Radio User 2019 001 - January

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ISSN 1748-8117
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www.nevadaradio.co.uk
Index
Contents Favourites Reviews Features News
Cover Story
January 2019 Vol. 14 No 1
14 World War One & the
On sale: 27th December 2018 Development of Radio
Next issue on sale: 24th January 2019 Lydia Ritchie looks at how the war at sea, in the air
and on the ground propelled forward the develop-
RadioUser ment of new radio technology and gave birth to new
Warners Group Publications plc uses for radio.
The Maltings, West Street
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Tel 01778 391000 36 Software Defined Radio
Editor Andrew Barron advises on the key computer specii-
(c/o Warners Group Publications plc) cations required for operating your SDR radio.
Georg Wiessala
wiessala@hotmail.com
Designer
40 Network Radio
Mike Edwards Chris Rolinson reports on NR during the recent RSGB
mike.edwards@warnersgroup.co.uk Convention and looks at UHF spectrum changes.
Advertisement Manager
Claire Ingram 43 Scanning Scene
claire.ingram@warnersgroup.co.uk Tim Kirby uses some SDR receivers for scanning,
Multimedia Sales Executive captures pirates from Brazil and ISS SSTV.
Kristina Green 7 News & Products
kristina.green@warnersgroup.co.uk
Tel: 01778 392096 New uses for short wave, Uniden Bearcat SDS-100, 46 Radio Pioneers: Michael
Advertising Production
Icom SatCom, the British DX Club, radio resources Faraday
Nicola Lock and background reading. The editor outlines how Michael Faraday turned
nicola.lock@warnersgroup.co.uk ‘natural philosophy’ into ‘enlightenment-science’.
Publisher 11 Radio Book Store
Rob McDonnell Pay a visit to our bookstore to order the books 48 The International Radio
robm@warnersgroup.co.uk
reviewed in this magazine and many other titles. Scene
Subscriptions Chrissy Brand offers reception logs, shares tips on
Subscriptions are available from as little
as £11. Turn to our subscriptions page for
12 Airband News broadcast radio listening and celebrates the wel-
full details. David Smith reports on Doncaster Shefield Airport, come return of Radio Exterior de España.
Subscription Administration enhanced conspicuity and airband Brexit myths.
Radio User Subscriptions, 52 Aerials Now!
Warners Group Publications plc 20 DXTV – Special Keith Rawlings focuses on phased arrays and on the
Keith Hamer and Garry Smith begin a mini-series on different uses and divergent performance results of
the 20-year history of Channel Five. some of the popular ‘rubber-duck’ type aerials.
Subscriptions Hotline: 01778 395161
subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk
Technical Help
23 Maritime Matters
We regret that, due to editorial time scales, Robert Connolly explains the technology behind the
replies to technical queries cannot be Maritime VHF Data Exchange System & Racons.
given over the telephone. Any technical
queries by e-mail are very unlikely to
receive immediate attention either. So, if 26 The Torrey Canyon
you require help with problems relating to Disaster: A Personal Radio
topics covered by RU, then please write to Record
the Editorial Offices, we will do our best to
help and reply by mail.
Graham Goodchild shares his radio memories of wit-
nessing the 1967 Torrey Canyon Oil Tanker Disaster.
Book and back issue orders
Send your completed form to:
RadioUser Subscriptions Dept 29 Digital Radio
Warners Group Publications plc Kevin Ryan offers an in-depth review of the John
Lewis Octave radio and weighs up BBC innovation.
32 The Radio User 2018

Annual Index
The editor’s comprehensive listing of every article,
review, column and news item published in 2018.
43
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4 RadioUser January 2019
Editorial
Welcome
History & Achievement
H
ello and welcome to
the January 2019 issue
of RadioUser. We are
beginning the new year
in the same manner in
which we inished the last one – with
a broad range of features, columns,
news and resources.
Once again, one overall theme
pervades this issue; this time, it is
revolving around history.
A number of our authors gather up the
various strands of this. In her feature,
Lydia Ritchie offers an account of how
World War One both necessitated and
drove on technological leaps forward in
radio technology. In a similar vein, Scott VHF data exchange system, PC specs
48 Caldwell explores both the Marconi room for SDR receivers, SDR receivers and
and the wider radio communications scanning, network radio and the RSGB,
55 Book Review on the ill-fated RMS Lusitania, and the return of Spanish radio to short
David Harris reviews a new book title on the ups and which sank in 1915. wave, among many other things.
downs of German codebreaking during World War II. Moreover, Graham Goodchild re- We have a review of the John Lewis
visits his own recordings, on a personal Octave radio in this month’s Digital
56 Utility Monitoring journey back to the Torrey Canyon oil Radio section, and Nils Schiffhauer
Nils Schiffhauer revels in the fascinating, contempo- tanker disaster in 1967. Keith Hamer advises on how to resolve contemporary
rary, possibilities of receiving traditional Morse code and Garry Smith have not only appeared Morse code signals – of which there
transmissions and explains why they are still there. on television recently but they also are still plenty.
meticulously trace the history of And, of course, there are the books, the
60 Emerging Issues in Radio Channel 5, in the irst of their new, two- news, the resources, the rallies and the
Chrissy Brand, the new Secretary-General of the part, mini-series. hot topics in radio.
European DX Council (EDXC), has a report from the Additionally, the editor looks back to The inal theme of this issue is, I
2018 International Radio Festival in Malta. the achievements of Michael Faraday feel, ‘achievement’. Not only have
and at his ground-breaking work on RadioUser contributors appeared on TV,
63 Radio in History – History electromagnetism. Last but certainly but they have also successfully gained
of Radio not least in our historical strand, David higher degrees (Scott Caldwell) been
In his bi-monthly column, Scott Caldwell looks at Harris reverses perspective somewhat appointed editors (David Harris) and
radio communications before, during and after the and reviews a book on the German become leaders of international radio
tragic sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. codebreakers of World War Two. associations (Chrissy Brand/ EDXC).
While we are on ‘history’, this issue It should not really attract a special
66 International Development contains the detailed 2018 Annual Index mention, but I will do it anyway – this
and Radio for the magazine. issue has articles by three women radio
Christina Longden offers a short introduction to the Some of our other contributions enthusiasts; as far as I can see, this is a
‘Farmer Radio’ initiative by the UK-based Lorna Young aim to sharpen your awareness of the record for the magazine. Can we have
Foundation, showing how radio can help to achieve socio-economic roles of radio. For some more, please?
more equitable development work. instance, in her article on the Lorna Last but not least, I would like to close
Young Foundation, Christina Longden by wishing all our readers, advertisers
68 Off the Record introduces an initiative in Africa, which and partners a very happy, prosperous
Oscar the Engineer investigates the extended me- aids farmers in disseminating vital and successful new year 2019. I hope
dium wave band, visits a ‘happy-hippie’ station on the information on crops, health and other that you – and many more besides –
air and offers his compliments to Radio Caroline. matters, via radio. will continue to enjoy your favourite
In our regular sections this month, radio magazine.
71 Rallies & Events expect to learn about ‘rubber-duck’
Radio rallies, lectures, special events and networking aerials, airband and conspicuity, the Georg Wiessala
opportunities in the irst quarter of 2019. extended medium wave band, a maritime Editor, Radio User Magazine
Why not visit our new online bookshop at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

RadioUser January 2019 5
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Utility DXing and all the latest emerging radio issues
NE HA
WS M
Maritime Mat ters & P FES
ation
DXTV-Special HO T
perbolic Navig
Decca Hy
C Weather TO
Changes to the BB S
LM&S Broadcast Matters LM&S Broadcast Matters
The Magic of Short Wave

Chrissy Brand shares some exciting summer schedules and looks at key
radio anniversaries. Readers share their latest news and tips, including a
decoding of the first SAQ Alexanderson transmission since 2016.
David Harris 1130 to 1200 UTC, 1230 to 1300 UTC, 1330

mydogisfinn@gmail.com to 1400 UTC, 1330 to 1400 UTC and 2330 to
0000 UTC, all using 9840 and 12020kHz.
enjoy trawling the broadcast bands at When I first started DXing, The Voice of
I all times of the year but, for me, sum-

mertime listening brings its own spe-
cial magic. Once the sun goes down
on a day walking the hills or working in
Mongolia seemed an ‘exotic’ catch and, on
the rare occasions I heard it, I listened intent-
ly, straining to hear the programme details
over the mush. Today, it is easier to hear on
Ibust, tet as moloribus amusand ipsamus cuscia ipsunt volore nonectis
siast.co.uk
a city office, I’m happy to head home to tune 6005kHz from 0700 UTC, thanks to the re-
along the bands. broadcast from Kall Krekel in Germany. The
www.radioenthu
Many decades ago, it was the long warm station beams English directly to Asia from
summer nights that first hooked me onto 0900 to 0930 UTC on 12085kHz and again
world band radio. Back then, part of the at 1530 UTC on 12015kHz.
thrill was listening to classical music from
£3.99 a Conservatoire on Radio Moscow, catch- Readers’ Reports
November 2018
pen
ing the news from Down Under on Radio Bob Houlston decoded one of the historic
ught DrnsaCrtlaip
Australia or hearing Latin American mu- SAQ CW transmissions, from 1000 to 1006
sic on Radio Bras. UTC on VLF 17.2kHz on May 1st. Usually
In addition to this, the hunting down and scheduled to take place twice a year, this
eless Ca
identifying of low-powered stations in unfa- was actually the first one since 2016. The
miliar languages, particularly on the tropical next transmission is due on July 1st from
How Wtheir‘ele
bands, opened up a whole new world to me. Grimeton (callsign SK6SAQ) in Sweden, to Ibust, tet as moloribus amusand ipsamus cuscia ipsunt volore nonectis Ibust, tet as moloribus amusand ipsamus cuscia ipsunt volore nonectis
That excitement has not subsided and mark Alexanderson Day Day.
ntic chase
some of the stations I listen to today could The May Day broadcast was part of the receiver). He thanked Norman G8ATO of was off the air but returned on April New station,
be logged regularly back in the early days. European Route of Industrial Heritage’s con- Verulam ARC for technical advice. 20th. However, its absence made it eas- NE H
WS AM
’ in the tra TRT Voice of Turkey, The Voice of Vietnam, tribution to the European Year of Cultural g4pvb.eu5.net/saq.htm ier to hear the Romanian station Radio Radio Harmony,
DXTV-Special Maritime Matters
ctric constable
The Voice of Mongolia and Radio New
Zealand International still form part of my Ibust, tet as moloribus amusand ipsamus cuscia
Heritage. It included thousands of young
people simultaneously dancing at 100 ERIH
http://alexander.n.se
[see also the short article on Grimeton
Cluj, which signs on at 0300 UTC on the
same frequency.
plays a wide range of
Changes
music to the
including BBC Weather
easy Decca Hyperbolic Navigation & P FES
staple radio listening. sites, to the strains of Beethoven’s Ode to SAQ in last month’s issue; RadioUser, June Also, at 0300 UTC, Radio Kuwait is in
HO T
The role of
Thanks to Channel 292 in Germany on what is happening in the world, from the Joy (The Fourth Movement of Beethoven’s 2018: 33 – Ed.] Arabic on 5960kHz. Graham wrote, “You “ listening, oldies...
6070kHz from 1930 UTC, relatively new pro- Turkish state’s point of view. Whether or not Ninth Symphony
Symphony). Among his logs this month, Lionel Clyne don’t hear Radio Kuwait much these days. I TO
grammes can be heard, including From the you agree with the views – and the slant of There was also a dance event entitled had one unidentified station. He heard it think it was originally intended to be a gen- S
Isles of Music and Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot. the news reported – there is often a good WORK it OUT (Figs.
Figs. 2 and 3). from 1740 UTC on 6375kHz. At the top of eral station for the Arab world, rather like Al
Another newcomer is a free radio station choice of cultural programmes to hear and Bob’s decoded text was as follows: the hour, there was no identification nor any Jazeera Arabic today.” 153kHz long wave from 2100 UTC. It has a
called Charleston Radio International, heard this can transcend political and geographi- CQ CQ CQ DE SAQ SAQ SAQ SAQ =
“CQ continuity announcements of any kind, “just Graham can sometimes hear the religious programme guide in Romanian online.
on 5140 kHz. It plays 1920s and 1930s fox- cal borders. The two other broadcasts THIS IS GRIMETON RADIO/SAQ IN AN a mixed bag of fairly boring music.” station Radio Eli on 1035kHz broadcast- www.antenasatelor.ro/grila-emisiuni.html
trot, jazz and schlager music. Station an- scheduled for Europe are at 1830 UTC on EXTRA TRANSMISSION USING THE This was probably Radio Harmony, a new ing late at night in Russian. Reception is not Tony Stickells received Radio Caroline on
nouncements are made through a synthe- 9785kHz and 2200 UTC on 9830kHz. ALEXANDERSON 200KW ALTERNATOR free radio station. It plays a wide range of very good though. 5820kHz and was surprised to hear it on a
sised female voice. From Hanoi, The Voice of Vietnam broad- ON VLF 17.2KHZ. TODAY WE CELEBRATE music including easy listening, oldies, chan- http://radioeli.ru short wave frequency, since the station now
casts in Cambodian, Chinese, English, THE RADIO STATION AS PART OF THE son and opera (Fig. 4). Listening on the short waves at 0700 UTC, has a medium wave licence. This broad-
Summer Schedules French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, DAY OF INDUSTRIAL CULTURE HERITAGE. Email: harmonyqrz@gmail.com Graham heard Saudi Arabia in the 19m band, cast of Caroline will have been a pirate relay,
Four
Let’s have look at some of the English lan- Lao, Russian, Spanish, Thai and, of course, WE DO NOT REQUEST QSL REPORTS ON Graham Smith noted that WRMI is still us- the Voice of Turkey in Turkish in the 22m rather than the ‘official’ station because they
guage schedules for the stations men-
tioned above. You can start the day early
Vietnamese (Fig. 1). Its English to Europe
broadcasts air from 1600 to 1630 UTC on
THIS TRANSMISSION.WE ALSO PLAN
TO TRANSMIT ON ALEXANDERSON DAY
ing 7780kHz in the A18 season. He heard
a programme in Italian at 2300 UTC, then
band, China Radio International in Chinese
in the 25m band and an unidentified station
wouldn’t want to endanger the recently-won
November
licence after all those decades of trying.
2018 £3.99 www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
with TRT The Voice of Turkey’s hour-long 7220, 7280 and 9730kHz and from 1900 to JULY 1ST I I 1ST AT 09.00 I I T 9RTT UTC = Radio Slovakia International in Slovak at broadcasting hits from the 1960s in the 49m On 5895kHz, Tony received a test trans-
broadcast to Europe, Asia and the Americas
at 0300 UTC, on 6165 and 9515kHz. The
station maintains its lunchtime slot, a rarity
1930 UTC on 7280 and 9730kHz. These are
also aimed at the Middle East and Africa.
English to North America is on from 0000
SIGNED MS WORLD HERITAGE GRIMETON
RADIO STATION AND THE ALEXANDER
ASSOCIATION = AR DE SAQ SAQ SAQ VA VA”.
0000 UTC and English at 0030UTC. Graham
also heard right-wing conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones, aired by WWCR from Nashville,
(‘Europe’) band.
The Romanian station Antena Satelor
has changed its slogan to Noi între ai noștri
noștri,
mission in English of LKB/LLE on SSB, from
Bergen in Norway.
Other logs of note included a clandestine
How Wireless Caught Dr Crippen
for many short wave stations these days.
An hour at 1230 UTC (on 15450kHz) is a
to 0030 UTC and 0100 to 0130 UTC on
7315kHz. The Voice of Vietnam beams its
A page on Bob’s website illustrates how
to receive the transmission, even if you don’t
on 4840kHz at 0200 UTC.
www.infowars.com
which translates as ‘Ourselves amongst our
own’. The station can be heard broadcasting
broadcast to North Korea on 5917.5kHz.
This was the Voice of Freedom from South
The role of the ‘electric constable’ in the transatlantic chase
reviews in
welcome opportunity to pause and hear English service broadcasts across Asia from have a radio (convert an old PC into a VLF He noticed that Bretagne 5 on 1593kHz Romanian folk music through the night on Korea, which wasn’t being jammed and
Four
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk etc or something like that www.radioenthusiast. www.radioenthusiast.co.uk etc or something like that www.radioenthusiast.
2 May 2018 RadioUser RadioUser May 2018 3
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this issue
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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 wiessala@hotmail.com
News A-Z The BBC’s Musical Pioneers

BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP: Here is and elsewhere. In the UK, though, interest was
BARTG PROFILE: The British Amateur Radio an interesting article from Reverb: How the conined to a few questing individuals, including
Teledata Group (BARTG) is a contest and BBC Radiophonic Workshop Helped Pioneer Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe, both BBC
awards group. It currently runs four datacoms Electronic Music. The appearance of magnetic staff members. Through 1957, while working out-
contests a year and offers several awards tape recorders in the late 1940s stimulated of-hours creating electronic sound for pioneering
for datacoms, notably its Quarter Century a whole new musical language; by the mid- BBC broadcasts, the pair lobbied the corporation
Award and its series of Continent Awards. 1950s, there were tape-based electronic music to create its own electronic music studio.
Earlier this century, BARTG changed its studios in France, the United States, Germany, https://tinyurl.com/y73njs38
membership scheme so that membership
was free to everyone. The BARTG committee
is now considering another change: All
ST
OP
BARTG’s contests and awards are open to all
PR
amateurs (including listeners) and there is
ES
no requirement to be a member of BARTG, in
S!
order to participate in any of these activities.
For this reason, the BARTG committee
believes that the BARTG membership scheme
is now unnecessary and is considering
closing the scheme.
The committee believes that this closure
would not affect any BARTG activities. Its
contests, awards scheme and website would
all continue to be run by the committee on a
voluntary basis.
The committee also believes that this
proposed closure would not affect BARTG’s
members.
Members would keep their BARTG number
for life and would be welcome to continue
to display it and/or the BARTG logo on QSL
cards, callsign badges and plaques, car
stickers and suchlike.
There is more information at Ian Brothwell
G4EAN, Secretary, British Amateur Radio
Teledata Group
www.BARTG.org.uk
RADIO SCIENCE JOURNAL: Vol. 53, Issue

10 of the AGU Journal Radio Science offers
more in-depth articles on the many aspects
of the scientiic and research-related use of
radio. You can access it through this link:
RU Writers on the Radio
https://tinyurl.com/yc3gxuff RadioUser columnists, Keith Hamer and writing duo to explain this phenomenon.
Garry Smith, were surprised to receive a Keith was interviewed “live” by Elliott
ETHIOPIA’S RADIO SCENE: Radioworld call from BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester Webb while Garry (formerly the UK Digital
recently published an interesting article on inviting them to appear on the Elliott and Television Project Manager) waited in the
the changes to the Ethiopian radio scene, Toni at Breakfast show at 08.50 on Thursday, wings with all the technical details.
both oficial and clandestine. You can ind November 8th. Apparently, there are over The duo previously appeared on the
the piece, entitled Have Ethiopia’s Airwaves 7,000 people who still have a black-and-white station back in March 2003 to talk about
Found Peace? at this URL: television licence and the show turned to the their unique BBC archive collection.
https://tinyurl.com/y9dppecp
For the latest news and product reviews, visit www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

News What’s new in the world of radio
News A-Z
BELOW-SURFACE SIGNALS: Scientists
have known for a long time that various types
of rock conduct current differently and that
these differences are even more pronounced
as the temperatures and pressures increase
farther beneath Earth’s surface. They also
know that unusual changes in electrical
conductivity can signal activity down below,
like migrating magma or a release of trapped
luids.
Thus, electrical measurements can
uncover clues about the events that trigger
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions here on
the surface. They can also give clues to the
mantle’s structure and dynamics. However,
interpreting these signals is far from
straightforward. Earth scientists increasingly
use electrical observations made in the
ield to image Earth’s crust and mantle, in
particular, at subduction zones and also
mid-ocean ridges.
An effective means of interpreting these
electrical images and placing them into
Lindars’ New Premises
context with other geological observations
Justin Lindars wrote in with the following look at our vintage section where we have
are key to translating raw data into usable
Press Release, “Lindars Radios was some vintage crystal sets and fascinating
knowledge.
established in 2017; Justin Lindars formed World War Morse keys.
Such knowledge includes assessing potential
the company after having a passion for radios We have plenty more on offer to tempt all
hazards by investigating, for example,
since childhood. hobbyists and we are concentrating on
links between luid release and earthquake
Lindars Radios has now been in its getting each section up together to make
generation or the production and transport of
current premises in Yeovil since the end it easier for all our customers that pay us a
magmatic melt from its source region to an
of September and our new shop has had visit, so they can ind exactly what they are
eventual eruption.
a fantastic effect on the business so far. looking for. We also have an area where
SIGMELTS is a freely available app that helps
We have had a great response from a wide customers can sit down and have a go at
to characterize electrically conductive or
network of clientele, already having plenty Morse code, and an external HF aerial, this
resistive features detected at depth using
of customers through our doors, including allows customers to try out radios before
electromagnetic observations.
many local radio enthusiasts and even people they buy.
The objective of this Web application is to
making a special trip to our shop from much We are now a team of two working in the
facilitate the elaboration of models of the
further aield. shop, Amy joined us just after the shop
electrical properties of crust and mantle
It has been a delight to welcome people to opened and is helping with website sales
materials, which, in turn, is used to improve
the shop and talk about all things radio. Our and promotions. We are excited for the
the interpretation of ield electromagnetic
collection of items is growing daily, and we future of Lindars Radios and have some
observations. A new version of SIGMELTS is
have made great use of our new space. We interesting things lined up.”
now available.
have found customers really enjoy having a https://www.amateurradiosales.co.uk
(Source: EoS Buzz)
https://tinyurl.com/ybsb4y4w
ISLE OF MAN RADIO CHANGES : A Select KNL NETWORKS FINDS NEW USE FOR SHORT at sea, but KNL Networks has developed this
Committee of Tynwald in the Isle of Man has WAVE RADIO: KNL Networks is building a mesh technology to generate a data transport network.
published its second and inal report on Public network of base stations on ships for the secure It has built a mesh of multiple base stations and
Service Media in the Island. transmission of operational and machinery data terminals on ships to provide a backbone for
The report makes 11 recommendations which, to shore. internet-of-things (IoT) solutions. “The dedicated
if implemented, are set to see big a number of Short wave radio can be used for data IoT network is combined with military-grade
changes to public service broadcasting in the transmissions from ships to shore and security, pole-to-pole coverage and affordable
Isle of Man. The Second Report of the Select between vessels as an alternative, or pricing to make maritime IoT connections
Committee on Public Service Media is available at even complementary, service to satellite smarter”, said KNL Networks chief executive Toni
the following URL: communications. This is a long way from using Linden.
https://tinyurl.com/y75uqgof shortwave radio for voice communications https://tinyurl.com/y7lorh4n
Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

What’s new in the world of radio News
News A-Z
ST
OP
PR
SUPERSID PROJECT: The SuperSID Sudden
ES
Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) Monitor is
S!
a fascinating resource for radio amateurs,
DXers and all propagation monitors alike.
The goal of this joint SARA/Stanford SuperSID
Project is to provide more educational radio
astronomy systems to as many students
across the world as possible. There is a user
group too. The project’s managers try to fulil
every request for a free system that they can.
Order forms are available via the second URL.
SARA is the (US) Society for Amateur Radio
Astronomers.
www.radio-astronomy.org
RADIO BOOKS ARCHIVE : Here is a link to

Hans Knot’s archive of radio books, many of
which have been reviewed in RadioUser and
are available through our Radio Enthusiast
bookstore.
https://tinyurl.com/yackab6m
FOUNDATIONS OF AMATEUR RADIO :

The Foundations of Amateur Radio weekly
podcast provides a new home for the net of
new and returning amateurs. Users will also
ind information on other podcasts, articles,
links to e-Books and more.
http://vk6lab.com
LIGHTNING PROTECTION ADVICE:

Jennifer Morgan and Michael Chusid have
co-authored a useful free resource by,
entitled Lightning Protection for the Amateur
Operator’s Home. It is available, as a re-issue
from June 2017 QST Magazine, on the website
of the American Amateur Radio League.
https://www.arrl.org/home
KBEM-FM: Revitalizing a Station, Reviving

a School: There is a strong link between
Uniden Bearcat
radio work, technical challenges and local
educational involvement in a number of
countries. This case study from the US shows
SDS-100E Scanner
Mike Devereux, of Nevada, has been in touch call, customisable colour LCD display,
how a radio station and its ‘host’ High School
to let us know about the arrival of the new Location-based scanning, and it is Pc
have entered into a symbiotic relationship, for
Uniden Bearcat SDS-100E Handheld Digital/ programmable. Unusually, out of the box
the beneit of community work and education.
Analogue scanning receiver. The SDS-100E DMR, NXDN and ProVoice digital modes
https://tinyurl.com/ybsjdddq
covers 25 to 1,300 MHz (with gaps) with and some trunk tracking modes are not
improved Digital performance as a true IQ activated, requiring a licence from Uniden
JAMES (JIMMY) WOOD THIRSK (1914-
receiver. It is a rugged weatherproof radio to listen to them. This is because Uniden
2018): Jimmy Thirsk intelligence analyst
to IPX4 specification, to withstand both themselves must pay a licence and not
at Bletchley Park during WW II passed away
weather and water. every user wants all Digital modes - some
at the age of 104. Thirsk helped to crack the
The radio is supplied with a large 5,400 are not used in Europe for example. The
Enigma cyphers. He joined the Intelligence
mAh capacity Li-ion battery and a range radio sells for £599.95 and is available
Corps in April 1942 and moved to Bletchley
of accessories, including an 8GB micro- from Nevada Radio.
Park just one month later. The Guardian of
SD card. The radio also features Close www.nevadaradio.co.uk
24th August 2018 published an obituary of
this prominent analyst and author.

News What’s new in the world of radio
ICOM IC-Sat 100 Satellite British

Communication Device DX Club
Icom has entered into a working partnership enable real-time, multi-user communication The B18 (winter 2018) edition is currently
with Iridium to develop and manufacture a throughout the world with only the push of a PTT available. Broadcasts in English is compiled
new satellite communication device called (Press-To-Talk) button. Direct contact between by BDXC’s Dave Kenny and Alan Roe. It
IC-SAT100 Satellite PTT. The collaboration Iridium’s multiple satellites will ensure a stable includes details of all known international
will combine Icom’s 54 years of expertise and and reliable connection, even if large-scale
broadcasts in English on short wave and
knowledge with Iridium’s satellite experience to incidents occur. Icom’s President Masataka
medium wave for the current schedule
provide a professional radio communications Harima said, “Icom has been developing various
period, as well selected domestic English-
solution that will enable users to communicate wireless communications equipment for use on
language broadcasts on short wave. The
whenever they want to, and wherever they are in land, sea and air for many years. The Satellite
the world. The Satellite PTT radio will be based PTT project will become an important part of our 28-page booklet is in a handy time order
on a professional handheld radio using the product line-up that covers all areas from the throughout and covers all target areas
Iridium satellite communication network. It will surface of the earth to space.” worldwide. Transmitter sites are included
where possible along with schedules for
Media & Mailbag Programmes and Digital
ST Radio Mondiale (DRM) services in English.
OP This edition also includes a comprehensive
PR guide to music programming available on
ES
S! shortwave and schedules for the World Radio
Network. Broadcasts in English is sent free
to all members of the British DX Club. Copies
are also available to non-members at the
following prices (postage included): UK £3
(UK Pounds); Europe Airmail - £4 (UK Pounds);
6 Euros (cash/PayPal), 5 International Reply
Coupons; or 6 (US Dollars-cash/PayPal).
Rest of World Airmail - 6 International Reply
Coupons, $8 (US Dollars-cash/PayPal) or £5
(UK Pounds). If you would like an electronic
copy in pdf format rather than the printed
copy this is available on request. Price for the
pdf version as per the UK rates above. The
pdf document will be sent to you via e-mail.
Payment is by UK Cheque / UK postal order,
payable to ‘British DX Club’, International
Reply Coupons, cash in $US, Euros or other
major currencies (but no foreign coins or
foreign cheques please).
PayPal payments to bdxc@bdxc.org.uk
Orders by post to British DX Club, 10 Hemdean
Hill, Caversham, Reading, RG4 7SB, UK
INAC Magnetic Loop tobdxc@bdxc.org.uk
PIRACY NO MORE : Music piracy in the UK
Antennas at ML&S is on the decline, thanks to the easy access

and availability of streaming services. That
ML&S have recently been appointed sole UK “Halo” Loop, INAC is located in Zaragoza is one inding of a recent report from YouGov,
distributor for the Spanish range of INAC Spain and have a huge range including a which found that just one in 10 people in the
Magnetic Loop Antennas. Martin already remarkable suitcase antenna covering UK are now using illegal downloads. This rate
sells the brilliantly engineered Ciro Mazzoni 40-15m. Their flagship model AX-330 is down from 18% in 2013. The report expects
Loops from Italy and adding the INAC covers 3.5-30-MHz and retails at just that percentage to continue shrinking. Nearly
brand simply increases customer choice £999.95. For more information contact a quarter (22%) of people getting their music
when choosing a very compact HF antenna ML&S: illegally said they don’t expect to continue the
operating in a confined space. Available Tel: 0345 2300 599 practice in ive years.
from just £379.95 for an AH-521 three band www.hamradio.co.uk/inac
(Source: BBC/ YouGov/ RAIN Digest)
https://preview.tinyurl.com/y7kr7eau

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Will Want to Build Radio Amateurs This volume looks back at a time Archive CD
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Setting out a huge array of de- exploited for international com- wasAllexploited
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Airband News
An Airbus A320 at Manchester Airport.
David Smith
dj.daviator@btinternet.com Conspicuity and
n September 2017, the UK
I Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)

conducted a short and focused
survey, asking general aviation
pilots for their views on electronic
conspicuity – technology in the aircraft that
broadcasts its position.
The survey attracted almost 1,600
Brexit Myths
David Smith reports on efforts to encourage pilots
to use ADS-B, rebuts misleading predictions
responses, with pilots of single-engine, about UK aviation after Brexit and profiles ATC
ixed-wing, aeroplanes making up operations at Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
three-quarters of the total. Glider pilots
represented 12%, and hot air balloon,
microlight and rotor pilots made up the rest. meaningful safety gains. safety as a whole.
Pilots were quizzed on their use, or not, of Only one-in-six ixed-wing aeroplane Looking at the speciic advantages of
electronic conspicuity devices. The survey pilots reported using ADS-B already, mostly conspicuity, 83% of aeroplane pilots identi-
also explored the key drivers that may integrated with a Mode S transponder. A ied collision avoidance and improved cock-
affect a more widespread take-up of the further third of pilots ly aeroplanes that pit/ground-based situational awareness as
technology. The answers will help develop are Mode S equipped but have not been the principal safety beneits.
the CAA’s strategy for encouraging the use adapted to use ADS-B. Meanwhile, almost The survey also looked at the factors that
of devices across the GA leet. 90% of glider pilots who responded use would encourage pilots to use a low-pow-
ADS-B is the CAA’s preferred standard for ‘Flight-Alarm’ FLARM – the anti-collision ered ADS-B device. Equipment purchase
achieving airborne situational awareness system designed speciically for gliders. cost came out on top for two-thirds of aero-
for pilots and air trafic controllers alike. Asked whether or not they believed plane pilots, while compatibility with Mode
Furthermore, interoperability is the that full electronic conspicuity across S was important to six out of 10. For more-
overriding factor in the selection of any the GA leet would beneit safety, nearly than-half of respondents, the ability to re-
system – any devices used simply have nine-tenths of all those who responded ceive light information or weather data via
to be compatible, in order to achieve any thought that it would, indeed, improve light ADS-B was a signiicant attraction.

