More Shortwave Resources

Since my recent posting on shortwave listening resources online, some nice folks on Twitter directed me to more. These are as follows:



http://www.shortwaveschedule.com

http://www.reddit.com/r/shortwave

http://swling.com/blog/

http://makerf.com/

As always, please leave me feedback if you know of any more good ones or if any of these become broken. Enjoy!

Amateur "Ham" Radio, Shortwave Radios, and Preparedness

On this blog, I have written about the need for having a shortwave radio for monitoring breaking news events. Good shortwave radios are expensive and hard to come by - hence my building the TenTec radio I mentioned in my last post. Hopefully with the Spring semester over I can catch up on supplying content to this blog and my video channel on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/KarlsLabReport

One of the things I have wanted to do is a post on what to look for in a shortwave radio.

During civil emergencies, communications such as landline phones, Internet, and even cell phones often fail. While a cell tower may continue to operate on emergency backup batteries or fuel cells for some time after a crisis, that tower can be taken out by a tornado just as surely as phone and electric wires can be. Service may be deliberately cut off by terrorist acts or by government edict as well. Both in Egypt during the unrest in 2012-2013, as well as the incident at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada this past April (2014), government officials cut off most telephone and Internet access to the area. None of our media outlets covered the Bundy Ranch incident until Alex Jones exposed on his website the connection between a certain politician and a Chinese corporation as the main driver behind the whole fiasco. Then there was the near-mishap in 2011 at the Fort Calhoun plant in Nebraska, caused when the Missouri River flooded, which was NEVER to my knowledge covered in the American media. I think it is safe to say that this type of information blackout will be Standard Operating Procedure from here on out whenever anything controvercial happens.

In the case of the bundy Ranch episode, amateur radio (ham) operators were helpful in getting news in and out of the area and even transmitting pictures via some of the digital operating modes available nowadays.

I have several ham radios - a VHF handheld for the 2-meter band, a ham radio I inherited from my dad that will cover all the "HF" bands below 30 MHz, and some homebuilt equipment for the 7 Mhz (40 meter) band. Recently, I got the handheld out, dusted it off, and discovered it still works after 15 years of non-use. This past week, I took the HF rig of my dad's to a buddy's house and we almost immediately were able to talk to someone several hundred miles away. Imagine for a minute if your local landline and cellular communications stopped working - how valuable would it be to you to be able to flip on the ham radio and hear what is happening in the world outside, or even talk to someone who has information? One afternoon a week ago, my buddy and I talked to a guy in Slovenia on the 17 meter band (18.068-18.168 MHz) using 40 watts of transmitter power into a random-length wire antenna. The propagation conditions were favorable and his signal came in so clear he literally sounded like he was across town. Now, I'm NOT saying one would radio Slovenia to find out about a situation a few states away in the USA, but the point is amateur radio potentially gives you tremendous communications reach. The following link gives you an idea of what you can hear and, given the appropriate license, can transmit on which frequencies:

http://www.arrl.org/band-plan

Licensing: NO license is required to LISTEN to amateur radio transmissions. In order to TRANSMIT, you MUST have a license or have a licensed amateur radio operator present when you are doing so. In recent years, the FCC has eliminated the Morse code requirement from any of the 3 license levels. For decades this was a stumbling block for many folks and while many amateurs STILL use Morse code, and thus is is a good idea to learn it, you DON'T need it to get a license anymore. The three license levels are Technician, General, and Extra class. The main difference between the levels is the amount of frequencies and operating modes you can use; also as you go higher in license level the amount of electronics and radio knowledge required goes up. Testing, which is required to get your license, is conducted by a network of "volunteer examiners", or "V.E.s". VEs are radio amateurs who volunteer their time to give the required FCC exams to new folks wanting amateur licenses. VEs can be found through local amateur radio clubs and by going online to the ARRL's (Amateur Radio Relay League) website at www.arrl.org.

