Tag Archives: Videos

WU2D and “Dream” SW Receivers of the 1960s and 70s

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara, who shares this most recent post from his excellent SolderSmoke Podcast blog:

Mike WU2D Looks at the “Dream” SW Receivers of the 1960s and 70s (Video)

Wow, I really liked Mike’s walk down memory lane. I saw several of my own dream receivers:

S-38E. Indeed, this little monster did add some danger to your life. AKA “The Widow Maker,” I gave one to my cousin’s husband so he could listen to what the commies on Radio Moscow were saying. He later told me that the receiver had given him a shock. I now have TWO S-38Es in my shack (two more than I really need). I have installed isolation transformers in both of them, so they have lost the one element (danger!) that made them attractive.

HA-600A. I got this one for Christmas in 1972. The A model is MUCH better than the plain vanilla HA-600. I recently got another HA-600A and found serious deficiencies in the Product Detector. Has anyone else noticed these problems? BACKGROUND INFO AND A PLEA FOR MORE INFO HERE: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=HA-600A+Product+Detector

HQ-100. Got one in the Dominican Republic. Fixed it up, repairing damages caused by radio life in the tropics. Disabled the goofy audio amplifier circuitry. I now wonder if this receiver might benefit from the insertion of a 455 kc ceramic filter.

NC190. Wow “Cosmic Blue” Perhaps this was an early influence that led to “Juliano Blue?”

HQ-180. “18 tubes and almost as many knobs!” FB!

HRO-500. Love the dial.

Transoceanic. Never had one, but built a BFO for the Transoceanic that W8NSA took with him to SE Asia during the war.

R-390A. I don’t have a crane for the workbench.

Thanks Mike — that was a lot of fun.

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AWA Presentation by Matt Zullo: “The US Navy’s On-The-Roof Gang”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Erdle, who shares the following:

Hi Thomas,

I thought that you SWLing visitors might enjoy this presentation from the Antique Wireless Association:

The US Navy’s On-The-Roof Gang – Pioneers of Radio Intelligence:

Video description: Author Matt Zullo is a retired U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer who has more than 35 years’ experience in Radio Intelligence, now more commonly known as Communications Intelligence. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, where he researched and wrote his master’s thesis on the On-the-Roof Gang, which tells the story of story of the 176 Sailors and Marines who, starting in 1921, learned the Japanese katakana telegraphic code in order to intercept Imperial Japanese Navy communications, setting in motion events that would lead to the birth of the US Navy’s communications intelligence organization. Join Matt in this “AWA Shares” presentation as he discusses the importance of this pioneering effort in signals intelligence.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the On-The-Roof Gang series.

For more info about AWA’s presentations, click here.

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Video: Dave sets up the Chameleon CHA-RXL

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike, who shares the following video from David Casler featurin the CHA RXL amplified loop antenna:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thank you for the tip, Mike!

I just checked out the loop at Chameleon and discovered that they’re currently offering a sale on the “two sections” version of the CHA-RXL. Click here to check it out.

Also, if you live in Switzerland or Europe, Lutz Electronics is now a distributor of Chameleon products.

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Video: Story of Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation’s move to a new broadcasting house

Live video of startup, tuning, and transmitting from Alexanderson Alternator SAQ

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Hats off to the crew at the UNESCO World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station!

Today is Sunday July 4, 2021. Besides being Independence Day here in the States, it’s also Alexanderson Day in Sweden!

This morning, I discovered a video on the Grimeton Station YouTube channel: a recording of their live stream live stream starting around 08:30 UTC today.

In the video, you can watch the crew of the Grimeton station startup, tune, and transmit on their 1924 Alexanderson Alternator with the callsign SAQ. Their message is sent in CW on 17.2 kHz. The video is absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend watching it. The startup and tuning procedure are simply amazing. I can only imagine the dedication and resources it takes to keep this marvel of 1920s engineering fully functional today:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Happy July 4th, everyone!

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Videos: Nick explores synchronous detection and the Racal 6217

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Nick Boras, who shares the following:

I was motivated by one of Tom Styles videos (hamrad88) about Sync detection to make one of my own. It is no secret that Tecsun offers Sync on several of their radios but only the 660 and 680 really work. My take on Sync is that the results are not consistent even on some of the highest rated Sync radios. While my video is not scientific or nearly complete, I think it gives a good representation of what we can expect from Sync for SWL.

[In addition] today was Radio Day, so I made another video on a very interesting radio:

Thought your readers might be interested.

We are indeed! Thank you for sharing these videos, Nick! That Racal, by the way, is a beautiful beast of a rig!

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Giuseppe is impressed with the performance of his homebrew passive loop antenna

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who shares the following:

Dear Thomas, I’m Giuseppe Morlè from central Italy, the Tyrrhenian Sea, Formia.

Today I tested my noise canceling loop inside the radio station by comparing it to the crossed loops. Again, like my medium wave T Ferrite, this loop proved to be very quiet, practically immune to house noise.

You can see my two videos about listening to the Voice of Turkey and a QSO on 40m. between radio amateurs–a test with two different powers, one high in AM and another much lower among radio amateurs.

Here are the videos from my YouTube channel:

Click here to view on YouTube.

A nice result knowing that we are receiving inside my radio station. The homebrew NCPL antenna you encouraged me to build is truly amazing.

Best wishes to you and the SWLing Post community.

73 by Giuseppe Morlè IZ0GZW.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and these videos with us, Giuseppe. It is very encouraging that we have some antenna options that help us cope with all of the RFI generated within our homes! Thank you again!

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