Utility Monitoring Classical Music

Aero Data Communications on HF On the Radio and Online

December 2019 £4.50 www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

OUT ● New RSPdx from SDRplay

● Icom LTE/PoC Mobile Radio
NOW ● RFinder Radio/Smartphone

Vintage Versus New

Enjoy Portable DXing on Medium Wave & Short Wave

Vintage Wireless Alan Turing Scanning Scene

Visiting the BVWS A Major Exhibition Space and Stealth

DAB Pirates | Emley Moor Mast | IBC Conference | Low-Cost Inmarsat

NDB Loggings Q4/ 2019 | Space-based VHF | Profile: WACRAL Display until 19th December 2019
 Generous Part Exchange or CASH waiting for your used Gear!
ALINCO AOR AIRSPY
NEW NEW

DX-R8E AIRSPY HF-plus Airspy HF+ Discovery AIRSPY R2

Communications Receiver with SDR capability AOR AR-8600 MkII HF/VHF SDR Receiver Same spec as HF+ but now VHF/UHF/SHF receiver
Communications Receiver • 9kHz- 13MHz with Pre-selectors for • Coverage: 24MHz-1,800MHz
• Frequency: 150kHz-34.999MHz
• Modes: AM / FM / CW / USB / LSB • Frequency: 530kHz-3000MHz no gaps • 60MHz - 260MHz improved Dynamic range • 10MHz panoramic spectrum
• Modes: WFM, NFM, SFM, WAM, AM, NAM, • Use over internet • Smaller footprint: • 3.5 dB NF (42-1002) MHz
£469.95 USB, LSB, CW 60 x 45 x 10 mm • Tracking RF filters
Optional 12V DC power supply ............£15.95 Optional Mains
Power supply......£25.95 £629.95 £229.95 £199.95 £199.95

DJ-X3ED HEADPHONES AIRSPY Mini

High performance miniature SDR Dongle • Covers: 24-1800MHz £119.95
Pocket Size Scanner
Y esu STA
Ya T 77
• 150kHz-1300MHz
• Modes: AM/FM/WFM
Lightweight Stereo SDRplay
headphones - as used
• Memory: 700 channels by our boss!
NEW RSP-Duo NEW RSP1A
£109.95 £79.95 Dual Tuner Entry
r model
Wideband SDR Powerful
wideband SDR
BEARCAT • Receives: 1kHz to 2GHz, with no gaps
• 2 Tuners with individual • Covers: 10kHz-2GHz
antennas inputs £239.95 • Built-in filters £89.95
UBC-125XLT
L
500 channel AM/FM scanner
• 25-960MHz (w/gaps) TECSUN NEVADA
• Inc civil/Mil Airbands
BCT-
T 15X • Close Call feature PL-880 Quality Power Supplies - 2 Ye
Y ar Wa
W rranty
t!
Latest Base Mobile Scanner Flagship SSB PS-30M Linear Power supply
with ‘Close Call’ £129.95 radio with DSP
decoding • 30A (max) with meter
• 25-1300MHz (with gaps) technology •Voltage: 1.5-15V DC
• 9000 memories • Cigar adaptor output
• AM/FM/WFM Supplied with: UBC-75XLT
L £99.95
• Band scope • Mains adaptor Popular ‘A
‘ irshow’ scanner • FM, SW,
W MW,W LW
LW,
• CTCSS/DCS • DC Car Power Plug
• Te
T lescopic Antenna • 25-512MHz (with gaps) AM Bandwidth selectable PS-40M ......Linear 40A (max) 3-15V DC.............£129.95
decoding • Mounting Bracket • Modes: AM/FM • 3050 memories, PS-08 .........Linear 8A (max) 13.8V DC.................£34.95
• Alpha-numeric and Hardware • 300 channels 25 storage pages £189.95 PSW-50 ......Switch mode 50A (max) 9-15V DC ....£129.95
tagging feature PSW-30 ......Switch mode 30A (max) 9-15V DC ....£79.95
• Close Call PSW-30H .....Switch mode 30A (max) 13.8V DC ....£69.95
• GPS enabled
£249.95 £99.95 PS23-SW1....Switch mode 23A (max) 13.8V DC ....£59.95
PL-680
CREATE ANTENNAS – JAPAN Portable world JIM M75
band receiver
As used by the ‘Professionals’ with SSB Wide Band pre-amp
and VHF Air Low noise pre-amp
Burgess Hill, RH15 9RR, UK
bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close
and accessories!
headphones, speakers
Check out our range of

and fused DC power lead

- Supplied with user manual
- Headphone socket
Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com

level input sockets

separate line
- Speaker level and
- Headphone socket
radios incl’ SDR
- Suitable for all
EA&O
band with 3 band pass filters
• 24-2150MHz
- Input overload LED

• LW
L /MW/FM/SW + VHF
adjustment
- Separate volume control - “Real time” audio
- 8 ilter levels 8 to 40dB - 8 DSP ilter levels
- Simple control - Easy to use controls
cancelling speaker station speaker
10W ampliied DSP noise cancelling base
DSPKR DSP noise
10W Ampliied
- Replacement for bhi NEIM1031 In-Line
“noise-free”speech from your radio DESKTOP
and easy operation - Enjoy clear intelligble
radio incl’ SDR - Easy to use controls for quick - 3.5mm line level and speaker level inputs
Headphone socket - Suitable for all types of - Use with headphones or a loudspeaker
input/output - 7 watts mono speaker output - - Easy to use with “real time” adjustment
40dB - 3.5mm mono or stereo inputs - Line level - Rotary encoders perform all functions
noise cancelling unit - 8 Filter levels 9 to - Remove noise and interference - Hear weak signals clearly
Fully featured lexible dual channel DSP - Unique DSP noise cancelling technology - Low latency of 32mS
- Powerful high-performance audio processor

functions
of audio and
encoder control
simple rotary
unit with
noise cancelling
in-line DSP
Easy to use
Compact In-Line
Dual In-Line New lower price!
...for a great listening experience
...with irst-class DSP noise cancelling...
High-performance audio processing...

compensate for hearing loss

Precise audio adjustment to
- Four models EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20-DSP, EQ20B-DSP
- Fine-tune the audio to maximise your enjoyment
- Use with passive speakers or headphones
- Two separate mono inputs or one stereo input
- Simple control of all DSP functions
- DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions available
- Powerful high-performance audio processing system
- 20W audio and parametric equalisation on all units

ParaPro EQ20 audio DSP range with parametric equalisation

..a bhi DSP noise cancelling product!
Hear weak signals clearly with..
bhi

Airband • Variable gain

• 1900 station memories • 12V DC or PP3 battery
• Multi-tuning methods (not supplied)
£149.95
£89.95
WHISTLER ULTRA LOW LOSS COAX
CLP-5130-1N CLP-5130-2N
21 Element Log Periodic Beam 17 Element Log Periodic Beam
• 50-1300MHz • 105-1300MHz
• 500W • 500W
• Gain: 10-12dBi £379.95 • Gain: 11dBi £299.95 Ecoflex 15 plus
per metre........£5.99 price per 102m drum .......£629
ANTENNAS Whistler TRX
R -2 PL259 connector (Part: 7350)..................................£8.95
N type connector (Part: 7395)..................................£9.95
MFJ-1886X Wideband Receiving Loop Scanmaster HFA
F £479.95 Ecoflex 10
• Rejects noise and Active Receive Antenna per metre........£3.79 price per 102m drum .......£345
interference for weak Covers: 1.8-30MHz PL259 connector (part: 7378)..................................£5.95
signal reception
Whistler TRX
R -1 N type connector (part: 7367 ..................................£6.50
• Bi-Directional 8" long c/w all leads £419.95 Aircell 7
• 500kHz-30MHz - just needs 12V DC! per metre........£2.99 price per 102m drum .......£269
£44.95 PL259 connector (part: 7390)..................................£2.65
£269.95 TTwo Digital Scanners with these N type connector (part: 7392) .................................£5.25
s•pRReceives
eeccse:i-v 25-1300 MHz (with gaps)
DIAMOND D-777 Airband Antenna Other 100M Coax Drums
• Covers DMR, MotoTRBO. And more! Westflex 103 ..Semi Air-
r spaced low loss ............£159.95
AOR LA-400 Fibreglass 1.7m long, • Upgradable CPU, DSP, P and library
this antenna gives RG-213 (Cabnex).....Low loss good quality ...........£99.95
Low Noise loop lets you • Store Scan lists
High Gain coverage RG-213U ........Mil spec .......................................£136.00
hear weak signals in the • EZ Scan PC software
of VHF/UHF Airband RG-Mini 8.......Super XX........................................£69.95
LW, MW and SW Bands
LW • IF/discriminator output RG58/CU........Mil spec .........................................£39.95
• Receives 10kHz-500MHz • Record & save to Windows
• 30.5cm diameter Loop £64.95 • Clock & Calendar function TTwin Feeders
• 20dB built-in Pre-amp • Spectrum Sweeper 450 Ohm........Tw
T in feeder ....................................£89.00
• Remote mount Sirio SD-3000N Discone 300 Ohm........Tw
T in feeder ....................................£76.50
with optional cable High quality stainless steel, SPIDERBEAM MASTS Nevada Antenna Wire
chromed brass & anodised Coated flex weave Antenna wire...........................£59.95
£399.95 aluminium construction Nevada 28..........2.8mm 2kW.......per metre...........£0.99
• 300 MHz-3GHz Nevada 28D .......2.8mm 2kW.......100m Drum.....£89.95
End Fed Wire Receive Antenna Fibreglass Telescopic Poles Nevada 32..........3.2mm 5kW.......per metre...........£1.20
High quality complete £69.95 12 metre Heavy Duty........................................£89.95 Nevada 32D .......3.2mm 5kW.......100m Drum.....£99.95
18 metre Standard .........................................£199.95
kit includes mounting 22 metre ‘Long John’ NEW .............................£399.95
hardware & coax cable Scanmaster Desktop 26 metre Standard .........................................£499.95
Indoor Discone antenna Aluminium Telescopic masts
• Covers: 2-30MHz
• Kevlar Mil spec. wire 25-1300MHz complete with 10 metre Standard .........................................£299.95
cable and BNC plug 10 metre Heavy Duty......................................£325.00
• Length: 20m 12.5 metre Standard ......................................£329.95
14.5 metre Heavy Duty...................................£425.00
£69.95 £49.95 15 metre standard (2m retracted) ...................£399.95

nevada
®

Serving our customers for 50 years

• Unit 1 • Fitzherbert Spur • Farlington • Portsmouth • Hampshire • PO6 1TT
follow us on twitter: @NevadaRadio follow us on facebook: www.facebook.com/nevadaradio
 NEW RSPdx
A new ‘metal cased’ multi antenna, SDR A complete redesign of the popular
receiver design, covering the entire RSP2Pro with:
Spectrum from 1kHz through VLF, F LF,
F MW,
W HF,
F • Improved pre-selection filters
VHF,
F UHF and L band to 2GHz, with no gaps • High Dynamic Range mode - for
frequencies below 2MHz.
Use latest software to: • Calibrated S meter/RF Power and SNR
• Monitor up to 10MHz spectrum at one time measurements.
• Have more selectable attenuation steps • Three Antenna Ports
£194.95

Gemma
from Sales

BIGGER CHOICE • BETTER SERVICE • FAST DELIVERY • BEST UK PRICES

wi
No TET
PRICE

th
NEW NEW

w RA
MATCH

Icom IC-R8600 AOR AR-DV1 Bearcat SDS-200E

Wideband Communications Receiver 100kHz-1300MHz Wide band reception Digital Scanning Receiver
• Coverage: 0.01-3000MHz New Firmware - gives TETRA decoding and more!
Burgess Hill, RH15 9RR, UK
bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close
and accessories!
headphones, speakers
Check out our range of

and fused DC power lead

- Supplied with user manual
- Headphone socket
- Input overload LED
- Separate volume control
- 8 ilter levels 8 to 40dB
- Simple control
cancelling speaker
10W ampliied DSP noise
DSPKR
Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com

- Replacement for bhi NEIM1031 In-Line

“noise-free”speech from your radio
and easy operation - Enjoy clear intelligble
radio incl’ SDR - Easy to use controls for quick
Headphone socket - Suitable for all types of
input/output - 7 watts mono speaker output -
40dB - 3.5mm mono or stereo inputs - Line level
noise cancelling unit - 8 Filter levels 9 to
Fully featured lexible dual channel DSP

Dual In-Line New lower price!

level input sockets
separate line
- Speaker level and
- Headphone socket
radios incl’ SDR
- Suitable for all
adjustment
- “Real time” audio
- 8 DSP ilter levels
- Easy to use controls
station speaker
cancelling base
DSP noise
10W Ampliied
DESKTOP
- 3.5mm line level and speaker level inputs
- Use with headphones or a loudspeaker
- Easy to use with “real time” adjustment
- Rotary encoders perform all functions
EA&O

- Remove noise and interference - Hear weak signals clearly

- Unique DSP noise cancelling technology - Low latency of 32mS
- Powerful high-performance audio processor

functions
of audio and
encoder control
simple rotary

Compact In-Line
unit with
noise cancelling
in-line DSP
Easy to use
With DMR, NXDN, and ProVoice monitoring modes
Decodes virtually ALL popular digital modes: DMR,
...for a great listening experience
...with irst-class DSP noise cancelling...
High-performance audio processing...

• Decodes D-STA
T R, NXDN, dPMR and APCO P25
compensate for hearing loss
Precise audio adjustment to
- Four models EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20-DSP, EQ20B-DSP
- Fine-tune the audio to maximise your enjoyment
- Use with passive speakers or headphones
- Two separate mono inputs or one stereo input
- Simple control of all DSP functions
- DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions available
- Powerful high-performance audio processing system
- 20W audio and parametric equalisation on all units

ParaPro EQ20 audio DSP range with parametric equalisation

..a bhi DSP noise cancelling product!
Hear weak signals clearly with..
bhi

D-STA
T R, Ya
Y esu Fusion and lots more! • Covers: 25 - 512MHz, 806 - 960MHz, 1240 - 1300MHz
• To
T o many features to list here
P RT EXCHANGE or FINANCE available
PA Supplied with: 4GB SD Card £1199.95 - visit our web site for more details!
£2499.99 £779.99

AOR ALINCO ICOM BEARCAT

LATEST NEW NEW
FIRMWARE

£599.95

£899 £299.95 £569.95 649.95

AOR AOR ICOM BEARCAT

£425

£459.95 £659.95 £199.95 £479.95

023 9231 3090

SHOWROOM OPENING HOURS:
MONDAY - FRIDAY 9AM - 5:30PM
CLOSED SATURDAY
Index

Contents Favourites Reviews Features News Profiles

Cover Story
ISSN 1748-8117 44 International Radio Scene
Chrissy Brand is out and about once again, among
December 2019 Vol.14 No 12 both pirates and frequency coordinators, to recom-
On sale: 28 November 2019
Next issue on sale: 19 December 2019 mend listening gems and introduce a comparative
test of portable short wave radios.
RadioUser
Warners Group Publications plc
The Maltings, West Street 32 Feature: SAQ Grimeton
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH & VLF Monitoring
www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Peter Newton observes activities during United Na-
Tel: 01778 391000
tions Day at the Swedish World Heritage transmitter
Editor SAQ and offers a primer on how you can easily moni-
(c/o Warners Group Publications plc)
Georg Wiessala tor the VLF band.
[email protected]
Designer 38 Rally Report: Golborne 2019
Mike Edwards The editor reports back from a short visit to the No-
[email protected] 44 vember Golborne Swapmeet, organised by the British
Advertisement Manager Vintage Wireless Society (BVWS).
Kristina Green 7 News & Products
[email protected]
Tel: 01778 392096
SDRPlay RSPdx, Radio-Smartphone hybrids, LTE/ 40 Scanning Scene
POC Mobile Radios, and Airband Aerials; Irish DAB Tim Kirby decodes data from radiosondes and paves
Advertising Production
closures, new publications, and news from the world the way for his new RadioUser column in 2020, by
Nicola Lock
[email protected] of radio, in the UK and internationally. listening to the International Space Station.
Publisher
Rob McDonnell 14 Alan Turing: 43 Feature: The Fall of
[email protected] Misunderstood Genius (Part II) the Emley Moor Mast
Subscriptions In Part Two of his biographical essay, Scott Caldwell Roger Dowling travels back to 1969, to look at the
Subscriptions are available from as little looks at how Turing paved the way for research on collapse of an old radio mast in Yorkshire and its
as £11. Turn to our subscriptions page for radio science, machine intelligence, and information implications for the BBC and ITV.
full details.
technology.
Subscription Administration 48 Profile: WACRAL
Radio User Subscriptions,
Warners Group Publications plc
18 Book Review Mike Briggs introduces the Churches and Chapels on
The Maltings, West Street David Harris reviews a substantial new publication on the Air (CHOTA) initiative, in the context of a wider
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH Radio Caroline, which interprets the station’s evolu- look at the World Association of Christian Radio
Subscriptions Hotline: 01778 395161 tion through the perspective of business choices, Amateurs and Listeners (WACRAL).
[email protected] music genres, and outside supporters.
Technical Help 50 Digital Radio
We regret that, due to editorial time 20 Maritime Matters Kevin Ryan scans all digital formats for the most re-
scales, replies to technical queries cannot
Robert Connolly offers Part Four of his 2019 series cent news on DAB pirate radio, DAB and DRM station
be given over the telephone. Any technical
queries by e-mail are very unlikely to on monitoring Non-Directional Beacons (NDB), updates, DRM receiver news, and some intriguing
receive immediate attention either. So, if investigates a mystery aerial query and reports on special broadcasts.
you require help with problems relating to the possible end to US NAVTEX.
topics covered by RU, then please write to
the Editorial Offices, we will do our best to
help and reply by mail. 24 Airband News
David Smith details communications at the Isle of
Book and back issue orders
Send your completed form to: Man Airport, discusses airspace restructuring at
RadioUser Subscriptions Dept Manchester and introduces the concept of VHF
Warners Group Publications plc airband from space.
The Maltings, West Street
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
28 Network Radio
Chris Rolinson privately investigates network radios
in some UK undercover work, has updates on NR
channel use and passes on some very nifty hints and
tips on NR customisation.
50

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

4 RadioUser December 2019
 Editorial

Welcome
My Radio Does Not
Know Me
ello and welcome to the

40
H December 2019 issue of
RadioUser. Another year
has gone by, and I hope
that we have been able
to offer you some stimulating radio
reading over the last 12 months.
I have been out and about a lot more,
at radio shows and talks, meeting many
54 Emerging Issues in Radio of you in the process. This is something
Chrissy Brand encompasses both radio, podcasting I have really enjoyed and hope to expand
and audio trends, through the lenses of some influen- even more in 2020.
tial international radio gatherings in the USA and the At the same time, editing this
European Union. magazine has given me a new
appreciation of the wonders of radio,
57 Aerials Now! in all its forms. As Bob Crane recently
Keith Rawlings covers doublet aerials and Belling-Lee put it, “as a tool, the internet is hyper- We profile the World Association
connectors, before using a surprisingly inexpensive revolutionary, but the pace of incoming of Christian Radio Amateurs and
154MHz-Band aerial to readily monitor transmissions polar information is intense and beyond Listeners, as well as the British Vintage
from Inmarsat. anyone’s faculty to follow […] radio is far Wireless Society.
less invasive and does not know who Nils Schiffhauer offers his final Utility
60 Utility Monitoring you are […] While a cellphone demands Monitoring column, and Robert Connolly
Nils Schiffhauer closely examines transatlantic data your focus, the simplicity of radio sparks presents the fourth, and last, instalment
communications on the aeronautical HF bands and creativity, regardless of the source of this year’s NDB DXing overview.
advises on the right equipment for this branch of the of the signal”. Moreover, Scott Caldwell has gone
hobby. Cookie-free inspiration, edutainment, monthly and offers Part Two of his
music, inspiration, and much more Alan Turing article in Radio History,
66 Feature: Classical Music – can’t be bad. against the backdrop of the amazing
on the Radio At the same time, I am interested – Top Secret exhibition at the Science
David Harris outlines the thriving classical scene on as many of you are, it seems – in new Museum in London.
the radio, taking in all broadcast formats, the history technologies and reception modes, in Peter Newton updates us on all
of the genre, broadcast technology, sound quality, internet-propagation and network radio; matters VLF and on the world heritage
and the future. these topics too will be included in this transmitter SAQ Grimeton.
magazine next year. Furthermore, there is content on a
70 Rallies & Events Our choice of topics for the next few Radio Caroline book, network radios
More comprehensive than ever before: The RadioUs- months reflects this dual thrust. We will, used by private investigators, and on
er list of radio rallies, swap-meets, lectures, hobby of course, review the latest in equipment decoding radiosonde data.
meetings and events for the beginning of 2020. in 2020, but we will remain mindful Last but not least, we have
of the pioneers, and of the social and contributions on the International Space
cultural roles of radio. station, pirate radio on DAB, and on a raft
In this issue, you will find, once again, of recent, influential, radio conferences.
a wide range of features. Many warm thanks for your support in
There is a brief review of short wave 2019, Merry Christmas and a Happy New
portables, to foreshadow things to come Year to you all.
next year; and a concise review of a very See you next year.
convenient Inmarsat patch antenna.
Other articles revolve around such
things as classical music, new airband Georg Wiessala
60 technology, and historic radio masts. Editor, Radio User Magazine

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

RadioUser December 2019 5
 BEAT THE
PRICE RISE
SAVE £1.17 EVERY ISSUE
The cover price has increased to £4.50
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY THAT!
You can pay just £3.33 an issue,
and have it delivered to your door for free.
Pay £3.33 every month by Direct Debit – you can cancel at any time with no
penalty. There are no strings attached and no lump sums payable upfront.

ur Radio Society
d Royal Navy Amate
S: 72 years of tradit
ion
Aerials Reviewegis Profile of the RNAR
Yagis and Cross-Ya Airband News Airband News

protection. Secondary vortices form ATC Profiles 16: Newcastle Airport

on the two rows of plates – which are ICAO Code: EGNT IATA Code: NCL
about 9m long and 4.5 m high – in this
test installation. They are aligned edge- Frequencies (MHz) Hours of Operation
Newcastle Approach/Radar 124.380 H24
on towards the runway. This causes the Newcastle Director 125.830 As directed by ATC
wake vortices to decay much more quickly. Newcastle Tower
Newcastle Ground
119.705
121.730
H24
As directed by ATC
This could also lead to smaller aircraft Newcastle Delivery 121.730 As directed by ATC
(N.B.: Ground and (Clearance) Delivery are - unusually – interchangeable)
potentially making their approaches at
shorter intervals behind larger aircraft, ATIS
Newcastle Information 118.380 H24
thereby increasing runway capacity. Newcastle Fire (non-ATC) 121.600 Fire vehicles attending aircraft on the ground
A spokesman said that the project Navaids ILS CAT III Runways 07 and 25
NEW DME 114.250MHz
represents a major achievement in NDB NT 352.000kHz
providing test results during live traffic Runways 07
25
2329m x 46m
2329m x 46m
at a busy airport. Early conclusions at Hold NT NDB

Vienna Airport are very encouraging, Notes (A-Z)

with measurements showing that wake CAT II/III Operations
a) Runways 07 and 25 are suitable for lower than standard Category ll operations; b) Runways 07 and 25 – subject to the serviceability
vortices near the plates decay significantly of the required facilities – are suitable for Category lll operations by operators whose minima have been accepted by the Civil
faster. A laser measurement system (Light Aviation Authority; c) During Category ll/lll operations, special ATC procedures (Low Visibility Procedures) will be applied. Pilots
will be informed when these procedures are in operation by ATIS or RT; d) For arriving Aircraft: Surface Movement Radar (SMR)
Detection And Ranging, LIDAR) is used surveillance will normally be available to ATC to verify the pilots’ ‘runway-vacated’ reports. When SMR is not available to ATC only
holds D1 and A2 may be used to vacate the runway.
to record the behaviour of wake vortices

siast.co.uk
Continuous Descent Approaches
in detail for subsequent evaluation. If Subject to ATC instructions, inbound jet aircraft are to maintain as high an altitude as practicable and adopt a low-power-low-drag-

www.radioenthu
continuous-descent profile when appropriate. Turbo-jet and turbo-prop aircraft are expected to apply continuous-descent, low-power-
these measures prove to be broadly low-drag-approach techniques at all times. ATC will provide pilots with an estimate of the track distance to run to touchdown as soon
effective, as expected, this could result in as possible after the first call on the approach frequency, and thereafter on request.
Frequency Monitoring Code (FMC)
improved security and increased capacity Pilots operating in the vicinity of – but intending to remain outside of – Newcastle-controlled airspace and maintaining a listening
at all airports. watch only on the Newcastle Approach frequency (124.380MHz), are encouraged to select SSR code 3737. Selection of 3737 does

50
not imply the receipt of an ATC service. Aircraft displaying the code are not expected to contact ATC under normal circumstances,

October 2019 £4.

remain responsible for their own navigation, separation, terrain clearance, and are expected to remain clear of Newcastle-controlled
Latest Drone Developments airspace at all times. Whilst squawking 3737, pilots should be aware that Newcastle Approach may make ‘blind transmissions’, in

y
erry
order to ascertain a particular aircraft’s intentions/route. When a pilot ceases to maintain a listening watch, code 3737 should be

ve
ov
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)

co
sc
deselected.

