Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who writes:
Thomas: I found this in an old radio magazine. SWLPost is on The Intercept Watch!
Radio. July 1934
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio/30s/Radio-1934-07.pdf
73 Bill
How cool! Thank you for sharing, Bill!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares the following article from the excellent SolderSmoke Podcast:
The article about Sergeant Malik Pugh USMC on Okinawa brought back memories from the 1990s. David Cowhig was 73 Magazine’s Hambassador on Okinawa — I had the same “position” in the Dominican Republic. David and I were both in the Foreign Service; we joked that 73 had afforded us our only chances to be ambassadors of any kind. David’s Okinawa QSL and the opening from his initial report to 73 magazine appear above. You can see more here:
https://archive.org/details/
https://archive.org/details/
https://archive.org/details/
https://archive.org/details/
https://archive.org/details/
A couple of my own “dispatches” as Hambassdor to the Dominican Republic appear here:
https://www.gadgeteer.us/DRDISP.HTM
Back in the 90’s David sent me an old QST Magazine. I wrote about this on the SolderSmoke blog:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2015/07/been-there-done-that-he-begged-his.html
Later, I learned about another “Hambassador” who was still active as a radio amateur: Ron Gang 4X1MK:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2017/10/ron-gang-4x1mk-on-qso-today-podcast.html
Finally (and this is really cool): David Cowhig has been putting his language skills to good use, translating Chinese written material. He sent me his translation of the opening chapters of a Chinese science fiction novel about ham radio. Readers of the SolderSmoke Daily News will like this:
https://gaodawei.wordpress.com/2021/12/18/chinese-sf-ham-radio-web-novel-we-live-in-nanjing/
Check out this article and much more on the SolderSmoke podcast blog!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares the following article from the SolderSmoke Podcast:
Yesterday’s Washington Post had a good story about large solar storms. We are all aware of the Carrington Event (September 1859) but there were others. The Japanese painting above depicts an event of February 4, 1872.
From the Washington Post article:
Around 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 4, 1872, the sky above Jacobabad suddenly brightened, as if a portal to heaven had opened. A passerby watched in amazement and terror, while a pet dog became motionless, then trembled. The godly glow morphed, from red to bright blue to deep violet, until morning.
Electric communication cables mysteriously glitched in the Mediterranean, around Lisbon and Gibraltar, London and India. Confused telegraph operators in Cairo reported issues in sending messages to Khartoum. One incoming message asked what was the big red glow on the horizon — a fire or a faraway explosion?
This of course reminded me of the event that I witnessed as a teenager in New York in 1972:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/09/carrington-flares-aurora-where-were-you.html
That post has resulted in a steady stream of comments, mostly from non-hams. Apparently people remember seeing the event, then search the web for clues as to what it was. Google brings them to that post on the SolderSmoke Daily News. The comments are usually along the lines of, “Wow! I saw it too!” Very cool.
Check out this article, the full SolderSmoke podcast, and much more on the SolderSmoke website!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares the following article from the SolderSmoke Podcast:
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?
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who shares this story on the SolderSmoke Podcast and notes, “With more to follow…”
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!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and Soldersmoke host, Bill Meara, who shares the following from the Soldersmoke blog:
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!
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:
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:
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.