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Index

Contents Favourites Reviews Features News

Cover Story
May 2019 Vol. 14 No 5 50 Network Radio
On sale: 24 April 2019 Chris Rolinson offers an in-depth review of the
Next issue on sale: 23 May 2019 Telo Systems M5 Network Radio, incorporating
current users’ views of this device.
RadioUser
Warners Group Publications plc
The Maltings, West Street
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
29 Digital Radio
www.warnersgroup.co.uk Kevin Ryan examines updated DRM decoding
Tel 01778 391000 software and offers details on the latest international
Editor DAB and DRM news and expansion plans.
(c/o Warners Group Publications plc)
Georg Wiessala 32 Airband News
[email protected] David Smith looks at communications at Liverpool
Designer John Lennon Airport, offers updates on drone safety
Mike Edwards measures and surveys ADS-B transmissions.
[email protected]
Advertisement Manager 36 Profile: The British Vintage
Kristina Green 50 Wireless Society (BVWS)
[email protected]
Stephen Walters introduces the BVWS, delineating
Tel: 01778 392096
7 News & Products its development, publications and activities in this
Advertising Production The ICOM IC-9700, Dual Aerials, Frequency Refer- fascinating area of the hobby.
Nicola Lock
[email protected] ences, Wolfwave Audio Processors, pre-loaded
Whistler scanners, and QIRX SDR; plus: all the latest 38 The International Radio Scene
Publisher
news and resources from the world of radio. Chrissy Brand receives a good range of English
Rob McDonnell
[email protected] services from European stations and sees evidence
Subscriptions
13 Radio Book Store of continuing strong ties between the UK and Europe
Subscriptions are available from as little Have a look at our bookstore and be inspired by in the broadcasting arena.
as £11. Turn to our subscriptions page for some radio reading to accompany your hobby.
full details. 42 DXTV – Special
Subscription Administration 14 Signals from Space Keith Hamer and Garry Smith continue with their
Radio User Subscriptions, Charles Jones looks at how you can observe radio overview of the history of the Telstar Satellite, in the
Warners Group Publications plc transmissions from the Sun, Jupiter and Meteoroids context of the evolution of satellite technology since
The Maltings, West Street
with simple means and traditional receivers. the Cold War.
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
Subscriptions Hotline: 01778 395161
[email protected]
18 Book Review
David Harris takes an in-depth look at a title combin-
Technical Help ing a survey of European radio history with personal
We regret that, due to editorial time scales,
replies to technical queries cannot be
biography and broadcasting technology.
given over the telephone. Any technical
queries by e-mail are very unlikely to 20 Maritime Matters
receive immediate attention either. So, if Robert Connolly investigates the attractions of
you require help with problems relating to
marine band listening for newcomers, provides sea-
topics covered by RU, then please write to
the Editorial Offices, we will do our best to sonal seaside safety guidance and visits maritime
help and reply by mail. museums.
Book and back issue orders
Send your completed form to: 23 Radio in History
RadioUser Subscriptions Dept Scott Caldwell introduces the life and work of the
Warners Group Publications plc fascinating US radio innovator David Sarnoff who
The Maltings, West Street
worked for both NBC and RCA.
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH

26 Emerging Issues in Radio

Chrissy Brand surveys alternative music program-
ming on radio and calls on mainstream stations to
provide more meaningful choices for listeners.
32

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4 RadioUser May 2019
 Editorial

Welcome
Spring Reviews and
Radio Discoveries

H
ello and welcome to
the May 2019 issue of
RadioUser. With Spring
well under way now,
many of you will be preparing to go
outdoors again; maybe there are some
maintenance jobs to do around those
all-important outdoor aerials, or you
may just feel ready to discover the new
season of outdoor events and their
attendant communications waiting to
be discovered.
We begin the new season with a
65 hat-trick of reviews in this issue of
RadioUser. First off, Chris Rolinson takes
46 Scanning Scene a good look at the Telo Systems M5
Tim Kirby reviews the FlightAware Pro Stick Plus Network Radio, which has been making
ADS-B receiver and shares some news on receiving quite a few headlines, for all the right rea-
the Es’hail-2 geostationary satellite. sons. Next, Tim Kirby offers an assess-
ment of an innovative ADS-B receiving
49 Radiodays Europe 2019 combination, involving a Raspberry Pi cinated by the life and times of Hedy
Chrissy Brand briely previews one of the most impor- mini-computer and a FlightAware Pro Lamarr and her inventions in the area of
tant radio conferences in Europe. Stick Plus, with accessories. signal jamming and spread-spectrum
ADS-B signals also crop up in this communications.
54 Utility Monitoring month’s Airband News column. Working on her inventions after her
Nils Schiffhauer demonstrates how you can receive And last, but by no means least, Keith – often gruelling – days on her ilm
Non-Directional Navigational Beacons (NDB) and Dif- Rawlings evaluates the Cross Country sets, the actress spent her evenings in-
ferential Global Positioning System (DGPS) signals. Wireless (CCW) Indoor HF Active Loop venting and, eventually, took out a joint
Aerial. Read about all our enthusiastic re- patent for a ‘secret communications
58 Software Defined Radio viewers’ indings in the pages to follow. system’, which was to become the fore-
Andrew Barron provides hints and tips on using your Our feature article this month con- runner of today’s GPS and Bluetooth
SDR receiver as a scanner and examines the best of tinues a radio-astronomy strand, which technology. Her recognition for this ar-
the relevant hard- and software currently available. will crop up in this magazine from rived but belatedly.
time to time. This time, Charles Jones As usual, there is much more to dis-
62 Aerials Now! uses traditional HF and VHF receiv- cover too in this May edition.
Keith Rawlings reviews the Cross Country Wireless ers to observe our Star, some of the Topics to read about range from DRM
(CCW) Indoor HF Active Loop Aerial. Planets and Meteoroids. It’s amazing decoding software, maritime museums,
what kind of radio science you can do NDB and DGPS signals, to innovative
65 Radio Pioneers: Hedy Lamarr with simple means. radio programming, the use of SDR re-
The editor proiles the superbly-gifted Austrian- Aside from our reviews, elsewhere, ceivers as scanners, and an important
American actress and inventor who developed there is a bit of a historical thread run- European radio gathering in Lausanne,
spread-spectrum communications, long before GPS ning through this issue: Keith Hamer which points to the future of radio.
and Bluetooth. and Garry Smith continue with Part To of I hope that the breadth and depth of
their history of the Telstar Satellite and our coverage this month may exceed
68 Feedback in Focus general satellite communications; David your expectations and that you will not
A sample of the issues mentioned in your letters, Harris assesses a title on European radio hesitate to get back in touch with me.
e-mails and other messages. history; Scott Caldwell examines the life Enjoy this issue of RadioUser.
of pioneer David Sarnoff, and Stephen
71 Rallies & Events Walters offers a proile of the British
Our useful, and wide-ranging, UK table of rallies, Vintage Wireless Society (BVWS). Georg Wiessala
swap-meets, club events, and hobby meetings. As for myself, I have been utterly fas- Editor, Radio User Magazine

Why not visit our new online bookshop at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

RadioUser May 2019 5
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PRICE RISE
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Review by Tim Kirby G4VXE

● E-mail: [email protected] ● Twitter: g4vxe

The Yaesu FTM-7250DE 144/432MHz

coming through the radio. My first contact,
as a quick test, was actually with Scott
KH6AGL in Hawaii! Although, of course, it’s
not the same as working Hawaii directly,

C4FM/FM Dual-Band Transceiver

it still makes for an interesting contact.
Scott kindly confirmed that the rig’s audio
sounded good.

Programming the FTM-7250DE

Because I wanted to take the FTM-7250DE
Continuing his look at Yaesu’s System Fusion, Tim Kirby

A
s part of our short se- mobile, I thought I would program up some
ries of articles revisiting memory channels to keep an ear on while I
the Yaesu digital voice G4VXE reviews the FTM-7250DE Fusion Transceiver. was out and about. The first nice discovery
system, System Fusion was that programming the memories was
II, we thought we would pretty intuitive and I didn’t have to resort to
review the new FTM-7250DE dual- the instruction manual. Having said all that,
band transceiver. It was introduced about the Operating Manual is simple and concise The rear panel of the FTM-7250 is simple, with antenna, speaker, power and data connectors.
a year ago as an addition to the range of – and written in straightforward and clear
System Fusion transceivers. This, along English. It runs to a modest 47 pages. There With 50W available from the FTM-7250, the value as required, should this be used
with the FTM-3200DE (144MHz single is also an Advanced Manual that covers less transmitter performance was good with on your local Fusion repeater. Similarly,
band) and FTM-3207DE (432MHz single frequently used but useful features. This is distant repeaters, or indifferent locations. DPID is available and could be used, for ex-
band) was introduced as a lower-cost entry not supplied but you can download it from The three power levels are quite sensible, al- ample, to identify you as a control channel
point, allowing people the option of a digital the Yaesu website (click on the Files tab) at: though perhaps Foundation licensees would operator for a Fusion repeater.
capable rig, without features that they may https://tinyurl.com/y7afx5ux have appreciated a 10W power setting as If you are connected to a Wires-X node
not necessarily want, such as GPS or APRS. Anyway, back to programming the well. When running the rig on 50W, the heat- or Wires-X enabled repeater, you can use
Here, we are looking at the FTM-7250DE, memories. I programmed a variety of 145 sink gets warm, but not super hot, so the the FTM-7250DE to select another node
but Karl Brazier from Yaesu tells me that and 433MHz repeaters that I thought I was cooling system seems to work very well. to connect to. Unlike the FTM-100DE and
the features on the FTM-3200DE and FTM- likely to hear on my travels. Unfortunately With conditions slightly up one day, FTM-400XDE models, you cannot press
3207DE are identical – the only difference for testing, the area around West Oxford- I noticed the rig stop in digital mode on the Dx button and scroll down a list. On the
being that they are single-band radios, shire where we are currently living does not 145.600MHz, where both GB3CF and GB- FTM-7250, you’ll need to enter the Wires-
rather than dual-band like the FTM-7250DE. have any nearby Fusion repeaters. Never- 3WR can be heard (I’m located on the fringe X number of the node you want to con-
The features and specification, from theless, I programmed up some, optimisti- of both of their coverage areas, somewhere nect to (for example GB3SP in Pembroke
Yaesu, are set out in the sidebar. cally, which I thought I might hear. I decided in the middle of them) but I only got the odd Dock is number 43417). You can look up
to program up the digital simplex calling word. It was promising though. whatever nodes you want to connect to at
First Impressions frequencies on both 144 and 438MHz I didn’t get the chance to try a digital the URL below and obtain the appropriate
I first encountered the FTM-7250DE when (144.6125 and 438.6125MHz) in the hope Fusion repeater until Julie and I drove up node number. If you connect to a particular
I visited Yaesu UK to meet Karl Brazier to of making a simplex contact or two. Finally, to Warwickshire for an appointment. While node regularly, then you can save the node
have a demonstration of the new System to take advantage of the FTM-7250DE’s I waited for Julie to return, I tuned the rig number for regular use. Once you’re done
Fusion II features. The FTM-7250DE has a wideband receive coverage, I set up a few to the GB3CF frequency to find that the with having connected to the node, you
solid, simple look to it, with a nice display. memories with airband and marine frequen- repeater was an excellent S7 or S8. I waited can hit the ‘*’ button and it will disconnect
I asked Karl if I could borrow one to review cies of interest. for the QSO to end and put a call through. I you. Note that you don’t have to do this
and he very kindly agreed. With all that done, I connected the rig to was delighted to find that it all worked very each time you connect to a Fusion repeater.
Pretty much the first thing I do with the V-2000 triband vertical at home to check well and I had a series of excellent con- If the repeater you connect to is already
any digital transceiver these days is to try that everything was working as it should. It tacts, including Colin MU0FAL and Peter connected to a Wires-X room, then you’ll
it out on my digital hotspot at home and all sounded promising. G7RPG.. I discovered that GB3CF was often be content to leave it as it is, but this
this is exactly what I did with the FTM- Fitting any rig into modern cars is always not hooked up to the Wires-X system, but feature gives you the option to disconnect
7250DE. When you first switch on, you a challenge and the FTM-7250DE is too instead connected to the Hubnet system, and connect somewhere else if you want
have the option to set your callsign into large to fit in the centre console of my car – which seemed busy with lots of interesting to (and have permission to do so). Karl
the radio. This is what will be displayed most radios are! However, I found a way of contacts. I found that with a strong signal and I tried this feature at Yaesu HQ and it
on other people’s radios, when you are in safely mounting it and then connected it up from GB3CF, I was able to drop power to worked just fine and although it sounds a bit
Digital (C4FM) mode. You can enter up to to the 144/432MHz mobile antenna. 5W without any detrimental effect on my cumbersome, was actually pretty easy to do
ten characters so if you have a short name Setting the rig scanning as I drove outgoing transmission quality. in practice.
such as Tim, you can set your callsign and around suggested a couple of things. Firstly, https://tinyurl.com/ydfdoc3b
name, in my case as G4VXE-Tim. Also, I that it was nice and sensitive – I noticed Digital and Wires-X Features Like all System Fusion capable rigs, the
set the power to 5W (there are three power one or two weak signals that I hadn’t heard The FTM-7250DE firmware includes support FTM-7250DE has Automatic Mode Select
levels – 50W/25W/5W), popped a dummy since using one of the cheaper (and great for the Digital Group ID (DGID) and Digital (AMS), such that when it receives a Digital
load in the antenna socket and set the value) Chinese mobile sets. Secondly, the Personal ID (DPID) capabilities that I men- Fusion signal, it will automatically change to
frequency to that of my digital hotspot. With receiver was pretty bomb-proof and there tioned in last month’s Reintroducing System the appropriate narrow or wide digital mode
the hotspot connected to one of the Yaesu were fewer funny noises when I passed Fusion article. The default DGID is set to 00, or, of course, analogue FM.
System Fusion reflectors, America Link, I shops, buses and other well-known noise meaning that everyone hears everyone but, In case you’re wondering, you can’t use
soon started to see traffic and hear voices The FTM-7250 in digital mode, receiving the GB3CF repeater. sources. as I mentioned last month, you can change the FTM-7250DE in conjunction with an

12 Practical Wireless February 2019 February 2019 Practical Wireless 13

66-67

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6 RadioUser May 2019

 What’s new in the world of radio News

What’s New
Have you got something new to tell our readers about? If so, then drop a line to [email protected]

Radio News

S!
ES
PR
50 YEARS OF RADIO JACKIE : South West

OP
London commercial station Radio Jackie ST
is celebrating 50 years of serving its local
area. The station started life as a ‘pirate’
in 1969, with occasional programmes.
The first transmission was just 30 minutes
long, before it expanded to a weekly
broadcast. It was created by current
owner and founder Tony Collis. It predated
Independent Local Radio in the UK and was
raided by the authorities more than once.
In 1983, Radio Jackie launched a full 24
hours a day service, with Dave Pearce and
Paul McKenna among the people involved
in their early careers.
As a pirate, it operated with full-time staff,
high street offices and the support of
locals. In 1984 a petition, calling for the
station to be given a licence, was signed by
over 55,000 people and supported by many
local councillors and the MP for Mitcham
and Morden. The Radio Authority awarded
a commercial radio licence to Thames
Radio in 1996, leaving Radio Jackie
disappointed. However, the subsequent
misfortunes of Thames Radio turned out
to be an opportunity for Radio Jackie,
when the original management team
behind Radio Jackie re-formed, in order to
purchase the loss-making station.
Following the acquisition of Thames in
March 2003, the station’s output was
revamped to include live local presentation
around the clock and local news every
hour. In July 2003, the station moved to
new studios in Tolworth, and on Sunday,
19th October 2003, the station re-launched
as ‘Radio Jackie – the Sound of South West
London’.
SOURCE: RadioToday, 20th March 2019
ML&S Receive
https://tinyurl.com/y3nckajq

HAM RADIO LIBRARY À LA

the Icom IC-9700
TUNISIENNE: If you speak some French, After many months of waiting, Icom Japan have finally
the Ham Radio Library of Tunisian released their new all-mode 2/70 & 23cm base station.
amateur 3V8HB is well worth a closer Martin Lynch himself delivers the first Icom IC-9700 to a
look. It has many useful links surrounding
customer in the UK! Also seen here is Jonathan M0JSX,
the hobby, as well as downloads and
handing over a brand-new IC-9700 to Chris G4CCC, member
technical information on building projects,
satellites, software and radio clubs.
of the Reading & District Amateur Radio Club (RADARC).
www.3v8hb.wordpress.com

For the latest news and product reviews, visit www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

RadioUser May 2019 7
News What’s new in the world of radio

Radio News

ST
OP
ALL-DIGITAL AM IN THE US: Is there a

PR
ES
‘digital sunrise’ in AM radio’s future? The

S!
latest Radio World (RW) eBook explores the
idea of all-digital broadcasts on the AM band.
One US AM station is operating in all-digital,
under experimental authority. What can this
tell us about the reception, listener reactions,
the impact on advertising, as well as on how
to prepare an AM antenna and transmitter
system? RW contacted broadcast engineers,
manufacturers and FCC staff to ask: Why
explore all-digital? What benefits might it
bring? What technical issues would be raised,
what regulatory steps? What do observers
now say is the chance of it happening? Among
those quoted are engineers and other experts
with Beasley, Townsquare, the FCC, Cavell
Mertz & Associates, Hubbard, Xperi, C. Crane,
duTreil, Lundin & Rackley, Kintronic Labs and
Nautel. While the discussion focuses largely
on developments in the United States, we also New Range of Dual VHF/ UHF
note the use of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM),
a system for all broadcast frequencies up to
300MHz, including long wave, medium-wave
Aerials from Nevada and W&S
Nevada & Waters and Stanton are pleased of the boom, feed, balun and connectors. This
(as in the United States) and shortwave.
to announce the introduction of a new range results in a real-world design that ensures the
And broadcaster Ben Downs lays out his
of VHF/UHF high-quality beams from DUAL, antennas are perfectly optimised, predict-
arguments for why the FCC should allow all-
a Serbian company owned by Goran YU1CF. able and very reliable. The Dual Yagi range
digital AM now in this document:
Goran does not use outdated design packages covers from 50 MHz up to 23cms and will be
https://tinyurl.com/y49kwpl2
many Amateurs are familiar with, but instead available from May at both Nevada and Waters
a professional 3D EM design package that & Stanton, exclusive UK dealers.
ANTENNA DESIGN FOR IMPROVED
allows him to accurately predict the influence Source: Mike Devereux, Nevada Radio
SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS:
A novel antenna design promises to
improve bandwidth and allow for better
communication between Earth stations BBC 1 – THE END OF ‘OPEN’: BBC podcasts are that news bulletins on Google Assistant remain
and satellites: The new omnidirectional, no longer available on Google Search, Google unaffected.
circularly-polarized, slotted, antenna. The Assistant and the Google Podcasts app. The BBC SOURCE: Podnews/ Radioworld
data collected by a satellite are only as good says all content has stopped going to Google until https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google
as the signal it sends back to Earth, and the it can be made available in a way that meets its
signal it sends back is only as good as the Terms of Use and the BBC’s Distribution Policy. An IN-CAR RADIO: AM-FM Still Dominant: The
antenna that sends it. FAQ page explains more about the sudden move: latest numbers from Edison Research and Triton
Modern satellites come equipped with “The BBC requires platforms (such as Google’s Digital (The Infinite Dial, 2019) show that things
various sorts of antennas, all of which Assistant) to meet certain conditions for BBC have remained rather stable in the in-car media
are designed to send and receive data by content to be available on their services. We seek environment over the past three years. That
transmitting and interpreting pulses of to make our content as accessible to audiences shouldn’t be too surprising when one considers
electromagnetic radiation. Most satellites as possible, but until it can be made available in that most people don’t go out and buy a new
operate in a portion of the microwave a way that meets our Terms of Use and the BBC’s car every year. The good news for radio is that
spectrum known as the Kᵤ band, which spans Distribution Policy, certain BBC content will be AM-FM remains the top source for news and
wavelengths ranging from 1.67 to 2.5cm unavailable through specific Google products. entertainment. When respondents listed audio
and frequencies between 12 and 18GHz. In “Listeners will have difficulty accessing BBC sources currently ever used in the car, radio comes
a new study, the authors design, model, and podcasts via the Google Podcast app, and they in at 81%. Owned digital music and the CD player
fabricate a new type of antenna that improves will not be able to directly access BBC podcasts were almost tied for a distant second, with 45%
on existing designs in a number of ways. via the Google Assistant (Google Home).” The and 43% respectively. CD use has declined from
The end result, the researchers say, doubles BBC has recently made some of its podcasts 52% in 2017, however, reflecting perhaps, the
the bandwidth of the satellite at the 12GHz exclusive to its own BBC Sounds app, and these purchase of new cars which no longer have a CD
frequency. are only available on other platforms a month after player.
SOURCE: EoS Buzz Newsletter, being released. Podnews reports in a more in- SOURCE: Edison Research
22nd March 2019 depth manner on this development and confirms https://tinyurl.com/y27pfr32

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8 RadioUser May 2019
 What’s new in the world of radio News

Radio News

ST
OP
PR
A QUANTUM OF RADIO : Researchers at

ES
the Delft University of Technology have

S!
created a quantum circuit that enables
them to listen to the weakest radio signal
allowed by quantum mechanics. This new
quantum circuit opens the door to possible
future applications in areas such as radio
astronomy and medicine (MRI). It also
enables researchers to do experiments
that can shed light on the interplay between
quantum mechanics and gravity. We have
all been annoyed by weak radio signals at
some point in our lives: our favourite song in
the car turning to noise, being too far away
from our Wi-Fi router to check our email.
Our usual solution is to make the signal
bigger, for instance by picking a different
radio station or by moving to the other side
of the living room. What if, however, we
New Frequency Reference
could just listen more carefully? Weak radio
signals are not just a challenge for people
from Leo Bodnar
trying to find their favourite radio station, The Leo Bodnar Electronics low-jitter GPS- outputs have the same frequency their rela-
but also for magnetic resonance imaging locked Precision Frequency Reference 450Hz tive phase shift can be adjusted. This can be
(MRI) scanners at hospitals, as well as for to 800MHz (GPS clock) outputs two synchro- used, for example, to generate two signals
the telescopes, which scientists use to peer nised low-jitter reference clocks, locked to with 90° phase shift for use in I/Q mixer.
into space. GPS signal. Long-term stability of the output Both output signals are at 3.3V CMOS levels
In a ‘quantum leap’ in radio frequency signal is defined by high accuracy of GPS Cae- with 50 Ohms characteristic impedance.
detection, researchers in the group of sium references and theoretically approaches Their output drive levels can be adjusted.
Prof. Gary Steele in Delft demonstrated the 1x10-12. Short-term signal quality is defined The clock can be a reference for receiving
detection of photons or quanta of energy, by internal TCXO clock source, providing equipment, RTL SDRs (28.8MHz) and band
the weakest signals allowed by the theory high-quality, low phase, noise clock signal with scanners. SDR-Kits has selected the Leo
of quantum mechanics. One of the strange sub-picosecond RMS jitter. Digital PLL allows Bodnar precision GPSDO as the recom-
predictions of quantum mechanics is that the main output reference frequency to have mended External Reference Oscillator for
energy comes in tiny little chunks called almost any value between 450Hz and 800MHz. the DG8SAQ Vector Network Analyzer. The
‘quanta’. What does this mean? Two outputs can be individually enabled and firm also offers a Mini Precision GPS Refer-
“Say I am pushing a kid on a swing,” lead set to different frequencies. Second output ence Clock.
researcher Mario Gely said. “In the classical frequency depends on the first output. If both www.leobodnar.com
theory of physics, if I want the kid to go a
little bit faster, I can give them a small push,
giving them more speed and more energy. 100 years ago, physicists are still puzzled today and preferably with an Indian partner that isn’t
Quantum mechanics says something on how to fit gravity into quantum mechanics: presence in the news television space already,
different: I can only increase the kid’s energy “Using our quantum radio, we want to try to Jim Egan, chief executive officer of BBC Global
one ‘quantum step’ at a time. listen to and control the quantum vibrations of News told Fortune India in an interview. Though
Pushing by half of that amount is not heavy objects and explore experimentally what small, India is an important market for BBC,
possible.” For a kid on a swing, these happens when you mix quantum mechanics and through its presence across platforms like radio,
‘quantum steps’ are so tiny that they are too gravity,” Gely said. “Such experiments are hard, television and digital.
small to notice. Until recently, the same was but if successful we would be able to test if we BBC has doubled its revenue in India over the
true for radio waves. can make a quantum superposition of space- last five years, says Egan, who was in Mumbai
However, the research team in Delft time itself, a new concept that would test our last week, and is aiming to achieve a similar
developed a circuit that can actually understanding of both quantum mechanics and feat over the next five years. BBC has expanded
detect these chunks of energy in radio general relativity.” the scope of its operations in India over the last
frequency signals, opening up the potential SOURCE: Science Daily two years by extending its services to eight
for sensing radio waves at the quantum https://tinyurl.com/y2mpqdm3 vernacular Indian languages (apart from English
level. Beyond applications in quantum news), from four earlier. In an effort to shore up
sensing, the group in Delft is interested BBC 2 – REVENUE FROM INDIA: If the BBC revenues, it has also established a local arm
in taking quantum mechanics to the next ever considered having a local, linear, television of its branded content wing, BBC StoryWorks,
level: mass. While the theory of quantum presence in India, it would only be with full based at its India headquarters in New Delhi.
electromagnetism was developed nearly editorial control over such a potential offering, SOURCE: Fortune India

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RadioUser May 2019 9
News What’s new in the world of radio

Radio News

ST
OP
SCALA RADIO MARKETING INITIATIVE:

PR
ES
Simon Mayo, Angellica Bell and Mark

S!
Kermode are the stars of a new national
marketing plan for Scala Radio. The creative
energy of the station will be focused on
‘Classical Music for Modern Life’, targeting
the station’s core audience of all cultural
explorers’ passion for music.
The campaign has several creative
executions inspired by the Scala ‘filter’
of 70% ‘familiar’ and 30% ‘surprise’. The
national campaign combines large-format
outdoor sites, including the Westway
Tower, Four Dials at Westfield Stratford,
and The Waterloo Domination: multiple
sites around Waterloo, the gateway to live
classical music at Southbank, and the
South Kensington Underground tunnel. In
addition, the campaign includes an extensive
national press and magazine campaign and
highly targeted digital advertising including
Pre-Programmed Whistler
Facebook and video content.
Anne-Marie Lavan, Group Marketing Director,
from Moonraker
Bauer Media said: “Our insight has uncovered
Chris Taylor of Moonraker has been in touch AIRBAND, MARINE, DMR446, PMR446,
a modern and valuable audience of cultural
to say that The Whistler TRX-1 & TRX-2 DMR REPEATER, FM REPEATER, NXDN
explorers, and this campaign seeks to target
wideband receivers are now supplied with REPEATER, P25 REPEATER, DMR
them with contemporary creative which is
over 1,600 channels pre-programmed SIMPLEX, and FM SIMPLEX.
both familiar and surprising. This campaign
for use across the following categories: www.moonraker.eu
will capture our audience’s imagination and
celebrate the place classical music has in
modern life.”
SOURCE: Radioworld MAJOR TOM TO GROUND CONTROL: Are you MARCONI’S DAUGHTER RE-ENACTS
https://tinyurl.com/y2zsgsto looking for something different in your amateur HISTORIC BROADCAST: Princess Elettra
radio experience? If you have ever done satellite Marconi, the 90-year-old daughter of Guglielmo
GHOSTS IN THE AIR GLOW: Alaska’s communications with AO-92, SO-50 and others, Marconi, has participated in a milestone of
High-Frequency Active Auroral Research or traded packet info via the international space communications. Princess Marconi re-enacted
Program (HAARP) has initiated its Spring station, then you know how rewarding that can be. the radio transmission that her father sent from
Research Programme. The activity will run But it can be frustrating too because you get a few the same place, exactly 100 years later. Nearly
from 25th to 29th March 2019. The high- minutes to contact a low earth orbit spacecraft 10 years before Princess Marconi was born, her
power HF transmitter and huge antenna array and compete with many others for the frequency father sent the first transatlantic east-west voice
located near Gakona, Alaska, is operated by and then it is over until the next satellite passes transmission from a transmission station in
the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). overhead. During those down times, there is a Ballybunion, Ireland to Louisbourg, N.S Marconi’s
HAARP Chief Scientist Chris Fallen, KL3WX, lot of additional fun to be had with the NOAA 15, daughter delivered the same message from the
said investigations will range from practical 18, and 19 weather satellites that make at least 4 same place he sent one exactly 100 years ago.
to fundamental physical theory. A special passes over every part of the earth every day and On Monday, a crowd gathered at the Canadian
broadcast, featuring Concordia University transmit back a variety of weather-related images Coast Guard College near Sydney, awaiting the
Professor of Intermedia, Amanda Dawn that can be decoded by readily available free radio message from Ireland. “I am sure he’d be
Christie was among the transmissions. software. quite impressed if he knew how it actually played
Christie’s work, Ghosts in the Air Glow, Then, if you want a real challenge, look to 137 out on the airwaves,” said Heather Ozon of Marine
consisted of ionospheric audio and some degrees North at an elevation of 48 degrees or Communications and Traffic Services. “It’s really
image-mixing. “Very honoured to share that 245 degrees west at an elevation of 22 degrees remarkable to think that she’s able to go to the
I got a Canada Council Explore and Create (depending on your location), and you will find the original location of where the call took place all
Grant to make a new series of Transmission GOES geostationary weather imaging satellites those years ago and actually re-create the call,”
artworks using HAARP,” Christie tweeted. at 23,000 miles above the equator pumping back Ozon said. In a way, that first transmission paved
“Mixing audio and images in the ionosphere full earth disk images along with a lot of other the way for how we communicate today with
with HF radio waves!” information that you can decode 24/7 […]. (Full smartphones.
SOURCE: ARRL, 20th March 2019 article is at the Ham Signal Blog): SOURCE: CTV News Atlantic, Canada
www.concordia.ca http://tinyurl.com/yyo79kg4 https://tinyurl.com/y23fupt9