● Airspy HF+ Di
is
Ground Movement
has launched a ‘virtual space’, in which ATC Departure clearance may be obtained by voice-RT or datalink departure clearance service (DCL). Datalink departure clearance
new technology can be safely tested – is available for aircraft departing on the GIRLI Standard Instrument Departure. Clearances must be accepted within five minutes of

PRODUCTS
receipt or a ‘revert-to-voice’ message will be received. If any data errors are detected by the system or the controller, a ‘revert-to-voice’
the Innovation Sandbox. The Sandbox is message will be received too. If the attempt to obtain a clearance is unsuccessful, the aircraft should revert to voice-RT. With the
offering innovative companies the chance exception of the Antonov AN-124, in order to maximise the use of apron parking space, all aircraft using the main apron stands must
be able to accept push-back. Aircraft unable to do this will be parked remotely, marshalled, and only be accepted if space permits.

9
to discuss, explore, trial and test emerging

● Bush WI-181
Handling Agents
concepts, helping the UK’s aviation sector Handling on the main apron is provided by Swissport. The General Aviation Centre on the South side is operated by Samson Jet
(centre frequency 130.650 MHz, callsign Samson Operations).

DC e
Ce
David Smith
[email protected]
Wake Vortices, to continue to be at the forefront of
technology. The six initial participants and
Helicopter Operations

Aerials Reviewed
As directed by ATC. Helicopters must use the runway for take-off and landing. Helicopter parking on the south apron at positions ‘P’
Royal Navy Amateur Radio Society
5DDD
(West) or ‘P’ (East) are restricted to Jet Ranger size or below. Stand 54 is to be used when available for larger types up to S76 size.

65
their projects are listed in Table 1.

R-G6
Use of Runways

REVIEW ● Winradio W
Yagis and Cross-Yagis Profile of the RNARS: 72 years of tradition

S
A variable circuit, as advised by ATC.
mall and medium-sized aircraft CAA’s innovation team will work

an Innovation
Visual Reference Points (VRP)
currently have to maintain closely with the participants to help them Blaydon; Blyth Windfarm; Bolam Lake; Derwent Reservoir; Durham; Hexham; Morpeth Railway Station; Ouston (disused Aerodrome);
Stagshaw Masts; Sunderland Harbour; Tyne Bridges. The use of Bolam Lake, Derwent Reservoir and Ouston VRPs is not
a safety-critical separation understand how they can meet regulatory recommended at night.
of 6nm from larger ones requirements. Ultimately, this will be one of Warnings

!
Gliding takes place at Currock Hill gliding site, 8nm south-west of Newcastle Airport from dawn to dusk. ATC will advise when the
flying ahead of them. The the elements the participating innovators

Sandbox and

k
site is active, but it is the pilot’s responsibility to avoid the area, by passing 3nm south-east of the site. Model aircraft flying takes

o
reason for this is wake vortices, which will need, in order to market their new place at Newcastle Gosforth Park Racecourse, 2.5nm south-east of Newcastle Airport. The Newcastle City heliport is located on

o
the north bank of the River Tyne, 0.5nm west of the Tyne Bridges VRP. Helicopters may lift at short notice from the site but will not
can have powerful and dangerous effects, aviation and travel products.

L
be above 500ft until contact is established with Newcastle Approach. When a high-pressure weather system is giving way to a low
This month’s photograph is of the former one, the wind aloft can be from the south or south-west, whilst the surface wind still favours Runway 07. There is an increased risk

t
particularly just before the following

s
of a rushed approach onto Runway 07; contributory factors are being held at high altitude, tailwind during descent, and engine anti-
aircraft touches down. French Air Force Dassault IVA is part of the

Experimentation

r
ice required during descent through the clouds (icing). A sea breeze, due to the sun’s warming overland, can have the same effect.

i
Austro Control and the German Yorkshire Air Museum’s collection.

F
Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für

m
Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) are now working

Ico
Corridors
together with other partners at Vienna 1. Altitude Angel;; a company delivering solutions, which enable the safe integration and use of highly automated drones into airspace. Through its airspace management
Airport to reduce the lifetime of wake platform (Guardian UTM O/S) Altitude Angel delivers the software foundations for safer exploitation of the potential of drones.
vortices in the final approach area and thus 2. Amazon;; a future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less, using unmanned aerial vehicles.
further increase safety. 3. October 2019 £4.50
NATS and Searidge Technologies;; ATC provider NATS and its digital tower partner, Searidge Technologies, are working to implement new technology, such as Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and digital air traffic control towers. Eventually, these will revolutionise how air traffic is managed at airports all around the world.
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
The project involves installing so-called
‘plate lines’ in the landing area. These are David Smith reports on the reduction of wake 4. NBEC Consortium (Cranfield University) and its partners, Blue Bear Systems Research, Thales and Vodafone are creating an experimentation-corridor that will enable
designed to accelerate wake turbulence
decay. Depending on the aircraft type
vortices during the final stages of an approach 5. PRODUCT
drones and unmanned aircraft to fly beyond the visual line of sight, be location-tracked and thus safely fly in the same airspace as manned aircraft.
Nesta Challenges; the Flying High Challenge,, part of Nesta Challenges,, is a collaborative engagement with cities, technologists, researchers, regulators, government,
●
●
Airspy HF+ Discovery
Bush WI-1819
iscovery
and weight, it takes some time for wake
turbulence to diminish after the aircraft has
passed by. The plate lines will considerably
shorten this period, resulting in increased
and on a new initiative for the coordination
of aircraft operations. He also outlines ATC
operations at Newcastle Airport.
6.
public services, and the public, with the aim of shaping future urban drone use in the UK.

REVIEWS
Volocopter;; this is a company developing electrically powered urban ‘air-taxis’, based on drone technology to help modern cities solve their increasing mobility issues.

Table 1: Innovation Sandbox Participants.

● Winradio WR-G65DDCe
65DDCe

ceiver and Icom First Look!

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

RF portable trans
26 RadioUser September 2019 RadioUser September 2019 27

All new IC-705 debu t at Tokyo Hamfair All new IC-705 RF portable transceiver and

plifier IC-PW2 linear amplifier debut at Tokyo Hamfair

IC-PW2 linear am Plus six pages

of latest news
and products

Plus six pages

Aerials Reviewed Royal Navy Amateur Radio Society
Yagis and Cross-Yagis Profile of the RNARS: 72 years of tradition

of latest news October 2019 £4.50

PRODUCT
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
● Airspy HF+ Discovery
iscovery

and products
● Bush WI-1819
REVIEWS ● Winradio WR-G65DDCe
65DDCe

Icom First Look!

All new IC-705 RF portable transceiver and
IC-PW2 linear amplifier debut at Tokyo Hamfair
Plus six pages
of latest news
and products
Emergency Comms Network Radio Alan Turing
The Impact of the Internet Debates and Discoveries Misunderstood Genius?

Sea Areas and Flags | VOR Beacons | Innovative Podcasts

The Rothammel in English | Magnetic Field Flips | Book Reviews Display until 24th October 2019

Emergency Comms Network Radio Alan Turing

The Impact of the Internet Debates and Discoveries Misunderstood Genius?

Sea Areas and Flags | VOR Beacons | Innovative Podcasts

The Rothammel in English | Magnetic Field Flips | Book Reviews Display until 24th October 2019

Alan Turing
Call us today on 01778 395161 and quote RAUS/SAVE
Emergency Com ms
Internet
The Impact of the
Network Radio
Debates and Discove
ries Misunderstood Gen
ius?

or go to www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store to join today

Sea Areas and
Flags | VOR Be
in English |
acons | Innova
Magn
tive Podcasts
etic Field Flips
| Book Reviews
Display until 24th October
2019

The Rotha mm el

Telephone lines are open Monday to Friday 8am-6pm and Saturdays 9am-5pm.
Prices above are applicable to UK Direct Debit only. Please see website for EU and Rest of World subscription offers.

6 RadioUser December 2019

 What’s new in the world of radio News

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

ST
Dual-Band Radio

OP
PR
ES
S!
and Smartphone
Combined
Having a 4W handheld that does FM analogue plugs can be a terrible headache. RFinder
and DMR with an Android smartphone makes it easy. What if you could have a
combined in the same device seems to look radio with a database of all DMR repeaters
impossible. However, the RFinder is a reality. that updates continuously, and you just
This radio is Dual Band (136-174 and 400- have to point and click to change to the right
480MHz). Take it anywhere. No need to carry frequency and settings? And this is not only
a smartphone and a transceiver separately. regarding DMR, but also analogue repeaters
What if you can’t reach a repeater? and Echolink nodes. This is the RFinder
That’s not an issue. Use a DMR hotspot concept. DMR made easy! Get your GPS
and magic happens, or you can also use location, find nearby repeaters, select it from
the RFinder to access Echolink and the the list, and the radio is fully configured! This
IRN (International Radio Network) via the 4Watt transceiver is also a powerful 4G/LTE
internet. Remember, the RFinder is a 4G/ Android smartphone, and it works well in US/
LTE device. So you can surf the web just like CA, EU, UK, Australia and most countries.
you would do on any android phone. DMR [email protected]
operation is exciting, but dealing with code https://tinyurl.com/y65o5b2x

TUNING TO DIVERSITY: A report focussing audiences and provides examples of work going Radio, Sabras Radio, and Sunrise Radio in their
on diversity and new talent in radio has been on to widen the talent pool coming into the radio local community. Unsurprisingly, it found that
launched at an event in Parliament. The event, and audio sector, including, for example, the these stations have some of the highest levels
hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group Young ARIAS Awards for 8-18-year-olds. The of workforce-diversity within the industry, with
(APPG) for Commercial Radio, showcased report feeds into Ofcom’s survey of diversity in many reporting a figure of well above 90%.
the range of initiatives taking place in the the UK radio industry and includes information Tuning in to Diversity highlights commercial
radio industry and marked the publication of from smaller radio stations not captured by radio’s success with diverse audiences, reaching
a new report, Tuning in to Diversity, prepared Ofcom, due to its focus on larger broadcasters. 62% of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME)
by Radiocentre. The document highlights It covers the work by small specialist stations listeners, compared to 44% by BBC services.
the results of commercial radio with diverse like Panjab Radio, Mi-Soul Radio, London Greek https://tinyurl.com/yxg5pjqu

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

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

Radio News

ST
OP
Icom BC-238

PR
A WORLD-FIRST? RTÉ CLOSES DOWN DAB:

ES
Irish state broadcaster RTÉ is to close all of its

S!
DAB digital radio services, including RTÉ Gold,
RTÉjr Radio & RTÉ Radio 1 Extra. The closures
are part of major cuts across the organisation,
Multi-Charger
including 200 jobs being lost and the closure
of its studio facilities in Limerick, home of RTÉ for the IC-M37E
lyric fm. RTÉ says it will close RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ
Pulse, RTÉ Gold, RTÉjr Radio & RTÉ Radio 1
Extra, along with the Digital Audio Broadcast
Marine VHF Radio
network. The multiplex, the only national one
in Ireland, carries RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2FM, RTÉ
lyric fm, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, RTÉ Choice,
RTÉ Gold, RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Junior, RTÉ Chill and
RTÉ Pulse. It says costs will need to be reduced
by €60 million over three years (2020-2023),
in addition to the reduction of 23% delivered
by RTÉ between 2008 and 2018. RTÉ says fees
paid to its top contracted on-air presenters will
also need to be cut by 15%, in addition to the
30+% cuts as agreed in previous years. Over 200
people will need to leave in 2020. The director-
general of RTÉ said: “Our intention was to brief
staff in full this week. However, given the sad
passing of our colleague Gay Byrne, a decision
was taken to postpone until next week. With so
much detail now in the public domain, our first
priority was to contact all staff immediately with The BC-238 is a six-slot multi-charger and out”, or indeed when a day’s work or
an update on the revised strategy, and plans. for the all-new IC-M37 Marine VHF radio. sailing is over. The BC-238 charger is an
We need to reduce staff costs—we will consult As well as providing a convenient tool for ideal charging/storage solution for many
with staff and unions on a number of initiatives, charging multiple IC-M37E handhelds, applications. Commercial users or sailing
to include pay freeze, tiered pay reductions, it also provides an ideal and logical and yacht clubs, plus activity centres or
review of benefits, work practice reforms. The location for storing multiple radios while organisations will use the IC-M37E for
Executive Board will take a 10% reduction in pay; in or out of use. Six slot chargers reduce their daily activities. The BC-238 comes
the Board of RTÉ will waive its fees.” the chance that someone might need to with six AD-138 adapters and an AC
(SOURCE: Radioworld; RTÉ, RadioToday track down a misplaced radio, by offering adapter and will be available in November.
Ireland; national & international press) users the option to slot a radio back in (Source: Ian Lockyer, Icom)
https://tinyurl.com/yyrsz7hj its charger when a conversation is “over [email protected]
https://tinyurl.com/yyxf4jvf
https://tinyurl.com/y5w3y5sb
220.352MHz) will be used.
CHANNEL ISLANDS DAB: Bailiwick (SOURCE: RadioToday)
Broadcasting has won the bidding war to https://tinyurl.com/y2ka9ggc
provide a local DAB digital radio multiplex to
the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. Three BREXIT PLANNING FOR THE AUDIO
companies applied to run the service, which INDUSTRY: George Frost, from AudioUK’s
is offered for a period of 12 years. Bailiwick BrexitReady Podcast series, offers tips and
Broadcasting – a wholly-owned subsidiary of advice for the audio industry on preparing
Nation Broadcasting, plans to broadcast 25 for Brexit next year. This is just one of the
services, to Jersey, Guernsey, Herm, Sark and capacity of 256 kb/sec must be reserved on weekly podcasts produced and published
Alderney using three transmitters. Among the this local radio multiplex service for the BBC by RadioToday, and sponsored by Broadcast
stations proposed, there was a large number to broadcast BBC Radio Jersey and BBC Radio Bionics. The entire podcast archive is on the
of new digital services covering a variety of Guernsey. The frequency being cleared for this RadioToday Programme channel. If you would
genres, including country music, children’s licence is a standard VHF DAB channel known like to suggest a topic for discussion or join
programmes, rolling news, rock music, and internationally as Frequency Block 12A (centre in one of the regular round-table shows, get in
a number of new regional radio stations for frequency of 223.936MHz). Should clearance touch:
the Channel Islands with a range of music, of this block be problematic then the GE06 (SOURCE: Broadcast Bionics, RadioToday)
local news and information. The digital Plan allocation of block 11C (centre frequency [email protected]

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

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

Radio News

ST
OP
PR
ANTARCTIC COMMUNICATIONS

ES
PIONEERS: Australia was at the forefront of

S!
radio communications. Douglas Mawson’s
Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE)
from 1911 to 1914 was the first to establish
an Antarctic radio link, at a time when radio
was a relatively new technology. The stations
operated wireless equipment, the (German-
made) Telefunken 1.5kW spark transmitter,
using long wave and Morse code telegraphy.
The expedition established two stations: the
main base at Cape Denison in Commonwealth
Bay, and a radio relay station at sub-Antarctic
Macquarie Island to bridge the distance
between Antarctica and Australia. Radio
operation needed power, so the De Dion Engine
that powered the generator was housed a short
distance from the radio shack on Wireless Hill
at Macquarie Island.
After some experimentation in the hostile
conditions, the Wireless Hill station on
Macquarie Island successfully made the first
outside communication via radio by signalling LTE/PoC Mobile Radio
the SS Ulimaroa on 13 February 1912, and later
other ships in the Tasman Sea vicinity. The
following month, the expeditioners heard the
for Commercial Vehicles
news on Hobart Radio that Roald Amundsen Icom has launched its new LTE/PoC at the same time during ‘Individual’ and
had arrived in Hobart, after being the first to mobile radio, which complements its ‘group’ calls. No licence is required for
reach the South Pole. Meanwhile, the Western growing range of LTE radio products. the IP501M, making it suitable for those
Base party on the Shackleton Ice Shelf erected Designed for installation in a vehicle, the companies that have vehicles covering a
masts for a receiving-only station. However, IP501M provides a straightforward and large distance, e.g. logistics companies
expeditioners were forced to abandon the easy-to-use solution for drivers, offering or taxi firms. With the optional HM-230HB
plan when it was discovered that detector nationwide and European PTT radio command microphone connected, users
parts were missing from the cargo, effectively coverage using the LTE/4G network. The have a display and 10-keypad control
cutting them off from news during the entire IP501M LTE/PoC Mobile Radio uses the handheld-like interface. With the built-in
expedition. same intuitive MMI as the IP501H/IP503H Bluetooth, you can connect a headset
At Commonwealth Bay, one of the windiest hand-portables, which will allow users wirelessly, giving hands-free operation
places on Earth, the base was subjected to have a mixture of handhelds (IP501H/ of the IP501M. Ian said, “Our LTE radio
to hurricane-force winds and sub-zero IP503H for individual use) and mobiles system is perfect for any transport
temperatures. After almost a year of failed (IP501M for vehicle use) recognisable to company providing on incredibly simple,
attempts to erect the radio masts and aerials all with the same operating menu and key secure full-duplex solution at a reasonable
in difficult and hazardous conditions; finally, in layout. Like the IP501H/IP503H, the new cost with nationwide coverage.”
February 1913, Commonwealth Bay established IP501M operates over a closed private (Source: Icom, LAMCO)
communication with Australia via Wireless LTE data network, giving an extra level Tel: 01227 741741
Hill. However, due to atmospheric static and of security. It also boasts full-duplex [email protected]
auroral activity, the quality of signals that could operation so users can talk and receive https://tinyurl.com/yxk4kpgw
be received and transmitted at Commonwealth
Bay varied greatly. Battling these conditions,
along with the constant howling of the wind weather information, official correspondence, shack were still intact, Mawson wrote in his
and sledge dogs outside, radio operator S.N. and also the occasional private message. At diary that, “there was little of the equipment
Jeffreys would spend entire evenings trying the end of 1913, the Wireless Hill station was inside of any use, and such as still useable is
to transmit or receive a single message! After transferred from the AAE to the Australian antiquated, so of no practical value”. Today,
the main radio mast was damaged by winds, Meteorological Service and the radio nothing remains, except the stumps of the radio
expeditioners experimented unsuccessfully equipment was left on Macquarie Island. In masts on Wireless Hill, and a radio mast section
with kite aerials. Rebuilding the masts in a new December 1930, Douglas Mawson revisited the remaining artefact.
configuration allowed the Commonwealth Bay Wireless Hill during the British and New Zealand (SOURCE: Australian Antarctic Division/
base to re-establish contact with Wireless Hill. Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE). Australian Government)
Telegrams sent to Australia were usually Although the De Dion engine house and wireless https://tinyurl.com/yxcyyyx6

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

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

Radio News

ST
OP
PR
ES
S!
MARTIN LYNCH HAS A ROASTING: Another
year another ML&S Hog Roast. Make a note in
your diary, for Saturday, 30th November 2019.
Klingenfuss News 2020
Jörg Klingenfuss called the editor to say that be published on 10 December 2019.
Once again, Martin & his Merry Band put on
he is now working on the firm’s new 2020 Klingenfuss Publications – Klingenfuss
the biggest Hog Roast Ham Radio event for
products, the 2020 Shortwave Frequency Radio Monitoring
customers at their Staines upon Thames HQ.
Guide, the 2020 Super Frequency List on CD, Hagenloher Str. 14, 72070 Tübingen,
Bacon butties for early arrivals, (the doors open
the 2020 Frequency Database for the Perseus Germany
at 8 am) with the Hog Roast available around
LF-HF Software-Defined Receiver, and the Tel: 0049 7071 62830
midday. As much hot tea & coffee as you can
Supplement January 2020 to the 2019/2020 [email protected]
consume supplied by the lovely ladies from our
Guide to Utility Radio Stations. All are going to www.klingenfuss.org
accounts department. Lecture streams will
take place from the ML&S Training Academy in
the morning by a very British company, SDRplay
& our own Workshop Manager, Steve Venner of their appearance is still being explored I did this because I wanted to experiment with
presenting ‘Life on the other side’, an insight by scientists. A recent article in Review of their new diversity feature. This system allows
into running the largest Ham radio workshop Geophysics presented a synthesis of what we the user to use two antennas simultaneously
in the UK. Unprintable deals across the range know about cycles of sunspot activity and their – when placed close together the software
of new & used products with representatives drivers. Here, the authors give an overview of subtracts the noise from one to the other to
from Icom, bhi, SDRplay, RSGB, PW and more. scientific understanding to date and suggest improve the overall signal-to-noise and when
This year’s event is kindly sponsored by Icom where additional research is needed. placed far apart the signals are effectively
UK, JVC-Kenwood & Yaesu Japan. Doors will be (SOURCE: Russell, C. T., L. K. Jian, and J. G. added together to also improve signal-to-noise.
open at 8 am. Luhmann (2019): EoS 100) Unfortunately, I didn’t really have enough room
[email protected] https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EO135013 on my hotel balcony for much experimentation,
http://www.MLandS.co.uk https://tinyurl.com/yya4jyhy although I did see an improvement using the
Diversity feature. I also took my Tecsun PL-880
HEARING THE SUN TOCK: The appearance HOUSTON – WE HAVE NO PROBLEM DXING: portable with me. Probably the highlight of the
of sunspots—their number, duration, and Our regular correspondent and contributor trip was catching Zambia NBC Radio 1 with a
location—suggests that the dynamics of Clint Gouveia reported from a DXpedition clear ID, all the way from Lusaka. I certainly
the Sun’s outer layer is synchronized with an to Houston/ Texas, while at the same time wasn’t expecting that. I copied Radio New
internal clock [...] Sunspots—temporary dark foreshadowing his new series on Portable Zealand International; they’re quite difficult to
spots that appear on the outer layer of the Sun— DXing, starting next month (January 2020). hear in Europe these days. Various other Central
have been observed and recorded by humans Clint said: “As usual, I had the SDRplay RSPduo and South American stations on short wave were
for more than two millennia, but exactly what with me but this time I took two antennas: the also copied.”
causes them and what determines the cycles Bonito MegaLoop FX and MegActive MA305. (SOURCE: Clint Gouveia)

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

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

Radio News

ST
OP
CQ-DATV: The November issue of CQ-DATV

PR
ES
has arrived and is ready for download. It offers

S!
articles on, amongst other topics,
AGAFat HAMRADIO 2019, HiDes Product:
BR-101E GAPFILLER/REPEATER - Preliminary
Testing; 10GHz DVB-T Progress in Boulder;
RGB 70cm, DVB-T, Television Repeater with a
Duplexer; and: Is DVB-T Sideband Sensitive?
dotMOBI Publications , 14 Lilac Avenue,
Leicester LE5 1FN
https://cq-datv.mobi/77.php

EIGHT RADIO PROJECTS TO SHARE

£200,000 FUNDING: The latest recipients
benefiting from the Audio Content Fund (ACF)
have been announced. Eight projects have
been given the go-ahead by the panel, from
a total of 31 applicants in this round. The
selected projects involve eight production
companies making content to be broadcast on
15 different radio stations, including Magic,
Jazz FM, BFBS, National Prison Radio, and
several community radio stations.
The bids include a bilingual production to
SDRplay RSPdx
be broadcast on Northern Ireland’s two
SDRplay Limited has announced a new loops which typically come with a BNC
indigenous language radio stations: The
SDR called the RSPdx. The RSPdx is a termination.
Hidden History of Language and Places will
replacement for the highly successful Like all the RSPs from SDRplay, the
be produced by the Belfast-based Foghorn
RSP2 and RSP2pro SDR receivers, which RSPdx is optimised to work with SDRuno
Company and broadcast in Ulster Scots and
have been extensively redesigned to SDR software for Windows. SDRuno has
Irish on Fuse FM and Raidió Fáilte respectively.
provide enhanced performance with evolved a lot over the years since it was
The productions also feature a weekly radio
additional and improved pre-selection adapted by SDRplay from the original
show for Forces Kids, produced by TBI Media
filters, improved intermodulation “Studio1” SDR programme. Earlier this
for broadcast on BFBS.
performance, the addition of a user- year, a powerful integrated scanner was
Targeted at the 75,000 British children
selectable DAB notch filter and more added – this works with all the RSPs,
with parents in the Armed Forces, the show
software selectable attenuation steps. including the original RSP1.
will feature inspiring guests, recorded
The RSPdx, when used in conjunction Also added was a diversity tuning feature,
packages and live discussion. The other
with SDRplay’s own SDRuno software, for use with the dual-tuner RSPduo, for
funded programmes are a series of packages
introduces a special HDR (High Dynamic additional signal enhancement and noise
spotlighting the unsung heroes of the UK
Range) mode for reception within cancellation.
theatre industry; a weekly satirical comedy
selected bands below 2MHz. HDR mode As with all SDRplay capabilities, there are
showcasing new talent from central Scotland;
delivers improved intermodulation links to extensive video demonstrations
a short-form drama series about the legends
performance and fewer spurious available in the Apps and Support
of jazz music; an adaptation of the blog Prison
responses for those challenging bands. Catalogue, which can be found under the
Bag about the wife and family of a man serving
This will be of particular interest to MW/ Support tab on the SDRplay home page or
nine years for fraud; a weekly series of bilingual
LW DXers and NDB hunters. by going directly to the first website listed
features about the rural communities of West
Having multiple antenna ports means that below.
Wales; and development funding for a drama
you can keep several antennas connected This British-designed and -manufactured
series written by new and emerging disabled
at once for comparison purposes. It radio, priced at around £192, including
writers. Sam Bailey, Managing Director of the
also allows you to quickly move from VAT, will be available later this month
ACF, said: “It’s great to add to the success of
one end of the radio spectrum to the (November) from SDRplay Ltd, Martin
our Round 1 winners with such an exciting,
other with say, a discone for VHF and Lynch &Sons, Moonraker, Nevada,
diverse, range of projects. We’ve now handed
above on one port, and a magnetic loop Radioworld, SDR-Kits and Waters &
out more than £400,000 for documentaries,
for lower frequencies on another. The Stanton. Full details can be found by
comedy, drama, children’s content, and content
introduction of a BNC connector for one going to the second URL, below:
in indigenous languages. It’s also fantastic
of the antennas on the RSPdx is a result www.sdrplay.com/apps-catalogue
that this round had so much interest from new
of the growing popularity of magnetic www.SDRplay.com
talent and smaller radio stations.”
https://www.audiocontentfund.org.uk

