Drake R8B- an old friend revisited (almost)

Back around 15 years ago or so I bought a Drake R8A receiver. It was the first real top- flight receiver I had owned and I remember being very impressed with it. I even used it with some PC software which back then was quite a novelty being able to tune a radio using the PC. Eventually I sold this receiver, I can’t remember why now but it was probably to fund some new shack equipment. I regretted selling it soon enough but these receivers seem fairly rare in the UK so I never managed to pick up another.

Although I have held an amateur radio licence for over 30 years and am active on the bands from time to time I have always been an SWL at heart and always have a few dedicated receivers in the shack. In recent years I have had receivers which were top of the range in their day. I still have an Icom R70 and a Kenwood R5000 here, both still very good performers.

Just before Christmas however I spotted a Drake R8B on Ebay. It was advertised as having a fault. That fault was that on switch on the radio showed “PWRLOS” on the display. This is in fact not a fault, it simply means that the receiver had been unplugged from the mains supply, the internal clock has lost the time and needs resetting. If this was the only fault then there should be no problems.

I took a gamble and bid and won the receiver. It didn’t sell at a particularly cheap price but then again it sold for lower than I would expect, no doubt due to the advertised “Fault”.

Well the receiver duly arrived and on unboxing it I found I was lucky. Resetting the clock fixed things and I had an operating R8B. A quick wipe with a cloth and a little polish and the receiver seemed in good condition.

Well how does it compare to the other receivers I have? One thing I had forgotten from my old days of Drake ownership. It dwarfs the R5000 and is substantially bigger than the Icom R70.

 Build quality is not as good as either rig. It seems more flimsy than the R5000 and the R70 which is built like a tank! The Drake has a very light feeling VFO knob too!

This may sound like I am disappointed with this set, but actually I am not. The audio quality on the R8A once you plug in an external speaker is superb. It has a good range of IF filters 6,4,2.3,1.8 and 0.5khz, effective passband tuning and notch filter and synchronous AM detection.  It would be ideal for a Medium Wave Dxer as it has good sensitivity through the band. I also find the numeric keypad ideal for navigating the bands just by punching in a frequecncy.It is also controllable via a PC although getting suitable software for it these days will be a challenge.

Unusual Receiver

I picked up this receiver at a local radio rally a few weeks back.  It is an RX80. It was made from a kit Featured in the RSGB magazine "Radcom" in 1981. It is amateur bands only but since it has a digital frequency readout I suppose it was quite advanced for its time. I have never seen one before and as you can see below this is a working example although the WARC bands (10 18 and 24 mhz )dont seem to function.

A new (but old) addition

Here is the latest addition to my Shack. As a young shortwave listener in the 1980's I always wanted one of these receivers but back then it was of course well out of my price range. It is the Icom R70

I managed to get an immaculate example of this receiver at a reasonable price and I am very pleased with it. It is a heavy, well built set, it feels far more substantial than the Kenwood receivers I have from the same era.
It is however quite a quirky receiver in some ways. Each time you turn the receiver on it defaults to the same frequency (15mhz in general coverage mode and 7 mhz in HAM mode). In addition you tune in 1 MHZ bands and you must use the UP and DOWN buttons to go to the next Mhz segment. In other words if you are at 7.999 Mhz and keep tuning, rather than go up to 8.000mhz the R70 rolls back down to 7.000mhz. Quite an odd way of doing things. Still as an HF receiver the R70 is excellent and I think this one is a "keeper".

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.

Shortwave Listening.

I managed to do quite a bit of shortwave listening over the past weekend and have been putting my new SDR4+ receiver through its paces. Rather than clog up this post with my ramblings about my new toy you can click here to find out a bit more about it.
Suffice it to say I am rather impressed with this little rig!

Christmas is coming.....

Well in my shack anyway! An early Christmas present in the form of an SDR shortwave radio. This is the Cross Country Wireless SDR4+ which I received last week.