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10 RadioUser May 2019
 What’s new in the world of radio News

Radio News

ST
OP
KETTERING COSMOS: The Cuban Missile

PR
ES
Crisis of 1962 pushed the world to the brink

S!
of nuclear Armageddon, and no human
footprint had yet been left on the Moon. Yet
one of the more peculiar twists of the Cold
War involved a physics lesson at a provincial
grammar school. The Doppler effect is
usually explained by the changing sound
a police car siren makes as it approaches
and passes the listener. Back in 1966, a
science teacher at Kettering Grammar
School, in Northamptonshire, came up
with another way of explaining this shift in
wave frequency. The teacher’s name was
Geoff Perry and he was fascinated by space
satellites. He wanted to use satellites to
teach his pupils about the Doppler effect, one
of his former pupils, Michael Sinnett, said.
“He wanted to demonstrate the frequency of
the satellite as it came towards the school,
as it went over the school and as it left and to
show how it changed.” He needed specialist
equipment to do this. Enter fellow teacher
and radio enthusiast Derek Slater.
An ex-Army World War Two CR 100 receiver
Advanced Audio Processor
was purchased for about £25, a signal
generator was borrowed, and a length of
available from Sotabeams
wire was stretched out between two school
Richard Newstead, G3CWI, of SOTABEAMS, noise-free CW reception. WOLFWAVE
buildings to act as an aerial.
wrote in about WOLFWAVE. WOLFWAVE features a bright OLED spectrum display
The story was picked up on both sides of
is a new audio processing system. It and on-screen help, all powered by the
the Atlantic when the group discovered the
includes sophisticated bandpass filtering, latest ARM low-power processor with
secrets of the Soviet space programme.
noise reduction and even age-related a 20-bit CODEC. There are separate
The equipment was set up at the back of the
hearing correction! All these facilities audio outputs for headphones and a
physics classroom. Pupils were expected
have been designed to help users increase loudspeaker. WOLFWAVE firmware is
to come in before lessons and during lunch
their enjoyment of voice, data and CW upgradable so users will always benefit
breaks to record the various readings. “We
communications. WOLFWAVE also includes from the latest developments. Such
then noticed one satellite was launched that
a useful low-distortion audio test generator is the flexibility of the WOLFWAVE
had a slightly different signal.” Armed with
that can generate one or two tones for hardware that other enhancements are
information about the inclination of satellite
transmitter testing. Another novel feature is sure to follow!
paths in relation to the equator, they plotted
an experimental CW Regenerator that gives www.sotabeams.co.uk
this mysterious body’s orbit on an old globe
with a length of wire. What they established
with certainty was that this satellite had not
launched from the usual site at Baikonur, in the Space Race, says Dr Matt Grant, senior had ‘beat the Americans’ in discovering the site.
in Kazakhstan. A second launch enabled lecturer at the University of Essex. “It was a very Bob Christy, another pupil who participated in
them to zero in on the source of these new good story for the western powers,” he says. “It the experiment, thinks they probably knew of its
satellites. They eventually discovered it was made the idea that the Soviets had an ultra-secret existence, but the school’s work made sure the
a new site - more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) satellite programme look ludicrous. And this was information was made public. “It wasn’t about
away - in Plesetsk, Russia. Mr Perry told a a time when the Soviets were much in the lead on studying the Russian space programme, it was
specialist journal and the local newspaper this sort of technology, there was a lot of anxiety about helping children understand space,” he
about the discovery. Initially, nobody in America where the Moon programme was all said. Kettering Grammar School has since closed
seemed interested. But on 18th April 1966, about catching up. And you have to remember and both teachers have died. However, the group
a television crew was waiting in the science these satellites at the time were a hyper-advanced they inspired - the Kettering Group - ran for nearly
lab. The teachers and the pupils were about technology. This would have been met with glee in 40 years and continued to make discoveries.
to become international news. “What started America.” However, that spirit of space adventure is far from
off as a simple physics experiment turned The existence of the Plesetsk site was not dead and English school children are still making
into a world event,” said Mr Sinnett. This admitted by the USSR for a further 17 years. It international headlines.
came when the West was on the back foot was reported at the time that the schoolboys SOURCE: BBC News

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RadioUser May 2019 11
News What’s new in the world of radio

Radio News

ST
OP
PR
ES
S!
QIRX SDR Beta 2.0.1.0
The new Beta 2.0.1.0 release of the QIRX SDR has some scanner, recording and
BBC 3 – BBC SOUNDS CAN NOW RE-WIND SDR platform promises improvements to spectrum display improvements. It has
AND RE-START LIVE RADIO: The BBC the DAB scanner, recorder and spectrum been noted that the beta version appears
Sounds app now allows users to restart display. QIRX SDR is a multimode SDR to be a DAB decoder only, without multi-
any live programme and listen to it from program compatible with the RTL-SDR. One mode features.
the beginning, or rewind to any point in the of its defining features is that it has a built- Source: RTL, 20th March 2019
live programme. The update is being rolled in DAB+ decoder. Beta version 2.01 of QIRX https://tinyurl.com/yx93zj4s
out to all iOS and Android app users today,
which also allows a stream to be paused and
resumed later. Live Restart is a new feature for to see added to the BBC Sounds app, giving during election campaigns, we have published
the BBC Sounds app, one that wasn’t available them more control over their live listening an annual ‘digest’ of past electoral and current
on the BBC iPlayer Radio app, although it has experience. Additionally, auto-play will enable support, ahead of the elections taking place on
been available on the web. listeners to enjoy an uninterrupted on-demand 2 May 2019. This also sets out the factors we
The update will also include auto-play, listening experience, making it easier to listen consider when making decisions on election-
which automatically cues up episodes for to back-to-back episodes of a podcast or radio related programming, including putting more
uninterrupted on-demand listening. So, for series and discover brilliant new audio without weight on evidence of past electoral support
listeners trying out the first episode of a new lifting a finger – something our live radio than evidence of current support (e.g. opinion
podcast, the app will automatically queue up schedules have been doing for years.” polls).” The rules in Section Six of the Code will
and play the next episode once the first has SOURCE: BBC / Radioworld apply when the ‘Election Period’ commences.
finished. https://tinyurl.com/y3lvvfdv In the case of the English local (and mayoral)
Likewise, for catching up, the BBC Sounds app elections being contested on 2 May 2019, this
will play the episodes you’ve not listened to LOCAL ELECTIONS REMINDER: Ahead period begins on 26 March 2019.
yet in the right order. If you come to the end of the upcoming local elections, Ofcom is SOURCE: Ofcom
of a series, listen to a one-off, or listen to a reminding all broadcasters of the rules for
music mix, the BBC Sounds app will queue up a election-related programming. The regulator POPCOM ARCHIVE: A very useful archive of
recommendation, based on what you’ve been says all broadcasters should ensure that they the US short wave and monitoring hobbyist
listening to. Other features coming soon to the comply with Sections Five (Due Impartiality) magazine Popular Communications is
BBC Sounds app include ‘track-now- playing’ and Six (Elections and Referendums) of the available online at the URL below. Popular
information for live programmes; sub- Code, as well as the prohibition on political Communications was a magazine with content
categories (e.g. Crime Drama) and support advertising contained in section 321 of the relating to the radio hobby, including scanners,
for CarPlay, Android Auto and Chromecast. Communications Act 2003 and reflected in shortwave radio, CB, amateur radio, AM and
Dan Taylor-Watt, head of BBC Sounds, said: Section 7 of the BCAP Code. FM broadcast band listening radio history,
“We’ve been listening to feedback, and heard “As in previous years, following the removal of and vintage radio restoration. The magazine
that being able to pause, rewind and restart live the concept of larger parties from our rules and existed between 1982 and 2013.
radio was a key feature that listeners wanted to help broadcasters to take editorial decisions http://tinyurl.com/yxuprogn

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RadioUser May 2019 13
Feature

Receiving Signals
from Space: A Primer
Charles Jones provides an overview of the kind of emissions often described as
‘signals from space’, using mainly traditional and hardware legacy receivers.
PICTURES: TONY JONES

Charles Jones
[email protected]

S
ignals from space”, said Georg 10
0 minutes
when I asked him what he wanted
me to write about. I was delighted
Sun
by this because the scope it
gave me for this article was
literally astronomical!
Puns apart – I am prone to them – this is a
gy
big subject and could easily have led to a very er
en
LNB
technical article heavy on cosmology, elec-
RF
Hz

tronics and maths.

G
12

Not from me though, since I am far from

being an expert myself. I have therefore cho-
sen a few simple ways in which readers can
receive Radio Frequency (RF) energy ‘live’
from space for themselves.
Satellite
Microwaves from the Sun Bias ‘T’
finder
Let’s start with the most obvious thing in
space. The Sun is a natural fusion reactor,
converting Hydrogen to Helium, at the rate of
600 million tons per second, and it will start 2.4GHz
to die in ive billion years. Satellite dish
15V PSU
In the meantime, it powers this planet (the
whole solar system actually) and puts out
energy across the entire electromagnetic ra-
diation spectrum.
It is easy enough to receive some of this Fig. 1: Receiving Microwaves from the Sun.
energy. A common-or-garden satellite dish
with a Low Noise Block down-converter
(LNB) receives microwaves direct from the
Sun and shifts the frequency (‘down-con-
verts’ it) from 12 to 2.4GHz.
The LNB needs to be powered – hence the
DC voltage supplied via the coaxial cable.
Fig. 1 shows a possible setup for solar ra-
dio observations.

Dish Alignment
When aligning the dish, please do not look
straight at the Sun. Glue a small piece of alu-
minium foil (say 50p- sized) to the centre of
the dish. When the relection of the foil ap-
pears on the LNB casing the dish is aligned.
A satellite-inder (costing around £5 on eBay)
shows the ‘signal’ received, but by adding a Fig. 2: A Solar Energy Drift Scan at 12GHz.

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14 RadioUser May 2019
 Feature

Fig. 3: Listening to Jovian radio emissions, with

a hardware legacy receiver and a dipole, cut for
the 15m band. Fig. 4: A GRAVES receiving setup, Listen late
7.5m evenings
using a VHF radio and a Yagi aerial. Fig. 5: Using
SDR receiver software with a laptop to listen to 12
Dipole cut
GRAVES. for 15m band

9 3
multi-meter to the experiment the Sun’s en-
ergy can be measured and charted over time. 50Ω

Fig. 2 shows an MS Excel graph created

coaxial cable
SW broadcast 6
receiver
in precisely this way by British radio-astron-
omer Andrew Lutley. Dish aerials have nar-
row beam-widths, so reception will only be
for a few minutes.
This is all well and good, but can we hear
the Sun transmitting? We can, but it’s not
that strong and sounds like static, which is
not very exciting.
Jupiter, with a magnetic ield bigger than 3
the Sun’s, is a much more powerful radio
source with a more varied program.

Listening to Jupiter South east

Any receiving (and transmitting) ‘station’

starts with the aerial. Ampliiers and aerial
matchers are wonderful things, but it is the
aerial that picks up radio waves, so care and Yagi for 2m band
effort spent on that are always repaid.
Jupiter transmits on 20.1MHz (on the 15m
band) and we can use a half-wave dipole,
7.5m in overall length, to receive it. VHF SSB receiver

Fig. 3 shows a possible receiving station.

The aerial dipole needs to be, as far as possi-
ble, in the clear and up high. Modern life is not 50Ω
coaxial cable
hobby-radio-friendly, so your implementation
may be far from perfect. Well, a dipole is a
very effective and forgiving aerial, so give it a
try. Consisting of just two lengths of wire and
some coaxial cable, a dipole can be reworked
at little expense, and any aerial – however 4
lawed – beats having none at all!
The coaxial cable should be ‘50Ω’ – this is
not the same as ordinary TV coax. Ideally, it
should be good quality and low-loss, but the
ubiquitous RG58, commonly used for CB ra-
South east
dio, is perfectly adequate at SW frequencies.
Your receiver needs to be a short wave Portable running SDR software
broadcast receiver with AM and SSB modes
– unfortunately, an ordinary ‘kitchen’ ra-
Yagi for 2m band
dio will not do.
As you can see, some possible receivers
and designs could incude a 1980s Yaesu
FRG-7700 or a NASA Target HF4E. Both radi-
os offer excellent performance on long, medi- Software
defined
um and short wave. radio
https://tinyurl.com/y3jtxxs2 50Ω
coaxial cable
https://tinyurl.com/yycdzfmw

What Can I Hear?

Jupiter transmits close to 20.1MHz, and
you will need to carefully tune around this 5

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RadioUser May 2019 15
Feature

frequency to hear it. Listen on AM late in things in the sky with radio waves from the
the evening, for a ‘pulsing’, audible over the ground and by analysing the resulting re-
background (galactic) hiss. Jupiter’s distinc- lections. In this way, observers can work
tive transmissions are called L-bursts and out how objects are moving, for instance, in
S-bursts. If they are heard, but distorted, try terms of their direction, height and speed.
listening on SSB.
L-bursts (the ‘L’ stands for long) sound like GRAVES
‘waves breaking on a beach’. These typical- In Southern France, near Dijon, there
ly last from 0.5 to 10 seconds, but they can is a military radar station, called Grand
go on for hours. Reseau Adapté à la Veille Spatiale 7
S-bursts (‘S’ for short) sound a bit like a (GRAVES – L’ONERA).
woodpecker or ‘gravel thrown onto a tin roof’. https://tinyurl.com/y4htx5m4 Fig. 6: A Meteor SDR Trace. Fig. 7: The Baofeng
They are very short indeed – thousandths of GRAVES transmits on 143.050MHz with, it 5R receiver with ISS Frequencies.
a second – but they occur in bunches, a few is claimed, with over a million Watts output.
dozen per second. Jupiter’s transmissions As a meteoroid passes through a GRAVES VHF, but only offer AM and FM reception. To
are unpredictable and are thought to ema- beam, the incoming VHF is relected in all di- hear meteoroids, a Single Side-band (SSB) re-
nate from three distinct parts of the planet. rections, and some of this ‘back-scatter’ can ceiver is needed, but it is not obvious why.
Io, one of Jupiter’s 60 moons, is known to af- be received hundreds of miles away from the GRAVES transmits an ‘unmodulated carri-
fect transmissions. It is hardly surprising that source (see: Figs. 4 and 5). er’ – a huge signal on 143.050MHz but with
professional and amateur radio-astronomers The French military has an advantage over no information in it. Think ‘dead air’ on a mu-
are still listening in, more than 60 years after UK amateur radio-astronomers; they know sic station when something goes wrong.
this phenomenon was irst discovered. the pattern and timing of the transmission If I were to go Dijon and sit outside the ra-
cycle, so they can tell a lot about anything dar station with a VHF radio, then as I tuned
Meteor Watching caught in their beam. up from say 142MHz, I would hear back-
Another way of receiving signals from All we can know is that a meteoroid was ground noise until I got to 143.050MHz.
space is what’s called ‘Meteor-Watching’. there, but even that is good fun and reward- The signal meter would suddenly show a
Meteoroids – to give meteors their prop- ing when it happens. maximum - even with no aerial attached -
er name – differ from the Sun and Jupiter but there would be no sound. I would get a
in that they don’t generate radio waves. Receiving Meteoroids very clean silence.
Commonly thought of as lumps of ‘space To receive a meteoroid’s back-scatter, you If I continued to tune up, to above
rock’, these are small (a few hundred me- will need a VHF radio station, which can re- GRAVES’s frequency, the silent signal (the
tres across) bodies of mainly iron and nickel ceive SSB on 143.050MHz. Starting with the unmodulated carrier) would vanish and the
which randomly come close to the Earth. aerial, this is a Yagi or directional beam aeri- background noise would return. This would
The great majority continue on, but some are al. It is pointed towards France and aimed a be an unwise experiment, I think. Deploying
caught by the Earth’s gravitational ield and few degrees above the horizon. Radio ama- radio equipment outside European military
fall to earth, glowing white-hot as they burn teurs use the ‘2m band’ (144 to 146MHz), installations is not welcome, especially with
up in the upper atmosphere. and manufacturers make small Yagi aeri- Brexit approaching.
When a meteoroid lands, which includes als for this band
falling in the sea, it is known as a meteorite. The frequency of 143.050MHz is only just Doppler Shift
How can we receive any radio emissions outside the 2m band, so these aerials are per- This is only half the story though. When the
from a meteoroid then? In short, by means fectly suitable. GRAVES Radar hits a meteoroid, that meteor-
of Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging). Your meteoroid radio receiver needs to oid is moving very rapidly. This creates an ef-
Invented in WW2, radar works by bathing have VHF coverage. Most scanners cover fect known as Doppler Shift, easily observed

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16 RadioUser May 2019
 Feature

on the street any day. An emergency vehicle the bill though, and I will talk about that brief-
has its siren going. The sound rises in pitch ly. Astronauts regularly talk to radio ama- References
as it approaches, but the instant the vehicle teurs and anyone can listen. ISS Operators & Resources
passes, the pitch starts to fall. transmit on 145.800MHz and listen (mainly)
AMSAT UK: https://amsat-uk.org
The same thing – but at radio frequen- on 145.200MHz. These frequencies are in Barron, A. (2018) Amsats and Hamsats
cies - happens with meteoroids. The speed the 2m band and can be received on even a (Bedford: RSGB; ISBN 9781 9101 9354 9; see
and direction of the meteoroid’s movement cheap FM hand-held 2m radio. RU Bookshop)
affect the frequency of the incoming radar, www.ariss.org Belgian Radio Meteor Stations (BRAMS):
and what is relected is not 143.050MHz any- The image in Fig. 7 shows a popular http://brams.aeronomie.be
more. If that relected signal were received Chinese radio, the Baofeng UV-5R. This British Astronomical Association Radio
using AM, this change in frequency would type of equipment would certainly do the Astronomy Group: http://www.britastro.org/
be undetectable, because the bandwidth of job in hand and can be bought for less radio
Cook, J. (2011) An Introduction to Solar Radio
an AM signal is huge in comparison. Still, no than £30 on eBay.
Astronomy (Journal of the British Astronomy
sound would be heard. https://baofengtech.com/uv-5r
Association, 121, 4, 2011)
But if the relected signal is received using Specialised aerials are not needed. Doppler Shift: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
SSB, a brief whistle (called a ping) is heard Amateur radio hand-held radios come with a Doppler_effect
as the meteoroid passes through the radar ‘rubber duck’. This is a short (and lexible) he- Graham-Smith, F. (2020) Unseen Cosmos: The
beam. This is because SSB receivers work lical aerial, designed more for portability than Universe in Radio (Oxford: OUP)
quite differently to AM ones – they have a range. Rubber ducks are effective because, GRAVES – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
much narrower bandwidth and very precise when the space station passes overhead, Graves_(system)
tuning. In practice, pings can be quite loud, there is literally nothing but air between the How to Hear the ISS: https://amsat-uk.org/
but so is the background noise. Therefore, transmitter and the receiver. beginners/how-to-hear-the-iss
Hyde, Paul (2014) Getting Started in Radio
the squelch will need to be wide open and RF Just like meteoroids, the motion of the
Astronomy (Part 1): RadCom, November 2014:
gain turned to maximum. space station causes some issues. Travelling
30
at 17,000 mph, and orbiting every 90 minutes, Itty Bitty Telescope: http://www.stargazing.
Using SDR to see Meteoroids the ISS can only be overhead for 8 to 10 min- net/david/radio/itty_bitty_radio_telescope.
In addition to hearing a meteoroid’s ping, it utes, depending on terrain. html.
can be seen in the ‘waterfall’ of a Software Most ISS contacts are pre-booked with Lashley J. (2010) The Radio Sky and How to
Deined Radio (SDR) display on a PC. Tune educational establishments, but ordinary ra- Observe It (Springer)
to 143.050MHz again and use a second Yagi dio amateurs can talk to the space station by Links to Radio Astronomy Software: https://
if possible. SDR radios usually come with a replying to astronauts’ general ‘CQ’ calls. A radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/software/index.
mag-mount telescopic vertical aerial, but one friend of mine had such a contact in February html#rjpro
Nelson, S. (2014) Meteor Detection in the 21st
of these might not be good enough for this. 2019 while he was mobile in his car in West
Century (The Spectrum Monitor, February 2014:
The image in Fig. 6 shows a meteoroid London on the way to work.
61-64)
captured in this way. I can barely scratch the surface on ISS - - The Long Wave Array Antenna for Radio
By using an analogue receiver and an SDR communications here. There is slow-scan TV Astronomy (The Spectrum Monitor, May 2014:
together, an interesting demonstration of me- (SSTV) and AX25 packet radio too, all trans- 72)
teor-watching can be put on for non-astrono- mitted on amateur radio frequencies and not Oliver, K. (2015) Discovering Creation (Sky at
mers. The plaintive ping from the SSB receiv- dificult to receive. Night Magazine, May 2015)
er’s speaker and a short streak of light on the O’Sullivan, S. (2014) Monitoring the Sun Using
PC display dramatically tell the story of the Conclusion VLF (RadioUser, April 2014: 54-57)
iery destruction taking place in the sky. Signals from Space, Georg said. I said it was Radio Jove Project: https://radiojove.gsfc.
nasa.gov
A good friend of mine who is both a Radio a big subject. I haven’t done it justice, not by
Reeve, W.D. (2010): Listening to Jupiter’s’
Amateur and an amateur radio-astrono- a long chalk. There are a host of other things
Radio Storms (Parts One and Two) (RadioUser,
mer frequently demonstrates this, as part I could have written about, for example, September 2009: 32-37 and October 2009:
of WOLAS’s (West of London Astronomical the Hydrogen Line, the growth of Satellite 34-36)
Society) public events program. phones, GPS and the Galileo satellite posi- - - Listening to the Sun’s Radio Storms
https://www.wolas.org.uk tioning systems, SETI (and its false alarms) (RadioUser, March 2010: 34-35);
[See also Andrew Barron’s column, on us- and many other ways radio amateurs en- O’Sullivan, Shaun, G8VPG: Detecting Meteors
ing SDR receivers in amateur radio astrono- gage in space communications, such with Radio (RadioUser, September 2013:
my, in last month’s RadioUser (RU, April 2019: as ‘Moon-bounce’. 46–49)
60-63) – Ed.]. Taking a historical view of things, the in- SARA: The Society of Amateur Radio
Astronomers (SARA – USA): http://www.radio-
vention and development of the telecommu-
astronomy.org
‘Signals’ from Space? nications satellite is an interesting subject.
UKRAA: The UK Radio Astronomy Association:
I fear I have cheated you a little: interesting We wouldn’t have Eurovision without it, but https://www.ukraa.com
and informative as what I’ve written (hope- we can’t blame the technology for that. And Verschuur, G. (2015) The Invisible Universe.
fully) is, none of the aforementioned top- the story of the NASA’s Apollo radio commu- The Story of Radio Astronomy (Springer)
ics is really about signals in the sense of nications systems is fascinating too; it takes Wiessala, G. (2014) Monitoring the Sun Using
one person sending information to another, us back to an age when engineers in white VLF (RadioUser, April 2014: 54-57).
from and to space. coats, with slide-rules in their top pockets,
The International Space Station (ISS) its ruled the world.

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RadioUser May 2019 17
Book Review

Capturing the Magic of Radio in

all its Variety, Now and Then
David Harris
mydogisfi[email protected] Matthews, Dotun Adebayo, Charlotte Green
and Corrie Corfield.
David Harris appraises a general title Connelly is primarily a sports writer,
offering a combination of radio history, and the chapters on Saturday afternoon
interviews with radio personalities, classified football results, early sports
technical background, sports coverage reporter Capt. Teddy Wakelam and football
on radio, and broadcast station correspondent Peter Jones are written with
development. a genuine enthusiasm, which is, arguably,
absent in the rest of the book.
The title of the book derives from the Connelly does talk about his youth. He
author’s early memories of British AM enjoyed tuning around Medium Wave,
radios, which featured on their dials many trying to find new stations. The chapter on
European place names such as Athlone, the 1980s offshore station Laser 558 was
Kalundborg, Vienna and Hilversum. The title very entertaining. The author managed to
is divided into 27 short chapters, each of interview Jessie Brandon, one of Laser’s
which explores a particular area of radio. female presenters, who returned to the USA
This is a general-interest book about after the station closed.
radio written by Charlie Connelly (b. 1970) The chapter I enjoyed the most was
who also authored Attention All Shipping: a Radio Lessons in Hilversum. It is about the
Journey Around the Shipping Forecast. He author’s visit to the Dutch radio HQ, to the
has also written several books on football, east of Amsterdam. Connelly covers the
cricket, Ireland, walking, weather and the history of Dutch radio in some depth where
Connelly, C. (2019)
East End. In addition, he has broadcast the first broadcasts began in 1919.
Last Train to Hilversum. A Journey in Search of
in the UK and Ireland and written for Many older RadioUser readers may
the Magic of Radio
national newspapers. His books are in the also remember the Happy Station
(Bloomsbury; £20 hbk; 328 pp.
style of gentle humour and observation, broadcasts from Radio Nederland,
ISBN: 9781408889992).
popularised by such authors as Bill Bryson which were presented by Eddie Startz,
www.bloomsbury.com
and Stuart Maconie. from 1928 to 1969.
I did not feel that the book started well,
as the first chapter is a rather uncritical structure, it does have interesting content.
account of the supposed inevitability of The chapter on the Electrophone, an early
FM and AM being switched off in favour re-diffusion (wired) service – which was
of the allegedly superior DAB. Any writer pioneered in France in 1880, came to Britain
with a serious interest in radio would, in in 1895 and ran until it was usurped by radio
my view, have come up with, at least, some in 1925 – was original.
arguments to retain FM. The book contains brief accounts of
The book then offers various chapters such topics as Marconi’s early experiments,
looking at the history of radio, interviews Dame Nellie Melba’s 1920 broadcast from
with radio presenters, sports broadcasting Chelmsford, Lord Reith, women at the BBC,
and some visits to historic radio locations. Radio Fecamp (a pre-war commercial
At times, the volume reads as if it is a station) and The Goons. The chapter on
collection of previously published articles. SOS messages brought back memories
However, this does not seem to be, in which to me. This service was started by the
case I felt the book could have benefited BBC back in 1923 and continued until
from having a clearer structure. The author the late 1990s.
could have put all the historical chapters The chapter on Two Lochs Radio, which
together, and then added interviews and broadcasts to the Wester Ross area of
other articles. Northern Scotland and claims to be Britain’s
Alternatively, he could have adopted smallest commercial station demonstrated
a geographical theme and wrote about how a geographical approach to the book
different parts of the UK and how they might have been a good idea.
featured in the development of radio. The book also throws in some interviews
Despite my reservations about the book’s with radio presenters including Cerys Eddie Startz

Visit
For the latest newsourand
Book Store atreviews,
product www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
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18 RadioUser May 2019
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 Maritime Matters

DIANE CONNOLLY

Fig.1: The Striking Architecture of the Galata Museo del Mare, in Genoa, Italy.