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

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

Radio News tablet, laptop or desktop PC. Under the channel

menu, search for ‘RAIBC’ and call for a moderator
to give you ‘trusted’ (open) access.
Moonraker
(SOURCE: Mark M0UFC)
www.raibc.org.uk
Dedicated
Airband
OFCOM ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS:
The Office of Communications Annual Report & ‘Rubber Duck’
Accounts for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March The Moonraker MRW-118 VHF dedicated
2019 make fascinating reading. They can be airband super-gainer antenna with BNC
accessed here: covers 118-137MHz TX/RX, at 2.15dBi
(SOURCE & THANKS: Ian [email protected]) gain, takes 10W, has an impedance of 50 Ω
https://tinyurl.com/y67e9ql2 and measures 395mm. It retails at £22.99.
https://tinyurl.com/y6ccnslf
FLIPPING MAGNETIC FIELD : The last reversal
of Earth’s magnetic poles happened long before
humans could record it, but research on the flow
of ancient lava has helped scientists estimate Spain and
the duration of this strange phenomenon. A
team of researchers used volcanic records to Radioplayer
PUBLICATIONS BY RADIOUSER study Earth’s last magnetic-field reversal, which Radioplayer is working with Spanish
CONTRIBUTORS: Our Radio History columnist occurred about 780,000 years ago. They found broadcasters to launch Radioplayer
Scott Caldwell has published The Hunt for the that this flip may have taken much longer than España. More than 300 stations are
Battleship Bismarck in The Spectrum Monitor, researchers previously thought, the scientists available to listen to at launch, with more
September 2019: 19-24, and The Role of the reported in a new study. Earth’s magnetic field to follow. RNE, the Spanish public service
Wireless in the Titanic Disaster, in The Spectrum has flipped dozens of times in the past 2.5 million broadcaster, and the main commercial
Monitor, October 2019: 10-15. The photograph is years – with the ‘North’ becoming the ‘South’, radio groups are all supporting the
a ‘blast from the past’ – it shows an only slightly and vice versa. Scientists know that the last platform. They are sending official content
younger Scott Caldwell, already DXing (Source: reversal took place during the Stone Age, but they like live streams, podcasts and catch-up
Short Wave Magazine, July 1990: 58). have little information about the duration of this programmes, logos, and ‘now playing’
https://www.thespectrummonitor.com phenomenon and when the next ‘flip’ might occur. information into Radioplayer systems.
The phenomenon has recently been the subject In addition, Spanish stations will join the
A LASTING TALE OF RADIO : This is always an of a number of newspaper articles and research international Radioplayer data feed which
excellent resource: The November 2019 issue publications in the UK. powers the hybrid radio interfaces in
of Radioworld International is out now. It offers (SOURCE: Space.com; Science Advances, 7th many Audi, VW and Porsche cars. These
articles on such diverse topics as Radio History August 2019) devices automatically switch between
(The Lasting Tale of Radio, pp. 6-12), Radioworld https://tinyurl.com/yxzvhgy6 DAB, FM, and streaming, to keep listeners
International’s 30th Anniversary, Remote Radio https://tinyurl.com/y4k68vxk locked in to their favourite radio stations.
Studios, North Korea Resuming DRM Broadcasts Radioplayer Managing Director Michael
(by RU contributor Hans Johnson), and many Hill said: “Thousands of broadcasters
other (more technical )subjects. across Europe are now working together
https://tinyurl.com/y64nmjml through Radioplayer, to keep radio strong.”
https://tinyurl.com/y5tq5wrp
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF GERMAN RADIO
BROADCASTING : 100 Years of Radio is a year-
long project by the charity Förderverein Sender RAOTA OTN: RAOTA is pleased to announce the
Königs Wusterhausen to commemorate the publication of issue 132 of OTN, the latest issue
birth of German radio broadcasting in the town of our magazine (OTN - Old Timer News). Articles
in 1920. There will be a series of events, ranging in this issue include A Fresh Insight into Doublets,
from readings and scientific lectures to radio Matching, Standing Waves and Open Wire Feeders
plays and historical commemorations. by G3FEW; An L-match for a 20m indoor dipole by
(SOURCE: via Chrissy Brand) G3MCK; Homodyne Reception by VK6CSW; SDR-
https://100jahrerundfunk.de/english KITS Antenna Analyser by G3ZPF; and How much
receiver performance does a DXer need? (Part 3)
RAIBC ZELLO CHANNEL : The RAIBC, the by G3RZP. OTN is the Association’s main point of
national registered charity dedicated to contact with members. Our editor is John G4GCL
supporting radio enthusiasts with disabilities, who is dedicated to producing the magazine to a
has opened a Zello channel on network radio for high standard, especially with respect to articles,
the use of members, the disabled and anyone typography and print quality.
who is sympathetic to the cause. No licence (SOURCE: Ian Brothwell G4EAN 9H3YI)
is required and you can use your smartphone, www.RAOTA.org

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

12 RadioUser December 2019
Visit our Book Store at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

TOP TITLES
World Radio TV £35.00 Radio Listener’s
Handbook 2020 plus p&p Guide 2020
Pre-order the 74th edition of the World Radio TV Handbook, on sale
5 December 2019. The World Radio TV Handbook is the world’s
£7.00 plus p&p
most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to broadcasting on LW,
MW, SW and FM, with details on national TV. It is an extensive guide Pre-order the 32nd edition of the annual guide for UK
full of information on national and international broadcasts and radio listeners, on sale 9th December 2019. Providing
broadcasters, clandestine and other target broadcasters, MW and news and information for listener’s, with coverage of all
SW frequency listings, Terrestrial TV by country as well as a detailed the key developments in analogue, digital and internet
reference section. Pre-orders will be dispatched on 5 December 2019 radio. Pre-orders will be dispatched on 9th December
once the product goes on sale. 2019 once the product goes on sale.

Practical Wireless 2019 pP

ubli
catio
ns, The Maltings, West St
re e t
, Bo
Radio User 2019 pP
ubli
catio
ns, The Maltings, West St
re e t
, Bo
Practical Wireless 2018 pP
ubli
catio
ns, The Maltings, West St
re e t
, Bo
Radio User 2018 pP
ubli
catio
ns, The Maltings, West St
re e t
, Bo

Archive CD Archive CD Archive CD Archive CD

ou ur n ou ur n ou ur n ou ur n
Gr e, Gr e, Gr e, Gr e,
rs Lin rs Lin rs Lin rs Lin
ne cs ne cs ne cs ne cs
ar .P ar .P ar .P ar .P
W W W W

2019 ARCHIVE 2018 ARCHIVE

by

by

by

by
E1

E1

E1

E1
0

0
ed

ed

ed

ed
9P

9P

9P

9P
sh

sh

sh

sh
H

H
bli

bli

bli

bli
Pu

Pu

Pu

Pu
of RadioUser 2019 of RadioUser 2018
All issues of Practical information published
photographs and
Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
in whole or
All issues of Radio User A complete PDF Archive
photographs and
Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
information published in whole or
All issues of Practical photographs and
Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
information published in whole or
All issues of Radio User A complete PDF Archive
photographs and
Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
information published in whole or

Wireless published in 2019 published in 2019 available Wireless published in 2018 published in 2018
protected and reproduction All reasonable protected and reproduction All reasonable protected and reproduction All reasonable protected and reproduction All reasonable
part is expressly forbidden. part is expressly forbidden. by RadioUser to part is expressly forbidden. part is expressly forbidden. by RadioUser to
by Practical Wireless by Practical Wireless
precautions are taken precautions are taken precautions are taken precautions are taken
advice and data given ensure that the advice
and data given advice and data given ensure that the advice
and data given
to ensure that the We cannot, We cannot, to ensure that the We cannot, We cannot,
to our readers is reliable. we cannot to our readers is reliable. we cannot to our readers is reliable. we cannot to our readers is reliable. we cannot

available in a handy CD ROM.

it and

in a handy CD ROM.
it and

now available in a handy

it and

now available in a
it and
however, guarantee however, guarantee however, guarantee however, guarantee
for it. Prices and for it. Prices and for it. Prices and for it. Prices and
accept legal responsibility current in 2019. accept legal responsibility current in 2019. accept legal responsibility current in 2018. accept legal responsibility current in 2017.
information are those information are those information are those information are those
Practic

Practic
d

d
Pre-order your CD today! Pre-order your CD today! CD ROM. handy CD ROM.
ende

ende
al W

al W
2019 ARCHIVE 2018 ARCHIVE
omm

omm
i re l e

i re l e
Rad

Rad
re c

re c
ss

ss
ded

ded
ioU

ioU
-B

-B
ve

ve
ser

ser
en

en
bo

bo
rita

rita
mm

mm
PRE-ORDER Available mid\end January 2020 PRE-ORDER Available mid\end January 2020
-B

-B
da

da
A complete PDF Archive A complete PDF Archive
in’

in’
co

co
rit

rit
sb

sb
an

an
ain

ain
re

re
NOW AVAILABLE NOW AVAILABLE
2019 2018
es

es
.0

.0
of Practical Wireless of Practical Wireless
e

e
’s

’s
7 ts 7 ts
er ell ov be
er ell ov be
ad ing ab se
st
ad ing ab se
st
Re d Re d
at
am an llin
at
am an llin
ob ate 7.0 iste
gl
ob ate 7.0 iste
gl
Acr adio
ur r der ning Acr adio
ur r der ning
be
Ado Rea be
Ado Rea
maga obat maga maga obat maga
zine since 1932 Adobe Acr zine zine since 1932 Adobe Acr zine

£39.99 plus P&P £39.99 plus P&P £39.99 plus P&P £39.99 plus P&P
17/10/2019 15:59 17/10/2019 15:58 05/02/2019 13:10 05/02/2019 13:08

Scanners 7 Broadcast Across the Waves Practical Wireless

Includes details of a number of Brothers This autobiography gives a 2017 Archive CD
“apps” for smartphones specif- an ccount of Nick Bailey’s life
ically for radio data decoding, A true, autobiographical story with Radio Caroline, other radio All issues of Practical
including programs for digital about love and loyalties in fam- stations and finally with Classic Wireless published in 2017
scanner communications de- ilies and family businesses the FM. Reviewed in September’s now available in a handy
coding for which a smartphone world over, risk, luck, laughter, RadioUser, this is “an extremely CD ROM.
can be linked to an existing hard work – and what happens entertaining and very readable
when the little guys take on the
scanner radio to decode.
big guys.
book...” NOW AVAILABLE

£9.95 plus p&p £14.99 plus p&p £17.50 plus p&p £39.99 plus P&P
The Voice of the Amateur Radio Broadcasting Democracy: Radio User 2017 pP
ubli
catio
ns, The Maltings, West St
re e t
, Bo

Archive CD
ou ur n
Gr e,

Radio & identity in South Africa

rs Lin

Essentials
ne cs

Crystal
ar .P

2017 ARCHIVE
W

by

E1
0
ed

9P
sh

H
bli
Pu
A complete PDF Archive

Packed full of information on the For everyone interested in am- Providing an exciting look into the All issues of Radio User of RadioUser 2017 photographs and
Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
information published in whole or

published in 2017
protected and reproduction All reasonable

fabrications of electronic compo- ateur radio. Aiming to answer diverse world of South African part is expressly forbidden.
precautions are taken
ensure that the advice
by RadioUser to
and data given
We cannot,
to our readers is reliable. we cannot

now available in a
it and
however, guarantee
for it. Prices and

nents suitable for use in building frequently-asked questions radio, exploring how various radio accept legal responsibility current in 2017.
information are those

crystal radio sets. Basic theory and that the editor has fielded on formats and stations play a role handy CD ROM.

Rad
ded

ioU
in constructing post-apartheid

ser
en

simple analysis is combined with the phone while working for the
mm

-B
co

rit
ain
re

NOW AVAILABLE
e

identities.

’s
ov be

dozens of examples of historical RSGB, this book is edited from ab st

d se
an llin

RRP
7.0 iste
gl
der ning
Rea
obat maga

practical work. RSGB articles. Adobe Acr zine

£15.99
£39.99 plus P&P
07/12/2017 12:41

£14.99 plus p&p £9.99 plus p&p £11.50 plus p&p

Electrified Instruments of Radio Practical Wireless

Voices Amplification Caroline 2011 Archive CD
Looking at the early days of Japan’s Rob Mannion G3XFD Revised since its first publica- All issues of Practical
telecommunications, recording, wrote: "A truly superb tion in 2003, this title details Wireless published in 2011
radio and film industry. book but has chosen a a history of offshore radio now available in a handy
title that really hides its from 1958 to 1980, providing CD ROM.
'light' under the proverbial accounts of ship and fort-based
bushel!" radio stations and a history of
Radio Caroline. NOW AVAILABLE
£24.00 plus p&p £17.99 plus p&p £18.95 plus p&p £39.99 plus P&P
The Art of Soldering Making a Noise Hart Reviews Radio User 2011
Many illustrations are included in
this title to help demonstrate the
John Tusa looks back over
a long and varied career
For 35 years Peter has been writing
amateur radio equipment reviews
Archive CD
correct procedures. The Art of in radio, television and the for the RSGB's journal RadCom. All issues of Radio User
Soldering dissolves the mysteries arts. In this autobiography, These reviews are real world test- published in 2011
surrounding the subject of solder- Etched with candour, this is ing of performance and analytical now available in a
ing and features some practical an entertaining memoir of reporting of how amateur radio handy CD ROM.
exercises so as to help learn to Tusa’s life. antennas, radios, amplifiers, etc.
solder correctly. really work. NOW AVAILABLE
£3.99 plus p&p £15.00 plus p&p £12.99 plus p&p £39.99 plus P&P

ORDERING IS EASY
Buy online at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk 01778 395161
or call

Browse the full Book Store at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

RadioUser December 2019 13
Radio in History

A Misunderstood Genius
In Part Two of his investigation of the life and legacy of Alan Turing,
Scott Caldwell focuses on Turing’s contributions to artificial intelligence
and computer science, and at the reappraisal of his private life.
Scott Caldwell in 1950. Turing concluded that “I believe that, at
[email protected] In this paper, he referred to the “Imitation the end of the century, one will be able to
Game” (now referred to as the ‘Turing speak of machines ‘thinking’ without ex-

H
aving looked at Turing’s early Test’), as a method to determine whether pecting to be contradicted”. He saw this as
life and career in last month’s a machine displaying some ‘behaviour- akin to a ‘free spirit’ – able to facilitate and
column, (RadioUser, October al’ tendencies could be truly described process stimuli in an autonomous manner.
2019: 14-18), I would like to as ‘intelligent’. This is widely regarded as Turing was a visionary on artiicial intelli-
discuss in some more detail Turing’s most famous research paper, gence, even before the concept had been
the contributions Alan Turing made to the and the test contributed signiicantly to devised by John McCarthy in 1956. It re-
development of radio, artiicial intelligence all future work in the ield of artiicial intel- mains a fundamental way to chart the pro-
and computers, recently celebrated in ligence. gress of computer science, and humans
London’s Science Museum (Figs 1 and 2). The ‘Turing-Debate’, as to whether or will still be discussing its merits for centu-
In 1949, Turing accepted the posi- not computers could ‘think’ like a human ries to come.
tion of Deputy Director of the Computing being, has become one of the greatest
Laboratory at the University of philosophical debates of modern times. Turing’s Private Life
Manchester. His signature research on ar- It focuses on the very essence of what it In many respects, Turing was born at the
tiicial intelligence led to the publication means to be human, and it has inspired wrong time in history. He was arrested
of “Company Machinery and Intelligence” scientists and science iction writers alike. for homosexual activity, in a society that

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

14 RadioUser December 2019
 Radio in History

PICTURES: GEORG WIESSALA. EXCEPT FIGURES 5: GEORG WIESSALA & THE SCIENCE MUSEUM

Fig. 1: The entrance to the Top Secret Exhibition at

the Science Museum, London. Fig. 2: The exhibit
dedicated to Bletchley Park and Alan Turing at the
Science Museum.

was morally rigid, intolerant, and resistant to

changing views and values. Turing was thus
often viewed as a ‘problem’ to society, rather
than as an academic asset.
His security credentials were revoked
almost instantaneously, and travel restric-
tions barred his entry into the United States,
although, ironically, his passport was never
revoked. In the last years of Turing’s life, his
travels were restricted to a number of friend-
ly European nations.
The United States succumbed to a kind of
Cold War hysteria, which implied a view that
homosexual men could be easily compro-
mised by female Russian spies and – more
importantly – by liaisons with Soviet homo- 2
sexuals. Turing’s research would remain
classiied as top secret until the 1970s, se- were essentially opposites, in turns of social New Friends and Poisoned
verely limiting any defence of his character class and standing. Murray seemed quite Apples
and intellect. Indeed, Turing was bound by pleased with his new relationship with Turing Turing did meet an improbable new friend,
the Oficial Secrets Act; he could not openly and readily told all of his friends and associ- Alan Garner, despite the signiicant age
discuss his research, which was, therefore, ates, some of which were of dubious reputa- gap; the latter was only 17 years old and a
not publicly disclosed until the 1970s. tion and character. student enrolled at Manchester Grammar
Initially, those closest to Turing believed It soon became apparent to Turing that School. They shared many interests and
that he was putting on a brave face, taking a signiicant amount of money was going passions. They had initially met on the run-
the social stigma in his stride. His strength missing from his wallet, and the only suspect ning track and struck up a conversation that
of character is clearly evident in a letter he was his new partner, Murray, who had ac- led to an unlikely friendship that developed
wrote to his friend, Norman Routledge. He cumulated a considerable amount of debt. into a running partnership (Turing had been
wrote that, “I’ve now got myself into the kind The real instigator of the burglary at Turing’s an avid runner for most of his life)
of trouble that I have always considered to be home was a friend of Murray’s, known by the Quite a remarkable mutual fascination
quite a possibility for me, though I have usual- name of ‘Harry’. developed, given their age and professional
ly rated it at about 10:1 against. I shall shortly Reluctantly, Murray admitted to Turing standing. However, both enjoyed discuss-
be pleading guilty to a charge of sexual of- that he had an idea as to who was behind ing the latest scientiic discoveries, and they
fences with a young man. The story of how it the burglary, and this led to an inner deter- possessed a very quirky sense of humour.
has all come to be found out is a long and fas- mination by Turing to pursue the matter; he Their most unique bond was a long-stand-
cinating one, which I shall have to make into subsequently called the police. They initially ing fascination with the Disney movie, Snow
a short story one day, but I haven’t the time to treated the matter as a routine burglary and White and the Seven Dwarfs. Garner recalled
tell you now”. conducted a limited investigation that in- that the ‘poisoned-apple-scene’ had greatly
cluded dusting for ingerprints. Not entirely frightened him as a young child; he had, after
Arrest and Trial happy with this situation, Turing consulted a all, just been ive years old when the ilm was
Turing was accused and charged with com- lawyer who advised him to break off all con- released.
mitting ‘gross indecency’, based on his ho- tact with Murray at once, for the stake of his Turing took a rather philosophical stance
mosexual liaisons with Arnold Murray, aged personal and professional reputation. and inferred that the apple in question was
just 19 years old. This was readily revealed The subsequent police investigation dis- not meant to be frightening but resembled
after Turing was subjected to a battery of covered acts of ‘gross indecency’, contrary a larger metaphor that depicted the circle
questions that were initially in relation to a to the Sexual Offences Act 1885. Turing was of life on earth. Turing would launch into a
burglary that had previously taken place at forced to accept his ‘guilt’, rather than have long-winded lecture on the “ambiguity of the
Turing’s home address. Turing’s relationship his private life exposed to the world. apple, red on one side, and green on the oth-
with Murray was subjected to intense pres- His sentence was a probation order er side”. The red side resembled life, and the
sure and seemed doomed to end in heart- that called for a series of Oestrogen injec- green indicated imminent death.
break. tions, a process that would ultimately sup- It seems that the ilm had a deep impact in
Murray has been described as a ‘drifter’, press his sexual urges. Many details of the Turing’s subconscious mind, facilitating his
whom Turing had picked up, almost at ran- case Regina vs Turing & Murray at Chester own unique philosophy on the circle of life.
dom, from outside a movie theatre during Assizes, on Monday 31st March 1952 are It is quite ironic that the poison apple would
the festive holiday period. Remarkably, they available at this website and elsewhere: later come to signify the end of Turing’s life
were from totally different backgrounds and https://tinyurl.com/y2ezxhbn – and the unnecessary character-assassina-

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 15
Radio in History

Fig. 3: Part of a German Enigma machine. Fig.

4: Part of a Bombe machine. Figs. 5a &b:
Encryption Machines at the Science Museum.

tion he had to injure.

Garner was later contacted by the local
police who emphatically warned him to
cease all future contact with Turing. Clearly,
the establishment was taking a close
interest in Turing’s day-to-day activities,
based on the continuous fear of a signiicant
national security disclosure.

An Essential Reappraisal
The campaign for a Royal Pardon had been
growing in momentum since a petition was
posted on the Number 10 Website. It had
attracted overwhelming support. Finally, on
the 10th September 2009, the then Labour
Prime Minister Gordon Brown felt compelled
to issue the following statement of apology:
“Turing was quite a brilliant mathematician 3
– most famous for his work on breaking
the German Enigma codes (Figs. 3, 4, 5b). discarded and forgotten by the investigating acknowledged in playing a major role in
It is no exaggeration to say that, without his authorities. Some have speculated that shortening the Second World War’s duration,
outstanding contribution, the history of World Turing may have accidentally inhaled ensuring ultimate Allied victory, and saving
War Two could well have been very different. Cyanide fumes, further adding to the countless lives in the process.
He was truly was one of those individuals mystery of his demise. After a hard day At the time of the publication of this
we can point to, whose unique contribution researching, it was a regular routine of column, Top Secret – From Ciphers to Cyber
helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of his to eat an apple before drifting off to Security, a ground-breaking exhibition at
gratitude he is owed makes it all the more sleep, leaving the left-overs behind on his London’s Science Museum focuses on
horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so nightstand. His was a creature of habit and this period of Alan Turing’s life, and the
inhumanely. strict routines. This has facilitated a debate photographs in this article were taken there
“In 1952, he was convicted of gross amongst contemporary mental health by the editor in October 2019 (Figs. 1 to 5b).
indecency in effect, tried for being gay. experts, as to whether or not Turing may The exhibit coincided with the Centenary
His sentence – and he was faced with the have fulilled the criteria for a diagnosis of of GCHQ.
miserable choice of this or prison – was Asperger’s Syndrome. https://tinyurl.com/y4crkb6p
chemical castration, by a series of injections https://www.gchq.gov.uk
of female hormones. He took his own life just Final Projects and an Exhibition In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II belatedly
two years later. So, on behalf of the British One of Turing’s last research projects granted Turing a Royal Posthumous Pardon,
Government, and all those who live freely concerned the electroplating of gold onto under the prerogative of mercy. A high-
thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: spoons. This technique required the use proile campaign had attracted signiicant
We’re sorry, you deserved so much better”. of potassium cyanide in order to make the public support, and it was enhanced by
gold malleable enough. This fact has been favourable media coverage. The campaign
Family Involvement frequently emphasised by proponents of the had the full support of such luminaries as
and Public Image ‘accidental-death-theory’. Professor Stephen Hawking.
To preserve Alan Turing’s legacy – and However, it may be a historical mystery
considering the controversy that surrounded that will most likely never be resolved one The New £50 Note
his public image – a number of books way or another. In 2018, the Bank of England’s Banknote
that chronicled his achievements were The full extent of Turing’s research did not Advisory Committee agreed to celebrate
published by family members. Most fully come to life until after his tragic and Scientiic Invention on the proposed
noticeable examples are the books my untimely death. His research still impacts new £50 note. The bank received an
Turing’s mother and brother. She explained on the embryonic discipline of computer unprecedented number of 227,299
that she wanted to “set the record straight”. science and ‘big data’ analytics. nominations, based on an extensive list
She would always maintain that his This is emphasised by the annual Turing that covered 989 eligible and historically
death was accidental and not an act of Award – the highest accolade in the sector. signiicant scientists.
suicide, suggesting that he accidentally In 2015, a new National Centre for Research The committee duly considered all the
contaminated an apple before he consumed in Data Science and Artiicial Intelligence was nominations before creating a shortlist of 12
it. established in honour of Turing. possible candidates who would ultimately
The remains of the apple were not https://www.turing.ac.uk be selected by the Governor of the Bank of
forensically examined, and it was quickly Turing’s research at Bletchley Park is England, Mark Carney.