Airband News
ATC Profiles 9: Doncaster Sheffield Airport

The CAA said that ICAO Code: EGCN - IATA Code: DSA
pilots would not need
to renew their pilot’s
Frequencies (MHz) Hours of Operation
licence in a ‘no-deal’ Doncaster Approach/Radar 126.225 H24
Doncaster Radar (UHF) 283.425 H24
Brexit scenario Doncaster Radar 129.050 As directed by ATC
Doncaster Tower 128.775 H24
Doncaster Fire 121.600 (non ATC) Fire vehicles attending aircraft on the ground
The survey results indicated that the GA ATIS
Doncaster Information 134.950 H24
community recognise the need for the ex-
Navaids ILS CAT III on Runway 20 CAT I on Runway 02
pansion of electronic conspicuity technolo-
NDB FNY 338.000kHz
gy within the UK.
Runways 02 2893m x 60m
The CAA believes that the take-up of de- 20 2893m x 60m
vices will improve overall safety levels, as Hold FNY NDB
well as increasing airspace access for GA Notes (A-Z)
pilots. Enhanced equipage may also help A380 Aircraft Operations
future challenges, such as access to air- Operators of A380 aircraft may designate Doncaster Shefield Airport as a nominated diversionary aerodrome,
subject to prior agreement with the Operations Director and to the assessment of facilities at the airport by the
space and incorporating the enhanced fu- airline. A maximum of two A380s can be handled at any time (subject to stand availability). Only one A380 can
ture use of drones. move around the aerodrome at any time. If one aircraft is on the stand, the other can use the taxiway.
CAT II/IIIb Operations
Brexit Aviation Myths Exposed Runway 20, subject to the serviceability of the facility, is suitable for Category II/IIIb operations by operators
whose minima have been accepted by the CAA. During Category II/IIIb operations, Low Visibility Procedures
In response to media reports, which it de- will be applied by ATC. Pilots will be informed by ATIS broadcast or by RT when these procedures are in
scribed as ‘misleading’, the CAA said that operation.
pilots would not need to renew their pilot’s Circuit Training
All visual circuits shall be to the east of the runway (left-hand circuit for Runway 20 and right-hand circuit for
licence in a ‘no-deal’ Brexit scenario. Both Runway 02). The minimum circuit altitude for General Aviation and Helicopters shall be 1,000ft QNH unless
commercial and private UK pilot licenc- instructed otherwise by ATC. All aircrew training circuits shall be carried out at 2000ft QNH, and to the east of the
es remain valid for use on UK-registered aerodrome, unless otherwise instructed by ATC.
aircraft as the United Kingdom is a sig- Entry/ Exit Lanes and VFR Routes
To permit aircraft operation to and from Doncaster Shefield in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC)
natory to the International Civil Aviation but not under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), entry/exit lanes have been established for use under the following
Organisation (ICAO) Chicago Convention. conditions: (i) M18 North/South: A lane, 2nm wide, and known as the Stainforth Lane with centre-line from the
UK licences are internationally recog- M18 Stainforth Services VRP, and thence south-southwest, along the M18 motorway, to the point at which it
crosses the Doncaster Shefield Aerodrome Trafic Zone boundary. (ii) Haxey East/West: A lane, 2nm wide, and
nised - including by the European Aviation known as the Haxey Lane, with centre-line from a point 1.3nm south of the Haxey Visual Reference Point (VRP),
Safety Agency (EASA) - both now and after where the Lincoln/Doncaster railway line crosses the Doncaster Shefield Control Zone boundary; thence west,
along the railway line to the point at which it crosses the Doncaster Shefield ATZ boundary. (iii) M18 West/East:
29 March 2019. A lane, 2nm wide, and known as the Wadworth Lane, with centre-line from the A1/M 18 Wadworth Interchange
https://www.caa.co.uk/home VRP; thence east along the M18 motorway, to the point at which it crosses the Doncaster Shefield Air Trafic
https://www.icao.int/Pages/default.aspx Zone (ATZ) boundary. (iv) A1M North/South: A lane, 2 nm wide, and known as the Clumber Lane, with centre-line
from the A1/M18 Wadworth Interchange VRP; thence southeast, along the A1 motorway to the point 532126N
https://www.easa.europa.eu 0010233W (a point at which it crosses the Doncaster Shefield Control Tower Region (CTR) boundary, in the
The CAA will continue to issue and re- direction of the A1/A57 Clumber Interchange VRP.
issue pilots’ licences when they are lost, Frequency Monitoring Code
damaged, when details need to be changed Pilots operating in the vicinity of – but intending to remain outside of – Doncaster Shefield controlled airspace
are encouraged to maintain a listening watch on Doncaster Approach frequency, 126.225 MHz and to select
or pilots’ privileges updated, in the same SSR code 6170. Selection of 6170 does not imply the receipt of an ATC service. Aircraft displaying the code
way as it does now. Over time, this would are not expected to contact ATC under normal circumstances and remain responsible for their own navigation,
separation, and terrain clearance. They are also expected to remain clear of the controlled airspace at all times.
include removing references to EASA - a While squawking 6170, pilots should be aware that Doncaster Approach may make blind transmissions in order to
purely cosmetic change. There will be no ascertain a particular aircraft’s intentions/route.
requirement for licences to be re-issued for Handling Agents
any other reason, meaning that there will be Anglo World Cargo / Swissport: 131.550MHz
Consort Aviation (GA and executive): 131.600MHz
no change to this process.
Helicopter Operations
The CAA also strongly refutes any sug- Arrivals: ATC will either select the appropriate threshold or instruct the helicopter to make an approach to the
gestion that it is concerned about its ability runway. If instructed to approach the runway, the helicopter is to turn onto a inal approach and arrange descent
to provide safety oversight to the UK avia- to lare, to 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.
tion industry, should a ‘no-deal’ situation
Visual Reference Points (VRP)
arise between the UK and the EU. According Goole Docks; M18 Stainforth Services; Haxey; A1/M18 Wadworth Interchange; Gainsborough; M1/M18 Thurcroft
to the organisation, the safety of passen- Interchange; A1/A57 Clumber Interchange; Daneshill Lakes; Thorsby Lake.
gers, crew and those on the ground re-
mains an absolute priority, and nothing has
changed in this respect. At least one media In the words of a spokesman, “as a re- and we continue to work closely with the
outlet has unfortunately confused EASA sponsible regulator, the CAA has been plan- Government to prepare the industry for
approval of new aircraft and component de- ning for all eventualities in the negotiations, all scenarios.”
sign with the CAA’s existing national safety including that of a ‘no-deal’, for some time. The photograph this month is of an
oversight obligations. Our planning and contingency are advanced, Airbus A320 at Manchester Airport.

Feature
NATIONAL ARCHIVE
The Stimulus of World War I

for Radio Development
With the Centenary of the Armistice of the First World War just gone,
Lydia Ritchie investigates the impact of conflict on the development of
radio technology before, during and after the conflict.
Marconi (1874-1937) in 1895. Marconi pro- The War at Sea.

Lydia Ritchie EI-2GTB gressed to one-way Morse transmission, but The Navy was at the forefront of this devel-
lydiacanwest@yahoo.com it was Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932) who, oping branch of technology. It had always
in January 1906 – and using a rotary spark operated in isolation, often out of the line-
transmitter – successfully sent the irst ever
W
e should not forget the of-sight of those with whom it wished to
importance of the role two-way transatlantic Morse transmission communicate. For centuries, marine com-
played by signalmen, from his base in Brant Rock, Massachusetts, munications had been the bailiwick of hom-
engineers and scien- to a station in Machrihanish, Scotland. ing pigeons, semaphore and signals sent by
tists employed by both On 24 December 1906, it is claimed that lamp or sunlight.
the Allied and Axis military, and by concerns Fessenden interrupted the usual dot-and- The Telefunken company had been us-
such as the Marconi and Telefunken com- dash transmissions, which the ships sailing ing ‘quenched spark gap’ technology, prior
panies. Their efforts, their imagination and the Atlantic coastline were receiving, with the to the outbreak of war. This advancement
their creativity, stimulated by the urgency of worlds’ irst voice and music wireless mes- overcame problems associated with prior
a ‘War to End All Wars’, led to a continuous sage aimed at the general public. It consist- spark-gap radio designs, by producing sharp,
reinement in range, quality and reliability of ed of readings of seasonal passages from peaked, rather than sinusoidal, waveforms.
communications, forcing an evolution of ra- the Bible, an Ediphone recording of Handel’s These enabled a clearer tone of frequency
dio further and faster than could ever have Largo and a violin rendition of Oh Holy Night. through the receiver headset. Large num-
been imagined. Fessenden ended his historic transmission bers of small 1.5KW sets were produced and,
Every radio buff is aware that the irst with voiced Christmas greetings, then shut by the end of 1909, had been installed on all
transmission, using Morse code, was sent down, returning his astounded listeners to German warships.
from a temporary station by Guglielmo their regular diet of dits-and-dahs. Germany had, by 1914, established pow-
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Feature
LYDIA RITCHIE
Fig. 1: A German communications squad behind

the Western front, setting up using a tandem
bicycle power generator to power a light radio
station in September of 1917 Fig. 2: WWI German
Toy Soldier with Trench Phone. Fig. 3: Lead Toy
Radio Operator from the WWI Period.
erful wireless transmission stations, used

to communicate with North America and
Africa. Germany relied heavily on submarine
cabling for transatlantic communications.
Within a few months of the outbreak of war,
Britain had cut ive of these cables, and by,
1915, most of Germany’s stations on foreign
soil had been captured or destroyed.
The British had been using Marconi sets
on their vessels since 1899. At the start of
the war, their naval sets tended to be simple
and reliable ‘spark-gap’ transmitters, teamed
up with crystal receivers. The question of the
range of any transmission had always been
the overriding issue at sea. For the British,
shore stations were few and far between,
and Morse code could be transmitted, at the
most, for 12 miles across the water.
Ship-to-shore messaging could only oc-
cur when the ship was within transmission
distance of a shore station. Higher masts
improved the range, but changed the outline
of ships, making vessels more visible, and
vulnerable, to the enemy. Congestion and in-
terference on the radio bands led to the sets 2
needing to incorporate a capacity for tuning.

Small improvements, such as using lighter loor. Whether in the air, on the sea or on
aerials placed in parallel, followed. Marconi the ground, combatants needed to com-
arc transmitters became standard equip- municate and receive information, orders
ment, and the Poulsen arc set was adopt- and commands in real time. Innovation
ed for shore use. By 1917, they had been was imperative.
replaced with heterodyne valve receivers. The earliest airborne sets weighed 75
Progress had been rapid. pounds. They required a minimum of 200ft
of aerial, trailing behind the aircraft. The in-
Fighting in the Air crease in drag caused by the trailing aerial –
The Wright brothers’ aeroplane made the which tended to coil itself around the control
dream of powered light a reality in 1903. apparatus of the plane – made the aero-
However, light and hand signals and col- plane more dificult to pilot and caused a de- 3
oured paddles remained the norm for air- crease in engine power available to the pilot.
craft/ground communications well into WW The resulting lack of control and manoeuvra- radio system – Major Prince and his team
I. At the start of the conlict, British radio bility of the aircraft was not an ideal trade-off. begged, borrowed and stole instruments and
equipment was both heavy and cumber- On top of this, interference caused issues apparatus for use in experiments. One of
some. It consisted of heavy spark sets, with too, and many messages were unintelligible. his designs incorporated the Bright Emitter
batteries mounted onto the fuselage of the The addition of metal piping and sheeting to Type Q valve, which had been designed by
aeroplane and with a massive crystal receiv- ignition cables helped to improve the clarity Marconi’s personal assistant and early radio
er based on the ground. It was hoped that of the reception, but the price to be paid was pioneer, Henry Joseph Round (1881-1966)
the system would allow Morse communi- an increase in the weight of the sets. shortly before the War.
cations from the ground, but audio proved This weight problem was mitigated, until It had proven a reliable device for use in
impossible to decipher through the roaring 1917, by the absence of any receivers in the general public receiving, was small and had
of the wind, engine noise and, too often, the cockpit. This was not ideal, as ground staff a high impedance. By April 1915, Prince
sound of gunire in the cockpit. ideally needed to communicate with the aer- and his colleagues had developed a simple
It proved near nigh impossible to op- oplane in real time. ‘switch-on-and-speak-into’ sturdy radio set
erate a key in the conines of a cramped Meanwhile, at Brooklands – and with an weighing a mere 20 pounds. They used it to
cockpit, shared with a huge battery on the eye to the development of a viable aircraft transmit the irst voice message communi-
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Feature
NATIONAL ARCHIVE
cated to an aeroplane in light. By June 1915,

the irst air to ground voice message had
been transmitted to Brooklands.
Speech distortion was another problem to
be addressed. It seemed, at irst unfathom-
able. The sets worked well on the ground but
did not do so in the air. One oficer trained his
voice, using enunciation and pronunciation,
to very good effect. However, ‘manual’ voice
modulation was not a solution for most oper-
ators, whose messages remained stubbornly
incomprehensible.
These experiments, however, channelled
operators’ thoughts, with a view to a possi-
ble enhancement of any audio. Then, some-
one connected headphones to the trans-
mission circuitry. It was now possible for
the speaker to hear his own voice, so they
were able to better modulate speech and aid
the transmission.
New Uses for Radio

Furthermore, many new applications for
radio were found at the time. Wireless tel-
ephonic tracking systems were afixed 4
to BE12 aircraft by August 1917. They Fig. 4: Mobile Austro-Hungarian short wave ra-
were used with great effect to transmit, in dio transmitter. Fig. 5: Aircraft Spark Transmitter
code, information on the number, position c.1918. Fig. 6: Air Services School cadets train-
and direction of any lights of hostile air- ing on radio equipment at Columbia University
craft over England. 1917.
Designs then advanced at such a pace
that the Mark III choke-controlled telephone the ground, to determine its own direction.
set had been itted onto some 600 British The commander of the airship listened to
aircraft by 1918. the strength of the signal and, by utilising
America entered WW1 in April 1917. AT a one-handed stopwatch, could accurately
&T had produced an air-to-ground trans- set his position.
mitter in early 1917. By July of that year, it Last but not least, some mention should
was also producing two-way voice sets. also be made of a French method of air/ 5
Nevertheless, radio was considered unre- ground communication using Morse code.
liable, compared to wired telephones and They ‘puffed’ out controlled bursts of a ine to their destination.
telegraph systems. Where radio was used – powder called ‘lamp black’, out of a ive- When it may have been possible to use
and it was more prevalent in use at sea – the gallon container, mimicking Morse code. line-of-sight methods of communication (for
preferred method of communication still re- Though innovative, the system had some ob- instance, lag, hand or light signalling), the
mained Morse code. vious drawbacks. signaller would have been visible to friend
Germany’s air strategy included airships and enemy alike, and the signals were likely
for the bombing of ground targets. The old- On the Ground to be comprehensible to the enemy.
fashioned method of directional guidance The First World War was initially envisioned However, men under ire are innovative. An
using star sightings was reliant on good to be a cavalry-type series of battles, to be attempt to solve the irst problem involved a
weather. Airships moved much faster than won or lost over a short period of time. The periscope system, using shutters and signal-
naval ships. This meant that star readings reality was dramatically different, and soon ling discs, and was adopted, with limited suc-
needed to be taken at least ten times more hostilities degenerated into the drawn-out cess, during 1915.
often, to be of any viable use. hell of trench warfare. At the outbreak of the Secret codes were used to try to thwart
Moreover, the Earth’s magnetism could war, communications beyond the range of the second issue.
also be used to determine location and direc- lags, heliograph, hand or light signals, were
tion. Nevertheless, the necessary equipment relayed by men (motorcycle riders or run- Radio as a Tool of War
would have been far too heavy. Radio was, ners) and by the ever-reliable pigeon. When Radio, used as an instrument of war, was
therefore, a more eficient solution. the terrain became too rugged or the shell- a new concept, carrying with it suspicion
Eventually, a Telefunken system was ing too ierce, dogs were used to carry mes- and fear of the unknown. Prior to the out-
adopted. This allowed the mobile station sages. Delay was inevitable, as it took some break of the First World War, a ield wire-
to use the positioning of extremely strong time for man, pigeon or dog to cover the nec- less set consisted of two chests, containing
signals, transmitted by ixed stations on essary ground, and they often didn’t make it the apparatus, a seven-section (40ft) hol-

Feature
NATIONAL ARCHIVE
low wooden mast, and an insulated, 100ft,

4-wire counterpoise.
There was also an antenna, consisting
of four three-ply plaited wires, and ending
in 75ft-long guy ropes, with a plaited lead
wire attached to a top insulator. In addition
to this, there was a hand-powered genera-
tor, two storage batteries, and a set of pack
frames and leather bags, designed to it
onto three mules.
Transmission speeds needed to be slow
and distinct, and a repeat of every message
was preferable. A switch-over had to be
made from transmitting to receiving func-
tions, and constant adjustments, to tune,
adjust, overhaul and repair, were also neces-
sary. The operation of the hand-powered gen-
erator was a bit of an art form, and it required
regular cleaning and oiling. Steadiness of
application was required to prevent ‘laming’,
whilst still creating enough of a voltage to en-
able an adequate spark. The interrupter was
a delicate piece of equipment, and it required
skilful positioning: The key had a tenden-
cy to stickiness. 6
By 1913, this heavy radio equipment load

had been somewhat lightened. It now con-
sisted of one operating chest, one hand-pow-
both transmission and reception, and in the
assembling and disassembling of the sets
The ‘mobile’ radio
ered generator, one mast, one pack of three themselves, took three to four months. To of early 1914 was a
frames, and a tent.
The problems created by damp and muddy
maintain wired telegraphy, horse-drawn
wagons carried coils of cabling, and men
heavy, cumbersome
conditions, and by the overall harshness of buried mile after mile of it – often whilst be- 1.5kW Marconi
life in the trenches, still existed, but the equip-
ment now beneited from greater portabil-
ing under ire by snipers and artillery. Falling
shells and military boots damaged cabling
motor lorry set
ity. Motorization was still in its infancy. Mass laid by both sides, and Allied naval block-
production of automobiles had begun a mere ades ensured the Germans quickly ran out of and timelier, and it provided direct, two-way,
year before the outbreak of war. Mud and ad- copper cabling. communication.
verse terrain still favoured the old-fashioned An invaluable improvement was the Mark
horse and wagon as the means of transpor- 236, a self-contained unit capable of being Spark Gap Equipment
tation of choice. set up in tandem, to increase the number of One of the most signiicant advancements,
The ‘mobile’ radio of the early days of 1914 discreet ‘voiced’ users to ten. which was achieved for radio by the need for
was a heavy, cumbersome 1.5kW Marconi In spite of all these improvements, equip- rapid adaptation of experimental technolo-
motor lorry set, operating in terrain adverse ment was still, on the whole, ‘ixed’ in place gies due to the war, was the improvement
to wheeled transport. It was no surprise that and subject to interception. What is more, made to the standard spark gap transmit-
sets were adapted to it onto motorcycles, to adverse environmental conditions frequently ter, used from 1887 to 1916. The spark-gap
be loaded into horse packs, and even to be rendered voice reception unreliable; however, was uncomplicated: The carrier stopped
strapped onto the torso of one man accom- the insulation of cabling did help solve the when the key was released. This allowed
panied by two assistants carrying the aerial! problem of interference. the operator to hear replies without the need
One of the more impressive adaptations – for further ‘iddling’. Nevertheless, a seri-
Telephone D Mark III driven by concerns over interception – was ous problem lay in the fact that – in order
and the Fullerphone the Fullerphone. A slow and pedantic exer- to obtain a reasonable output as transmis-
As the global conlict became entrenched, cise (using a pre-set code, whereby word one sion power increased – a very high voltage
it was soon obvious that wired civilian tel- would be transmitted on 200 meters, word needed to be applied. This made transmis-
ephones were not designed for use in such two on 1,500 meters, word three on 700 me- sion in wet or damp conditions impossible. It
adverse conditions. But some civilian sets in- ters and so on) had been used. However, this also created a wide, ‘dirty’, band and caused
corporated a buzzer and a Morse key, which was hardly ideal. Fuller devised a portable interference with other transmissions on
was simple and effective for transmitting Morse telegraph transmitting a DC signal nearby frequencies.
Morse when using voice was impossible. through a single wire. He also found a way of The trouble with old-fashioned ‘spark-gap’
This equipment was called the Telephone D scrambling the messages. It worked so well, equipment was that, whenever a voltage was
Mark III and became standard. it would later be converted to both transmit applied across the spark-gap, gas molecules
However, training a Morse operator in and receive voice. This was more precise became ionised. This created a hot electric

Feature
arc. The ionised gases were highly conduc- developed by H.J. Round, were cheaper, and pan of a British soldier in the trenches was
tive and caused a noticeable drop in electri- they also extended the range and accura- around six weeks, albeit the normal British
cal resistance within the spark-gap. The arc cy of the sets. soldier spent only 15% of his service time on
needed to be extinguished, in order to allow These are all good examples of how re- the frontline and would not have spent longer
capacitors to be recharged. quirements for rapid improvement in a time than two weeks at a time in the trenches.
The adoption of the rotary spark-gap later of war, resulted in some brilliant adaptations Before the adoption of the Fullerphone, ra-
helped to solve this particular issue. The ro- to designs. These probably took radio tech- dio operators were in short supply, and they
tary-spark used an alternating power supply nology, further and faster than otherwise may have been exempt from the usual sta-
to produce a more regularised spark process, may have been likely, through the cycle of de- tistics. Radio operators, alongside oficers
allowing it to handle more power. In short, velopment, design and adoption and stretcher-bearers, were notably ‘high
the piece of equipment consisted of an in- At the end of the First World War, receiv- priority’ targets for all sides. Death tapped
ner, rotating, metal disc, adorned with studs ers were plentiful and relatively cheap to pur- each of them on his shoulder, as insistently
on its outer edge. When two studs lined up chase. Moreover, they required such minimal and as surely as the signalman would have
with two of the outer contacts carrying high technical ability to operate, that they became tapped his Morse key.
voltage, the resulting arc was stretched, available to the general public. Mass commu-
cooled and broken. nication was now a reality. It was born of the Sources Consulted
urgency of war, and commercial broadcast- Belrose, J.S. (1994) Fessenden and the
Radio Direction Finding ing would be in place a good decade earlier Early History of Radio Science
Wartime radio found another niche in the than might otherwise have been the case. https://tinyurl.com/y9ek76nc
area of Direction Finding (D/F). By the end Corcoran, A.P.: Wireless in the Trenches
of 1914, a small British contingent was sent The Price Paid https://tinyurl.com/yadln9rk
to France with two 70ft masts, two receiv- Records from the RAF indicate that, at least, Friedewald, M. et al (2008) The
ers and two Bellini-Tosi direction inders. By 400 British signalmen died during the four Beginnings of Radio Communication in
6th December 1914, two wartime D/F sta- long years of war between 1914 and 1918. Germany 1897-1918
tions were in operation on the Western Front. Those numbers may not, in compari- Royal Signals Museum
They were used to track German positions of son with other units, appear overwhelming. https://tinyurl.com/y8gg7oum
troops, Zeppelins and aircraft. However, like the stretcher-bearer, signal- Thrower, K.R.: Army Radio Communication
The early crystal sets were replaced with men could not ire back at the enemy, whilst in the Great War
valve ones in 1915. The new (12-type) valves, engaged in their duties. The average lifes- https://tinyurl.com/y9sakolb
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DXTV Special
20 Years of Channel Five

(Part One)
ALL PICTURES: KEITH HAMER + GARRY SMITH RESOURCES COLLECTION
Keith Hamer
Keith405625.kh1@gmail.com
Garry Smith
garry405625.gs@gmail.com
Keith Hamer & Garry Smith chart

the history of Channel Five, which
has just finished celebrating its 20th
Anniversary. They look at the initial
phase of the new channel, at frequency
allocations, re-tuning issues and the
launch.
Channel 5 inally hit the airwaves on Easter

Sunday, March 30th, 1997. It had lots of pub-
licity right up to its introduction, but most of
it was, alas, negative.
These days, we take it for granted when a
new TV station is coming on-air. In fact, the
Freeview channel listings seem to change
as often as the weather. Twenty years Fig.1: An ALCAD Mast Head Ampliier, with an input for a separate Channel 5 aerial.
ago, Channel 5 arrived, but what was so
special about it?
It was the last analogue terrestrial TV
channel to enter service on a national ba-
sis, although reception was limited in
some areas of the country. Introducing the
new network was quite an involved tech-
nical challenge.
Channel 4 had commenced broadcast-
ing in 1982 but, apart from dificulties some
viewers might have tuning in the TV receiver,
there had been no signiicant issues.
Frequency Allocation
Frequency allocation was always a major
hurdle when introducing fresh TV networks.
The original channel plan in the Sixties re-
volved around the UHF (Bands IV and V) net-
work. This was capable of hosting a maxi-
mum of four channels per transmitter, both
main and relay. The groups of channels were
carefully spaced geographically, as far apart 2 3
as possible, to prevent co-channel interfer- Fig. 2: An oficial Channel 5 Coverage and Reception Guide (1997). Fig. 3: A Channel 5 Predicted
ence, even under conditions of mild tropo- Coverage Map (1997). It shows areas where re-tuning was necessary, and also those that were
spheric enhancement. A similar four-chan- considered unlikely to be affected. In practice, parts of the latter areas were, in fact, re-tuned.
nel plan was also adopted in other countries.
Originally, BBC-2 had exclusive use of the However, this did not happen. Instead, cy; the plan was to share the same frequen-
UHF band spectrum until the introduction Channel Four was launched in 1982, thus cy by all the main transmitters with scant
of BBC-1 and ITV colour on November 15th, completing the four channel slots per trans- regard to interference issues. If severe co-
1969. The channel plan only allowed for one mitter. Channels 35, 36, 37 and 38 remained channel interference was created in some
more service which was expected to be ITV- unused in the United Kingdom. locations, then so be it. The phrase, “what
2, and some receiver push-buttons were All this careful planning was thrown out of the viewer never had, the viewer would never
marked accordingly in the late Sixties. the window when Channel 5 was in its infan- miss” springs to mind!