Robert Connolly
[email protected]
Seasonal Safety
A
s I prepare this column, on
a cold wet afternoon in ear-
ly March (due to our lead-in
times), my thoughts turn to
and Museum
Treasures
summer that, hopefully, will
be just around the corner when you are
reading this. For many of you, this will be a
time of holidays at home and abroad, per-
haps by the seaside, or near a busy port
or shipping area. Robert Connolly advises on precautions
This will give many of you a chance to
listen to some shipping trafic or Maritime
you should adopt when close to the seaside,
Safety Information (MSI) on your scanner. provides hints on maritime listening for novices
While I am sure many of you have experi-
ence and knowledge of marine radio trafic
and recommends some fascinating maritime
in your holiday area, there will be some who museums at home and abroad.
will be just starting out in the hobby and
wondering what frequencies to programme time rescues, because more inexperienced Ideally – if you or members of your fam-
into their scanner. sailors, boat operators, windsurfers and ily decide to use these inlatables – make
Marine trafic you may be interest- members of the general public ind them- sure that you have them on a rope, secured
ed in listening to can include port opera- selves in dificulty and require assistance. on land, to prevent them being carried out to
tions, vessel trafic services, pilotage, Inlatable water toys, such as paddle boats, sea, in the event of a sudden wind change
and MSI. There are also the frequencies air beds, and so on, generate numerous or the tide changing. The last thing that you
used by the Coastguard and lifeboats in summer rescues, as they are light and may want is to be listening to maritime radio traf-
SAR operations. be carried out to sea with the wind and/or a ic on your scanner to suddenly ind that a
Summer is always a busy time for mari- strong out-going tide. member of your own family has become

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20 RadioUser May 2019
 Maritime Matters

the casualty for a rescue operation. craft hold so that it attracts less atten- Another extensive maritime museum I
Many older children have a habit of jump- tion when screened. visited quite a few years ago was located in
ing from high objects, such as a cliff or pier I would also set the scanner so that when Budapest, Hungary.
into the sea. This can be a very dangerous switched on it immediately comes upon a When I visited, quite a few years ago, I did
practice, especially if you are somewhere broadcast station, for example, a national not realise that Hungary had such an exten-
that you do not know. If you do not know BBC radio station. That way it is a little less sive historical naval and merchant leet op-
the water depth or the potential hazards obvious that it is a scanner if queried by air- erating to various parts of the world.
under the water, accidents can and have port security. Table 1 details some initial The Budapest museum did make a small
happened, with either fatal or life-chang- marine VHF frequencies that will be useful additional charge at the time for visitors
ing consequences. for the newcomer who is going on holiday to be issued with a permit to take photo-
Even taking a walk along the beach to the coast, either in the UK or abroad. If graphs on the museum exhibits, but that
may lead to a problem; many families you are listening to maritime radio traf- was before the advent of digital cameras.
have walked around a headland to ind ic in Europe, you will ind that many of the That may or may not have changed since I
themselves cut off by a fast-incoming transmissions are carried out in English, es- visited. I believe the Museum of Transport,
tide and surrounded by steep cliffs that pecially at ports that receive cruise ships. which housed the maritime section, is cur-
cannot be climbed. Local trafic will generally use the local lan- rently closed for rebuilding.
Therefore, please check tide times and guage for port and pilot communications. https://www.mmkm.hu/en
sea state before chancing these activities There are two other maritime museums
and, if possible, talk to locals about the way The Joy of Maritime Museums that I have promised myself that I would vis-
tides run in the area that you are holiday- Many locations around the UK and Europe it but have not done so yet for one reason
ing in so that you do not have to call the have maritime museums that are inter- or another. One is the Merseyside Maritime
Coastguard for rescue. esting to visit. Some are small, featuring Museum in Liverpool. When I arrived there
Please remember this: If you do get into local shipping history, while others are for a night stop, it had actually closed,
dificulties or see somebody who is in dif- much larger and cover many aspects of although many of the open-air exhibits
iculty then contact the Coastguard using maritime history. could be viewed.
either 999 (UK) or 112 (International) from Genoa, Italy, has an extensive maritime www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime
your mobile. Whether you are holidaying at museum (the Galata Museo del Mare), The other one is The National Maritime
the seaside, or whether are just there for which I visited a few years ago (Fig. 1). The Museum of Ireland located in Dun
a day trip please be safe, not just for your museum is located in the old port, close to Laoghaire, just south of Dublin and
family’s sake but also to for the sake of the the cruise terminal, and it offers reduced close to the old ferry port. I plan to visit it
emergency services. prices for those entitled to concession this coming summer.
Furthermore, keep in mind that many of rates, such as disabled persons and their https://www.mariner.ie
our coastal towns are very busy in the sum- carers, pensioners and children. Even some ishing ports can have their
mer months, and that, from time to time, When viewed from the upper deck of a own small museums, which may detail
you will come across vehicles trying to cruise ship, the bow of a commercial ves- the fascinating history of local ishing. It is
‘force’ their way through heavy holiday traf- sel is visible in such a way as to give the worth checking local tourist information to
ic, often with head-lights and hazard sig- impression that it is coming out of the determine whether there is a maritime mu-
nals on, and, perhaps, even blowing their museum building. seum close to where you plan to holiday.
car horn. These are not ignorant drivers but When you walk around to the dock behind
often volunteers for the local lifeboat, auxil- the museum, the stern of a commercial ves- The Misery of Hoaxes
iary coastguard or retained iremen trying to sel gives the impression that a ship passing Hoax emergency calls affect all emergen-
get to their station as fast as possible in re- into the building (Fig. 1). The Genoa mu- cy services; unfortunately, the maritime
sponse to their emergency pager call out. seum also has a decommissioned 64-me- sector is not immune to these. Recently,
Please let them through the trafic, as tre Italian navy submarine (sottomarino), there was an incident in our local area. One
somebody’s life may depend on their fast the S518 ‘Nazario Sauro’ (Fig. 2), berthed in night, a distress radio call was received by
response, maybe even the life of a mem- the dock. The submarine was built in 1976, the Coast Guard, along with reports of two
ber of your own family. Unfortunately, these commissioned in 1980 and de-commis- lares sighted. Out local inshore lifeboat
emergency service volunteers do not have sioned in 2002. It had an operational speed was launched to commence a search in the
lights and sirens available while trying to of 12 knots while surfaced, and of 19 knots area where the lares were sighted.
get to their station, unlike the emergency submerged. It was equipped with six torpe- The search operation lasted several
vehicles they use while on a shout. do tubes and had a crew of 49. hours and involved not only the inshore life-
While several other Italian maritime mu- boat but also local auxiliary coastguard per-
Listening Hints seums have acquired submarines, the one sonnel and a coastguard search and rescue
Using a scanner in the British Isles is of- in Genoa was the irst submarine in Italy helicopter from North Wales. After several
ten ‘tolerated’. However, if you are travel- that the public was allowed to see the in- hours of extensive searches, nothing was
ling abroad, you will need to be much more side of. Unfortunately, on the day I visited, found, and the various assets were stood
careful if you bring a scanner. When I have the submarine was not open. For more in- down, as there were also no other reports of
taken a scanner on holiday in Europe previ- formation on the Genoa museum, you can any people or vessels missing and no sign
ously, I would normally remove the antenna visit these websites: of debris or oil slick in the search area.
and batteries and place them (well-spaced- www.galatamuseodelmare.it Even if a false alarm is suspected there
apart) in my checked luggage for the air- https://tinyurl.com/yxpsz5bq is a legal requirement for the coastguard

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RadioUser May 2019 21
 Maritime Matters

DIANE CONNOLLY

to launch a Search and Rescue (SAR) op-

eration, to establish that no vessel or per-
son is actually in trouble. There is a further
requirement, for other vessels hearing a
distress call or sighting distress lares, to
not only report it to the Coastguard but also
provide search assistance if possible.
Communications during this incident
were on Channel 16 (156.800MHz), and the
private Coast Guard channel (Channel 0:
156.000MHz), with the lifeboat also in com-
munication with its boathouse on Channel
31 (157.550MHz). The operation com-
menced shortly after 21.00 UTC, and assets
were not stood down until approximately
23.50 UTC, with the helicopter arriving back
at its base some 35 minutes later.
From my point of view, it was interest-
ing that a helicopter from North Wales
was deployed to this operation. Normally,
in our area, the Irish Coast Guard helicop-
ter, based in Dublin, is the irst choice for
SAR taskings. It may be that the Dublin
helicopter was providing top cover for the
Irish Coast Guard’s Sligo-based helicop- Fig. 2: Submarine S518, ‘Nazario Sauro’, at the Galata Museo del Mare.
ter, for a SAR task off the Atlantic coast,
as it often does. Channel Frequency (MHz) Use
The cost of this one SAR operation ran
0 156.000 156.000 UK Coastguard private channel also used for RNLI
into thousands of pounds, due to a Coast
6 156.300 156.300 Inter-ship and aircraft to ship SAR communications
Guard rescue helicopter from North Wales
8 156.400 156.400 Inter-ship primary working channel
being tasked for its available maximum on-
scene fuel-endurance time. However, it is 10 156.500 156.500 Inter-ship, port operations and MSI
not just the inancial cost of such deliberate 12 126.600 126.600 Port operations and pilots
false alarms that is worrying. While marine 15 156.750 156.750 Inter-ship secondary working channel
emergency services are involved in hoax 16 156.800 156.800 Distress and calling
SAR tasks, a genuine emergency situation 17 156.850 156.850 Inter-ship secondary working channel
could develop in another location, which 23 157.150 161.750 HMCG SAR & MSI
the assets cannot attend until the cur- 31 157.550 162.150 RNLI vessel to boathouse communications
rent operation is terminated, after search- 37 157.850 157.850 UK only Marinas (M1)
es ind nothing.
62 156.125 160.725 HMCG MSI
This means that some other person’s
63 156.175 160.775 HMCG MSI
life could be lost in a genuine emergen-
cy ,while waiting for rescue coming from 64 156.225 160.825 HMCG MSI
the next available location that not only 65 156.275 160.875 Coastwatch England & Wales
has to launch as normal, but also has to 67 156.375 156.375 HMCG SAR
deal with additional transit time before ar- 72 156.625 156.625 Inter-ship primary working channel
riving on scene to commence the genu- 73 156.675 156.675 HMCG SAR
ine SAR tasking. 77 156.875 156.875 Inter-ship primary working channel
In addition, there is also the risk to the life 80 157.025 161.625 UK only Marinas
of members of the search teams involved, 84 157.225 161.825 HMCG MSI
particularly the crew members of inshore
86 157.325 161.925 HMCG MSI
lifeboats operating, not only in the dark but
frequently in rough seas. Table 1: General Marine VHF Frequencies for Newcomers.
Before I leave you this month, just a
note to explain some minor changes that consecutive months, in month four, there jumping up and down, tear your hair out or
are coming about regarding my columns. will be just my NDB DXing column with no even cancel your subscription, please be
Regular readers will be aware I normal- Maritime Matters in that month. Therefore, aware that this actually suits me, as it helps
ly produce this Maritime Matters column RadioUser issues for the months of August to reduce my workload, something I have
every month and my other column, NDB and December this year will only have my been looking at in detail over the last cou-
DXing, every three months. From now on, NDB column, without a Maritime Matters ple of months, for family reasons. Until next
Maritime Matters will be monthly for three column. Now, before some of you start time “Fair Winds”

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22 RadioUser May 2019
 Radio History

‘Hitching My Wagon
to the Electron’
Scott Caldwell explores the life of US radio pioneer David Sarnoff and
discovers a classic American ‘Rags-to-Riches’ story, outlines Sarnoff’s
connection with Nicola Tesla and assesses his leadership of NBC and RCA.

Scott Caldwell vocabulary of modern society more widely. communities and nationalities, which had
[email protected] Sarnoff was expected to assist with look- made America their new home.
ing after his younger brothers and sister. Life Sarnoff faced many obstacles in the USA.
Initially, he had to learn to speak English lu-

A
merican radio pioneer David was hard for the Jewish community, who
Sarnoff (1891 to 1971) was suffered repeated pogroms and acts of vio- ently, a prerequisite for a good education and
born the oldest of ive siblings lence, largely due to their minority status employment in management positions. He
to Lena and Abraham Sarnoff within the Empire. was expected to help his family inancially;
in Uzlian, a small Jewish village In order to escape poverty and antisem- like many immigrants, he had to seek employ-
near Minsk – which was then part of the itism, the Sarnoff family immigrated to ment in a variety of roles, among them, run-
Tsarist Russian Empire. America in 1900, in search of a more prosper- ning errands for a local butcher, delivering
The year of his birth (1891) was also the ous way of life. They settled in the Lower East newspapers and singing at the synagogue.
year in which the term ‘electron’ entered the Side of Manhattan, joining the many diverse This inancial dependency was increased

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RadioUser May 2019 23
Radio History

PEXELS IMAGE DATABASE

when Sarnoff was forced to quit his school- would propel him to senior management. He
ing and take over the full-time burden of sup- claimed that, “I felt my responsibility keenly,
porting the family, due to his father’s dete- and, weary though I was, could not have slept.
riorating health. Much of the time, I sat there with nothing
coming in. It seemed that the whole anxious
An Emerging Radio Pioneer world was attached to my earphones dur-
At around this time, Sarnoff decided to pur- ing the seventy-two hours I crouched tensely
chase a Morse code key and simple trans- in the station.
mitter set, enabling him to learn the ba- “I sat for hours listening. Now we began to
sics of Morse code, propagation, servicing, get the names of some who were known to
maintenance, and installation. His quest for have gone down. This was worse than the oth-
knowledge was supported by a correspond- er list had been – heartbreaking in its inality,
ence course that covered a general educa- a death knell to hope. I passed the information
tional syllabus. on to a sorrowing world, and when messages
In many respects, it was this combination Fig. 2: The NBC Logo. creased to come in, I fell down like a log at my
between ‘structured’ education and the desire place and slept the clock around.”
to become more ‘self-suficient’ that prompt- dertaken by historian Louise Benjamin, sug-
ed Sarnoff to make a name for himself in the gests that Sarnoff did present a rudimentary Personal Life
ledgeling radio communication industry. radio music box plan of some kind to his su- Sarnoff married Parisian-born Lizettte
Sarnoff’s unique business acumen soon perior, in November 1916. This is signiicant Hermant on July 4th, 1917, and their mar-
gained the attention of Guglielmo Marconi when taking into account that Sarnoff made riage produced three sons. His wife’s origins
(1874 to 1937) who appointed him as his per- great political capital over his visionary ability mirrored those of her husband: Her family
sonal messenger when he attended to busi- to foreseen the rapid development of radio in were also migrants.
ness matters in New York. the mass entertainment industry. Lizette later also fell under her husband’s
Marconi subsequently supported his ap- A number of memoranda unearthed in visionary spell of a future with a global enter-
plication to the position of a junior wireless the Sarnoff Corporation Research Library tainment medium.
operator, at only 17 years of age. Sarnoff thus provided conclusive historical evidence to She became enchanted by the ener-
immersed himself in advanced physics. support the view that the “music box” idea getic young Sarnoff, and the foundations
Sarnoff’s biographer, Eugene Lyons in- was formulated in the second decade of of this mutual attraction were soon obvi-
dicated that “he tagged after Marconi, the 20th Century. The evidence is from two ous to members of both families. Lizette
hanging around the company workshops large scrapbooks, entitled Early Reports on spoke little English and, touchingly, Sarnoff
and doing odd personal errands like carry- Radio. These were compiled by Sarnoff from was forced to learn basic French, in order to
ing his briefcase and delivering candy or signiicant primary memoranda. Those ap- propose marriage.
lowers to Marconi’s latest love-interest.” pear to his claim that he was, indeed, the As their union evolved, it was Lizette who
Their friendship was unique, given that ‘driving force’ behind the later development became a ‘sounding-board’ for Sarnoff’s
Marconi was reclusive. of much of the contemporary domestic ra- plans on how radio and television would be-
Nevertheless, Sarnoff soon became a dio entertainment. come part and parcel of the American dream.
trusted conidant of Marconi’s. However, there were persistent rumours that
National Exposure and Disaster Sarnoff engaged in occasional philander-
Wireless Music Sarnoff soon gained national exposure: The ing. But their marriage was strong enough to
Marconi, in turn, mentored Sarnoff, re- breakthrough came in the aftermath of the survive; it lasted for more than 54 years until
marking that, “we know how things hap- Titanic disaster when Sarnoff was posted to Sarnoff’s death in 1971.
pen, but we don’t know why”. This may have the Marconi station purchased by the John Lizette occupied much of her spare time
inspired Sarnoff to send a memorandum Wanamaker department store. He spent 72 by volunteering at the New York Inirmary,
to American Marconi Vice-President and hours continuously scanning the ship-to- starting out as a nurse’s aide. Later, she took
General Manager, Edward J. Nally, suggest- shore frequencies and was in direct contact an opportunity to be honorary chairperson of
ing a revolutionary business plan, “which with RMS Olympic. The Olympic conirmed The Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
would make radio a household utility in the that the Titanic had sunk at 02:20, Monday
same sense as a Piano or Phonograph – the 15th April 1912, with a great loss of life. General Electric and Radio
idea is to bring music into the home by wire- Sarnoff’s equipment was one of the few Corporation of America (RCA)
less”. Unfortunately, there is no documented wireless operations still working after the In 1917, General Electric bought out the
response from Nally. However, it is generally then US President Taft had ordered that the American Marconi Company and amalga-
accepted that the proposal was dismissed, airwaves be kept silent, in order to enable es- mated its radio patents and intellectual
having been advocated by ‘just’ a young, am- sential communications relating to the dis- property, establishing the Radio Corporation
bitious, junior manager. aster. Sarnoff often liked to regale this story of America (RCA).
There has been considerable historical throughout his long career, emphasising his Sarnoff’s vision, inexhaustible energy,
debate over the existence of this often-cited role in the development of wireless commu- and aggressive business personality led to
memorandum by Sarnoff, which, in essence, nication as a media source, and, on occasion, his rapid promotion to general manager in
proclaimed the advent of radio as the princi- ‘downplaying’ the role of his fellow operators. 1921. However, there was tension amongst
pal entertainment medium. In a later interview, Sarnoff offered an in- the management of RCA on the future oper-
Later research on this communication, un- sight into his formidable work ethic, which ating strategy of RCA. Sarnoff’s preference

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24 RadioUser May 2019
 Radio History

SCOTT CALDWELL

was with radio broadcasting, in the form of He was also conscious of history: During
domestic broadcasting of entertainment and active service in Italy in 1944, Sarnoff felt
current affairs. He understood the potential compelled to make a hazardous, 7-hour jour-
of radio broadcasting as a ‘point-to-mass- ney to visit Marconi’s widow (Marchesa Maria
medium’; one presenter (the broadcaster) Cristina Marconi) to pay his respects.
could entertain the many (the listening audi- After the defeat of the Axis Powers in the
ence), in a variety of locations. By contrast, Second World War, Sarnoff continued his mili-
his senior management still favoured the tary career. He continued to serve his adopt-
achievement of a position of market-domina- ed country, visiting both key radio stations
tion, by means of point-to-point (commercial) who were engaged in the propaganda war
communications. against the Soviet Union and more specialist
The broadcasting event of the age was communications-units of the US Army.
the Jack Dempsey v. George Carpenter box-
ing match of July 1921. It changed the na- Conclusion
ture of American radio forever. A remarka- Like many other radio pioneers, Sarnoff
ble listening audience of 300,000 tuned in to became embroiled in disagreements over
the live broadcast, and the medium of radio intellectual property rights (IPR) and pat-
entertainment had come of age. To achieve ents, particularly relating to the develop-
maximum exposure, Sarnoff arranged to ment of FM radio.
install receivers connected to large ampli- In this context, a noteworthy episode re-
iers that were strategically placed in thea- Fig. 3: David Sarnoff on a Time Magazine Front lates to his former friend business associ-
tres and auditoria throughout the Eastern Cover. ate Edwin Howard Armstrong. Armstrong
Seaboard of the USA. claimed that Sarnoff had instigated a ‘secret
tinue until FM broadcasting emerged in the cartel’, determined to cripple both FM radio
A Meteoric Rise 1960s, despite Sarnoff’s best efforts to sup- transmissions and the emerging TV industry.
Sarnoff was appointed President of RCA press its impact and appeal. The feud was both intense and extremely
on January 3rd, 1930, relecting a lifetime That notwithstanding, Sarnoff did expand bitter. It consumed numerous court hearings
ambition of reaching the top position in the RCA’s portfolio to include other, diverse, and ultimately resulted in Armstrong’s suicide
American communication industry. In a 1967 revenue-generating streams, most notice- in 1954. Sarnoff, by contrast, died peacefully
interview, Sarnoff downplayed his remarka- ably Random House Publishing and the Hertz in his sleep, on 12th December 1971 and was
ble rise and suggested that ‘good timing’ and Corporation, which specialised in auto- laid to rest in Valhalla, New York.
‘good luck’ had been signiicant factors. He mobile rentals. The legacy he left behind is still dominant
claimed that “I was lucky that at an early age, I By the 1950s RCA was establishing itself in the operating strategy of both commer-
hitch my wagon to the electron.” as a major American conglomerate, part of cial radio and television stations in the USA.
In assessing Sarnoff’s business skills the industrial-military complex, and play- Sarnoff is credited with the following princi-
and abilities, Jerome Wiesner of the ing an active role in the Cold War against the ple: “Sarnoff’s law states that the value of a
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Soviet Union. RCA generated a proit of $46 broadcast network is proportional to the num-
acknowledged that “the uniqueness of David million and employed a workforce of 54,000 ber of viewers”.
Sarnoff lies in his combination of a visionary, members of staff. Sarnoff’s role at the NBC His obituary appeared in the The New York
determined builder, and hardened industrial was extremely varied and emphasised his Times, and the writer concluded that Sarnoff,
leader.” This would have pleased Sarnoff who unique business acumen, relected by his es- “was not an inventor, nor was he a scientist.
worked hard, especially in the early stag- tablishment of the NBC Symphony Orchestra But he was a man of astounding vision, who
es of his career to establish a reputation as and the recruitment of the celebrated maes- was able to see, with remarkable clarity, the
a radio pioneer. tro Arturo Toscanini (1867 to 1957) as its possibilities of harnessing the electron.”
conductor. The NBC Symphony Orchestra is Moreover, in March 1998, Time Magazine
NBC and the Development of RCA widely regarded as one of the inest orches- added Sarnoff to its “Time 100” list of
To maximise radio receiver sales, Sarnoff tras in US musical history. the most inluential people of the 20th
turned his attention to providing program- Century (Fig. 3).
ming content. He formed the National Military Service: His contribution to the development of
Broadcasting Company (NBC, Fig. 2) in 1926, The making of the General radio broadcasting as a medium of public
as a subsidiary of RCA. To facilitate the de- On 7th December 1944, Sarnoff was ap- entertainment was also acknowledged by
velopment of new broadcast media, NBC pointed to the rank of a Brigadier-General Columbia and New York Universities, both of
invested US$10 million on an electronic tel- in the US Army, relecting his close relation- which awarded Sarnoff doctoral degrees. In
evision system. This move resulted in con- ship with General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who total, he received 27 honorary degrees.
siderable controversy because America was later referred to Sarnoff as his ‘communica- The Sarnoff family’s involvement in RCA
then in the grip of the Great Depression. tions consultant’. was later continued by Robert W. Sarnoff,
In 1925, RCA purchased its irst radio sta- Sarnoff was perspicacious in anticipating who was appointed to the position of
tion, WEAF broadcasting from New York. This future geopolitical developments. He knew Chairman and Chief Executive Ofice of RCA.
became the foundation of RCA dominance of that postwar America would be in need of What is more, Thomas W. Sarnoff was select-
radio broadcasting throughout the USA. an international broadcasting voice to ex- ed to the position of Staff Executive and Vice
This technological dominance would con- plain her policies. President for the West Coast area of NBC.

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RadioUser May 2019 25
Emerging Issues in Radio

Chrissy Brand
[email protected]

M
ay is a big month in the UK
radio and audio industries,
with Radio Audio Week
commencing on May 13th;
other, related, events are
also held throughout this month. I admit
that I sometimes feel we are ‘overrun’
with national and international days that
commemorate one cause or another.
However, most of them do promote worth-
while causes, bringing people and commu-
nities together to celebrate advances made
and to share information more widely. This,
in turn, helps achieve the aim of making the
world a better place for us all. I note that
May 3rd is World Press Freedom Day and
May 17th is World Telecommunication and
Information Society Day.

Going Loco
Last year, May 25th was also deemed
as Local Radio Day. At the time of writ-
ing (in March 2019), no similar announce-
ments have been made for a 2019 event.
Hopefully, it will take place. I am awaiting in-
formation on Twitter for @localradioday.
I feel we do need a Local Radio Day, espe-
cially in light of the developments that have
seen redundancies and the ‘homogenisa-
tion’ of many shows, replacing some of the
local flavours with a bland, national, format.
I am talking about the announcements in
February that Bauer Media Group acquired
all of Celador’s 25 analogue stations and
two digital services. Bauer Media Group also
purchased 15 stations from the Wireless
Group. Most local commercial stations are
now owned by either Global or Bauer Media.
My local FM station in Hastings is More
1 FM (Fig. 1). While I’ve found some of the
music programmes to be entertaining,

Radio’s the format is mostly current chart music

with occasional hits from previous dec-
ades. Surely the audience deserves more
thoughtful and thought-provoking program-

Untapped ming? Why not experiment and pilot differ-

ent formats for some shows, to see if it has
a negative effect on advertising revenues. I

Potential
doubt it would.
The More Breakfast Show and others
contain a lot of local, and sometimes in-
formative, chat, along with often useful
trafic reports.
Chrissy Brand promotes the idea of alternative Will the dominance of Bauer and Global
music on the radio, to widen listeners’ horizons, and mean yet more local programmes become
national shows? That is not a good move for
she challenges the mainstream UK radio industry listener choice, and it defeats the purpose of
to implement real choice across the radio dial. why local radio exists.

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26 RadioUser May 2019
 Emerging Issues in Radio

ALL PICTURES: CHRISSY BRAND

In 2018, the organisers of Local Radio Day

explained its purpose in a well-worded state-
ment that I wholeheartedly agree with. “We
believe local radio is more important than
many radio companies do. We believe when
it is done properly, with the right funding, the 3
right people and the right motives it can help
change the lives of listeners and make a real and interests of vast swathes of the popu- Fig. 1: More FM in Hastings is too often ‘less’, yet
and lasting impact to the area that it serves. It lation are not represented on speech radio it could be so much ‘more’. Fig. 2: Soveida plays
can help local businesses prosper and thrive, programming, who either go for the estab- Persian classical music that deserves a wider
making a real impact on the economy of the lishment viewpoint or, at the other extreme, audience. Fig. 3: Soveida performing at Portslade
areas where it still exists, and it can provide populist simpliications of issues. Town Hall.
skills and training to local people. We want An inevitable outcome is that people are
to make the case for local radio because we doing it for themselves. Different views of can have a wide array of live music acts.
feel it can, sometimes, be taken for granted. news stories can be gained such as from I recently saw a mesmerising perfor-
Local Radio Day celebrates the partnership Telesur (a South American organisation who mance by an ensemble called Soveida (Figs.
that exists between radio stations and their produce reportage every day in English) and 2 and 3) at Portslade Town Hall, just out-
listeners and sets out to demonstrate the dif- Novara Media in the UK. side of Brighton. The concert was backed
ference that local really makes.” Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear radio sta- by the UK-based International Organisation
tions be more experimental and progressive to Preserve Human Rights. Soveida’s mu-
Radio Audio Week in their music choices? I’ve always felt that sic is based, “on a long since forgotten form
The second Radio Audio Week takes place, stations should inform, educate and enlight- of Classical Persian music, the Soveida
mostly in London, from May 13th to 18th. en. The result is a feeling that we have learnt Ensemble performs on some of the oldest in-
It will bring together partners from across something helpful or that our general well- struments created [...], including the Tanbour,
the audio sector, including Radiocentre, being has been enhanced. I don’t think that Setar, Tar, Daf, Tombak and Ney.”
the BBC, The Radio Academy, the Internet is too radical an idea. Radio Javan in Washington DC plays mod-
Advertising Bureau UK, the Institute of It’s not just me. Others, who have given up ern and some older Persian music, but not
Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and The on mainstream radio performing this role, of the classical kind.
British Podcast Awards. have long ago decided to do their own thing, www.radiojavan.com
The aim is to celebrate the audio revolu- hence the hundreds of thousands of pod- I’ve not heard music of this kind aired on
tion, which organisers state is, “seeing re- casts, many of which explore presenters’ the radio before, not even on the short wave
cord numbers of people tuning in to the radio, passions beyond the three-minute manufac- broadcaster Voice of the Islamic Republic
the coming of age of podcasts and the evolu- tured pop song or the ‘shock-jock’ phone-in, of Iran. In fact, the nearest station to where
tion of voice-activated devices.” so beloved by orthodox radio broadcasters. this concert took place, Brighton’s communi-
Surely, an emerging issue in radio and au- ty station Platform B is more likely to show-
dio is a realisation that millions of listeners New Talent case that kind of music.
in the UK (and worldwide), are not being ca- Although some local radio stations cham- Platform B epitomises the very essence
tered for. In music radio, there are endless pion up-and-coming local acts, many seem of an exciting community radio station. The
genres and offshoots, yet you’d be unaware oblivious to the variety of musical talent on energy it exudes, and the diversity of content
of this, from just a quick scan of FM and their doorstep; talent, which, surely, ought it plays, would be a good model for other,
DAB. Likewise, the diverse views, opinions to be promoted on the air. Even small towns larger (local and national) stations to follow.

