Tag Archives: Shortwave Radio

Purchasing the Digitech AR-1780 directly from Jaycar

Last week, I posted a review of the Digitech AR-1780–a compact receiver that is only sold in Jaycar retail stores throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Since I live in the US, I purchased my AR-1780 via an Australian distributor on eBay.

Several SWLing Post readers discovered direct orders can be placed with Jaycar, thus taking advantage of Jaycar’s sales.

A couple weeks ago, Post reader, Paul, shared his correspondence with Jaycar where they implied an order could be placed via email directly with a Jaycar representative. I reached out to this representative for clarification because I felt uneasy about even suggesting that readers send credit card information over email. I asked if they had a secure order form. I never heard back from Jaycar and have been too busy to follow-up.

Turns out, SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, just placed an order for the AR-1780 via Jaycar and shared the details–all it takes is a phone call. Troy writes:

I ordered the AR-1780 from Jaycar.

I contacted them through their web site, exchanged emails with a Customer Service Supervisor and she told me that they actually have a toll-free U.S. number that goes to their Australian call center (staffed during their business hours)! FYI, it’s:

1-800-784-0263

I got it for $134 AUD or $103.40 USD shipped!

Thanks for sharing, Troy! A great option for ordering Jaycar products in the US.

If any Post readers in Canada have also successfully placed an order through this toll free number, please comment!

VORW Radio International’s Updated Schedule

Radio Romania International launches a weekly “experimental” show in Hebrew

PNG Minister for Communication wants to invest in shortwave

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(Source: The Post Courier via Bill Lee)

Minister for Communication, Information Technology and Energy Sam Basil wants all 22 provinces to have short wave frequency radio stations.

He said this during the Central Province assembly induction program last week Friday in Port Moresby.

“My role as the minister is to make sure that we go back to all the 22 provinces to make sure that we revive the radio stations,” Mr Basil said.

He said most of the radio stations currently using frequency modulation (FM) face the problem of signal loose in the rural settings as it is only powered by repeater and could not be able to penetrate when it meets obstacles.

“This is to ensure that people are kept informed and in tuned with the government of the day,” Mr Basil said.

[…]“I want to go short wave and we want to bring back to all the provinces capital in Papua New Guinea through National Broadcasting Corporation so that people in the mountains can have excess to communication,” Mr Basil said.

Click here to read the full article at The Post Courier.

Radio Romania International celebrates 89 years of broadcasting

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(Source: Radio Romania International via David Iurescia, LW4DAF)

Ten years after WWI and the unification of Greater Romania, the most efficient and popular means of communication was first introduced in Romania: the radio. On November 1, 1928, the newly founded Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation aired its first broadcast. From the very beginning the radio was described as a means of public information, education and entertainment.

This year Radio Romania celebrates 89 years of continuous radio broadcasting. Despite having to constantly adapt its editorial policies, the public radio survived each radical change on the political spectrum, from the interwar democracy to right-wing dictatorships around the Second World War, and from the communist dictatorship to the democracy restored after the anti-communist revolution of 1989. For years now the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation has been considered one of the most trustworthy and reputed media institutions in Romania, due to its large number of listeners.

Radio Romania addresses all generations and caters for all tastes, addressing society as a whole. It consists of channels with nationwide coverage, Radio Romania News and Current Affairs, Radio Romania Culture, Radio Romania Music and the Village Antenna, as well as regional and local studios, Internet platforms and a children’s and youth station. The Romanian public radio has started broadcasting abroad ever since the 1930s.

Today, Radio Romania International tries to keeps both international audiences and Romanians living abroad up to date with news from Romania and our traditional values. RRI broadcasts in 11 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Serbian, Spanish, Russia, Ukrainian and starting this year, Hebrew, as well as in Romanian and the Aromanian dialect. Its target audience virtually includes the entire world, from Alaska to Australia, from Argentina to the Russian Far East.

Nearly nine decades since its first broadcast, Radio Romania continues to innovate, to reinvent itself and to adapt to the ever-increasing market competitiveness and legislative changes. One such change was the recent scrappage of the radio license fee, traditionally covered by taxpayers, which now means the institution is fully funded by the state, amidst criticism from the political, civil and journalistic fields over editorial interference.

Similarly, other voices from outside or within the institution have over the years signaled controversial managerial practices of successive administrations. Thanks to its professionals, however, Radio Romania remains the leading media institution in the country to date. (translated by Vlad Palcu)

Click here to read this article at Radio Romania International.

Deutsche Welle may have dropped English language shortwave service

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Paul Walker who notes that, according to their latest schedule, Deutsche Welle has dropped English language shortwave services. Paul shared the following links:

Current shortwave schedule:
http://www.dw.com/downloads/41133929/b17webkw.pdf

Linked from this page:
http://www.dw.com/en/dw-radio-programs/a-1777509

English only gets one hour a day on satellite
http://www.dw.com/downloads/41133930/b17websat.pdf

Radio World: Shortwave Station Bends But Doesn’t Break

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A second tower holding the 44-degree antenna was snapped in the middle.

(Source: Radio World via Richard Langley)

Among the many victims of Hurricane Irma in September was the transmitter/antenna farm of Radio Miami International, WRMI in Okeechobee, located on a cattle ranch 40 miles inland from Port St. Lucie on Florida’s Atlantic coast.

On Sunday Sept. 10, Irma’s roaring winds tore across the flat plains housing WRMI’s 23 antenna systems, comprising a total of 68 towers — the largest commercial shortwave radio transmission site in the United States. The hurricane-force winds snapped one of WRMI’s towers in half, leaving the torn metal lattice dangling suspended in the transmission lines. A second tower was bent in half like a paperclip. Many transmission lines radiating from WRMI’s central 16,000-square-foot transmitter building to the arrays also were knocked down along with the telephone poles that supported them.

The post-Irma scene looked as if a drunken giant had wandered across the cattle ranch and tripped repeatedly, taking down whatever he had stumbled across.[…]

Continue reading a Radio World.

Click here to view photos of the WRMI damage.