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

16 RadioUser December 2019
 Radio in History

4 5a

The shortlist consisted of Mary Anning,

Paul Dirac, Rosalind Franklin, William
Herschel and Caroline Herschel, Dorothy
Further Reading
Hodgkin, Ada Lovelace and Charles (See: RadioUser, October 2019: 18), and, for
Babbage, Stephen Hawking, James Clerk the bigger picture:
Maxwell, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Ernest Andrew, Christopher (2019)
Rutherford, Frederick Sanger, and Alan The Secret World: A History of Intelligence
Turing. (London: Penguin)
On the occasion, Carney commented Backhouse, b. (2016):
that “Alan Turing was an outstanding math- Alan Turing: Guildford’s Best Kept Secret by
ematician whose work has had an enor- (Backhouse)
mous impact on how we live today. As the Turing, S. (2012):
father of computer science and artiicial Alan M. Turing (Cambridge University Press).
intelligence, as well as a war hero, Alan
Turing’s contributions were far-ranging and
path-breaking. Turing is a giant on whose 1949: “This is only a foretaste of what is to
shoulders so many now stand”. come, and only the shadow of what is going
The £50 banknote is full of interesting to be.”
facts and igures encompassing Turing’s re- Last but not least, the banknote shows
markable scientiic career: A quarter-plate ticker-tape depicting Alan Turing’s birth date
glass negative taken of Turing on 29th (23rd June 1912) in binary code. The con-
March 1951 by Elliott & Fry was purchased cept of a machine fed by binary tape fea- 5b
in 1996 and is now part of the Photographs tured in Turing’s pioneering 1937 paper.
Collection at the National Portrait Gallery.
The new note also refers to one of Postscript Online Resources
Turing’s seminal papers from 1937, to the Shortly after the completion of Turing’s
Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) devel- post-mortem examination, his remains were Alan Turing: Selected Bibliography
oped at the National Physical Laboratory, taken to the Woking Crematorium. On 12th (in order of publication date):
the technical drawings for the British June 1954, his remains were cremated; at https://tinyurl.com/y35p2rrs
Bombe (the machine speciied by Turing last, Turing had found eternal peace. BBC Four Extra: The Turing Solution
and one of the primary tools used to break In many respects, the strange drama of https://tinyurl.com/y32v84fm
Enigma-enciphered messages transmitted Turing’s death has given him a lasting place BBC News (Magazine): What Was Alan Turing
by the German Kriegsmarine; Figs. 3, 4, 5b). in the public consciousness, relected, per- Really Like? https://tinyurl.com/q4e3kwf
Moreover, there is Turing’s signature haps, by his image on the new £50 note. BBC WS: Witness: The Death of Alan Turing:
from the visitor’s book at Bletchley Park in Turing’s life was cut tragically short, and https://tinyurl.com/yxn3vvch
1947, where he worked as a codebreaker all we are left with the question of just what BBC: Codebreaking and Cyber Attacks:
during WWII, and a quote from an inter- might have been, in terms of his next scientif- https://tinyurl.com/y2aeyuza.
view to The Times newspaper on 11th June ic breakthrough research project.

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 17
Book Review

Radio Caroline: An Authentic Story

David Harris the main contender. However, in 1966,
mydogisfi[email protected] Caroline had a respectable audience of
nine million listeners. Philip Solomon, an
David Harris reviews a new title on Irish music promoter, became a backer,
the development of Radio Caroline, as he wanted to use the station to pro-
focusing on the business case mote artists on his own Major Minor label.
behind the station, on some of its However, the Marine Offences Act of
backers and supporters, and on how 1967 brought an end to offshore sta-
it pioneered new music genres and tions, apart from Radio Caroline North
formats. and South; these remained on the air un-
til March 1968. Dutch marine services
Paul Rusling has set himself the task of company, Wijsmullers seized both ves-
writing the ‘definitive’ book about Radio sels and towed them to Amsterdam, as
Caroline. He has succeeded admirably they were owed unpaid fees. The vessels
with this superb history. Rusling is also languished in the Netherlands until 1972,
the author of Radio Adventures of the MV when MV Caroline was sold for scrap.
Communicator (Radio User, Jan 2017, MV Mi Amigo was subsequently sold to
36-37) and of Laser Radio Programming the Dutch Free Radio Campaign.
(Radio User, June 2017, 54-55). The next part of this book covers some
This new title begins with a summary of troubled years – from the resumption
some pre-Caroline offshore Scandinavian of Radio Caroline in 1972 until the
stations, such as Radio Nord and Radio sinking of the MV Mi Amigo in 1980.
Rusling. P. (2019) Rusling explores the variety of other
Mercur. The book really kicks off with the
The Radio Caroline Bible (mainly Dutch and Flemish) stations that
arrival in London of Irish businessman
World of Radio; 508pp; pbk.; £24.95
Ronan O’Rahilly (b.1940) – the key figure Caroline hosted, as well as discussing
ISBN 9781900401203 the involvement of George Harrison and
behind Radio Caroline. The early 1960s
www.radiocarolinebible.com John Lennon in giving financial support
saw an explosion in pop music, led by
The Beatles; reasonably priced portable to Caroline. In 1983, Ronan O’Rahilly and
transistor radios became available and portable radios and saw offshore radio as Vincent Monsey bought the trawler MV
young people wanted to hear new music. a way of creating demand. In this context, Ross Revenge, which was fitted out as a
O’Rahilly saw a business opportunity Rusling explores the secretive ways in radio ship. It broadcast as Radio Caroline
and began to cultivate establishment which companies in the tax havens of (on and off) until 1990. In 1991, the Ross
contacts to fund an offshore radio Liechtenstein and Panama were used Revenge was towed to Dover where it was
station. The BBC, by contrast, had largely to purchase and register the ships used bought by Peter Moore for £20,000.
ignored the needs of youngsters; it for the stations. Rusling details Caroline’s long struggle
was not until 1967 that Radio One was Radio Caroline started broadcasting at back to the airwaves via various RSL
launched. The motivation of Ronan Easter 1964 from the MV Caroline and was stations, satellite platforms and the
was to make money, to go against the closely followed by Radio Atlanta on the MV internet. The story is brought up to date,
establishment, and to offer much more Mi Amigo. The stations merged after a few with an account of how Caroline obtained
musical diversity. months, with MV Caroline moving to Isle of a licence to broadcast on 648 kHz AM in
Rusling’s book is different from many Man waters as Caroline North, while MV Mi 2017, and how it is now on a number of
other Caroline books, in that it explores Amigo remained in the Thames Estuary as DAB outlets across the UK.
the business backing behind offshore Caroline South. Rusling adds a lot to previous accounts
radio and avoids fanciful stories. Both stations were profitable, with adver- of the Caroline story by giving technical
Instead, the author is interested in the tising bringing in £50,000 (around £700,000 information about frequencies, transmit-
“authenticated aspects of the story in today money) a month by the end of ters and aerials. He offers a much more
of Caroline”. One of the early backers 1964. Rusling provides some background balanced account of Caroline than any
was Pye Radio (later part of Phillips); to other offshore stations of the time, with other book I have read on this subject. I
Pye wanted to increase sales of their the US-backed Radio London emerging as highly recommend this book.

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

18 RadioUser December 2019
 Visit our website - the radio enthusiasts’ dream
www.hamradiostore.co.uk

Portable all mode Communications Receiver Visit our New

Tecsun PL-880 The new Flagship portable radio from prestigious
Portsmouth Shop
radio manufacturer
circuit, multi conversion & DSP decoding technology
which greatly enhances the sensitivity
and reduces interference from close by stations
• LW MW SW (1.7-30MHz) FM Broadcast
• AM FM SSB
• Rechargeable Battery
• USB Charging Lead

AOR BEST SELLING RECEIVERS AOR of Japan

OR
MATCH HER
T
BEAT O ISED
New !
T
ADVER E
PRIC STA R
NEW
DED
BU Y!
UPGRA ARE
FIRMW N
VERSIO

Multimode digital demodulation receiver all-mode communications receiver that covers

featuring wideband reception, D-STAR, Yaesu the frequency range from 100kHz to 3GHz.
DMR and much more. As such it covers the complete radio spectrum.
£1199.95 DC lead included.

All mode receiver with a wide

LA-400
range coverage of 530kHz-
3GHz and enhanced, brighter This loop antenna covers the range
500kHz to 500MHz and can be
Extend the capabilities Burgess Hill, RH15 9RR, UK
bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close
and accessories!
headphones, speakers
Check out our range of

and fused DC power lead

- Supplied with user manual
- Headphone socket
- Input overload LED
- Separate volume control
- 8 ilter levels 8 to 40dB
- Simple control
cancelling speaker
10W ampliied DSP noise
DSPKR
Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com

- Replacement for bhi NEIM1031 In-Line

“noise-free”speech from your radio
and easy operation - Enjoy clear intelligble
radio incl’ SDR - Easy to use controls for quick
Headphone socket - Suitable for all types of
input/output - 7 watts mono speaker output -
40dB - 3.5mm mono or stereo inputs - Line level
noise cancelling unit - 8 Filter levels 9 to
Fully featured lexible dual channel DSP

Dual In-Line New lower price!

level input sockets
separate line
- Speaker level and
- Headphone socket
radios incl’ SDR
- Suitable for all
adjustment
- “Real time” audio
- 8 DSP ilter levels
- Easy to use controls
station speaker
cancelling base
DSP noise
10W Ampliied
DESKTOP
- 3.5mm line level and speaker level inputs
- Use with headphones or a loudspeaker
- Easy to use with “real time” adjustment
- Rotary encoders perform all functions
EA&O

- Remove noise and interference - Hear weak signals clearly

- Unique DSP noise cancelling technology - Low latency of 32mS
- Powerful high-performance audio processor

...for a great listening experience

...with irst-class DSP noise cancelling...
High-performance audio processing...
Compact In-Line
functions
of audio and
encoder control
simple rotary
unit with
noise cancelling
in-line DSP
Easy to use

of the MkIII by expanding the

compensate for hearing loss
Precise audio adjustment to
- Four models EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20-DSP, EQ20B-DSP
- Fine-tune the audio to maximise your enjoyment
- Use with passive speakers or headphones
- Two separate mono inputs or one stereo input
- Simple control of all DSP functions
- DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions available
- Powerful high-performance audio processing system
- 20W audio and parametric equalisation on all units

ParaPro EQ20 audio DSP range with parametric equalisation

..a bhi DSP noise cancelling product!
Hear weak signals clearly with..
bhi

memory to 4,000 channels directional.

with the memory card slot.
£459.95

NEW ARRIVALS INTO OUR WAREHOUSE - Call 01702 206835

GREAT VALUE SCANNERS!
New !

HUGE STOCKS

READY!
TO GO ed
preloadital
with dig
data

See our website for the full spec of

this amazing radio!

www.hamradiostore.co.uk call: 01702 204965 email: [email protected]

Waters & Stanton Ltd • Unit 1 • Fitzherbert Spur • Farlington • Portsmouth • PO6 1TT
@wsplc blog.hamradiostore.co.uk facebook.com/WatersandStanton Waters and Stanton
Maritime Matters

US NAVTEX News
and NDB DXing Quarterly
Robert Connolly Robert Connolly provides the final instalment of his
[email protected] 2019 survey of activity in the non-directional bea-
con band, has news on the future of US NAVTEX and

B
efore getting down to NDB
business, I have a piece of in- identifies an aerial installation spotted by a reader.
teresting and important mari-
time communications news: JIM GLEN JIM GLEN

In September 2019, the US

Coast Guard (USCG) service announced,
by NAVTEX transmission on 518kHz, that
it was launching a consultation exercise re-
garding the future of its NAVTEX service.
It is their plan to terminate MF NAVTEX
transmissions using 518kHz, and instead
making this information available via IMO-
recognized satellite services, in all waters
under US responsibility.
The statement said that “current MF
NAVTEX equipment is in dire need of re-
placement. The equipment is antiquated; es-
sential replacement parts are dificult to ind
and expensive, placing the overall operation
of MF NATEX at risk.” The USCG claims that
any approved GMDSS satellite terminal will
be able to receive this NAVTEX information.
USCG believes that the transition from ter-
restrial broadcast to satellite will provide for
more reliable delivery of NAVTEX informa-
tion and allow for better, more cost-effec-
tive, products in the future.
The USCG further believes that this
change will have a low impact on the mar- 1 2
itime public, as satellite receivers have be-
come more prevalent onboard vessels. receive maritime safety Information would Fig.1: Jim Glen spotted this antenna array along
While the use of satellite receivers has be by using an Inmarsat C terminal, some- the banks of the River Tay. Fig. 2: Another
certainly become more extensive on com- thing that is neither small nor cheap when photograph of the installation seen by Jim Glen.
mercial vessels, the USCG proposal has compared to current NAVTEX receivers.
small commercial and leisure craft owners While this proposal is just for waters un- signal was received by a member of the
up in arms, as they solely rely on MF trans- der US responsibility, the USCG would seem NAVTEX relector group.
missions for their NAVTEX receivers, and to have not taken into consideration how I would emphasise that, at present, it
the cost of using satellite GMDSS equip- this would affect non-US vessels planning would seem that only the US is planning on
ment is prohibitive for most of them. to operate in US waters. Certainly, non-US going down this route. However, it will be
From April 2018 onwards, the only provid- commercial vessels would be equipped worth keeping an eye on this to see how
er of GMDSS satellite services is Inmarsat. with Inmarsat, but a considerable num- it develops and whether or not any other
The types of Inmarsat ship-earth-station ber of non-US yachts operate every season countries will decide to follow suit later.
terminals recognized by the GMDSS are within their waters. Many of these would
Inmarsat C and F77. Fleet 77 (F77) has not be equipped with satellite GMDSS and NDB Loggings
had an end-of-life date scheduled for 1 rely on normal MF NAVTEX receivers. I Welcome to the December 2019 NDB col-
December 2020, with no deinite alterna- wonder how many of these users are even umn, the inal one for this year. In it, I will be
tives currently deined. aware of the current USCG plan. covering the late summer and early autumn
What is more, small owners also say that, European NAVTEX listeners only became reception period. I, for one, am certainly
under the USCG proposal, the only way to aware of this plan when a broken NAVTEX very much looking forward to this winter’s

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

20 RadioUser December 2019
 Maritime Matters

ROBERT CONNOLLY.

NDB DX season; especially after miss- view, I wondered whether this would pro-
ing most of last year’s season due to my duce good results for NDB DXing. By co-
aerial problems. incidence, the results of a test using this
Hopefully, it will be a good season; cer- SDR was that it is very clean, with only a
tainly, by the end of September 2019, few very weak spurious signals, which
NDBs from North America were being will disappear as soon as an aerial is con-
received in the UK and Europe by DXers, nected. It is also clean at VLF, down to a
including regular correspondent Andy few hundred Hz.
Thomsett and myself. However, it appeared that over-night re-
From my point of view, the temporary cording was a bit of a problem with the
closure of the RTE 252 kHz transmitter for 3 supplied software.
an equipment upgrade for several weeks, Fig. 3: Propagation along the same line of Isobars Apparently, the Airspy HF+ Discovery was
(from late September to mid-October) was is a vital aspect of NDB hunting. designed following initial user feedback on
a bonus, allowing me to check frequencies the original HF+.
in the lower section of the band with less Frequency, S for 10 dB S/N, NF Coverage was extended quite a bit, re-
QRM generated by the RTÉ transmitter lo- 1 MHz -115 dBm 22 dB quiring some innovation in signal iltering
cated about 40 miles from me. 500 kHz -108 dBm 29 dB to achieve the required goals (linearity, sen-
However, the Algerian broadcast station 400 kHz -105 dBm 32 dB sitivity, little to no spurs, small form factor,
on that frequency (Chaîne 3) was coming in 300 kHz -102 dBm 35 dB and lower price).
quite strongly. 200 kHz -101 dBm 36 dB The noise igure is low enough to allow
https://tinyurl.com/yyvgdpkb 100 kHz -100 dBm 37 dB the use of passive whips and passive an-
tennas, or even of a lower-gain mini-whip,
Moving to an SDR Receiver Table 1: SDRPlay RSP1: Measured Noise Figures. which could have better linearity.
Many listeners are now moving away, from
traditional receivers to Software Deined igure of 10dB is considered excellent for Recording Activity
Receivers (SDR), something that I am con- an HF-receiver. There have been some reports of problems
sidering in the longer term. I have received mixed reports as regards producing overnight recordings using
the RSP2 receiver in the NDB band, and I the SDR# software. It would seem the
Roelof Bakker’s SDRPlay RSP1 have also been informed that the RSPduo recommended way for overnight recording
Therefore, I was wondering how the does perform very well for NDB DXing. with SDR# is to use the Community
SDRPlay RSP1A performed on the NDB Jon Hudson, of SDRPlay UK, comment- Package, which has adequate plugins for
band, as I was considering purchasing ed as follows: “The RSP1A, together with reading/writing large Wav64 iles.
one. On a posting to the NDBList Relector its built-in MW notch ilter, does give much Currently, a reasonably priced SDR is
Group, which I am a long-time member better performance at LF compared with the still on my wish list. Until I can see more
of, Roelof Bakker, from the Netherlands, original RSP1. All our RSPs will work better performance reports, in particular regarding
recently revealed the results of some using our own SDRuno software which has NDB reception, I am not committing myself
tests he carried out. He already owned an been optimised for use with the hardware. to anything just yet. The main advantage for
SDRPlay RSP1 and found that it was easily So we recommend anyone serious about me would be the capability for over-night
overloaded at LF by strong medium wave NDB hunting with an RSP1A to also use recording, however, I do really enjoy ‘live’
broadcast stations. SDRuno. The other good news is that later listening, i.e. putting the headphones on
Consequently, the irst thing he looked this month, the new RSPdx will be available and checking the band while sitting in front
at with the RSP1A was overload. However, – this is a complete redesign of the popular of the receiver.
using his aerials, it had gone, and no RSP2pro and it includes an extra HDR (High Apart from anything else I ind that
overload of broadcast stations was ob- Dynamic Range) mode, speciically for the listening to the NDB band helps me get to
served below 500kHz. challenging conditions below 2MHz. This, sleep by over-powering my tinnitus. While
The receiver software he was using was coupled with a new, selectable, 500kHz low- mentioning tinnitus, I have, in the past,
SDRConsole v3. Listening for weak NDBs, pass ilter especially for LF, means this is had a few NDB DXers tell me they were
he found the SDRPlay RSP1A challenging. the perfect SDRplay choice for NDB hunters giving up beacon chasing as they had
Looking at the available data from the man- looking at something less than £200.” developed tinnitus. When I pointed out that
ufacturer, it appeared that the noise igure You can ind more details on the searching the band for weak NDB signals
was 21.2dB at 1MHz. Noise igures for fre- SDRPlay website: helped lessen the annoying effects of
quencies below 1MHz were not published. www.SDRplay.com tinnitus, most gave it a try again and found
He measured the sensitivity in dBm in CW [see also the item on the new RSPdx that it did help.
mode, and with a ilter bandwidth of 500 Hz in this month’s News & Products
and obtained the results shown in Table 1. section – Ed.]. A Mystery Array
Roelof believes that this reduction in sen- Several months ago, reader Jim Glen
sitivity is caused by a rise of the internal The AirSpy HF + Discovery e-mailed me with several pictures of an
noise, which can be easily spotted on the and NDB Monitoring antenna array that he had spotted while
waterfall and S-meter. He wondered what The October issue of RadioUser carried walking along the banks of the River
was causing this. However, he also stated – a review by Nils Schiffhauer of the new Tay (Figs. 1 and 2). Jim had thought
to put things into perspective – that a noise Airspy HF+ Discovery. After reading the re- it was something related to maritime

FREE P&P for all UK orders purchased at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

RadioUser December 2019 21
Maritime Matters

communications, possibly a DGPS generally after 2300 UTC during the winter, in Southwest England.
correction station. Jim had not provided as both North America and Europe must During my own checks, I received the
me with the coordinates of the antenna, so be in darkness. following for the irst time: 327kHz MVC
I had to carry out a ‘virtual’ drive to ind its Furthermore, reception is always de- Merville/Calonne, 344kHz; TR Villefranche/
exact location with Google Earth. However, pendent on propagation conditions. Andy Tarare (France) 350kHz; FU Hamburg
when I checked the coordinates of this Thomsett received several Canadian (Germany) 378kHz; OS Sundsvall-Timrå
antenna, it did not tie in. NDBs during monitoring on 19 September. Airport (Sweden) 380kHz; VNV Villanueva
I also considered Dundee NDB antenna, About a week later, I had an opportuni- Spain 384kHz; PMR Pamiers Les Pujols
but again the co-ordinates did not match, ty to do some very late-night listening, af- Airport (France); and 387kHz BGP Brest
not to mention the fact that it would be ter a short-notice childminding session (France). My equipment consisted of NRD
unusual to have satellite dishes co-located for my daughter. 525 receiver, Timewave DSP9+ and PA0RDT
with an NDB. Looking at various charts, I Fortunately, conditions were favourable, mini-whip as my main aerial, with a Datong
noticed that RAF Leuchars is fairly close to and I managed to also log several Canadian AD370 in reserve.
the location; after some further research, beacons. Interestingly I noticed that HO The logs for this period (below) will also
using some of my older RAF documents, 378.0kHz Hopedale (NL) Canada came in soon be available on the RadioUser web-
I am now 99.9% certain that the mast is with a very strong signal. site. My own logs are shown as DXer A, and
for their TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation The chart in Fig. 3 shows the North Andy’s as DXer B.
System) facility. Atlantic pressure situation at the time www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
The coordinates given for it are very (0140 UTC). I checked for North American Another UK en route NDB has recently
close to the ones I obtained with Google beacons and found that Northeast Canada closed; this time it was New Galloway NGY
Earth. According to my documents, the and my location were, in fact, on the 399kHz. This was a regular ‘Day-Timer’ re-
mast is 72 feet high, and the TACAN has an same isobar line. ceived here, not only on my main receiv-
output power of 6W. To receive North American beacons, the ing equipment but also on my Seaix and
pressure on the North American Atlantic Locata hand-held RDF receivers.
Beacon News coast must be either the same or higher As always, I welcome your NDB reception
and Pressure Charts than the pressure in the UK/Europe, with no logs, no matter how large or small. These
I mentioned the reception of NDBs from areas of higher pressure in between. are a valuable resource for those either
North America at the start. The US and Andy reported receiving the follow- starting out or just trying something differ-
Canadian authorities are still closing down ing NDBs for the irst time: 330kHz HN ent in this area of the hobby. The next NDB
NDBs, but most of the ‘regulars’ received Hornafjörður (Iceland); 365kHz ODD Monitoring Update will be published in the
here year on year are still operational at Odden (Norway); and 371kHz LEV Cuneo – March 2020 issue of RadioUser.
present. North American reception is only Levaldigi (Italy). Andy was using an Airspy Until the next time, good DXing, Merry
possible well into the hours of darkness, HF+ and PA0RDT Mini-Whip at his location Christmas and Fair Winds.