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RadioUser May 2019 27
Emerging Issues in Radio

Radio Events
RADIO AUDIO WEEK, LONDON
May 13th to 18th
RADIO ACADEMY RADIO FESTIVAL
London, May 13th
www.radioaudioweek.co.uk
BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS,
LONDON May 18th
www.britishpodcastawards.com
LOVE BROADCASTING SUMMIT
London, June 25th
https://tinyurl.com/y36ht2ae

Instead of going all out for proit and

mainstream music, I feel that at least half
of every hour’s output should feature the
presenter’s choice of new or different or lo-
cal music. Things have drifted so far into
commercialism, at the cost of exciting radio
output, that this might seem a radical idea.
However, many radio presenters and DJs
got into broadcasting in the irst place, due
to a love of music and radio; innovative radio
usually, that inspires and empowers – not
radio that sounds the same across the dial.
Stations are concerned about their future
in this age of podcasts and alternate music
channels (such as Soundcloud). However,
if mainstream stations fail to embrace the
range of real-world sounds and performers 4
that are all around us, just outside the safe
bubble many listeners inhabit, then only a broadcast, should a station be adventurous Fig. 4: Tibetan Gong Music can be heard in
tiny proportion of future generations will enough to take it up. podcasts but not on the radio.
bother tuning to traditional, linear, radio. Tibetan gong music should be played on
Many of us are abandoning FM and DAB a Tibetan radio station but that seems un- set of listeners and followers who interact
stations, for the more rewarding arena of likely while the country is under Chinese and help shape the station’s content and di-
certain community stations, podcasts and occupation. You might be lucky to hear it rection. It might be community radio, a tar-
music streaming where we can discover ex- on the Voice of America’s Tibetan Service geting of different BAME groups on FM or
citing new worlds. In this vein, stations such or on The Voice of Tibet, based in Norway. an internet-only station. It can apply equally
as ALL FM in Manchester, SOAS Radio and Podcasters and other internet radio stations to podcasts, many of which develop a cult
Resonance FM in London and Soma FM in specialising in meditation, such as Radio following. In turn, this can be ‘monetised’, if
California play experimental, underground Art, carry the standard for this kind of mu- desired, through advertisers targeting prod-
and specialist programmes. sical atmosphere. ucts and services that are likely to appeal to
World Music shows have been popular www.voatibetanenglish.com each podcast’s audience.
since the 1980s, and it is good to see public www.vot.org
broadcasters such as BBC Radio 6, World https://tinyurl.com/y58ww9vs Finally
Service. Radio France International and oth- Other inspiring, or just plain interesting, Although many conferences are aimed at
ers at the forefront. It would be great for sounds are out there, waiting for a radio sta- radio and audio professionals, some en-
commercial FM and community stations to tion to champion them. On Vancouver Co-op courage public participation and are free
air more of the amazing array of music from Radio, Cut and Run is a collective that “aggre- or charge a nominal registration fee. At the
other cultures that we are fortunate to be gates and disseminates omnivorous aural time of writing, I am anticipating two of the
able to see live in the UK. media”. This ranges from brain-dance-music latter type: the Media Democracy Festival
A couple of times a year I attend a perfor- to video game music, and it includes sound- in London and the week-long Radio Drama
mance of Tibetan gong music (Fig. 4), held scapes, ield recordings, as well as chats Festival in Canterbury, Kent. After this, we
at St. Mary in the Castle in Hastings. It’s a about these genres will see the irst larger conference of the
19th Century church, built into a rock under www.coopradio.org/content/soundscape year, Radiodays Europe in Lausanne. Here,
Hastings Castle. Add to that the bathing Specialist radio stations are the future in hundreds will gather to discuss audio and
in gong music and it’s a really ‘spaced-out’ my view, whether the format is talk or music. radio. I will report on developments at these
evening. One that would make for a great This leads to a smaller but intensely loyal and other gatherings next month.

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28 RadioUser May 2019
 Digital Radio

Software
Kevin Ryan
[email protected]

P
eriodically, I check how the
various software programs
and apps, available to decode
digital radio, are developing.
I typically load the software
onto a Windows 7/10 desktop, and onto
Decoders
an Android if that is also available. This
can mean that I am a bit behind, as most of
these decoders appear on Linux in the first
place.
You may know that the Linux operating
Compared
system is favoured by software developers
who produce source code files for This month, Kevin Ryan has updates on the
other enthusiasts to develop further. most common DAB and DRM decoding software,
I plan to install a version of Linux on
an old Windows PC as soon as I have relates expansion plans for UK and European DAB
refreshed my scant knowledge of this broadcasters, and surveys China’s new DRM status.
operating system.

Qt-DAB Windows 7 PC, with an RTL2838U

This program (Fig. 1) is the successor attached, worked without problems.
to DAB-rpi and sdr-j-DAB, which were I am not sure that the hardware device
both written by the same author. The last plays any part during the launch, as you
version that I have of sdr-j-DAB is v0.99, select the receiver (input device) after
produced in 2015. the app launches.
This makes Qt-DAB a welcome Qt-DAB supports slideshows (SLS)
development. Qt-DAB has a different called the MOT (Media Object Transfer)
dashboard and automatically decodes protocol in DAB, but it is only partially
DAB and DAB+ variants. I had good implemented. On the Detail tab is the MOT
results using an RTLSDR USB stick indicator; this sometimes changes to 1
(Watson SDR Mk1) on the three national green, from the normal red, but this does
multiplexes. The software has an not seem to mean much.
impressive specification, and most of it The decoding of the EPG and the TPEG to work much better than the Windows
has been implemented. traffic information is also still in the version, at least on my desktops.
There are a few bugs and implementation stage. Helpfully, the app I had my usual trouble trying to run the
inconsistencies (for example, in the saves the audio as a .wav file, the stations app on Windows 7, and I gave up. I moved
help pop-ups) in this release, but they on the multiplex (Content button) as a to Windows 10 and – after running Zadig
won’t hamper your use of the software. detailed text file. It dumps the complete to replace the Windows driver for the
I managed to crash it a couple of DAB channel as a very large .sdr file, which RTL2832U (Windows says the device is
times, and once or twice it stopped can be processed later, via Qt-DAB. a Realtek 2838U) SDR – I got welle.io to
decoding the audio. work. It is disappointing that after some
Qt-DAB supports inputs from SDRPlay DABPlayer 600 updates (according to the website) the
(both RSP I and RSP II), Airspy (including In my opinion, this is the best DAB app is still dropping and recapturing the
Airspy mini), and from DAB sticks that use software player (Fig. 2) available at the DAB signal at regular intervals.
extio and HACKRF One. moment. I covered this app in detail in The app measured a reasonably strong
I installed the Windows version of the the November 2018 issue (RadioUser, SNR of 19dB on the BBCWS station. I kept
software using the setup file available on November 2018: 30-33). An updated getting ADC overload messages, possibly
the GitHub repository: version (1.0.2.152) is available to indicating an input that is too high;
https://tinyurl.com/y5ja5rfx download with or without logging from once the app hits a high rate of errors, it
My first attempt was on a Windows 7 Andreas Gsinn’s website. I think you will struggles to recover. This happens on the
PC; the software went through the install enjoy using this software: automatic gain setting as well as in several
process cleanly, including installing the https://tinyurl.com/ya5l3a8z manual settings.
connection (API) to the SDRplay RSP 1A By contrast, a nice feature in welle.io
SDR connected to the PC. However, the Welle.io 2.0 is that each function is in a separate
desktop app crashed part-way through the I don’t think there are any new updates window, and you can configure the expert
launch process, and I haven’t investigated since the 2.0 Beta 1 release last mode for those things that interest you. A
this very thoroughly as yet. December. This version doesn’t have an new feature here is a console output that is
My second attempt, using another Android implementation yet that I found a debug tool, and here the acquisition and

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RadioUser May 2019 29
Digital Radio

PICTURES: KEVIN RYAN

dropping of a signal are clearly visible. I am

not sure if that is because of input signal
issues or owing to something local to my
PC. I have more work to do here.
https://tinyurl.com/ycvoymqn

HDRadio Decoder
You can easily experiment with DAB and
DRM, because they are open standards,
and several developers are working on
open-source projects. I always thought
it would be great to experiment with HD
Radio, but that is a proprietary standard
strictly controlled and licensed by the
iBiquity Digital Corporation. Developers
struggle to get anywhere. There is a short
video explaining how it works on the
HD Radio website:
https://hdradio.com/why-hd-radio
Recently, I revisited an article, on the 2
RTL SDR website, on how a cybersecurity
expert called Theori researched the Fig.1: The Qt-DAB software – the successor
HDRadio signal and, impressively, reverse- to DAB-rpi and sdr-j-DAB. Fig. 2: DABPlayer,
engineered a software decoder from it. arguably the best DAB software player at present.
The Windows and Linux implementation Fig. 3: The Sodira software package.
instructions are available on the
GitHub repository. itself. I use this decoder with my RSP1A
https://github.com/theori-io/nrsc5 SDR, and I admit that I fiddled too much
If you are a Linux novice like me, opt to with the settings before I got it to work
build a Windows decoder using the MSYS2 (Fig. 3). I also managed to use the output
Linux emulator. However, be warned: it 3 from a KiwiSDR in Sardinia as another
takes a while to complete. It is not difficult input device and got some audio from the
to follow the commands that must be input weird hybrid data/DRM signal transmitted
as given in the install guide and eventually by WINB (Fig. 4). Sodira has many
play the sample file. features that I need to explore more fully,
The long-winded process creates a including how to get it to read updated
standard Windows .exe file that should files from the EiBi database.
run without working through the MSYS2 https://tinyurl.com/yxd6roud
terminal screen. It needs a handful of https://tinyurl.com/y39n2p6d
other .dll Windows files in the same by copying files from the current DReaM
directory, but I couldn’t find them in the directory. This fixed the error message, DAB Updates UK
installed directories. but that did not mean they will run with Ofcom redefined its definition of how
My plan was to experiment with the new version, because it is for 64- ‘local’ a local radio now needs to be and
connecting a KiwiSDR receiver in the US bit Windows. Then I hit another error produced a new map dividing the UK into
to the decoder and see if I could get audio about another missing .dll that I couldn’t regions rather than counties. Wales is one
from an HDRadio station like WBBM on source from anywhere. region, as is Northern Ireland. Scotland
780kHz. A bit ambitious but it needs the The new AAC decoder is based on the is split into North and South. England
developer to add AM to their FM-only Fraunhofer FDK AAC codec library for has eight regions, where London and
decoder. This may come in time if others Android and is an open-source software Yorkshire keep their identities; the others
provide the team with sample files. library. It supports all versions of the AAC are South, East, West, Central, North-East
I will return to this project in a decoder currently used by DRM stations. and North-West.
few months’ time. This would be a fantastic development The new Localness Guidelines reduce
because many of us will be unable to the weekday commitment to locally-made
A New Version of DReaM decode DRM if stations adopt the more programmes from seven to three hours,
Chief developer Julian Cable released a efficient HE-AACv2 encoder. between 6 am and 7 pm. Breakfast is not
new version of the DReaM DRM decoder included in this requirement, allowing
in February but I, along with others, had Sodira station owners to network their breakfast
trouble getting it to run on Windows. This software package decodes AM, shows. Local news has to be provided at
Julian admitted he had difficulties with the FM and DRM. It is an attractive option least hourly during the same period.
Windows version. because you don’t have to pipe the signal There is a lot of speculation on what
I solved a couple of error messages to DReaM and it pretty much configures Global, Bauer and others will actually do.

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30 RadioUser May 2019
 Digital Radio

Global Radio already has Ofcom approval

to reduce the hours of locally-made
programmes (mostly news) on many of its
local stations.
The broadcaster will launch UK-wide
national breakfast shows on Capital, Heart
and Smooth by the end of this year, to
compete with the BBC.
By the way, in all the statements and
guidelines issued by Ofcom, I didn’t find
any mention of DAB.
It is all about FM.

New Transmitters
I noted a few recent approval requests
from the UK in the ITU notices. Two
transmitters are in operation at Esher
(12A, London 2) and Peppermoor Farm
(11C, Tyne and Wear), and the third is,
possibly, a new transmitter at Lancaster
(11B and 1.5kW). The question is whether
Ofcom is preparing to finally advertise the
licence for Cumbria. 4
The Ofcom coverage map I have shows
12 transmitters but excludes the one at Fig. 4: Taking the output from a KiwiSDR as an
Lancaster. It is possible that Ofcom is input device for Sodira, receiving WINB. Fig. 5:
simply reviewing the coverage and adding The China DRM Short Wave Network.
Lancaster – on the very edge of the region
– to fill in a gap. We may receive more
information from Ofcom towards the Radio France stations and for 24 other
end of the year. broadcasters. The WRTH 2019 lists 30
network broadcasters, and some of the
Other UK DAB News smaller ones did not make the final list.
The Wireless Group added TalkSport Actual broadcasts are expected to start
2, TalkRadio and Virgin Radio to the in early 2020.
Swansea multiplex earlier in the year. https://tinyurl.com/y5u8bepk
The SDL multiplex also had all three
stations on their multiplex. This made 5
China DRM
sense in one way, because the only China has the largest DRM network on
common transmitter site is Kilvey Hill, and for the national and urban networks, five short wave, using five transmitter sites to
Swansea’s other four transmitters extend channels reserved for new DAB+ projects cover most of the country (Fig. 5). India
coverage to the North West and the South (unspecified), and a further 12 channels has the biggest DRM network on medium
East. Perhaps SDL needed to tweak for urban and rural independent stations. wave. At times, there are seven different
the radiation pattern of their antenna The CSA expects to award transmitters in operation. It looks like a
since the three stations were removed licenses in July 2019. permanent development, and I hope that
in early March. http://www.csa.be receiver development picks up according-
I found an interactive map on the CSA ly. By my reckoning, nine countries are ac-
Belgium website that I found both helpful and a tive users of DRM, and there are occasion-
A new DAB block opened in Flanders in bit confusing. The drop-down menu lists al broadcasts from a few others.
February on channel 5D with the label 18 allocations, made up of two national,
DAB+ VLAANDEREN2. So far, it only 4 regional and the 12 local multiplexes. Summary
carries two stations. The confusing bit for me is that Mux 2 and You can use software decoders for
In the French-speaking area of Belgium the four regional multiplexes share the DAB and DRM to enjoy the programmes
(Wallonia), the regulator, the Conseil channels in sub-band 6 (6A-6D). and learn a bit more about how digi-
Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), has https://tinyurl.com/y4h9vt2l tal radio works.
issued a tender for both FM and DAB I can see DAB in the UK splitting into na-
frequencies. The move is seen as pushing France tional regions (matching the TV regions)
forward digital radio. However, for the The CSA in France selected the and community stations.
national and urban networks simulcasting broadcasters that will be carried on I am not sure this is a good thing. Will
on FM and DAB+, it is a mandatory part of the two national multiplexes. There Bauer and Global now push to match the
the licence. There are six DAB+ channels is reserved capacity for the six main BBC radio regions?

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RadioUser May 2019 31
Airband News

GATCO Proposals
David Smith reports on control of drone operations and the use of ADS-B to
further improve traffic safety at non-radar-equipped smaller airfields. He
also profiles ATC operations at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
following rules and/or being competent Manchester Barton
David Smith enough to operate their drones within those Authorised by the CAA, Flight Information
[email protected] rules. GATCO is calling for the government to Service Oficers (FISOs) at Manchester
take six new measures as soon as possible. Barton aerodrome are using an ADS-B
n the wake of the drone iasco,

I
These measures are described in Table 1. Ground Receiver, loaned by Airspace4All Ltd,
which closed Gatwick Airport for GATCO is a professional organisation, to feed a Trafic Display to aid Barton’s situ-
more than a day in December 2018, which promotes the highest standards in all ational awareness and enhance trafic safe-
GATCO, the UK Guild of Air Trafic aspects of air trafic management. It is ded- ty. The intention is for the trial to run for six
Control Oficers, has criticised the icated to the safety of all who travel or gain months, from 1 March 2019.
Government for taking a piecemeal ap- their livelihood in the air. It represents the Airspace4All Ltd is a not-for-proit com-
proach to drone regulation. Although GATCO professional interests and opinions of those pany whose aim is to encourage the gen-
welcomes its action on drone regulation, in the air trafic management profession. eral aviation community to adopt a uniied
including the introduction of new light re- Membership is open to civil or military air approach and position on all airspace mat-
striction zones around licensed aerodromes, trafic controllers, light information service ters. Its mission statement is: ‘To work in
it says that this is not enough to ensure the oficers, aerospace battle managers (weap- partnership with other aviation stakehold-
safety of the travelling public. ons), and anyone involved in the air trafic ers to explore innovative solutions to cre-
www.gatco.org management support including non-opera- ate a sustainable and equitable UK air traf-
The measures so far rely on individuals tional positions. ic environment.’

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32 RadioUser May 2019
 Airband News

ATC Profiles 13: Liverpool John Lennon Airport

1. Establish mandatory geo-fencing without
ICAO Code: EGGP IATA Code: LPL delay. Geo-fencing must be made mandatory to
prevent drones from lying in areas where they
Frequencies (MHz) Hours of Operation could be a danger to aircraft.
Liverpool Approach/Radar 119.855 H24 2. Fast-track research and trials into electronic
Liverpool Radar 118.455 As directed by ATC conspicuity. Air trafic controllers and light
Liverpool Tower 126.355 H24 information service oficers need to be able to
Liverpool Ground 121.955 As directed by ATC see drones on their equipment, and this will be
ATIS mandatory if drones are to be integrated into
Liverpool Information 124.330 H24 (Also by telephone: 0871-750 5150) non-segregated controlled airspace in the future.
Liverpool Fire (non-ATC) 121.600 Fire vehicles attending aircraft on the ground. The drone industry has so far developed far more
Navaids ILS CAT III on Runway 27 quickly than the regulations to control them.
CAT I on Runway 09 3. Clarity on rules for exclusion zones for
NDB LPL 349.500kHz helipads. The government’s recent decision
Runways 09 2285m x 46m to increase the drone exclusion zones around
27 2285m x 46m licensed aerodromes is not clear on instruc-
tions around helipads. Drone collision tests ind
Holds KEGU helicopters to be particularly vulnerable.
TIPOD
4. Urgent consideration of introducing restriction
LPL
zones around unlicensed aerodromes. The
Notes (A-Z)
government’s latest regulations do not take into
CAT II/III Operations
Runway 27, subject to the serviceability of the required facilities, is suitable for Category II and III operations by operators whose minima account unlicensed aerodromes. This leaves
have been accepted by the CAA. During CAT II/III operations, special ATC procedures (Low Visibility Operations) will be applied. Pilots smaller general aviation aircraft exposed to the
will be informed by ATC when these procedures are in operation. dangers of drones.
Continuous Descent Approaches to Runway 09 5. Planned drone registration and tests for indi-
Subject to ATC instructions, inbound turbo-jet and turbo-prop aircraft are to maintain as high an altitude as practical and adopt a low- viduals brought forward from November 2019.
power, low-drag, continuous, descent approach proile. ATC will provide estimated track distance to a touchdown to allow pilots to
descend at a rate they judge best suited to achieve continuous descent without using more power or drag than necessary. The object The sooner these regulations can be enacted, the
will be to join the glide path at the appropriate height for the distance without level light. Note: Continuous descent approaches are only safe the skies will be.
available on Runway 09. Runway 27 operations may require prolonged light at a lower altitude for airspace integration. 6. Further research on the effect of drone strikes.
Frequency Monitoring Code (FMC)
Pilots operating outside the Liverpool Control Zone and maintaining a listening watch only on Liverpool Approach (119.855MHz), may
select code 5060 with mode Charlie. Solo student pilots fulilling the above criteria may select code 5067. Selection of 5060/5067 does Table 1: Proposed GATCO Drone Safety Measures.
not imply the receipt of an ATC service. Aircraft displaying these codes are not expected to contact ATC under normal circumstances but
remain responsible for their own navigation, separation and terrain clearance. Moreover, they are expected to remain clear of Liverpool’s
controlled airspaces at all times. Pilots are reminded that the Manchester CTR/CTAs and the Hawarden RMZ (Radar Mandatory Zone) are Barton will be inviting a number of select-
in close proximity to the Liverpool CTR/CTAs, and the display of 5060/5067 does not constitute authority to transit these areas without
permission. Whilst squawking 5060/5067, pilots should be aware that Liverpool Approach may make blind calls, in order to ascertain ed higher utilisation operators based at the
a pilot’s intentions/routing. When an aircraft ceases to maintain a listening watch or is no longer lying within the area, the pilot will
deselect transponder code 5060/5067.
airield to participate in the trial, by using a
Ground Movement portable, CAA-compliant, ADS-B transceiver
Aircraft entering the main apron will be as directed by ATC. However, aircraft with a wingspan of 36m or more will enter through Taxiway device, also loaned by Airspace4AllLtd.
Whiskey. The general aviation parking area is limited to aircraft of 5700kg or less. Visiting aircraft entering the GA apron at Kilo must call
Ravenair on 131.750MHz for parking instructions. These devices will broadcast the aircraft’s
Handling Agents position, giving Barton ATS staff visibility of
Handling for all aircraft is mandatory. Ravenair/Liverpool Aviation Services: 131.750MHz (Callsign: LAS Liverpool). Swissport:
130.600MHz (Callsign: Swissport Liverpool). Wynne Aviation Services Ltd. XLR Executive Jet Centre. the aircraft on their trafic displays.
Helicopter Operations Additionally – though not as an element
Parts of the manoeuvring area can be used for take-offs and landings as instructed by ATC. Thresholds of the operational runways are
designated as aiming points. Arrivals: ATC will either select the appropriate threshold or instruct the helicopter to make an approach to
of this trial – the participating aircraft also
the runway. If instructed to approach the runway, the helicopter is to turn on to a inal approach and arrange the descent to lare to the beneit from onboard ADS-B in-trafic-infor-
ground or hover taxiing speed in the ixed wing runway touchdown zone. Departures: These will be made from the runway, aiming points
or parallel taxiway as selected by ATC. Taxiing - hover (or ground taxiing if applicable) is required to/from the parking area, via designated mation, if they pair the transceiver with a
taxiways. A training area for helicopter hovering has been designated to the west of Taxiway Charlie, on a disused taxiway and grassed suitable display device, such as a tablet with
area. A ‘touch-and-go’ training area has been created south of the main runway, available for use by airport-based helicopters only.
Training
a GDL90-compatible navigation app.
Training lights by turbo-jet powered aircraft are subject to the prior approval of ATC. All crew training circuits must be carried out at least Furthermore, it is also hoped that this tri-
1,500 ft above aerodrome level. All types of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and Visual Flight Rules (VFR) training are only available by prior
arrangement with ATC and are subject to availability of training slots. When Runway 09 is the declared runway in use, instrument training al will encourage the further development
to Runway 27 will not be permitted. Only radar-vectored ILS/DME approaches will be available for instrument training to Runway 09. of technology to support ATS provision at
Use of Runways
Variable circuit directions at the discretion of ATC. Overhead join of the circuit is not available. Pilots should join the circuit as instructed
UK general aviation airields. Chichester
by ATC. Goodwood Aerodrome in West Sussex will
Visual Reference Points (VRP) also be participating in the trial, as well as
Aintree Racecourse; Burtonwood; Chester (A55(T)/A51(T)); Fiddlers Ferry Power Station; Frodsham Hill; Garston Docks; Haydock Park
Racecourse; Helsby Hill; Jaguar Car Factory; Kirkby; M53N/J10 (Cheshire Oaks); M56 Junction 11; Neston; Oulton Park; Runcorn Bridge; North Weald in Essex.
Seaforth; Stretton Aerodrome; The Liver Building (Pier Head); Tarvin Roundabout; Tarbock Island. The standard VFR outbound route
south, from 27, is via Chester; the route north is via Mersey and Seaforth. The inbound route from the North is via Kirkby; the inbound
Being close to Stapleford aerodrome,
route from the South is via Oulton Park. Runway 09: outbound to the North via Kirkby; to the South via Oulton Park. The inbound route within the Stansted TMZ (Transponder
from the North is via Seaforth; from the South, it is via Chester.
Mandatory Zone), and under the Stansted
Warnings
Pilots are reminded of the proximity of Restricted Area EG R311, 5nm southwest of the aerodrome. Aircraft completing visual approaches control area, North Weald operates under
to Liverpool airport from the south and southeast are requested to avoid overlying the industrial chemical works situated on the south some congested and complex airspace,
bank of the River Mersey, 1nm south of the NDB LPL. Pilots should exercise caution when leaving the main apron via taxiway Victor, to
ensure they do not enter the rapid exit turn-off at Echo when taxiing to Runway 09 or Runway 27. making it ideally located for trialling the
ADS-B trafic display.
More information and background on this
During this time, Barton will be provid- tion of ADS-B real-time trafic displays by GA can be found on the following websites:
ing daily feedback, which will contribute to Air Trafic Services units. Additionally, it is https://tinyurl.com/y2hdhtgj
an Airspace4All report to enable the CAA hoped this trial will encourage further devel- https://tinyurl.com/yy8lw9uc
to assess this capability and give consider- opment of technology to support ATS provi- My picture of the month this time is of the
ation to policy change, and the authorisa- sion at UK GA airields. cockpit of Concorde.

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RadioUser May 2019 33
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Feature

The British
Stephen Walters
[email protected]

T
he British Vintage Wireless

Vintage Society (BVWS) is a network

of more than 1,200 worldwide
members sharing a common
interest in the preservation and

Wireless Society communication of technical and historical

data and in the conservation and restoration
of vintage radio and related equipment.
We publish the quarterly Bulletin, contain-
Stephen Walters, G7VFY offers an introduction to ing a wide range of restoration and histori-
cal articles, photographs of events, Society
the history, activities and events of the worldwide news etc. This is a high-quality publication. A
network that is the British Vintage Wireless Society. sample Bulletin is available on our website.

