{"id":9564,"date":"2014-05-13T10:50:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T14:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=9564"},"modified":"2014-05-14T08:01:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T12:01:07","slug":"eric-remembers-swling-while-deployed-in-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/eric-remembers-swling-while-deployed-in-abu-dhabi\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric remembers SWLing while deployed in Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an email last week, my good friend Eric McFadden (WD8RIF)<\/a>, mentioned the shortwave radio set-up he used\u00a0while deployed in\u00a0Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates back in the early 1990’s. I asked Eric for permission to post his email notes–not only did he agree, but he also found photos he took at the time.<\/p>\n

Eric notes:<\/p>\n

\"Desert_Storm_SW_Abu_Dhabi_UAE_01\"<\/a>[F]or the Desert Shield\/Storm, aka the First Gulf War, I took my Sangean ATS-803A with a doublet fashioned from two Radio Shack audio cables. The doublet was an audio cable with an RCA on one end and lugs on the other; I split the conductors all the way down to the RCA connector and it was almost the right length for a proper 31m dipole.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Desert_Storm_SW_Abu_Dhabi_UAE_02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The feedline was an audio extension (+\/- 25′) with a male RCA on one end and a female on the other end. The ‘803A had a proper RCA antenna connector instead of a silly phone connector. I hung the doublet between the peaks of two of our 10-man tents, the front of our tent and the back of our neighbors’. When the UAE winds ultimately broke the doublet at the RCA connector, I stripped the ends and made a random-length end-fed wire out of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Desert_Storm_SW_Abu_Dhabi_UAE_03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our tents had AC-power (and A\/C cooling and heat-pump heat) and I’m pretty sure I powered the ‘803A from the “mains” instead of stuffing D-cells into the radio. D-cells were available in the little BX on the base, of course.<\/em><\/p>\n

The three photos [above] are of my installation in our tent-city at Al Dhafra Airbase near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I did deploy my 31m dipole here. These photos were from before the dipole broke and was replaced by an end-fed wire build from the pieces of the broken dipole.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"[This<\/a>

[This photo] was from inside our “hooch” on the Lockheed Compound near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/p><\/div>That ATS-803A was a great receiver. It’s only real flaw was its size and weight. The size, of course, allowed for a really fine speaker. I traded the ‘803A in at UAR when I bought the ‘7600G and the little active [AN-LP1 loop] antenna when we thought we were to be deployed to Kosovo[.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s text from my journal I wrote shortly after returning stateside:<\/em><\/p>\n

“I found many interesting and exotic stations on\u00a0my shortwave radio, a Sangean ATS-803A and a\u00a0simple dipole antenna, but as the war progressed,
\nI settled on the BBC for their award-winning news\u00a0coverage.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Many thanks, Eric!<\/strong>\u00a0I’m happy to hear such a good report of the Sangean ATS-803A–there are still many 803A’s\u00a0on the used market (click here to search eBay<\/a>\"\").<\/p>\n

Indeed, I just realized that while you were deployed in the UAE, I used the Radio Shack branded version of the ATS-803A: the Radio Shack DX-440<\/a>\u00a0while studying French and living in Grenoble, France. The DX-440 delivered my\u00a0daily dose of the Voice of America<\/em> (the only English language news I allowed myself to listen to at the time). Since the VOA broadcast often coincided with meal time at the\u00a0Universit\u00e9 Stendhal<\/em>\u00a0cafeteria, I left my voice-activated Micro Cassette recorder in front of the DX-440 which was, in turn, set to turn on one minute prior to the VOA broadcast. It was an amazingly reliable arrangement. (Hard to believe that was over 20 years ago!)<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, I’ll have to dig up those micro cassettes and see if I still happen to have one with a recorded broadcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an email last week, my good friend Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), mentioned the shortwave radio set-up he used\u00a0while deployed in\u00a0Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates back in the early 1990’s. I asked Eric for permission to post his email notes–not only did he agree, but he also found photos he took at the time. Eric notes: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,26,43,5,1154],"tags":[2891,2887,2890,2889,2793,1153,2888],"class_list":["post-9564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-radios","category-shortwave-radio","category-swlers","category-travel","tag-dx-440","tag-eric-mcfadden","tag-radio-shack-dx-440","tag-sangean-ats-803a","tag-shortwave-radio-travel","tag-shortwave-travel","tag-wd8rif"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-2ug","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24253,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/eric-spots-a-drake-spr-4-shortwave-receiver-on-ebay\/","url_meta":{"origin":9564,"position":0},"title":"Eric spots a Drake SPR-4 shortwave receiver on eBay","author":"Thomas","date":"February 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), who is quite a Drake fan and recently spotted this SPR-4 on eBay. The seller has it listed as an auction currently at $400, but with a BuyItNow price of $600 US. That's a fairly\u00a0steep price considering Universal Radio has sold\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Drake-SPR-4-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Drake-SPR-4-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Drake-SPR-4-1024x768.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23462,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/ebay-find-sangean-ats-818-shortwave-portable\/","url_meta":{"origin":9564,"position":1},"title":"eBay Find: Sangean ATS-818 shortwave portable","author":"Thomas","date":"January 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"While browsing eBay a few moments ago, I noticed this Sangean ATS-818 which has a BuyItNow price of $30.00 + $15.00 shipping. If this would have been the ATS-803A\/DX-440, I would have snatched it up in an instant if only for nostalgic reasons. I know many people that cut their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deals"","block_context":{"text":"Deals","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/deals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Sangean-ATS-818.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Sangean-ATS-818.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Sangean-ATS-818.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Sangean-ATS-818.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37112,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/summer-2019-global-radio-guide-now-available-as-ebook\/","url_meta":{"origin":9564,"position":2},"title":"Summer 2019 Global Radio Guide now available as ebook","author":"Thomas","date":"May 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), who notes that the Global Radio Guide: Summer 2019 is now available at Amazon.com as an ebook. The price is $8.49, but if you belong to the Kindle Unlimited program, it's free to read. Click here to check it out at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Global-Radio-Guide.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":31726,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/international-marconi-day-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":9564,"position":3},"title":"International Marconi Day Announcement","author":"Thomas","date":"April 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden, for sharing the following announcement for International Marconi Day. 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