The written tests for Technician and General consist of 35 multiple choice questions taken at random from a standardized FCC question pool; the Extra exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions. On the Technician and General, you are required to get at least 26 of the 35 questions right (75%) to receive a passing grade. For the Extra, you must get 37 out of the 50 (again, 75%) correct.

How to get started and Where to go for help:

Here are a couple very helpful sites for practice quizzes and more information:

http://aa9pw.com/radio/

This site has more practice exams and reviews of radios and equipment:

http://www.eham.net

TenTec Radio Kit - Model 1054 Update #3

My longtime readers will remember I built a TenTec Model 1054 regenerative shortwave receiver kit a while back. At the time I posted to this blog about the apparent bad customer service I received from TenTec when complaining about the erratic regeneration control. Just week, there has been another development.

This past week I have been working feverishly to get all my ham and shortwave equipment up and running. After an exhaustive and *fruitless* search online, trying to find any information I could on the TenTec 1054's regeneration control issue, I decided to try once more to contact TenTec's customer service people. TenTec apparently has NO PHONE number to reach them at; apparetly one must email them as I had before. And so I did.

The following day I got an email back from one of their service technicians stating that my original email had gone into his email "spam folder". He also stated, contrary to the instruction manual, that the regeneration will start 1/4 of the way from one end of the potentiometer's travel, that regeneration will start rather suddenly, and that from my description the radio seemed to be working correctly. ANOTHER tech later wrote me and said that he thought there was a defect in either one of the two FET transistors in the regeneration circuit or that the regeneration threshold adjustment trim potentiometer was bad. He offered to send me new parts free of charge if I sent him my address. I did just so; I'll see what happens.

If they do not end up sending me the parts (I'm NOT holding my breath, under the circumstances), after studying the schematic at some length I have some ideas as to how I can modify the circuit to work better.

All this said, I still have the issue of what to do about the housing, since the box TenTec sent me is basically unusable. As mentioned in my original post I intend to do some circuit modifications such as adding a dual 9-volt regulator circuit that can be fed from an external 12 volt battery, and possibly adding a band spread control for better selectivity in crowded bands. I want to build my own improved audio section based on a decent audio chip. I would also include an active filter for CW reception and a limiter to prevent hearing damage from loud noises. Regarding the dual 9-volt regulator, the circuit currently uses separate batteries for the regenerative receiver itself and the audio section. This is no doubt to eliminate any issues from feedback and oscillation between the radio part and the audio section. But for my purposes I need the whole thing run from one 12 volt battery.

Here are the links to my prior posts regarding the TenTec Moel 1054 radio:

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/04/ten-tec-short-wave-receiver.html

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/05/ten-tec-model-1054-shortwave-radio.html

Shortwave Radio Converter

I built this about 27 years ago to receive international shortwave broadcasts through a car AM radio. This circuit tunes the 9.5 to 10 MHz and 12 - 12.5 MHz shortwave bands. Back in the day I would listen to the BBC World Service, Radio Canada, Radio Moscow, Deutsche Welle, Radio Australia, and many others. Radio France gave excellent reports on the radiation cloud that rolled across Europe from the Chernobyl mishap in 1986. Several times daily, they would read off a list of all the major cities in Europe, along with the radiation levels in each one. I was "glued" to my radio following the progress of this. The information was of good enough detail and quality one could actually plot it on a map, graphically monitoring the progress of the situation.

