have to shut down.
That’s when Davyne Dial stepped in and convinced the station’s board to transfer the FCC license over to her.
Once she became the new general manager, the real work began. She had to learn on the job how to run an all-volunteer community radio station.
While navigating her new role as a radio broadcaster, Dial became interested in learning more about the history of radio and its role in our society.
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