For the latest news and product reviews, visit www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

36 RadioUser May 2019
 Feature

PICTURES: ALEX HEWITT, BRITISH VINTAGE WIRELESS SOCIETY

supplements for members, consisting

of technical, historical and documentary
interest. Over the past few years we have
produced (with Copyright permission) two
CD-ROMs of the Trader Service Sheets (1 to
1900), a CD-ROM of all BVWS Bulletins no
longer in print, and a CD-ROM of all editions
of 405 Alive magazine, several DVDs
containing historic ilms, plus a number
of other paper supplements, and our own
history book. These are all free to members.
A recent release to members is the
autobiography of Mr Gerry Wells, the
father of Vintage Radio Collecting,
entitled Obsession. The book contains a
huge number of interesting facts about
the life of a boy fascinated initially by
electricity and later radio. It is packed with
information about set manufacturers and
funny anecdotes of being in the radio and
television trade.
We have also released the excellent
Valveman ilm about the life of Gerry Wells
on DVD, with all proceeds going to the British
Vintage Wireless Museum.
Our Society relies on new membership,
new Bulletin articles and new ideas to
enable it to lourish and secure its future for
generations to come. If you have an interest
in collecting and restoring old equipment,
We hold regular meetings around the UK. interest in collecting and restoring old or just looking at or listening to old radios,
Our main event takes place at Harpenden equipment, or just looking at or listening to televisions or Hi-Fi, then why not consider
twice a year, with smaller meetings held in old radios, televisions or Hi-Fi, then why not becoming a BVWS member.
Wiltshire, Cheshire and East Sussex. consider becoming a BVWS member. An An application form can be found on
These meetings have stalls selling application form can be found on the join the BVWS page. You could also contact
vintage radio and related items, and the BVWS page. You could also contact the the Membership Secretary who will be
often also include a bring-and-buy stall, Membership Secretary who will be happy to happy to send you a sample Bulletin and
working displays of vintage equipment, send you a sample Bulletin and answer any answer any questions about the Society.
historical presentations and an auction. questions about the Society. Take a look at Your suggestions and comments are
Refreshments are available at reasonable the events diary page for current details. always welcome.
prices. Take a look at the events diary page We also organise the highly successful
for current details. National Vintage Communications Fair, with Stephen Walters, G7VFY
Our Society relies on new membership, more than 300 stalls under one roof. The fair Tel: 07956-544202
new Bulletin articles and new ideas to takes place annually at the Warwickshire
http://tinyurl.com/y5lpmy6h
enable it to lourish and secure its future Exhibition Centre.
https://www.bvws.org.uk
for generations to come. If you have an The Society regularly produces

Why not visit our new online bookshop at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

RadioUser May 2019 37
International Radio Scene

European Voices of Reason

Chrissy Brand tunes into a range of English services from European
stations, illustrating how ties between the UK and the European mainland
remain strong, regardless of the political arena.
CHRISSY BRAND

Chrissy Brand
[email protected]

O
ne of the many inordinate
strengths of radio signals is their
ability to transcend regional and
international borders. The pro-
gramme content might be politi-
cal propaganda or balanced news reporting,
entertainment or life-saving information.
Although signals can be jammed, it is
a rarity in this day and age, compared to
the Cold War era. According to the Short
Wave Info website, in February 2019, China
was noted as jamming Radio Free Asia.
Evidently, the BBC World Service in English
on 7445kHz from Talata-Volonondry in
Madagascar was also jammed.
Internet censorship and manipulation
is more likely these days, where govern-
ments try to prevent information streams
from reaching populations. The BBC
World Service reported on February 26th
that most social media platforms are
blocked in Iran, although some use of
Instagram is permitted.
In January, Radio Free Europe stated
that, “A senior Iranian official has said the 1
country is prepared to block Instagram,
once authorities sign off a move that would beaming into your home every evening in wide range of target audiences, from Sami
deny 24 million users, including Supreme English and other languages. RDP Portugal, Laplanders to the Swedish population. The
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President YLE Finland, Serbia Radio International and famous YLE transmissions in Latin, Nuntii
Hassan Rohani, access to the popular social RAI are just four examples. Latini, can still be heard and read online.
media platform.” RDP currently broadcasts to the English news and a weekly podcast called
https://tinyurl.com/yym55w2e Portuguese-speaking communities in Africa, All Points North from Finland, can also
as well as to Timor Leste and to Portuguese be found online
European English peace-keeping forces in Bosnia. As far as I https://areena.yle.fi/1-1931339
Whatever the impact of Brexit is on relations know, Kiss FM is the only English-language https://tinyurl.com/y4zhx2v9
between the UK and the rest of Europe, ra- Portuguese radio station, on 95.0MHz From what I can see, only the following
dio signals and internet access are unlikely in Lisbon, and on 95.8 and 101.2MHz international broadcasters retain English
to be affected. It is interesting, in fact vital, in the Algarve. programmes, and some of those only sur-
to hear different views, and radio has been a From Finland, Scandinavian Weekend vive through arrangements with WRMI
major source for this for over a century. Radio (Fig. 1) airs in English on the first and The Shortwave Service: Radio Tirana,
One of the sad things about short wave’s weekend of each month and verifies re- Radio Prague, Radio Slovakia International,
demise is the loss of so many broadcasters’ ception reports with a QSL card or e-QSL. Radio Ukraine International, RTE, BBC,
foreign language services. Frequencies used in the B18 season (up Radio Exterior de España and TRT The
There used to be a time when stations until March 30th, 2019) included 5980, Voice of Turkey. These remain on short
competed for attention on short wave, and 6170 and 11690kHz. wave as we enter the A19 (Spring and
you could choose from what now seems an YLE Finland is restricted to broadcasts Summer 2019) season.
astonishing number of European stations within Finland, although these do cover a Radio France International, Deutsche

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38 RadioUser May 2019
 International Radio Scene

CHRISSY BRAND CHRISSY BRAND

2
CHRISSY BRAND

Fig. 1: Scandinavian Weekend Radio in English

from Finland. Fig. 2: A 2016 QSL card from Radio
Belarus. Fig. 3: A 1980’s QSL card from Spain
featuring Parador de Alcañiz. Fig. 4: The entrance
to Radio France HQ in Paris.

Welle, Polskie Radio, Sputnik International

and Radio Sweden still produce quali-
ty content in English, but you have to seek
them out through websites or podcasts.
With these, it is no longer about DXing, it is
about programmes.
Likewise, Radio Belarus (Fig. 2) states
that it airs two hours a day on the air and
22 hours online. Many of the programmes
have their origins in the former short wave
broadcasts and will be familiar to listen-
ers to Eastern European stations during the
golden age of short wave from the 1960s
to 1980s. Youth Format covers state youth
policy and the lives of the Belarusian youth.
Postcard from Belarus features tourism,
sites and monuments; Unlimited Nature is
about the environment, and rare animals and
plant species; Letters to Editor is self-explan-
atory while Musicbox plays contemporary
Belarusian music.
https://tinyurl.com/y5q9nbpe
For news of present-day Switzerland,
World Radio Switzerland stepped into the
21st-century gap that was filled so well by 4
Swiss Radio International in the last century.
www.worldradio.ch and Justin Coe introduced a programme hope it is with us for the foreseeable future.
on short wave which was good to hear. The sunny sounds, history, travel and cul-
World Radio Day However, he gave an ominous hint that, due tural programmes are always welcome on
UNESCO World Radio Day on February 13th to the current political climate in Spain, it a radio dial increasingly dominated by news
was celebrated by many stations around is unclear how long the station will remain from and about the USA. Radio Exterior has
the world. Radio Exterior de España aired on short wave. It only returned last October many decades of expertise, going back to
messages from UNESCO representatives, (see RadioUser, January 2019: 48). Let us when it first came on the air under the dark

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RadioUser May 2019 39
International Radio Scene

INTERNATIONAL RADIO FESTIVAL

Fig. 5: Flex FM on air at the International Radio International from Issoudun, which was also
Festival last year. Fig. 6: Radio Mi Amigo scheduled to be broadcast at this time.
International. Meanwhile, Graham Smith heard China
Radio International from 0000 UTC on
7205kHz. It was obvious from the theme mu-
days of the General Franco regime in 1944. sic that it was CRI. He looked up the broad-
Recent programmes that I have enjoyed cast in the WRTH, and the language appears
included a visit to Madrid trade fair FITUR to be Mongolian.
and a look at the Spanish wine industry, Graham logged Carillon Wellbeing Radio,
complete with a wine tasting and a Spanish which is a hospital radio station on Leicester,
song about wine. Another programme on 1476kHz. He said, “The signal was weak,
celebrated the life of flamenco guitar- and the station plays the kind of safe music
ist Paco de Lucia. that you would associate with hospital radio.”
A minor gripe was the songs used during Graham also lamented that, “The German
World Radio Day, all tired tropes from the language has almost completely disap-
1970s with songs about radio from Joni peared from the medium waves, but there is
Mitchell, Donna Summer, The Clash and still some left. I told you about Paradise FM,
Elvis Costello. As good as they are, there is but that station closed, so, once again, the
more modern music that references radio, only German on medium wave is from MR4
and listeners know that the Radio Exterior de 5 in Hungary, 0900 to 1100 UTC on 1188kHz.
España and Radio Nacional de España data- You can sometimes hear the start of the pro-
base contains thousands of hours of inter- ing – let’s share the joy! In these crazy times, gramme in Britain in December and January.”
esting Spanish music. we all need it.”
This view was also expressed by Glenn thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Free Radio
Hauser, with regard to another Radio Exterior RFI can be heard online and, if you are in What’s your preferred term for the non-legal
de España programme; he was surprised Paris, tune into World Radio Paris (WRP) on broadcasts on short wave, medium wave
when the station recently played US coun- Tuesdays to Saturdays for one hour from and FM? ‘Free’, ‘pirate’ or ‘alternative’ radio?
try and western music. Alan Roe echoed 0700 UTC. This not-for-profit radio station Whatever the description, these broadcasts
it in his Listening Post column in BDXC UK broadcasts in English throughout the French still thrive and produce the next genera-
Communication, March 2019. capital on DAB+. It was set up over a decade tion of DJs who often cross over into the
I can but agree. It is wonderful to have ago by expats and produces an eclectic mix mainstream. Sometimes, entire stations
short wave stations out there. However, of talk programmes. It has good links with can cross over, such as Flex FM. The former
these need to keep up the quality and diversi- other global broadcasters, such as Radio London pirate now operates with a licence
ty of programmes, which give them an edge New Zealand, Pacifica Radio, Democracy on 101.4MHz (Fig . 5).
and prevent them from sounding like any Now and NPR. It retransmits CBC’s flagship Shoot me down if you disagree, but there
other AOR FM station, as heard from Canada evening news programme from Toronto As seem to be two main types of free radio sta-
to New Zealand. Overall though, I think REE It Happens twice a day. In addition to this, a tions in 2019. First, younger FM pirates oper-
does a fantastic job and is one of the more Best of WRP podcast produced each month, ating in cities, London and New York provide
entertaining and informative short wave sta- last for almost three hours. strong examples.
tions still out there (Fig. 3). One example of some home-grown out- And second, there is a core of dedicated
Somewhat ironically, Radio France put is the Paris Paysanne with Emily Dilling. providers – mostly ‘men of a certain age’ –
International (Fig. 4) celebrated World Radio A recent episode featured Eva Anastasiu, reliving offshore radio days through week-
Day online as much as on radio. In The who reported on permaculture and on build- end broadcasts on short wave. It is a Europe-
Sound Kitchen, now relegated to podcast ing a community in the countryside. Other wide phenomenon.
and internet-only, presenter Susan Owensby programmes cover travel, design and ar- My local pirate station, Sharp FM, op-
carried on with great enthusiasm. The Sound chitecture, along with the regular news and erates from Eastbourne and Hastings. I
Kitchen is aired every Saturday, with listen- reports you would expect from any seri- know of the Lone Wolf and his transmitter
er responses, music requests and an On ous radio station. sites but will not let on in public. It is often
This Day feature. A nice twist to the music www.worldradioparis.fr heard on any day of the week on 93.9MHz.
requests is that listeners are invited to ex- It airs programmes from Stafford’s World on
plain why a song and singer are important Readers’ Reports Radio Caroline to urban music shows from
to them. There is also a theme (through- Further afield, Lionel Clyne heard Adventist the Noughties. These have been recorded
out February it was ‘men’). Future topics for World Radio at 1955 UTC on 7205 kHz off-the-air and stockpiled for retransmis-
songs include films, instrumentals and chil- broadcasting in Tachelhit from Nauen with sion. It beats any of the local FM stations I
dren’s favourites. a SINPO of 45344. Tachelhit is spoken by can hear at home.
Susan captured the essence of the emo- 3.9 million people, primarily in Morocco but The history of free radio goes back many
tive power of radio when she said, “I would also in Algeria and France. Radio Sudan was decades of course. Radio Mi Amigo cele-
also like to hear from you about your little also broadcasting on that frequency at this brates its 45th anniversary, with broadcasts
moments of joy. Small, daily things: a beau- time (both at 100kW). However, the AWR from May 30th to June 2nd. These will be
tiful sunset, a baby’s laugh. Add that as a broadcast ended at the advertised time of from the MV Castor, in the Belgian coastal
very nice ingredient to our communal cook- 2000 UTC. It was followed by Radio France town of Blankenberge.

For the latest news and product reviews, visit www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

40 RadioUser May 2019
 International Radio Scene

Short Wave Logs

UTC kHz Station and Location Language SINPO Initials

0147 6090 Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Spanish 35544 GS

0200 5970 Adventist World Radio Urdu 45544 GS
0230 5975 Adventist World Radio Panjabi 45544 GS
0500 6165 Radio Habana Cuba English 34333 OR
0900 6160 Shortwave Radio Service, Germany English 34433 NT
0900 9765 Radio New Zealand International English 34333 OR
1200 6005 Radio Slovakia International, Kall English 44444 NT
1300 6005 Voice of Mongolia, Kall English 34433 NT
1610 17730 Adventist World Radio, Talata Volonondry English 25222 LC
1616 15825 World Wide Christian Radio, Okeechobee English 35323 Lc
1620 15770 Supreme Master TV, Okeechobee English 45334 LC
1622 15580 Voice of America, Selebi-Phikwe English 45444 LC
1626 13680 Voice of Hope Africa, Lusaka English 45333 LC
1630 6185 Vatican Radio, Santa Maria Galeria Russian 45444 LC
1645 7405 BBC World Service, A’Seela English 45334 LC, NT
1900 12030 Radio Exterior de España, Noblejas // 9690 Spanish 45233 LC, OR
1920 12095 BBC World Service, Ascension Island English 45344 LC, NT
1930 7375 Radio Romania International, Galbeni Romanian 55555 LC
1930 12050 Radio Ndarason International, Ascension Island Kanuri 45233 LC
1930 7585 Radio Farda, Udon-Thani Persian 45444 LC
1945 7280 Voice of Vietnam, Hanoi French 45333 LC
1948 7245 Radio France International, Issoudun French 45344 LC
1949 5990 Radio Romania International, Galbeni Romanian 55555 LC
1951 7315 Radio Algérienne, Issoudun Arabic 45333 LC
1953 5980 TRT Voice of Turkey, Emirler Turkish 45444 LC
2000 6070 Channel 292, Rohrbach English 35334 LC
2010 5920 Radio Romania International, Ţigăneşti Spanish 45554 LC
2020 5920 KBS World, South Korea, Al Dhabbiya Arabic 35333 LC
2024 5980 Radio Free Asia, Kuwait Chinese 35343 LC
2030 7475 Radio Thailand, Udon Thani English 35333 LC, NT
2045 6175 Voice of America, Selebi-Phikwe English 35333 LC, OR
2046 11965 KNLS Alaska, Mahajanga English 35333 LC
2059 5875 BBC World Service, Woofferton English 25222 LC, OR
2200 0210 Voice of Greece Greek 44444 OR
RADIO MI AMIGO FACEBOOK

LOG CONTRIBUTORS GS = Graham Smith, Bury

St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Sony ICF-SW600 and a tel-
escopic antenna. LC = Lionel Clyne, Faversham,
Kent. Lowe HF-150, random wire or homemade
loop. NT = Nicky Tesla, Sheffield. XHDATA-D808.
OR = Owen Rutherford, London. Lowe HF-150 and a
Wellbrook loop.

There is also another station, Radio Mi

Amigo International, which broadcasts on 6
6085 and 7310kHz from Germany. Along
with vintage music, it offers a special pro- site is in German but there is plenty for Finally, for this month, Graham noted
gramme called The Radio Cave (Fig. 6); it is English speakers. that India is looking at the possibility of us-
hosted by Bob James. www.wwdxc.de ing AM to reach fishery vessels at sea. In
www.worldofradio.co.uk/MiAmigo.html Graham Smith found an article from Frank February, The New Indian Express report-
www.radiomiamigo.international at Non-Stop Systems on making a dipole an- ed on a feasibility study, which showed that
tenna, to be precise his implementation of All India Radio could use some of its medi-
Website Tips the German KGD (Kurz Geratener Dipol ‘Short um wave transmitters to reach 200 nautical
Bob Houlston recommends the World Dipole’) antenna. miles out to sea.
Wide DX Club in Germany; the web- https://tinyurl.com/yxfklab4 http://tinyurl.com/y64mpwj5

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RadioUser May 2019 41
DXTV

Colour TV to Space Exploration: The

Path to Satellite TV & Telstar (Part 2)
Keith Hamer ALL PICTURES: KEITH HAMER+GARRY SMITH ARCHIVE COLLECTION

[email protected]
Garry Smith
[email protected]

In the concluding instalment of the cur-

rent DXTV Special series, Keith Hamer
and Garry Smith examine the progress
of the Telstar space probe, and of satel-
lite technology in general, from the Cold
War to the present day.

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at what be-

came known as the ‘Space Race’ between
the USSR and the USA. The winner was
Russia with its Sputnik-1 spacecraft, not to
mention later exploits with the irst dog in
space, followed swiftly by cosmonaut, Yuri
Gagarin, being blasted off into the unknown
(RadioUser, March 2019: 36-38).

Winners, Losers
and Technology
When it was evident that Russia had won
the ‘race into space’, the American Congress
and the entire US population were, not sur-
prisingly, furious and utterly devastated. The
USA Defense Department immediately re-
sponded, by approving funding for another
satellite project.
The original Vanguard design was still be-
ing improved, but an alternative was simulta-
neously constructed by Wernher von Braun 1

and his Army Redstone Arsenal team.

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von
Braun (to give him his very impressive full
name, 1912 to 1977) was a German aero-
space engineer and space architect. He sub-
sequently gained American citizenship.
During World War II, he was a serv-
ing member of the German Nazi SS be-
tween 1937 and 1945, with the rank of
Sturmbannführer (Major). He was certainly
an expert at designing rockets, including the 2 3

infamous V-2, which was developed by his

Fig.1: The Telstar-1 space probe. Fig. 2: ‘Live’

view of the New York skyline during a Telstar-1
test transmission. Fig. 3: The Sun illuminates the
Goonhilly Downs Ground Station in Cornwall.
Fig. 4: Captain Booth in the control room punches
up the irst ‘live’ transmission from the USA.
Fig. 5: The irst ‘oficial’ signal from Telstar-1 was
a pulse-and-bar test pattern! 4 5

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42 RadioUser May 2019
 DXTV

team at Peenemünde. launch until November 1962 (Fig. 1). The very first picture
Following the War, von Braun was secret- Technical problems began to occur when
ly whisked off to America, along with well radiation started to affect the command via Telstar-1 was
over 1,000 other German engineers, to form channel. This caused Telstar to behave er- actually a Pulse-and-
a top-secret development team in charge ratically. The satellite was continuously
of ‘Operation Paperclip’. His team devel- switched on to work around this problem. On Bar test pattern
oped the intermediate-range ballistic missile November 23rd, 1962, the command chan-
(IRBM) programme. nel suddenly stopped responding. During
Later on in his career, he developed the December 20th, the satellite was success- (June 7th). All these were broadcast ‘live’
rockets which launched the USA’s irst fully reactivated, and intermittent data was (with some ilmed inserts) because suitable
space satellite, Explorer-1. His team was obtained until February 21st, 1963 when the studio video recording techniques were not
subsequently assimilated into the National transmitter failed. available until later in the Sixties.
Aeronautics and Space Administration The required energy was produced by However, for many viewers of a certain
(NASA), which was initially formed on 3,600 solar cells. age, perhaps the most memorable
July 29th, 1958, because of fears that The irst ‘live’ test transmissions took transmission was on July 11th, 1962,
the Russians were ahead of the USA in place between the USA and Europe on July with the irst exchange of regular ‘live’
space technology. 10th, 1962. Germany was one of the coun- transatlantic programmes via the Telstar
On October 1st, 1958, Congress passed tries to participate in the broadcast with ‘live’ satellite. The signal was received at the
the National Aeronautics and Space Act footage showing workers at a blast furnace Goonhilly Downs Ground Station located
(later referred to simply as the ‘Space Act’), in the industrial area of Duisburg. By today’s near Helston on the Lizard peninsula in
which incorporated various scientiic agen- standards, the quality of the images was ex- Cornwall (Fig. 3).
cies employed by the government, togeth- tremely poor, but at the time, they were al- The transmission was received on
er with the National Advisory Committee for most miraculous. ‘Live’ images of New York Antenna One, known affectionately as
Aeronautics (NACA). This resulted in the ofi- City and the Golden Gate Bridge were also an ‘Arthur’ by the engineers. ‘Arthur’ was 26m
cial creation of NASA. amazing feat of pioneering television (Fig. 2). in diameter and weighed 1.118 tons. It was
Prior to this, on January 1st, 1958, the USA The test transmissions were broadcast specially constructed in 1962 to receive
had scored some points over Russia, with its from the Andover Earth Station in the USA. transatlantic television broadcasts from the
successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite. These were received via the French Ground Telstar satellite.
The craft, launched into Earth’s orbit by the Station at Pleumeur-Bodou, in Brittany. The This irst ‘live’ transatlantic television
army at Cape Canaveral, included a small sci- GPO (General Post Ofice) were involved at broadcast was described on BBC-tv by
entiic payload, which ultimately discovered Goonhilly Downs, and acrimony soon de- the doyen of technological programme
the Earth’s magnetic radiation belts. These veloped between the French and British presenters, Raymond Baxter. Various blank
belts were later named after the principal re- engineers. It had been agreed that the test monitors in the control room were lickering,
searcher, James van Allen (1914 to 2006). transmission would not include any ac- and the excitement came to a climax when
The Explorer programme continued for tual programme material. This was to be Raymond Baxter announced that “Captain
some time, beaming back useful scientiic in- saved for the public demonstration at the Booth puts his thumb up, we can punch you
formation about the Earth. oficial start of broadcasts via Telstar on the picture!” (Fig. 4).
Moreover, on December 18th, 1958, the the following day. The very irst picture via Telstar-1 was
USA launched a satellite called SCORE Unfortunately, the GPO engineers broke actually a Pulse-and-Bar test pattern (Fig. 5).
(Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay this agreement! The BBC developed a system to convert
Equipment). This was the World’s irst com- Unlike today’s TV transmissions, beamed the different television line systems for
munications satellite. It was launched via geostationary satellites, broadcasts via transmissions between the UK and Europe
aboard an American Atlas rocket and provid- Telstar were not continuous. Due to the low via Eurovision (Fig. 6).
ed the irst test for this type of launch vehicle, orbit of the satellite, transmissions were re- ‘Arthur’ also relayed the Apollo 11 Moon
as well as successfully evaluating a com- stricted to about 30 minutes. The Earth sta- landing in 1969 into Europe. Incidentally, this
munications relay system in space. SCORE tions had to follow the orbital trajectory of coverage was the very irst DX-TV broadcast
stayed in orbit for only a few months, due to Telstar, and it was vital that the transmitting to be received by the authors, courtesy
its massive surface area, and because of its and receiving aerials were in communication of NRK, Norway.
orbit in very close proximity to the gravita- with each other. The transmitting aerial had a Sadly, ‘Arthur’ and the subsequent giant
tional attraction by the Earth. The satellite minute power of 2.25W. dishes were consigned to the scrap heap,
burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere after This meant that ground stations had having been superseded by smaller, more
only 500 orbits around our planet. to amplify signals by a factor of ten-bil- powerful, antennas. However, ‘Arthur’ and
lion, via 30-metre diameter parabolic company were reprieved at the last minute
Huge Terrestrial dish installations. when Goonhilly found a new role in life:
Aerial for Telstar Receiving signals from Mars.
A 53-m terrestrial aerial was specially manu- Telstar Makes The irst colour television programme
factured in 1961 by the AT&T Corporation Television History broadcast via Telstar-1 was beamed back
(located in Andover, Maine) for the Telstar-1 The year 1962 saw several landmarks in to the Earth on July 16th, 1962. Two years
transmissions between the USA and Europe. television broadcasting, including the irst later, on April 16th, 1964, Telstar relayed
It was also used later by Relay-1. episodes of Z Cars (January 2nd), Animal the irst ‘live’ television programme from
Telstar-1 operated normally from its Magic (April 13th) and Steptoe And Son Japan to Europe.

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RadioUser May 2019 43
DXTV

KEITH HAMER+GARRY SMITH ARCHIVE COLLECTION

In the years to follow, NASA launched a

variety of spacecraft to explore new worlds,
to seek out new civilisations, and to boldly go
where no probe had gone before.
One of them was Pioneer 10. It was
launched on March 3rd, 1972. Weighing
258 kilograms with a maximum speed of
132,000km/h, its mission was to explore
Jupiter. The probe was manufactured in
the USA by TRW Incorporated at a cost of
$150-million. The spacecraft took a number
of photographs of Jupiter at a distance of
1,840,000km (1,121,000m) from the planet,
and this revealed previously unseen details
of the Jovian cloud tops (Fig. 7). Pioneer 6

10 completely departed from our solar NASA NASA

system in 1987.
Other probes included Voyager 1 (Fig. 8)
and Voyager 2, which both took more detailed
views of Jupiter in March and July 1979, re-
spectively. Both satellites continued to ly
on to Saturn and returned remarkably de-
tailed photographs in October 1980 (Fig. 9).
A total of eleven experiments were conduct-
ed by the two probes. Uranus was later ex-
plored by Voyager 2.
Satellite technology has come a long way
since those early days as the authors of this 7 8

article discovered when they were /invited to NASA NASA

write, edit and produce a video programme

called From Semaphore to Satellite in 1982.
The production was made by special request
of The Central Ofice of Information (the
COI, a department of H.M. Government), and
British Telecommunications. NASA very kind-
ly supplied the producers of the video a large
selection of rare astronomical photographs,
some of which are featured in this article.
9 10

Today’s Latest Spacecraft

At the time of writing this article, NASA’s New the Moon on January 3rd, 2019. This sur-
Horizons spacecraft has successfully made face is often referred to as the ‘Dark Side’.
a ly-by of the icy world known as Ultima However, in astronomical terms, this is in- Further Reading
Thule (some 4-billion miles away) on correct, as about 50 per cent of the far side See: RadioUser, March 2019: 38, plus:
January 1st, 2019 (Fig. 10). is lit by the Sun. • Hickson, P. (2019) Sputnik – The Shock of the
It takes 6 hours for radio signals to reach The unmanned Chang’e-4 probe touched Century (University of Nebraska Press)
the satellite from Earth. Radio waves trav- down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Its
• Impey, C. and Henry, H. (2013) Dreams of
el at the speed of light, which is approxi- mission is to analyse the unexplored re-
Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned
mately 300,000 km/s (186,000 miles/s). It gion’s geology and to conduct biological
Space Exploration (Princeton UP)
won’t be until 2020 before all the data is re- experiments. Because radio signals to and
turned to the Earth. from the far side are actually blocked by • Pyle, R. (2019) Interplanetary Robots:
Meanwhile, China successfully land- the Moon itself, the Chinese launched have True Stories of Space Exploration
ed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of another satellite some months earlier, in (Prometheus Books)
order to relay the transmissions from the • Pyne S.J. (2000) Voyager: Exploration, Space,
Fig. 6: A rare photograph showing the BBC line- Chang’e-4 probe. and the Third Great Age of Discovery (Penguin)
conversion equipment displaying Test Card ‘C’. We are indebted to the National • Siddiqi, A. (2003) Sputnik and the Soviet
Fig. 7: A view of Jupiter, taken by the Pioneer 10 Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Challenge (University Press of Florida)
spacecraft. Fig. 8: The Voyager 1 space probe. (NASA) at the Lyndon B. Space Center, • Ward, B. (2006) From Nazis to NASA: The Life
Fig. 9: A photograph of Saturn taken by the Houston, Texas, for kindly supplying a selec-
of Wernher Von Braun (The History Press)
Voyager spacecraft. Fig. 10: The New Horizons tion of their oficial photographs, some of
spacecraft explores the icy world of Ultima Thule. which are used in this article.

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44 RadioUser May 2019
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Scanning Scene

Setting up a FlightAware
ADS-B Receiving Station
PICTURES: TIM KIRBY

Tim Kirby
[email protected]

Tim Kirby reviews an ADS-B receiver

using a Raspberry Pi B+ / FlightAware
Pro Stick Plus combination, reports
on the Es’hail-2 geostationary satel-
lite, revisits the Anytone AT-868 and
investigates the PMR446 band.