The VFO and mixer circuits were taken from the 1979 issue of the ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook. I built them from the publshed schematics, then tweaked some of the component values for better performance. The VFO coils are wound on glass 3AG fuses that had their elements removed. I heated the end caps with a soldering iron, removed them, took out the fusable element, and glued the caps back on. Then I wound the coils using #28 magnet wire, using the metal caps to solder the wires onto. I used Bohning "Fletchtite" archery glue to secure the windings so they wouldn't move. The variable capacitors were very old, surplus units bought I-can't-remember-where. Looking at the left-hand-side of the photo: The control on the left-hand front of the box is the band selector switch. Next to that is a variable capacitor used to tune in stations. On the rear of the box (in the right-hand-side of the photo) there is a solitary variable capacitor used to tune the antenna for whichever band one is listening to. The whole unit is built in modular form - the VFO has its own board and the mixer is on a separate board. This allowed me to develop and refine the system one module at a time. The VFO is built using "ugly" or "dead-bug" type construction. Its circuit board was made by scoring a copper-clad circuit board with a knife into a grid pattern. The mixer board was actually laid out, then etched using ferric chloride solution.

After many years of sitting unused in an RV, being subjected to all kinds of temperature extremes and even a roof leak, this little device still works. Not only does it still work, the tuning has held calibraton!!! It is within 5 or so KHz of where it was when built. This attests to the quality of the components I used to build it, as electronic components generally drift in value with age.

If I can ever find the original schematic I drew, I'll post it in a future blog entry.

Within the past several years, I have heard China Radio International, Radio Australia, various Spanish-speaking stations, etc. on this unit. Regrettably, the BBC has gotten away from broadcasting quality news programming on shortwave, instead focusing on satelite broadcasts aimed at various target audiences - telling them either what they want to hear or whatever the Powers That Be WANT folks to hear.

To use the converter, simply tune the car radio to an empty spot on the AM dial between 1.40 and 1.55 MHz. Connect the converter between the external antenna and the antenna input on the radio. The converter runs on the car's 12 volt supply; an internal zener diode regulates the supply voltage for the circuit to 9 volts. Use the band selector switch to choose the band to listen to. Reach around the back of the box and turn the peaking control for maximum signal. Then simply tune the right-hand front panel control to tune around for a station. The lower band - the 9.5-10 MHz band, offers the WWV time station from Ft. Collins, Colorado. These WWV signals are very useful not only for checking your watch, but also the RF and audio signals provided are extremely accurate and may be used for equipment calibration. WWV may be heard on 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz - these broadcasts are done around the clock, 365 days a year. Again I mention those because they are an excellent way of checking the calibration and even the operation of a shortwave radio. Basically, if you can't hear WWV, you will likely NOT hear much else, either.

Soon, in a future post I will delve into the features to look for when buying a shortwave receiver and what to listen for on your radio.

Our Media Looks The Other Way While A Possible Nuke Accident Unfolds In Nebraska

In several of my recent posts I have written about why one needs alternative communications systems for getting news during emergencies - whether they be man-made or natural. I have mentioned shortwave receivers, amateur(ham) radio communications, and most recently - alternative "mesh" computer networks. None of these rely upon power lines, cellular/land telephones, and internet connections - all of which could be out of commission for any number of reasons.

Today, I read about a situation unfolding near Omaha, Nebraska. It has been going on since June 8. Today is June 17. Due to river flooding a nuclear power plant is in danger. The plant already experienced some flooding and an electrical fire involving pump controls for cooling the spent fuel rods stored on site. There is the potential threat of dam breakage on the river that could REALLY cause problems - anyone remember what happened in Japan this past March?

Read about it here:

http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/06/nebraska-nuclear-plant-at-level-4-disaster/

So while the media distracted us with stories of congress critters tweeting lewd pictures of themselves, we had what could develop into a home-grown Fukushima disaster going on for over a week.

I have to ask: WHY wasn't/isn't this headline news???
Considering that nuclear power plant accidents tend to contaminate thousands of square miles of land, thereby rendering it unsafe or even uninhabitable for the foreseeable future, this SHOULD be PROMINENT on the nightly news until it is resolved.

It is increasingly clear that the media cannot be relied upon to report even on immediate emergencies. Whether it be a situation like this, a tornado, earthquake, terrorist attack, or anything else not enumerated here, it is clear one needs to have other means of getting information and communicating with friends and family.