263.0 QY Sydney, NS Canada A, B 321.0 VO Vojens Denmark A 337.0 EX Exeter England A*, B
274.0 SAL Sal Cape Verde A, B 322.0 OU Bromma Sweden A 337.0 MY Myggenaes Faeroes A, B
276.0 YHR Chevery, QC Canada B 322.0 RL La Rochelle France A, B 337.0 WTN Warton England A*
277.0 BRY Bray France A 322.0 TL Hyères France A 338.0 FNY Doncaster England A*
280.0 QX Gandar (NL) Canada A. B 323.0 WPL Weslhpool Wales A* 338.0 GU Brest - Guipavas France B
281.0 CA Cartwright, NL Canada A 324.0 ON Norrköping Sweden A 339.0 BIA Bournemouth England B
286.5 TA Villacoubry France A* 325.0 PG Trollhättan Sweden A 339.0 FG Montpellier France A
293.0 OB Brussels Belgium A 326.0 LM Le Mans France A 339.0 NE Nancy France A
300.0 SC Linköping Sweden A 326.0 OG Gällivare Sweden A 340.0 HAW Hawrden Wales A*
301.0 RTN Romorantin France A 327.0 MVC Merville / Calonne France A 340.0 LSH Lashenden England A*
311.0 LMA Lima Germany A 328.0 CL Carlisle England A* 340.0 YY Mont Joli, QC Canada B
315.0 HOL Villacoubry France A* 328.0 IVR Inverness Scotland A 341.0 BZ Biarritz France A
316.0 BRR Barra Scotland A* 328.5 EGT Londonderry N. Ireland A*, B 341.0 EDN Edinburgh Scotland A*
316.0 OE Dublin Rep. of Ireland A*, B 330.0 HN Hornafjordur Iceland B 341.0 IS Ajaccio Corsica A
317.0 OZ Kardla Estonia A, B 331.0 GLW Glasgow Scotland A* 342.0 LL Leirin Norway A, B
318.0 BE Bordeaux France A, B 331.0 GST Gloucester England B 342.0 VA Vannes France B
318.0 BPL Blackpool England A* 331.5 TLF Toulouse / Francazal France B 342.5 NWI Norwich England A*, B
318.0 HIG Bremen Germany A 332.0 OY Aldergrove N. Ireland A* 343.0 YVL Yeovil England A, B
319.0 VAR Stavanger Norway A, B 334.0 GMN Gormanstown Rep. of Ireland A*, B 344.0 TR Villefranche / Tarare France A
321.0 ABY Albert Bray France A*, B 334.0 KER Farrenfore Rep. of Ireland A* 345.0 LN Lannion France A, B
321.0 STM St. Mary’s Scilly Isles A*, B 335.0 TON Torralba de Aragón Spain B 345.5 CF Čáslav Czech Rep A, B
321.0 TL Tarbes France A 335.0 WCO Westcott England A, B 347.0 NQY Newquay England A*, B

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

22 RadioUser December 2019
 Maritime Matters

347.5 TD Teeside England A* 378.0 OS Sundsvall / Timra Sweden A 404.0 OBN N.Connell Scotland A*
348.0 CL Cahors France A, B 379.0 EB Bouthéon France A 404.0 VNG Vangsnes Norway A
348.0 SAD Leknes Norway A 379.0 REK Reksten Norway A 406.0 BHX Birmingham England A*
348.0 VG Vagar Faroes A 380.0 CBL Campbeltown Scotland A* 406.0 TW Toulouse France A, B
349.5 LPL Liverpool England A* 380.0 FIL Horta Azores A, B 406.5 BOT Bottrop Germany A
350.0 FU Hamburg West Germany A 380.0 VNV Villanueva Spain A, B 409.0 SG Sätenas Sweden A, B
351.0 OSA Ouessant France B 382.0 ALG Alghero Sardinia A 410.0 C La Coruña Spain B
351.0 OV Visby Sweden A 382.0 LAR Arrunda Portugal A, B
410.0 ETN Étain Rouvres France A*
351.5 PLA Pula Croatia A 383.0 ALD Alderney Channel Isles A, BG
413.5 DLS Berlin Germany B
352.0 ENS Ennis Rep. of Ireland A* 384.0 ADX Palma Majorca B
414.0 BRI Bristol England A*, B
352.0 NT Newcastle England A* 384.0 PMR Pamiers les Pujols France A, B
414.0 HD Stokka Norway A, B
352.0 WOD Woodley England B 384.0 SLG Sligo Rep. of Ireland A*, B
415.0 TOE Toulouse France B
353.0 KIL Kiel Germany A 385.0 WL Walney Island England A*, B
416.0 POZ Beograde Czech Rep A, B
353.0 SB Saint Brieuc - Armor France B 386.0 BZ Brize Norton England B
417.0 AH Ängelholm Sweden A, B
353.5 EME East Midlands England A* 386.0 O Kardla Estonia A
417.0 SNO Santiago Spain A
354.0 MTZ Metz France A 387.0 AV Asturias Spain A
418.0 MK Calais France A, B
355.0 PIK Prestwick Scotland A*, B 387.0 BGP Brest Bretagne France A, B
420.0 HB Belfast City N. Ireland A*, B
356.0 AY St Anthony, NL Canada A, B 387.0 CML Clonmell Rep. of Ireland A*, B
356.0 WBA Wolverhampton England A*, B 388.0 LOU Metz-Nancy Lorraine France B 421.0 GE Madrid Spain B

357.0 LP Cholet France A, B 388.5 CDF Cardiff Wales A, B 421.0 MF Halmstad Sweden A, B

358.0 BRS Biscarrosse France B 389.0 BX La Palma Canaries A 422.0 PAM Pamplona Spain A, B

359.0 LOR Lorient-Lann-Bihoué France A, B 389.0 PX Périgueux Basilic France A*, B 423.0 FE Odense Denmark A
359.0 RWY Ronaldsway Isle of Man A* 390.0 DR Dinard France A*, B 423.0 TS Toulouse France B
360.0 HT Horta Azores B 390.5 ITR Istres France B 424.0 LOE Limoges - Bellegarde France B
360.0 ULV Brønnøysund Norway A, B 391.0 BV Beauvais France A, B 424.0 PHG Phalsbourg France A, B
361.0 CFN Carrickinn Rep. of Ireland A*, B 391.0 DDP Dorado Puerto Rico B 424.0 RUS Reus Spain B
363.0 OEM Kristianstad Sweden A, B 392.0 AS Angers France B 425.0 EVR Évora Portugal A, B
363.0 PI Poitiers France A, B 392.5 TOP Torino Italy B 426.0 CTS Castets France B
364.0 KNK Connaught Rep. of Ireland A* 393.0 EMW East Midlands England A* 426.0 GBG Gleichenberg Germany A
364.0 PU Pau France B 394.0 DND Dundee Scotland A*, B 426.0 MIQ Mike Germany A
365.0 ODD Odden Norway B 394.0 NV Nevers France B 427.0 GC Graciosa Azores B
366.0 UTH Uthaug Norway A, B 395.0 FOY Foynes Rep. of Ireland A*, B 427.0 RY Royan France A
367.5 OX Oxford England A* 395.0 KW Kirkwall Scotland A*
428.0 BST Lanvéoc France A
368.0 UW Edinburgh Scotland A 395.0 LAY Islay Scotland A*
428.0 CTX Châteauroux France A, B
368.0 WTD Waterford Rep. of Ireland A*, B 396.0 YG Rigge Norway B
430.0 SN St. Yan France A, B
368.5 WHI Whitegate England A* 397.0 BLB Blois - Le Breuil France B
431.0 SAY Stornaway Scotland A, B
369.0 GL Nantes France A, B 397.0 EHN Eindhoven Germany A
432.0 PRD Peyrehorade France A, B
370.0 CUL Culdrose England A* 397.0 NF Falköping Sweden A
433.0 JER Jerez Spain B
371.0 LEV Cuneo - Levaldigi Italy B 397.0 OP Dublin Rep. of Ireland A*, B
433.0 VNS Castor Platform Off Shore Spain A
372.0 ODR Odderoy Sweden A 398.0 MT St-Nazaire / Montoir France A, B
433.0 VON Vigo Spain A, B
372.0 OZN Prins Christan Sund Greenland A, B 398.0 OK Connaught Rep. of Ireland A*
434.0 MV Melun France A, B
372.0 PY Le Puy France A 398.0 PEO Paola Sweden A
373.0 KEM Kemi Finland A 399.0 NGY New Galloway Scotland A* 444.0 NRD Inowrocław Poland A

374.0 BGC Bergerac France A 399.5 ONO Oostende Belgium B 468.0 FTZ Fritzlar Germany A

375.0 EKO Ekoisk North Sea A* 400.0 AG Agen France A, B 474.5 SA Darłowo Poland A

375.0 TR Tor oilield Norway A* 401.0 BBA Benbecula Scotland A 487.0 BEY Beypazari Turkey A
375.0 VM Vestman Aeyjar Iceland A, B 401.0 LA Laval Entrammes France B 488.0 ILM Illesheim Germany A
376.0 HAN Hahn Germany B 402.5 LBA Leeds England A* 492.0 TBV Třebová Czech Rep A
378.0 HO Hopedale (NL) Canada A 404.0 LRD Lérida Spain B 514.0 GO Amari Estonia A
378.0 KLY Killinay Rep. of Ireland A*, B 404.0 MRV Merville France A 514.5 LA Namést Czech Rep A

FREE P&P for all UK orders purchased at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

RadioUser December 2019 23
Airband News

David Smith
[email protected]

Manchester Airport has launched a

Updating
complex two-year programme to mod-
ernise its airspace, by redesigning sur-
rounding flight paths. Modern aircraft are
itted with sophisticated navigation and
Manchester’s
positioning equipment, like GPS satel-
lite systems, which allow them to safe-
ly fly closer together. The current flight
paths, however, were designed in the
Airspace
1960s, and Manchester Airport, together David Smith reports on modernising Manchester
with all other airports in the UK, has been
told by the Government to bring its air-
Airport’s airspace, preparations for VHF airband from
space up to date. space, and Amsterdam Airport adopting UK systems.
Because airspace structures haven’t He sketches communications at the Isle of Man Airport.
changed for so long, the airport says
modern aircraft cannot fly as eficient-
ly as they could. The painstaking pro- Speciic areas that flight paths should flight paths on different days or at dif-
cess, which will cover flights taking off avoid will also be taken into consideration. ferent times. Manchester Airport’s flight
or arriving at Manchester at altitudes of A formal consultation process with the paths – unseen lines and loops in the
up to 7,000ft, will take until 2022, at the public is not expected to start until early sky, which also make use of beacons –
earliest. to complete. Manchester will 2021 and will not take place until all op- stretch out across Altrincham, Stockport
work with other airports in the north- tions have been developed. The airport and Cheshire, as aircraft climb past
west, including Liverpool, Leeds, East stated that it would consider whether to 7,000ft. Any member of the public can
Midlands, and Doncaster. prioritise keeping changes to a minimum give their views on the design principles
The change will involve a huge amount to avoid flying over new areas, or wheth- they think should be involved by visit-
of consultation with residents and busi- er to start with a ‘clean sheet’. This would ing this website:
nesses based around the airport. The involve the design of new routes, which https://tinyurl.com/y62bubl4
irst phase is now underway and involves might reduce the effect of aircraft noise, The whole process is being overseen by
deining a broad set of general princi- cut emissions and make better use of the Airspace Change Organisation Group
ples that will be adopted, such as wheth- modern technology, but fly over new ar- (ACOG). This is a newly-established body,
er to concentrate flight paths or spread eas as a result. set up by the Government and the Civil
them out, or whether or not to avoid built- New paths could also spread aircraft Aviation Authority (CAA).
up areas. These are known as the ‘de- out over a wider area, with alternative https://tinyurl.com/y5576twy
sign-principles’. routes, and including the use of varying https://www.caa.co.uk/home

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

24 RadioUser December 2019
 Airband News

World’s First Space-Based ATC Profiles 19: Isle of Man Airport

VHF Service ICAO Code: EGNS IATA Code: IOM
SITAONAIR and the Civil Aviation Authority
of Singapore (CAAS) are exploring the po- FREQUENCIES (MHz) Hours of Operation
tential for a world-irst space-based VHF Ronaldsway Approach 135.905 As directed by ATC
Ronaldsway Approach/Radar 120.855 0600-2045 Sun / 0545-1945
voice service. The irst of its kind, it would Ronaldsway Radar 125.305 As directed by ATC
use VHF radio relay installed onboard sat- Ronaldsway Tower 119.005 0600-2045 Sun / 0545-1945
ellites. Its key beneit would be to enable ATIS
Direct Controller-Pilot Communication Ronaldsway Information 123.880 0600-2045 Sun / 0545-1945
Ronaldsway Fire (non-ATC) 121.600 Fire vehicles attending aircraft on the ground
(DCPC) in areas of airspace which are geo- Ronaldsway Emergency 121.500
graphically remote, such as over oceans, or
where it is not cost-eficient to provide and NAVAIDS ILS CAT I Runways 08 and 26
NDB RWY 359.500kHz
maintain terrestrial VHF and HF services. VOR/DME 112.200MHz
When used in combination with air
RUNWAYS 08 1837m x 46m
trafic surveillance systems, the service 26 1837m x 46m
has the potential to drastically improve 03 1255m x 46m
21 1255m x 46m
airspace capacity and eficiency,
complementing existing ADS-B and HOLDS
satellite communications (SATCOM). CAAS VOR IOM Holding axis 082° MAG, turning right at the facility.
KELLY Holding ix IOM VOR/DME 126°/17nm on an axis of 306° MAG, turning
is already embarking on technical studies left at the facility.
of space-based VHF in the Singapore MIKEL Holding ix IOM VOR/DME 346°/13nm on an axis of 166° MAG, turning
left at the ix.
Flight Information Region (FIR), focusing Ronaldsway NDB RWY 08 Ronaldsway NDB RWY 26.
on medium earth orbit and low earth orbit VANIN Holding ix IOM VOR/DME 103°/26nm on an axis of 283° MAG, turning
satellites used as relay stations for voice right at the facility.

and, if feasible, data communications. NOTES (A-Z)

Initially, SITAONAIR will co-operate with the CAT II/III Operations
industry, to focus on the implementation The airport is not equipped for CATII/III operations.

of High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) Ground Movement

based platforms, which would hover around Due to the physical constraints of the apron design, pilots must follow the ground markings at all times.
Apron loodlighting is 7m from the edge of the usable paved areas. Pilots of self-parking aircraft should
60,000ft above the Earth’s surface. exercise extreme caution in respect of wingtip clearance. The services of a marshaller are available on
This interim solution would then pave the request. Taxiways Delta and Charlie, between holding point D1 and Runway 08/26, are available for use in
daylight only by aircraft that do not require the use of a licensed aerodrome, and which are under 2000kg
way for space-based VHF, once available MTOW.
satellites are launched.
Handling Agents
Handling is mandatory for all arriving aircraft. Arrangements should be conirmed in advance with one of
Dutch Air Traffic Control the following handling agents: Menzies Aviation Ltd., Frequency: 129.750MHz; The Private Jet Company
to Adopt NATS’ Intelligent Ltd., Rendezvous Handling Ltd., Frequency 131.425MHz.
Approach System. Helicopter Operations
Intelligent Approach, the ATC system that There are no speciic helicopter routes. Helicopters will conform with normal arrival and departure
procedures. Speciic parking instructions will be given approaching the runway threshold.
dynamically separates arrivals by time in-
stead of distance, is in the irst phase of Noise Abatement
Pilots shall ensure at all times that aircraft are operated in a manner calculated to cause the least
being deployed at Schiphol Approach, to disturbance practicable in areas surrounding the airport, particularly near Castletown and Ballasalla. All
help improve trafic capacity at Amsterdam propeller-driven aircraft must climb straight ahead to 500ft and must have passed the airport boundary
before commencing any turn. All jet aircraft must climb straight ahead to 1000ft before commencing any
Schiphol Airport. The Dutch air trafic turn. All departing aircraft from Runway 26 shall track the extended centre-line, to a range of 3nm or less
service provider, LVNL will work with its from IOM DME, before commencing any turn.
UK counterpart (NATS) and the tech- Training
nology irm, Leidos, to deploy the sys- Instrument training is subject to prior permission from ATC.
tem and expects it to be operational by
Use of Runways
the end of 2020. Simulated engine failures will not be permitted for any aircraft departing from Runway 26. Due to the
https://en.lvnl.nl presence of high ground to the left of the approach for Runway 21, pilots must establish on the runway
centre-line before descending on the PAPI glide path.
https://www.nats.aero
https://www.leidos.com Visual Reference Points (VRP)
Laxey, Peel
Intelligent Approach was developed
jointly by NATS and Leidos. It dynamically Warnings
A known wind shear exists on short inal for Runway 08, when the wind is from the southeast; pilots should
calculates the optimum gap between adopt appropriate operating procedures. During strong wind conditions, turbulence may be expected
arriving aircraft for the prevailing wind on the approach to, or climb-out from, any runway. The presence of high ground to the north of Runway
conditions, and it displays dynamic 08/26 centre-line may trigger GPWS alerts if an aircraft adopts a high rate of descent and/or fast speed
proiles in this sector. Due to shielding by high ground, communications to the north of the Isle of Man are
separation and spacing indicators to the restricted. In the event of failure of remote transmitters/receivers, radio communications to the north of
controllers. This can improve an airport’s the aerodrome below 3000ft may be restricted and ATC services reduced accordingly. Pilots should ensure
that they do not enter the Control Zone without ATC clearance. In the event of dificulty in establishing
tactical capacity in all weather conditions. communication, a Flight Information Service may be available from Scottish Information on frequency
It is especially effective during strong 119.875MHz.
headwinds, when separating aircraft by

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

RadioUser December 2019 25
Airband News

ixed distance results in a lower landing In 2018, the system was updated to ‘pairwise separation’. Here, each
rate, with knock-on effects on delays. include the latest RECAT (recategorization) pair of aircraft type will have its own
The system was irst introduced at wake vortex categories and include separation standard, as opposed to the
London Heathrow Airport in 2015. Today, it optimised runway delivery, providing six categories in use today. Moreover, an
allows two additional landings per-hour in separation indicators to the runway improved system will manage arrivals on
normal conditions and recovers on average threshold. Intelligent Approach also mixed-mode runways.
four landings per hour in strong headwinds provides controllers with runway My photograph this month shows an
This cuts delays due to headwinds by more occupancy indicators, where that is more Emirates Airbus A380, about to rotate at
than 60% and helps ensure the airport can limiting than wake separation. Manchester Airport.
deliver to plan, and airlines can keep to Further Intelligent Approach functionality Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to
their scheduling. is under development. This will introduce all RU readers and aviation enthusiasts.

Radio News passage into law of the Small-scale Radio

Multiplex and Community Digital Radio Order
2019. The legal order, supporting the future
as much data as it could, so that we can
understand the Sun better. Now its mission
team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
RADIO ROMANIA INTERNATIONAL (RRI) establishment and licensing of small-scale Laboratory in Maryland has just received the
ȚIGĂNEȘTI NEWS : 1 of the 5 short wave DAB multiplexes, was passed by Parliament i nal transmission for the 22GB of science
transmitters that beam RRI’s broadcasts is last week and has now been signed into law data collected during those two l ybys. That
not working. The transmitter in Țigănești (BD by Nigel Adams MP, the Minister of State at is 50% more data than expected, all thanks to
300-1 near Bucharest) is still out of work. the Department for Digital, Culture, Media the spacecraft’s telecommunications system,
RADIOCOM, a broadcasting service provider, and Sport. Ofcom will now proceed with which is performing better than anticipated.
has said that it will take up to several months to publishing their response to their small-scale Parker’s ground team found out soon after
replace the broken component. In exchange, DAB consultation, which closed in October. It launch that the probe was capable of a higher
another short wave transmitter, in Galbeni, will potentially begin the process of licensing downlink rate.
in the northeast of Romania ( ID 300-1) has small-scale DAB multiplexes across the UK, Mission leaders are now taking advantage
been repaired and is currently working. Due which is expected in early 2020. of this higher ability, by instructing the probe
to the failure of the transmitter in, Țigănești The licensing of small-scale DAB multiplexes to send back even more data from its second
the digital broadcasting (standard DRM) will enable many ultra-local commercial and solar encounter in April. During that event, the
of some RRI programs in English, French, community radio stations to be broadcast spacecraft’s four suites of science instruments
German and Russian has also been disturbed. on DAB for the i rst time. Small-scale DAB kept busy collecting information. That’s why
Meanwhile, RRI are kindly asking you to was launched into 10 trial areas in 2015 in the mission team is expecting to receive an
tune in for RRI’s short wave broadcasts on London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, additional 25GB of science data. The team will
the second frequency which is listed on the Portsmouth, Brighton, Cambridge, Norwich, release the data from the i rst two encounters
frequency schedule, as RRI usually broadcasts Bristol and Aldershot, and there are now to the public later this year. Meanwhile, the
its programs on two frequencies to one target 146 ultra-local commercial and community spacecraft has now conducted its third l yby,
area. You’ll i nd the frequency schedule on RRI’s stations being broadcast on DAB. which started on August 27th and reached the
webpage (below). It is under the ‘Frequencies’ (SOURCE: Radioworld) closest approach on September 1st 2019.
button. RRI is sorry for any inconvenience and https://tinyurl.com/y5xevovc Researchers are hoping that the mission can
hopes the situation will be remedied soon. gather the information we need to unravel
http://rri.ro PARKER SOLAR PROBE SOLAR DATA : some of the Sun’s biggest mysteries, including
The SWLing Post reports that, over the past why the sun’s corona (its aura of plasma) is far
RADIO ORGANISATIONS WELCOME months, NASA’s Parker solar probe l ew closer hotter than its visible surface.
SMALL-SCALE DAB ORDER: A number to the Sun than any other spacecraft before https://tinyurl.com/y6awsyny
of radio organisations have welcomed the it – not once but twice. The probe collected https://tinyurl.com/yxndwxs5

Aerials Reviewed Royal Navy Amateur Radio Society

Yagis and Cross-Yagis Profile of the RNARS: 72 years of tradition

“I no longer dread having

to climb the stairs.” October 2019 £4.50

PRODUCT
www.radioenthusiast.co.uk
●
●
Airspy HF+ Discovery
Bush WI-1819
iscovery

Mr. Rowe, Nottingham REVIEWS ● Winradio WR-G65DDCe

65DDCe

No more struggling with the stairs Icom First Look!

All new IC-705 RF portable transceiver and
Stay in the home you love IC-PW2 linear amplifier debut at Tokyo Hamfair
Plus six pages
of latest news
“ Be safe with a stairlift; and products Radio &
Enjoy Our TV: Past &
New Colum Present
the perfect solution n Airshow
Our Summ Guide
er Listin
g: Part

to problems with Four

the stairs.” Septem

ber 2019

Your favourite magazines

£4.50
www.rad

Dr Hilary Jones, WIN CROSS

HF COU
ioenthus
iast.co.u
ACTIV NTRY WI
k

Medical Advisor to Acorn Stairlifts

SDS-20 E LOOP REL
ANTENESS
NA
A first0 First T
are just a click away est
in-depth
review
of this
hotly-an
ticipated
new scan
ner

Emergency Comms Network Radio Alan Turing

The Impact of the Internet Debates and Discoveries Misunderstood Genius?

VOR Beacons Innovative Podcasts

The Rothammel in English Magnetic Field Flips Book Reviews
Maritime
Exploring Matters
distress Winradio
calls
WR-G65DDCExcalibur
Apple SDR Review Radio Astro
Watch
Messrs & Podca Ruby Payne- nomy
Yagi & sts
Uda | Newc| Falklands Scott
ISSN 1748-8117

00Sept
front.indd astle Airpo War | Mediu
rt | Radio m Wave Circle
1

in Pakis
tan | Books
Display until
26th September
2019

26 RadioUser December 2019

Hear weak signals clearly with..
..a bhi DSP noise cancelling product! bhi
ParaPro EQ20 audio DSP range with parametric equalisation
- 20W audio and parametric equalisation on all units
- Powerful high-performance audio processing system
- DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions available
- Simple control of all DSP functions
- Two separate mono inputs or one stereo input
- Use with passive speakers or headphones
- Fine-tune the audio to maximise your enjoyment
- Four models EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20-DSP, EQ20B-DSP
Precise audio adjustment to
compensate for hearing loss

High-performance audio processing...

...with irst-class DSP noise cancelling...
...for a great listening experience
Dual In-Line New lower price!
Compact In-Line
Easy to use
in-line DSP
noise cancelling
Burgess Hill, RH15 9RR, UK
bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close
and accessories!
headphones, speakers
Check out our range of

and fused DC power lead

- Supplied with user manual
- Headphone socket
- Input overload LED
- Separate volume control
- 8 ilter levels 8 to 40dB
- Simple control
cancelling speaker
10W ampliied DSP noise
DSPKR
Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com

- Replacement for bhi NEIM1031 In-Line

“noise-free”speech from your radio
and easy operation - Enjoy clear intelligble
radio incl’ SDR - Easy to use controls for quick
Headphone socket - Suitable for all types of
input/output - 7 watts mono speaker output -
40dB - 3.5mm mono or stereo inputs - Line level
noise cancelling unit - 8 Filter levels 9 to
Fully featured lexible dual channel DSP

Dual In-Line New lower price!

level input sockets

...for a great listening experience

...with irst-class DSP noise cancelling...
High-performance audio processing...

..a bhi DSP noise cancelling product!

Hear weak signals clearly with..
separate line
- Speaker level and
- Headphone socket
radios incl’ SDR
- Suitable for all
adjustment
- “Real time” audio
- 8 DSP ilter levels
- Easy to use controls
station speaker
cancelling base
DSP noise
10W Ampliied
DESKTOP
- 3.5mm line level and speaker level inputs
- Use with headphones or a loudspeaker
- Easy to use with “real time” adjustment
- Rotary encoders perform all functions
EA&O

- Remove noise and interference - Hear weak signals clearly

- Unique DSP noise cancelling technology - Low latency of 32mS
- Powerful high-performance audio processor

compensate for hearing loss

Precise audio adjustment to
Compact In-Line

- Four models EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20-DSP, EQ20B-DSP

- Fine-tune the audio to maximise your enjoyment
- Use with passive speakers or headphones
- Two separate mono inputs or one stereo input
- Simple control of all DSP functions
functions
of audio and
encoder control
simple rotary
unit with
noise cancelling
in-line DSP
Easy to use

- DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions available

- Powerful high-performance audio processing system
- 20W audio and parametric equalisation on all units

ParaPro EQ20 audio DSP range with parametric equalisation

bhi
unit with
simple rotary
encoder control
of audio and
functions

- Powerful high-performance audio processor

Fully featured lexible dual channel DSP - Unique DSP noise cancelling technology - Low latency of 32mS
noise cancelling unit - 8 Filter levels 9 to - Remove noise and interference - Hear weak signals clearly
40dB - 3.5mm mono or stereo inputs - Line level - Rotary encoders perform all functions
input/output - 7 watts mono speaker output - - Easy to use with “real time” adjustment
Headphone socket - Suitable for all types of - Use with headphones or a loudspeaker
radio incl’ SDR - Easy to use controls for quick - 3.5mm line level and speaker level inputs
and easy operation - Enjoy clear intelligble
“noise-free”speech from your radio DESKTOP
- Replacement for bhi NEIM1031 In-Line
10W Ampliied
DSPKR DSP noise
10W ampliied DSP noise cancelling base
cancelling speaker station speaker
- Simple control - Easy to use controls
- 8 ilter levels 8 to 40dB - 8 DSP ilter levels
- Separate volume control - “Real time” audio
- Input overload LED adjustment
- Headphone socket - Suitable for all
- Supplied with user manual radios incl’ SDR
and fused DC power lead - Headphone socket
- Speaker level and
separate line
Check out our range of level input sockets
headphones, speakers
and accessories! EA&O
bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close
Burgess Hill, RH15 9RR, UK Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com
Network Radio

Network Radio Undercover

© ICOM UK

Chris Rolinson lice operations!