DXTV Special
Several years earlier, the spectrum plan- as the south and south-east of England,
ners had assessed Channels 35 and 37 as which Channel 5 could not fully cover, as
possible contenders for the main high-pow- broadcasts might clash with Continental
er network, which would, hopefully, replicate services. This suggested that there was at
the service area of the other four channels. least some acknowledgement of potential
In practice, this was not entirely feasible, as interference issues.
Channel 5 was to be aired from many of the A decision was inally made to make the
old ITV transmitters with familiar names new station available via satellite, for those
from the days of 405-line broadcasting in viewers unable to obtain a satisfactory
Band III. Some of these included Burnhope, terrestrial signal. So, in late April 1997,
Lichield and Croydon. Channel 5 became available via the Astra
There was one major stumbling block satellite with ‘soft encryption’. This made the
though: Most video recorder modulators service available to a much wider audience
were pre-tuned by the manufacturer to and eased some of the problems.
Channel 36. Generally, this was ine, as the In fact, the new channel became the irst
nearest frequencies in use at the time were terrestrial station to launch on satellite.
Channels 34 and 39.
The use of Channel 35 was originally A Mammoth Task
not envisaged but, after second thoughts, There was potential for the new Channel Fig. 4: A Channel 5 ‘blocker’ (notch ilter).
plans were introduced, towards the end of 5 transmissions to interfere with video
1996, for some transmitters to be allocat- recorder playback when the RF output was There was no problem with interference
ed this channel. used. One condition of the new network on video playback if the SCART connec-
In some areas, odd frequencies had to be hitting the airwaves was the mass retuning tion was used, but modulators still had to
utilised to prevent interference with much of video modulators (both video and be reset because the RF output had the
lower powers than the other four broadcasts satellite) in every home within the service potential of producing patterning on the
from the same transmitter. These included areas that were considered vulnerable. Channel 5 picture.
Winter Hill on Channel 48 with 12.5kW ERP This was a mammoth and controversial In those cases, where the shifting of the
(Effective Radiated Power) – as opposed to task, rather like when North Sea gas was RF modulator frequency was a problem (for
500kW – and Belmont on Channel 56 with introduced, and all gas appliances in every example, ‘daisy-chained’ video recorders), a
50kW, instead of 500kW. household had to be converted! Beginning ‘blocker’ or notch ilter (Fig. 4) was itted at
The power-imbalance from some sites in the summer of 1996, teams of temporary the end of the antenna lead. This prevented
caused potential dificulties, not to mention recruits were trained by Granada, on behalf the Channel 5 signal from reaching the equip-
the fact that most Channel 5 transmitters of Channel 5, to achieve the retuning task. ment. Naturally, there was a slight insertion
would radiate on frequencies outside the Channel 5 also secured the help of Granada loss, leading to disgruntled viewers, in those
normal antenna group. and Thorn-EMI, owners of the two leading cases where the effects were noticeable in
This meant that, in some cases, the rental chains in the country at the time, to marginal reception areas.
signals were far from satisfactory unless a undertake their own rental retunes. A Channel 37 ilter provided approximately
second antenna and, in some situations, a Armed with a signal generator and 40dB of attenuation but only a 3db loss on
mast-head ampliier was deployed. suitable trimming tools, the task meant re- Channel 36, which most video recorders
In other areas, where broadcasts were tuning the RF modulators of every video had their modulators tuned to. The loss two
obtained from a totally separate transmitter recorder and satellite receiver, in order to channels away (Channel 35) was just 2dB.
to the other four services, a second antenna prevent a signal clash within service areas The ilter bore the ‘5’ logo, but the plastic
was necessary; in other cases, multi-path where interference was predicted. A target casing colour (black, cream, brown or blue)
reception (ghosting) was a problem, due of 90% of homes needed to be re-tuned did not indicate any particular channel.
to the differing receiving angles of the before Channel 5 could air. The ilter was also supplied to households
two transmissions. Therefore, millions of households need- where, in a small number of cases, entry was
Passive aerial group combiners were ed to be visited. refused, because owners did not want the
not the answer in many instances. One The retuning requirement stipulated only technicians to touch the equipment.
manufacturer that did come to the rescue modulator adjustment to prevent interfer- Technicians were expected to retune the
was Alcad. The company produced mast- ence, rather than actually tuning in the TV equipment to speciic frequencies, using
head ampliiers with selective inputs (Fig. ready to receive the new service. This led to the generator’s pre-programmed outputs.
1). One was for the ‘normal’ broadcasts, and confrontation when an address was visited However, patterning was a problem with
one was for Channel 5. Signal levels could be where only a television was in use. The view- some equipment. Therefore, a few ‘tweaks’
adjusted on both the inputs. er would usually argue and demand that the were necessary.
The limited coverage of Channel 5 TV should be tuned in, so they could view the In the Derby area, the recommended video
across the UK (Figs. 2 and 3) was mainly new channel when it arrived. Most techni- output channel was 33. However, when
down to frequency sharing, especially on cians would oblige to save time arguing and digital transmitters began testing during the
Channels 35 and 37. In some areas, a co- run the risk of not obtaining a signature to late summer of 1998, one of the Waltham
channel mess was created where service conirm that the address had been success- multiplexes had been assigned Channel
areas overlapped. fully dealt with. Many technicians worked on 33, which then totally obscured video
There were some parts of the UK, such a commission-only basis. playback at RF.

DXTV Special
35 was released for use by the DTI on

September 16th, 1996, the start date was
delayed, so that an extra four million viewers
would be able to watch the channel right
from the start.
Therefore, the new station officially
appeared on our screens on Sunday, March
30th, 1997 at 6.00pm.
Mock colour bars with a countdown clock
ticked away the final seconds before the
well-publicised, but controversial, station
was unleashed (Fig. 5).
The Spice Girls were in vogue at the time
and these ‘Ambassadors of Britain’ (as the
prime minister of the day dubiously dubbed
them) performed the opening ceremony with
a specially-written song called The Channel
5 Theme. This was very reminiscent of
Manfred Mann’s 1964 hit ‘5-4-3-2-1’.
The Spice Girls were set to become the
main weapon in the channel’s ratings war,
Fig. 5: Final Countdown ‘mock’ colour-bar test pattern, before launch at 6pm on Sunday, March 30th, 1997. according to the chief executive at the
time, David Elstein.
Tuning Complexities some viewers refused point-blank to al-
One of the biggest headaches was the com- low their equipment to be even touched, The Logo
plexity of some of the tuning methods used never mind re-tuned, thanks to tabloid The station was the first terrestrial
by different manufacturers. With some mod- ‘scaremongering’. broadcaster to display an on-screen
els, the technician could be in and out of the Simple substitute remote controls were a logo, and this generated lots of viewer
premises within minutes, with the job sheet bugbear because many did not have the fa- complaints. European broadcasters had
duly signed. With other makes, a feeling of cility to adjust the TV tuning. been displaying logos for many years,
‘defeat’ would quickly set in, with the viewer Fortunately, some models did have a set and the viewing public took them all
convinced that the technician hadn’t a clue of controls beneath a concealed flap, but in their stride.
what they were doing. This led to a plethora not all of them. The logo (technically referred to within
of complaints - some justified, some not. Some antenna sockets, especially those BBC circles as the ‘Digitally Originated
Once the tabloid newspapers had added on video recorders and satellite receivers, Graphic’ or ‘Digital On-screen Graphic’, but
their pennyworth there was definitely ‘trou- were already hanging loose. usually just ‘DOG’, for short!) was eventually
ble at mill’! The press had a field day and ran Connecting the signal generator became toned down to give it a more transparent,
stories of how the teams messed up view- the last straw, resulting in call-backs for in- less intrusive, appearance.
ers’ equipment with tales of ‘My car blew up termittently snowy pictures, due to frac- The logo was displayed in the top-left
on the driveway as the engineer fiddled with tured connections. of the picture.
my telly’ and ‘Channel 5 man attacked my pet In Part Two, next month, we will be looking
gorilla with his generator’. Delayed Launch at test transmissions, transmitter launches,
Consequently, the re-tuning programme Initially, the channel was set to launch presenters and the transmitter switch-on
developed a rather tarnished image, and on January 1st, 1997, but when Channel timetable. Join us then.
SAVLEER !
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Maritime Matters
The VHF Data Exchange

System and Racons
Robert Connolly investigates the Maritime VHF Data Exchange System and
Radar Beacons, and he decyphers code-words used in cruise ship emergencies.
COURTESY OF TYDELAND
Robert Connolly You will also see that Channels 75 and 76

gi7ivx@btinternet.com are reserved for long-range AIS, a method
through which the ship’s AIS information is
D
evelopments in the maritime uploaded to a satellite.
communications sector are This long-range AIS is a different system
under constant development. to the current Long-Range Identiication
As a result, there is a rising de- and Tracking (LRIT) technology. LRIT op-
mand for maritime VHF data erates under regulations applying to all
communications. Currently, voice and data passenger ships, including high-speed
coexist on the marine VHF band, and sig- craft, cargo vessels, high-speed craft of
nals are transmitted in both analogue and 300 gross tonnage and above, and mobile
digital formats. offshore drilling units engaged on interna-
tional voyages.
VHF Data Exchange System LRIT allows current VHF AIS data to be
Following the introduction and fast devel- uploaded by satellite, for use by govern-
opment of Software-Deined Radio (SDR), ments to monitor vessels far out to sea.
coupled with enhanced capabilities for digi- This is for the surveillance of vessels, rath-
tal data exchange, came the development er than for the primary function that AIS
of the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES). was designed for – collision avoidance. For
The technology provides the capability the authorities, extended AIS surveillance
to transmit data and Application Speciic allows them to track suspicious vessels,
Messages (ASM) to a particular vessel, which might be involved in illegal activities.
a group of vessels, a leet, or to all users Fig.1: A Radar Beacon (Racon).
within the vicinity, via ship-to-ship, ship- Receivers and Aerials
to-shore, shore-to-ship, ship-to-satellite or Shared Communications Shipborne VDES receivers are protected on
satellite-to-ship transmission channels. It is anticipated that, in many areas, AMS the upper leg of channels, 4.6MHz above
VDES includes AIS data, by means and VDE frequencies will be shared with the lower leg. This which prevents receiv-
of integration, interface connection or existing voice frequencies on marine VHF er-blocking caused by ship VHF radios.
frequency connection. – certainly until 2021. At some point after Satellite downlinks are designed to mini-
The next two years (2019/20) should 2021, it is expected that the fully-operation- mise interference to terrestrial services and
see the introduction of the preliminary al capability of VDES via satellite will be- maximise ship reception at the same time.
VDES terrestrial operational capability, come established. The priority and timing of VDES transmis-
including the uplink of ASM. During the Some of the timescales will still be sions will be as follows: (1) highest priority
period of 2021 to 2023, it is expected subject to a inal consent at the World to AIS transmissions on AIS channels; (2)
that full operational capability of VDES Radiocommunication Conference 2019 speciied and approved transmissions on
will be achieved, both by terrestrial and (WRC-19) from 28th October to 22nd ASM channels, and (3) all other data ex-
satellite means. November 2019. It is hoped, during this changes using VDE channels. Receivers on
It is currently recommended to allow the event, an agreement on the use of frequen- board ships will always be active. Existing
introduction of four-channel AIS and ASM cies for the satellite component of VDE marine VHF aerials will be suitable for ves-
devices, which can receive and transmit channels will be reached. sels receiving VDES transmissions, while
ASM on ASM 1 and ASM 2 frequencies You will notice from Table 1 that ter- a three-element Yagi or Isoix aerial is suit-
(Table 1). Operators will discontinue restrial VDE uses two ‘legs’: The ‘lower able for satellite uplinks. The transmit pow-
using the existing Gaussian Minimum leg’ (VDE1-A) uses Channels 1028, 1084 er used by ship stations should be no lower
Shift Keying (GMSK) transmit facility 1025 and 1085, assigned for ship-to-shore than 1W and no higher than 25W – the stan-
unless a software upgrade allows them to use. The ‘upper leg’ (VDE1-B) is found dard maximum transmit power, which ships
participate in the agreed ASM modulation on Channels 2028, 2084 2025 and 2085, are permitted to use on marine VHF.
and access scheme. which are assigned for shore-to-ship and Antenna gain should be between 2 and
www.tech-faq.com/gmsk.html ship-to-ship use. 10dBi. For shore stations, the minimum

Maritime Matters
transmitter power requirement should

be at least 12.5W and should not exceed
The Admiralty List of Radio Signals (ALRS) Volume
50W at the aerial. All the equipment used 2 provides details of racons, not only indicating
should have an automatic transmitter hard-
ware shutdown procedure, independent
their name and geographical coordinates but also
of software control. There should also be the radar type they respond to
an indication method in place, in case the
transmitter continues to send for more
than two seconds. ual addressed message not using MITDMA; of the time. In the United Kingdom, a duty
Data is transmitted in packets, using (5) – acknowledgement message; (6) – cycle of about 30% is used. This is usual-
ixed-duration logical channel frames. Long geographical multicast message; (7) – ly twenty seconds, during which the racon
data packets are fragmented and sent over group multicast message. will respond to radar signals. This is fol-
multiple logical channel frames. The full technical speciications of VDES lowed by forty seconds when it will not,
Message types will be identiied by the can be found in IALA Guideline G1139 – The or, sometimes, by nine seconds ‘on’, and
following numbers: (1) – scheduled broad- Technical Speciication of VDES. 21 seconds ‘off’.
cast message using Multiple Incremental It can be downloaded from this URL: The Admiralty List of Radio Signals
Time Division Multiple Access (MITDMA) https://tinyurl.com/y7ddsduj (ALRS) Volume 2 provides details of racons,
communication state; (2) – broadcast not only indicating their name and geo-
message not using MITDMA; (3) – sched- RACON graphical coordinates but also the radar
uled individually-addressed message using There is an aid to marine navigation I have type they respond to (3cm, 10 cm, or both).
MITDMA communication state; (4) - individ- not previously mentioned – a racon. The Other details include their transponder let-
portmanteau term ‘racon’ is derived from ter (this displays on the ship’s radar dis-
Channel Freq. MHz Use the combination of ‘radar’ and ‘beacon’. play), their operational sector (in degrees;
75 156.775 Long Range AIS (Ship TX only) A racon (Fig. 1) may be itted to an aid to some operate over a complete 360 degrees,
Uplink for receiving AIS messages by satellite navigation, for example, a lighthouse, a nav- others may only operate in a certain sector,
76 156.825 Long Range AIS (Ship TX only) igation buoy or a leading light, strategically between two given bearings), and the max-
Uplink for receiving AIS messages by satellite
1024 157.200 Ship transmit channel for VDE
placed to serve marine trafic, especially on imum operational range at which the radar
VDE ship-to-shore the approaches to major ports. signal will activate the transponder.
VDE ship-to-satellite uplink Basically, signals from ships’ radars, This activation-range is, on average
1084 157.225 Ship transmit channel for VDE (standard 3cm ships’ radars (X-band 9300 ten nautical miles, although there are
VDE ship-to-shore
– 9500MHz) and also 10cm radars (S-band some variations.
VDE ship-to-satellite uplink
2900 – 3100MHz), trigger the racon to emit https://tinyurl.com/y793tywa
VDE ship-to-shore a characteristic signal.
VDE ship-to-satellite uplink This is then received by the ship’s radar, A Lucky Escape
1085 157.275 Ship transmit channel for VDE in the form of a series of response-pulses In late October, the Royal Caribbean cruise
VDE ship-to-shore
that show up on the vessel’s radar display liner Navigator of the Seas departed
VDE ship-to-satellite uplink
as a single- character (alphabetical or nu- Southampton for a ten-night cruise to the
VDE ship-to-satellite uplink merical) Morse-coded trace. This allows Canaries, with approximately ive thousand
1086 157.325 Ship transmit channel for VDE for easy identiication of that particular passengers and crew on board.
VDE ship-to-satellite uplink beacon. For example, the racon located on While on passage to its irst scheduled
4.6 MHz separation
Bishop Rock Light would show up as the stop, it encountered rough seas, and a loud
2024 161.800 Coast Stations
Ship-to-shore & ship-to-ship VDE
Morse code letter T ( - ). bang was heard under the ship in the early
Satellite to ship downlink The return on the ship’s radar will hours of the morning.
2084 161.825 Coast Stations clearly identify the mark from surround- This forced the vessel to divert to Vigo
Ship-to-shore & ship-to-ship VDE ing targets and general clutter, allowing in Spain for emergency repairs. According
Satellite to ship downlink
the mariner to accurately measure both to media reports, one of the vessel’s stabi-
Ship-to-shore & ship-to-ship VDE range and bearing. lisers was damaged by the waves, and, as
Satellite to ship downlink Modern racons have a wideband re- a result, holed the hull, causing an ingress
2085 161.875 Coast Stations ceiver, which detects the incoming radar of seawater that had to be pumped out on
Ship-to-shore & ship-to-ship VDE pulse, tunes the transmitter and responds arrival at Vigo.
Satellite-to-ship downlink
with a 25-microsecond-long signal within Fortunately, no injuries were sustained,
Satellite-to-ship downlink 700 nanoseconds. Older racons used to op- and it seems that crew members quickly
2086 161.925 Coast Stations erate in ‘slow-sweep’ mode; the transpon- instigated emergency repairs to reduce the
Satellite-to-ship downlink der swept across the X-band over 1 or 2 amount of water entering the ship.
2027 161.950 Application-speciic Messages, ASM 1 minutes. It only responded if it happened to
AIS 1 161.975 Uplink for receiving ASM by satellite AIS be tuned to the frequency of an incoming The Cruise Code
2028 161.200 AIS & VDE ship receiving bandwidth radar signal, at the moment it arrives. Regular readers will recall that, in a recent
Application-speciic Messages, ASM 2
In practice, they respond for around 5% column, I mentioned that the UHF com-
AIS 2 162.025 Uplink for receiving ASM by satellite AIS
of the time. To avoid the response mask- munications radios used onboard by crew
Table 1: VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) ASM ing other important radar targets behind could be scrambled in the event of an emer-
1 and ASM 2 Frequencies. the beacon, racons only operate for part gency situation, so as not to be overheard

Maritime Matters
ROBERT CONNOLLY
Fig. 2: The cruise liner Royal Princess.
by passengers and possible cause panic.

Cruise ships also have various code
Cruise ships also have various code words that
words that may be used over the public may be used over the PA system to alert crew
address system to alert crew – especially
those off-duty – to a situation. This system
to a situation. This system is designed so that
is designed so that announcements do not announcements do not unduly alarm passengers
unduly alarm passengers. In the Navigator
of the Seas incident, apparently the code
word Bravo was used to alert crew of a se- ire and a serious emergency. ly that things are going to get ‘wet and
rious incident. Code words may vary from Second, if you hear seven or more short wild’ very soon.
cruise line to cruise line, but some are de- blasts on the ship’s whistle and general It is worth remembering that, if you have
tailed in the box below: alarm, followed by one long blast, passen- to jump off a sinking ship, you should cross
If you are a passenger on any commer- gers are to assemble at Muster Stations your arms in front of you and hold tightly
cial ship you should be aware of the follow- to prepare for the possible abandon- onto your life jacket near your shoulders.
ing two very important sound signals and ing of the ship. This prevents your life jacket from riding
hope that you never hear them: First, a con- This signal is the one that will make up and breaking your neck when you en-
tinuous ringing of the general alarm bell for you wish that you had paid more attention ter the water; something that killed many
ten seconds, and a continuous sounding of to the safety announcements that were of the passengers of the Irish Sea ferry,
the ship’s whistle for ten seconds, indicate made before casting off, as it is highly like- Princess Victoria disaster in 1953.
Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha Team is the Echo, Echo is the code for a possible colli- PA system, is an alert for the crew on board
code for a ire-emergency onboard Carnival sion with another ship or the shore used by and means that there is a minor emergency
Cruise Line ships. Alpha, Alpha, Alpha is the Royal Caribbean ships. For some cruise lines, somewhere. Purell, Purell, Purell, followed by
code for medical emergency used onboard this means the danger of high winds while a location, calls for a clean-up (usually vom-
Royal Caribbean ships. Bravo, Bravo, Bravo is at the port. Kilo, Kilo, Kilo, used on Royal it) and is used on Celebrity Cruise Line ships.
used by many cruise lines to alert the crew to Caribbean, is a general signal for the crew Red Parties, Red Parties, Red Parties is appar-
a ire or other serious incident on board with- to report to emergency stations. Mr Mob ently used by Disney Cruise Line over the PA
out alarming passengers. Charlie, Charlie, means man overboard. ‘man overboard’ can system to alert the crew of a ire or possible
Charlie is the word for a security threat also be signalled by three prolonged blasts ire on board the ship. Star Code, Star Code,
used onboard Royal Caribbean ships. Code on the ship’s whistle and the general alarm Star Code is a code for medical emergency
Blue usually means a medical emergency. bell. Oscar, Oscar, Oscar is the signiier for aboard Celebrity Cruise Line vessels. Zulu,
Delta, Delta, Delta is the code for a possible a ‘man-overboard’ scenario, used by Royal Zulu, Zulu is the code for a ight, used aboard
bio-hazard, used by some cruise lines. Echo, Caribbean ships. Mr Skylight, paged over the most cruise lines.

Feature
The Forgotten Tape

and the Torrey Canyon
Graham Goodchild recounts how, listening on his Pye PCR communications
receiver, he witnessed the Torrey Canyon Oil Tanker Disaster at first hand,
recorded communications and made a transcript for future reference.
WIKIPEDIA
Graham Goodchild
graham.goodchild@mypostoffice.co.uk
B
ack in 1967, I was serving a
boat-building apprenticeship
at a boat yard in Teignmouth,
South Devon, and in my spare
time, I was also a keen mod-
eller and radio enthusiast, which has
lasted to this day.
One of my early radio projects at the time
was a radiogram (Figs. 1 and 2). I built this
using best-quality marine grade plywood.
The latter – I am ashamed to admit now –
I had smuggled out, one moonlit night, in
my leaking rowing dinghy, from the boat-
yard where I worked. It was not uncommon,
among some of the workforces, for items of
furniture, made during the lunch break, to be
‘spirited away’ in a similar fashion. GRAHAM GOODCHILD
The heart of the radiogram consisted ship being bombed was, in fact, the Torrey
of a circa 1944 ex-government Pye PCR Canyon oil tanker, stranded on rocks be-
communications receiver, which I hooked tween the Scilly Isles and the Cornish
up to an 8W Henry’s Radio amplifier, togeth- Coast. I thought nothing more of my au-
er with a record deck and a Sakura reel-to- dio recording of the bombing and put the
reel tape recorder. tape away in the back of a drawer and for-
I managed to squeeze the 5ft long radio- got all about it.
gram into my somewhat cramped bedroom
of the guest house I was then living in. But I Ship and Aircraft
had to sit on the edge of my bed to play re- At just over 974 feet, the Torrey Canyon
cords and operate the receiver; there was oil tanker (Fig. 3) was one of the longest
no room for a chair. The aerial for the receiv- ships afloat. At the time of her stranding, Fig.1: My 1960s Radiogram.
er was a 10f length of wire, draped outside in March 1967, the vessel was en route
of my bedroom window. from the Persian Gulf, carrying 119,328 1960s Homebuilt Radiogram Arrangement
One afternoon, while tuning around tons of crude oil to the BP Refinery at Hinged perspex cover
the shortwave bands, I stumbled across Milford Haven. Tape recorder Record deck Elliptical speakers
some transmissions of pilots bombing Not wishing to miss the high tide at
a ship. I thought this was most unusu- Milford Haven, the captain had decided
al and assumed I had tuned into a radio to take the shorter route to the east of the
play of some sort. Scilly Isles, rather than the preferred, longer,
However, I immediately switched on the route to the west of the Isles.
tape recorder and recorded the transmis- However, due to human error, while oper-
Pye communications
sions with a microphone I had placed in ating the autopilot, the Torrey Canyon struck receiver
Folding teak front
front of one of the radiogram’s speakers. the Seven Stones rocks between the Scilly
It was not until I was watching the news Isles and Cornwall (Figs. 4 and 5).
on television that evening, I realised the Several attempts were made to pull the Fig. 2: Schematic of my 1960s setup.

Feature
oil tanker free off the rocks with tugs; how- Torrey Canyon Specification and General Arrangement
ever, this was to no avail. Length 974 feet Speed 16 knots
As a last resort, the decision was taken Beam 125 feet Propulsion: twin steam powered turbines driving
to use aircraft to bomb the ship. Blackburn Max. Draught 54 feet single four blade 24 feet diameter propeller
Buccaneers, from Lossiemouth (Scotland), Deadweight 118,000 tons
were deployed, followed by Hawker Hunters B D A D
from Chivenor (North Devon) and RAF West

Raynham (Norfolk), as well as Sea Vixens C
from Yeovilton (Somerset) (Fig. 6).

The aircraft utilised a combination of
bombs, kerosene, rockets and napalm to No. 6 No. 5 No. 4 No. 3 No. 2 No. 1
destroy the ship and burn off the escaping E F G F
oil. Although the bombing was (partially) 3

successful in breaking up the ship, much of A: Bridge B: Crew quarters C: Catwalk D: Derrick crane E: Engine/machinery
the remaining oil in the sea was carried, in F: Pump room G: 18 Crude oil tanks. 6 banks, 3 abreast
vast quantities, by wind and tide, onto the

shores of Cornwall and the north coast of the playback knob to the ‘On’ position. Torrey Canyon Stranding Location
France. It took many weeks to clear up the Unscrewing and removing the grey paint-
crude oil from the once pristine beaches. ed metal tape deck from its resin-cov-
Thousands of seabirds were killed, and ered wood case revealed the rubber drive
Seven
untold numbers of sea creatures per- belts had perished. Stones
Scilly
ished, through the cumulative effects of Undaunted, I sourced a couple of house- Isles Penzance
strong detergents used to emulsify and hold rubber bands, which did the trick, if
break up the oil. only temporarily. I generously lubricated all
the mechanical linkages, and I was, finally,
Resurrecting a Recording up and running. 4
Fast forward to 2008, and there was a I was pleasantly surprised that the tape
television programme about the Torrey had survived unscathed after all these years Torrey Canyon Route Options
Canyon disaster. It showed film clips of the and that I could still hear the transmissions
bombing, but was, curiously, without any between the aircraft and the command cen-
sound. My daughter, who also watched tre. I have since learned that the latter was
the feature, asked me if I still had the Mount Wise (Plymouth) which was once
audio tape. This prompted me to look for used as an underground nuclear bunker.
it. I had moved at least seven times living
and working in various parts of, mainly, Fifteen Minutes of Fame
the southwest of the UK since making the The thought occurred to me that there was
recording in 1967. little point in keeping the tape recording
The question was where the tape could when it could possibly be permanently
be now, after all this time, and whether it damaged or might go missing for
would still be playable. I had kept my old another 50 years.
Sakura tape recorder (Fig. 7), which I hoped Therefore, I contacted the BBC and asked
to play the tape on. However, regrettably, I whether, perhaps, they might be interested
had sold my Pye PCR receiver many years in the tape for their archives. Their response
ago at a jumble sale! was quick. They also wished to know if I
However, a rummage in the loft did not still had the Pye receiver on which I had
disappoint. I soon found a dust-laden received the bombing transmissions.
cardboard container with the tape recorder Sadly, I confessed it was no longer in my
inside, together with a small box marked procession but told them that I still had Set Course
Optional Course
‘Torrey Canyon’ and containing the tape. the tape recorder. (Longer Route)
I gave the tape recorder a quick visual Before I knew it, a cameraman and an
inspection and cautiously plugged it into interviewer arrived on my doorstep and 5
the mains socket, not knowing if the 1960’s wanted me to demonstrate playing the Fig. 3: Cutaway diagram, showing the arrangement
wiring would still be up to the job. The red tape, while twiddling the tuning knob on my of the Torrey Canyon’s tanks, machinery and
indicator light came on and I could hear 1980’s Steepletone transistor shortwave accommodation. Fig. 4: The Location of the Torrey
a reassuring low hum from the speaker. I radio. It appeared that the interviewer Canyon stranding. Fig. 5: Two Possible Route
threaded the tape from the spool through wanted the familiar sounds of ‘squeaks’ Options for the Torrey Canyon.
the recorder tape head and onto a spare and ‘whistles’ in the background for the
empty spool, which I had luckily been able duration of the interview.
to obtain from my local radio spares shop. The interviewer declined my offer of the
However, my excited anticipation soon tape but arranged to make a digital copy
waned when nothing happened as I turned and, ironically, returned the original tape

Feature
GRAHAM GOODCHILD
Aircraft Deployment
1. Bucaneers
1
RNAS Lossiemouth
2. Bucaneers
RNAS Brawdy
3. Hawker Hunters
RAF W Raynham
4. Hawker Hunters
RAF Chivenor
5. Sea Vixens
RNAS Yeovilton
6. RAF St Mawgan
7. RNAS Culdrose
4 5
6
7
Fig. 6: The locations of the RAF and RNAS

stations in 1967, from where aircraft were
deployed to destroy the Torrey Canyon and burn
off the oil with bombs and rockets.
7
for my safekeeping! A few days later, the GRAHAM GOODCHILD
interview was broadcast on the local TV

and radio Early Evening News, showing a
film clip of the bombing, accompanied by
part of my tape of the transmissions.
The Transcript
Listening to the tape, hearing
transmissions of clipped English accents,
evoked many memories of how people
spoke 50 years ago. However, it was
sometimes difficult to fully understand
what was being said, and it was easy to
miss something. That is why I decided to
make a transcript of the recording.
I was aware that computer software was
available which could do this automatically,
and that there were also companies provide
this service. However, being the kind of guy
that likes to have a go at most things, I set
about the tedious task myself. I was fearful
my old Sakura reel-to-reel tape recorder
would not survive the constant stop/start 8
playing of the tape, so I re-recorded my Fig. 7: A ‘staging’ of the setup I used for my BBC interview in 2008, including my surviving, rubber-
original tape from the Sakura recorder onto band-driven, Sakura recorder. Fig. 8: The author - a very young apprentice at the time - outside the
a comparatively modern cassette recorder. guest house in Teignmouth, where the bombing transmissions were received and recorded.
With this, I was able to play about three or
four words at a time, write them down, then lar, and that’s in front of the fore tank. It’s ‘The evening strike should have consisted of
play another three or four words, and so on, an oil fire just circling and increasing in nine Buccaneers and two
until I had the completed transcript of the size. Rescue over. Vixens? Can you confirm?’ […]”
tape available. This is Charlie Delta, and that’s a large Armed with the transcript and a cassette,
Here is a short excerpt of the transcript of bomb target an oil fire which is clear- I donated my original tape to the Fleet Air
my 18-minute audio recording: ly increasing in size and drifting over the Arm Museum RNAS at Yeovilton, where the
“... a fire, which is burning in the water top of the wreck. Sea Vixens flew from at the time.
between the funnel and the pivoting pil- Do you have any further strikes - over’ […] https://www.fleetairarm.com