Readers who were with us last month may

recall that I discussed how to set up an
ADS-B receiver using a simple RTL-SDR
dongle and antenna. A week or so ago, our
editor emailed to say, would I be interested
in trying one of the FlightAware ADS-B don-
gles? “Yes, please”, I replied! 1
https://uk.lightaware.com
Yesterday, the postman delivered a box tion regarding Wi-Fi and replace the details
containing a Raspberry Pi B+ computer in there, with the name of my Wi-Fi network
and PSU, a micro SD card, a FlightAware (the SSID) and the password. Save the ile
Pro Stick Plus with ampliier, a FlightAware and you are done!
1090 ADS-B ilter and a Moonraker MRM- Insert the microSD card into the
1090 Receiving antenna (Figs. 1 to 3). Raspberry Pi and connect the PSU to the Pi.
I unpacked everything and was keen to For the irst boot of the system, it’s proba-
get started. The micro SD card was shipped bly easier (though not essential) to have a
in the appropriate slot on the Raspberry Pi. screen attached to the Pi, so I used an HDMI
Popping it in an adapter and into a slot on cable into the HDMI connector on the Pi.
my laptop, I could see that there were iles Connect the antenna into the ADS-B ilter,
on it, but none to boot a Raspberry Pi! No then the ilter into the Pro Stick Plus, and, i- 2
matter! All the instructions for the setup nally, connect the Pro Stick Plus into a USB
are at this URL: connection on the Pi. angulate positions of aircraft, which are not
https://tinyurl.com/pr684t3 broadcasting their position, or which are not
Just follow the instructions, but in Powering Up the System equipped with the latest ADS-B technology.
short, you will download a zip ile from the You are now ready to power on the ma- All you need to do this is to pick your po-
FlightAware website onto your comput- chine. You should see some activity on the sition on a map and set it. You’ll also be
er. When unzipped, this is an ‘image-ile’. screen, along with some instructions. There asked to enter the height of your anten-
You will then use the Etcher utility (also is plenty of useful information here, but the na above ground.
linked from the instructions) to write to most important thing is that you will see a By now, even with the antenna on the
the micro SD card. URL displayed that you can use to connect desk in front of you, it’s likely you will be
After this, you should insert the latter into to the computer from another machine on picking up some aircraft positions. From a
the card slot on the Raspberry Pi. the same Wi-Fi network. This allows you to laptop, phone or another computer on the
If you haven’t done this before, don’t wor- ‘claim’ the receiver. same Wi-Fi network as your Pi, go to the IP
ry – it is very simple; there are instructions What this means is that you will set up address that your Pi displayed. You should
for both Windows and OS X computers! The an account on the FlightAware website’s see a web page which will say Go to Map.
only thing to be careful of, when you are log-in page and ‘associate’ the receiv- Click that, and you should see a nice web
writing the image, is that you write the im- er with your account. This way, you will page showing a map (you’ll need to ‘centre’
age to the correct disk, i.e. the microSD card be able to see all sorts of statistics about it on your location), as well as a list of air-
– otherwise things might go a lot wrong how well your receiver is performing, by craft, and some details about those.
with your laptop or computer! means of using the My ADSB section of the Next to being displayed on your screen,
Almost done; the only thing remaining for FlightAware website. these are also being uploaded to the
coniguring the Raspberry Pi was, with the You should also spend a little time set- FlightAware system.
microSD card in my laptop, to ind and open ting up the Multilateration (MLAT) feature. You can now have some fun positioning
the piaware-conig.txt ile, locate the sec- This means that your receiver can help tri- your receiver and antenna in the best pos-

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46 RadioUser May 2019
 Scanning Scene

sible place. Because the Pi is now fully con- very different. It is Es’hail-2, the irst geosta-
igured, you don’t need to have the screen tionary satellite carrying facilities for radio
connected, so you can move the comput- amateurs. The satellite is also known as
er and receiver to anywhere in your house QO-100 (see also: Practical Wireless, April
where there’s a power socket and where 2019: 60-62). This, of course, is very dif-
things are within Wi-Fi coverage. ferent from the low Earth orbit satellites,
which I have mentioned before. The latter
Spotting Aircraft are generally above the horizon for around
First of all, I decided to locate the receiver 10 minutes at a time, a few times a day, de-
in an upstairs window, facing west. It was pending on the orbit of the satellite itself.
immediately obvious to me that the re- Es’hail2 carries two amateur band tran-
ceiver was picking up more distant aircraft sponders, one narrow band and one wide
than my previous setup. I guessed that this band. The downlink for both of these tran-
was down to the antenna more than any- sponders is on the 10GHz microwave
thing else. The Pro Stick Plus is based on band, with the corresponding uplinks in the
the same receiver chip as the RTL-SDR, al- 2.3GHz (13cm) band. An immediate reac-
though it has an additional ilter stage. tion from people is that it’s microwaves so
However, I was seeing plenty of air- it must be hard to receive. Actually, the re-
craft out to at least 100 nautical miles to verse is proving to be true, and many people
the west and north of me and also found have been ingenious using conventional
some surprises, especially to the south, satellite TV equipment feeding into an SDR
picking up aircraft at over 200 nautical receiver to receive the signals. 3
miles away (Fig. 4). If, for example, you have a Sky receiver Fig.1: The FlightAware Pro Stick / Raspberry
Noting that the ADS-B bandpass ilter connected to a dish, and which has a Low Pi computer/ Filter Assembly. Fig. 2: The
had an insertion loss of around 2.5dB, I Noise Block (LNB) and multiple feeds from FlightAware 1090 ADSB Filter. Fig. 3: The
wondered how this affected which air- it, then you should be able to receive signals Moonraker MRM-1090 Receiving Antenna.
craft I was seeing. Removing it, I did be- very easily indeed. Leave the Sky Box con-
gin to see one or two more aircraft at a nected to the one feed. This sends voltage cellent article, written by Dr George Smart,
greater distance. up to the coax to power the LNB. If you have who has described the whole process in
However, the lack of the ilter (Fig. 2) was a spare feed, then disconnect that (tem- great detail and should help you set up your
apparent as soon as I started transmitting porarily, perhaps) from whatever it may be ES’hail-2 receiving station:
on 144MHz, when reception of ADS-B sig- connected to and feed it into a receiver, per- https://tinyurl.com/y6jpfckg
nals went down, dramatically! So, if your lo- haps an SDR or a communications receiver, You can ind out what it all sounds like,
cation is anything other than quiet, RF wise, tuned to around 739.675MHz. before you go to the trouble of building
you’ll probably want to install the ilter. Although your Sky dish is pointed at your receiving station, thanks to an online
I moved the receiver to the greenhouse the ‘wrong’ bit of sky, the Es’hail-2 signals WebSDR located at the Goonhilly site in
at the end of our garden (probably not ide- should be strong enough for you to receive. Cornwall. Point your browser at this URL:
al in the summer months) where I thought What are you listening to? Signals will prob- https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb
that, although the antenna would be lower, ably be SSB, with some Morse code. There You will be able to tune across the satel-
it would ‘see more sky’. I was interested to may well be data signals. There is plenty of lite and listen to the amateur stations using
note that I saw many more aircraft, albeit at activity, so you should be able to tell pretty it. I have just listened to a station in England
not such a great distance. Fascinating! quickly if it is working. having contact with a station in Mauritius.
Setting the system up as best you can, is If you do not have a spare feed from your It is proving quite interesting to see where
very easy and quite addictive; the My ADS-B Sky dish, you can probably still use the it is possible to use the satellite from.
section of the FlightAware website allows same technique, but you will have to dis- Stations in the north of Brazil report hear-
you to see how your station is performing in connect the Sky receiver. Because the re- ing the satellite, and, of course, if you use a
relation to other nearby receivers. ceiver sends power to the LNB through the larger dish from remote locations, then you
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed getting the coax, you will have to use a Bias-T arrange- stand a better chance of hearing a useful
system going and was delighted to ind how ment, which you can either build or buy, to level of signals. I have also been following,
straightforward it was. inject the required voltage, 12V DC to pow- on Twitter, the experiments of an amateur
If you are not familiar with setting up and er the LNB (note that if you send 18V to the in China making his irst contacts through
using Raspberry Pi computers, you should LNB, it uses horizontal polarisation; if you this satellite.
not be put off at all, because you will be send 12V, the LNB receives vertically polar- Along with the narrowband transpon-
guided through the process. ised signals. For the narrowband transpon- der, there is a wideband transponder,
der, we want vertical polarisation, so you which some amateur stations are using
Experiments with can use 12V DC. to transmit television pictures. You can re-
your Sky Dish If you don’t have a Sky dish, then you can ceive these online as well, using the British
I have mentioned some of the satellites buy an LNB. You may not even need a dish. Amateur Television Club (BATC) streaming
which can be received on a simple hand- However, if you can ind one, it will help. If feature on its website.
held scanner in previous months. A new you would like to read more about how to [See the proile of the BATC in RadioUser,
satellite was recently launched which is do this in much more detail, there is an ex- April 2019: 30-33 – Ed.].

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RadioUser May 2019 47
Scanning Scene

4
Fig. 4: Screenshot of the ADS-B receiving system in operation.

The exact URL will depend on who is ac- sions in both the 145 and 430MHz bands! 6.25kHz spacing, with the lowest frequency
tive at a particular time, but if you browse Digital monitoring on the AT-868 works at 446.003125MHz.
to the website at the end of this section, well for this. Under the Digital Monitor set- Clearly, there is a possibility for these sys-
you may well be lucky and be able to see tings, don’t forget that you can have the tems to interfere with each other! However,
some amateur television being sent via the rig scan BOTH timeslots, rather than just since the purpose of the devices is gener-
ES’hail2 satellite: one, along with having it scan across all co- ally agreed to be short-range communi-
https://batc.org.uk/live lour codes and IDs. cation, and given the number of channels
The whole system has resulted in some If any readers have tried digital scanning available, there is the possibility to reduce
ingenious setups. Some stations have been with their AT-868 or with the newer mod- mutual interference.
using Wi-Fi booster ampliiers and anten- el (AT-878), and have been able to decode Channel 8 (446.09375MHz) is often used
nas for the uplink, driven from a very low non-amateur transmissions, it would be as a ‘DX’ channel, predominantly on ana-
power transmitter to a simple helix or an- very good to hear from you and learn the logue, although I would guess trying it in
tenna made out of PCB. It’s fascinating. type of systems and trafic that you have digital mode would prove quite interesting!
I hope you will enjoy listening online, and been able to monitor. Channel 1 is probably more heavily used be-
I will be very pleased to hear from read- cause many people switch on the handsets
ers who are successful in ‘repurposing’ PMR446 and do not change the channel. Whether
their Sky satellite equipment, especially Most readers, will, I imagine be familiar you decide that is a good channel to scan or
those who do it without causing domes- with the 446MHz PMR band and the hand- to skip, I will leave with you!
tic disharmony! held radios available for the band. I con- If you are within range of the South Coast
fess I have not used it as a target for scan- of England, there is a net on most Monday
More on the Anytone AT-868 ning for some years. Here in the ‘sticks’, evenings, between 2000 and 2200 local
Readers may recall the item on using a the majority of trafic is domestic, although time on Channel 8, which you may ind it
DMR rig like the Anytone AT-868 as a budg- I’ve heard motorcyclists in convoy talking interesting to listen to and see which sta-
et digital scanner in last month’s issue to each other down one of the local trunk tions you can hear. Stations use a variety
(RadioUser, April 2019: 39-41). roads and a DX Net on a Sunday afternoon. of equipment from different locations so
I was very interested to hear from Mike My experience with PMR446 so far has you may well hear something if you have a
B who wrote in to say that he had since been analogue, but I was interested to see listen. I am sure there are other nets – see
learned that both the Anytone AT-868 and that from early 2018, there is the potential what you can ind and let me know!
878 are able to monitor all RAS enabled sys- for digital users of the band with both DMR That’s it for this month! Hope to
tems, with the exception of Mototrbo CAP+ (Tier 1) and dPMR permitted. see you next time.
systems with RAS enabled. The DMR channels are the same My warm thanks – and those of the edi-
I am intrigued by this. Where I live in rural 16 12.5kHz channels as the analogue tor – go to Chris Taylor, Head of Retail at
Oxfordshire, the options for digital scanning channels, with the lowest frequency at Moonraker, for the loan of the ADSB receiv-
are pretty limited to amateur DMR transmis- 446.00625MHz; dPMR has 32 channels at er review equipment.

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48 RadioUser May 2019
 Conference

Radiodays 3

Europe 2019
Chrissy Brand recently attended one of the most
important events in the annual radio conferences
calendar: Radiodays Europe 2019 in Lausanne.

Chrissy Brand context, the conference covered eve-

[email protected] rything from jingles and software to 4
podcasts and station-branding. More
The 10th Annual Radiodays information on the Radiodays Europe 1. Radio France CEO Sibyle Veil proffered the
Europe Conference took place in sessions and presentations will appear digital vision for her network. 2. The recent
Lausanne Switzerland from March in Chrissy Brand’s Emerging Issues in restructuring of Belgian broadcaster RTBF was
31st to April 2nd. Radio column in next month’s issue. In explained by Xavier Huberland.3. World Radio
This year’s theme was Sound Matters, the meantime, enjoy the impressions Switzerland (WRS) is the only English-language
the Future of Audio. However, in a wider conveyed by the photos. linear radio station in the country. 4. Deutsche
Welle German News Service had a stand.

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RadioUser May 2019 49
Network Radio

The Telo Systems M5

Mobile Network Radio
Chris Rolinson reviews the Telo Systems M5 network radio, looking at its
main features and potential user scenarios. In doing so, he makes use of some
direct experience gained by current network radio users with this product.

Chris Rolinson fact that it was supplied with an excellent sion 4. Sporting a quad-core 64-bit proces-
[email protected] mobile bracket too. sor, it has 8GB of ROM and 1GB of RAM –
good specs for a device like this, leaving
he Telo Systems M5 model is Getting Inside plenty of headroom, especially as onboard

T a newly-released network ra-

dio in a mobile form-factor - it
appeared in the UK earlier this
year. I came across it via Andrew
Clark of G6 Global:
www.network-radios.co.uk
Following a quick chat, Andrew kindly of-
Being a tinkerer, I was confused that I
couldn’t ind any way to get inside the ra-
dio. No screws here, just that heavy-duty
moulded plastic. Telo clearly does not want
users playing inside this radio – but this
is fair enough, as this is a business device
irst and foremost.
storage is expandable by a microSD card,
which its in a moisture-proof protected
compartment at the bottom edge of the ra-
dio, underneath the screen (Fig. 2).
In this protected socket bank, you will
also ind a slot for the single SIM card, as
well as a micro-USB socket for program-
fered one for a RadioUser review, from the Thankfully though, the FCC in the USA has ming and connectivity uses. Unlike some
very irst batch to reach him. Furthermore, already done the job for me. A quick glance other radios, you do not have to unscrew
he generously donated the review sample to at their site here supplies more than one any tiny panels to insert SIM and memory
RadioUser, for one lucky reader to win! needs, in the way of technical statistics, to- cards – another positive!
Just read through the review and answer gether with some excellent internal photos.
the question at the end, by going onto the https://fccid.io/2ANY6-M5 On the Front
Radio Enthusiast website. A very robust hand microphone with a
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk Basic Description modular connector plugs into the front left-
Like most network radio devices, this is a hand side of the radio and sits underneath
A Group Effort computer, running Android OS, with both a large volume control (Fig. 3). This rotary
As the radio arrived for review, I noticed that cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity, but in a spe- knob is particularly interesting because it
my friends Karl Hobson G1YPQ and Filip ciic form-factor - in this case, the mobile is also a ‘proper’ on/off switch. Filip noted
Everaert NR001 had both already purchased transceiver format. that it correctly shuts the OS down, as well
one from the same batch! Not being one to It is somewhat larger than some similar booting it up.
miss an opportunity (as three brains are al- devices on the market, but the radio beneits Therefore, as with most such devices,
ways better than one), I asked if they would from this, in that it provides a very clear, and do not expect ‘instant-on’ – it is a computer
contribute their thoughts to this review, so sharp, 4-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen. booting up after all.
we could get a really well-rounded set of This dominates the front of the device and is I measured 56 seconds from power-on to
opinions. They readily agreed! a delight to use at all times. home screen; turning off is just 14 seconds.
There is a 2W rated loudspeaker on the And, also on the plus side, the rotary knob
First Impressions right-hand side, which provides plenty of arrangement allows proper DC isolation,
The Telo arrived professionally boxed with volume, though, to me personally, sounds a obviating the need to put a switch in the DC
all accessories present and correct (Fig. little bass-light compared to some network power line, as some enthusiasts have felt
1). It is designed, as so many of these de- radios I have come across. I am guessing the need to do with other devices.
vices are, for the professional market, that Telo thinks that, in a vehicle, a bright- On the right of the front panel, there are
using bespoke PTT software for busi- er sound would more likely cut through four programmable buttons (P1 - P4), an
ness use. G6 Global supply many radios bassy road noise. orange SOS button and another button
with such software. There is always the Bluetooth option to marked ‘MAP’. As on most ‘un-programmed’
This has a few implications for hobby use, route audio into the in-vehicle system, if devices, these do nothing, unless you have
as you will see, but they are easily dealt with. more ‘body’ to the sound is required. software to program them for you! More
The radio itself is very rugged, formed about this shortly.
from what initially looks (and feels) like a Specifications Finally, there is a camera at the bottom
really solid block of heavy-duty ABS plas- The radio runs Android 7, which is not too left of the screen. This is a unique feature on
tic material. This is clearly a device built to bad, given that many network radio devices a mobile network radio and, while the three
withstand tough environments. I liked the run earlier versions, even as far back as ver- of us were pleasantly surprised by this, the

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50 RadioUser May 2019
 Network Radio

G7DDN

1
G7DDN

Fig.1: The Contents of the box. Fig. 2: The slots

for SIM card, SD card and micro-USB port.

potential scenarios for its use, arguably, re-

main to still be discovered.

At the Rear
Multiple cellular bands, including the forth-
coming 700MHz band, Wi-Fi and GPS are
all available, and there are two antenna
sockets on the rear (Fig. 4). At irst, it was
dificult to know exactly what these were
for. The manual is very sketchy on this, as
it is in the increasingly popular ‘Quick Start 2
Guide’ format.
Karl, being proactive, contacted Telo di- On the rear too, is the DC power con- Next to the DC input, there is a USB A-type
rectly to ind out. Telo assured him that both nector (Fig. 4), which is arguably the least socket (Fig. 4), which Karl discovered al-
sockets were for cell usage; indeed, there ‘heavy-duty’ part of the radio. It feels a little lows charging of USB devices from the ra-
are two identical, short, rubber-style, an- flimsy to me, though it never let me down, so dio (useful), but which Filip couldn’t seem to
tennas supplied to it – they need afixing I cannot complain. make do much more than that. Filip found
irmly though; otherwise, they may move It’s accompanied by a fused DC power that it didn’t accept accessories, including
around a little. lead (good). However, this has part of its a mouse, which is sad, as that could have
Karl performed some tests on these an- outer sheath removed, in order to it the fuse been quite useful!
tennas using signal-strength software (Figs. inline (Fig. 7). This just feels slightly disap-
5 & 6); this seemed to conirm what Telo had pointing for what is otherwise a very profes- Switch-On
said. On the upside, it also means that the sional device. The lead is, however, very gen- The radio boots up and presents its bright,
possibility exists for building and using your erous in its length, so it would be really easy clear, display – one of the best I have seen
own antennas for use with the M5. Magnetic for any enterprising radio user to improve on a network device to date. Icons are pre-
aerial mount, anyone? upon if you felt the need. sented in a grid format (Fig. 3) and can be

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RadioUser May 2019 51
Network Radio

G7DDN G7DDN

‘swiped’ from both the left and the right. The

radio is extremely fast & responsive, and
everything feels ‘instant’ in operation.
There is audible feedback from
screen-touches, apps load quickly, and the
whole experience with the device is very
positive indeed. You can even quite easily
enter text using the screen, which cannot be
said of all network radios.
The whole experience with the M5
seemed positive and professional to all
three of us, as beits the radio’s origins. The
‘feel’ is of a device worthy of its price tag, mi-
nor niggles notwithstanding. 4
G1YPQ G1YPQ

One Hiccup …
The radio as supplied came with ‘vanilla’
irmware – in other words, it was not sup-
plied with any business PTT or Google ap-
plications. Android enthusiast, Filip, knew
why: While Android is very much a Google-
backed project, the use of Google services
and apps has to be ‘agreed’ with hardware
manufacturers - there are copyright and le- 5 6
gal issues, which Google has been recently
clamping down on. The result is that some your radio. While the radio works ine with Fig. 3: Frontal view of the Telo Systems M5,
Android-powered devices now have no ac- vanilla irmware if you are using it only for showing the Google ROM. Fig. 4: Rear aspect
cess to the Google ecosystem. Zello, it is a much more pleasant experience of the Telo Systems M5. Fig. 5: The 4G signal
However, this is not the end of the world if you can use other apps too (even Zello per- strength, with aerials Installed. Fig. 6: The 4G
for network radio users, as Zello works ine forms better with the Google ROM, as it can signal strength, with the aerials removed.
on such devices by downloading it directly then, for example, use Google’s back-end to Fig. 7: The power lead with in-line fuse.
from the Zello website, at this URL: deliver the messaging side of the app).
http://www.zello.com/android NR6400 near Manchester. Peter had only
Nevertheless, some apps, such as You Really need Button Mapper! joined the network radio community a few
TeamSpeak and Button Mapper cannot The indispensable ‘Button Mapper’ (BM) days earlier, but we had a very productive
work properly without the presence of the app transforms this unit further, by allowing chat, during which he confirmed what my
Google Play Store. This is partly because pretty much any button to be programmed earlier ‘echo test’ had indicated, namely that
app developers collect their revenues via the in almost any way you wish. We all think it my audio was ‘BBC quality’, in best network
Play Store. Furthermore, apps like Google really is worth getting the Google ROM and radio tradition. Peter’s received audio was
Play Store are not designed to work stand- paying the minuscule amount for the ‘Pro’ likewise crystal-clear from the front-facing
alone, so even if you tried to side-load it, version upgrade to BM, to be able to do this. M5 loudspeaker. Karl and Filip reported
this just wouldn’t work (I tried, much to Using BM, Filip programmed his P1-P4 similar results and had nothing but positive
Filip’s amusement). buttons directly to individual Zello NR chan- feelings about the radio, while in use.
nels, while Karl programmed his MAP button
… And a Solution to open Google Maps – a brilliant idea, why Conclusions
A quick phone call to G6 Global and it tran- did I not think of that? The Telo Systems M5 is an excellent
spires that they have already addressed this network radio for both mobile and base
– the company supplies an optional Google On the Air installations. My personal preference would
Apps ROM for the Telo (Fig. 3). Having set up the radio for my personal use, be for home use, thanks to that wonderful
I mention this as it is important to specif- I popped onto the Network Radios Suite screen and the fact that it would be easier
ically request this version when you order and was pleased to come across Peter to find it a home in a shack. You could also

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52 RadioUser May 2019
 Network Radio

G7DDN

simply use it on your home Wi-Fi, ignoring

the short 4G antennas completely, while
retaining the option to connect an outside
antenna for cell use.
However, if you have space to fit it into
your vehicle, it will perform well there too.
I suspect that, in a business environment,
external antennas (rather than the two
short whips) could always be connected
to give the increase in signal strength (and
the subsequent robustness of service) that
business users would probably demand.

Price
At the time of writing, the Telo M5 retails at
£300 for the Vanilla version, and at £335, for
the version with Google Apps included.
www.network-radios.co.uk
My thanks again to my ‘little helpers’
- and both Karl and Filip tell me they are
keeping their M5s. That’s probably the best
recommendation they could get! Thanks
too to Andrew at G6 Global for the loan
of the review radio and for donating it to
RadioUser as a prize.
[The editor would like to add his thanks to
Andrew – GW.].

That’s all Folks!

More from the world of network radios next
month, so please keep your news and ob-
servations coming to my e-mail address
at the top of the column. It’s always great
to hear from you! 7

Competition Time
Win a Telo Systems M5
Mobile Network Radio
Thanks to our friends at G6 Global, we are offering
one lucky winner to receive this superb piece of kit.
The winner will be picked at random from the correct
entries. To enter, just answer the simple question
below over on our website:
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions/
Entry is only via our website. Entries close at midnight on 5 June 2019.
To enter you must answer the question correctly and answers received
What is the name of the app that after the end date will not be accepted. The winner will be notiied by
email by 30 June 2019. Warners Group Publications Plc standard com-
programs the Telo M5’s push buttons? petition terms apply, to view visit warners.gr/compterms. For informa-
tion on how your personal data is processed, secured and your rights,
our Privacy Policy can be viewed here – warners.gr/privacy or available
A. Button Mapper B. Button Presser C. Button Pusher in hard copy upon request. The winner will also be announced in the
August issue of RadioUser.

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RadioUser May 2019 53
Utility Monitoring

Lighthouses
Nils Schiffhauer, DK8OK
[email protected]

N
on-directional beacons
and Differential Global
Positioning Systems (DGPS)
– a tool to signiicantly im-
prove geolocation by GPS –
are the main applications for navigation on
long wave. These stations offer literally thou-
in the Ether
sands of opportunities for DXers. Nils Schiffhauer explores Non-Directional
If you are new to a city, you will, sooner or
later, ask yourself the very questions that
Navigational Beacons (NDB) and the Differential
all professional navigation is about: “Where Global Positioning System (DGPS), transmitting data
am I?” (location) and “Where do I have to signals on long wave.
go?” (direction).
With a smartphone, you already have the
answers in your hand. A smartphone, like http://www.navltsm.addr.com/index.htm A smartphone, like
many other mobile devices, combines a https://pyrochta.ch/swf/start_adf.htm
GPS module with a map. https://tinyurl.com/y59dld9b many other mobile
The GPS module delivers your actual po-
sition within some 10 meters or better, plus
But our interest is to receive some NDBs,
identifying them and, possibly, do some
devices, combines a
your speed, and it is sending all this data to DXing, by bridging more than 2,000km. Let’s GPS module with a map
map. On that map, your position appears start with some general information about
as a moving point. Specify your destina- NDBs, which you can ind in Table 1 (Figs 2 sometimes just slightly, they offer many
tion, and some algorithms guide you ex- to 4 refer to Table 1). chances for an experienced DXer, where a
actly to this place. By the way: GPS by the Alan Gale, G4TMV, has written a 47-page newbie may irst just hear a pure cacopho-
US Air Force is the best-known navigational introduction with much more useful in- ny. Fig.6 shows two effects: If signals are
system based on satellites. But there are formation about this topic, which you can active at the same time, they may be sepa-
also other worldwide available systems like ind at this URL: rated by frequency (the example on the
the Russian GLONASS, the Chinese Beidou https://tinyurl.com/yxlc9ap4 left of Fig. 5).
and the European Galileo, but they all are More than a quarter of all active NDBs And where stations differ in their time-
often called just “GPS”. This near-perfect heard in Europe is located in Russia. Next pattern of identiication (ID), and in the gap
form of navigation (it works only in direct is Canada, with 8%, followed by France with between these IDs, it is certain that you will
line-of-sight to at least four GPS satellites) nearly 6%. The biggest aid to reception, hear both, one after another, after a short
has come a long way, and we still can hear next to your radio and antenna, is ClassAxe while (see the example on the right of Fig. 5).
some of the remnants of it. Let’s warm Multimedia, a company/website maintained So far for frequency and time. But did I
up our receiver! by Canadian Martin Francis, and vividly sup- also mention the repetition rate? Yes, this is
ported by listeners around the world, among used by smart software, written by Dr Bev
NDBs: A Path in the Air them celebrities like Roelof Bakker (of Mini- Ewen-Smith, and dubbed NDBinder. It not
One of the irst applications of electromag- Whip fame), and Peter Conway. only separates signals by time and frequen-
netic waves was to provide the right direc- https://tinyurl.com/y49oymd8 cy but also enhances the signal-to-noise
tion. This was, and still is, done by non- If you want to spend more time receiv- ratio, making use of the ever-repeating con-
directional beacons (NDB), on long and ing NDBs, you ought to approach Michael tent of each station.
medium wave. Principally, you simply turn Oexner. He publishes his NDB Handbook CD Fig. 6 displays the result: SMA/Azores on
a ferrite or loop antenna up to the point for Europe, North America, and the whole 323kHz, at a distance of >3000km, is pulled
where the signal from this beacon comes to world. The CD also comes as a folder of out of the mud.
a minimum – as this is much smaller than downloadable iles. It presents you with https://www.coaa.co.uk/ndbinder.htm
the maximum. Professional ADF (automat- a detailed list tailored to your exact loca- As this issue went to press, we did our
ic direction inding) equipment compen- tion, has myriads of photos, plenty of au- irst and promising steps with new and free
sates for the ambiguity of the two minima, dio samples, and masses of other use- NDB software Pskov. With it, software au-
by means of a second antenna, 180° apart ful information. thor Ivan provides an able ofline tool of cor-
from the irst one. It is a ‘must’ for all who want to get relation to reveal even the weakest signals.
For the purposes of just listening, I don’t addicted (Fig.7). https://yadi.sk/d/VYrOO-dAkom4Ew
want to go too deeply into the practices of https://tinyurl.com/y3eywy3r In your irst DXing efforts, you should be-
lying an aircraft. If you need more back- gin during daylight, in order to become ac-
ground on this, Charles Wood has collected Fingerprinting NDBs quainted with tuning, and with the sound
some interesting information on air naviga- Frequency, modulation tone and the repeat of some stronger NDBs in your vicinity.
tion, including NDBs, while Helmut Pyrochta time of the Morse code ID are the most im- Then search at dawn and during the night.
(Fig. 1) and Luiz Monteiro provide some on- portant characteristics of an NDB. As they Go from the strong ones to the weak-
line navigational training: all differ from each other, like ingerprints, er ones. Often a needle-sharp ilter with

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54 RadioUser May 2019
 Utility Monitoring

ALL PICTURES: NILS SCHIFFHAUER

1 3

Fig. 1: Helmut Pyrochta’s (Java) software, simulating NDB navigation; Fig. 2: The
number of NDBs peaks at around 400Hz; Fig. 3: An NDB signals consists of both
a carrier, and lower/ upper sideband, modulated at 400 or 1010Hz.; Fig. 4: The
distribution of the numbers of NDBs with different tones of modulation. The value of
‘0’ stands for CW beacons; Fig. 5: Here, two beacons show up, separated by both their
frequency and by the pattern of their respective CW identifications; Fig. 6: This is the
result of a three-step approach of signal separation (according to ‘frequency’, ‘timing’
and a method of ‘stacking’), performed to improve their signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The
transmitter is an NDB (‘SMA’) from the Azores, on 323kHz.
6

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RadioUser May 2019 55
Utility Monitoring

In general, DGPS results

must be taken with a
pinch of salt
bandwidths of <10Hz will help to clear en-
tangled clusters. Be warned: NDB DXing
can get addictive!
[RadioUser readers know this, of course,
because of our quarterly NDB DXing col-
umn, by Robert Connolly, which has been
integrated into Robert’s Maritime Matters
section – Ed.]’