It covers from around 900Khz to 30 Mhz and so far I am very impressed. In the main I have been using the SDR-Radio Software to control the radio.

I have even managed to set the radio up so I can remotely tune and listen to it over the internet. If you visit SDRSPACE.COM and down load the software you will see a number of receivers that you can remotely use. Mine isnt on 24/7 at the moment though.

I will write further on the SDR4+ soon but for now I am enjoying tuning the bands with it.

Sad News

If you are  in any way interested in Shortwave listening you may already have seen or heard the news that the English service of Radio Netherlands is closing down at the end of this month.
This in itself is not that surprising, many international broadcasters have left shortwave, generally replacing their broadcasts with an internet based service.
The shock news here is that Radio Netherlands is also closing its English webstream. so no more Radio Netherlands via my internet radio. This is a real shame RN's programmes were high quality and very informative in fact they were easily the most listened to station on my Internet Radio. So maybe we are not just witnessing the demise of shortwave broadcasting but also international broadcasting via the web. It is puzzling as in the past such broadcasters have always maintained an internet presence, In any event I will miss Radio Netherlands!

How not to do it

From time to time its possible to hear bad signals in the amateur bands. Wide SSB signals, overdriven audio. In fact about a week ago I discovered I was getting some RF into my Kenwood MC80 base Mic and have swopped to a hand microphone whilst I get the problem sorted out.
But take a listen to this, far worse than any amateur signal I have ever heard.Its a Broadcast station on the 49 Metre band. I have noticed this awful transmission for a few weeks. It is I believe Radio Cairo, the signal splatters all over the band and is impossible to demodulate. Just to show its not a problem with my old Kenwood R5000, I switch quickly in the video to a "normal" AM signal.

In fact since taking this video I have found that Radio Cairo is supposedly transmitting on 6270, reception was no clearer there but with my R5000 tuned to 6285 you can see how wide and awful their signal is!

Enjoy!

End of year

This is the QSL card and sticker I received from Radio Prague just before Christmas.As a young SWL I used to send reception reports to many broadcast stations (back in the 80's there were quite a few more of them) but its something I have not done for years. When I heard that Radio Prague is to leave the airwaves at the end of January 2011 I thought I would send a report for one of their last QSLs. I am also awaiting a card from Radio Slovakia, another broadcaster about to leave shortwave.

So for 2011 I will be trying to collect QSLs from some of the remaining broadcasters-who knows it may be the last year of major international broadcasting?

One of my radio ambitions for 2010 was to get back into using CW. Sadly, although I have been doing some practice and am able to receive reasonably well I have yet to pluck up the courage to get on the air with the key! So this will become my goal for 2011. I used to love CW and bitterly regret not keeping up my skills with it when I was younger. Now in my forties getting back into the mode seems much more of a struggle.

Anyway a happy and healthy 2011 to you all and I hope to hear and work some of you on the bands in 2011. Who knows it may even be on CW!

Another one bites the dust!

Further to my last entry- I mentioned that Radio Prague allowed you to submit reception reports online. Well not for much longer as it seems that Radio Prague is also about to leave the shortwave bands at the end of 2010. It seems that the days of European Shortwave broadcasters are numbered with the internet taking over. As radio amateurs this may be good news in the long term as it looks as if there will be a lot of empty space on shortwave. Maybe we will get an extra band or two?

reception reports

It appears that another international shortwave broadcaster will soon be no more. Radio Solvakia International is to cease shortwave broadcasts at the end of this year. As I was working from home today I was able to tune into one of their daytime broadcasts on the trusty R1000 and I have sent a reception report in the hope of getting one of their last QSL cards.
It seems that the international broadcaster for Argentina RAE may also soon cease broadcasting on shortwave- I will keep an ear out for them. I see that some broadcasters now allow you to submit a report electronically-Radio Prague being an example although apparently they still send a paper QSL.