Digital Radio
KEVIN RYAN
The John Lewis Octave,

BBC Sounds and Podcasts
Kevin Ryan reviews the digital radio features of the John Lewis Octave, investi-
gates podcasts made by newspapers and tracks the BBC’s latest innovations.
KEVIN RYAN
Kevin Ryan scan or to show the station list in DAB.

kevin@kpr-web.co.uk The user manual is well written but, in
my view, has one law. The modes of op-
J
ohn Lewis sells a range of own- eration are split into two sections; a quick
brand FM/DAB portables, and, start guide and a more detailed setup guide.
in 2018, the company launched Unfortunately, the quick start guide does
two new models that include not reference the setup section. Therefore,
internet radio. on a number of occasions, I searched for
• The Octave retails at £149, and sometimes an answer on the internet, only to ind the
John Lewis runs a trade-in promotion re- information I needed a few pages lat- 2
ducing the price by £10. er in the manual. Fig.1: The John Lewis Octave front panel, with
• The larger Cello, retailing at £189, in- This is not a big issue, more a choice of colour display and headphone socket.
cludes a CD player and has more how to present information. Fig. 2: The rear of the John Lewis Octave. The
powerful speakers. The radio is nicely styled (Fig. 1). I chose DAB/ FM aerial is recessed.
• The Octave connects to the internet and the Black Ash model, in a solid case with a
receives FM and DAB/DAB+ stations. beige-coloured front panel. The main con- the risk of damaging the radio and voiding
Its dimensions (in millimetres) are trol panel is on top of the radio and matches your warranty. I am not recommending this
270W x 110H x 180D. the front panel. The front of the radio has as a course of action unless you absolutely
just a headphone socket below the colour need to connect up an external antenna.
Out of the Box TFT display, lanked by the twin speakers. There is also an AUX-IN 3.5mm socket on
The radio comes with a user manual, a re- On the rear (Fig. 2), there is the DAB/FM the rear panel, as well as a line-out socket,
mote control unit with batteries, and a 12V antenna; it has an F-type connector and is a USB socket (this does not charge external
power supply. The key functions on the re- recessed into the panel. It looks like it can devices), and the DC power-in socket.
mote are listed in the manual. be removed, but I think that you either need
The remote control is sometimes simpler a special tool to do this or you might have to Control Panel
to use than the main dial. It has two par- separate the telescopic sections from the The radio has 20 presets for DAB, 20 for
ticularly useful buttons to start an FM auto- end connector. By doing this, you will run FM and 20 for internet stations. These are

Digital Radio
There is speculation
that RTÉ may
close down DAB
as a cost-saving
measure
accessed on ive buttons (1 to 4 and 5+) to
then be selected from a list. The next row
down enables users to select alarms, set a
sleep timer, access station info and use the
menu ‘back’ button.
The bottom row contains the ‘source’ but-
ton to enter the audio source menu, and it
also offers a dual-function group of three
buttons. These either control the playback
of music tracks, in the Bluetooth mode or
they tune up or down in the FM mode.
In DAB mode, either button opens the
station list. Last but not least, there is the
Menu button that changes the displayed
list of options slightly depending on where
you start from. 3
The large dial is described as a ‘multi-
function navigation dial and select button’ Using ‘Push Button’ on the radio and for a short time.
and has a push-to-select function on men- the WPS on the router worked with- The ‘Info’ button steps through the in-
us; when rotating, it moves up/down in the out any problems. formation on the broadcast, including sig-
menu. Otherwise, it is the volume control, Just to let you know, I did manage to get nal quality, audio encoding parameters
audio mute and alarm snooze and the pow- the wizard in a state as I explored the vari- and programme details. For DAB broad-
er on/off (using a long push). ous options; I subsequently had to power- casts, the audio encoder is MP2, and for
cycle it, in order to ‘unlock’ it. DAB+ it is AAC.
Initial Setup If you can’t use WPS, select ‘SKIP’ and en-
At irst use – and following a factory reset ter the network key/Wi-Fi password, using DRC
– the radio starts a Setup Wizard. There is either the remote control unit or the Select There is a setting in DAB called Dynamic
a Yes/No option and an option to run the Dial on the top of the radio. Range Control (DRC). This functionality is
wizard again at next startup when you next supposed to reduce the difference between
power-cycle the radio. DAB Mode the loudest and quietest parts of the pro-
The wizard isn’t started when you use At irst-time use, or if the station list is emp- gramme being broadcast. The DRC control
the power on/off on the control panel. ty, the radio automatically starts scanning signal is used to vary the gain of the audio
Choosing ‘No’ opens the main menu; here for stations. The DAB menu has options stage and, in theory, replicates the adjust-
you can select a broadcast radio mode or to re-run a full scan or to manually tune in ments made in the studio. The Octave has
one of the non-radio options. a multiplex. Manual Tune displays a list of three settings for DRC: ‘high’, ‘low’ and ‘off’.
The options usually include one display- channels and their frequencies. Selecting a There is no indication as to what the ‘low’
ing an asterisk; this can mean the recom- multiplex opens a signal strength meter. option does; I guess that it applies half the
mended answer or the existing setting if you The Octave also scans for any DAB sta- transmitted DRC value to the broadcast.
are running the wizard again. tions and updates the station list. DRC can have 63 different values, which
Choosing ‘Yes’ presents a set of ques- The radio displays slideshows (Fig. 3) on vary the audio gain from 0 to 15.75dB in
tions on the 12/24 hour time format, DAB (Capital London and Heart London), steps of 0.25dB. I am not aware of any com-
auto-update of the clock, whether or and this is not mentioned in the manual. mercial broadcaster using DRC; a dated
not you want to keep your network con- However, no other DAB stations current- entry on the BBC website only mentions its
nections, and the relevant WLAN region ly transmit pictures, and the text is usu- use for Radios 3 and 4.
(Europe or Australia). ally ‘squashed’, over on the right, making it
The wizard scans for networks, includ- look a bit odd. DAB Performance
ing those that offer ‘quick-connect’, using The other useful option is to ‘Prune The radio’s sensitivity was very good, and
the WPS feature. Invalid’ stations from the list. Invalid sta- it will decode many signals even with the
The WPS options are ‘Push Button’, ‘PIN’ tions have a ‘?’ in front of their name in telescopic antenna folded down. The BBC,
and ‘SKIP’. Using the PIN option, the radio the station list. They occur when a station Digital One and my two local multiplex-
produces a six-digit number to enter at the stops broadcasting, or when a slight lift es (Oxford and Berkshire/North Hants)
router. I am not sure how you would do that. in conditions picks up another multiplex boomed in, but SDL National only worked

Digital Radio
list to work through, had I preselected Newspaper Podcasts

the country. While you use the radio to While listening to BBC Radio 5 Live, I was
search for stations, the ‘Back’ button surprised when a guest speaker said that
doesn’t work; you have to tab along to the the best podcasts today are not made by
‘Cancel’ soft key. broadcasters but by newspapers. One of the
Registering on the portal means that most popular podcasts is made by the New
you can use a PC or tablet that will return York Times. It is called The Daily (Fig. 5)
4 the same long lists. However, these seem and is mostly about US politics.
easier to work through on a larger screen. In the UK, the Guardian leads the way,
The ‘My Favourites’ list holds as with fresh-sounding podcasts on a num-
many stations as you want, and you can ber of topics. Number three is the Daily
categorize them with your own names. The Telegraph. The BBC’s new Beyond Today
inal thing is to connect your account with podcast is a by-product of the BBC Radio
your radio. The radio generates an access 4 Today programme, and it is aimed at the
code; it is under the ‘Help’ section on the younger generation. It was not highly rated.
menu that you enter into your ‘Preferences’. The New York Times Daily podcast is
More than one radio can access your listed on the Frontier Silicon portal, but the
account, and you can synchronize your list Octave just kept re-connecting for every
5 with every new radio. episode. The NYT website recommended
Unfortunately, you can’t ind a station using apps, and I opted for the RadioPublic
using the radio’s menu and then add it to podcast app for Android. This found all
the favourite’s list. The station will appear in 465 episodes. The other options are Apple
the ‘Last Listened’ list until it is displaced by Podcasts and the Stitcher app.
new stations, and the Octave does have 20 https://tinyurl.com/y8rwhadg
presets available. https://www.stitcher.com
The portal provides access to more https://radiopublic.com
than 15,000 radio station streams
and podcasts from around the world. BBC Sounds
Internet-only stations add another 17,000 This new app (RadioUser, September 2018:
6 to choose from. 52) was oficially launched in November
Fig. 3: Reception of the Heart London slide show. Adding your own streams has become 2018, but it seems to be regarded as some-
Fig. 4: The Octave uses the well-known portal dificult unless the stream is a ‘simple’ MP3, what of a ‘downgraded’ iPlayer. I am sure
provided by Frontier Silicon. Fig. 5: The production Windows Media or Real Audio encoded the BBC will respond to the criticism, but
quality of the New York Times Daily podcast is stream. Many stations use the M3U I found the currently offered content too
rated very highly. Fig. 6: Radio Map: A useful and ile extension. This is an audio playlist ile. restricted. It was very dificult to ind pod-
enjoyable guide to BBC World Service radio. It stands for MP3 URL. It is not an audio ile. casts to match my interests.
An M3U ile just ‘points’ to audio, so that
when the radio was close to a window. The a media player can queue it for playback. BBC World Service
overall performance was comparable to the Other stations use videos (Radio Jordan’s The same group that developed BBC
portable Pure Elan E3. English service) with a static picture to play Sounds explores other ideas related to ra-
their radio streams. Either of these factors dio. The Radio Map (Fig. 6) is a new way to
Internet Radio can make it dificult to get an URL that switch between BBC World Service radio
The station portal is provided by Frontier works on the portal. stations, by using a map of the globe. You
Silicon. You can access all the stations and https://www.wiiradiofrontier.com click on a country and get the audio direct-
podcasts through the radio. By registering ed at that country. For the vast majority of
on the website (Fig. 4), it was much easier FM Reception nations, this will be a version of the BBC
to ind and build up a ‘My Favourites’ list. The Octave receives FM, but broadcasts World Service in English. It is a great way to
On the Octave’s menu, the search feature sound better in mono. On weaker FM sig- explore what the WS produces.
is located under ‘Station List,’ and it uses nals, stereo output produces a lot of audio- https://tinyurl.com/y8x58r92
a soft keyboard. hiss. Like in the case of receiving SDL on
This will ind any combination of letters DAB, the radio needed to be near a window Summary
anywhere in the stations’ names. For for the best quality reception. The radio dis- The John Lewis Octave is an ideal receiv-
example, I entered ‘RTE’ to ind the eight plays RDS information. By my ear, it was er for digital radio, and it is designed to be
digital stations provided by the Irish less sensitive than the Pure Elan E3 port- on display. It doesn’t support any smart
state broadcaster. able placed in the same location. technologies, such as voice control, but it
However, the retrieved list – quite a long does display slideshows on DAB and sta-
one when you are scrolling through it on Music Player & Bluetooth tion icons on internet radio. The range of
such a tiny screen – also included stations The Octave easily connected to the music podcasts available is developing further
with ‘Norte’, ‘Deportes’ and ‘Quartets’ in iles on my PC and from a memory stick in each day, and we really need a clever app,
their name. Machine logic. the USB socket. Bluetooth was equally easy with a very good search function, to pull
In this case, I might have had a shorter to get working. them all together.

Index
DECEMBER 2018: This image featured in an

article in the December 2018 issue, on radio
communications in ship pilotage on the Solent.
Annual Index 2018

Features Radio Resources 2 ........................................................ 02/73
50 Years of BBC Colour TV 1.......................................... 01/48 Radios in UK Museums ................................................. 07/26
50 Years of BBC Colour TV 2.......................................... 04/46 Shoulders of Giants ...................................................... 05/46
Airband Resources ....................................................... 06/23 Top Radio Podcasts ..................................................... 06/18
A Rare Catch: Grimeton SAQ .......................................... 06/33 Transistor Radios Behind the Iron Curtain....................... 05/24
A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery (Number Stations) 1 ........ 05/47 Tribute: Chris Lorek....................................................... 06/67
A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery (Number Stations) 2 ........ 06/46 VLF Frequencies ........................................................... 07/49
A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery (Number Stations) 3 ........ 07/12 VLF Snapshot .............................................................. 12/42
Digital Communications Protocols ................................ 07/25
Reviews
House of Light .............................................................. 04/64
Airspy HF+ ................................................................... 06/12
INSPIRE-Project............................................................ 10/60
Bhi Dual-In Line Module................................................. 12/63
Insurance and the Radio Hobby ..................................... 11/69
ELAD FDM DUOr ........................................................... 01/20
Long Wave Transmitter at Kalundborg ............................ 07/08
ICOM IC-R30................................................................. 09/10
Low-Cost DXing ............................................................ 10/10
ICOM IC-R8600 ............................................................. 01/08
My Tryst with Radio....................................................... 03/08
ICOM IP501H LTE PoC Radio ......................................... 11/63
National Hamfest 2018 (Picture-Essay) ......................... 11/44
Moonraker S7 Plus ....................................................... 11/22
Obituary: Trevor Bayliss................................................. 05/19
Moonraker ‘Shack-TV’ ................................................... 08/22
Portrait: The RAIBC ....................................................... 08/21
Reuter RDR Pocket ........................................................ 05/08
Profile: Kristian Birkeland .............................................. 07/62
SDRPlay RSP1A ............................................................ 04/21
Profile: Nicola Tesla ...................................................... 08/68
SDRPlay RSPduo .......................................................... 08/14
Radio Associations....................................................... 07/20
TECSUN S-8800 ............................................................ 02/20
Radio Communications in Event Volunteering................. 11/12
Uniden UBCD3600XLT ................................................... 08/28
Radio During the Cuban Missile Crisis ............................ 10/14
Wavecom-Spectra ........................................................ 07/33
Radio Mi Amigo ............................................................ 08/33
Radio Museums ........................................................... 01/36
Radio Networks ............................................................ 03/12 ACRONYMS
Radio Newsletters Digest .............................................. 03/73 02/75; 03/75
Radio on the Water........................................................ 12/14 AERIALS NOW!
Radio Resources 1 ........................................................ 02/55 06/08; 07/46; 08/11; 09/43; 10/52; 11/52; 12/52.

Index
JULY 2018: This photograph was part of an

article in the July 2018 issue, on the long wave
transmitter site of Kalundborg in Denmark.
AIRBAND NEWS MARITIME MATTERS

01/28; 02/28; 03/24; 04/24; 05/34; 06/34; 07/16; 08/06; 09/18; 01/30; 02/30; 03/26; 04/26; 05/20; 06/20; 07/22; 08/24; 09/24;
10/20; 11/16; 12/11. 10/24; 11/24; 12/23.
AIRSHOW GUIDE NETWORK RADIO Software-Defined Radio
Selecting the Right Equipment
Utility Monitoring
Receiving Time Signal Stations
06/19; 07/18; 08/09; 09/20. 08/56; 09/56; 10/56; 11/56; 12/56.

ANNUAL INDEX (2017) NEWS & PRODUCTS/ WHAT’S NEW October 2018 £3.99 www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
Radio’s Role in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Broadcast Propaganda and International Relations During the Cold War
01/54. 01/53; 02/66; 03/58; 04/62; 05/73; 06/73; 07/67; 08/49; 09/07; HOW TO...
Calculate your eLORAN & CO
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Impressive DX with Simple Means
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ISSN 1748-8117
Receiving signals from space on your handheld
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COMMS FROM EUROPE RADIO IN HISTORY DXTV-Special Maritime Matters NE

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ISSN 1748-8117
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The Midland Dual Mike
01/40; 02/40; 03/36; 04/36; 05/36; 06/36; 07/36; 08/36; 09/32; SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO (SDR)
10/28; 11/20; 12/20. 09/36; 10/36; 11/36; 12/36. December 2018 £3.99 www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
Review & Competition Win bhi’s
Dual In-Line Module Worth £199
EMERGING ISSUES IN RADIO SOFTWARE SPOT Radio on the Water

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ISSN 1748-8117
of the Icom IC-7610

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Digital Scanners
Moonraker have worked with Whistler to customise a UK band plan
for the scanners! This ensures the radios cover UK bands in the
Handheld correct steps and the correct mode. When a user does a service
scan it will search in the correct steps for the selected band ensuring
EZI-33XLT (right) The most popular handie. maximum received stations. The radios will receive both amateur and
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UBC-3600XLT (right) 25-1300MHz VHF/UHF Digital

Analog Range
scanner ....................................................... £425.00 WS1025 Analog Desktop Scanner WS1040 25-1300 MHz Digital Trunking & Analog Handheld
This 200-channel scanner lets you listen Scanner
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into 10 separate memory banks. Also, it signalling formats, including Motorola, EDACS, LTR and
UBC-355 (left) Bargain desktop. offers the convenience of one-touch P25 trunked radio networks. Talk group and individual
Frequency coverage 25-87/108- searches of marine, air call monitoring is supported. When monitoring P25
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UBC-360CLT Good base station. coverage 29-512MHz Tracking instantly adapts the digital decoder to the digital
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WS1010 25-512MHz Analog WS1065 25-1300MHz Analog Base Scanner

Handheld Scanner The Whistler WS1065 employs cutting edge technology
This 200-channel scanner lets to bring a high level of performance and innovative
you listen to FM radio bands features. This model clearly raises the bar in the area of
and can be categorized into 10 advanced trunking scanners. Frequency
separate memory banks. Also, coverage is extensive, including: 25-54,
it offers the convenience of 108-17, 137-174, 216-512, 764-776,
one-touch searches of marine, 795-805, 849-869, 896-960 and 1240-
air and ham ............. £79.95 1300 MHz................................£279.95
AR-DV10 100kHz–1300MHz
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• 100kHz-1300MHz analogue &
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SDRplay DUO 1kHz-2000MHz dual tuner receiver £239.95 1+2),DMR,Mototrbo,dPMR, NXDN,
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The SDRplay RSPduo is a dual-tuner wideband full D-STAR,Alinco,Yaesu
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featured 14-bit SDR which covers the entire RF spectrum • Automatic detection of digital
from 1kHz to 2GHz giving 10MHz of spectrum visibility. • 100kHz-1300MHz modes during scan & search modes.
Combined with the power of readily available SDR receiver wideband reception. • Memory scan. • IPX5 water resistant
software (including ‘SDRuno’ supplied by SDRplay) you • Multi-mode a demodulation. • NR, notch, digi-data display. • Micro SD card slot for recording,
can simultaneously monitor two completely separate • All mode analog reception. • Clock, calendar (sleep timer, backup and firmware updates. AVAILABLE
2MHz bands of spectrum anywhere between 1kHz and • Built in SD card reader (audio alarm, timer recording, reception • Lithium-ion battery, charger, belt clip FROM STOCK
2GHz. The RSPduo provides three software selectable firmware updates). logging on SD) • Memory data management software. NOW
antenna inputs, and clocking features ideally suited to
industrial, scientific and educational applications. All
it needs is a PC and an antenna to provide excellent
communications receiver functionality. A documented
API allows developers to create new demodulators or
applications around the platform.
Handheld
IC-R8600
The IC-R6 has 100 channel per second Professional
scanning speed, 1300 memory channels,
15 hours of continuous receive capability,
Communications
optional drop-in charger stand and Receiver
voice control squelch. All these features
combined with a high degree of usability
means that the IC-R6 will be equally at The IC-R8600 is a super wideband communication receiver that covers the radio spectrum from 10 kHz to 3 GHz. It also has
home with any casual listener of broadcast the capability to decode selected digital communication signals including, D-STAR, NXDN, dPMR and P25. The IC-R8600
stations or the serious scanning enthusiast incorporates the latest software demodulation technology incorporated on Icom’s latest HF Amateur radios, providing superior
seeking a pocket sized quality receiver. performance and intuitive operation. With the optional remote control software for a Windows PC, received audio and spectrum
.................................our price just £199.95 scope data can be transferred through an IP network for monitoring from remote locations. ..........................................£2499.95
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SDR Receivers
AirSpy Mini High Performance SDR Receiver £119.99
AIRSPY Mini builds on top of the successful Airspy R2
architecture to offer an affordable high performance
alternative to RTL-SDR and other TV dongles for the VHF
AirSpy Mini
High Performance and UHF bands
SDR Receiver
AIRSPY R2 High Performance SDR Receiver.. £209.99
Airspy R2 is an advanced open-source software defined
radio receiver with adequate dynamic range, capable of
sampling 10MHz of spectrum anywhere between 24MHz
and 1.8GHz – and even beyond with extensions. It is the
only high performance wide band receiver solution in the
market that’s yet affordable.
AIRSPY Spyverter R2 ................................£59.99

SpyVerter R2 is a high performance HF front-end
FlightAware has revolutionized the world of USB SDR ADS-B designed to extend the coverage of the Airspy receiver
Receivers with the FlightAware Pro Stick and Pro Stick Plus, high- series to the HF down to virtually DC. It is based on an
performance USB R820T2 software defined radios (SDR) with AIRSPY R2 original switched double balanced mixer that moves the
a built-in RF amp for maximum ADS-B/MLAT performance. The High Performance entire HF Spectrum to the VHF band between 120 MHz
SDR Receiver
first of its kind, FlightAware’s Pro Stick is compatible with PiAware and 180 MHz
or any other device that supports USB RTLSDR receivers, and is
less expensive than any other RTLSDR USB receiver in the world. AIRSPY HF Plus High Performance SDR Receiver
The Pro Stick Plus adds a built-in 1090 MHz bandpass filter ......................................................... £229.99
for increased performance and range of reception in areas with The Software Defined Radio revolution brought great
moderate RF noise as is typically experienced in most urban areas. flexibility in VHF and UHF reception. Today Airspy offer
AIRSPY HF Plus the best wide band receivers which address these needs.
Flightaware Prostick Plus........................................................£29.99 High Performance
Flightaware Prostick ................................................................£25.00 SDR Receiver Airspy also provide a high performance extension for
FlightAware ADSB weak-signal wide band reception on HF – something
1090MHz Band-pass SMA Filter ..............................................£16.99 other competing solutions fail to address efficiently
Boni-Whip Active Antenna GigActiv GA3005 Ultra Wideband Active Antenna

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Despite its size (only approx. 17cm
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MOONRAKER NEW IN • NEW IN • NEW IN • NEW IN • NEW IN • NEW IN
SHACK TV SCANNER RECEIVER

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Uniden SDS100E Handheld Scanner Receiver
£594.95
Uniden creates another first with the SDS100 True I/Q Scanner, the first
scanner to incorporate Software Defined Radio technology to provide
incredible digital performance in even the most challenging RF environments.
The SDS100’s digital performance is better than any other scanner in both
simulcast and weak-signal environments. The SDS100 is also the first scanner
that allows you to decide what to display, where, and in what colour. Custom
fields put the information important to you right where you need it. And, one
more first, the SDS100 meets JIS4 (IPX4) standards for water resistance.
Key Features: Frequency Coverage: 25-512 MHz 758-824 MHz 849-869

MHz 894-960 MHz 1240-1300 MHz • Customizable Colour Display • Trunk-
tracker X • APCO P25 Phase I and II • Motorola, EDACS, and LTR Trunk-
ing • MotoTRBO Capacity + and Connect + • DMR Tier III • Hytera XPT
Moonraker DVB-W9 LCD Mini TV • Single-Channel DMR • NXDN 4800 and 9600 • EDACS ProVoice • Loca-
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£119.99 microSD • Soft Keys for Intellegent UI • Recording, Playback, and Replay •
Fantastic portable 12/24/240V mini LCD portable TV. Watch all the FREE Temporary Avoid • Fire Tone-Out Alert • System Analysis and Discovery
TO AIR channels available through the DVB-T2 tuner including radio • CTCSS/DCS/NAC/RAN/Colour Code Decoding • S.A.M.E. Weather Alert
stations. Internal battery means you can take camping, fishing, picnics • Enhanced Dynamic Memory • Pre-emptive Trunking Priority
in the park or basically anywhere of your choice, Charging is easy with • Fully Customizable Scanning with your own
a 12/24 auto switching power supply for your car cigarette lighter Favourites Lists • Backlit Keypad • Channel
socket or your trucks 24v one and if at home simply plug into the Volume Offset • PC Programming and Control
mains. You can use the display to show photos or use the • USB Connectivity and Charging • Weekly
USB port for connecting to your portable music player Database Updates • Free Sentinel Soft-
and you can add external speakers or headphones ware keeps the SDS100 database and
of your choice. memory up to date
Happy New Year from all at Moonraker

Software-Defined Radio
PC Requirements for SDR

This month, Andrew Barron sheds some light on the computer specifications
required for using a Software-Defined Radio.
PICTURES: ANDREW BARRON
Andrew Barron
andrew.barron@broadspectrum.com
W
hy is the computer you
are using with your
SDR so important?
Well, software-deined
radios rely very heavily
on Digital Signal Processing (DSP). A
primary aim of an SDR is to convert the
radio spectrum into a digital signal – and to
do this as close to the antenna as possible.
After that, everything is done with
computer processing. SDR receivers
are essentially split into a physical front
end; the ilters, preampliier, attenuator
and ADC. This is followed by digital
signal processing, performed by a
processor inside the radio, or by software
running on your PC.
All of the ‘black box’ SDRs – the ones
that don’t have any knobs or controls –
require a PC to run the SDR software.
The amount of digital signal processing
performed in the PC varies.
At one end of the scale (I nearly said
‘spectrum’), are the very simple receivers
like the SoftRock boards, which have 1
almost no hardware. All of the digital
processing is done by the SDR software Computer Specs It’s easy to forget that
running on the PC. I received an email from a reader who
More complex SDR radios, like the Expert wanted to know what computer speciica- the PC software is
MB1 and the Flex-6600, are at the other end
of the scale. Almost all of the digital signal
tion is best for running small SDR receiv-
ers. He also asked about the possibility of
doing much more than
processing is performed by DSP chips RFI (radio frequency interference) generat- displaying the spectrum
inside the radio. The PC is primarily used
to display the panadapters and enable the
ed by the computer and its monitor.
The computer is an important, but of-
and waterfall panadapter
radio controls. ten overlooked, part of the SDR setup. It is
Small SDR receivers, like the Perseus, easy to forget that the PC software is doing (radio data system) decoders.
Airspy, RTL, and FUNcube dongles, much more than displaying the spectrum The panadapter display is not generated
contain tuner-chips, front-end ilters, and and waterfall panadapter and providing the in the hardware part of the radio. It has to
preampliiers, but they don’t do any digital controls and buttons. Those are the things be calculated using a complex Fast Fourier
signal processing inside the radio. that you see and interact with. It is easy to Transform (FFT) algorithm.
SDR radios ‘with knobs’, ranging from the forget the actual ‘receiver’ components. Moreover, the data stream coming in
SDR Cube, McHF and Elecraft KX3, which ‘Under the bonnet’ (or ‘under the hood’, from the radio has to be processed con-
use QSD (quadrature sampling detectors), if you are American) lies the DSP software tinuously, so that there are no gaps in the
up to direct sampling radios like the Icom that provides all the DSP ilters, the demod- spectrum display or glitches in the audio.
IC-7300 and IC-7600, can be used without ulator, audio ampliier, noise blankers and All this places a relatively heavy load on
a connection to a PC, so they necessarily notch ilters. There may also be PSK, CW, or the computer processor.
include all of the digital signal processing RTTY decoders, digital voice modems, and Luckily, computer power has exploded
inside the radio. DAB (digital audio broadcasting) or RDS exponentially over the last ten years, so al-

most any recent PC is suitable. SDR devel-

opment has taken advantage of increased
computer power and new technologies.
The increase in computing speed, larger
RAM size, and faster hard drives all allow
SDR software to process faster IQ data
streams from the SDR. Faster data streams
can also contain a wider slice of the re-
ceived RF (radio frequency) spectrum.
The introduction of the USB 2.0 stand-
ard has made it much easier to interface
computers with small SDRs. Many are
now ‘plug-and-play.’ Before the availabil-
ity of USB 2.0, you had to conigure the ra-
dio to connect to your household LAN over
an Ethernet cable. In the very early days, 2
the FlexRadio SDRs used the – now obso-
lete – Firewire interface, which meant that Fig. 1: SDR Console V.3 is designed to take advantage of the PC graphics card processor for Digital
you had to buy a special interface card as Signal Processing (DSP). Fig. 2: The SoftRock HF SDR requires a computer program to perform the DSP
well as the radio. functions.
A move to using USB 3.0 or USB Type C
connections would allow the transfer of the software bundled with the SDRplay graphics. But SDR software requires con-
even more bits per second, so the future radios, you can run up to about 6MHz of stant high-speed processing, because of
is open for multiple, wide, data streams or bandwidth with an i3 CPU computer. the need to continuously process and dis-
even wider receiver bandwidths. However, to employ the full 10MHz of play the streams of high-speed data com-
For example, you could create a radio bandwidth, you really need an i7 CPU with 8 ing from the radio.
presenting the full HF spectrum as high- or 16 GB of RAM. An i3 PC is ine for most SDR us-
resolution, 16-bit, IQ data; you could place ers. However, if you are more of a ‘pow-
receivers on all of the HF amateur radio Cost Matters er-user’, you will want something fast-
bands, or on all of the HF shortwave bands Many critics of SDRs claim that having to er. Unfortunately, more PC power means
at the same time. purchase a PC is a major drawback of the more cost. I am using an i7-4790 desktop
You don’t actually need a particularly technology. They point out that, if you add PC with 16 GB of RAM, and it has coped
expensive computer to run most SDR soft- the cost of a PC to the cost of the software with everything that I have thrown at it, so
ware. The PC you already own, an ‘ex-lease,’ deined radio, the ‘little black box’ doesn’t far. Notebook PCs tend to have slower,
or a second-hand PC should be just ine. seem so cheap anymore. This would be M-series, or Celeron processors. Notebook
It all comes down to bandwidth. The more a fair point if you don’t already have a PC PCs use low-power chips with less heat
data the SDR has to process, the more that is available for your hobby. But let’s dissipation, since the enclosed space in-
computer power is needed. If you only face it, most people do. If you do need to side the case makes it hard to get rid of
want to run an RTL dongle receiver, an el- buy a computer, you can buy a second- the heat. Low power consumption is also
derly Celeron CPU with Windows 7 would hand computer for about the same price important, because they have to run for as
probably sufice. Some SDR software will as the better SDR receivers. long as possible on the battery.
even run on single-board computers, like I believe that desktop PCs are better for
the Raspberry Pi 3, the Beaglebone, or the running SDR software. They are generally ‘Hot-Rod’ your PC.
Asus Tinker Board. cheaper for a similar speciication, they are If your PC is a notebook, there is really not
For most people, running a dongle or often much faster, and they are less likely much you can do to improve it. If possi-
a small black-box SDR, with Windows 10 to overheat than a notebook PC. Of course, ble, add more RAM.
software, I would recommend an absolute other factors such as portability may be If your PC is a desktop PC, you might
minimum of a PC with an i3 or an equiva- important to you. Do not overclock the PC. consider adding a Solid-State Drive (SSD)
lent AMD CPU and at least 4GB of RAM. It will not help, and it will make it run hotter. hard drive and running the SDR software on
The reader I mentioned earlier was able That is a bad thing, especially in a note- that. They are much faster. A RAM upgrade
to run two instances of SDRUno for the book PC. Overclocking is OK for computer would possibly bring a marginal improve-
RSPDuo and two instances of Spectrum games, where the extra speed can make a ment. I am not sure if it would help, as 8GB
Lab, on an i3-2310M CPU 2.10GHz proces- difference. Computer games create peaks should be enough. Some SDR software can
sor with 8 GB of installed memory. of high processor load, especially with fast use the graphics processor on an installed
This created a CPU loading of about 50%,
which was ine. However, if you want to use Desktop PCs are generally cheaper for a similar
an SDR with a 10 MHz bandwidth, such as
the SDRplay RSP1A or RSP2, or if you want specification, they are often much faster, and they are
to run several SDR programs and other
Windows applications at the same time,
less likely to overheat than a notebook PC. Of course,
then more power is better. Using SDRuno, other factors may be important to you
EMC deals with problems