Continental Drift?
DGPS May Tell You!
NDBs are used to ind the way, GPS for tell-
ing you where you are. For consumer ap-
plications, the reliability of the latter, to a
scale of below 10m, is good enough. But
for professional use, from berthing ma-
noeuvres to measuring continental drift, 7
you need to know your position to a scale
of centimetres and even millimetres. tween ‘Mark’ and ‘Space’, the two states with a pinch of salt. They rely on a table that
This level of accuracy cannot be deliv- of this signal. converts the raw data into, for instance, the
ered by GPS; propagation effects between In technical terms, MSK is a special case names of locations. You should always up-
the position of the GPS satellites, 20,000 of PSK (Phase Shift Keying). Fig.8 shows date this ile, to keep track of any changes
km from the Earth’s surface down to the the clean signal of MSK, making it the mode in the real world. Additionally, some wrong
receivers can dilute the signal somewhat of choice on long wave and VLF. There are decoding can occur, owing to noise or in-
unpredictably. To compensate for these 14 ground-based reference stations in the terference. So, around noon, you see a log
effects, you will need a stream of real-time UK and Ireland; these became operational of Australia near Liverpool, you had bet-
correction signals. These are produced by in the summer of 2002. ter check this.
a net of DGPS stations (Differential GPS). https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/dgps http://f6cte.free.fr/index_anglais.htm
These continuously receive a GPS signal, https://tinyurl.com/oa9rgtz
compare the data with their own, ixed and Decoding the Signals https://tinyurl.com/yyqcrgn8
accurately-measured position, and transmit A few decoders will read DGPS, among
the difference, according to the RTCM pro- them MultiPSK and Sorcerer. However, I Fading Signals
tocol, mostly on long wave. wish to draw your attention to a complete- Speaking of radio navigation, we shouldn’t
Specialized GPS receivers then com- ly revolutionary approach: Amalgamated forget our old buddy LORAN (Long
bine the data received directly by the sat- DGPS by Chris Smolinski. The key point Range Navigation). Originating in 1940
ellites with the DGPS information. Those with this software is that it takes a record- LORAN constituted a powerful system.
data are coded, according to RTCM SC104 ed I/&Q stream from an SDR and decodes However – in the light of the technologi-
(Radio Technical Commission for Maritime all 164 channels in the range from 283.5 to cal improvements with the GPS sys-
Services, Special Committee #104). This 350kHz in parallel. It then creates a graphi- tem – LORAN-C was slowly phased out,
bitstream is transmitted in Minimum Shift cal display of the results – see Fig. 10. from 2010 onwards.
Keying (MSK). This mode is a special vari- Of course, the software decodes LORAN was a system of synchro-
ant of FSK. You will be familiar with FSK also plain audio directly, ‘on the ly’, nized transmitters, called a ‘chain’. The
from RTTY, where the speed (in Baud from any radio. chain transmitted highly precise pulses.
per second) is the same as the shift be- In general, DGPS results must be taken Receivers calculated position by analysing

• NDB signals stretch over a band from 190kHz long wave to • There are two types of NDBs: en route NDBs, to cover a great-
1750kHz medium wave, with a cluster from 250 to 450kHz (Fig. 2). er distance (e.g. Scotstown Head/SHD, 383kHz), and ap-
• They are designed to transmit a stable carrier frequency and to proach NDBs near an airport with a shorter range (e.g.
send their identiication in Morse code, modulated with 1020Hz Welshpool/WPL, 323kHz).
(±50Hz) ofr400Hz (±25Hz). Fig. 3 shows the modulation and Fig. 4 • Transmitting power ranges from 100W to 2kW. Low power, to-
displays the distribution of modulation tones. gether with the frequency range and ineffective (short vertical) an-
• The identiication shall be sent in 30-60 second intervals, with a tennas with some capacity hat, make NDB DXing a challenge. Not
speed of approximately 7 words per minute (rather slowly). to mention the congestion within a night-time band.

Table 1: Non-Directional Beacons: The Basics (See also Figs. 2 to 4).

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56 RadioUser May 2019
 Utility Monitoring

the varying transmission times of at least Fig. 7: Part of Michael Oexner’s NDB Handbook are ‘kml’-type files, geo-referencing each and every NDB down to its
three transmitters (one primary transmitter, antenna with detailed information on Google Earth – for example, KF-Keflavik. Fig. 8: KiwiSDR’s software detects and
with eight pulses, and, at least two second- visualizes the pulses on LORAN-C. On a receiver in Europe, you will see Anthorn as the primary station, on a receiver
ary transmitters, with seven pulses). in Japan you have to switch to other group repetition intervals (GRI). Fig. 9: MSK is a very clean form of modulation
There still are some LORAN chains active and is used with all DGPS transmitters. Fig. 10: Amalgamated DGPS displays all results in a graph – here over 18
on 100kHz, for example, some of the simi- hours’ reception in Germany in September 2018. If a station appears with fewer than ten logs or so, this may be a
lar Russian CHAYKA systems. The KiwiSDR wrong decode, for example as in the last two entries from ‘Japan’. Propagation for DX is best at dusk and dawn.
software provides a decoder for both sys-
tems that can be also used via the network
of remote receivers (Fig. 8).
In the long run, it is most likely that
LORAN-C will share the fate of the two other
navigational systems on VLF, the American
OMEGA and the Russian ALPHA (both be-
tween 10 and 15kHz).
OMEGA was inally shut down in October
1997, and I have heard no more ALPHA sig-
nals after around mid-2018.
Nevertheless, there still is plenty of room
for DXing in the basement band.
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10

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RadioUser May 2019 57
Software-Defined Radio

COMCENTRE.CO.NZ
1

Andrew Barron
[email protected]
Using an SDR
S
canning receivers used to be
very popular, but since the police
and many other services have
moved to encrypted digital radio
platforms, such as P25 and DMR
Tier III, their usefulness and popularity have
as a Scanner
diminished. Andrew Barron investigates the potential of a
However, they still have their uses and a
place in the radio listeners hobby room.
scanning capability in SDR receivers, looking
I have often been asked why most of the at issues of functionality, flexibility, and at the
software for small SDR receivers does not unexplored possibilities of the current crop of
include scanning receiver functions. I have
always pointed to the difference in vision: software and hardware receivers.
Namely the panadapter display. A scanning
receiver hops across a band or a set of display with no real thought about that Designing an SDR-Based
programmed channels and stops or pauses fundamental difference. You get the Scanning Receiver
scanning when it finds a channel that is in controls of a basic receiver and, if you are Assuming that we are talking about small,
use. An SDR lets you look at a wide range lucky, some sort of ‘channel-hopping’ scan black-box, SDRs, such as the SDRPlay
of frequencies and select the one that you mode. This attitude is gradually changing, or even an RTL dongle, the SDR receiver
want to listen to. and some SDR software does now support software will be running on your PC. This
However, this is, perhaps, too simplistic. I scanning, at least at a basic level. is a major opportunity to improve on the
believe that a large part of the difference – SDR# has a scanner plugin (Fig. 2), and old-fashioned scanning receiver. For a
and the main reason for why the scanning some other programs have rudimentary start, it means that you can have a virtually
community has been ignored by the SDR scanning features. unlimited number of stored memory
developers – is that scanning receivers are However, as far as I know, there are no channels and scan groups. Scan groups
designed for VHF and UHF reception, where SDR software applications specifically don’t have to be band-sensitive either.
base stations and mobiles are allocated designed to replace a ‘traditional’ scanning You could sort all of the channels used
specific channels. receiver. This is a shame because SDR by a group or organisation, irrespective of
By contrast, SDR development started technology could enhance scanning the bands that they are using. Or you could
with HF receivers; most SDR software receivers immensely. chain-scan groups together. For example,
resembles short wave receivers.
For radios that can receive signals Fig. 1: The AOR AR-DV1 hybrid SDR Wideband Receiver. Fig. 2: SDRuno (Version 1.3) has a new scanning
in the VHF, UHF and microwave bands, functionality. Fig. 3: SDR# Scanner Software (144.5 to 144.6MHz, with 100Hz steps). Fig. 4: SDR# Scanner
makers often just changed the frequency Software (144.0 to 148.0MHz, with 12.5kHz steps).

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58 RadioUser May 2019
 Software-Defined Radio

SDRPLAY/ JON HUDSON

you might want to continuously scan all

of the 2m amateur band repeaters in your
area, and then all of the 70cm repeaters.
Another advantage of this type of
memory management is that it is very
easy to edit using a spreadsheet format.
You could download lists of frequencies
offered on internet websites or supplied
by other enthusiasts. In fact, the software
could automatically download and update
online scanning databases in the same 2
way satellite tracking programs update ANDREW BARRON

satellite tracking data.

The stored data can include the name of
the channel, its owner, service, transmitter
location and so on. All of these could
be displayed on the screen or as a pop-
up window, along with a spectrum and 3
waterfall display, if desired. You would be ANDREW BARRON

able to scan exactly what you want. For

example, all the aircraft band. And then
the radio could hop over to a completely
different band.
There is, therefore, an endless scope
for designing scan groups and channel 4
maps, in exactly the way you want them. I
think that many SDR software designers slice bandwidth would be set to match pre- be added to the program data, so that, by
are not currently exploiting the database- determined band edges. Using this method, default, they will be skipped from any future
capability of the computer platform their the entire marine band, for instance, scan or scan group.
software runs on. could be scanned continuously, at an Or maybe the scanner could seek signals
extremely high rate. that use a specific modulation method. It
An Unexplored Advantage could scan for DRM broadcast signals or
There is another unexplored advantage Elimination Round scan a nominated frequency range for non-
of using an SDR as a scanning receiver. A What if we put some more intelligence encrypted P25 signals.
scanner ‘hops’ from channel to channel. If into the scanning process? One of the Another feature of SDRs not ordinarily
the channel is in use, it stops or pauses, but most annoying things about using a found in traditional scanning receivers
if the channel activates a millisecond after scanning receiver is that the scan keeps is that you can have multiple receivers.
the receiver has moved on, the receiver stopping on signals you don’t want to listen So, you could design a radio that would
will miss the signal until the next scan. to Interference, such as birdies, carrier analyse a 10MHz slice of radio spectrum
SDRs on the other hand, are wideband signals, or channels carrying digital data and allocate active channels to different
devices. Some can display a panadapter or encoded voice. receivers. It would work like the ‘search’
up to 10MHz wide. What then, about a soft key on the touch function on a car radio, only much faster.
An SDR scanning receiver could analyse screen, or an icon on the display, that The scanner would look at the band slice
a 10MHz-wide section of the radio says, “Ignore this frequency next time.” Any spectrum for a period of time to identify
spectrum and very quickly identify any signal you would want to be excluded from active channels. The search time would be
signal within that bandwidth that is strong the scan would be stored on the PC and set according to band activity. For example,
enough to break the squelch level. The eliminated from further scans. This could it might take 15 minutes to identify all of
squelch level can very easily be calculated be permanent or temporary. the active aircraft band frequencies in a
from the spectrum display data at a rate of The radio would analyse the frequencies region. But for FM Broadcast stations, a few
hundreds of times per second. and simply not stop at the ‘blacklisted’ milliseconds would be sufficient.
You could step in slower 10MHz steps, entry. Eventually, the radio will scan only When you stop the search mode your
analysing each 10MHz-slice as you go. Or, your wanted frequencies. five or ten receivers would be tuned to
if you used more standard 12.5 or 25kHz At the push of a button, those frequencies signals across the band. It would be like
steps, the radio could have the ability could be loaded into memory channels. having a bank of radios each monitoring
to step back to a channel opened after Some of the scanning receivers and an individual channel. You would have the
the previous step. software discussed below do have a ability to mute each receiver or listen to one,
That way, you would find more active version of this feature. You can lock out two, or more of them at the same time.
channels much more quickly. Of course, the signals so that the scanner ‘skips’ them Stereo speakers or headphones make it
slice would not have to be the full 10MHz on subsequent scans. However, this easier to do this effectively. You can split
available, because that might include only lasts for the current scan settings. I two channels and listen to one on the left
channels outside the band of interest. The would prefer the blocked frequencies to and the other on the right or spread the

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RadioUser May 2019 59
Software-Defined Radio

signals spatially. This technique is used memory bank before using this option.
very effectively on some SDR transceivers, The good news is that when you have
for listening to DXpedition stations on one filled a new bank with scanned frequencies
side, and to ‘pile-up’ of stations calling you can save it with a name of your choice.
them on the other side. You can then edit the bank and elect not
to include certain entries into the scan
SDR Software with next time or delete channels that you
Scanning Functions don’t want to save.
The latest version (V1.3) of the SDRPlay All frequencies are entered in Hertz. I
software SDRuno now also has a scanned the FM broadcast band starting
scanning function (Fig. 2, and box below). at the bottom channel of 88.9MHz and
This is great news because programs, stepping at 800kHz intervals. The software
such as SDR#, do not support the found 22 local FM stations. I noticed that
SDRPlay receivers. the RDS (radio data system) embedded
The new scanner mode is capable data was displayed for the stations that
of scanning a range of frequencies or transmit RDS data, but sadly this was not
channels saved in a memory bank. It can used to populate the description field in the
also automatically populate a memory bank memory panel. Still, the RDS was handy for
with the frequencies of stations picked up labelling the saved channels.
during the scan. You can use the MEM scan mode to scan
You can set the range yourself and a through any bank of memories that you
few choices such as the Medium Wave have saved previously. But be sure to select
broadcast band, the Air Band, and the ‘open as read-only’ when you open the
Marine Band are pre-loaded. If the ‘Save memory bank, or you risk having the bank
to MEM panel’ option is selected, the added to or overwritten.
program will save each active frequency One problem that I encountered is that
into a memory bank. This can be rather the scanner does not take account of the
disconcerting if you have your favourite mode, stored in the memory bank. For
bank of memory channels open as it just example, I have a bank of memories for
pops the new ones in. If you don’t ‘save’ the 2m amateur band and another for the
the bank this won’t be a problem, but it 70cm amateur band.
is probably best to select a new empty There is a mixture of saved SSB, CW,
and FM frequencies, but the scanner
N.B: Jon Hudson of SDRPlay commented: will not switch modes to accommodate
“Here at UK-based SDRPlay, we are very them. I suppose for most readers this
pleased to have just introduced our new won’t be a problem as you will have AM
scanning feature. In summary, the new channels stored in the airband memory
SDRuno scanner has two modes; it can bank, FM channels stored in the Marine
scan an arbitrary frequency range with a Band bank, and wideband FM channels
defined raster, or it can scan through a list stored in under the FM broadcast band. As
WHISTLER

of frequencies from the memory panel. each stored memory channel is scanned
It can store found signals, has a number the channel name is displayed on the
of built-in presets (including the marine scanner popup window.
5
and air-bands) and has the ability to both
wait on signal and hold for a period of time SDR#
on a signal. Creating, sharing and storing The SDR# (‘SDR-Sharp’) program (Figs. the wideband display. Eventually, the whole
your own preferred set of frequencies for 3 and 4) has an optional scanner plugin, scan range is pieced together. If the chosen
scanning is straightforward too. The fact which includes some of the features I have scan range is smaller, within the receiver
that it works on HF is proving very popular mentioned. The program opens a new bandwidth, the spectrum display stays
for say detecting sudden FT8 activity on a spectrum window to display band activity active continuously.
previously dead band. The scanner works across the selected scan range. The scanner uses the spectrum display
with all models of RSPs (even the original When you start the scan, the receiver to determine signals above the threshold
RSP1 model), and the software can be selects a frequency at the low end of level. You can lock out unwanted signals.
found on the SDRPlay downloads page: the scan range and displays a bar graph It also has standard features, such as the
www.sdrplay.com/downloads display of the real-time activity within the ability to determine how long the scan will
There are also links to YouTube video bandwidth of the receiver. In my case, ‘pause’ when a signal is encountered.
reviews at this URL: this is only 192kHz because the radio is a https://www.rtl-sdr.com
www.sdrplay.com/reviews FUNcube Dongle Pro+.
[Additional information in this box from Then it steps up the band to the next RTL SDR Scanner
Jon Hudson, with my thanks – Ed.]. frequency slice. The old slice ‘freezes’, and RTLSDR Scanner is not a scanner in the
the spectrum of the new slice is added to traditional sense. It creates a super-

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60 RadioUser May 2019
 Software-Defined Radio

WHISTLER

Fig. 5: The Whistler TRX-1 Digital Handheld Scanner.

Fig. 6: The Whistler TRX-2 Digital Desktop Scanner.

wideband spectrum display, by stepping

over a large frequency range and ‘stitching
together’ the spectrum of each section. It
can display the result as a ‘heatmap’, which
simply graduates the spectrum display:
Large signals are reds and yellows, and
weak signals are blues and greens. It looks
pretty but does not provide information that
is not already on the spectrum.
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Hybrid and Hardware

SDR Scanning Receivers
Some of the latest receivers have quite
sophisticated scanning functions. The
AOR AR-DV1 (Fig. 1) is a hybrid SDR,
which covers the frequency range from
6
100kHz to 1,300MHz.
This wideband receiver is able to resolve
a range of digital voice modes, including These radios are, of course, more
D-Star, Yaesu C4FM, non-encrypted P25, expensive than some of the ‘black box’ Andrew Barron is the author of ‘The Radio
and (non-encrypted) DMR Tier II. and dongle SDRs. However, they have the Today Guide to the Icom IC-7610’, a handbook
Other radios, like the Whistler TRX-1 and advantage that they are portable. to this Icom transceiver. A companion volume
TRX-2 (Figs. 5 and 6), as well as some of Moreover, their channel scan rate is ‘The Radio Today Guide to the Icom IC-7300’,
the Uniden Bearcat models, can now also much faster than, for instance, the SDR# should be available in the next few months.
decode non-encrypted digital voice modes. implementation.

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■ RSPduo Software Defined Receiver
■
Aerials Now!

The Cross Country Wireless

Indoor HF Active Loop
PICTURES: KEITH RAWLINGS

Keith Rawlings
[email protected]

Keith Rawlings reviews an innovative

indoor loop aerial by Cross Country
Wireless, looking at its build and
main features, and comparing its
performance with some of his own
reference aerials.

Hello, this month I am going to change tack

a little because Cross Country Wireless has
kindly supplied me with one of their Indoor
HF Active Loops for a review. Read on to
ind out more about this interesting aerial.

Introduction
This Indoor HF Active Loop is one of a
range of products available from Cross
Country Wireless (CCW, Fig. 1). The loop 1
has a broad frequency range of 20kHz to
70MHz, plus extended coverage, which socket (the centre pin is positive). CCW
Maximum Signal Response
takes operation up to 148MHz. The loop recommends that either a linear power
thus spans VLF, LF, MW, HF, as well as the supply or a battery be used.
lower VHF bands. Although no such claim appears to be
The loop comes in a triangular form made on CCW’s website, loops provide
factor, measuring 1m across and 1m high. directional capabilities.
It is ixed on to an oak base for tabletop Full-sized loops have maximum
mounting, and this measures 300 x150mm. reception broadside on to the loop element.
Fitted to this base, there is a low-noise, When it comes to electrically small Null Null
high dynamic range, RF ampliier, which is loops, such as this CCW model, maximum
housed in a polycarbonate box (Fig. 1). reception is ‘end-on’ to the loop element,
CCW states that “In addition to the the theoretical ideal of which can
excellent local noise rejection properties of be seen in Fig 2.
the loop antenna, transformer isolation and
common mode chokes help keep RF noise Description
away from the antenna element.” The main loop element consists of two
Maximum Signal Response
The company also claims that, “The ibreglass tubes, with a single piece of wire
antenna can be quickly assembled and running through each. This wire has ring 2
disassembled, to allow portable operation terminals crimped on at each end. These
from temporary listening sites with compact are itted to the two studs protruding from The case housing the ampliier is
storage and easy installation in areas with the ampliier module and secured into mounted on the bracket at the base.
restricted access.” The RF ampliier is place with locknuts. Both the BNC RF output socket and the
itted with a BNC female socket for the RF Another ibreglass tube clamps onto an DC input connector are located on the
output port (Fig. 1). aluminium bracket mounted on the oak right-hand side of the ampliier box (when
The amp has RF over-power protection base. It does so with a Stauff pipe clamp, looking at the front face of the box).
on both the input and the output. This which is then tightened with locknuts once While the construction seems reasonably
allows the antenna to be used very close the tube has been mounted vertically in it. sturdy, I would not call it robust and I
to transmit antennas (>2m) and to tolerate At the top of this rod, another aluminium noted a fair bit of lexing of the assembly
accidental connection of a transmitter to bracket is mounted in a similar way to the when turning it.
the RF output socket for a short period one at the bottom; here, three Stauff clamps However, the assembly is
(150W for 30 seconds) without damage. are mounted on the top of the bracket. straightforward. You will need a 10mm
Power requirements are 12V, at typically The two tubes with the wire running AF spanner and a 5mm Allen key/socket
150mA, which is fed via a 2.1mm DC power through are clamped to these. wrench, plus a run of suitable coaxial cable

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62 RadioUser May 2019
 Aerials Now!

ALL PICTURES: KEITH RAWLINGS

5
Fig.1: The CCW Indoor HF Loop Aerial. Fig. 2: Diagram of a plot for an idealised
loop. Fig. 3: Spectrum plot 0-10 MHz. Top: CCW E/W; Next: CCW N/S; Next: End-
Fed; Last: PA0RDT. Fig. 4: Spectrum Plot 10-20 MHz; Top: CCW EW; Next: End-Fed;
Bottom: PA0RDT. Fig. 5: Spectrum for VHF. Top: 1/4 Vertical; Bottom: CCW Loop.
6 Fig. 6: Spectrum of 10MHz Broadcast FM. Top: CCW Loop; Bottom: Discone Aerial.

to connect to the BNC output of the loop All S Meter readings are given as an being heard over an S7 noise loor. By
and your receiver. indication only: However, the G313i has comparison, the noise loor on both my
proven to have a reasonably accurate loop and Inverted L was around S3. The
The Loop in Use ‘meter’, and the RSP2 is not far behind. Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) was superior
The CCW loop is meant for indoor use To power the loop, I used a 12V Gell on my Inverted L aerial, where the weaker
and it is unfair to compare it with full- Cell, a 12V switched-mode, wall wart signals were in fact far more readable.
sized aerials mounted outside and in PSU, and my main station 12V linear Receiving DDH47 on 147.3kHz the loop
the clear. The loop also has directional power supply unit. returned an S9+5dB signal, albeit with high
properties. Therefore, it will yield differing background QRM. My own loop provided an
results, depending on what direction it is Medium Wave S7 signal, but again with a better SNR, due
orientated towards. Starting things off on Medium Wave I was to a quieter background.
However, I thought readers may be immediately struck the high level of gain Tuning to MSF, my Inverted L returned
interested to know how it shapes up provided by the loop. Turning and peaking a clear signal of S6, where the CCW loop
against typical outside aerials, so I have on BBC R5 909kHz, I obtained a reading of peaked S9, but again with a lot of QRM,
included some comparisons made S9+40db, on my G313i. making the Inverted L the better of the two.
against my own setup. This level dropped to +30 dB when I I decided to look into the noise problem
I mounted the loop in my downstairs turned to loop through 90 degrees. This and, while I found no ‘cure’, I did note that
‘ofice’ where it was close to my PC. This compared with S9+30dB on my Inverted L some noise was picked up at LF from an
machine runs my RSP2 and Winradio G313i, Fed and S9+35 on my outdoor loop. On BBC adjacent switch-mode PSU from one of
both of which were used for this review. Radio 4, at 192 kHz, the maximum received my external drives. This appeared to be
My PC runs two monitors and two signal was S9+40; on turning the loop, this coupled into the DC lead if both were close
external hard drives, which run by means reduced to S9+10dB. By comparison, my to one another.
of a ‘wall-wart’ switched-mode power Inverted L measured S9+20; my own loop I noted a noise loor of around S3 at
supplies. While I have tried to reduce aerial was peaking at S9+30 dB. MF when the loop was not powered up.
noise as much as possible, I have not I had a tune around the NDB band, but However, with the RF cable still connected
eliminated it fully. there were no beacons to be heard above a to my receiver – and when disconnecting
The comparison aerials I used were my high noise level. the cable –the noise dropped. This was
66ft inverted-L end-fed, my homemade NAVTEX monitoring provided similar also noted on 20 to 26MHz.
active loop at 5ft, and a PA0RDT Mini-Whip. results, with only the stronger signals I must point out that these observations

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RadioUser May 2019 63
Aerials Now!

may be due to ‘local’ issues here and may signals from TFL buses; to the right of this, loop could be minimal.
not be prevalent at another location. in Fig. 5, there is a display of signals on 2m. When used outside, and further away
Notice the considerable LED QRM. from noise sources, the loop could be used
HF Performance There are few legitimate signals in the very effectively to minimise interference
On HF, I found that, overall, the CCW loop lower shot; the spike at 144MHz is a sprog. and enhance reception.
was understandably down on my other The image in Fig. 6 shows the aerial’s Therefore, the design does work, but how
aerials; once again, its performance was performance on the Broadcast FM band, effectively it does so when indoors may be
affected by the noise loor. with signals on the loop depicted at the top, ‘hit- and- miss’, and it will depend on how
Switching to my SDRPlay RSP2 receiver and those from my discone aerial below. much noise is loating around.
(Fig. 3), you can see the performance of the I found that a null of approximately 20dB The previous RU editor Andy Thomsett
loop against my Inverted-L and PA0RDT was possible when turning the loop. also evaluated the loop, and he too found
over a range of 0-10MHz. The top spectrum I did give the loop a short trial problems with interference, which were
display shows the CCW pointing East and outdoors and this revealed a marked dificult to overcome. Andy compared it
West; the measurements from a North- improvement in performance throughout with a 5.5m indoor horizontal L-shaped
South orientation are below this. its range, although there was still a high length of wire, with the long leg running
Next, are the results from my Inverted-L noise loor overall. E/W and short leg running N/S and noted
aerial; at the bottom, you can see Turning the loop clearly demonstrated little difference between the two.
measurements from my PA0RDT mini whip its directional capabilities on ‘non-skywave’ To get best results he used his noise
aerial, presently sited at 14ft. This image signals and also those on VHF. In the cancelling units with the loop. I would very
demonstrates the high signal levels of the latter case, I noticed that the loop peaked much like to thank Andy for his informative
CCW at the lower frequencies but also the reasonably accurately in the direction of input which conirmed to me that our
higher noise loor overall. known transmitters, such as broadcast indings were much the same.
The measurement represented in Fig 4 FM, amateur repeaters and aviation The loop has high gain (a tad too
spans the range from 10 to 20MHz. The Volmet transmissions. much for my RSP2 perhaps), and on
spectrum display shown at the top displays Performance at LF was OK, with the ‘direct signals’ it can be capable of
the loop pointing East-West. reception of a number of NDBs, DGPS reasonably good nulls.
Below this, you can see the results of transmissions, and also DDH47 and DCF39 It is asking a lot, especially in this day
using my inverted-L and PA0RDT aerials. on 139kHz. The latter two stations were and age, to expect an aerial to perform well
This indicates not only the poor band received with the loop pointing roughly indoors so the CCW loop coped reasonably
conditions when I took the screenshots in the direction of where I expected well in the circumstances.
but also the signiicant QRM and high Germany to be. Where an indoor HF aerial is a necessity
noise loor I have here, especially on this loop could well do the job.
the higher bands. Conclusions. It is also suitable for portable operation,
The CCW Indoor Loop is simple enough where it will give useful coverage of
On VHF to assemble and not too obtrusive for lower VHF as well.
At VHF the loop needed the strongest of indoor use. Success with it will depend on Together with the editor, I would like to
signals for anything to be heard. whether or not you have high noise levels. thank CCW for the loan of the review aerial.
In the upper part of Fig. 5, reception If you do, then a fair bit of experimentation The CCW costs £130 plus VAT in the UK.
using a loft mounted 1/4 λ for 2m can be will be needed with its placement. That’s all for this month.
seen; in the lower section, you can see the Although turning the loop can enhance As always, I am happy to address feed-
results of the CCW loop. reception, and also reduce noise, I found back through this column.
The signals revealed on the left-hand that indoors, and being so close to those https://tinyurl.com/ybz6ud94
side of the upper section of Fig. 5 are DMR sources of noise, the effect of turning the https://tinyurl.com/y6kqwtlb

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64 RadioUser May 2019

 Radio History

Ecstasy, Electricity
and an Incredible Mind
The editor looks at Hedy Lamarr, one of his favourite – and most
overlooked – radio heroines, without whom Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth
technologies would not have been possible.