Ten-Tec Model 1054 Shortwave Radio - A Follow-up Report

After more than a month waiting on back-order, I finally got the aluminum case for my Ten-Tec Model 1054 shortwave receiver. Regular readers of this blog will recall my earlier post discussing the construction and operation of the kit. See http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/04/ten-tec-short-wave-receiver.html for the original discussion of this receiver.
From what was portrayed on Ten-Tec's website, I thought I was getting a custom fitted case for this project. What I actually ended up with was something totally different.

In the shipping carton I found what amounts to a simple LMB box - like I could have gotten ANYWHERE. No instructions, no hardware, nothing. Not even the rubber feet I'll need to keep this thing from scratching a table top. In order to use this, I will have to BUY my own screws, PC stand-offs, rubber feet, ... and I will have to drill holes in one side of the box to match the cutouts in the front panel that came with the radio itself. The box is deeper than the circuit board, so the headphone jack on the rear will NOT work. I will have to buy a panel mount headphone jack to mount on the rear panel. The paint is a soft, flat finish that will scratch/rub off in short time, unless I coat it with a protective clear coat.












The front panel that came with the radio is about 1/4" smaller in either dimension than the panel side of the box - so if I want the silk screen labels that come only on the front panel, I'll have this weird raised edge showing around the edges of the box. Contrary to this case being custom fitted to the kit, it would be a kluge from the start.



I'm thinking of adding a couple more switches for an active op-amp filter, audio limiter, and NE5532-based audio amplifier. Thus, BEFORE I even use this case, I will get the thing electronically in whatever FINAL configuration I want. Given what I must do to actually make this case usable, I might be just as well off buying a somewhat bigger box to accommodate the front panel controls I might be adding. In that event, rather than have to fight with Ten-Tec to do a return, I'll keep the box they sent. With a decent paint job it would be a perfectly good box for a future project.

In other news, Ten-Tec's service department STILL has not returned ANY email I have sent them regarding the erratic operation of the regeneration control. With the last email, I carbon-copied their sales department, hoping that the prospect of an upset customer and possible lost future sales might prod them to go stir up some action in the service department. No dice there, either.

Also, a friend called Ten-Tec recently to do an order. They were really nice on the phone until they got his credit card number and completed the order. Afterwards, when he tried to ask a couple questions, they COULDN'T WAIT to get him off the phone. They basically gave a paying customer the "bum's rush".

Ten-Tec has turned out to be LAME, LAME, LAME!!! What a bitter disappointment; I've heard so many good things about them over the last 30 years.

Any Competition out there?
If Ramsey Electronics had a decent product, I'd go with them. Their customer support was much better than Ten-Tec's when I have contacted them. Their prices are pretty good, too. They sell custom-fit cases for many of their kits - cases that actually fit and look pretty good. The issue I have with Ramsey is poor circuit design on some of their kits. Ramsey has got to stop using those noisy NE602 type chips as mixers in the front ends of their ham receiver kits! The 40 meter direct conversion receiver kit I got from Ramsey suffers from horrible internal noise. While I understand the NE602 has a low parts count, is inexpensive, offers a built-in VFO, ... that does one no good if the circuit noise is so bad you can't hear anything else. Marry the NE602 mixer with a LM386 audio stage and you have a nice white noise generator, NOT a working radio. After considerable hours spent trying to tweak that for something approaching acceptable performance, I finally gave up on it. THAT, and the fact Ramsey doesn't offer a shortwave radio kit with decent band coverage, is why I went with Ten-Tec this time!

There are a couple of possibilities I might check out at a future date. NOTE: I have NOT dealt with ANY of these folks listed below, so this should NOT be taken as an endorsement of these companies or their products.

Hendricks QRP kit - go to http://www.qrpkits.com/index.html

Elecraft Kits - go to http://www.elecraft.com

Small Wonder Labs - go to http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/

If anyone reading this has had any experience, good or bad, with the above-mentioned companies or their products - I'd love to hear from you.