{"id":19884,"date":"2016-07-10T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=19884"},"modified":"2016-07-11T08:41:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T12:41:05","slug":"a-review-of-the-bst-1-car-shortwave-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/a-review-of-the-bst-1-car-shortwave-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"A review of the BST-1 car shortwave radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BST1<\/a><\/p>\n

The following article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of The Spectrum Monitor Magazine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/a>

The BST-1 receiver.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year, I was approached by die-hard shortwave radio listener Fred Studenberg, who had an idea that at first seemed outmoded, but soon had me intrigued: he wanted to design and build a car radio. Well, a car shortwave<\/em> radio.<\/p>\n

Studenberg described his ideal car receiver. It seems he\u2019d abandoned the idea of making a radio along the lines of a Sony, for example, that takes the place of an existing car radio. Rather, Studenberg, with singular purpose, envisioned something quite unique: a little black box shortwave that could be easily installed in the back of a vehicle, transmitting audio from the shortwave receiver to the car\u2019s system via an FM transmitter link. One would tune the car radio to an FM frequency\u2013\u2013say, to 88.5\u2013\u2013and listen to the shortwave receiver which would be located at a convenient location, near the mobile antenna, somewhere in the car (in the trunk, under a seat, etc.).<\/p>\n

I was doubtful…and for good reason. To begin with, I\u2019ve never used an effective audio FM transmitter link in a vehicle. They\u2019re all rather mediocre, and usually inject noise\u2013\u2013or, are simply too weak to be effective. Secondly, I imagined it would be frustrating to remotely operate a little black box stashed in the trunk of your car without some form of display feedback at hand, showing frequencies and so forth. Plus, I concluded, wouldn\u2019t it be a pain to install? And how would you control such a shortwave receiver? To top it off, I just couldn\u2019t imagine such a system coping with the RF-noisy environment of an car. The more I thought about it, the less feasible it seemed. I hated to disappoint Fred with my concerns.<\/p>\n

I needn\u2019t have worried. Thing was, Studenberg had already developed <\/em>said car shortwave radio, and even had a video of it being used in his own car<\/a>:<\/p>\n