of noise emission, as well
as noise immunity of
electronic and electrical
products and systems
NVIDIA graphics card to perform some of
the SDR DSP functions, in addition to pro-
viding the video signal for your monitors.
This reduces the load on the main CPU.
Modern graphics cards are equipped
with very powerful microprocessors, de-
signed speciically to manage parallel data Fig. 3: The Elecraft KX3 transceiver performs DSP processing within the radio; no PC connection is required.
processing. This coniguration is ideal for
performing similar calculations on several
data streams at the same time, for instance,
multiple receivers or panadapters. If you
are using SDR software that supports this,
you could install a fast graphics card. As
far as I know, it must be an NVIDIA graphics
card such as a GeForce video card. Only the
NVIDIA cards have Compute Uniied Device
Architecture (CUDA) cores. These can be
used by some PC software to take parallel
processing load off the main CPU.
I believe that SDR Console V.3 has, or
will have, this capability; cuSDR deinite-
ly uses the NVIDIA graphics card, if there
is one installed.
Radio Frequency Interfer-

ence
This is a very real threat, especially consid-
ering that the PC will be located in close
proximity to the radio. It is also rather dif-
icult to trace the fault (if one exists) be- Fig. 4: The weak vertical lines spaced every 61kHz across the waterfall are radiated from Ethernet cables.
cause turning off the computer or the moni- Unplugging the Ethernet and turning off my computer has no effect.
tor renders the SDR rather impotent.
There are regulations governing inter- into the mains in the room next to my out a higher voltage, making the problem
ference from household equipment. Your ‘shack’ was enough to completely wipe out worse. You are likely to pick up your neigh-
power supply and monitor may carry an HF band reception below 10MHz. bours’ ADSL signal as well, but there is little
EMC (Electro Magnetic Compatibility) rat- Plasma screens are high-voltage devices that you can do.
ing, which certiies that the device will work that create tons of interference. They have If possible, get a ibre optic connection
as intended in the environment for which been banned in many countries and have and extol its virtues in your neighbour-
it was designed. EMC deals with problems been replaced by LED and LCD screens, hood. Fibre routers don’t create HF radio
of noise emission, as well as noise immu- which are much friendlier. I did have a Dell interference. If you do see interference on
nity of electronic and electrical products LCD monitor getting into my non-SDR re- your panadapter, the irst thing to do is to
and systems. The electronic or electrical ceiver on the 40m band. Shifting the receiv- remove the antenna. That will test wheth-
product “shall not generate electromag- er by a few feet cured the problem. er the interference is a radiated signal be-
netic disturbances, which may inluence Apart from the power supply and monitor, ing picked up by the antenna, or interfer-
other products.” it is fairly unlikely that you will experience ence coming via the radio’s power supply or
This means that, if you buy a quality problems from the PC. I have seen hard connected cables.
product with an EMC rating, it should not drive activity create brief blips on the pan-
ill your panadapter with noise spikes. My adapter, but that was years ago. ADSL rout- [Andrew Barron’s recent books include ‘SDR:
son provided a very good demonstration ers do create regular noise spikes across Software Deined Radio’, and ‘AMSATS
of this when he arrived home with a cheap, the bands. If you live at some distance from and HAMSATS: Amateur Radio and other
after-market, switch mode power supply the telco cabinet or exchange, or if there is Small Satellites’, available from the Radio
for his Notebook PC. Just having it plugged a fault on the line, the ADSL router will put Enthusiast website – Ed.].

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Network Radio explained

ISSN 1748-8117
Learn about this fascinating new branch of the hobby

Network Radio
KARL HOBSON G1YPO
Fig. 1: G7DDN ielding questions.
Chris Rolinson
g7ddn@g7ddn.com
We kick off a new year in Network

Returners and
Radios with a look back at an event
from late last year. October 2018 saw
the first time a lecture on Network
Radios was given at the 2018 RSGB
Convention.
Newcomers
And Who Knew? alike. This ‘try-before-you-buy’ approach ap-
The RSGB is to be applauded for giving the I found out later that, at the time I was pealed, and when the Network Radios guys
subject of Network Radio(s) (NR) a fair hear- speaking, another story was brewing started issuing NR callsigns, I got ‘NR126’
ing. This happened, irst, as an article in in the very same building, as one Eliot and quickly got the hang of using it. Thanks
RadCom last summer (RadCom, July 2018: Mansield was sitting his Foundation Exam! to Andy M6NPL from Moonraker, I contacted
16-18); and second, by including an intro- Here is his story: the Bedford and District ARC – who run train-
ductory lecture on the subject at their presti- “I work in IT - starting 30 years ago in the ing more often than my local club. I also got
gious Annual Convention. electronic repair lab at Olivetti. I got interest- a late enrolment onto an online course run by
Sadly, for logistical reasons, the talk was ed in Radio in 2015, using a cheap RTL-SDR. Essex Hams, thanks to Pete Sipple M0PSX,
not one that was videoed, but I have made I listened to everything I could, amateurs, which helped my studies.
the slides available on my website, so you airband, DMR, PSK31, taxi data, weath- “One of the Bedford guys pointed out
can get a lavour of what it was like: er satellites and ADSB. But having gone that it was possible to take the exam at the
https://tinyurl.com/y7cdgp8a as far as I could with receiving, I lost inter- Convention. Therefore, I took the decision to
There was, undeniably, a lot of interest in est. I was vaguely interested in doing my study for the Foundation and take it asap! I
this subject. Having ielded questions after- Amateur exam, but my local club only ran tried an Intermediate mock exam and man-
wards, I am pleased to report only positives courses once a year. One day, I listened to aged a low pass – so I started studying for
(Fig. 1). The audience included such lumi- the ICQ Podcast, run by Martin M1MRB. It that too! The members at Bedford supported
naries of the amateur radio world as Radio was Episode 271. me by getting both sets of practicals sorted
4 announcer Jim Lee G4AEH, software de- https://tinyurl.com/ycm44y97 before the Convention. In this way, I could
veloper Simon Brown G4ELI (of Ham Radio “In it, Ian Abel G3ZHI was interviewed have a go at both exams in one go!
Deluxe and SDR Console fame) and Network about Network Radios. This fascinated me; “Well, I am now the proud holder of
Radios’ own Karl Hobson G1YPQ. what struck me was how well amateur radio 2E0EYW, thanks to the Network Radios
Overall, Network Radio seems to be at- protocol was followed on-air, yet the sys- team (Ian G3ZHI, Karl G1YPQ, Hairy Paul)
tracting quite a following. tem was open to licensed and unlicensed the Bedford club members, Glen G0GBI, Rob

Network Radio
RSGB
M5RPT, Wayne, Marc 2E0YWO, and my as-

sessor Mark M0MYG. I can truly thank NR
for getting me interested enough to take the
exams (Fig. 2).”
Not Only Newcomers

I recently came across this revealing piece
from returner-to-the-hobby Greg Johnson
VE9MAC from New Brunswick. Greg wrote,
“I left the radio hobby years ago, mainly due
to the attitude of older hams around my area
refusing to see the value of things like this.
They also referred to new amateurs as ‘ap-
pliance operators’. I worked long and hard to
get my Morse endorsement, just to be able
to get on HF, only to be told by them that I
didn’t deserve to be there.
“It is guys like you in Network Radio that
will keep the hobby alive, in whatever form it
may take. The fact that you have welcomed
non-hams and hams together, making them
all part of our community, is awesome. This
is how radio grows; we all share the same in-
terest, and now we can all talk to each other.
If something like this had been around back
when I started out, I would have got my li-
cence a lot sooner.” Fig. 2: Eliot Mansield 2E0EYW, having passed his Amateur Radio Exams.
Paul Crichton M1BPT, who runs Tuesday DAVID LEES G0PDL
evening training sessions on Network enthusiasts could work hand-in-hand. Not

Radios EV Channel, says he knows of at only were direct contacts made, but the NR
least 16 people who have progressed to am- Channels were also used to ‘set up’ RF con-
ateur radio licenses as a result of NR. tacts for the HF/VHF/UHF stations involved.
It seems that this branch of the hobby is “Prevailing band conditions meant not as
attracting newcomers and returners alike! many RF contacts were made this year, but
NR saved the day. One station, GB0SDB in
JOTA/JOTI Birmingham, reported that 95% of their total
Regular NR user David Lees G0PDL is heav- contacts were made here (Fig. 3).”
ily involved with the Scouting Movement, so My thanks to David for this excellent re-
it’s no surprise that he set up a Jamboree port. You can read more about his experi-
on the Air (JOTA) station for the October ences on his blog, at
weekend set aside for this event. https://zasbatt.wordpress.com/
Since 1995, JOTA has embraced the
Internet too, so Jamboree on the Internet Network Radio Wear – Continued
(JOTI) also exists! We featured Mick Knaggs M6ODZ’s Android STEPHEN LEGG M6WVV
What better medium to ‘marry’ the two Watch a couple of issues back (RadioUser,
than Network Radios, as David explains: November 2018: 59).
“For 2018, I asked if the Network Radios Now, Stephen Legg M6WVV wrote in
Events Channel on Zello could be opened for from Fareham in Hampshire about – his
JOTA. This was immediately agreed on by Bluetooth Beanie Beatz Hat!
the admin team, and I am delighted to report Stephen said, “What can you get for the
that, over the JOTA weekend, hundreds of Radio User in your life, which is both useful
contacts were made. The countries contact- to their hobby and functional at the same
ed included the UK, Australia, New Zealand, time? Well, one option is to purchase them
USA, Canada, Belgium, The Netherlands, a ‘Beanie Beatz’ Bluetooth hat! Not only will
Ireland, Turkey, and South Africa. Special you stay warm over the winter months (they
Event callsigns heard on NR included it snugly over your ears), but you also get a
GB0SDB, GB4HDS, GB0TVS & GB0SLD, to lightweight pair of Bluetooth mini-speakers
name but a few. with a microphone built in! (Fig. 4).
“Many Scout stations used both Amateur “The hat pairs easily with your smartphone
and NR callsigns simultaneously - mean- or network radio, and you can use Zello or Fig. 3: G4TDF, operating GB0SDB with an Inrico
ing both licensed Amateurs and unlicensed Teamspeak, enjoying the fun of Network TM 7 NR. Fig. 4: A Close-Up of the Beanie Beatz.

Network Radio
STEPHEN LEGG M6WVV
Radio on a winter walk! Is it any good for less You can use the
than £8? Actually, yes! Is it the most fash-
ionable of hats? Maybe not. Does it work?
microphone built into
Yes, it does! And it charges in under 3 hours the hat, but the volume
using a standard-to-micro USB lead, provid-
ing around 6 hours of continuous usage.
is lower than you might
For monitoring NR, you cannot ask for any want - the built-in mic
more. Clear audio to both ears, with volume
adjustable from the hat - not loud but ine for
lacks the punch that we
most conditions. have come to expect
“You can use the microphone built into
the hat, but the volume is lower than you
might want - the built-in microphone lacks the box so that I could key the channel when
the punch that we have come to expect from in either keyer or voice mode. This would
NR. This might be due to the location of the mean I could have a back-and-forth CW QSO
microphone high up by one ear, and located without using voice at all if I wished.
inside a woolly lining! “Finally, I could modify my CW keyer to add
“Standby-time is around 5 days, so the a ixed-level audio output via an additional
hat should always be ready to slip on to pop socket, by means of a trimmer-pot to get the
out into the winter chill. The hats are even levels just right. In the end, I decided to add
available in different colours! You can ind a trimmer-pot to the interface box as well, so
them in warehouse-type shops such as ‘The that I could adjust the level if I was connect-
5 Range’. Other, similar, Bluetooth hats are ing CW sidetone from an amateur radio set,
RICHARD BENTON G4WKW available too and, in my experience, they can rather than my keyer, although setting a ixed
be a worthy addition to any keen, cold, Radio level from the radio might also be problemat-
User (Fig. 5.).” ic. I also thought it a good idea to add an in-
Sounds like the ideal January pres- line capacitor on the keyer/radio audio input
ent, doesn’t it? Thanks to Stephen for to isolate the microphone line from any DC
that mini-review. voltages present.”
Richard’s experiments resulted in this
CW on Zello nice-looking interface, built, in true am-
Richard Benton G4WKW caught my atten- ateur-fashion, from bits in his junk-box
tion with some of his experiments using (Figs. 6 & 7).
CW on Zello. Richard said: “The ‘Zello CW Catch Richard’s blog for more details at
Channel’ (run by Hairy Paul is a great inno- https://tinyurl.com/y9sakqyt
vation to the system. I have been experi-
menting with it. I made QSOs by feeding the More Spectrum
6 output of my keyer’s loudspeaker into Zello. Occasionally, it is levelled at NR operators
RICHARD BENTON G4WKW I placed my telephone-type handset con- that mobile network coverage is, perhaps,
nected to my phone next to it. Although that not the best. This is about to change: Some
worked quite well, and my irst QSOs with of you may have noticed that you have been
Aeilko PA3GBK in Holland were a lot of fun, I asked to retune your Freeview TV receivers.
thought it would be better if I could inject the The reason for this is that Ofcom is squeez-
CW Keyer output directly into Zello, rather ing terrestrial TV broadcasting into a small-
than using the microphone. er space, in order to free up the UHF spec-
“I considered various problems trying to trum from 694 - 790MHz for the extension
create this, as injecting audio from my CW of mobile broadband.
Keyer directly into my phone would mean In harmony with the EU, this so-called
7 I would be unable to use voice to speak on ‘700MHz Band’ will be auctioned to opera-
Fig. 5: Modelling the Beanie Beatz Hat. the channel. I would also not have the use tors; it is a valuable spectrum and will simul-
Fig. 6: G4WKW’s Zello CW Interface Box. of the external hardware PTT on my hand- taneously improve general coverage in rural
Fig. 7: Inside G4WKW’s Zello CW Interface Box. set, so I could only use the on-screen PTT. I areas and indoor coverage in urban areas.
was concerned about the possibility of over- Expect this to be up-and-running some-
loading the microphone input to my phone time around 2020.
by trying to inject too high an audio lev- You can read more details here:
el from my keyer. https://tinyurl.com/yc9r4psz
“I felt that I could best address these is- And on that exciting note, let me know
sues by building an interface box with a tog- what is ‘loating your boat’ in the world of
gle switch on it, so I could switch between Network Radios, and who is on your radar;
the microphone for voice and the keyer for just e-mail me, using the address at the top
CW. I could have an additional pushbutton on of this column.

Scanning Scene
TIM KIRBY
Tim Kirby
tim@g4vxe.com
This month, Tim Kirby offers advice

on how SDR receivers and Zello chan-
nels can be useful for scanning. He
then reports on Brazilian pirates on
MILCOM Satellites, SSTV from the ISS,
and Railway Communications.
One of my correspondents, who always

writes with interesting news, gently took me
to task for being a little less discreet than
my predecessor with names! I’d actually
taken the view that, as long as we weren’t
discussing some super-secret radio traffic,
it was probably alright to give a correspon-
dent’s full name. I had a quick chat with the
Editor and he agreed that we’d be a bit less
obvious about names. I know many corre-
spondents enjoy seeing their name in print,
and I hope you won’t be put off writing!
Thank you, BB, for your feedback!
Scanners and Software-Defined

Radios: Perfect Companions
One of the perennial questions for the
scanner enthusiast is ‘what should I listen
to’? It’s made easier by software such as
WTR Browser and Squawker, both of which
we have discussed in these pages before. Fig. 1: The SDRPlay RSPduo is an example of an SDR wideband receiver you can use in your scanning.
However, discovering new frequencies
that you did not know about is a really ex-
citing part of the hobby. For me, there’s a
magical feeling as you wonder – what can I
listen to here?
Scanning
Of course, you can use your scanner in
Search Mode and, perhaps, use features
like Close Call to discover new activity. But
and Software-
something I have really enjoyed discover-
ing in recent months is the use of software-
defined radios like the SDRPlay RSPpro or
Defined Radios
RSPduo (Fig. 1) to detect new frequencies
(Fig. 2). The panoramic display function of sure why. Of course, there have been some yourselves with the idea is with one of the
SDRs is especially useful here: significant changes in air traffic frequen- RTL-SDR dongles, which you can obtain for
Last night, I hooked up my RSPPro to the cies, with, for example, the shift to 8.33kHz less than a tenner! You need to be happy
VHF/UHF antenna on the roof to test some- channel spacing. to play around with drivers, particularly on
thing out. I listened to an air traffic control It strikes me that having an SDR receiver Windows, and with software.
frequency in a sector around 100 miles in the shack as a complement to your scan- However, once installed and working,
away from me. This was a good test of the ning receiver, is a great addition to your sta- you can use the dongle – particularly when
receiver and antenna. That instantly started tion, funds permitting! However, the great connected via a suitable adapter lead to
showing traffic, and heard the interchange thing about our hobby these days is that, an outside aerial – to listen to all sorts of
between aircraft and controllers very nicely. even if money is scarce, there are some things, from around 25 up to 1300MHz.
Then, about 150kHz below where I was low-budget options to VHF listening (just as Of course, given the low price, you cannot
listening, I spotted a lot of traffic too. I Clint Gouveia so admirably demonstrated expect miracles!
moved the receiver to listen there and, sure with low-cost HF receivers in his article re- Many enthusiasts use dongles to receive
enough, there was plenty going on! cently: RadioUser, October 2018: 10). ADS-B transmissions on 1090MHz, and
What was intriguing about this, was that they subsequently feed their ‘catches’ into
this was a frequency that I did not know Dongle Potential the various flight tracking networks. One
about before, and which did not show up in If you have not played with SDR receivers at friend of mine uses an RTL-SDR dongle,
my usual online resources. I am not quite all, then the cheapest way of familiarising connected to a beam antenna on the ama-

Scanning Scene
TIM KIRBY
teur 144MHz band, in order to monitor FT8

mode transmissions and share them on the
PSKReporter network.
I have certainly found that a dongle will
receive transmissions in the airband. Bear
in mind, though, that these receivers don’t
have much in the way of filtering – so they
may not work so well if you have strong sig-
nal sources close to you. RTL SDR dongles
are a brilliant introduction to the world of
SDR, especially if you are happy to ‘tinker’
with software! If you’d like to learn more, do
have a look at the excellent, and always in-
novative, website at this URL:
https://www.rtl-sdr.com
There are Quick Start Guides here, as well
as frequently updated articles on the inno-
vative uses that people put RTL SDR don-
gles to. For example, some software allows 2
you to decode the output of various devices, TIM KIRBY
such as weather stations, around 433MHz, Once you have found the new frequen-
which can be quite interesting. cies you can, of course, program them into
It is also amazing to see just how many of your more traditional scanner, which is, nat-
those devices there are around in a partic- urally, much better at, well, scanning, than
ular neighbourhood. There is no such thing an SDR receiver.
3
as a ‘quiet RF location’ these days.
If your assets are not quite so restrict- Zello and Scanning
ed, then receivers like the SDRPlay devices, If you’ve been enjoying Chris Rolinson’s
Funcube Dongle Plus or the Airspy range Network Radios column in RadioUser,
will provide even better performance. For you will have read about the Zello soft-
those of us who do not particularly enjoy ware. Users can create channels, and
playing around with computer software there are thousands and thousands of Fig.2: A screenshot showing how easy it is to spot
and setup issues, these are a good option. channels on Zello. active frequencies using the panoramic display on
Especially in the case of the SDRPlay and Some of them may well be of inter- an SDR Receiver. Fig. 3: An SSTV image sent from
Airspy units, the software for the PC is well est to scanner enthusiasts – I’ve got a the ISS during the recent NASA on the Air event.
written and very easy to use. few programmed up which could make
One of the other intriguing possibilities for some interesting listening; ‘E.Anglia. Ideally, you’ll use crossed dipoles (or
of SDR receivers is that they can record the Mil’, ‘Radio Scanner Northwest’ or ‘UK Live a similar setup) to receive these signals.
signals on a whole ‘chunk’ of spectrum at a Radio Scanner’, as well as some of the am- However, you may well be successful in re-
time, as an IQ file. Assuming you have plen- ateur radio channels, which have been ceiving them with a scanner and a telescop-
ty of disk space on your laptop, you could well publicised. ic whip. This could work on passes, which
go up to the top of a hill, armed with your Remember, you don’t need a ‘network ra- reach a higher elevation in the sky, and
laptop, SDR receiver and antenna and re- dio’ to use Zello. You can use your smart- which are therefore closer to you (Fig. 2).
cord traffic in particular bands (for instance phone or your PC if you want to give it a go. The satellites used mostly by the pirate
air, marine or Band II FM) to separate files. Although I know it’s not everyone’s idea of operators appear to be in the FLTSATCOM
Then, when you come home, you can replay scanning – it’s an interesting way to listen series. I have seen some suggestion that
those files and scan the spectrum for inter- to scanner traffic when you are away from FLTSATCOM 7 and FLTSATCOM 8 are the
esting traffic and frequencies. your receiver – in a completely separate satellites, which carry the most activity.
It takes a little getting your head around part of the country or indeed, the world! From what I can see, FLTSATCOM 8 is in
the principle, but once you do, the possibil- If you have any favourite Zello channels a geostationary orbit and should be au-
ities are endless! You could record whole you would like to share with others, please dible from the UK, as well as in most of
chunks of the airband during an airshow, drop either myself or Chris an email – we’d Continental Europe. As well as voice activ-
the Band II FM band during a sporadic E love to hear from you. ity, there are a number of reports of Slow
or tropospheric opening, a NOAA satellite Scan Television (SSTV) signals being re-
pass – whatever you choose. MILCOM Pirates ceived through these satellites.
The nice thing is that the IQ file holds raw I was intrigued by the results that I reported Some people have been successful in
data. Therefore, when you listen to the file last month, concerning a listener receiv- receiving signals using one of the RTL-
later on, you can use whatever mode you ing Brazilian pirates through some of the SDR dongles that I described earlier, and by
want to; moreover, you are able to change MILCOM satellites, and I asked a reader means of a turnstile antenna:
filtering or alter virtually any parameters you with some more experience in receiving https://tinyurl.com/yadb7n8j
like. Exciting stuff. these systems for a little more detail. https://tinyurl.com/yb25ru79

Scanning Scene
NASA
I have seen some

suggestion that
FLTSATCOM 7 and
FLTSATCOM 8 are the
satellites, which carry
the most activity
Others have reported receiving traf-
fic on vertical antennas with amateur ra-
dio receivers – have a look on YouTube
for ‘FLTSATCOM pirates’; you will see
what the traffic sounds like, with signal
strength and so on.
More Signals from the ISS

I’ve mentioned in previous columns that it’s
pretty straightforward to hear signals from
the International Space Station (ISS). A
handheld scanner and aerial will very often
work perfectly – sometimes much better
than a fixed aerial, because, with the hand-
held scanner, you can adjust the angle and
orientation of the antenna to yield the best
possible signal.
If you haven’t entered the amateur radio
frequency of 145.800MHz into your scan-
ner it’s probably a good time to do so. One
of the astronauts currently aboard the ISS
has been quite active in making contacts
with radio amateurs and schools.
Serena Aunon-Chancellor has been using
the callsign NA1SS, making contacts partic-
ularly over North America, but also Europe
(Fig. 4). Serena transmits on 145.800MHz
and listens on 144.490MHz over North
America, and on 145.200MHz, when over
Europe. If you are a licensed radio ama-
teur and happen to hear Serena calling –
please don’t be tempted to call her on the
145.800MHz frequency!
As well as voice contacts there was
some SSTV (Fig. 3) activity from the ISS.
This occurred on October 27th, in celebra-
tion of the NASA on the Air programme. The
activity was coordinated by NASA’s Space,
Communication and Navigation (SCaN)
department. The Space Communications Fig. 4: Astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor has been heard operating on the amateur radio bands.
and Navigation program manages NASA’s
Space Network, Near Earth Network and years gone by, he had enjoyed listening to or digital mode. When I was commuting to
Deep Space Network. railway communications and was that pos- London, through Didcot Parkway, I was al-
Twelve images were sent, with six of sible anymore? The majority of communi- ways amused to note that I heard the same
them featuring SCaN educational activities. cations are now using the Global System tones on the platform as the ones my ama-
The other images commemorated major for Mobile Communications-Railway teur DMR radio makes!
NASA anniversaries: (GSM-R). Like the GSM we use on our mo- If you’d like to read a little more about
https://tinyurl.com/l56h62d biles, it is not possible to listen to this. Network Rail’s implementation of GSM-R in
It is, however, possible to listen to dis- the UK, and about the reasons why it was
Scanning and the Railways patchers on the platforms. These are gener- developed, then take a look at this resource:
A reader dropped me a line to say that, in ally in the 455MHz band, in either analogue https://tinyurl.com/ybeg49en

Biography
Georg Wiessala
wiessala@hotmail.com
B
y all accounts one of the most
famous scientists and sci-
ence teachers ever, Michael
Faraday stemmed from humble
origins. He was not a sophis-
ticated mathematician but a brilliant edu-
cator and communicator and an indomita-
ble experimenter.
His name is forever linked with the Faraday
Cage, an earthed metal screen surround-
ing, for instance, a piece of equipment
to exclude electrostatic and electromag-
netic inluences.
Slum-born in 1791, and entirely without
a University education, he nevertheless be-
came a trainee bookbinder in London aged
just 14 and a protégé of the charismatic Sir
Humphrey Davy (1778 - 1829), whose lec-
tures Faraday attended and who was, argu-
ably, the most pre-eminent ‘chemist-cum-gal-
vanist’ of the era.
Traditionally, scant emphasis has been
placed on Michael Faraday as an experiment-
er, lecturer and instructor. However, even
today’s chemistry classes, arguably, would
beneit from his pedagogic methodologies.
Galvanism & Mesmerism

Galvanism – medical electricity - excited
huge debates at the time. The term derives
from the Italian physician, physicist, biologist
and philosopher Luigi Galvani (1737-1798),
and the concept of galvanism came to em-
brace many dimensions, electrical, religious,
metaphysical, medical, cultural and political.
One of the foremost, classic ‘electrical ri-
valries’ of the 18th Century unfolded between
Galvani, who believed that ‘animal electric-
ity’ came out of living bodies and Alessandro
Volta (1745 - 1827). Faraday knew Volta and
believed him to be “a hale elderly man, very
free in conversation”. Michael Faraday in his late thirties.
Signor Volta found that electricity was
Michael Faraday:
made, not by means of ‘animalistic’ power
but by a variety of metals being in contact
with one another, through chemistry and a
moist interface. He went on, in 1799, to in-
vent the battery (‘voltaic pile’), providing an
electric current. Building on this, Faraday
worked hard to make electricity ‘disembod-
Life & Legacy
ied’ and ‘reputable’.
Nevertheless, he also attended the public
demonstrations on mesmerism by his friend, This month, we offer a brief snapshot of Michael
Professor John Elliotson (1791-1868) at Faraday, whose work on electromagnetism sparked
University College Hospital London in 1838
and shared a curiosity about the Victorian
off a seismic shift in the post-enlightenment
Mesmerism craze of the 1850s with Charles understanding of radio waves and electricity.

