A different way of listening

Although I have been a licenced Radio Amateur for some years (thinking of it actually it will be 30 years this year!) I have always been a shortwave listener at heart. I entered the hobby through my interest in tuning around the shortwave bands in the late 1970s/Early 1980's. Those were the days, long before satellite TV and internet when the only way to hear news and views from foreign broadcasters was via your shortwave radio.

Times have changed of course and many, if not most of the big international broadcasters have left shortwave, even it seems the Voice of Russia is considering winding down its shortwave operations. The SW bands are now dominated by China but most of the familiar European stations are gone.

Around 8 or 9 years ago I purchased an Internet Radio which hooked into my WIFI and enabled a choice of I think around 20,000 Radio Stations worldwide. Most are local or National stations but some are the old international Broadcasters.

The selection of broadcasters available depends on the Internet "Portal" used by the receiver manufacturer. Some Portals carry more stations than others. My Original Logik radio uses the "Reciva" portal


Using some money I received for Christmas I have invested in a new WIFI radio a Roberts Stream 83i

This receiver uses the "Frontier Silicon" portal and whilst it doesnt appear to have as many radio stations listed as the "Reciva" portal there is still a fair selection. The radio itself is Superior to my old Logik with better sound quality, improved wifi sensitivity and the option of DAB and FM bands also.

I thought it would be interesting to see how many of the international broadcasters were available to listen to on internet radio with the results below, over both Reciva and Frontier Silicon portals:

Radio Slovakia

Vatican Radio

Voice of Russia

Deutsche Welle

Radio France International

Radio Exterior (Spain)

RRI (Romania)

Radio Tirahna (Foreign Service)

VOA

NHK Japan

Iran IRIB World Service

Radio Cairo

There are probably many others but these are the ones I have stumbled across. Its not the same as real shortwave of course but its nice to hear some of these familiar voices. It is slightly concerning that these days if the state wished to control our listening habits they could simply block the internet. There would be very few "Real" broadcasters left on the bands.

Some Progress

A little while back I posted about the problems I had with remote operation of my CCW SDR4+ SDR receiver.
Originally I had set the receiver up on my main PC, running windows 7 and I (and others) were able to access it over the internet using the SDR-Radio software. All was well until a problem with Win 7 on the PC meant I had to reinstall the OS, after that whatever I tried I could not get the remote access to work. After many fruitless hours I pretty much gave up.

Yesterday I dug out an old Windows XP laptop I have. After a bit of tweaking, to my surprise I was able to connect the SDR receiver to it and operate it remotely

The important part of the screenshot above is the little "OK"  near the bottom of the left hand section. That means the SDR server program is accessible online. I don't think I can use the laptop as a permanent solution. Whilst I am happy enough to leave PC in the shack running for a day or two am I a bit concerned that a laptop would overheat. Maybe I am over cautious? In any event I have at least proved that my router is ok and the settings I am using in the SDR software are correct. Clearly something in my Windows PC is blocking access. Finding out what is the difficulty.

Some Work required................

Some time ago I borrowed an old KW1000 linear amplifier from a local radio amateur friend. It had been here on long term loan for some time. My friend used it mainly on modes like DRM (digital SSTV) on 80 and 20 metres. Driving the linear with 10 watts it would happily run these high duty cycle modes giving around 100 watts.

Now this is a vintage piece of gear, at least 40 years old and surprisingly there is not that much information about it on the net although I do have a manual and circuit diagram for it.

I used the linear mainly on SSB and noted that whilst the linear would produce 350 watts or so on 40 metres with around 30 watts of drive power was down significantly once you got above 20 metres with a maximum output of 150 watts or so on 28mhz.Not too much of a problem at first as I only used the linear on the odd occasion and then mainly on 80 or 40 .

Now I had been warned that the output valves (or "tubes") were probably "soft" and this was likely to be the reason for the low output. indeed the linear should have been capable of a higher output on its current best band of 40 metres!

To cut a long story short the owner of the KW had bought another old linear (A Yeasu FL2100) and offered me the KW at a knock down price, too good to resist. So now owning the linear I thought I would treat it to a new set of 572B valves. I sourced a matched pair of Chinese made 572bs and ordered them up. They were quite expensive, in fact costing more than I paid for the linear itself!