[email protected] As RadioUser readers well know, an-
tennas are a necessity to get any decent
Chris Rolinson gets up close and not- range when using RF.
too-personal with a private investiga- Another obstacle was that there would
tor, finding that Network Radios play often be at least one member of his team
an important part in undercover opera- struggling with comms, often due to a fail-
tions. He also reports on radio customi- ure with an external RF antenna, or because
sation and channel users. of physical range limits or local geography.

It is not just hobbyists who are finding On to Network Radio

various uses for Network Radio (NR). The Melvin picked up the story, “Being one that
Emergency Services are getting top-tier pri- looks out for developments in technology,
oritised access to the cellular networks, and I’d heard of Network Radio, but ignored it
businesses are increasingly enjoying the because I kept hearing the word ‘Zello’. This
benefits of using NR. was probably because I had given Zello a try
I spoke with one of the Icom staff at on my phone years earlier and didn’t like it.
the Newark National Hamfest in October I regarded it as a kind of ‘poor man’s’ radio
(RadioUser, November 2019: 28-30 and 54), communication.”
who told me that sales of their business PoC One of the issues we all face using Zello
offering, the IP503H, are booming (Fig. 1). on a phone is that you can get an incom-
And on that note, it was great to hear ing call, which cuts off the app, and worse,
recently from a business NR user, Melvin locks up the screen. Then you have to close
Rattenbury from Coventry. Melvin has a it to use other phone apps, and re-open it
unique day job – for over 20 years, he has to use it again. Battery life takes a large hit
been a Private Investigator. using Zello intensively on a smartphone,
https://www.investigateit.co.uk so, all things considered, one can under-
stand why Melvin discounted this as a
Making the Transition practical solution.
Much of Melvin’s work involves surveillance, However, a few months ago, a friend
and he demands a highly reliable means showed him a ‘proper’ Network Radio – and
of communication. while Melvin was understandably sceptical,
Using mobile phones was not ideal for he borrowed it nonetheless to give it a try.
him, mainly due to the time involved in the 1
process of using one; in other words, the Testing Network Radio
time involved in … looking up a colleague’s ic’ sound of the digital audio. However, with On the first ‘trial-day’, Mel happened to be
phone number, dialling it, waiting for a con- firmware updates, speech clarity improved on a three-hour journey to Wales; this was
nection and then waiting again for them to immensely over the years. an ideal test, due to the rural topography.
answer the phone. The fleet of radios increased as Melvin’s He said, “I was really impressed! Very lit-
A lot can happen during that time which, network of colleagues expanded. DP4800 tle signal dropout, and the fact that there
for Melvin, can result in a failure to pass models became the next radios. For the ul- were no range restrictions, due to terrain,
on critical surveillance information, which timate in covert body-worn radio, the firm quickly made me realise this could be a
could even result in the whole opera- went for used Motorola SL4000 devices worthy tool to add to my fleet of radios, for
tion going wrong. (Fig. 2), with a low-profile ear kit. This meant times when we were struggling with range
What Melvin required was something it was not obvious that operatives were us- on the Motorolas. I found the audio on the
more reliable and instantaneous. ing radios at any time, and they could acti- dedicated Network Radio was much louder
Therefore, his firm looked at handheld RF vate transmissions remotely, for example than a phone, and I have since tested them
radio communications. when following people on foot. at high speeds on the motorways across the
Melvin’s business can inevitably involve UK. The audio is loud and clear enough to
Early RF Radios sensitive issues. Therefore, he required be easily heard.”
Motorola GP300’s were the first radios something that was encrypted; the DP/ So a pair of Inrico T320s were purchased
Melvin purchased - at that time, these were, SL series ticked that box too. One addi- for backup purposes (Fig. 3). There were, in-
arguably, the best handhelds available for tional concern was having to use exter- evitably, teething troubles, mainly to do with
such use. By 2008, Melvin had moved to nal antennas on vehicles; such antennas accidental touching of the screen, which
Motorola DP3400/3600 radios using DMR can alert people to the kind of work going can account for all kinds of weird behaviour.
(Digital Mobile Radio). on. Furthermore, people could confuse But there are software solutions within Zello
The only criticism of these was the ‘robot- Melvin’s operatives with undercover po- itself; before long, Melvin added a PIN num-

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

28 RadioUser December 2019
 Network Radio

© MOTOROLA

Fig. 1: Icom’s IP503H – Proving to be a best- ty PTT apps, which require the provider to
seller. Fig.2: The Motorola SL4000. set up channels and users. We simply send
our colleagues a QR code, they scan it and
ber that was required to open the screen; they’re on! This is much better than trying
this solved some of his team’s issues. to set up DMR.”
While still unsure quite how to use the In terms of battery life, Mel reported that
new radios, Melvin and his team were then the Network Radios’ ‘uptime’ far exceeds
forced into using them. He continued, “On that of his RF radios, simply because they
one job, one of us had issues with his DMR are very low-power devices; they do not
mag-mount coming loose. It basically re- require 4W to get a decent signal, so the
stricted our effective range to 50 yards, so batteries last, in his words, “literally days”
we had no option but to use the T320’s for between charges.
the next two days. It was here that we real- Mel claimed that his experience now
ised the full potential of NR - crystal-clear amounts to a Damascene Conversion!
comms and unlimited range. We were able From not wanting NRs at all, via thinking
for the first time to jettison the mag mounts they might be a useful backup, his organi-
from our vehicles, which was a big bonus for sation now regards them as his first line of
us, especially from a visibility perspective.” communications.
As his confidence grew, Melvin purchased And, as another advantage, the cellular
more NRs. After a job in North Yorkshire, network actually gives them more security
where the EE SIMs they had been using from eavesdroppers than anything else they
didn’t work as well as O2 SIMs in that part of have previously used.
the UK, Melvin realised a better way forward Melvin’s final thoughts? “I really believe
would be with a network-roaming SIM, simi- this is where the future of business radio
lar to the Anywhere SIM offering. lies, and that normal PMR radio, as we know
it, is a ‘spent force’. ‘Big’ names like Hytera
More Positives are also now getting in on the act. If you
In the meantime, more benefits were crop- don’t believe this, then why, I wonder, are the
ping up. Melvin recalled, “An added bonus is Emergency Services moving over to the very
that all the voice traffic can be recorded onto same concept, as they ditch Airwave and use
the radios - this helps us immensely. If there 2 the Emergency Services Network on 4G?”
is a lot of activity, we can fall behind with a
written log, and – when it comes to updat- in Cumbria, he had no problems getting a Channel Creation and
ing the log – we may have questions such as signal; however, he found the odd city spot Fragmentation
‘What was the registration of that vehicle?’ where he had no reception whatsoever. I have noticed recently that numbers report-
or ‘On what road did he pick that person up?’ This was pre-roaming SIM though, and ed by Zello on some of the more popular
With Network Radios, we can simply go back some tests with the new SIMs have lead NR haunts seem to be lower than they were,
through our recordings and everything is Melvin to believe he would have had cover- say a year ago. I have even heard people
there, timed and dated.” age, had he had one to hand at the time. say that this means that the Network Radio
So from thinking that NRs would com- And the small screens? The T320’s screen ‘bubble’ has ‘burst’. However, I think this
plement his existing radios, it now trans- is rather small (it has to be, for good battery is not the case.
pired that they had highlighted the lim- life), and Melvin’s operatives seem to have a Numbers on the Network Radios Suite
its of traditional RF radios. Melvin said he larger-than-average number of ‘fat fingers’ Channel 00 (which tends to be the most
has now sold off most of his DMR radios, leading to mistyping. used of all NR channels) have fluctuated
just keeping a couple for cases of poor However, once again, there are work- during the spring and summer months, but
network coverage. arounds, such as setting Zello up on the PC they are pretty stable most of the time, with
first and transferring the settings across. approximately 100-130 users at any one
Any Bad Points? Since Melvin’s introduction to Network time. True, this is, perhaps, just a little lower
Naturally, there are some drawbacks – find- Radio, he has acquired one of the more ‘up- than a year ago.
ing fist microphones and covert kits built market’ Telo TE590 radios. This is proving While seasonal fluctuations will play their
to ‘Motorola Standard’ was one. Friend better for on-the-go-programming, on ac- part, (it is well known that radio enthusiasts
of RadioUser, Andrew Clark at G6 Global count of its larger screen (Fig. 5). tend to ‘play radio’ more in the dark winter
helped them out with covert earpieces, months) the main reason I believe numbers
among other accessories (Fig. 4). Staying in Control have slightly dipped is more to do with the
https://www.g6-global.com Melvin loved the fact that he was in control nature of the system. Once people take the
What about poor coverage? Yes, there of his own network - he can add or remove plunge and realise that they have the power
are still some areas where there is little or people to channels at any time, or block a in their hands to create new channels and
no network coverage, rendering the radios user without having to rely on someone else communities, that is exactly what they do!
effectively useless. But Melvin reports that to program the radios. We have seen a proliferation of, for
this is not now such a common occurrence. He stated, “This is one of the main reasons example, radio club channels open to
Bizarrely, in the middle of the mountains we like Zello, as opposed to other third-par- members only; 4x4 teams using private

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

RadioUser December 2019 29
Network Radio

© MELVIN RATTENBURY © MELVIN RATTENBURY

© MELVIN RATTENBURY

Fig. 3: Inrico T320 – better than having an antenna Catch you on the Network!
on the roof. Fig. 4: Covert Earpiece for the T320.
Fig. 5: Melvin’s TE590 with a covert earpiece
Fig. 6: Southern Ireland repeaters, connected to a
Network Radio channel.

channels for search and rescue activities;

microwave enthusiasts creating talkback
channels when setting up narrow beam-
width experiments. On top of those,
there are interconnected ham-only Zello
channels like the Southern Ireland Repeater
Network (Fig. 6).
I personally do not believe that people 5
are ‘leaving’ NR or Zello; they are just © SIRN

discovering what else they can do with the

system; users are creating their own radio
‘worlds’ for their own purposes. There are
now many communities on NR, and they
are all growing.
Of course, there is no clearly-defined
way of measuring this, but I suspect, as
NR grows and becomes more accepted
for what it is (rather than what it isn’t), we
will inevitably see more fragmentation
of channels as hobbyists think ‘outside
of the box’ and use it for what they
want to use it for.
Either way, I suspect 2020 is going to be
quite an exciting year for Network Radio.
And on that note, may I wish you a very
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 6

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

30 RadioUser December 2019
Pay just £4.33 an issue!
INSIDE EVERY ISSUE:
■ Discover the people, uniforms, medals and the
weapons behind the stories
■ The latest militaria news, re-enactment and
event reports
■ Prices, rare items finds, auction and fair guides

Subscribe from just £12.99 a

quarter*and pay £4.33 an issue

* Print subscription price of

£12.99 applies to UK direct debits
only. Available until 31.12.2019

Also available in digital format

SUBSCRIBE Visit www.armourer.co.uk or call

TODAY! 01778 392489 quoting ARM/SUBS19
Feature

VLF Update & SAQ Grimeton

Peter Newton GM0EZR and the editor celebrate the World Heritage Site of
SAQ Grimeton in Sweden on United Nations Day 2019. On the day, the signal
remained elusive, but hunting it was fun and educational.
Peter Newton GM0EZR ing current generator for long wave ra- waves had no dificulty in passing over
[email protected] dio transmission. the Skagerrak, and via Scotland and the
Georg Wiessala The European Route of Industrial Atlantic Ocean, to their inal destination at
[email protected] Heritage (ERIH) website is a good source Long Island, New York.
for further background details. It tells us The telegraphs they carried were in
that Grimeton was the irst machine to en-

O
n 2nd July 1925, King Gustav Morse code and had to be translated by
V of Sweden (1858-1950) in- able radio waves to be transmitted over telegraphers in New York, before being
sisted on opening the radio long distances. distributed throughout the country by
station at Grimeton. He was https://www.erih.net telegram boys.
accompanied to the ceremo- For a time, around 20 ‘Alexanderson
ny by the Swedish electrical engineer Alternators’ made up a radio network Reaching the Diaspora
Ernst Alexanderson (1878-1975) who had which spanned the world. Truly, an early At the end of the 19th Century, huge waves
made a career for himself in the United world-wide-web, just like the telegraph ca- of emigrants left Sweden in search of hap-
States and could look back on a whole ble and the internet later on. piness in the USA, leaving many friends
stack of patents. One of these transceivers, starting in and relations behind forever. Wireless
One of his pioneering inventions was 1925, was Grimeton. radio connections via Grimeton Radio
the Alexanderson Alternator, an alternat- Thanks to the flat landscape, radio Station offered the irst opportunity for

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

32 RadioUser December 2019
 Feature

Fig. 1: The turbine hall at SAQ Grimeton. Fig. 2: A glimpse of the cultural programme for the planned
October 2019 transmission. Fig. 3: SAQ test transmission on 24th October 2019 (Peter Newton).

them to exchange messages and news, Marconi Day (28th April), Labour Day (1st
quickly and reliably. May), and Alexanderson Day (1st July)
During the Second World War, Sweden (Figs. 1 and 2).
remained neutral, and thanks to Grimeton http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1134
Radio Station it became a very im- It is signiicant that this year, 100 years
portant news base. have passed since equal voting rights for
However, mechanical transmitting sta- men and women were introduced in Sweden.
tions quickly became insigniicant when According to the organisers of this year’s 2
faced with the challenge of electronic valves. event, “It is a human right that everyone can
After this, they were used almost exclusively make their voices heard in fundamental is-
for military purposes, and Grimeton fell silent sues and is prerequisite for creating a dem- Grimeton SAQ
in the 1980s. In 1996, the excellently main- ocratic and peaceful society.” This year, the A-1 Morse code signal (CB-SSB)
tained historic site was listed as a Swedish aim of the UN celebrations from Scandinavia 17.2kHz (17,442 meters) (14.5-17.5kHz
cultural heritage site; in 2004, international was, therefore, to raise the power of women transmitter range)
recognition followed by the UNESCO. in peace issues. Six 400-ft aerial towers
The Alexanderson alternator at Grimeton This explained the close involvement, Grimeton Amateur Radio Station: SK6SAQ
is the world’s last surviving transmitter of its this year, of the group Acting 4 Change, (and Special Event Callsigns)
kind (Hawkins, 2017: 28-30). It still operates which works with the project women’s em- Frequencies: 33755, 7035 and 14035kHz.
for visitors on some days, and its messag- powerment in Casamance in Senegal. On
es can be picked up with the right equipment this occasion, Acting 4 Change represen- Table 1: Technical background to SAQ.
(see the next sections). tatives were invited to talk about women’s
(Source: European Route of Industrial participation in the peace process from a Sadly, this time, SAQ was not able to trans-
Heritage, ERIH, Hawkins, 2017). Senegalese perspective. mit on the 24th, due to an intractable tech-
https://tinyurl.com/y5cfvrde www.acting4change.org nical problem. The next transmission will
During the event on 24th October 2019, a now be on the morning of Christmas Eve,
A Living Heritage peace-message was going to be sent with 24th December 2019.
Against this backdrop, and counteracting the the old long wave transmitter SAQ, and However, Peter was still able to get a
rising tide of nationalism and parochialism visitors to the station were invited to lis- good image of the testing they performed
in today’s political landscape, it is always ten to Senegalese rhythms performed by on the morning of 24th October 2019 (Fig.
refreshing to come across initiatives which Kilimandiarou (Fig. 2). 3). Peter’s receiver of choice was a Siemens
celebrate multi-culturalism, international- Not everything, however, worked out as D2008 Level Meter (Fig. 6) with an earth
ism and human rights. This is in tune with planned on this occasion. probe antenna and Spectrum Lab software to
the spirit of both amateur radio and DXing capture the signal. He was also operating a
around the world. Rare Transmissions USB Behringer UMC202HD sound card. This
The UNESCO Heritage site (from 2004) of Since VLF station SAQ on 17.2khz only trans- card was less noisy than his PC’s sound card
SAQ Radio Station in Grimeton (Fig. 1, Table mits 2 or 3 times a year for a short period and gave good results.
1) has a proud, and longstanding, record in (see the previous section), it is a ‘must-have’ Last but not least, Peter used a MiniWhip
this area, and it makes some widely-noticed for VLF listeners to receive. More details Active Antenna with the Spectrum Lab
special transmissions on special occasions about this station were given in previous is- software (Fig. 4).
such as EU Heritage Days, Christmas Eve, sues of Radio User (RadioUser, June 2018: The editor also made use of his PC and
World Radio Day (13th February), International 33; August 2019: 24-25). Spectrum Lab; his aerials were a BAZ Ferrite

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 33
Feature

4 5

6 7

(15-70kHz by // C:20pF – 1,8nF), model S 1-N How You Can Monitor SAQ Fig. 4: An earlier SAQ transmission received in
and a VLF loop (15-35kHz). The latter was More generally, there are several ways in Lancashire with Spectrum Lab/ SAQrx.
acquired some time ago, from the UK Radio which this transmission (and other VLF sig- Fig. 5: Zooming in to17.2kHz (SDRPlay RSPduo).
Astronomy Association (UKRAA). nals) can be received. Fig. 6: The Siemens D2008 Level Meter.
www.spezialantennen.eu First – while not many hardware receiv- Fig. 7: The Datong VLF Converter.
https://www.ukraa.com ers now allow direct reception of the Very
Fig. 4 also shows some of the anato- Low Frequency (VLF) band – some do, such online SDR, like the one at the University of
mies of the signal (see also Table 1), albe- as the AOR AR7030 (from 0kHz) and the Twente in Enschede, in the Netherlands.
it from a previous monitoring session last Siemens D2008 Selective Level Meter (Fig. As a curious aside, Jim Moritz has a plan
year. For this screenshot, Spectrum Lab 4), covering 200Hz to 18.6MHz. On this oc- for an electro-mechanical receiver for VLF, at
and the SAQ Panoramic VLF Receiver v.0.94 casion, Georg used the former, and Peter the the last URL, below:
(SAQrx) were combined. latter (see above). https://www.xivero.com/vlfreceiver
Fig. 5 is a screenshot of the SDRPlay If you are using a Software-Deined https://tinyurl.com/y6t4m4c8
RSPduo SDR and SDRuno software, homing Receiver (SDR), units such as the AirSpy HF+ http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901
in on 17.2kHz. Discovery, SDRPlay RSPpro, RSPduo and https://tinyurl.com/y4d5yufh
(new) RSPdx models will allow you to receive
Confirming the Signals’ Reach the signals (Fig. 5). VLF Resources and Groups
QSL cards as such are not issued by SAQ. You can, of course, use a traditional HF re- I am aware that more and more hobbyists
However, there is an interactive map to ceiver in conjunction with a VLF Converter. are interested in SAQ Grimeton, and other
show where the signals have reached. The Datong (Fig. 7), Elettroficina and transmissions in the Very Low Frequency
Moreover, the station accepts shorter QSL Palomar units are still in widespread use band. Therefore, we have compiled a short-
reports via e-mail. amongst hobbyists and VLF enthusiasts. list of resources to help any readers who
A live video stream of activity at the http://www.elettroficina.com might be looking for a way into this fascinat-
Grimeton site before and during the volatile Or you can use a dedicated VLF SDRs, such ing aspect of the hobby (Table 2).
transmissions – when they happen – is often as the ones by Xivero (€9.08) or SAQrx by There is a good document on listening to
made available by the Alexander Association, SM6LKM (Fig. 4, on the right-hand side). SAQ on the Grimeton website:
[email protected] In general, your PC’s soundcard, togeth- https://tinyurl.com/yy56uazf
www.alexander.n.se er with the Spectrum Lab software program, Sabine – DL1DBA, one of the mem-
https://tinyurl.com/y5ou32xl makes for a great VLF receiving station. bers on the VLF-ULF-ELF Forum, has writ-
You may also choose to listen with an ten a good series of articles on receiving

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

34 RadioUser December 2019
 Feature

Learning More About Grimeton SAQ

• Alexander Association: https://alexander.n.se/?lang=en • Parmigiani, C. IZ2FER () SAQ Commemorative Transmissions:
• Dennison, M. (G3XDV) (2013) LF Today (RSGB): Chapter 11: pp169 ff. http://www.vlf.it/parmigiani/saq_eng.htm
• Hawkins, P.M. (2017) Point-to-Point. A History of International • Photographs: https://tinyurl.com/yxkmgz72
Telecommunications During the Radio Years (New Generation) • Radio Enthusiast: Calling All VLF Monitors:
• History: https://grimeton.org/historia/?lang=en https://www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/articles/calling-all-vlf-monitors
• Interactive Listeners’ Reports Map: https://alexander.n.se/?lang=en • SAQ Forum: https://alexander.n.se/saq-forum/?lang=en
• Johansson, J. (2003): The Early Days of Radio in Sweden: Ernst F.W. • Sikö, Arne (2013) Listening to Grimeton: https://tinyurl.com/yy56uazf
Alexanderson and Grimeton Radio Station SAQ, UNESCO World Heritage; • UNESCO: Grimeton Radio Station, Varberg:
7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1134
• Lashley, J. (2010) The Radio Sky and How to Observe it (Springer): Ch. 9 • Varberg Municipality: https://tinyurl.com/y3lgamdw
• Listening to SAQ Grimeton (DL1DBC) http://dl1dbc.net/SAQ • Walde, C.H., Bergfast, H. (2000) The Alexanderson Alternator of
• Lutz, H. (2004) Längstwellenempfang mit dem PC (VLF with your PC: beam Grimeton Radio, Sweden. Eighth International Conference on HF Radio
Verlag ISBN 3-88976-047-3): pp. 49-60 Systems and Techniques
• Newton, P. and Pollard, J.-M. (2019): Spectrum Lab’s Instructions for (also: http://www.sk0mt.net/sites/default/files/saqenglish.pdf)
Setting Up A Bandpass Filter (FB Group). • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimeton_Radio_Station

Table 2: SAQ Grimeton: Further Resources.