Radio Sweden

Having resurrected the R1000 I was cruising the broadcast bands and stumbled on Radio Sweden on 15735 Khz. They were announcing the fact that from October 31st this year they will no longer transmit on Shortwave. So another well known international broadcaster leaves the airwaves. Interesting my Interner Radio (based on the RECIVA platform) does not seem to list Radio Sweden. Their website at http://sverigesradio.se/international/
doesn't seem to offer any clues either.

New schedule from Oct 31

Short wave disappears, still on satellite around the world, live webcasts, and FM nationally.

Dreaming...

Pictured is my Trio R1000 communications receiver. I bought this from Ebay years ago, its a good little receiver but nothing really remarkable but this one is slightly different from the usual.
A few years back I purchased a little circuit board, which when fitted to the R1000 gives me a 12Khz output from the IF of the receiver. This output can then be connected to the input of a PC soundcard.
The reason for doing this was in order to decode something called DRM. Now this is not another amateur radio data mode, nor am talking about  the digital slow scan TV which is sometimes referred to as DRM, although I think the software technology is similar. This DRM is a transmission used by International Shortwave broadcasters. This mode was supposed to revolutinise shortwave radio. it offered  the potential of clear, FM- like transmission, even in stereo with a text display similar to that seen in todays DAB receivers. And when it works, it is impressive. The first time I decoded a DRM transmission I was amazed at the quality, better than the sound you get from web based streaming for example. So what happened? Why hasn't DRM taken off? Well for one thing Shortwave has been overtaken by the internet and many of the larger broadcasters have left the Shortwave spectrum. The other problem is that receivers for DRM are not and never have been widely available. Some PC based SDR type radios (like the WinRadio for example) have the facility to receive DRM but apart from that it is not possible to buy DRM receivers easily. Lastly and perhaps more importantly the mode isn't at its best on Shortwave. Like many digital mediums any interference or fading and the reception breaks up very quickly. To illustrate this, in my experience a signal strength of around S9+10db would be a minimum for reliable reception. If you want to hear a DRM signal try tuning arround 6090 khz, if you can hear a sort of "white noise" thats it.
I think Medium wave would have been the best band for DRM, allowing us to have high quality reception on the band, but for some resaon DRM on the Medium Wave  just didn't happen. So for the present quite a few international broadcasters put out these DRM signals. Who is listening? Very few I suspect!
Pictured below is the "DREAM" software I use for DRM decoding.

Media Network

Readers of this blog will have noticed that there is a link on the blogpage to the "Media Network" page of the Radio Netherlands Website. Today Media Network has only a web presence.If you are an SWL, who like me, has been around for a few years you may remember the Radio Netherlands Shortwave programme "Media Network" presented by Jonathan Marks. This programme was in its day one of the best sources of shortwave news as well as general media related items. Jonathan Marks apparently still works in the media industry and has his own blog at http://criticaldistance.blogspot.com/
It seems Jonathan has decided to upload some recordings of the original Media Network programmes. They are in excellent quality and can be found here.
Well worth a listen if you fancy a good old bit of shortwave nostalgia.

Listening Around

Last night I was away from home, visiting the YL's family, so no radio operating! In common with most of the UK the weather here has been awful with high winds and torrential rain, so when I arrived back home I was pleased to see that my antennas had all survived.A quick PSK contact with an RA1 on 30 metres confirmed all was OK.
Tonight I am hoping to have time to do a little bit of shortwave broadcast listening, listening for a very special station.

Radio St Helena transmits once a year only from the tiny island of St Helena. Tonight at 2200 they will be beaming towards Europe on 11092 USB. Since I am not normally in the shack this late I think I will set up my digital  sound recorder and leave the rig on frequency.
Given the location of St Helena (See the picture above) and the current conditions I am not too hopeful of getting anything but I will give it a try. I have picked the station up in years past and have a tape recording of it somewhere.
Radio St Helena I believe uses an Amateur HF transceiver and around 1000W, that may seem a lot but its flea power for a broadcast station!!