Tag Archives: SWLing Post

2022: A New Year and New Hopes!

Dear Friends,

I think we can all agree that 2021 was a more challenging year than any of us would have liked.

Here’s hoping 2022 is a turning point in the pandemic, and let’s hope the New Year brings new opportunities to appreciate our world both on the ground and over the airwaves.

Happy New Year!

Thomas

PS: I’d like to thank our friend Carlos Latuff for the brilliant artwork at the top of this page! If you’ve been following Carlos’ posts here on the SWLing Post, you’ll know that during the pandemic he’s been focusing on the world of Clandestine radio and, specifically, the conflict in Ethiopia. His frequent posts remind me that shortwave radio–even in 2022–is still a meaningful source of direct news for certain communities and the signals cannot be stopped at national borders regardless of who is in power.

Thank you, Carlos!

Spread the radio love

Updates: SWLing Post email subscription, correspondence, and gratitude…

6 Replies

Hello, SWLing Post community!

I just wanted to share a few quick notes this morning:

1.) New email subscription service up and running

As we mentioned in previous posts, we are now using a new paid email subscription service (Aweber) for those who want to receive a daily digest of SWLing Post articles. It’s super easy to sign up, and I’d encourage you to do so if you haven’t already.

We’ve replaced Feedburner’s free email delivery service which Google has announced (after pushing out the date once) will close sometime in August 2021. As of today, it seems email digests are still being propagated via Feedburner, but note that it will end this month when Google turns off the service.

Again, check out our initial post about the transition if you have any questions.

At time of posting, we have 691 subscribers on the new service.

2.) Swimming in email

I love correspondence from readers, but as I mention on my contact page it can take me days or even weeks to respond especially if you need a complex, multi-answer reply. I do my best to reply to each and every email I get, but these days it can be very difficult because my free time to reply is so limited. On average, I receive anywhere from 30-40 emails from readers per day that require a reply, but only have perhaps 30-60 minutes per day to answer them, thus they stack up. Every few weeks, I try to work through the backlog when I have a morning or afternoon free to do so.

A few suggestions/requests that would really help me:

If you have a news tip, it would help to note that in the subject line of the email; for example, “News Tip: RCI to build shortwave transmitter on the moon.” That sort of thing. 🙂

If you have a guest post proposal, please note this in the subject line; for example, “Guest Post Proposal: How to build a benchmark receiver with chewing gum and four shoe boxes.” I absolutely love guest posts because by virtue of publishing them, I get to read and enjoy them as well. I’ve learned so much from your amazing articles. Thing is–and I’m sure anyone who’s been blogging for a few years can relate–we receive mountains of SPAM guest post and sponsored posts emails from (I’m guessing?) robots. Or androids. Or possibly Skynet…the point is, anything you can do to make your email stand out by showing you’re a human and you have a real radio article would help. This is especially important if it’s your first time contacting me.

If you have a specific technical question–especially one where you’re trying to gather input to make a quick decision–consider leaving a comment/question in an appropriate post before contacting me. The SWLing Post has a daily readership in excess of 7,000 individuals; if you post a question in the comments, there’s a strong likelihood it will be answered in short order! [There’s an even better chance it’ll be a more accurate response than you’d get from me!]

If you want to contact, me feel free to do so! Just understand if it takes time to reply. I especially enjoy your kind comments, compliments, and encouragement. Please don’t stop sending those. 🙂

I actually caught up with my email backlog this weekend only to discover this morning that (at some point a few weeks ago) Google started sending loads of legitimate readers emails to my SPAM folder. I rescued about 52 messages from SPAM this morning. If you haven’t gotten a reply from me, this is likely why. I’m going to attempt to work through many of these this afternoon.

3.) Thank you…

As always, thank you. The SWLing Post is a labor of love and I’m fueled by your kind words and, yes, by your generosity via our Coffee Fund and Patreon. The SWLing Post will always be free to read, and free of annoying pop-up ads. Never feel like you have to support the site–especially if you have a tight budget–but I certainly appreciate your support if you can. I’m still amazed each day by the incredible radio community that has developed around this site. It’s truly an honor to be its curator and custodian.

Thank you,

Thomas

Spread the radio love

Reminder: Sign up for our new SWLing Post Email Digest today!

9 Replies

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, sometime in July 2021 (possibly tomorrow?) the email subscription service we’ve used since 2008–Feedburner–will be shutting down.

We’ve invested in a new email service that is actually much better than the old one.

Please sign up for the new service in the form below or via this dedicated sign up page.

Sign up form:

Note that if you don’t sign up for the new service, your email subscription to the SWLing Post Digest will end at some point in July 2021. Sign up for the new service to avoid disruption.

Spread the radio love

Important: Sign up for the new SWLing Post Email Newsletter!