SAQ on 17.2khz: Another program is SAQrx: The website vlf.it has a good article ex-
https://tinyurl.com/y5ad2puw https://sites.google.com/site/swljo30tb plaining in more detail how earth probe an-
Here is another article by her, and a link to There are some forums for Spectrum Lab, tennas work, and there are a lot of other good
another website on receiving SAQ: on which you can get help. articles on VLF on this site too:
https://tinyurl.com/y4qlzc3y The Spectrum Lab User Files Forum is here: http://www.vlf.it/ed/earthprobes.html
https://tinyurl.com/y33hxtcp https://tinyurl.com/y4qrh3rd Last but not least, here are links to relevant
If you are interested in VLF, there is a The Spectrum Lab Users Forum can be VLF frequency lists, showing what you might
Facebook forum called VLF-ULF-ELF that found at the following URL: be able to receive at your location:
covers it in more detail: https://tinyurl.com/y4ktqney https://www.mwlist.org/vlf.php
https://tinyurl.com/y2l5f226 Vlfrx-tools can be downloaded from here: https://tinyurl.com/y289utep
One of the easiest ways to pick up VLF http://abelian.org/vlfrx-tools. Most of these websites have further in-
stations is to use the PC’s sound card as a formation on how to receive the stations.
receiver. For an antenna, a MiniWhip Active Earth Probe Antennas & There are other fora on many of these sub-
Antenna or a long wire can be used. This is Frequencies jects on the web.
what Spectrum Lab software does and is Another interest of Peter’s is the use of an Above is a list of further resources and
what I am using. earth probe antenna. This consists of in- reading suggestions (Table 2) pertaining to
If you are running a Linux/Ubuntu system serting galvanized steel rods in the ground, SAQ Grimeton, and to the fascinating hobby
there is vlfrx-tools, or you can run Spectrum placed as deeply and as far apart as you can, of VLF Monitoring in general.
Lab under Wine. with a wire on each connected back to the re- Radiostationen, Grimeton 72
Spectrum Lab has some predeined (.usr) ceiver. This is discussed further on the forum SE-432 98 Grimeton (Sweden)
coniguration iles to get you started. Earth Probes Used As Antenna, at this URL: Tel: (0046) 0340 674 190
https://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/spectra1.html https://tinyurl.com/y46bmvoj E-mail: [email protected]
JU

World Radio TV
ST
£3
PL

Handbook 2020
US

5 P&
P

Pre-order the 74th edition of the World Radio TV Handbook, on sale 5 December 2019. The World Radio TV
AV PR

Handbook is the world’s most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to broadcasting on LW, MW, SW and FM,
AI E-O

with details on national TV. It is full of information on national and international broadcasts and broadcasters,
LA R
BL DE

clandestine and other target broadcasters, MW and SW frequency listings, Terrestrial TV by country as well as a
ET R

detailed reference section. Pre-orders will be dispatched on 5 December 2019 once the product goes on sale.
O

MANY MORE BOOKS NEW IN STOCK AT THE RU BOOK STORE ON PAGE 13

RadioUser December 2019 35

 Sales line 01908 281705
E-mail [email protected]
Postage (UK Mainland Only): Small items just £2.99
Medium items just £4.99 Maximum charge just £8.99

THE ONE STOP HOBBY RADIO SHOP GET SATURDAY DELIVERY

FOR JUST £10
www.moonraker.eu
Moonraker UK Limited, Cranfield Road, Woburn Sands, Bucks MK17 8UR Open Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00pm
(SOME POSTCODE OR LENGTH RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY)

FREE • FRE Digital Scanners

mob E The Whistler TRX-1 & TRX-2 are now supplied with over 1600 channels
ile anten pre-programed for use across the following categories!
with ANY hand
he
RADIOUSER AN ld purchase – just call or
na AIRBAND • MARINE • DMR446 • PMR446 • DMR REPEATER • FM REPEATER
NXDN REPEATER • P25 REPEATER • DMR SIMPLEX • FM SIMPLEX
TENNA on web add
checkout to qu Moonraker have worked with Whistler to customise a UK band plan for the
alify scanners! This ensures the radios cover UK bands in the 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 maximum received stations. The radios will
receive both amateur and commercial DMR transmissions, as (apart from the 399
Handheld 349 frequency) they are fundamentally the same mode. The radio is supplied with
software and users can select mode when writing memories or select auto and it
EZI-33XLT (Left) The most popular will work out the mode itself!
handie. Frequency range: 78- TRX-1 25-1300MHz Digital Handheld Scanner (left) £419.95 TRX-2 25-1300MHz Digital Base Scanner (right) £479.95
174/406-512MHz .......Now £64.99
UBC-75XLT Nice new design.
Frequency range: 25-512MHz ......
Analog Range
...................................Now £99.95 WS1025 Analog Desktop Scanner WS1040 25-1300 MHz Digital Trunking & Analog Handheld
UBC-125XLT Good value. This 200-channel scanner lets you listen Scanner
to FM radio bands and can be categorised The WS1040 scans most common trunked radio system
Frequency coverage 25-88/108-
into 10 separate memory banks. Also, it signalling formats, including Motorola, EDACS, LTR and
174/225-512/806-960MHz ...........
offers the convenience of one-touch P25 trunked radio networks. Talk group and individual
.................................Now £139.95
54 searches of marine, air call monitoring is supported. When monitoring P25
UBCD-3600XLT (Left) 25-1300MHz and ham. Frequency digital systems, the exclusive Automatic Adaptive Digital
VHF/UHF Digital scanner .............. coverage 29-512MHz Tracking instantly adapts the digital decoder to the digital
.........................................£425.00 (with gaps - see web for modulation format of the transmitted signal, then analyses
SDS-100E Flagship digital scanner full spec) ............£89.95 74 the signal over 50 times each second and adapts to any 249
25-1300MHz with key features subtle changes caused by multipath or fading
fading.........£299.95
such as Close Call RF Capture,
Trunking and Conventional, WS1010 25-512MHz Analog WS1065 25-1300MHz Analog Base Scanner
Location Based Scanning, Handheld Scanner The Whistler WS1065 employs cutting edge technology
Quick Key System Access, This 200-channel scanner lets to bring a high level of performance and innovative
Built in Record & Playback, PC you listen to FM radio bands features. This model clearly raises the bar in the area of
Programmable using free Sentinel and can be categorized into 10 advanced trunking scanners. Frequency
Software, Weather Resistant IPX4, separate memory banks. Also, coverage is extensive, including: 25-54,
High Capacity Li-ion Battery, 8 GB it offers the convenience of 108-17, 137-174, 216-512, 764-776,
microSD Card ..................£589.95 66 one-touch searches of marine, 795-805, 849-869, 896-960 and 1240- 233
Base air and ham ............. £79.95 1300 MHz................................£279.95
495 UBC-355 (Left) Bargain desktop.
Frequency coverage 25-87/108-
174/406-512/806-960MHz ........... AR-DV10 100kHz–1300MHz
..................... Our Price Just £84.95 SPECIAL Handheld receiver £899.00
UBC-370CLT Base Scanner OFFER • 100kHz-1300MHz analogue &
Designed for home use, with a digital modes
66 big speaker for excellent sound. AR-DV1
• 10 Digital Modes :
Uniden and made from robust TETRA,P25(Phase
100kHz–1300MHz
materials. it features watch, alarm Base Receiver 1000 1+2),DMR,Mototrbo,dPMR, NXDN,
clock and FM broadcast radio. D-STAR,Alinco,Yaesu
£1199.00
Included: 12VDC power supply, • Automatic detection of digital
telescopic antenna. ..........£129.95 • 100kHz-1300MHz modes during scan & search modes.
wideband reception. • Memory scan. • IPX5 water resistant
BCT-15X Flagship desktop.
• Multi-mode a demodulation. • NR, notch, digi-data display. • Micro SD card slot for recording,
108 Frequency coverage 25-512/758-
• All mode analog reception. • Clock, calendar (sleep timer, backup and firmware updates. 749
823/894-960/1240-1300MHz ......
• Built in SD card reader (audio alarm, timer recording, reception • Lithium-ion battery, charger, belt clip
......................... Our price £259.00
firmware updates). logging on SD) • Memory data management software.

215

ICOM IC-R30 0.1-3304 MHz 2708

Professional Communica-
tions Receiver
The IC-R30 is Icom’s latest
wideband handheld receiver. IC-R8600 Professional Communications Receiver
749 Not only does it receive over The IC-R8600 is a super wideband communication receiver that covers
a wide (0.1 to 3304.999 the radio spectrum from 10 kHz to 3 GHz. It also has the capability
MHz) frequency range in to decode selected digital communication signals including, D-STAR,
Uniden SDS200E Desktop/Mobile Scanner Receiver£779.99 AM, FM, WFM, USB, LSB NXDN, dPMR and P25. The IC-R8600 incorporates the latest software
The Uniden SDS200 mobile scanner has the same and CW, but it can also de- demodulation technology incorporated on Icom’s latest HF Amateur
features as the handheld version SDS100, plus some extra code digital modes including radios, providing superior performance and intuitive operation. With
enhancements. Uniden’s SDS200 incorporates the latest 747 P25, NXDN, dPMR, D-STAR
and Japanese domestic
the optional remote control software for a Windows PC, received audio
and spectrum scope data can be transferred through an IP network for
True I/Q receiver technology, which provides the best digital
decode performance in the industry DCR. ..................... £569.95 monitoring from remote locations. .........................£2499.95
 SDR Receivers

NEW IN Airspy HF+ Discovery.........£199.99

achieves excellent HF performance by means of a low-loss preselection filter, high
linearity LNA, high linearity tunable RF filter, a polyphase harmonic rejection (HR) mixer
that rejects up to the 21st harmonic and multi-stage analog and digital IF filtering. The
6 dB-stepped AGC gain is fully controlled by the software running in the DSP which
24 optimizes the gain distribution in real time for optimal sensitivity and linearity. Harmonic
166 rejection is a key issue in wide band HF receivers because of the large input signal
Airspy HF+ Discovery bandwidth of the input signal. The output of the IF-filter is then digitalized by a high
dynamic range sigma delta IF ADC for further signal processing in the digital domain.

20 14 AirSpy Mini High Performance SDR Receiver .......... £119.99

AirSpy Mini
High Performance 99 AIRSPY Mini builds on top of the successful Airspy R2
SDR Receiver architecture to offer an affordable high performance alternative
to RTL-SDR and other TV dongles for the VHF and UHF bands
FlightAware has revolutionized the world of USB SDR ADS-B
AIRSPY R2 High Performance SDR Receiver............ £209.99
Receivers with the FlightAware Pro Stick and Pro Stick Plus, high-
Airspy R2 is an advanced open-source software defined radio
performance USB R820T2 software defined radios (SDR) with
receiver with adequate dynamic range, capable of sampling
a built-in RF amp for maximum ADS-B/MLAT performance. The
10MHz of spectrum anywhere between 24MHz and 1.8GHz – and
first of its kind, FlightAware’s Pro Stick is compatible with PiAware
even beyond with extensions. It is the only high performance wide
or any other device that supports USB RTLSDR receivers, and is
band receiver solution in the market that’s yet affordable.
less expensive than any other RTLSDR USB receiver in the world.
The Pro Stick Plus adds a built-in 1090 MHz bandpass filter AIRSPY Spyverter R2 ..........................................£59.99
for increased performance and range of reception in areas with SpyVerter R2 is a high performance HF front-end designed
moderate RF noise as is typically experienced in most urban areas.
AIRSPY R2
174 to extend the coverage of the Airspy receiver series to the HF
Flightaware Prostick Plus........................................................£29.99 down to virtually DC. It is based on an original switched double
High Performance
Flightaware Prostick ................................................................£25.00 SDR Receiver balanced mixer that moves the entire HF Spectrum to the VHF
FlightAware ADSB band between 120 MHz and 180 MHz
1090MHz Band-pass SMA Filter ..............................................£16.99 AIRSPY HF Plus High Performance SDR Receiver ..... £229.99
The Software Defined Radio revolution brought great flexibility in
VHF and UHF reception. Today Airspy offer the best wide band
AIRSPY HF Plus
High Performance
191 receivers which address these needs. Airspy also provide a high
performance extension for weak-signal wide band reception
SDR Receiver
on HF – something other competing solutions fail to address
efficiently

NEW
IN ScanKing SCANKING HF DISCONE 0.05-2000MHz ................£69.95
HF Discone
0.05-2000MHz
58 Great base antenna for all HF/VHF and UHF! Ideal for
listeners wanting shortwave but do not have the space for
a long wire. Centre radiator includes helical trapped wire
162 encapsulated in fibreglass to receive all HF bands
Frequency: 0.05-2000 MHz • Gain: Upto 1.5dBi over
standard discone on VHF/UHF • Length: 185cm • Mast:
Upto 50mm • Radials: 8 X 90cm 8 X 30cm • Connection:
RSPDX 1kHz-2GHz HDR SDR Receiver £194.95 SO239
The SDRplay RSPdx is a complete redesign of the popular
SKYSCAN DESKTOP 25-2000MHz ............. £59.95 £49.99
RSP2 and RSP2pro multi-antenna receiver. It’s a wideband This is the best all round wideband desktop scanner
full featured 14-bit SDR which covers the entire RF spectrum antenna on the current market. Keeping within the famous
from 1kHz to 2GHz. Combined with the power of readily discone design but smaller for internal use has proved
available SDR receiver software (including ‘SDRuno’ supplied wonders for indoor reception
by SDRplay) you can monitor up to 10MHz spectrum at a Frequency: 25-2000MHz • Base: Heavy duty 125mm
magnetic plate for stationary vehicle use if required
time. The RSPdx provides three software selectable antenna
• Length: 70cm • Cable: 4m RG58 mil spec coax •
inputs, and an external clock input. All it needs is a computer Skyscan Connection: BNC male plug fitted
and an antenna to provide excellent communications receiver Mobile
25-2000MHz
functionality. A documented API allows developers to create Skyscan SKYSCAN MOBILE 25-2000MHz .............................£24.95
new demodulators or applications around the platform. Desktop The Skyscan Mobile is a great all-round scanning antenna,
25-2000MHz
which should enhance the reception capability of any radio
Key Specifications Covers all frequencies from 1kHz through
scanner. Each of the nest of four different length antenna
VLF, LF, MW, HF, VHF, UHF and L-band to 2GHz, with no gaps • that make up the Sky Scan are designed to pick up a
Receive, monitor and record up to 10MHz of spectrum at a time specific frequency range, this method has proven to work
• Performance below 2MHz substantially enhanced – improved extremely well.
dynamic range and selectivity • Software selectable choice of 3 Type: Four tuned elements • Frequency RX: 25-2000 MHz •
antenna ports • Enhanced ability to cope with extremely strong 41 Base: 90mm magnetic mount with rubber base protection
signals • External clock input for synchronisation purposes, or 20 • Length: 650mm • Cable: 4 metres RG58 • Connection:
BNC male
connection to GPS reference clock for extra frequency accuracy

Join our fantastic loyalty programme

and start earning WATTS now
now!
All registered retail customers can now earn and redeem free product credits known as WATTS.
It’s simple the more you spend the more WATTS you receive. You will also receive bonus WATTS
when you refer a ‘New Customer’, ‘Write a Product Review’, ‘Share’ a product’ or ‘Refer a Friend’
Don’t miss out – Register now and start enjoying free WATTS
Report

Bargains, Books
and Beautiful Radios
The editor visited the Golborne Swapmeet, organised by the British
Vintage Wireless Society (BVWS) on 3rd November 2019, in search of
fellow enthusiasts and gems from the history of radio.
Georg Wiessala It was good also, for this ‘vintage- forward to the next BVWS event,
[email protected] editor’, to see some vintage copies of and I do enjoy their beautifully-made
RadioUser and Practical Wireless on newsletter, The Bulletin.

I
had a great time at the Golborne display as well. In fact, I picked up a The BVWS was featured in RadioUser
Swapmeet of the British Vintage few copies missing from my before (RadioUser, May 2019: 36-7), and it
Wireless Society, on Sunday 3rd own collection! was great to see and hear evidence of the
November 2019. This is one of my The event is also a great source of society’s further progress and activities.
‘local’ radio shows, as it were, and technical resources and spare parts for The pictures on these pages will give you
it is easy to reach. specialist projects. an impression of the ‘flavour’ of the event,
I always marvel at the wealth of If you can appreciate the Art of Radio, which I am now making one of my regular
beautiful radios on display, and for sale, this is definitely a ‘must-see’. rallies each year.
at this event, as well as at the rare books I was lucky enough to be able to take If you belong to or would like to
and magazines available. The show some beautiful books home, especially promote, a similar club or association,
takes you back to a former era of radio on the Bakelite radio area. please do get in touch, so that we can
(and television) when radios were truly A friendly atmosphere and lots of feature you in one of the future issues
objects d’art, technical marvels or just people to share your hobby with, made of the magazine.
plain quirky. for a successful day out. I am looking https://www.bvws.org.uk

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

38 RadioUser December 2019
 Report

ALL PICTURES: GEORG WIESSALA

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 39
Scanning Scene
IMAGE BY SKEEZE FROM PIXABAY
I
1

Tim Kirby
[email protected]

t is always good to hear from

Space Operations,
I ‘Dipole Denis’, who wrote, “I have
been looking at the Ofcom FAT;
the one on the Ofcom site is dated
2017, so I did not know how up-to-
date it was. As I was looking through it, I
came across the various allocations listed
as Space use. Is worth pointing an anten-
Meteorological Aids
& Stealth Bombers
na at the heavens. 400.15 – 401 and 401
– 403MHz caught my eye; both are listed This month Tim Kirby looks at decoding
as ‘Space Operation’ and ‘Meteorological
Aids’. Would anyone hear anything?”
radiosonde data, passes a feeder through a
When I researched the recent closed window and spots a Northrop Grumman
Emergency Communications series for B-2 Spirit bomber in UK airspace.
RadioUser (RadioUser, April 2019: 30-33;
June 2019: 40-43; August 2019; 32-35,
and October 2019: 64-67), I read about the search, I found the following paragraph in dense networks, using radiosondes with
EPIRB transmissions on 406MHz. the Handbook – Use of Radio Spectrum minimal drift and narrow-band emissions
When DD wrote in, my initial thoughts for Meteorology published by the World in this band. Some other countries oper-
were that it was this segment, but of Meteorological Organization: ate broadband secondary radar systems,
course, it is not; it is lower in frequency http://www.wmo.int where the ground station transmits a pulse
and used differently. Following some re- “Some countries in Europe operate very to the radiosonde, and the radiosonde re-

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

40 RadioUser December 2019
 Scanning Scene

IMAGE BY SKEEZE, FROM PIXABAY

Fig. 1: The Mir (Мир) spacecraft with the Atlantis

Space Shuttle docked. Mir provided many
opportunities for radio contacts with astronauts.
Fig. 2: A B-2 Spirit bomber, three of which were
stationed on detachment at RAF Fairford.

sponds to the pulse and transmits the me-

teorological data. In both cases, nearly the
full 401406 MHz band is required for opera-
tions, given that between 401 and 403MHz,
the MetAids service has to coordinate with
the data collection platform transmissions
of the EESS (Earthtospace) and MetSat
(Earthtospace) services.
“There are some areas of the world where
there are a limited number of launch sta-
tions. In such cases, the resources may
be available to procure transmitters that
can free some of the band for other uses.
Australia is one example where the full band
is not required, and the administration has
elected to use a portion of the band for other 2
radio communication services.
“Therefore, spectrum may be available sondes. If your copy is unregistered, it on. We came up with some solutions at
in some countries for other uses; but in a will decode the radiosonde position for the time, but I was intrigued to note that a
number of regions of the world, the entire 5 minutes, before stopping decoding. commercial solution had come to mar-
band is required for MetAids operations. In Registration of MultiPSK costs €30. ket. It’s not cheap, but it may be of interest
1998, the WMO held a meeting of experts MultiPSK decodes an awful lot more than to some readers.
on MetAids radio frequency characteris- Radiosondes, and I should probably come The unit in question is the Diamond
tics. This group concluded that the entire back to it another time – as there is much of MGC50 window pass-through. It features
401-406 MHz band is required for MetAids interest that you can do with the software, a UHF female connector (SO-239) at either
operation for the foreseeable future. It was although when I last looked at it, I did ind end and some very thin ribbon cable in be-
accepted that co-channel sharing with the the user interface rather challenging (that tween, which you can pass through the win-
satellite services between 400.15 and 401 might just have been me, of course!) dow and close it without breaking the cable.
MHz would not be possible for standard ra- Radiosonde launch sites in the UK in- Should you have a transmitting station, you
diosonde operations.” clude Larkhill in Wiltshire, Camborne might like to know that it will take up to 50W
This reminded me that, a few years back, in Cornwall, Aberystwyth in Wales and of FM or CW up to 50MHz (150W SSB), 40W
I had some fun decoding Radiosonde data, Hucknall near Nottingham (as of 2017). of FM on 144MHz, 30W of FM on 430MHz,
having been alerted to the possibility by Frequencies to check include 404.2, and 10W of FM on 1200MHz.
my friend RG who lives quite close to the 404.8, and 404.4MHz. Insertion loss on 144MHz is quoted at
Larkhill (Wiltshire) radiosonde launch site. Try scanning these frequencies through- being less than 0.3dB, less than 0.6dB on
At the time, I used the SondeMonitor out the day – some radiosondes launch 432MHz, and less than 1.6dB on 1.2dB. At
software from COAA: quite early in the morning, and see if you around £55 it is not cheap for a bit of cable
https://tinyurl.com/zxgleqo hear something. If you do, perhaps, you and two connectors! However, it will satisfy
This was connected to one of my re- may try the decoding software and see a need for many I suspect, where structural
ceivers. In fact, I used an amateur band what data you can recover from the signals. modiication is not possible!
transceiver, receiving on 406MHz, but you Flights may last for around three hours, al-
could just as well use a scanning receiv- lowing you a good chance to catch the sig- Listening to the
er, where you can feed the audio output of nal at some point. International Space Station
the receiver into the input of your computer, Some Radiosonde enthusiasts use the I just took a quick break from writ-
running the SondeMonitor software. You’ll tracking capability of the software to search ing this column to listen to a radio con-
ind reception and decoding will be better if for and recover the radiosondes! tact between Bampton School in Devon
you use a receiver with a wide bandwidth. Very many thanks to Dipole Denis for his and the International Space Station on
Therefore, one of the new SDR receivers question which prompted all of this! 145.800MHz. Despite being a pass of the
may be a really good option. ISS that did not rise above 27 degrees el-
You can try the Sondemonitor software Feeders and Windows evation here in Oxfordshire, signals were
for 21 days for evaluation purposes. If If you were with us a few months ago, you good throughout much of the pass.
you want to use it after that, there is a €25 might remember that a question was raised I used a handheld receiver with a rubber
registration fee. on how to pass aerial feeders through a duck aerial. If you try the same, as the pass
The very comprehensive MultiPSK soft- window, when there is no possibility to progresses, you have to adjust the position
ware will also decode RS41 type radio- drill a hole in the frame, wall, roof and so of the aerial – both back and forth and up

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

RadioUser December 2019 41
Scanning Scene

IMAGE COURTESY OF DAVID MARK/PIXABAY

and down – to gain the best signal. That is

why it is often better to listen on a simple
handheld scanner, with its set-top aerial
than to use ixed vertical or discone aerials.
The exception to the rule is where the ISS
pass is very close to the horizon with a max-
imum elevation of, perhaps, 7 or 8 degrees.
I learned that lesson the hard way!
If you would like to listen to astronauts
making schools contacts, check for upcom-
ing contacts at this URL:
https://tinyurl.com/y644ftgb
It may also be worth scanning
145.800MHz outside of those times.
The current commander of the ISS, Luca
Parmitano, enjoyed the amateur radio sys-
tem last time he lew and was known to
occasionally take the opportunity to call
for random (non-scheduled) contacts
with amateur radio enthusiasts during his
off-duty periods. 3
Continuing the theme of amateur radio Fig. 3: A U-2 spy plane – also seen recently at RAF Fairford
contacts with the space station, I recent-
ly read a lovely piece from Australia about ISS, you’ll probably want to know when it’s light, with the wingtip lights lashing, the
Tony Hutchison. Tony lives in Pinks Beach, overhead. There are all sorts of ways you effect was extremely memorable. I later
South Australia. can do this. You can, for instance, use the discovered that on that occasion, they
He has been deeply involved with am- ISS Tracker or Heavens Above websites: were doing Touch and Go approaches.
ateur radio communication with the pre- http://www.isstracker.com Perhaps you will not be surprised to
decessor of the ISS (Mir [Мир = ‘Peace’ or https://heavens-above.com learn that the aircraft did not show up on
‘World’]; Fig. 1), the Space Shuttle and the There are also a good number of my ADS-B tracker!
ISS for many years. Tony has an amateur smartphone-based apps for both Android If you are interested in the B-2 bomb-
radio callsign VK5ZAI and has had many and iOS devices. For iOS I use GoSatWatch, ers and their activities, you can fol-
on-air chats with astronauts, informally and which admittedly isn’t free, but covers the low @Whiteman_AFB on Twitter, or
more formally. He has helped to establish ISS, and lots of other satellites too. For perhaps @PilotB2.
the very successful ARISS schools contacts Android, the ISSDetector application has a The B-2 bombers have now returned
that I mentioned above. good name and is now available on iOS too! to the USA, but there are rumours of B-52
To date, over 1,300 schools have been in- There is an online NASA page too, called bombers heading towards RAF Fairford.
volved in the ARISS programme. Spot the Station. You can ind it here: Moreover, U-2 Dragon aircraft (Fig. 3) have
Tony is now 80 but gained his amateur https://spotthestation.nasa.gov been active from the base, which is not un-
radio licence when he was 21. In 1992, he usual. However, there is a suggestion that
made his irst contact with the Mir space Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit they may be staying, rather than passing
station. Over time, Tony became more and Bombers in the UK through, which would be more usual.
more involved and got connected to NASA, The recent detachment of three Northrop If you are interested in trafic of this
who even offered him a job, as well as invit- Grumman B-2 Spirit (‘Stealth’) bombers to kind, I highly recommend you have a
ing him to a launch. RAF Fairford (Fig. 2) caused a great deal look at this URL:
At the end of 2019, Tony will step back of interest amongst aircraft and scanning https://bunkeralpha.wordpress.com
from his involvement with the ARISS pro- enthusiasts alike. Several enthusiasts You can also follow @
gram indeinitely and start to do some tracked their movements and monitored BunkerAlpha on Twitter.
travelling around Australia in the motor- the frequencies the aircraft were using. Those of you who have been readers of
home that he and his wife Jill have bought. The B-2s are normally based at RadioUser for a long time may well recog-
I somehow suspect there will be a scan- Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri (USA). nise an old friend to these pages.
ning receiver around the motorhome some- https://www.whiteman.af.mil
where! The story makes a great read and The aircraft were very active during Upcoming Changes
you can ind it here: the detachment to the UK, with lights to From next month, Scanning Scene will
https://tinyurl.com/yyy52ov5 Iceland and the Azores, amongst other become a bi-monthly column and will be
The other point which comes out strongly destinations. One evening, just as it was alternating with a new column of mine,
from the piece is that you never know where getting dark, I heard a ‘different’ aircraft Signals from Space, which I am very much
something that starts off as a hobby or in- low over our house here in Longworth, looking forward to writing.
terest will lead! and to my delight, it was a B-2, very low Please keep in touch and let me have any
[The editor concurs – Ed.]. on approach into RAF Fairford. I wish I news you have for either column, it will be
If you want to listen for signals from the had a photograph to share, but in the half- much appreciated!