Biography
Dickens (1812-1870).
Faraday seemed quite unsure what kind of
physical force – if any – the ‘mesmeric force’
was. Because of his tireless work, the notion
of action at a distance (i.e. ‘nothing’ happen-
ing in the ‘passive’ space between things)
was replaced by the concept of ‘active’ field
lines and forces.
James Clerk Maxwell recognised this too,
as we shall see later.
Invisible Powers
As the pre-eminent natural philosopher
of the day, Faraday joined the venerable
Royal Institution in 1813 and later be-
came its director.
However, times before the Industrial
Revolution in Europe were fractious and revo-
lutionary, and Faraday was caught up a few Faraday on an old British £20 banknote.
times in the slings of the Seditious Meetings
Act, a repressive piece of legislation at the other directions such as Ada, Countess
time. Faraday’s Sandemanian religious be- of Lovelace (Lord Byron’s daughter, 1815
liefs convinced him that there had to be a - 1852) and Nicola Tesla (1856 - 1943). By
unity of Nature and God: An all-pervading ma- the end of the 19th Century, the Serbian-
trix existed, had to exist, because there was a American über-inventor would be lecturing
divine presence. on the same stage at the Royal Institution,
Later, Nicola Tesla too drew scientiic in- where, in the 1830s, Michael Faraday had
spiration from his faith. promulgated his indings on induction (see
Inspired by observing a rainbow, Faraday RadioUser, August 2018: 68).
demonstrated in 1831, that it was possible Most signiicantly, perhaps, Faraday’s
to convert mechanical energy into electric thinking shaped the world of the ‘Scottish
current, through induction, by applying the Einstein’, James Clerk Maxwell (1831 - 1879),
right-hand-rule and relying on magnetism, over whose paper On Faraday’s Lines of Force
rather than using battery power. As we now the two men corresponded at length.
know, his experiments resulted in the inven-
tion of the electric motor, the transform- Legacies
er and electric dynamo (or generator), and Six years after Faraday’s Royal Institution
much more besides. lecture, Charles Wheatstone (1802 – 1875)
As many readers will know, the Dane Hans and William Fothergill Cooke (1806 – 1879)
Christian Ørsted (1777-1851) did the oppo- patented the electromagnetic telegraph. Faraday holding a glass bar of the type he used to
site; he showed that an electric current pro- Moreover, there is a direct line from show that magnetism affects light.
duced an associated magnetic field, thus uni- Faraday’s achievements to the radio, ra-
fying electricity and magnetism. Frenchman dar, meteorology, computer science, space Thus, like Alessandro Volta before him,
André Marie Ampère (1775 - 1836) had pre- weather and much else besides. Faraday had proved Galvani wrong. He
viously seen these forces as different, inde- Faraday had intellectually separated, had ‘de-Frankensteined’ electricity – Mary
pendent, ‘luids’. through his life’s work, the subject of electro- Shelley’s inspirations notwithstanding.
magnetic research and electricity from pre- In the end, Faraday is probably best re-
Inspirations ceding debates about animal magnetism and membered because he worked by scientiic
Faraday’s key text, Experimental Researches the origins of life. Electricity was not some method and through controlled experiments
in Electricity, inspired many. hissing liquid inside a wire, nor part of an and experimental science – a radical depar-
Like Joseph Henry in the US, the co-dis- ‘(a)ether’ or ‘nervous luid’ inhabiting tissue. ture from an earlier age.
coverer of induction, Faraday was especially
keen to ire up the young, by doing what we
Editor’s Choice
might now term educational ‘outreach-work’.
Forbes, N. and Mahon, B. (2014) Faraday, Maxwell Michael Faraday at the Science Museum (UK):
Faraday also supported the great American and the Electromagnetic Field […] https://tinyurl.com/y7gjg5jt
Joseph Henry’s appointment as the irst I James, F.A.J.L. (2010) Michael Faraday: A Very Rhys Morus, I. (2017): Michael Faraday and the
Smithsonian Institute Secretary. Short Introduction (Oxford University Press) Electrical Century (Icon Books)
https://tinyurl.com/y8p2g9up Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution: BBC Radio 4: In Our Time (IOT): Michael
https://tinyurl.com/y8odofjc Faraday (2015)
https://tinyurl.com/ydfvmu22
Faraday stimulated others who went in

International Radio Scene
Feliz Navidad
from Spanish Radio
Chrissy Brand has plenty of broadcast band tips, offers some good news on
Radio Exterior de España, reports on a German presence on medium wave
and delivers her usual logs.
strives to place Spain on the global horizon CHRISSY BRAND
Chrissy Brand of the time in which we live.”

chrissyLB@hotmail.co.uk English programmes will continue to
look at Spanish culture, promote tourism
I
t’s a rare day when an international and analyse news and views from both a
broadcaster decides to reinstate its Spanish and an international perspective.
short wave language services and, A selection of broadcasts includes Open
although it sadly bucks the trend, Europe, America Today, Africa Today and
it is still a cause for celebration. Asia Today. Furthermore, a programme
Christmas came early for some of us in late termed Language Without Borders has a
October when Radio Exterior de España “mission to take Spanish culture to all cor-
made the surprise announcement that its ners of the world.”
foreign language programmes would re- The different language services run, one
turn. REE reduced their short wave trans- after another, in a block of time on week-
missions in the autumn of 2014 to just the days, lasting from 1600 to 0000 UTC to
Spanish service. Other languages contin- the Middle East and Africa and from 1900
ued online, including those in English. to 0300 UTC to the Americas. The fre-
Under the leadership of a new station quency of 11685kHz is in use for listen-
director in 2018, Antonio Buitrago, other ers in West Africa and the South Atlantic,
language services are also back on short with 12030kHz beamed to the Middle
wave, with Arabic, French, Portuguese, East and the Indian Ocean. Transmissions
Russian and Sephardic all making a wel- to South America use 11940kHz. On
come return. I really enjoyed the English Saturdays and Sundays, the language ser-
show on October 27th. It was jubilant; it of- vices’ programmes are transmitted from
fered songs about radio and some archive 1500 to 2300 UTC on the frequencies al-
clips to commemorate the unexpected re- ready mentioned. Fig. 1: A vintage 1978 REE QSL card.
prise. It is worth seeking that audio celebra- My advice is for us all to tune in, enjoy
tion out online. and contact REE with useful feedback on doing before, or if you are new to medi-
https://tinyurl.com/y9ozzj9q reception conditions and opinions on the um wave DXing, logging some of the easy
The downside is that the English service programmes heard. Let’s make a concert- catches from Spain is a rewarding way to
is beamed to the Americas and Greenland, ed effort throughout 2019 to communicate start in the hobby.
rather than Europe, and the frequen- better and more often with all of those ra- Try Radio Nacional de España (RNE)
cy will not provide a reliable signal for us dio stations still using short wave and the from Madrid on 585kHz, RNE Radio
Europeans during the winter. Despite this, other AM broadcast bands. They need our Nacional on 774, 855 and 864kHz, SER on
the reinstated REE has been logged in the support and encouragement and, above 792 and 1080kHz, and Onda Cero from
UK. The English schedule was announced all, the knowledge that there is an avid and Barcelona on 540kHz.
as being aired on 9690kHz on Mondays, attentive audience that is worth their while German radio club ADDX reported that
Wednesdays and Fridays at 2300 UTC, broadcasting to (Fig. 1). a handful of pioneers are operating legal,
with repeats on Tuesdays, Thursdays and low-powered, medium wave stations in the
Saturdays at 0300 UTC. Medium Wave context of a radio museum or for educa-
The familiar REE English team of Alison Spanish radio stations are, of course, domi- tional purposes. This is good to hear after
Hughes and Justin Coe, who have been in nant on medium wave. I often enjoy stop- German radio stations all abandoned medi-
situ since 1990, present the programmes. ping on a frequency and hearing passion- um and long wave.
An REE press release stated that new pro- ate football commentaries, interesting Ralph DL2NDO obtained a transmitting
grammes and features “will augment pub- music or just trying to work out what the license for 1476kHz (former frequency of
lic service and promote and disseminate Spanish conversations are actually about. Vienna Bisamberg), built a 3W AM transmit-
Spanish culture and language. In short, it If this is something you’ve not considered ter and, with the help of a small team, raised

FUNKLUST FACEBOOK PAGE
Fig. 2: The German student radio station Funklust (Your Campusmedia).

RADIO ALBATROSS FACEBOOK PAGE
Fig. 3: The UK free radio station Radio Albatross.
a quarter-wave antenna on the Fraunhofer day sounds. It’s a station I have since en- “I managed positive identiication on most
premises, south of Erlangen. They went on joyed hearing online, as I’m unable to pull stations and used my phone to listen to on-
the air in November, running a preliminary in the signal from the south coast of the UK line links. This is easy when music is playing
test transmission, consisting of switched on my receivers. but more dificult with voice transmissions.
1000Hz beeps (one second on, one second https://tinyurl.com/y9ltqlgy The USA and Canadian stations are reason-
off, audio frequency locked to the RF carri- Tony Stickells’ logs this month were ably easy, as they reveal their ID frequently.
er). This pattern continued for a few days, made on the sunny island of Fuerteventura. Many stations were dificult to ID, anything
before they took over the audio from the lo- He wrote that he had, “had some great suc- doubtful I didn’t include in my logs. I used
cal DAB student radio station Funklust (‘A cess, using both a long wire and my loop my converted Tecsun PL-880, a long wire of
Lust for Radio’, Fig. 2). and changing the directional properties. about 10m and an ANA200 loop. I did a lot of
www.funklust.de I heard 48 stations from across the pond, monitoring outside, away from the hotel.”
Thanks to a tip from Dave Kenny of which, for September and October, is a fab- Graham Smith has been following devel-
the BDXC-UK, I heard Radio Tunis Chaîne ulous result. I found that, the closer to the opments on medium wave and has some
Internationale (RTCI) in English on 963kHz sea I was, the better the reception would be. information that will hopefully be benei-
while I was in Malta. A daily English broad- I had very minimal RFI when away from the cial to RadioUser readers. He heard UK free
cast is aired from 1303 to 1330 UTC. A hotel, which made a huge difference. I also radio station Radio Albatross (Fig. 3) on
typical programme consists of two jovial logged Bonaire, India, Nigeria, Djibouti and October 4th on 927kHz, playing rock music
presenters reading the news, introduc- many others. I had free 4G when there, which from previous decades. The station was
ing short features and playing music, from made a huge difference identifying the sta- running test transmissions that day. It has
1990’s western indie and pop to current tions, using my mobile phone. been streaming online for ive years, play-

Short Wave Logs

UTC kHz Station and Location Language SINPO Initials
0008 5900 Overcomer Ministry English 45555 GS
1307 15825 Worldwide Christian Radio, Nashville English 44233 LC
1322 17890 Radio Thailand, Udon Thani Dari 35333 LC
1419 9720 Reach Beyond Australia, Kununurra Hindi 34423 LC
1434 12160 TWR India, Kishinev Grigoriopol Vasavi 35333 LC
1437 9600 Radio Romania International German 45444 LC
1439 12095 BBC World Service, Talata-Volonondry Somali 34323 LC
1446 12060 IRIB, Sirjan Hindi 45444 LC
1446 17770 TRT Voice of Turkey, Emirler Arabic 45334 LC
1449 11950 Radio Romania International, Galbeni Romanian 45555 LC
1453 15605 Voice of America, Selebi-Phikwe Kurdish 35434 LC
1817 7290 Italian Radio Relay Service, Saftica English 54555 LC
1822 7265 BBC World Service, Meyerton French 45444 LC, OR
1912 6130 TWR, Manzini Luchazi 45233 LC
1918 6000 Overcomer Ministry English 45333 LC, OR
1925 5980 TRT Voice of Turkey, Emirler Turkish 55444 LC
1928 5900 Radio Taiwan International, Kostinbrod German 45344 LC
1937 7475 Radio Thailand, Udon Thani English 55455 LC, OR
1944 7445 BBC World Service, Talata-Volonondry English 45344 LC, OR
1945 9940 TWR, Manzini French 54333 LC
1948 7445 Radio Romania International, Galbeni English 45344 LC, OR
1951 7280 Voice of Vietnam, Hanoi-Sontay French 55444 LC
1953 9635 TRT Voice of Turkey, Emirler French 55444 LC
1957 9460 TRT Voice of Turkey, Emirler Turkish 55454 LC
1959 9420 ERT Voice of Greece, Avliss Greek 55455 LC
2305 5965 China National Radio 1 Chinese 45555 GS
CHRISSY BRAND
ing folk music. Graham could also hear a LOG CONTRIBUTORS: GS = Graham Smith, Bury
strong local station on 1251kHz. By turning St Edmunds, Suffolk. Sony ICF-SW600 and a tel-
his radio around, he was able to null it out. escopic aerial. LC = Lionel Clyne, Faversham, Kent.
He also recommended an interesting arti- Lowe HF-150, random wire or homemade loop. OR
cle, on the Radio World website, concerning = Owen Rutherford, London. Lowe HF-150 and a
two large-scale, high-power, medium wave Wellbrook loop. TS = Tony Stickells, Fuerteventura,
transmitters. The one at Solt in Hungary is converted Tecsun PL880 and a 10m-long wire, and
operated by Antena Hungaria and broad- an ANA200 loop.
casts local content in Hungarian through- MEDIUM WAVE LOGS: This month we have a selec-
out the country. The transmissions are also tion of North and South American station logs from
strong enough to cover parts of Slovakia, Tony Stickells. These were achieved while Tony was
Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and on holiday on Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands.
Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine.
Trans World Radio (TWR) now has a
400kW broadcast site in Bonaire, an island trict of Maharashtra. You can send recep-
municipality of The Netherlands. TWR option reports to TWR through a simple and
erates a Nautel NX400 transmitter (Fig. 4). effective online form.
Many short wave enthusiasts will recall that www.twr.asia/online-qsl-form
Radio Netherlands also used to operate a Radio Taiwan International ran a nice
transmitter from the island, and that it was series of QSL cards throughout 2018 (Fig.
Fig. 4: An old Trans World Radio QSL card. closed in 2012. 5). Each one featured different meals that
www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/ were available in lunchboxes on Taiwanese
ing music from the 1950s to the current medium-wave-transmission-goes-big trains and at railway stations. Back in 2010,
day. It clearly makes the occasional foray the station issued a series of QSL cards of
into AM. Keep an eye on their website, and On Short Wave vintage radio receivers. What’s in store for
check the Facebook page for any updates. Staying with TWR, Lionel Clyne logged 2019, I wonder?
www.radioalbatross.co.uk Trans World Radio India at 1434 UTC on A hop across Asia to Thailand now and
Graham also wrote that Syrian Radio 12160kHz, broadcasting in Vasavi from Lionel Clyne logged Radio Thailand in
from Tartus on 783kHz, “has changed its Kishinev Grigoriopol with a 35333 SINPO. English at 1937 UTC on 7475kHz. The pro-
announcement of frequencies at 0300 UTC. Vasavi is a Gujarati language spoken by gramme heard comprised a news broad-
There is now only one frequency announced, the Bhil people, though not intelligible with cast on corruption in the country and on the
but it seems to be 567kHz.” Bhili. The Vasavi live mainly in two districts government’s plans to tackle it.
Hungarian station Dankó Rádió was straddling the Gujarat Maharashtra border: Lionel also has a slight mystery for us
logged on 1116 and 1251kHz, mostly play- Bharuch district in Gujarat and Dhule dis- to fathom out on these long winter nights.

Medium Wave Logs

kHz UTC Station Location Country SINPO
560 0611 Rádio Educadora do Maranhão Rural São Luís Brazil 35443
560 0703 WGAN Portland, ME USA 32333
570 2323 Radio Nacional de Columbia El Rosal Columbia 44444
580 2326 Radio Relógio 580AM Rio de Janeiro Brazil 34343
600 0712 CBNA St. Anthony, NL Canada 44444
600 0023 Radio Gaucha Porto Alegre Brazil 42353
640 0611 CBC Radio 1 St. John’s, NL Canada 33443
640 2338 Guadeloupe Premier Pointe-à-Pitre Guadeloupe 43444
660 0612 WFAN New York, NY USA 45433
670 0615 Radio Rumbos Caracas Venezuela 44343
680 0620 WRKO Boston, ME USA 34343
740 2355 Rádio Sociedade da Bahia Salvador Brazil 44343
750 2359 Radio Caracas Caracas Venezuela 43343
760 0004 Rádio Uirapurú Fortaleza Brazil 33233
760 0711 WJR Detroit, MI USA 42333
770 0720 WABC New York, NY USA 45533
780 0721 WBBM Chicago. IL USA 44333
800 0725 Radio MEC Brasilia Brazil 53543
830 0730 WCRN Worcester, ME USA 44434
850 0040 WEEI (Red Eye Radio) Boston, MA USA 42233
860 0042 CBN Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil 53323
930 0735 CJYQ (KIXX Country) St. John’s, NL Canada 34423
940 0050 Super Rede Boa Vontade Rio de Janeiro Brazil 42243
940 0738 CFNV Montreal, QC Canada 33333
980 0053 Radio Nacional Brasilia Brazil 54354
1010 0740 WINS New York, NY USA 33233
1020 0059 KDKA News Radio Pittsburgh, PA USA 44333
1030 0610 WBZ Boston, MA USA 33233
1040 0106 Radio Capital Sao Paulo Brazil 44444
1100 0003 Radio Globo Sao Paulo Brazil 45333
1110 0005 WBT News Talk Charlotte, NC USA 43343
1200 0009 WXKS Talk 1200 Newton, MA USA 44334
1280 2308 Super Rádio Tupi Rio de Janeiro Brazil 44344
1500 0040 WFED Washington DC USA 45434
1560 0045 WFME New York, NY USA 43433
CHRISSY BRAND
He tuned to 4650kHz USB, where recep- lous characteristic is unique to this station.
tion was poor, with a SINPO of just 35223. It is, indeed, a useful source for identifying
He wrote that, “the numbers being called it, even if the reception quality is very poor
out were faintly audible. Furthermore, I was – which it was on this occasion. As a re-
able to peak my S-meter in the higher band sult, I switched over to my new homebrew
of my pre-selector as I have described be- 70cm antenna, which consistently outper-
fore. Reception was not improved by us- forms its outdoor counterpart in logging
ing my loop antenna. I then decided to tune this frequency.
to 4625kHz USB, and, again, I was able to “At 1832 UTC, there was a loud, atten-
peak my S-meter by using a higher pre-se- tion-seeking beep. At 1835 UTC, there was
lector frequency, as with 4650kHz USB, so a voice, possibly calling numbers, although
this characteristic is not unique to 4650kHz reception was poor at this point but then, Fig. 5: Food for thought from Radio Taiwan
as I originally thought. On 4650kHz USB, I shortly afterwards, I heard in English, ‘Higher International.
was able to hear the ‘Buzzer’ station with a level available, is that correct?’. Numbers
SINPO of 45444. were read out in English, ‘X’ (where X equals by Diana Eng KC2UHB and her collapsible
“So, all of this might suggest that there an unidentiiable number) ‘5649’, ‘XX101’, fabric Yagi antenna. She is an amateur ra-
are two (probably related) stations: One is beep, beep. 54519 beep, beep. At 1919 UTC, dio operator, Chinese-American fashion
dedicated to the Buzzer, and the other is a an indistinct woman’s voice was probably designer, author and fashion technologist.
numbers station. All were logged between calling ‘5401X’, ‘5649X’. Bob wrote, “This antenna is ideal for working
1919 and 2000 UTC.” “It was, perhaps, signiicant that, during the ham satellites but, if you don’t have a li-
He added that, “On Saturday, October 6th this broadcast, the number ‘9’ was, invari- cence, you can still listen. After all, that’s the
at 1830 UTC, I tuned to 4650kHz USB, us- ably, pronounced ‘niner’. From 1931 UTC, joy of being a short wave listener, you don’t
ing my random wire antenna and pre-selec- there was either no further broadcast or the have to think of something to say!”
tor box on the 5.9-13 MHz band. As I have reception was too poor.” “Watch out because, as a true seamstress,
mentioned earlier, this is the only way I can Bob Houlston wrote that the spirit of she works in feet and inches on this project.”
peak my S-Meter for 4650 kHz. This anoma- homebrew is alive and well, as exempliied tinyurl.com/rudianaeng

Aerials Now!
Aerial Analysers, Sausages

in Rolls and Rubber Duckies
Keith Rawlings responds to feedback, explains phased arrays and
measures ‘rubber-duck’ type aerials, observing variance in performance
with a number of different receivers.
Keith Rawlings
Keith.g4miu@gmail.com
they decided that the FTDI chip must have
been faulty. They felt that, as there are a lot
Altering the phase of
of fake FTDI chips around, the manufacturer aerials can be used to
I
have quite a lot of feedback to catch
up on, and I will start this month with
had possibly developed a way of ‘bricking’
fake chips, so they cannot be read.
reduce interference and
an interesting e-mail I received from Eric then obtained an MR300 from Jason, to enhance reception
Eric Pearson GW4FMZ, regarding complete with a Bluetooth addition and
the cheap Chinese analysers I men- found that the new one worked perfect-
tioned in previous columns. Eric wrote say- ly, giving readings that were very close out of the scope of this column. However, as
ing he had recently bought one of the MR300 to the original. there are cases where this technique may
models from the Far East after getting back Eric goes on the tell me that his system be relevant to readers, I will give a brief and
on the air, having been absent from the is deliberately non-resonant on the ama- hopefully simple description.
bands since 1980. teur bands, to avoid a very high impedance To quote Kraus and Marhefka (Antennas
He put up a 73ft inverted-L aerial, using a on 40m. This is a valid point for any end-fed For all Applications), ‘the term phased array
9:1 UnUn ( Unbalanced-to-Unbalanced) trans- aerial because if, on a frequency of interest, has come to mean an array of many elements,
former, and he wanted to check the overall you have dificulty in matching your end-fed with the phase (and also, in general, the ampli-
performance of the system and determine with an AMU (aerial matching unit) then, tude) of each element being a variable, provid-
whether it could be matched by the internal quite often, removing or adding to its length ing control of the beam direction and pattern
ATU in his Kenwood TS570D. may overcome this problem. Eric passes his shape, including side lobes.’
Some internal ATUs may have a rather experiences on, in the hope that it is of inter- Did I say simple?
limited range, compared to the dedicated est to readers who are considering one of Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds: In basic
outboard units. these analysers. terms, this is the steering of the direction of
Eric’s analyser arrived quite quickly, and https://tinyurl.com/y84ytuwj an aerial by electronic means, rather than
he soon put it to use plotting Resistance (R), http://www.lxqqfy.com/e mechanical methods. In other words, rather
Reactance (X) and Impedance(Z) of the aer- I will look into any possible issues with than, let’s say, a radar scanner bobbing up
ial, both at the aerial itself and at the end of the computer interface. I can also add that I and down and from side to side to locate an
his short run of coax feeder. He found that too found that modelling end-fed aerials on aircraft, the beam of the scanner is altered
the computer link, which is an FTDI 232 inter- a computer gave me results differing from electronically by altering the phase of the
face, did not work, and, despite considerable those actually measured. I went to great scanner’s elements and, literally, distorting
effort, attempts to get his computer to recog- trouble modelling my end-fed system, and, the beam into the desired direction.
nise the MR300 failed. although the computed polar plots seemed The reason that this may be relevant to us
Eric was also uncertain about whether his ‘ballpark’, the measured impedances – when enthusiasts is that similar techniques can
measured igures were correct, as they were compared to those computed – were consid- be used to alter or steer the pattern of our re-
a long way from the theoretical igures he ob- erably different. ceiving aerials, and I am doing just this now,
tained when computer-modelling and using Many thanks for the information Eric, and as I write this column.
the 4NEC2 software. I hope you are enjoying your comeback into Altering the phase of aerials can be used
https://www.qsl.net/4nec2 amateur radio, 38 years is a long time! to reduce interference and to enhance re-
The analyser does offer a calibration pro- ception. This is the reason why you will see
cess, but Eric did not take this past check- Phased Arrays the term ‘phaser’ used on a number of radio
ing with a 50Ω load which, when meas- Continuing with feedback, Brett Williams related websites.
ured, he found ‘came right up on target’. It emailed me asking if I could explain what a Nothing to do with Star Trek ...
was noticed that the PCB on the MR300 ‘phased array antenna’ was (also termed an Units such as the ANC-4 and MFJ1026 can
had ‘LXQQFY’ marked on it. Eric did some ‘Electronically-Scanned Array’). He looked do just this. Primarily used for noise (interfer-
investigation and found that a chap called the subject up online and, unfortunately, un- ence) cancellation, they can also be used to
‘Jason’ appears to have produced this derstood very little. modify the pattern of two aerials and ‘steer’
Chinese version. Depending on where Brett looked, I can the system towards (or away from) cer-
After making contact, Jason attempted to understand why as this can be a very com- tain directions.
get Eric’s unit working with his PC. In the end, plex subject – and one which is generally well I have a number of phasers here, both

Aerials Now!
commercial and home-made, and I use them

to effectively reduce interference on the HF ALL PICTURES: KEITH RAWLINGS
bands, as well as ‘nulling-out’ certain stations

on the medium wave bands, in favour of oth-
ers. However, both techniques require some
patience at times!
Of course, there are many other uses of
phased arrays, and there are also more ways
to change phase angles, such as using feed
lines and delay lines – but I will not ven-
ture there for now!
However, I will cover interference-cancel-
ling in a future column.
In the meantime, have a look at
these websites:
https://tinyurl.com/m2vcoyu
https://tinyurl.com/y7cf6892
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/
tenna/lab/phasing.html
Rubber Duck Aerials Fig.1: A 100-600MHz computer-swept SWR plot of the supplied aerial for my AOR AR8000.
In my Icom ICR-30 wideband scanner review
(RadioUser, September 2018: 10-16), I wrote:
“ Some scanner owners compare the side-by-
side performance of different radios using
the supplied aerial (usually a ‘rubber duck’).
The performance of these aerials can vary
hugely over the vast frequency ranges they
are expected to work at resulting in one scan-
ner being supposedly better than another.”
So, if this is the case, which one is the
best aerial to use?
Well, this is something I cannot easily
answer; let me explain the reason for this:
Aerials for hand-portable scanners have
their own characteristics. They will perform
differently to other designs on different
bands, and when itted to different scanners.
It may well be the case that, because
manufacturers recognise the market their
scanners are being aimed at, they design the Fig. 2: The responses of the rubber aerial that came with the AOR AR-DV10 wideband receiver.
supplied aerials accordingly. Therefore, on
other bands, performance is a compromise.
For example, I mentioned how I found that
the supplied aerial on my AOR AR8000 did
not seem work very well on the marine band.
If you look at the plot in Fig. 1, you will see
a 100-600MHz computer-swept SWR plot of
this aerial, which should give some idea as to
how it will be ‘seen’ by a radio.
The markers (the little triangles)
demonstrate the lowest SWR and, in theory,
the area where the aerial performs best.
At 140MHz, the performance should be
reasonably good, but this response is quite
narrow and, as we tune away either side, the
SWR rises quickly.
At 382 and 403MHz, the SWR is low
enough to suggest that the aerial should
work quite well here also.
However, look at the response for 156MHz, Fig. 3: A sweep of the standard aerial for the Uniden Bearcat UBC125XLT scanner.

Aerials Now!
Fig. 4: My dedicated UHF aerial for optimum reception between 235 and 390MHz.
Fig. 5: My homebrew aerial is nothing if not lexible. Fig. 6: The swept response of my home-built UHF aerial.
where marker four shows the SWR reading [Watch out for a review of the AOR AR-DV10 ting in the clear.
high at just under 70:1. wideband receiver in one of the next issues Note that my PC measurements were
Compare this with the image in Fig. 2. in 2019 – Ed.]. made during different sessions and time
Here, the responses of the DV10 rubber aeri- My answer to this issue has been to make periods and that the vertical scale is not
al are at different places on the spectrum. aerials for speciic tasks. For example, I like the same for all. The result of this is that
If a user were to interchange the aeri- listening to the Mil Air bands, while I sit drink- some traces may look to be worse than
als, they could be forgiven for thinking that ing coffee and eating sausages in rolls at they actually are.
the DV10 had a poor performance on cer- places like the fence at RAF Lakenheath! The main thing to note is the igures pre-
tain frequencies and that the AR8000 was As I am primarily interested in UHF fre- sented at the markers. My intention was to
better on others. quencies, I have made a dedicated aerial for demonstrate where one aerial may work bet-
However, it is, in fact, the aerial that is mak- the task. It has been carefully cut to give it the ter than another one.
ing the difference. best performance where I want it, which is Something else I have noted over the years
Fig. 3 shows a sweep of the standard aer- between 235 and 390MHz. This can be seen is that some scanners are more tolerant of a
ial supplied with the Bearcat UBC125XLT. in Figs. 4 and 5. badly-matched aerial than others, and this re-
Here we can see that the best responses are This aerial has also been made to be very sults in an aerial giving differing results from
in different places at 161, 418 and 504MHz. lexible. Therefore, when it sits on top of my one scanner model to another, while taking
I also swept a Watson W881, which is Uniden Bearcat 125, it will it discreetly inside into account any sensitivity variance issues
popular with many aviation enthusiasts. I a coat pocket without damage or sit in a shirt between models.
found its lowest readings for SWR around pocket and not poke my eye out! One last point is that most ‘rubber duckies’
164 and 446 MHz. Finally, the image in Fig. 6 displays the made for scanners are no more than a piece
However, when studying the trace, I found swept response of the aerial, which, I have of wire or a small spring encapsulated in rub-
that, overall, the SWR was lower than on found, works satisfactorily on the VHF air- ber. There is no ‘magic’ involved.
the other aerials. band as well. I also have a shorter – just as I hope this has clariied how, at times, test
It must be pointed out that all these rub- discreet – version working well for UHF fre- results involving diverse scanners may differ,
ber duckies will still work. As demonstrat- quencies, such as Shopwatch channels. when all things seem otherwise equal!
ed, they work better on some frequencies The data presented here were produced As always, I will reply to correspondence
than on others. with a general test jig. The performance of through this column.
The idea of providing a telescopic whip is any particular aerial may change, depend- Until then: Good Listening!
so that the user can adjust it to an optimal ing on the model of scanner it is itted to and
frequency, and this idea has been followed the circumstances of its use. If a scanner is References
by AOR with the DV10, which has both rubber being used in the hand, or close to the body, Kraus and Marhefka (2001) Antennas for all
type and telescopic whip supplied. the results will be different to when it is sit- Applications (Mcgraw-Hill Higher Education).