7 Replies

As mentioned in a previous post, we are migrating from Feedburner to a new email subscription service called Aweber.

Feedburner has announced that they will discontinue all email delivery at some point in July 2021.

If you are currently a subscriber to the SWLing Post email digest, you will need to subscribe to the new service in order to continue receiving daily email digests.

Of course, this does not affect RSS subscribers or WordPress subscribers–only those currently using Feedburner (about 1,700 of our readers).

If you receive our newsletter and would like to continue, please sign up for the new service in the form below or via this page.

Sign up form:

Note that if you can’t see the form above, click here to use this dedicated sign up page.

Spread the radio love

Important: Upcoming changes to SWLing Post email newsletters

3 Replies

If you’re one of the 1,700 people who have an email subscription to the SWLing Post via Feedburner, please take note:

No more Feedburner

In July 2021, the email delivery system we’ve used for daily email newsletters, Feedburner, is scaling back their operations and will discontinue email delivery. This means, if you subscribe to the SWLing Post via Feedburner, email newsletters will soon stop.

Feedburner is owned by Google and has been a free email subscription service. While it has had issues in the past (Google actually dropped almost all support for it a decade ago!) many website owners like me continued to use it because it “just works” and has a very simple interface.

Are you subscribed to the SWLing Post via Feedburner?

If you receive a daily email digest from the SWLing Post and, at the bottom of the email, you find the following footer, then you are subscribed via Feedburner:

If you don’t see this footer, then you may be subscribed via WordPress and, most likely, don’t receive a daily digest, but an email with each post as they are published.

A new email subscription system

I am looking into a new system for email newsletters that should pair very nicely with the SWLing Post.

My policy with any changes on the SWLing Post is that they will always be meaningful upgrades.

There are no free email subscriptions services that can handle the number of subscribers we have and that meet my requirements for being simple to use, containing no annoying non-relevant ads and pop-ups, and respecting subscriber privacy.

I’ve been looking into the best paid services in the business: companies that insure subscriber privacy and have a reliable track record. I’m in the process of finalizing purchase now. This will cost at least $30/month, but I’m happy to pay that knowing that the service is benchmark.

Next step!

In the next few days, I’ll post details with a subscription link to the new service.

While I have a spreadsheet with all 1,700+ email subscribers, I’d rather you sign up for the service directly if you decide to use it. This will cut down on any bounce-back emails and set it up initially with a clean list.

Spread the radio love

A little offline and on-radio time!

4 Replies

For the next week or so, I’m going to have limited Internet service, but lots of radio time. I’m looking forward to it!

There shouldn’t be an interruption here on the SWLing Post, but I will not have a lot of time to reply to questions via email. Feel free to continue sending your tips, articles, and stories, but if you have in-depth questions, it could take me a couple or more weeks to get back to you as I’m pretty sure my email will stack up during this time.

It’s ironic, but this crazy “Social DXing” year has provided me the opportunity to review and evaluate more gear than I ever have in one calendar year. On the flip side, I’ve been so busy doing evaluations that I’ve had less time to enjoy pure SWLing fun. I’m looking forward to fixing that this week!

If you have a radio related question, I’d encourage you to post it in the comments section of a related post (or even this post). We’ve an active community of radio enthusiasts here who are incredibly helpful.

Cheers & Happy Listening!

Thomas

Spread the radio love

Major SWLing Post server upgrades and possible down time

1 Reply

Our amazing web host, Innoscale, will be performing a major upgrade to the SWLing Post server sometime between 5:00-9:00 UTC on Wednesday, August 12, 2020.

The site could be offline for a full hour during this time. There could even be some quirky behavior after the upgrade as we sort out any database and PHP upgrade nuances, etc.

Innoscale

It’s funny: sometimes those companies I rely on the most, steadily do their job in the background and I only think about them when something goes wrong or when I need their assistance.

Web hosts are that way. If everything is going well, they’re almost invisible.

I’ve hosted the SWLing Post with Innoscale for many years now (and with their predecessor since 2009)–I must say that they are an incredible company. They have 24/7 customer support from real people–in fact, always the same team of people so they actually know who we are.

These days, we receive around 7,000 or so daily pageviews on average, but that number can spike to well over 15,000 some days. Our Innoscale cloud server has never slowed down or failed us during traffic spikes. The server isn’t low-cost by any means, but it’s more affordable than a dedicated server and just as speedy. Thanks to our sponsors, Patreons and Coffee Fund contributors I’m able to make sure our site is speedy, virus-free, secure, and backed-up constantly. I also know there’s a team of people at Innoscale to help out when there’s a problem or, like now, when we do an upgrade.

If your company or business is looking for a robust people-powered host, I can recommend Innoscale without hesitation. Click here to check out their website.

And, again, thanks for your patience while we perform our upgrades tomorrow morning!

Spread the radio love