Georg Wiessala to Gertrud Lichtwitz, from Budapest, and but theatre” – muses one of her biogra-
[email protected] Emil Kiesler, a banker from Lemberg (now: phers, Richard Rhodes –“and, by extension,
Lviv), She rose to stellar fame in the USA, motion pictures, would a bright, pretty, sin-
as a ilm actress, and – more to the point

M
aybe you have not heard of gle-minded Viennese girl choose?”
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler here – as a multi-talented inventor. The Hedy enjoyed some early suc-
(1914-2000). But I feel cer- Guardian brought it to the point in 2018, cess in Vienna and in (what was then)
tain that you are all familiar when it claimed, “Lamarr’s story is one of a Czechoslovakia. In the year Hitler came to
with that gifted inventor’s brilliant woman who was consistently under- power in Germany, she starred in the (then
screen name, Hedy Lamarr. estimated.” Quite. controversial) ilm Ecstasy (1933).
If not, you should deinitely watch the ilm Controversial, because of its brief nudity
Bombshell – The Hedy Lamarr Story. Early Promise and the irst known faking of a female or-
https://tinyurl.com/ybgm8725 Growing up in cultured, cosmopolitan, gasm in cinema. Put that in your pipe and
Hedy was born in Austria, the daughter Vienna of the early 20th Century, “What else, smoke it, Meg Ryan. Benito Mussolini, it is

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RadioUser May 2019 65
Radio History

said, kept a copy of the ilm; Adolf Hitler, by

contrast, banned it on antisemitic grounds.
Both, however, had come to dinner at
Hedy’s, as did Gustav Mahler.
Lamarr left her irst husband Fritz Mandl
– an arms-dealer and Austro-fascist – to
live as a Jewish émigré in Paris and London.
She may have remembered many dinner ta-
ble conversations over wartime technology.
She was eventually offered a Hollywood
contract by MGM chief Louis B. Mayer.
A slew of ‘exotic’ adventure movies fol-
lowed, among them Algiers (1938), Lady
of the Tropics (1939), Boom Town (1940),
H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and White Cargo
(1942). She was the Austrian Empress
Elisabeth, and she rose to ultimate cinemat-
ic stardom in Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and
Delilah (1949).
Unfortunately, she turned down the leads
in both Gaslight (1940) and Casablanca
(1942), both of which would, arguably, have flect remotely-controlled missiles, such as Lamarr’s invention came about, because
cemented her standing in the minds of the torpedoes, by simply jamming the radio sig- “she was keenly aware of the coming war.
American public even more. nal and altering the weapon’s course. She was glued to the newspapers, reading
Her inal movie was The Female Animal In response to this, she proposed a all the stories. When German submarines
(1958), and she also produced a couple of method of secure radio communica- began torpedoing passenger liners, she felt
ilms herself; not, it has been said, too suc- tions: A frequency-hopping technique […] ‘I’ve got to invent something that will put
cessfully. The mansion used in The Sound (Frequenzsprungverfahren), which would a stop to that.’”
of Music (1965) belonged to her at the time. make jamming or tracking impossible. As the war progressed, and her wartime
Although she earned very large amounts Lamarr understood that, by transmitting fundraising activities gathered steam, Hedy
of money during her career, she lost her for- radio signals along rapidly-changing fre- approached the (then new US) National
tune – along with her production company. quencies, US radio-guided weapons would Inventors Council, stating, according to her
She died, penurious, in Florida in 2000. be more resilient to detection and jamming. biographer (Rhodes, 2012: 136), that “she
Lamarr has a star on the Hollywood Walk Rhodes claims (2012: 147) that Hedy’s knew a good deal about munitions and vari-
of Fame at 6247 Hollywood Boulevard. idea – although original – might be derived ous secret weapons, some of which she had
There are many websites listing her ilms, from what she learned about the 18 fre- invented herself […]”.
the one here is but one example: quencies of the German ‘glide-bombs’ of the The National Inventor’s Council had
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr period, mechanical player pianos and the its roots in the sinking of the Cunard
Philco radio/ music box remote control. In Liner Lusitania, on 7th May 1915, by a
Frequency Hopping the creative ferment of Hedy’s imagination, German submarine.
As far as technology was concerned, these strands must have fused, sub-con- The ship sank, with the loss of 1,134
Lamarr was self-taught. It is said that she sciously, into her invention. lives (Caldwell, S.: The Sinking of an Ocean
often settled down to some inventing after In her frequency-hopping system, the Greyhound, RadioUser, January 2019: 63-65;
a gruelling day on a ilm set. Her hobbies sequence of frequencies would be known Rhodes, 2012: 161/2). A few months later, in
and inventions were wide-ranging, including by both the transmitter and receiver ahead July 2015, Thomas Edison wrote to the New
music boxes, trafic lights, more stream- of time; but to the German detectors, their York Times, calling for ideas and practical
lined aeroplanes and effervescent cola tab- message would seem like gibberish. No suggestions, “either from the service of from
lets, to name but a few. jammer could detect it, because no German civilian inventors” to be submitted to the
She was particularly fascinated by an ear- code-breaker could decipher a com- Navy, in order to help with the war effort.
ly Philco 116RX ten-tube radio, by its remote pletely random code. In a 1997 interview with fellow inventor
control (The aptly-named ‘Mystery-Control’) With the help of George Antheil and oth- Carmelo ‘Nino’ Amarena, Hedy revealed
and by mechanical player piano rolls. ers, Lamarr built a prototype for a machine, that, irrespective of the impetus of im-
She enjoyed signiicant support in these which coordinated a mechanical player pia- pending war, she had at irst conceived
ambitions and activities, notably from avi- no with radio emissions. Two synchronized of the general idea of a remotely-con-
ation tycoon Howard Hughes (1905-1976) piano rolls were used to activate the trans- trolled torpedo.
who provided her with a set of experimental mitting radios, and the machine used the She had then thought of radio waves, tak-
equipment, and the composer and polymath rolls to change between 88 frequencies. ing her inspiration from the irst-ever wire-
George Antheil (1900-199) – who used play- Art had truly met science. less remote for a radio, which looked rather
er pianos a lot in his work. like an old-fashioned telephone dial.
By the outbreak of World War Two, Wartime Stimulus Eventually, her (and George Antheil’s) ‘fre-
Lamarr found out that it was possible to de- According to the Los Angeles Times (2011), quency-hopping machine’ was granted a

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66 RadioUser May 2019
 Radio History

patent under US Patent 2,292,387 on August

11, 1942 (iled using her married name,
‘Hedy Kiesler Markey’):
https://tinyurl.com/y33p7w38
https://tinyurl.com/yxbosbfo
Hedwig became a naturalized citi-
zen of the United States at age 38 on
April 10, 1953.

Delays and Successes

Notwithstanding such early activities, the
US Navy was reticent at the time. The mili-
tary took her idea and, as a recent docu-
mentary revealed, used it – eventually.
Meanwhile, Hedy Lamarr was advised
that she would make a greater contribution
to the war effort as a ‘pin-up’, in ilms such
as White Cargo (1942), made to distract the
troops, and by selling ‘war-bonds’, rather
than as an inventor. And war bonds she did
sell – to the value of US$343 million, in fact.
Consequently, ships were not equipped
with Lamarr’s invention until the time of the
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). By then, her
system – previously rejected as ‘too compli-
cated’ – spread like wildire. Its most well-
known application today are spread-spec-
trum communications, in particular,
Bluetooth, as well as the development of creasing isolation, a fate she, arguably, able sonar system that is dropped/ejected
new technologies for the prevention of the shared with many other radio heroes, such from aircraft or ships conducting anti-sub-
interception of telecommunications. as Nicola Tesla. marine warfare or underwater acoustic
The patent, not just for a radio-controlled A documentary, Calling Hedy Lamarr, research). The great inventor’s name also
torpedo, but for a wider ‘secret communica- was released in 2004. It featured her chil- lives on in GPS systems, MILSATCOM mili-
tion system’ helped to solve the problem of dren, Anthony Loder and Denise Loder- tary satellites and surveillance drones.
enemies blocking signals from radio-con- DeLuca. It is hard to avoid the impression I have found no better quote on the amaz-
trolled missiles during World War II. that the ilm played on her tendency to con- ing screen goddess and technological trail-
It involved changing radio frequencies si- duct almost all of her affairs over the tele- blazer that was Hedy Lamarr than the one
multaneously to prevent enemies from be- phone, later in life. used by Pamela Hutchinson, writing on
ing able to detect the messages. While the In 1997, Lamarr and Antheil received women and representation in The Guardian
technology of the time prevented the fea- the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer in 2018: “If Lamarr’s full story had been told
sibility of the idea at irst, the advent of the Award and the Bulbie Gnass Spirit of while she was still working, or if she had ever
transistor and its later ‘downsizing’ made Achievement Award, and some very belated played a woman as brilliant as herself in a
Hedy’s idea important, both to the military recognition for her work. This was followed, ilm, perhaps the revelation that a star had
and to the cell phone industry. It is estimat- in 1998, by an Austrian award. An exhibition, brains, as well as beauty, wouldn’t be quite
ed that the current market value of the tech- Hommage à Hedy Lamarr, was organised in such a, well, bombshell.”
nology is a staggering US$30 billion. Austria in 1999.
https://www.hedylamarr.com
Conclusion Resources
Out of the Limelight Hedy Lamarr’s life has inspired stage plays,
She was married, and divorced, six times; books, novels, ilms and even a graphic nov- Cheslak, C. (2018) Hedy Lamarr
famously, on one occasion, she sent her el. She never did have the opportunity to use https://www.womenshistory.org
body-double to a divorce hearing. Her later her patent, and the legal protection afforded Bergan, R. (2000) Obituary in The Guardian
life was marred by family problems, drugs, by it ran out in 1959. Consequently, she nev- https://tinyurl.com/y33p7w38
cosmetic operations gone wrong and legal er did receive any money from it, in spite of Hutchinson, P. (2018) Hedy Lamarr – The
troubles on various fronts. writing to the US Navy about this in 1969. 1940s ‘Bombshell’ Who Helped Invent Wi-Fi
In April 1998, for example, she sued Humiliatingly, before she became a US Lamarr, Hedy (1966). Ecstasy and Me: My Life
the software company Corel Corp., citizen, in 1942, her patent was even seized as a Woman (New York: Bartholomew House)
for using her photo on the cover of its as ‘alien enemy property’. The Navy, mean- Rhodes, R. (2012) Hedy’s Folly – The
product CorelDRAW. while, had used the frequency-hopping Life and Breakthrough Inventions of
In spite of having been in the limelight mechanism in ships and sonobuoys (A Hedy Lamarr [….] (Vintage Books)
for decades, Hedy Lamarr suffered in- sonobuoy is a relatively small buoy expend-

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RadioUser May 2019 67
Feedback Your letters

Feedback-Focus
Have you got something new to tell our readers about? If so, then drop a line to [email protected]

Digital Selective Calling

(DSC): An Afterword
Aerials for DSC Reception: On 10th March just for some DSC stations, you will have
2019, our reader Peter wrote to our Utility to make the best out of it. HF is a patient
Monitoring columnist Nils Schiffhauer. partner. There are always some mechanics
Peter wrote, “Hello Nils, I have been trying, of propagation (diffraction, scattering ...)
unsuccessfully, to receive these maritime which don’t force you to completely live in of this small active dipole to a hefty 20 m
signals. I live in a rural location in northern the silence. Your observation regarding HF Quad-loop; see an attached screenshot,
England, in a river valley with steep hills ACARS is correct - for all signals coming which also shows the improvement in signal-
and the garden is surrounded by trees. I from above. But you will definitely receive to-noise ratio (remarkably +7 dB) which
have a vertical antenna with a wire ground also some squitters, originating from ground is the ‘real stuff’ and not the pure signal
plane installed in the garden and this is an stations, won’t you? Thus, some DSC simply strength. I don’t know what receiver you are
excellent antenna for receiving HF ACARS. must also reach you. Your antenna seems using. You can leave it on one frequency (try
However, I have yet to receive one maritime to be okay, as long as it receives some HF 8414,5 or 12577kHz first) for 12 hours or so
DSC signal. Could it be because the signals ACARS. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend unattended. These are centre-frequencies.
are from earth/sea level whereas ACARS are an active antenna like MD300DX. This 2 x Therefore, ‘parking’ your receiver e.g. on
from 25,000ft?” 2.5 m dipole can be mounted with either 12577kHz in USB, will yield no audio signal
horizontal or vertical (which I prefer) of a GMDSS signal on this channel, as it is
Nils Schiffhauer replied as follows: “Hello, polarization or as a sloper. The great ‘zero-beat’. You have to go either to CW –
Peter - thank you very much for your email, advantage of such an active antenna is that where you get the audio at CW pitch – or
and nice to hear from you! Near a river, it is almost perfectly matched to a wide de-tune your SSB frequency by e.g. 1kHz to
that’s a good location! Not so good is the range within HF. For a German amateur radio yield a ca. 1 kHz audio of the GMDSS signal. I
steep hills. As you don’t want to move magazine, I compared the performance made some screenshots to clarify this.”

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68 RadioUser May 2019
Devon
DealerGuide
For Sale For Sale
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Contact: 07788 498962 Noel Tel: 0747 952 0285 or [email protected] [email protected]

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RadioUser May 2019 69

Rallies & Events

Rallies & Events

Plan your visits with our wide-ranging list of forthcoming events. Warners (RadioUser & Practical Wireless) will be
attending events marked with an asterisk.* Club secretaries/event organisers: Please send full and accurate details of
your events, affiliations and clubs as early as possible, if you would like to be mentioned here: [email protected]

April 18th (Sunday) noon programme of talks (one of them, ciation, Durham Road, Bowburn, Co. Dur- June 15th (Saturday)
ANDOVER RADIO AMATEURS CLUB on Contesting with a Suitcase, by PW’s ham DH6 5AT. The doors open 10.10am ROCHDALE & DISTRICT ARS SUMMER
SPRING CAR BOOT SALE: The ARAC editor G3XTT) and evening dinner will be to 2.30pm, with disabled visitors gaining RALLY: The RADARS Rally takes place at
Spring Car Boot Sale will take place at the open to all comers (£7.50 for day visitors access at 10 am. Admittance is £2. There St Vincent de Paul’s, Caldershaw Road,
Village Hall. Wildhern, Nr Andover, Hants. and £37.50 to include dinner). will be traders, a Bring & Buy as well as off Edenield Road (A680), Norden, Roch-
SP11 0JE. Open for sellers at 9am, and [email protected] an RSGB bookstall and Special Interest dale OL12 7QR. Proceeds from this rally
for buyers at 10 m. Admission is £2. In- http://cdxc.org.uk Groups. Catering and a licensed bar is ensure the continued operation of the
door tables cost £10, outdoor stalls are on site. DMR repeater GB7MR. Doors are open to
£8. No talk-in, but our classic bacon rolls, May 12th (Sunday) [email protected] the public at 10.15am, with disabled visi-
cakes, sandwiches and hot and cold LOUGH ERNE RALLY: The Lough Erne tors gaining access 15 minutes earlier.
drinks are available all day. Ample onsite ARC will host the Lough Erne Rally in the June 2nd (Sunday) Admission is £2.50, with those under 12
parking and indoor shelter, should it rain. SHARE Centre, Lisnaskea, Co. Ferman- SPALDING & DISTRICT ARS (SDARS) years free. £5 per pitch (for traders with
http://www.arac.org.uk agh, BT92 0EQ. Doors are open at 1130, RALLY: Organised by the Spalding & own tables) or £10 for a pitch, with a ta-
free parking, bar, café, cooked lunch, free District ARS (SDARS), this long-estab- ble provided. Refreshments available, in-
April 28th (Sunday) tables for trade, special interest, shack lished rally takes place at the Holbeach cluding bacon and sausage butties.
NARSA – NORTHERN AMATEUR RA- clearance etc. RSGB sales stall. All in hall Community Sports Academy, PE127PR [email protected]
DIO SOCIETIES ASSOCIATION EX- pay same door fee £5.00, or €5.00. The (event will be signposted from the A17). https://g0roc.co.uk
HIBITION (BLACKPOOL RALLY): The rafle is included in the door entry price. Entrance is £3 per person. Inside trader
2019 Northern Amateur Radio Society Bring-and-buy is free. SHARE is disabili- tables cost £10 (prebooked and paid,  June 16th (Sunday)
Association’s Blackpool Rally will take ty-friendly. Traditional strong attendance £8). The outside traders are always a GMDX SCOTTISH RADIO RALLY:
place at the Norbreck Castle Exhibition from Northern Ireland and the Republic. popular aspect of this rally. With the new Details can be found at:
Centre, Blackpool FY2 9AA. There will For updates visit website: venue, we have plenty of space to accom- https://tinyurl.com/y9eknee3
be a talk-in station, plenty of car parking, [email protected] modate visitors; outside pitch free of
trade stands, a bring-and-buy stall, spe- www.learc.eu charge, £3 per person applies. There will; June 16th (Sunday)
cial interest groups, and an RSGB book- be disabled access to the hall, catering WEST OF ENGLAND RADIO RALLY:
stall. Doors open at 10.30am (10.15am May 17th to 19th (Friday to Sunday) and car parking. The 16th West of England Radio Rally will
for disabled visitors). Catering is avail- DAYTON HAMVENTION: Greene Coun- https://tinyurl.com/y2za5gwe take place at the Cheese & Grain venue,
able on site. ty Fairgrounds and Expo Center, Dayton, Market Yard, Bridge Street, Frome, Som-
www.narsa.org.uk Ohio, USA. June 9th (Sunday) erset BA11 1BE. Doors are open from 10
https://hamvention.org EAST SUFFOLK WIRELESS REVIVAL am to 2 pm. The event will feature inside
May 5th (Sunday) (IPSWICH RADIO RALLY): The Ipswich & outside trade stands, an RSGB book-
THORPE CAMP HAMFEST: The Thorpe May 19th (Friday to Sunday) Radio Rally will be at the Kirton Recrea- stall, cafe, disabled access & facilities,
Camp Hamfest is open for traders who DUNSTABLE DOWNS RADIO CLUB tion Ground, Back Road, Kirton IP10 0PW and car parking.
camp over to set up from 29th April. More CAR BOOT SALE: The Dunstable Downs (just off the A14). Doors are open at www.westrally.org.uk
information: Radio Club (DDRC) is holding its Annual 9.30am, and the entry fee for visitors is
Sylvia or Ant National Amateur Radio Car Boot Sale at £2. The venue has free car parking.Trade June 21st to 23rd (Freitag bis Sonntag)
Tel: 0795 665 4481 the usual venue, Stockwood Park in Lu- tables cost from £10. HAMRADIO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN : The
ton on Sunday 19th May 2019. This is the There will be trade stands, a car boot 44th Amateur Radio Exhibition will take
May 6th (Bank Holiday Monday) 36th year without a break that this event sale, a bring-and-buy, special interests place in Friedrichshafen, Germany. “In
DARTMOOR RADIO CLUB RALLY: The has been run. All the usual facilities will groups, GB4SWR HF station, and an staging the event during the penultimate
35th Dartmoor Radio Club Rally is taking be there. Further details: RSGB bookstall. weekend in June, we have responded in
place at the Butchers Hall, Pannier Mar- www.ddrcbootsale.org Catering is available on site. particular to the wishes of exhibitors and
ket, Tavistock. Entrance to the rally will www.eswr.org.uk visitors whose needs naturally play a ma-
be from the square, and doors open at 10 May 25th (Saturday) jor role for us, as the event organisers,”
am. Admission is £2. There will be trad- READING DX MEETING: The Reading June 9th (Sunday) said project manager Petra Rathgeber.
ers, a bring-and-buy, and an RSGB book- International Radio Group will be meet- SNADARC JUNCTION 28 RADIO https://tinyurl.com/yc9jls2o
stall. Refreshments will be available. ing in Room 3 at Reading International RALLY: The Junction 28 Radio Rally will
[email protected] Solidarity Centre (RISC), 35-39 London be held at the Alfreton Leisure Centre, June 22nd (Saturday)
Street, Reading RG1 4PS. The meeting Alfreton, Derbyshire. Doors are open BANGOR & DISTRICT ARS RALLY:
May 11th (Saturday) will take place from 2.30 to 5 pm and is at 10.15am (traders’ setup is from The Bangor and District ARS Rally will be
CDXC CONVENTION: CDXC (the UK an opportunity for those interested in lis- 7.30am). The event is run by South Nor- held at The Hub, Hamilton Road, Bangor.
DX Foundation) is changing the format tening to broadcast stations from around manton & Alfreton & District ARC (SNA- Doors are open at 10 am.
of its social programme this year and the work on the short wave, medium DARC). There will be full disabled facili- [email protected]
merging the Annual Dinner and Summer wave and FM bands to get together. ties, a bar selling alcoholic drinks, hot
Social into a single event, a mini-Conven- www.bdxc.org.uk/diary.html and cold beverages, and a selection of June 23rd (Sunday)
tion. This will be held at the Link Hotel in cobs on the day. Hot food is also avail- NEWBURY RADIO RALLY AND BOOT
Loughborough. The AGM (voting limited May 26th (Sunday) able in the on-site café. Free parking on SALE: The Newbury Rally will take place
to members but all welcome to attend) DURHAM DISTRICT ARS RALLY: The the day. at the Newbury Showground, next to
will take place at 1130, while the after- rally is at the Bowburn Community Asso- [email protected] M4 J13. A talk-in station will be on S22

For the latest news and product reviews, visit www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

70 RadioUser May 2019
 Rallies & Events

(V44). There is free car parking. Traders Solidarity Centre (RISC), 35-39 London site, and doors are open from 10 am to September 7th (Saturday)
can gain access at 8 am and visitors at 9 Street, Reading RG1 4PS. The meeting 4.30pm. Admission is £4, which includes CAISTER LIFEBOAT RALLY: The Cais-
am. Admissions will be £2.50. Car boot will take place from 2.30 to 5 pm and parking. There will be trade stands with ter Lifeboat Rally is at the Caister Life-
sale pitches are £12.50. The show will is an opportunity for those interested indoor and ield pitches and a car boot boat station, Tan Lane, Caister on Sea,
have a huge radio, electronics & comput- in listening to broadcast stations from area. Lectures will take place during the Norfolk, NR30 5DJ. Access via car park
ing boot sale area, and a demonstration around the work on the short wave, me- day. No dogs are allowed, except guide in Beach Rd. Doors open 9:30 am to 2 pm,
marquee with a display of amateur radio dium wave and FM bands to get together. dogs. (8 am for sellers); easy parking and disa-
on the air. There are also clubs and na- More details [email protected] bled access, indoor spaces and outdoor
tional society stands. Catering is avail- [email protected] www.frars.co.uk pitches available, rafle, onsite cafe, mu-
able on site. www.bdxc.org.uk/diary.html seum open, special event station.
[email protected] August 18th (Sunday) m1bfi@outlook.com
www.nadars.org.uk July 28th (Sunday) RUGBY ARS RALLY: The rally takes https://tinyurl.com/y55ntt8e
WILTSHIRE RADIO RALLY AND ELEC- place at Princethorpe College, Princetho-
July 14th (Sunday) TRONICS FAIR : The Wiltshire Rally, of rpe, Rugby CV23 9PY. Admission is £3, September 22nd (Sunday)
CORNISH RADIO AMATEUR CLUB the Chippenham & District ARC, will take and the NGR for satnavs is SP395710. WESTON-SUPER-MARE RADIO RAL-
RALLY : The Cornish Radio Amateur Club place at the Kington Langley village hall Doors open from 10 am to 4 pm, with trad- LY: The Weston-Super-Mare Rally is at
Rally Will be held, from 10.30am to 4 pm, & playing ields, Church Road, Kington ers having access from 8.30am. There The Campus Highlands Lane, Weston
at the sports hall at Penair School, St Cle- Langley, Chippenham SN15 5NJ. The is a car boot area. Catering is available super Mare BS24 7DX (Junction 21 M5).
ments Hill, Truro TR1 1TN. There will be event is open from 9 am to 1 pm (disa- on site. Doors open from 10 am to 3 pm. Ticket
trade stands, local groups, catering, and bled: 8.30am), admission £2. Car boot [email protected] price is £3.00 There will be trade stands
car parking. sale, catering, lea market, talk-in, trade www.rugbyats.co.uk and a bring-and-buy stall, excellent cater-
[email protected] stands. ing and a large car park.
[email protected] August 25th (Sunday) [email protected]
July 14th (Sunday) https://tinyurl.com/y324krl4 MILTON KEYNES ARS RALLY: The MK
McMICHAEL RADIO RALLY AND BOOT ARS Rally will take place at the MKARS, September 27th and
SALE: The McMichael Radio Rally and August 4th (Sunday) Irish Centre, Manor Fields, Watling Street, (Friday to Sunday)
Boot Sale are at Reading Rugby Football KING’S LYNN ARC GREAT EASTERN Bletchley, MK2 2HX. Entrance fee is £3 *NATIONAL HAMFEST: The National
Club, Sonning Lane, Sonning on Thames RADIO RALLY: The King’s Lynn ARC per person, and there are various trader Hamfest will take place at the Newark &
RG4 6ST. The event runs from 9.30am to Rally will be held at the Gaywood Com- options available. Free Parking, onsite Nottinghamshire Showground, Lincoln
3.30pm; admission is £3. There will be a munity Centre, Gayton Road, King’s Lynn, catering, and extra indoor pitches avail- Road, Winthorpe, Newark, Nottingham-
car boot sale, and pitches cost £10 (set- Norfolk. PE30 4EL. NGR is TF638203. able for 2019. Open to traders at 7 am, shire NG24 2NY.
up from 7.30am). The show also offers a Doors are open at 9 am (traders from 7 open to the public from 9 am. http://www.nationalhamfest.org.uk
barbecue, food and bar, trade stands, and am). Admission is £2.50. Car parking is [email protected]
exhibition displays. free. Trade stands and a bring-and-buy. October 6th (Sunday)
[email protected] [email protected] August 25th (Sunday) WELSH RADIO RALLY: The 46th Welsh
www.mcmichaelrally.org.uk www.klarc.org.uk TORBAY ANNUAL COMMUNICA- Radio Rally is at Rougemont School, Lla-
TIONS FAIR: The Torbay Annual Com- ntarnam Hall, Malpas, Newport NP20
July 21st (Sunday) August 9th (Friday) munications Fair is taking place at the 6QB. The doors are open from 10 am to
FINNINGLEY ARS (FARS) RALLY: The COCKENZIE & PORT SETON MINI Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon 4 pm, with disabled visitors gaining ac-
Finningley ARS Rally is taking place at RALLY: The 26th Cockenzie & Port Seton TQ12 3AF. Doors are open at 10 am, with cess at 9.45am. Admittance is £2.50.
the Hurst Communications Centre, Bel- Mini Rally will take place at the Commu- disabled visitors gaining access from There will be trade stands, a bring-and-
ton Road, Sandtoft, Doncaster DN8 5SX. nity Centre, Main Hall, Port Seton. Bring 9.30am. Free parking on site, bring-and- buy, an RSGB bookstall, and special inter-
Doors are open from 10 am. Free parking. along your own junk and sell it yourself. buy, RSGB bookstall & catering. est groups.
Massive indoor/outdoor trader’s area. Tables on a irst-come-irst-served basis. [email protected] [email protected]
Hot food and drinks all day. Major traders Entry fee £2. Doors open from 6 to 9 pm.
and club stalls. Admission is £3. August 31st (Saturday) October 11th to 13th (Friday to Sunday)
[email protected] August 11th (Friday) G-QRP CLUB & TELFORD & DRS CON- RSGB CONVENTION: The Convention
FLIGHT REFUELLING ARS HAMFEST: VENTION & BUILDATHON: The Buil- will take place at Kent’s Hill Park Training
July 27th (Saturday) This event is at the Cobham Sports and dathon is to be held in the evening of the and Conference Centre, Swallow House,
READING DX MEETING: The Reading Social Club Ground, Merley, nr. Wim- 31st of August, in Telford. Timbold Drive, Kent’s Hill Park, Milton
International Radio Group will be meet- borne, Dorset BH21 3DA. A talk-in station Martyn G3UKW Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK7 6BZ.
ing in Room 3 at Reading International will be on S22. There is car parking on Tel: 01952 255 416 https://rsgb.org

In next month’s Radio

onitoring
Utility MTime Signal Sta
tions
■ The Magic of Sporadic-E DXing (DXTV). e-Defineduipment
Softwarthe
Selecting
Right Eq
Receiving

■ Emergency Communications (Part Two).

■ The Transatlantic Telephone Service. www.radio
enthusiast.c
o.uk

October 201
8 £3.99
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Radiast Propaganda
and Internation
Plus all your favourite regular features and columns Broadc

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HOW TO... ur GPS
The next issue is on sale on the 23rd May 2019 aerial’s
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RadioUser May 2019 71

Martin Lynch & Sons Ltd. Wessex House, Drake Avenue, Staines, Middlesex TW18 2AP. E-mail: [email protected]
Opening Hours: Mon - Fri: 8.30am to 5pm. Sat: 9am to 4.30pm. International Tel: +44 1932 567 333 FOLLOW US ON
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