Book Review
Electronic Ears of the Reich:

Technologies and Personalities
David Harris informed by lucky breaks, such as the
mydogisfinn@gmail.com shooting down of a Wellington bomber
over Germany in October 1939. The
Many readers will be familiar Germans were able to recover cards
with how Alan Turing and British used by the plane’s encryption machine.
Intelligence broke some of the German By the time the Battle of Britain came, in
Enigma codes at Bletchley Park during 1940, the Germans could read RAF codes.
the Second World War. The decoding However, this gave them no real advantage
of German military codes was seen as in this combat area. Jennings makes the
a decisive turning point in the war. point that the Battle of Britain was won
There have been many books written by Britain having better planes and pilots
on the subject, and there are films than the Luftwaffe. Intelligence is only
such as The Imitation Game (2014) a tool and has to be complemented by
and Enigma (2001). There was even operation capability.
a spin-off TV series, The Bletchley The author takes us through the main
Circle, about the activities of a group theatres of war that Germany participated,
of former female codebreakers who including Greece, France, Norway, Battle
turn amateur detectives after the war. of the Atlantic, Russia and North Africa.
One of the perceived strengths of German
The Third Reich is Listening is an attempt to Intelligence was that they were not only
redress the balance, and to show that the able to break British codes but the codes of
Germans were also adept at codebreaking. most other European countries, including
The book begins with a study of German neutral nations such as Switzerland. They
codes during the First World War. Key Christian Jennings. also monitored their Italian allies, in order
German codebooks were captured by The Third Reich is Listening: to learn what these had discovered from
both the Russian and Australian Navies, Inside German Codebreaking 1939 -1945 intercepting Allied signals.
who passed them to Great Britain. The Osprey. 2018. Hbk. £20. 352 pp. The Germans’ greatest achievement
knowledge gained of German codes led (ISBN: 9781472829511). was the cracking of codes used to
to the British decoding the Zimmermann www.ospreypublishing.com communicate with Allied convoys. In
Telegram, in which the Germans offered 1942, it was reckoned that the UK needed
Mexico an alliance, in return for territorial was set up by the Allies in the immediate 1 million tons of oil and other supplies a
gains in the USA. This action led to aftermath of the Second World War. week to maintain the war. But German U
the US entering the First World War on The aim was to capture enemy signal Boats were so successful in sinking Allied
the allied side. equipment, personnel and documents. convoys that it appeared that Britain might
In 1918 a German engineer, Arthur The Allies were successful in getting be so starved of supplies that it could
Scherbius (1878-1929) patented a cypher captured German personnel to describe not continue. However, the codes were
machine, which he called, Enigma. It was what they did in the way of decoding Allied eventually changed, and the Germans
eventually taken up by the German military signals, but not how they went about were no longer able to predict the routes of
and became the main way in which military cracking secure codes. trans-Atlantic convoys.
signals were coded. The Enigma machine In 1933, Hitler came to power and Jennings brings the book alive with
was a keyboard with a series of rotors, Germany began to assemble no less his sketches of key German Intelligence
each of which had 26 letters. Whenever than 10 different intelligence agencies. personnel such as contemporaries Wilhelm
a letter was typed, the rotors moved, and Jennings sees the inter-departmental Fenner and Wilhelm Tranow (b1891) who
another letter was randomly transposed. rivalry between some of them as a made their careers as cryptanalysts.
Once a message had been coded by an key factor, which limited the advances He also offers several explanations as to
Enigma machine it was transmitted, with Germany had made in code-breaking. how codes could be cracked.
the receiving station decoding it on their Throughout the 1930s, the Germans This is an absolutely fascinating book
Enigma machine. The rotor settings were learned how to break British codes. This which should appeal to anyone with an
regularly changed, so even if a machine meant that, when war was declared in interest in military history, codebreaking
were to be captured it would not be able to September 1939, they were able to attack and the world of military intelligence.
decode the message without knowledge of British convoys whose positions had Christian Jennings is a British freelance
the relevant settings. become known through intercepts of foreign correspondent who has previously
Jennings explores the archives of TICOM coded messages. written books on Bosnia, the French
(Target Intelligence Committee) which Some German codebreaking was Foreign Legion and Italy.
Visit our Book Store at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

Utility Monitoring
Seeking You:
Nils Schiffhauer, DK8OK
dk8ok@gmx.net
an you actually ‘hear’ the head-
C line? If you cannot help but auto-

matically translate this onomato-
poeia to ‘CQ’ (‘Seek-You’, ‘Calling
a Station’), you are right at the
centre of this month’ column. If the syllables
sound like a mere cacophony to your ears,
you might not be too familiar with the world
dahdidahdit,
dahdahdidah
of Morse code (CW).
It was around Easter 1833, when Johann
Carl Friedrich Gauß (or: Gauss, 1777-1855) This month, Nils Schiffhauer takes us into the
and Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891)
made history, by establishing the first world-
traditional world of Morse code, looking at its history
wide electric communications network. and demonstrating how you can still receive a
Until then, they had “often telegraphed plethora of fascinating stations in this area.
small phrases to each other with great suc-
cess”, as Gauß, a genius of mathematics,
wrote in a letter.
All this took place in Göttingen (Germany),
a scientific centre not only in those days
years. Their experimentations were, how-
ever, not much more than a hobby for both
these scholars.
V
Four years later, two Englishmen and
near-contemporaries, William Fothergill Z
Cooke (1806-1879) and Charles Callsign
Callsign
X
Wheatstone (1802-11875) appealed to the
ears, eyes and pockets of owners of the 4
London and Birmingham Railway company, Pro[cedural]sign
Pro(cedural)sign
through their presentation concerning a five-
‘from’
‘from’ DE
needle electric telegraph. V
However, it took another two years until, in forFor
tuning
tuning
1839, the ‘Victorian Internet’ really started. V
In North America, the painter Samuel Morse V
(1791-1872) and the machinist and inven-
Separator
tor Alfred Vail (1807-1859) developed what
Separator =
later came to be called Morse code – a clev- 1
er, near-digital (see box), kind of language,
by means of which users were able to com- teaching Morse code, as can be seen at the Fig.1: 4XZ, the Israeli Navy/Haifa, on 6607kHz, with
municate – first, by means of landlines and following URL: a loop for tuning. HF spectrograms like this one are
later through radio transmitters. https://tinyurl.com/y8ydl4sg running from the bottom to the top.
This form of communications, some 180 Remember, the term ‘Morse code’ de-
years old now, is still in daily use today daily, scribes the code or language of transmis-
although it appears to be fading away. sion. By contrast, the acronym ‘CW’ denotes negative of it.
‘continuous wave’, referring to the mode You should then tune onto ‘mark’ and lis-
A ‘Dead’ Mode Lives of transmission. ten with a narrow filter, which will enable you
The technology started with the advent, Both terms are widely confused and used to hear the correct Morse code only (Fig. 2).
and refinement, of radio teletype (RTTY). interchangeably in the literature. You will also, occasionally, find CW
The official ‘silent key’ situation for Morse Usually, Morse code is transmitted by sent via an ordinary AM transmitter, and
code arrived in 1999 when the code switching a transmitter ‘on’ and ‘off’ with a with a carrier and both sidebands mod-
was abandoned in favour of the (digital) Morse key. This happens in the rhythm of ulated (Fig. 3).
GMDSS - the Global Maritime Distress the letters, numbers and other signs of the
and Safety System. actual message (Fig. 1). Decoders: MRP40 is
For some time, it looked like only amateur Sometimes, Morse code is also used in Doing the Job
radio operators would keep this ‘dead’ mode between RTTY transmissions. This con- How to decode Morse code? The best thing,
going. Nevertheless, there are still a couple sists of two tones with the lower one called naturally, is to learn the code, get some
of professional stations around the world ‘space’ and higher one ‘mark’. In most of solid practice, and seek out challenges
still pounding the brass, as it were. these cases, ‘mark’ denotes the Morse such as sloppy transmissions, Cyrillic and
What is more, some countries are still code, whereas ‘space’ shows an exact Japanese characters, and a bag of specific

Utility Monitoring
PICTURES: NILS SCHIFFHAUER
abbreviations. You should be proficient af-

ter a short time.
Always begin by recognizing each Morse
code character as a characteristic sound;
you must not try to count the dots and dash-
es! So, the letter F must be learned as didi-
dahdit, given with at least 12 words per min-
ute (wpm), rather than dot-dot-dash-dot.
Stephen C. Phillips’ site will get you
through the dashes and dots. He really ‘got
the rhythm’, as he is also a Salsa teacher.
Coincidence? I think not!
https://tinyurl.com/ydege52f
Luckily enough, there are many software
decoders around. After many years of test-
ing nearly all that I could possibly find, at any
price, MRP40 by Norbert Pieper turned out
to be the clear winner for me.
https://tinyurl.com/ydzex6w8
It can be used for free for 30 days, after
which period you will almost certainly buy
the licence for up to two PCs for about 50
Euros. The example in Fig. 4 shows an ex- 2 3
ample of the French military station FAV22,
in the context of Morse code training; here, cation reveals its own timing, syntax and Fig. 2: On VLF (18.1kHz) you can often hear
the decoder clearly shows its mettle. ‘handwriting’. There have been lengthy dis- a transmitter of the Russian Navy in RTTY, 50
https://preview.tinyurl.com/myjofth cussions about Morse being a binary, ter- Baud/200 Hz shift from the Vileyka transmitter in
However, you ought to consider even a nary, quaternary or even quinary code. One Belarus.
good decoder such as MRP40 as merely a convincing view is to look at Morse code as Fig. 3: CW in AM is quite rare on HF. Here, Chinese
supporting instrument, rather than a com- a binary code, with the shortest pause as ‘0’ time signal station BPM identifies itself in this mode.
plete and perfect ersatz for the experienced and the dot as ‘1’. Here, a dash is written as
combination of brain and ear of a skilled 111, an inter-letter space as 000
communications officer, greyed in the hon- (https://cs.stackexchange.com/ques VVV VVV VVV DE HLG HLG HLG TFC
our of a near-lifetime service. tions/39920/is-morse-code-binary-ter LIST [15s pause] CQ CQ CQ QTC QTC
MRP40 will cope with a variety of signals, nary-or-quinary). DTAE8 DTAE8 DTAD9
only to finally despair at the odd, hand-made, Moreover, it is a ‘varicode’, like PSK31, DTAL9 HLWB HLJB […] 6MCI DE HLG/HLF.
CW by JFX, a Kagoshima fishing radio sta- because the number of symbols represent-
tion. The last resort here is to emulate the ing one letter follows largely its frequency in This translates as:
pioneers and return to the old practice of a English-language texts: letter E (12,6% of an VVV = test for correct tuning (yes, after
paper slip (now an electronic one). You can average text) is just a dot, letter T (9,4%) just Beethoven’s 9th Symphony!)
produce a spectrogram, for instance, using a dash. This is a key variation from most DE = from
the (free) Audacity software; this way, you other digital codes, which have a fixed num- HLG = callsign of Seoul Radio
can decode the signals visually: CQ CQ DE ber of symbols for each character – like TFC LIST = list of callsigns for which we
JFX JFX QSX 6/8/12 MHZ K (Fig. 5). ASCII, with 7 elements. have some traffic will follow
https://www.audacityteam.org CQ = seek you [because of …]
In a few cases, even this may be difficult. CW Still Rules Some Airwaves QTC = I have telegrams for you [callsigns
In the example shown in Fig. 6, a (faulty) Where to start? If you are a ‘newbie’, first of ships follow]
transmitter, with the tactical callsign 5455, try to catch those stations, which repeat DTAE8 = Fishery Patrol Vessel
calls a station of the Russian Navy – some their callsign quite often and do this slowly. Mugunghwa No. 19; position N 35°05’ E
300Hz above the assigned channel. For instance, the cluster frequencies of the 129°02’ [Busan Port]
one-letter beacons used by the Russian DTAD9 = Reefer Angel I
CW: A Digital or Analogue Mode? Navy make an ideal starting point (Fig. DTAL9 = Trawler Oriental Angel
CW is digital, as there are only two states: 7). Then, you could switch to other mari- HLWB = Reefer Dae Young No. 111
carrier on or carrier off. Morse code seems time stations, which sprinkle their CW call- HLJB = Fishing Vessel Han Sung No.38
to consist of three elements: dot, dash and signs in between their free-line signal in …
pause. The shortest element is the dot. A SITOR-A (Fig. 8). 6MCI = Fishery Patrol Vessel
dash has the length of three dots. A pause There are even some (very few) stations Mugunghwa No. 18
between each element is of one dot’s in the international maritime bands, waiting DE HLG/HLF = from Seoul Radio
length. It is three dots’ length long between to be called in CW. One such case is HLG,
characters, and seven between words. In Seoul Radio/Korea, on 8484kHz, transmit- There are some vessel databases on the
practice, each hand-made CW communi- ting around 18:00 UTC (Fig. 9): internet, allowing you to identify callsigns.

Utility Monitoring
• 18.1kHz RDL Russian Navy/ Vileyka, Belarus, FSK-CW

RDL and 5-cypher groups
• 3881.0kHz FAV22 DIRISI CNMOTSR / CCF Centre
At times, you will
National de Mise en Oeuvre Télécommunications
Spatiales et Radio/Centre de Contrôle des
also hear Emergency
Fréquences, Lanvéoc/France, Morse code lessons, Action Voice Messages
5-character groups // to 6825.0kHz
http://www.numbersoddities.nl/M51-profile.pdf (EAM) or Sky King
http://www.r-e-f.org/index.php?option=com_content&
view=article&id=715&Itemid=444 broadcasts
• 4331.0kHz 4XZ Israeli Navy/Haifa VVV VVV VVV DE
4XZ 4XZ ==, also 5-letter groups
• 4799.0kHz HNVW DE LWDK, 20.8.2018, 20:25 UTC,
Russian Military
• 4992.5kHz RJD99 Russian Navy VVV RJD99, fast
• 5179.0kHz RMP Russian Navy, HQ Kaliningrad, to
REO (collective callsign of the Baltic Fleet), weather
(погода or ‘pogoda’) in Russian, given with 18 wpm
in Cyrillic Morse code, from 04:00 to 04:24 UTC
(Figs. 10 and 11).
• 5855.0kHz RCV Russian Navy, HQ Sevastopol, to
RIC87 (the collective callsign of Black Sea Fleet),
the weather in Russian, transmitted, with 18wpm, in
(Cyrillic) Morse code from 19:00 to 20:04 UTC
• 6391.0kHz AQP Pakistan Navy/Karachi VVV VVV
VVV DE AQP4/5/6
• 6607.0kHz 4XZ Israeli Navy/Haifa VVV VVV VVV DE
4XZ 4XZ ==, also 5-letter groups 6
• 6825.0kHz FAV22, see 3881.0 kHz
• 8424.0kHz SVO Athens Radio/Greece DE SVO
• 8431.0kHz TAH Istanbul Radio/Turkey, TAH Here is one example:
4558.1kHz A Astrakhan
between SITOR-A https://www.marinetraffic.com 5153,7 kHz D Sevastopol
• 8433.0kHz XSG Shanghai Radio/China, XSG Have I got you hooked? Then you should 5153,9kHz S Severomorsk
between SITOR-A 5154,1kHz A Astrakhan
try out the frequencies indicated in the list 5156.8kHz L Petersburg
• 8484.0kHz HLG Seoul Radio/South Korea CQ CQ CQ
DE HLG HLG HLG QSX 8MHZ K on the left (Table 1). 7509.0kHz C Moscow
Many countries do still use this mode 7508.9kHz S Severomorsk
• 8508.1kHz RDL Russian Navy, FSK-CW RDL
• 8636.0kHz HLW Seoul Radio/South Korea CQ of communication; North Korea (the 7508.7kHz D Sevastopol
CQ CQ DE HLG HLG HLG QSX 8MHZ K, much 10871,7kHz D Sevastopol
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,
stronger than HLG 10871,9kHz S Severomorsk
• 8816.0kHz RJF94 Russian Naval Air Transport/ DPRK) and the People’s Republic of China 13527,7kHz D Sevastopol
Moscow VVV DE RJF94, there is much traffic here (PRC) among them. 13527,8kHz P Kaliningrad
• 12464kHz Russian Navy 13528.8kHz C Moscow
• 12581.0kHz XSV Tianjin Radio/China XSV 13528,1kHz A Astrakhan
between SITOR-A
Frequencies 16331.7kHz D Sevastopol
• 12613.0kHz XSQ Guangzhou Radio/China XSQ I received all the frequencies indicated 16332.0kHz C Moscow
between SITOR-A on the left (Table 1) in the second half of 20047.7kHz D Sevastopol
• 12624.0kHz TAH Istanbul Radio/Turkey, TAH 2018 in Northern Germany, using an ELAD
between SITOR-A
• 12654.0kHz TAH Istanbul Radio/Turkey, TAH
FDM-S2 SDR receiver, with a Megadipole Table 2: Morse Code One-Letter Beacons (Russian Navy, CIS).
between SITOR-A MD300DX. The latter is an active vertical
• 12637.5kHz XSG Shanghai Radio/China XSG dipole of no more than 2 x 2.5m in length. For two easy examples, see 5179.0 kHz
between SITOR-A You can also resolve non-directional bea- and 5855.0 kHz (Table 1).
• 12704.5kHz JFX, Kagoshima Fishing Radio Station/
Japan CQ CQ QTC DE JFX … QSX 6/8/12 MHz cons (NDB, mostly on long wave), and some Table 2 shows some clusters of
K, hand-made CW Russian Navy and Air Force stations: easy-to-receive one-letter beacons
• 13012.0kHz AQP Pakistan Navy/Karachi VVV VVV https://www.ndblist.info/beacons.htm (Russian Navy, CIS).
VVV DE AQP4/5/6 https://tinyurl.com/y9ssm4fh
• 16910.0kHz HLJ Seoul Radio/South Korea CQ CQ CQ
DE HLJ HLJ HLJ QSX 16 MHZ K https://tinyurl.com/yde6hbn7 Editor’s Reading Tips:
https://tinyurl.com/y7f3enja Kerby, M. (2018) Samuel Morse
Table 1: A Morse Code Frequency List. https://tinyurl.com/y9lulwkm (MK Publications)

Utility Monitoring
SITOR-A
SITOR-A
Morse: TAH
Morse: XSG
Closing:
DE HLG/HLF
Traffic
List
Blocks with
VVV VVV VVVV DE HLG HLG TFC LIST
11
Fig. 4: Lessons learned – the MRP40 decoder clearly reads CW lessons by the French military
transmitter FAV22 on 3881kHz. Fig. 5: Marginal conditions and slovenly, hand-made, Morse
code make it difficult for software to decode. The ‘last resort’ is a spectrogram, as here with JFX,
Kagoshima Fisheries Radio, on 12704.5kHz. Fig. 6: 5455 calling the Russian Navy, but the ‘chirpy’
sound of this (faulty) transmitter is difficult to read. Fig. 7: The Russian Navy provides a network of
single-letter beacons for propagation studies, clustered within some 100Hz. From Left to Right: D
(Sevastopol), S (Severomorsk), C (Moscow) and A (Astrakhan) (Table 2). Fig. 8: Istanbul Radio TAH
and Shanghai Radio XSG transmit their free-line signals in SITOR-A and frequently throw in their
callsign in Morse code. Fig. 9: Seoul Radio is calling specific stations, for which purpose it uses
telegrams. Heard on 8484kHz (on July 24th, 2018, at around 18:00 UTC). Fig. 10: Weather report
from RMP, HQ of the Russian Navy in Kaliningrad for their Baltic Fleet in Russian/Cyrillic Morse code,
decoded with Wavecom’s W-PC and …(see Fig. 11). Fig.11: … translated by Google which – with some
open-mindedness – makes perfect sense... 10

Emerging Issues in Radio
International Radio (and

Audio) Festival in Malta
Chrissy Brand’s latest assignment took her to an island in the sun. She
finds that the music radio industry is still alive and kicking and turns her
attention to ‘psychedelic-noir audio drama’ and other intriguing podcasts.
CHRISSY BRAND
Chrissy Brand
chrissyLB@hotmail.co.uk
I
’m writing this month’s column while
attending the International Radio
Festival (IRF) in Valletta, Malta,
which took place from October 29th
to November 4th. Valletta was the
2018 European Capital of Culture, and its
Fort St. Elmo, built in the sixteenth century,
was the impressive venue for the festival.
This event commenced in 2010, under the
stewardship of Darryl von Daniken, the fes-
tival’s director. It is aimed at music radio
professionals: on-air hosts, producers, pro-
grammers and the music industry.
I attended the week-long radio festival
and the one-day audio conference (Fig. 1).
There was a prevailing conidence and ex-
citement emanating from the presenters
who broadcast at the festival. This is de- 1
spite the challenges and competition faced INTERNATIONAL RADIO FESTIVAL
by the music radio industry, in the shape Proceedings kicked off with Maltese
of the many streaming music services, the station Bay Radio’s morning programme.
key ones being Pandora, Vevo, Apple Music, The station has been the most popular in
Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Spotify and YouTube. Malta for the past decade, with a market
This surge of optimism was typiied by share of 22.31%, or a daily audience
what Darryl wrote in the festival brochure, of 50,000 people. Aired in Maltese and
“Radio is experiencing a tremendous resur- English, the four-hour daily morning show
gence itting in perfectly with today’s ear- is presented by Daniel Testa and Ylenia
phone generation and feeding our need for Spiteri (Fig. 2). The show seemed typical
authenticity and ‘time away’ from today’s ev- of its kind, with competitions, light-hearted
er-increasing impersonal over-digitised and banter and hit music. 2
over-engaged one-dimensional ‘fake’ world, Although popular, can such shows afford
where supericial suring represents the or- to rest on their laurels in the radio and audio the rest of the daytime and evening music
der of the day. Media channels, brands and world of fresh innovations? The lipside radio schedules, which can be pre-recorded
services are rediscovering the unique quali- of that is that the drivetime slots always or used on an automated playlist.
ties of radio and curated audio, recognising command huge audiences. Commercial One programme that did seem to be
radio as the most sociable medium. No won- radio stations around the world do a pushing the boundaries was Flying Carpet,
der radio is returning the fastest-growing ad- similar job in getting the city, region or, in presented by a team based in Zürich and
vertising revenues across commercial chan- Bay’s case, even the nation, to work and called Kasheme. Kasheme invites DJs and
nels these past few years!” school every weekday. musicians from around the world to play
Drivers automatically turn the radio on their own choice of records. This might
The Festival when they get in the car, which isn’t the case not sound very inspired or original, but you
Around thirty stations broadcast their when they enter the kitchen or sitting room. have to listen to fully appreciate the quality
programmes live from the IRF in Valletta. I predict that live drivetime radio will outlive and diversity of the music. DJs perform

INTERNATIONAL RADIO FESTIVAL
INTERNATIONAL RADIO FESTIVAL
(Fig. 3). It’s all about the audio, streamed Fig. 1: A radio studio was set up inside the
and consumed in whatever way is best grounds of Fort St. Elmo.
for the presenters. Today’s audiences Fig. 2: Bay Radio’s Ylenia Spiteri being
adapt and have become used to listening interviewed by Festival host Carly Wilford.
through any number of apps as much Fig. 3: Kasheme’s Tim J’peux Bytyqi performing
as – and increasingly more so than – by a DJ set at the festival.
traditional, linear, radio. Fig. 4: RJ Devaki having a ball on Red FM at IRF.
While most of the stations and
broadcasters on the festival schedule were
directly invited by IRF, the representation state that the festival had a global audience
4 from India came by a more circuitous route. of 100 million listeners. Taking all the
The Sound of India contest asked Indian FM shows’ regular audiences into account, that
in a relaxed atmosphere at the Kasheme radio stations to upload samples of shows could well be true.
bar, which is akin to a living room, with onto Mixcloud. A jury chose RJ Devaki, from It is a massive igure in these days of
sofas and rugs. Red FM 93.5 Ahmedabad, as the winner fragmented audiences, where small-scale
The Kasheme concept combines a (Fig. 4). Her regular show is also a platform radio stations, podcasts and other streams
studio, bar, club and an experience where for the local authorities, such as the mayor can be heard by just a few dozen loyal
the music is played. You can read more and police commissioner who have used it listeners. A listenership totalling 100 million
and listen to programmes from their to get their messages across. is usually achieved only by the biggest
Soundcloud channel on their website. All the festival programmes went out broadcasters in the world, like the Voice of
www.kasheme.com online and were disseminated on the America, China Radio International and the
The fact that they were invited to a radio local DAB+ multiplex in Malta, as well as BBC World Service.
festival illustrates today’s almost seamless being broadcast to each station’s regular In addition to the station programmes at
crossover between music, DJs and radio audience back home. I heard one presenter the festival, there were also some one-off

CHRISSY BRAND
programmes. I particularly enjoyed an in- Podcasts Present

terview with the current owner of D’Amato While in Malta I spoke with Jackie Stevens,
Records. D’Amato lays claim to be the old- producer and co-host of The Big Time with
est record store in the world. It is still in Whitney Allen. This is a syndicated country
the same building in Valletta as when it music show that has been running for
started off, as a family furniture store, over over 15 years. Unlike most country music,
130 years ago, in 1885. It still stocks vinyl, the show is produced and aired from Los
along with CDs and DVDs (Fig. 5), and is Angeles, rather than Nashville.
a testament to the fact that – even in this www.thebigtimeonline.com
fast-changing technological world – there Moving away from all that music radio –
are always some music formats and busi- wonderful though it was – how about the
nesses that can adapt, evolve and succeed. soothing, amusing or dramatic aspects of
A fact that deserves mention because we the spoken word, in the form of podcasts?
can sometimes turn to the new develop- Jackie and I spoke about the proliferation
ments and forget the relevance that the of podcasts; she listens to dozens –
past can deliver. The D’Amato Records all recommendations from friends.
Malta programme was one of many aired That seems a good tip. While you can
at the festival that were uploaded to the search for podcasts in apps, it’s often
International Radio Festival Mixcloud chan- hard to see beyond the popular content
nel to be heard at your leisure. NPR, CBC, ABC and BBC and the other
www.mixcloud.com/IRF traditional broadcasters.
These certainly cannot be faulted for
The Audio Conference the quality of content and production, but
In a clear acknowledgement of the chang- there are also many more obscure and
ing landscape of radio, the conference-el- innovative podcasts being produced. I have
ement of the festival embraced the tag of three podcast series for you this month.
audio, a point not lost on both the speakers I certainly plan to catch up with the many
and the audience. The setting was in one episodes I have yet to hear during the long
of the splendid halls of the Mediterranean dark nights. You will, of course, be able
Conference Centre, built by the Order of St. to ind these podcasts via your preferred 5
John as a hospital in the sixteenth century. podcast app or search engine. INTERNATIONAL RADIO FESTIVAL
I couldn’t help but wonder what the patients We start with two long-running
of the past would make of the debates that programmes, set in ictional North
echoed around the hall, as radio present- American radio stations: King Falls AM
ers, producers and audio professionals is set at a mountain town’s late night talk
from the Channel Islands to Shanghai and radio show and its paranormal happenings
Moscow to Munch gathered. and inhabitants. Despite this supernatural
Music business executive Scott element, I ind the characters to be
Cohen was one of those insisting that believable and well-constructed:
‘radio’ is ‘dead’. He suggested that www.kingfallsam.com
automated playlists are the way forward. Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast
But Paul Sylvester of Absolute Radio presented as a radio show for the ictional
vehemently disagreed, leading to Scott town of Night Vale, reporting on the strange 6
challenging Paul to spot the difference events that occur within it. The series Fig. 5: Is D’Amato Records in Valletta the oldest
between an automated playlist and one was created in 2012 by Joseph Fink and vinyl stockist in the world?
compiled by a DJ. Jeffrey Cranor. Fig. 6: Paul Sylvester, Xanthe Fuller, Nicky Birch
Nicky Birch (BBC, Somethin’ Else www.welcometonightvale.com and Scott Cohen debate radio’s future.
Productions and Rosina Sound) took the Finally, What’s the Frequency? started in
words out of my mouth when she stated 2017. It is a ‘psychedelic-noir’ audio drama,
that radio is not just about automated set in 1940s Los Angeles. Radio Events
music. Even on music radio, listeners want https://wtfrequency.com EUROPEAN RADIO SHOW AND DIGITAL
presenters, entertainment, news and (a vital There is a ghostly unease that haunts all AUDIO SHOW 2019
point) companionship too. three of these well-assembled productions. Paris, January 24th to 26th
Mixcloud’s Head of Community, Xanthe For me, they highlight the way forward for UK INTERNATIONAL
Fuller, added that Mixcloud’s strength and audio drama: Quality, but on a small scale, RADIO DRAMA FESTIVAL
popularity have been growing from the and with low budgets. Herne Bay, Kent, March 18th–22nd
fact that it hosts thousands of complete ‘Traditional’ state broadcasters’ drama 146TH AUDIO ENGINEERING
radio shows with mixes, entertainment departments could be under threat from SOCIETY CONVENTION
and personalities. She stated that this was the rise of the drama podcast, or they The Convention Center, Dublin,
one reason why radio would remain a key could take inspiration from them. Which March 20th–23rd.
medium around the world (Fig. 6). will it be ... ?