When the new valves arrived I set about removing the covers of the linear, not an easy task on the KW1000 I think the case is truly a horrible design for easy access!

PA Compartment open

It took me almost an hour to get to this stage!

The 572Bs were then removed. Far from being a matched pair the existing valves were not even a pair. One was a Chinese made valve, the other a U.S.A branded "Cetron". They didnt look physically damaged in anyway unlike the 6146bs I removed from my TS830

 U.S 572B

Chinese 572

One of the new 572's on left with the two old ones. The glass envelope looks a lot cleaner on the new one.

Anyway I fitted the new valves and well............errr very little difference- everything works but output power still down. So what next? Well on 80 metres the load control is fully closed yet It looks as if I need more capacitance. with some help I think we have identified a capacitor that it switched in on 80 in series with the load control- this may need replacing plus there are some other issues that may need work- watch this space! Given the voltages inside however I am VERY wary and extremely careful when working on this unit.

I am hoping to get this linear working a little better. It does seem more robust and easier to use than the "Loudenboomer" I still have here in the shack.

New Rig

Here is the latest addition to the shack. An Icom 7000. I did for a while consider the Icom 7100 but it is more expensive and I have to say I didn't particularly like the styling of that rig and I have no need of D-Star which doesn't interest me or a touch screen, so the 7000 was the choice.

The 7000 is mainly going to be on 6metre/2metre and 70cms duty here although I will of course be trying it out on HF but I still have the Yaesu FT1000mp as the main HF rig.

First impressions are quite favourable, the Icom seems a little more sensitive on 70cms than my Yaesu 857 and reports on transmitted audio have been good.

Programming the memories does not seem that easy however and I will be ordering a CAT cable for the rig so I can program it on the PC.

The dealer I bought this rig from (Martin Lynch and Sons in the UK) is advertising on their website that Icom have ceased production of the 7000- presumably the 7100 is replacing it but I haven't seen confirmation of this anywhere else.

Computer problems

I have been beset by computer problems lately. Firstly the machine I operate my SDR receiver on crashed. No real problem, this is my main pc and the important stuff- files, pictures etc was backed up. I just did a reinstall of Windows 7 and all was well. Actually not quite. I can no longer operate my SDR receiver remotely. I think the problem relates to a port I need to open. Try as I might I cant get it to work. Even with the router and the PC firewalls off, nothing seems to do it. So for now I have given up on it, I just don't have the time to spend on the PC.

My other machine in the shack was running Windows Vista. For some reason this machine decided it didn't like working with the interface I use for PSK etc. This interface uses a USB connection to switch the PTT on the rig. I remember having one or two problems first  setting it up due to driver issues (It needs a cp 2102 USB to UART driver which looking at Google seems to cause problems for some.) but I had it up and running fairly quickly . Now try as I might I cannot get the machine to work with it. My other machine accepts the driver and recognises the interface fine, but that's no use as it is on the wrong side of the shack too far away from the radio!! So far I have spent a few hours on this problem but have got nowhere.
The hobby was a lot simpler before we used computers!!

Noise!!

Did a couple of hours HF operation from the YL's QTH this weekend. The noise level there is terrible. 80 metres is pretty much unusable, 40 is extremely noisy. I think it would be very difficult to carry on the hobby from this location permanently!

The first short video shows me tuning the TS450 around the amateur bands

and then a few of the broadcast bands.

What a racket! 

A new one for me!

I have never been . the keenest of Dxers, I am.more of a listener and a ragchewer when it comes to radio. My motto however has always been if I do hear the DX and I have the opportunity I will try to work it!
Tuning around an otherwise quiet 10 metre band this afternoon I heard VP8LP at good strength (a genuine S9) calling CQ. I went back to him and got a 5/4 report on my second call. Proof that the Antron CB vertical works OK on 10. I qsy'ed a little further down the band and called CQ but had no replies. Tuning around I could hear nothing else . I guess that's what makes 10 metres such an interesting band.