Radio in History
The Sinking of
an Ocean Greyhound
Scott Caldwell describes the role that radio communications and the
Marconi wireless room played in the final hours of the RMS Lusitania.
Scott Caldwell
Scottandrew.caldwell@yahoo.co.uk COURTESY OF STAMPS FROM ÉIRE
The RMS Lusitania was a technologi-

cal marvel of her time. She was the largest
and fastest vessel aloat and reclaimed the
Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic from the German
Empire, with a service speed of 24-25
knots. (Her slightly younger sister ship, the
RMS Mauretania, would eclipse her in both
size and speed).
She was the irst superliner and herald-
ed a period of intense rivalry with the White
Star Line. Her interior was designed by the
renowned Scottish architect James Miller
and was revolutionary in terms of power,
style, and luxury (Figs. 1 and 2).
The Lusitania had two wireless opera-
tors, who provided a continuous 24-hour 1
watch. On her last voyage, her wireless

operators were: Senior Wireless Operator
Robert Leith and Junior Wireless Operator
left her home port for the very last time.
His rate of pay was £0 1s 0-d, which
The wireless
David McCormick. Robert Leith was born was a token payment, allowing him to equipment was
in Liverpool, on June 12th, 1885. His fam- sign the ship’s article as an ‘oficial crew standard issue and
ily was large, keeping with the norms of member’. His wages were actually paid by
Victorian society, and they seem quite set- the Marconi Marine Company, who then consisted of two sets
tled and happy together. He had a striking subcontracted his services to the Cunard
appearance with deep red hair. He attended Steamship Company.
the Blue Coat School and received a good David McCormick was born in 1895 and transmitting. In the event of a power supply
standard of education. Resulting in employ- also lived in Liverpool. His position on the failure, an emergency set was housed
ment with the Marconi Marine Company Lusitania can be considered as pure bad within the wireless room. It was powered
in 1906. His previous ship was called luck, as he replaced wireless operator independently for the power plant and
the SS Bohemian. W.C. Ryan, who failed to join the ship’s utilized a set of batteries. Communication
From a young age, Robert Leith was fas- company. He joined Marconi Marine in 1913 with land was lost for approximately three
cinated with the large liners who sailed and served on the ships Ionian, Colonian, hours in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, not bad
along The River Mersey. He later recalled London Hall and Warwickshire. considering the revolutionary nature of
the following childhood memory: “I saw The Marconi Wireless Room (Figs. 3-6) early Marconi equipment. The remarkable
the Lusitania slip down the Mersey, blaz- was located atop the Sun Deck, in between ability of the operators to handle vast
ing with lights, on her maiden voyage. The the second and third funnels. It was very amounts of wireless trafic was clearly
thought never occurred to me that she could clearly a basic structure and resembled a highlighted during her maiden voyage
be bound up with my own life, that this new traditional radio shack. The opulence of when more than 1,000 words per day
wonder ship should one day call for help the irst class was a world away from the were transmitted.
through the agency of my ingers.” working conditions of the Marconi wireless Passengers who wished to utilise
operators. Her Marconi callsign was MFA the Marconi wireless could leave their
The Marconi Wireless Room and the Mauretania was allocated the messages at the Enquiry Ofice, together
On April 16th, 1915, he signed the ship’s callsign MGA. The wireless equipment with the required payment. Unlike rival
articles and reported for active duty at 7 was standard issue and consisted of companies, the Marconi wireless room was
am, the following day, when the Lusitania two sets – one for receiving and one for connected to the rest of the ship by a 23-line

Radio in History
SCOTT CALDWELL COURTESY OF ERIC SAUNDER COLLECTION
2 3
COURTESY OF ERIC SAUNDER COLLECTION
steaming away from the war zone, yet the Distress Messages
tension amongst the passengers and crew At 11:52, on May 7th, a warning was re-
had begun to build. A warning from the ceived, via Admiralty Queenstown. It
German Embassy had warned passengers contained the following information:
about the dangers of travelling on British “Submarines active in a southern part of
merchant ships. Irish Channel. Last heard of twenty miles
To maintain their security no personal south of Coningbeg Lightship. MAKE SURE
messages from passengers were trans- CAPTAIN LUSITANIA GETS THIS MESSAGE.”
mitted, in order to prevent the Imperial The management at Cunard had also be-
German Navy from working out her course gun to have concerns about the safety
and speed. A number of Admiralty mes- of their famous liner. Her chairman was
sages were received for the Captain, which Alfred Booth, and he personally attended
advised of German U-boat activity off the Admiralty Headquarters at Liverpool, to
Southern Irish coast. The Admiralty applied stress the need for increased protection
a strict censorship to all messages sent to for the Lusitania.
the Lusitania and intercepted them. Captain William Turner ordered a ru-
A single codeword, sent by the Admiralty dimentary turn to starboard and put the
4 to the Lusitania, was “Questor”, which ques- Lusitania directly in the iring range of U20.
tioned what version of the MV Codebook Robert Leith had just sat down to dinner in
Fig. 1: The RMS Lusitania. Fig. 2: Luxury she utilised. She replied with the code the Second Class Dining Room and was of-
cutlery from the RMS Lusitania. Fig. 3: The word “Westrona”, which conirmed that icially off-duty. He recalled the following
Marconi Wireless Room of the RMS Lusitania a irst edition was being utilised to code memory of the torpedo striking the ship:
(i). Fig. 4: The Marconi Wireless Room of the wireless trafic. “The soup was placed in front of me by a
RMS Lusitania (ii). At 12:05 on May 6th, the Admiralty sent steward, a women passenger remarked,
the following detailed message to all you’re very late Mr Leith. Suddenly my soup
ships heading towards the war zone, off plate went jumping and my ears illed with
telephone exchange. This enabled direct the Southern Irish coast. “Between South the thunder of the explosion. My mind re-
communication with the Captain, Oficer of Foreland and Folkestone, keep within tains a lash of the few faces around me…
the Watch, or the Enquiry Ofice. On second two miles of shore and pass between the blank astonishment rather than fears and no
to the last voyage, the Lusitania carried a two light vessels. Take Liverpool pilot at sense of anything catastrophic.”
famous passenger, Guglielmo Marconi who the bar. Avoid headlands; Pass harbours Sensing that the ship was under attack,
went to New York on a business trip. at full speed; Steer mid-channel course. he ran out of the Dining Room and upwards
Submarines off Fastnet.” At 19:52, the port to the Sun Deck and the Marconi Wireless
Doomed Departure of Queenstown acted and sent the fol- Room. Where he promptly took over the key
The Lusitania departed her New York peer lowing message directly to the Lusitania: from David McCormick. Clearly, there was
on 1st May 1915, she was a couple of days “Submarines off Fastnet”. no need for an order to send any distress

Radio in History
COURTESY OF ERIC SAUNDER COLLECTION
The first distress

message sent by
Robert Leith, reported
the following “S.O.S.,
Come at once, big list,
10 miles South Old
Head Kinsale MFA.”
signal; obviously, the Lusitania was mortally
wounded and in danger of capsizing.
The irst distress message sent by Robert
Leith, reported the following “S.O.S Come
at once, big list, 10 miles South Old Head
Kinsale MFA.” It soon became apparent that
the Lusitania was doomed, and the distress
message came more desperate “S.O.S.
Send help quickly. Am listing badly MFA!”
During, this time the Ammeter needle on the
transmitter dropped to zero, indicating that
the power had failed. Robert Leith tapped Fig. 5: The Marconi Wireless Room of the RMS Lusitania (iii).
the glass panel and the needle still failed to SCOTT CALDWELL
move upwards, for a slight period of time come complacent? Or had the Admiralty
the Lusitania had been silenced. It was time deliberately put the Lusitania in harm’s
for the emergency setting; time was running way to provoke American action against
out for the Lusitania. (The clock read 14:14. Imperial Germany?
Lusitania sank at 14:18). In an attempt to blame Captain William
The crews of the rescue trawlers praised Turner, an inquiry was established,
the speed and accuracy of the distress sig- under the infamous Lord Mersey of
nals, which Robert Leith had sent out under Toxteth. However, Lord Mersey refused
very dificult conditions. to blame Captain Turner entirely for the
The operators decided to abandon their Lusitania sinking and concluded that the
posts and joined the chaos on the boat German Imperial Navy was responsible,
deck. One remarkable act was a series of through an act of war.
photographs taken by David McCormick, He offered his account of Captain Turner,
which show the Lusitania sinking by the and it stated that the latter had “exercised
head. Unfortunately, for history, the camera his judgment for the best.” Many still feel
and ilm were damaged during the sinking. that the Lusitania inquiry was a ‘white-
Both wireless operators managed to wash’ and that it failed to defend Captain
survive the sinking and hours in the ocean, Turner over the lack of protection offered
waiting to be picked up. The following is a to the Lusitania.
segment of an interview with the Sunday Robert Leith was called to give evidence
Chronicle, which described their escape: “At on the second day of the inquiry and gave
Queenstown, McCormick and I were reunit- basic evidence over the nature of his duty. Fig. 6: A Plan of the Marconi Room on the RMS
ed. He had gone down with the ship and had However, he refused to discuss oficial Lusitania.
been caught in the vortex of water closing messages received from the Admiralty,
over his head. Yet he told me that the suction as they were under the jurisdiction of the
had been nothing like so serious as everyone Defence of the Realm Act. Further Reading
had expected and he had been picked up by Robert Leith never served at sea again. Ballard R (2009) Lusitania (Haynes/
a boat after bobbing to the surface.” Instead, he was posted to the inspection Publishing & Madison Press Book)
staff of the British Marine Service, cover- Layton J (2015) Lusitania: An Illustrated
Aftermath and Debates ing the Merseyside area. He worked for Biography (Amberley Publishing)
In the years following the sinking of the Marconi Marine for a total of 27 years, un- King G et al (2015) Lusitania: Triumph,
Lusitania, there has been considerable con- til his untimely death. He died at the young Tragedy and the End of the Edwardian Age
troversy surrounding the actions of Captain age of 48, of stomach cancer. (St. Martins Press)
William Turner. Why was he steaming at His escape from the sinking Lusitania Sauder E (2015) The Unseen Lusitania
only 18 knots near harbour entrances and may have contributed to his cancer, as he (The History Press).
not following a zigzag course? Had he be- suffered a severe chest injury.

Profile
PICTURE CREDIT
Coffee farmer and son, Harar, Ethiopia.
Farmer Radio
Christina Longden farmers in Africa to access farming and generate the information content needed
projectmanager@lyf.org.uk plant husbandry information, market news, for the airwaves.
and agricultural learning, so that they can A member of the Foundation involved in
Christina Longden explains the engage on a more equal footing within what this work explained further: “We irst piloted
development work of the Lorna Young is, at best, an inequitable and, more often, the LYF Farmer Radio approach in Kenya,
Foundation and introduces its Farmer an exploitative, supply chain. working with Dorman’s Coffee and Coro FM,
Radio Initiative, which focuses on The LYF developed comprehensive creating a programme named ‘Farmer’s
supporting small farmers in Africa. materials and techniques to train farmers Gold.’ We developed a multi-platform
‘in-ield’ on the information they need approach – combining the programmes
“For me, the really exciting part of Farmer for their speciic crops and climate. The themselves, the power of the text message,
Radio is that we’re preserving the tradition Foundation states, “we saw that the one farmer ‘feedback forums’ and expert panels
of radio listening and developing its shape thing that nearly everyone in Africa can – which basically feed each other.
for the future but we’re also providing relate to, and has access to, is radio. We “Therefore, the farmer’s feedback
free education and training for African realised that, if we could deliver accurate produces content that they feel they need. A
farmers. All of this means that they can information to farmers via broadcasting, we programme is then broadcast, farmers text
feed their families and sell their crops at would have a powerful tool to reach all those in their questions about the information that
a decent price.” who need to be in the ield working; those they’ve just heard, and then we get experts
These are the words of Ian Agnew. Ian who cannot afford a formal education and from the business and from the buying
leads the Lorna Young Foundation (LYF), who may have low literacy.” or agricultural sector to respond to these
a small UK-based charity that punches Because the LYF works with trusted questions in the next programme.”
far above its weight, in terms of impact. It partners from both the private, public This is a very simple, but highly effective
was established in 2005, in memory of the and third sectors, it was relatively approach and Farmer’s Gold has been
leading fair-trade pioneer Lorna Young, who straightforward for the charity to work via reaching up to 4.5 million listeners. This
passed away in 1996. local African organisations and to bring in resulted in 705 more farmers joining their
The LYF has focused on supporting small expert agribusiness advisors and buyers to local co-operatives (50% of them women).
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk etc or something like that www.radioenthusiast.

Profile
PICTURE CREDIT
Ghana broadcaster workshop.
In addition to this, some 70,000 new, “In addition to the straightforward In 11 African countries
disease-resistant, coffee trees were planted agribusiness content we provide, many of
in Kenya in just the irst few weeks of the our partner organisations need to get crucial between 2000 to
show being broadcast. pieces of information out to communities. 2006, community
And the beauty of this model involving So, for example, our radio shows have
radio is that it can focus on any crop in any included content on HIV and AIDS, on radio stations saw
country in the world. health care and on the empowerment and an increase in
But what about the power of the internet? safety of women.”
Why isn’t the LYF focusing on this media? This latter issue was nowhere more listenership of 1,386%
Hasn’t radio had its day? evident than in the DRC, where female
“Not at all,” says Ian of the LYF; “having cocoa farmers face the reality of being
lived and worked in rural Africa myself, I brutally raped and assaulted, simply Farmer Radio, to any community or group
know the power of radio. The majority of because they need to venture outside of who would beneit from it.
people in rural Africa have no access to their homes to tend to their ields. Here, “We are now looking for organisations,
TV, but almost every household has or can the LYF went the extra mile with their DRC inancial backers or donors who can help
listen to, a radio. It’s back-breaking work for project, transporting women who had us to set things up so that we can ‘give it all
farmers and their families, and it is isolating volunteered to become radio presenters. away.’ We believe that this is absolutely the
work, especially in more remote regions, They could then train safely on the other right thing to do.”
where the internet is nonexistent. side of the border and return home If you think that you can help the LYF –
“So, radio – real, human voices a farmer afterwards to their villages to carry out whether through large-scale funding, tech-
can interact with and contribute to – will the broadcasting. nical advice on open sourcing and freeware
always be more in demand.” However, the LYF is not content with – or simply by donating – you can ind out
And, indeed, radio is on the rise in Africa; this impressive, but rather ‘contained’, more via the address and this website here:
in 11 African countries between 2000 to level of impact. Ian explains that it is now www.lyf.org.uk
2006, community radio stations saw an working to take the Farmer Radio project
increase in listenership of 1,386%, with the to a new level, beyond existing countries of [This has to be one of the most impressive
ratio of access to radio versus TV in rural operation in Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, Ghana and impactful uses of radio I have seen
areas being 68% to 26%. and Uganda: “We’re developing ‘Open in a long time; if there are other, similar,
There are further advantages to Source’ Farmer Radio, by compiling a ‘how- organisations out there, please get in
using radio to reach disadvantaged to’ portfolio and by giving away, for free, all touch with RadioUser, so we can feature
smallholders: Ian continues: our learning and knowledge on setting up you here – Ed.]
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk etc or something like that www.radioenthusiast.

Off the Record
The Free Radio Column

This month, Oscar looks at political bias in the media, reports on a
‘happy-hippie’ station and the extended medium wave band and pays his
compliments to Radio Caroline.
NATIONAL ARCHIEF
Oscar the Engineer suggestions for a better life also need to

oscartheengineer@yahoo.com be disseminated.
Many oficial, controlled, radio stations
W
armest winter greetings offer us something better than most other
and welcome along to media forms; however, arguably, the best
my irst column for a source of true freedom of expression lies
new year. Let me begin in those forms of radio and media, which
by sincerely wishing are not subject to the controls of the
you happiness, good health, and much bureaucrats and their circle of associates
prosperity for 2019 and beyond. who are known to have their own
The forthcoming months and even years political agendas.
look like they could be very interesting In short, radio is at its best when it is
times for those of us who live in the UK and ‘regulated’ only by the conscience, skills
the nearby nations of Continental Europe. and intelligence of those undertaking
For radio enthusiasts like myself, who the broadcasting.
also take an interest in news and current
affairs, I am sure we will all be listening Medium Wave
intently to our cherished pieces of receiving Moving on to some reports of interesting
apparatus, in order to be informed of what free-radio activity in the trusty and
is transpiring and what the opinions of the Fig. 1: Sylvia Kristel, star of the Emmanuelle magniicent Medium Wave band, I
various commentators are. series of ilms and ‘inspiration’ for Kristel AM. can announce that Kristel AM is still
Radio is still widely considered to be broadcasting, from time to time, at
one of the most reliable – and relatively imposes some fairly oppressive weekends. The station has recently been
unbiased – methods for obtaining news restrictions on the programme content of heard on a frequency of 1269kHz, offering
and information; although it is far from stations. Some level of perceived bias is some Sunday broadcasts.
perfect, I would say that this is largely true. allowed by certain presenters or guests, This channel is one that used to be taken
By contrast, newspapers are certainly but this would normally be expected to be by a strong German station, but it is much
suffering from dwindling circulation. Most balanced out by others on the station, so as clearer these days, with many continental
are also notorious for being biased in one to result in some sort of overall neutrality. transmissions having ceased. The name
way or another. Not that bias is necessarily Furthermore, there are restrictions on is derived from the Dutch model, beauty
a bad thing, you understand. the freedom of expression, in that ideas queen, and actress Sylvia Kristel (Fig. 1).
But radio is so good as a delivery system and views, which might be considered The pronunciation sounds like “crystal”.
for information, because it can be both unconventional, are often frowned upon The team at Kristel AM have been
personal and intimate, without being and actively discouraged from being aired operating sporadically for many decades
excessively imposing too much on the at all. Even though it is often the case that on Medium Wave and on Short Wave,
psyche of the listener. views are unconventional, because they previously using the names Southern
The BBC is supposed to be a ‘public’ are unpalatable, I would argue that the Radio and South East Sound, and perhaps
service broadcaster, with an obligation exercise of openly discussing and exploring some others that I have forgotten. Past
to be balanced in its TV and radio output. these ideas is almost always going to be a presenters of note have included Ian
However, many people, myself included, positive and productive use of our energies. Johnstone (I hope I got the spelling
feel that its programmes do tend to have a After all, if an idea is really ‘beyond the right) with his much-loved Tender Trip
political agenda, which is often subliminal pale’ as it were, it should be easy to identify programme. This brought you offshore
and sometimes quite overt. why this is the case and to dismiss it radio news from a very reliable source.
This is not too much of a problem, so completely. The danger is that something Current MW broadcasts are fairly low-
long as you are aware of it. I would argue within the wider control mechanism is powered and local, but if you are lucky,
that the worst aspect of it is the claim of having the effect of suppressing good they are well worth a listen. If you thought
‘impartiality’ which is problematic. ideas, which need to be allowed to come to that hippies were long extinct, prepare to
the surface and be implemented. be amazed. Apart from all the psychedelic
Levels of Bias The concept of freedom of expression music, you get the long hair, the love-beads
Other forms of commercial or community means that music needs to be heard, and bangles, the cheese-cloth shirts, the
radio are regulated by Ofcom, which but also that voices, views, opinions, and lared trousers, the patchouli perfume oil

Off the Record
Free radio enthusiasts sometimes call it for taking the decision to broadcast two
services, in order to cater for both groups of
‘The Dutch Band’, because so many operators in fans, even though this requires them to put
The Netherlands like to use it in more work and allocate more resources.
The licensed MW service on 648kHz is
CHRIS McANDREW going strong and carries the album music
and all the rest of the paraphernalia. Kristel format output since this has been regarded
AM is “The Happy Hippy Station”, and as the primary service in recent years.
listening to it, or meeting those guys, is like Nevertheless, it is good to have free radio
travelling back in time to the early 1970s. operators providing an outlet on Medium
Wave, for the oldies and pop singles music
Extended MW Band service as well.
I have always been a fan of the extended An alternative source for both these
section of the MW band for night time services is the oficial website at this URL:
free radio broadcasting. In the UK, the www.radiocaroline.co.uk
uppermost oficial channel is 1620kHz, The website has some prominently
and many domestic receivers won’t displayed links for listening Meanwhile,
tune above this. from time to time, Radio Albatross crops up
In some areas of the globe, however, the on Medium Wave with its own programmes.
band extends up to 1700kHz. Of course, These can also be heard via the station’s
there are also the more sophisticated audio stream and website:
‘general coverage’ radios, such as those www.radioalbatross.co.uk
you see advertised in this magazine, which
will tune to these frequencies (and others) A New Prime Minister?
without any problems. Some free radio enthusiasts will probably
I never quite know what to call this Fig. 2: Conservative politician Tracey Crouch. be aware that Conservative MP for
section of the band or sub-band. Some Chatham and Aylesford, Tracey Crouch
people call it the X-band, but I believe there on 1685kHz. This is an interesting (Fig. 2) has been an outspoken supporter
is another band in the GHz range which has development, as he is usually to be found of Radio Caroline. Recently, she was in the
this name or something similar. Free radio in the HF bands. Regular readers will know news for having resigned her government
enthusiasts sometimes call it ‘The Dutch that he is one of my current favourite free position, over delays in implementing
Band’, because so many operators in The radio broadcasters because he talks a lot, restrictions on stake levels in ixed-odds
Netherlands like to use it. he has some intriguing and engaging things betting terminals.
Maybe it is because it tends to be to say, and he is always innovative, despite I have personally never been a gambler,
heavily-populated by Dutch operators, having been around on the circuit for a but this is an interesting debate, which
that UK stations have tended to shy very long time. raises questions of rules versus freedom.
away from it a bit. However, it is not my intention to address
For daytime broadcasting via ground- Caroline Flashback this here and now. One thing that is
wave, it makes much more sense to Staying with Medium Wave news, I see being widely agreed is that this clearly
broadcast on an in-band channel, which all that reports have been coming in from demonstrates that Tracey is a politician
receivers can hear. However, for sky-wave quite a wide geographical area, concerning who is principled and honourable.
operation after dark, even with relatively the reception of a relay of the Caroline I just wanted to take a moment to
low power, these frequencies between 1.6 Flashback service on 927kHz. Many state that, amidst all the current political
and 1.7MHz offer propagation that is more people believe that these transmissions turmoil and antagonism. Could we,
reliable than 3.9MHz (76m). have some connection with the Radio perhaps, be looking at a future Prime
The higher frequency will usually give Albatross stable, and I suspect that these Minister who happens to be a staunch
stronger signals, but only if and when it is suppositions may well be correct. advocate of free radio?
open, whereas the lower frequency is much Radio Caroline has a long history, and the With that nugget, I will close things down
more likely to be open and working every station has used different music formats for this issue. Please remember to keep
night, even if signals are a little weaker. during various periods of its history. Within spreading the word. This magazine is
No two free radio stations are ever the current constituency of listeners and for all radio enthusiasts, whether you are
exactly the same, but, if setting up a fans, there has been something of a debate, interested in some of the more specialised
broadcast that is intended to run for a few and a rivalry between those who favour the aspects, or you just enjoy listening to
hours involves a lot of work, it is always more serious ‘album-music’ format, and radio and audio broadcasts as part of
very disappointing to discover that your those who prefer to hear the lighter ‘pop- your daily life.
efforts came to nothing, because you oldies’ approach. You can write to me, or share your
were ‘defeated’ by poor, or non-existent, As regular readers will know, I have mixed thoughts with other readers, by writing to
propagation conditions. feelings about Caroline, but my policy is our editor for inclusion in the Feedback
Anyway, all that is just a bit of food for always to be open and honest about my section. I will, as always, endeavour
thought; a preamble, before telling you likes and dislikes. With regard to this format to return next month with more to
that Bogusman has been heard recently debate, I have to compliment Caroline chat to you about.

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Rallies & Events
Rallies & Events

Plan your rally visits with our comprehensive list of forthcoming events. RadioUser will be at events marked with an
asterisk – come along to our stand for great deals on subscriptions to Practical Wireless and RadioUser.
Please send in details of your events if you would like them to be mentioned here: wiessala@hotmail.com
February 3rd (Sunday) February 10th (Sunday)

SEARS CANVEY RADIO AND ELEC- HARWELL ARS INDOOR RADIO AND
TRONICS RALLY: The 35th SEARS Ra- ELECTRONICS RALLY: The Harwell
dio and Electronics Rally is at Cornelius Amateur Radio Society will be holding
Vermuyden School, Dinant Avenue, Can- its 22nd indoor Radio & Electronics Rally
vey Island, Essex SS8 9QS. This is a new on Sunday, February 10th February 2019
venue for 2019, and doors open at 10 am. from 10.00 am-3.00 pm (set up from 8
Disabled visitors can come in from 9.45 am). The rally will be held in the DIDCOT
am. There is free car parking and easy lev- Leisure Centre, Mereland Road, Didcot,
el ground floor access to 2 large halls. Ad- OX11 8AY, three miles from the Milton In-
mission cost is £3. Tea, coffee and soft terchange on the A34, midway between
drinks will be available, as well as bacon Oxford and Newbury. The venue will be
butties. There will be radio, computing signposted from the A34.
and electronics traders and special inter- Tel: 07970 053 151
est groups. More details from Tony, the rally@g3pia.net
rally co-ordinator:
tony@tonystreet.net February 17th (Sunday)
RADIOACTIVE RALLY: The Radioactive
February 8th to 10th (Friday to Sunday) Rally is at Nantwich Civic Hall, Cheshire,
ORLANDO HAMCATION: The 73rd CW5 5DG. The venue has free car park-
December 28th (Friday) January - March 2019 Orlando HamCation® is at the Central ing, and the doors open at 10:30 am.
YEOVIL ARC RALLY: The Second Yeo- HORNDEAN & DISTRICT ARC: This Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park, 4603 There will be a bring-and-buy, as well as
vil ARC Table Top Rally will take place in is the club programme for Horndean & West Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida traders and an RSGB bookstall. A single
the Sparkford Village Hall, Church Road, District Amateur Radio Club for January 32808, USA. There will be more than 150 raffle ticket is included with the entrance
Sparkford Somerset BA22 7JN. This is to March 2019. Other events may be or- commercial vendors, more than 200 programme, with additional tickets avail-
on the A303, north of Yeovil. There are ganised later. Friday, January 4th - Club swap-table vendors. The largest tailgate able. Catering is provided on site.
10 tables, and light refreshments will be meeting, Friday, January 18th - Club area in the southeastern US will show Stuart Jackson, Tel: 07880 732 534.
available. There will be adequate off-road meeting, Friday, February 1st - Club meet- and sell amateur radios, parts, computer
parking, and the event is wheelchair- ing, Friday, February 15th - Russ G4SAQ hardware and software, and other in- February 24th (Sunday)
friendly. Admission is £2. The event is ‘Sailing the Atlantic in a Small Boat’, Fri- teresting electronic items for a growing RAINHAM RADIO RALLY: The Rainham
open from 10 am to 3 pm. day, March 1st - Club meeting, Friday, group of radio enthusiasts. Over thirty Radio Rally 2019 of the Bredhurst Receiv-
wjh069@gmail.co.uk March 15th - Andrew Negus - History of forums held at the Lakeside Pavilion will ing and Transmitting Society takes place,
Portsmouth (Part 4). The club generally present a diverse range of topics, includ- from 10 am until 4 pm, at The Victory
December 29th to 30th meets on the 1st and 3rd Friday at 7 pm, ing digital amateur radio, new software Academy, Magpie Hall Road, Chatham,
(Saturday and Sunday) at Deverell Hall, 84 London Road, Pur- developments, youth and amateur radio. Kent, ME4 5JB. Local and National
HAMFEST INDIA: Hamfest India takes brook, Waterlooville, PO7 5JU. Visitors K1AA will be the operating as a special Brands and Traders, BRATS Kitchen,
place in conjunction with REVA Univer- are welcome, and membership is avail- event station and talk-in station. HamCa- BRATS Interactive Zone for Kids, BRATS
sity, Bangalore. This is the largest gather- able. The club is able to offer tuition and tion® is the second largest ham show in Junk, Talk-In Station 145.550MHz Call
ing and festival of amateur radio opera- exams for all three levels of the amateur the United States and third largest in the Sign GB4RRR. £2.50 Adult Entry. Free en-
tors in India. radio licence (Foundation, Intermediate world, after Tokyo and Hamvention, with try for children.
www.hamfestindia2018.com and Advanced). over 22.300 visitors last year. Tel: 07825 838 877
hamfestindia2018@gmail.com www.hdarc.co.uk www.hamcation.com rally-coordinator@brats-qth.org
In next month’s
onitoring
Utility MTim tions
Radio e Signal Sta
e-Defineduipment Receiving
■ Top Scanner Reviews: AOR AR-DV10 and Uniden SDS100 Softwarthe
Selecting
Right Eq
■ STEMtera Breadboard Project: A Direct Conversion Radio

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enthusiast.c
■ Twenty Years of Channel Five: Part Two October 201
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Megaloop ML200 The perfect antenna for small scale listening. The bhi ParaPro EQ20
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Uniden Bearcat SDS-100E Scanner,

WHAT’S NEW INAC Magnetic Loop Antennas,

January 2019 £3.99 www.radioenthusiast.co.uk Radio arou nd the Wor

2018 Annual Index

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News A-Z The BBC’s Musical Pioneers

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The Stimulus of World War I

Marconi (1874-1937) in 1895. Marconi pro- The War at Sea.

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Fig. 1: A German communications squad behind

erful wireless transmission stations, used

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cated to an aeroplane in light. By June 1915,

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low wooden mast, and an insulated, 100ft,

By 1913, this heavy radio equipment load