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

42 RadioUser December 2019
 Feature

The Day the Mast Fell Down PICTURES: ROGER DOWLING

Roger Dowling, MIEE (G3NKH) have been parked next to the chapel. The
[email protected] chapel was less fortunate: a guy wire
sliced through it, “like a knife through
Roger Dowling recalls the day when a butter”. Sections of the mast narrowly
key radio mast tumbled to the ground, missed most of the transmitter buildings,
in March 1969. Luckily, no one was though a new BBC transmitter hall was
injured in the event – and a part of the completely demolished.
old mast lives on today. Although the loss of BBC2 was serious
for the BBC, the collapse of the mast was a
It’s every radio amateur’s nightmare – the disaster for ITV, which lost all its income-
collapse of a mast or antenna system that generating television services in the
cost a bomb and was much envied by fel- region. The managing director of Yorkshire
low members of the fraternity. It happened TV, Ward Thomas, had the bright idea of
to me a few months ago while I was on hol- commissioning aircraft to circle the area
iday. A neighbour rang on my mobile to re- beaming the pictures down to a no doubt
port that the supports to my antenna mast grateful audience. “Another possibility
had given way, and the mast was leaning would be a barrage balloon, which would
worryingly in the direction of his house. hoist a transmission cable to a height of
But my disaster was nothing compared 2,000ft,” he helpfully suggested.
with the disaster that hit the Independent In the event, the ITA rapidly transported
Broadcasting Authority (IBA) ifty years ago an emergency mast to the site, restoring
at its transmitter site near the tiny village of pictures to many local viewers after
Emley in Yorkshire. four days. BBC Manchester erected a
Erected in 1956, the 385m (1,265ft) mast temporary aerial on an outside broadcast
there (Fig. 1) provided ITV 405-line pictures eagle tower to get BBC2 back on the air 1
and the new 625-line BBC2 transmissions after a couple of days.
for much of the northern region. Today, a magniicent tapering
My family lived only a few miles away, freestanding concrete tower (Fig. 2)
so the mast was a prominent sight on provides digital BBC and ITV pictures
the skyline. I often marvelled that such a throughout Yorkshire and the surrounding
slender structure could remain aloft. counties. Erected in 1971, and nowadays
A steel cylindrical tube 2.75m (9ft) in owned and operated by Arqiva, it stands
diameter, the mast was supported by steel some 330m (1,084ft) in height and is the
guy wires, which stretched over nearby tallest self-supporting structure in the UK.
roads. In winter, large chunks of ice would It became a Grade II listed
fall to the ground. A Methodist chapel building in 2002.
beneath the stays regularly needed repairs There’s a surprising link between
as ice crashed through the roof. the ill-fated mast and the nearby
It was not a good place to be on a Huddersield Sailing Club.
harsh winter’s day. The club needed an observation tower
The weather in March 1969 was for observing races on the adjacent lake.
particularly bad – station engineers As luck would have it, one of its club
afterwards described it as the worst they members – Club Commodore Roger
had ever experienced. On the fateful day of Molyneux – was an engineer and surveyor
19 March 1969, ice could be heard crashing to the local council, responsible for
around the transmitter buildings, and the clearing the debris from the site. A deal
staff prudently kept adjacent roads closed was done, and the only two undamaged
in the interests of safety. At 5.02 pm, sections of the mast were transported
with a noise ‘heard for miles’, according a few miles to form the centrepiece of
to the Huddersield Examiner, the mast the club building.
crashed to the ground. “It’s proved absolutely ideal for the job,”
It was a miracle that no-one was hurt. enthused club member Allan Brooks; “and 2
Had the roads not been closed, a school it has given Huddersield Sailing Club a very Fig. 1: The old mast. Fig. 2: The replacement
bus packed with schoolchildren would unusual claim to fame.” structure today.

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

RadioUser December 2019 43
International Radio Scene

CHRISSY BRAND

Sounds Like Autumn

This month, Chrissy Brand seeks out pirates, hears about frequency
coordination efforts and serves up a feast of global radio flavours. In addition to
this, Clint Gouveia compares some portable short wave radios, both old and new.
Chrissy Brand other readers; contact me and I will give regulations of the ITU.”
[email protected] them a mention. The two 2019 meetings took place
in Tunisia and Argentina. The meeting
European Views

I
t is a good time of the year for in Argentina in August coincided with
medium wave DXing – and radio At the European DX Council conference the 99th anniversary of radio’s launch
listening in general – partly due to in Andorra (Fig. 1) in September, a wide in that country.
longer, colder nights. This entices range of radio content was discussed. http://www.hfcc.org
more of us to bask in the glow of (RadioUser, November 2019: 44-47). Arto stated that, although the meetings
the radio display or computer monitor. It Arto Mujunen spoke about International are non-political, some countries have
is from there that we can enjoy an endless SW frequency coordination. He is a regular boycotted them, including Cuba, which
array of wild and wondrous radio stations. attendee, in a professional capacity, at chooses to send its frequency requests
As ever in this column, I select a range the HFCC meetings. The High-Frequency and information directly to the ITU.
of broadcast radio that you can hear on Coordination Conference has been held However, there are around 80 international
short wave, medium wave, long wave, twice a year since 1990 (the inaugural broadcasters who are still involved in the
FM or online. We are spoilt for choice, but event was held in Bulgaria), in order HFCC. Today, the countries who are the
hopefully, these pages aid your decision to, “coordinate global databases of top three frequency users are, in order,
making. Please do share your radio news international shortwave broadcasting, China, USA and the UK.
and information about stations with in keeping with the international radio Another snippet of information was

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

44 RadioUser December 2019
 International Radio Scene

CHRISSY BRAND

Fig. 1: Andorra: The EDXC gathered here in

September 2019. Fig. 2: Jan-Mikael Nurmela’s
presentation of the current global pirate radio scene.

that the IBB (International Broadcasting

Bureau) is now known as the USAGM (US
Agency for Global Media). It is responsible
for, among other operations, the Voice of
America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
the Ofice of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) with
its Radio and TV Martí, Radio Free Asia
(RFA), and Arabic-language stations Alhurra
Television and Radio Sawa of the Middle
East Broadcasting Networks (MBN),
www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/history

International Radio for

Disaster Relief 2
HFCC negotiate to resolve frequency
conlicts using diplomacy and frequency to more than 250 pirate stations, mostly Station to Station
management software. Additionally, regular from European countries. Although The Regular RadioUser reader Bob Houlston is
monitoring of frequencies around the world Netherlands is, perhaps, best known for its also a pirate radio fan. He recommended
is still the best method to determine what short wave pirates, there are many others a website that covers many aspects of the
reception is like. with free radio operators too, including subject. Even the adverts are relevant and
Another HFCC initiative is IRDR Greece, Serbia and Russia. Italian stations informative. It is a catalogue of informa-
(International Radio for Disaster Relief). can be heard around 43 and 48 metres, and tion, mostly from a pirate radio perspec-
In this framework, some short wave there are occasional French stations on tive, and it is especially useful for newcom-
frequencies have been registered for short wave, but not on medium wave or FM. ers to the hobby.
emergency-use only, and short wave can Jan-Mikael explained the two types of tinyurl.com/prlistenguide
be used to beam life-saving information pirate stations. The ‘broadcasting style’, The Radio Workshop YouTube channel
broadcasts into areas when power and offering long transmissions, and whose includes recollections of 1960s and 1970s
communications fail within a country. operators want interaction with listeners, pirate radio. The YouTube channel host, Ray,
Examples of this are extreme climate, including the issuing of QSL Cards. There explained that “People would say why didn’t
or other natural or man-made disasters, is also the’ QSO-type’; here, stations want pirates use the VHF FM Band 2 as we called
such as tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes to primarily interact with other amateur it? Several reasons really: VHF is very easy
and accidents as at nuclear power radio operators and will often conirm to track down using a portable Yagi antenna.
stations, which all affect vast sections reception reports. Also, pirates wouldn’t want to be on the same
of the populations. Plus of course, when The speaker pointed out that the FM band band as the police located at the far end.”
governments switch off the internet. has pirate stations in many UK cities, citing a He goes on to describe setting up a trans-
The IRDR project was updated at the plethora of stations in London and a handful mitter in a hole in a block of wood, with ae-
recent HFCC Buenos Aires meeting, with in Manchester. Other bands are also happy rials hanging from trees. Without PMR or
additional frequencies added. DXers are hunting grounds for the pirate fan. There mobile phones in those days, there were
requested to monitor these to ensure they are a few examples to be found on long lookouts using bird calls. Operators even
are kept clear and to report on any non-IRDR wave, mostly Dutch, some on medium wave, hid a radio transmitter in a pram. Walking
signals heard. It could be a matter of life around 1600kHz and on short wave. around with it at night, the medium wave sig-
and death! The current frequencies used Today, there are between 20 to 30 nal covered hundreds of miles.
are 5910, 7400, 9430, 11840, 13620, 15650, countries globally, from which pirate tinyurl.com/g4nsjam
17500, 18950, 21840, and 26070kHz. stations operate. There are quite a number in https://tinyurl.com/y4jvgmkl
www.hfcc.org/humanitarian the USA and a handful in Canada, Argentina, In September, in an unexpected move,
Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. In the past, there Danish authorities withdrew the permission
Free Radio Scene have been pirates in Australia and New to use out-of-band frequencies. this direct-
Jan-Mikael Nurmela spoke on The Free Zealand. To date, not many operators have ly affected World Music Radio. WMR was
Radio Scene in Different Countries (Fig. 2). been known in Asia or Africa. forced to abruptly leave the airwaves (5840
Although he is only 30 years old, Jan-Mikael Pirate radio should not be confused with and 15805kHz) on September 15th. WMR
already has several decades of DXing under clandestine radio. The latter are stations hope to return using frequencies within the
his belt, as he started in the hobby when operating with a political agenda or oficial short wave bands and will also con-
aged just nine. propaganda message, usually in opposition tinue to pursue the use of the 927kHz medi-
‘Free’ radio or ‘pirate’ radio (the two to the state or government in the region um wave frequency in Copenhagen.
terms are interchangeable, although many they are targeting. www.wmr.dk
aicionados prefer one or the other) is Jan- www.dxing.com/clandest.htm Bristol community radio station BCFM sur-
Mikael’s speciality. He has sent QSL cards https://tinyurl.com/y43f3wry vived a ire in the summer. It broke out one

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 45
International Radio Scene

Short Wave Logs

UTC kHz Station Transmitter site Country Language SINPO Notes

0005 4765 Tajik Radio 1 Dushanbe-Yangiyul Tajikistan Tajik 44344 2

0225 6185 XEPPM Radio Educación Mexico City Mexico Spanish 33433 2
1247 11945 Reach Beyond Australia Kununurra Australia Gujarati 34444 1
1302 13760 Voice of Korea Kujang DPRK English 34333 1
1321 15245 Voice of Korea Kujang DPRK English 33443 1
1334 15825 WWCR Nashville USA English 43444 1
1350 12120 FEBC Radio Bocaue Philippines Burmese 44444 1
1355 13680 Voice of Hope Africa Lusaka Zambia English 33233 2
1402 9345 FEBC Radio Iba Philippines Burmese 33333 1
1913 9920 Radio Thailand Udon Thani Thailand English 55555 2
1955 5995 Radio Mali Bamako Republic of Mali French 44444 2
2003 6110 Radio Fana Addis Ababa Ethiopia Oromo 43344 1
2045 4885 Rádio Clube do Pará Belém Brazil Portuguese 44344 2
2300 6190 China National Radio 2 Chinese 25543 GS
1 = Eton Satellit, Tecsun PL-880, Panasonic RF-B65 and Sony ICF-SW55, Bonito MegaLoop FX. 2 = Eton Satellit, Tecsun PL-880, Bonito MegaLoop FX. (All logs by CG).

Medium Wave Logs

kHz UTC Station and location Language SINPO Initials

0108 6205 Laser Hot Hits English 25534 GS

0530 5975 NHK Radio Japan English 44333 OR
0545 6155 R O1, Austria German 44444 NT
0630 15530 Radio Kuwait, Kabd English 44444 OR
0930 6005 Voice of Mongolia, Kall, Germany English 24222 NT
1000 9510 Italian Radio Relay Service, Romania English 44444 NT
1130 15320 Radio Romania International English 34333 NT
1545 9400 From the Isle of Music, Bulgaria English 33333 NT
1830 5945 TRT Voice of Turkey English 44444 NT
1900 5840 World Music Radio, Denmark English 33333 OR
1900 5900 Radio Taiwan International German 45544 GS
1900 6080 Voice of America, Botswana English 43343 OR
1900 7280 Voice of Vietnam English 44444 OR
1900 9920 Radio Thailand English 55555 NT
1900 15580 Voice of America, Botswana English 34333 NT

morning, during the airing of the Silversound that, as the UK nights are getting longer, LOG CONTRIBUTORS: CG = Clint Gouveia.
programme. Luckily no-one was injured, and there should be more to listen to on long Oxfordshire. Panasonic RF-B65, Sony ICF-SW77,
the station was back online, and on DAB and wave and medium wave. Incidentally, NRK Tecsun PL-880, Eton Satellit, Bonito MegaLoop FX.
FM, within a day. The studio needed major stopped the use of its long wave 153kHz fre- GS = Graham Smith, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Sony
work, however, and a number of fundraising quency in October but boosted its 1485kHz ICF-SW600 and a telescopic antenna. NT = Nicky Tesla,
events and other initiatives were set up. For medium wave signal to 3kW. This infor- Shefield. XHDATA-D808. OR = Owen Rutherford,
radio stations like this, run on a shoestring mation came via Ydun Ritz’ long-running London. Lowe HF-150 and a Wellbrook loop.
and staffed by volunteers, it is impressive to Medium Wave Info website, which she gave
get back on the air so quickly. the background to in a presentation at the
In what I deem to be a wonderful act of EDXC Conference. try, and the increasing obsolescence of high-
local cooperation and support, BBC Radio https://mediumwave.info/news.html er levels of education.”
Bristol and BBC Somerset air a weekly Another station I have been hearing a lot Other spoken word programmes cover al-
programme where they showcase high- of is Canada’s CKUT at McGill University, ternative news, culture, environmental and
lights of Bristol’s community radio sta- which provides alternative music, news and social justice, feminism, African and Latin
tions. I hope other BBC local radio stations spoken word programming for Montréal American issues, and current affairs.
will follow suit. and the surrounding areas on 90.3MHz. Of www.ckut.ca
On a separate note, BBC local radio name course, online, it goes well beyond Canada.
convention still seems to be rather binary, CKUT has been providing campus commu- South American Sojourn
with some stations having a ‘radio’ before nity radio since 1987. A rich choice of mu- On the subject of Latin America, in my
the name and others not. sic programmes is also broadcast, covering latest catch-up with Argentinean radio
Graham Smith stated in September that soca, electronica, bluegrass and metal, while journalist Martín Butera, I asked if there
“Lately, whenever we have had some sun- Off The Hour is a weekday news programme. were any English-language broadcasts in
spots, we have had a magnetic disturbance Time Capsule looks back over the 32 years South America, apart from those of RAE
as well. I’m sorry if I sound a bit gloomy, but of station archives, and Code Burst, “is a sto- (Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior) and the
nothing seems to be happening right now.” ry about a violent and unexpected shift in the Telesur TV network.
www.solen.info/solar structure of our global economy, involving the Martín replied that, while there are current-
On a positive note, he echoed my point growth of our social skills gap, the tech indus- ly no broadcasts in English, he recommends

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

46 RadioUser December 2019
 International Radio Scene

CLINT GOUVEIA

Fig. 5: A ‘famous foursome’

3 4 being put through their paces.

Democracy Now! corners of the Department of La Paz, and PL-880 and an Eton Satellit.
The programme covers the region. It is even nationwide. The Bonito MegaLoop FX was used as
an award-winning, independent and nation- www.radionacionaldehuanuni.com the main aerial.
al daily programme in the USA and the rest Bolivian mine radio stations were also Clint’s indings discovered that DXers and
of the world, which is broadcast through covered this year by Tracy Ford, at Thomas radio aicionados are still interested in the
more than 900 radio and television sta- Witherspoon’s SWLing Post. thirty-year-old Panasonic RF-B65 and the
tions worldwide. https://swling.com/blog/tag/bolivia Sony ICF-SW55, which is nearly as old. He
Pioneers in the largest collaboration of Another one of Martín’s articles details his stated that the RF-B65 is a bit of a legend
public media in the US, Democracy Now! is recent visit to Rádio Nacional da Amazônia. in terms of sensitivity; it is up there with the
broadcast on Paciica, NPR (National Public This was shown as a presentation during the Sony ICF-2001D. Clint declared that it is pos-
Radio), community and university radio sta- EDXC conference in September and will also sibly the best portable shortwave radio of
tions, community cable channels, PBS (pub- appear online at the British DX Club website. all time, a reputation that can only be ques-
lic television), on satellite television (DISH In addition, Martín told me that he was tioned with reference to the short-lived but
network: Free Speech TV channel 9415, Link also in the Amazon in 2017 with the photog- brilliant Eton E1.
TV channel 9410; DIRECTV: Link TV channel rapher (and his wife), Ligia Katze, “We trav- In addition, Clint wrote that “The Sony ICF-
375), and as a podcast on the internet. These elled for ive days by boat, sleeping in a ham- SW55 is the little brother to the ICF-SW77 and
broadcasts are in both English and Spanish. mock, on the Amazon River. There really are is renowned for excellent selectivity via su-
Martín has also contributed some fasci- Indians living throughout the Amazon region, perb RF ilters. By the way, the ICF-SW77 re-
nating articles about Brazilian radio to the of course. We visited peaceful villages and placed the ICF-2001D but never quite lived up
British DX Club (BDXC) this year. After pub- even tourist ones, but they are real. That is to its predecessor. I actually own all of these
lications in the club journal Communication, why Amazon radio is so important. I also tast- radios so I know, irst-hand, how they rank. In
they appear online at the club website, free ed the giant ants that they eat.” the end, I couldn’t split the Panasonic and the
for anyone to read. Martín is planning a DXpedition to Sony. they are both simply brilliant radios.
http://bdxc.org.uk/articles.html the Amazon this year with the new- “In the modern radio camp, both the
http://bdxc.org.uk/bolivia.pdf ly formed 15.61 Crew, which is named Tecsun and the Eton have been demonstrat-
One of his articles is about Bolivian Mining after the telephone dialling codes of ed to offer superb sensitivity and selectivi-
Radio stations (Radio Mineras Bolivianas). Sorocaba and Brasilia. ty. I’ve used both extensively but never at the
These commenced in the 1940s and be- Part of the Amazon DXpedition includes a same time. My subscribers often ask me,
longed to the mining unions. Three such crowd funder to plant trees there. which is the best one to buy, so a comparison
stations still remain on the air today: Radio https://tinyurl.com/y4zgr5pm test gives them the opportunity to make up
Nacional de Huanuni (Huanuni Oruro), their own minds! The catches obtained during
now on 94.5MHz FM and online, Radio Short Wave Portables the testing are given in this month’s logs and
Vanguardia (Colquiri La Paz), and Radio 16 At the request of several subscribers to most of them appear as videos on the Oxford
de Marzo (Bolívar-Oruro). Radio Vanguardia his Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube chan- Shortwave Log. Overall, the Tecsun just
of Colquiri is owned by the mining workers. nel, Clint Gouveia conducted a ‘mega-test’ scraped a win through its superior audio.”
It has a new transmitter on medium wave of shortwave portables, old and new (Table
1270kHz, with a power of 3kW, and an FM 1). The vintage radios he compared were a [Look out for Clint Gouveia’s new mini-series
transmitter (98.3 MHz, with a power of 1kW). Panasonic RF-B65 and a Sony ICF-SW77. on ‘Portable DXing’ beginning in the January
The AM signal can be heard in the remotest The modern radios tested were a Tecsun 2020 issue – Ed.].

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 47
Profile

The World Association of Christian

Radio Amateurs & Listeners
Mike Briggs G4SMB
[email protected]

Mike Briggs profiles the history,

membership and activities of the
World Association of Christian Radio
Amateurs and Listeners (WACRAL)
and the Churches and Chapels on the
Air (CHOTA) initiative.

The predecessor of today’s WACRAL was the

World Association of Methodist Radio Clubs
(WAMRAC). It was founded by the Rev Arthur
W Shepherd, G3NGF in 1957 (Fig. 3) as the
Huddersield South Methodist Radio Club
with the callsign G3LQK. It quickly became
an international organisation in 1958.
The name was changed in 1978 to re-
lect the ecumenical nature of its member-
ship, and the association became WACRAL 1
– the World Association of Christian Radio
Amateurs and Listeners.
The story of the growth of the WAMRAC
fellowship is a long one, but here are the
main points: G3LQK, the Huddersield South
Circuit Methodist Radio Club was oficial-
ly founded in the Huddersield Manse on
Sunday, January 20th, 1957. It was licensed
as G3LQK on 25th March 1957.
It oficially went on the air on 26th June of
that same year.
A famous quote from Rev Arthur runs like 2 3
this: “The latest development in the story of
the growth of this WAMRAC fellowship is that, Special Event Station GB6LQK, on 24th June having connected it, all was well again.
by my being licensed, this opened the way 2017, at the Newsome South Methodist All team members, including Gillian
for me to apply for an amateur license in the Church, in Berry Brow. Huddersield. G18MIV, did a stint on the radio on that day
name of WAMRAC HQ. This was granted on On the day, the team consisted of Peter (Fig. 6). It was a hectic day, at times, but very
March 17th, 1959. Therefore, the Methodist G0PPQ, Mike G4SMB (Fig. 5), Rev Colin enjoyable, nevertheless.
Church becomes the irst Church denomi- 2E0HQJ, and Dave 2E0SHT. All were on site Other activities went on in the back-
nation as such to hold an amateur license, for around 08.30 am and ready to go. Rev ground, such as teaching some of the vis-
through WAMRAC, with the callsign G3NJB; Colin brought his full home installation to iting children how to send their name in
it will be the centre of this WAMRAC fellow- work all bands and modes, and Peter set Morse code. This went down very well, as
ship”. up a PC screen and internet so we could did chatting with visitors generally about the
Since its inception, WACRAL has built up a use Hack Green SDR if needed – and we did installation, data transmission and the ben-
vibrant membership from around the world, need it, big time. eits of having Hack Green burbling away in
for example, in Australia, Belgium, Czech We set up a G5RV at about 25ft in the the headphones.
Republic, United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, next-door nursery playground. However a There was, of course, a special cake, and
India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, dodgy coaxial cable connection foiled that a Jubilee Station Award Diploma.
Norway, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the plan, so we changed the coax and moved However, band conditions were very poor
USA. the mast closer to the church building. on the day; coupled with the local interfer-
Eventually, we had a good SWR to work with. ence, we could only hear stations via Hack
A Highlight: WACRAL’s Unfortunately, Rev Colin’s installation Green most of the day. The best band for
60th Anniversary Year would not perform and we could not fathom contacts was 40m LSB, and we worked a to-
The club celebrated its 60th Anniversary with out why, so I brought in my trusty FT450D; tal of 59 stations, with 6 WACRAL members

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

48 RadioUser December 2019
 Profile

Fig. 1: Some of the Jubilee Conference Delegates

in 2017. Fig. 2: The WACRAL Display at the 2019
National Hamfest in Newark. Fig. 3: CHOTA
GB1SMB. Fig.4: The Founder: Rev Arthur G3NGF.
Fig. 5: G4SMB operating Jubilee Station GB6CRA.
Fig. 6: Gillian G18MIV at the Jubilee Conference.
Fig. 7: Mike G4SMB with the RCWC Award. Fig.
8: Churches-on-the-Air (CHOTA) Founder John
G3XYF GB0LOW.

or chapel (The YHCT gives grants to help

repair church buildings).
http://www.yhct.org.uk
I thought it would be a good idea to
establish an amateur radio station in the
church on that day, for the beneit of visitors.
4 5 This would be a ‘double-plug’, for both
churches and the amateur radio hobby.
Most churches have a suitably high point
for antenna rigging.
There is no compulsion to raise money,
but on such occasions, I am asking locals to
sponsor me for the number of QSOs I make,
from my own church in Lowthorpe, East
Yorkshire - GB0LOW.
I am also under the impression that
6 most other counties have a Historic
Churches Trust and run a ‘Ride & Stride’ to
visit churches on the second Saturday in
September, but have not conirmed this so
far.
In the irst couple of years, less than 10
churches and chapels were represented on
the air. However, the numbers have steadily
increased; 2019, saw some 42 churches and
chapels participating in the day, which is a
fantastic development.
For the future, participating stations can
7 8 claim an award, and details can be found on
the WACRAL website:
calling in with their greetings. Thank you for Drifield (the retirement development I am www.wacral.org
making the effort to contact us. the Manager of).
We had some interesting chats with The WACRAL Conference and AGM
Rev Arthur’s son Paul and his wife Margaret CHOTA - Churches and Chapels The annual conference and AGM are held at
about Paul’s dad Arthur and with other visi- on the Air the Elim Conference Centre, Malvern.
tors Howard and Judith Robinson, Andrew It occurred to me a couple of years ago that https://tinyurl.com/y36boz7g
G7AXL and Harry Marchington, The Rev it was high time we had Churches & Chapels
Nancy Ndoho, Chris Partington M6IJT, and on the Air. After all, JOTA, IOTA, SOTA, POTA - Prayers on The Air
Gordon Mallinson G3NAK. Museums, Mills, Lighthouses, Fire Brigades Information on POTA can be found on this
We were also given some original QSL and Railways are all represented on the website:
cards issued by the Rev Arthur; these are annual amateur radio activities calendar. www.wacral.org
being held with the WACRAL display kit for Therefore, the idea of holding a Churches-
safekeeping. and-Chapels-on-the-Air event (CHOTA) Rallies
At the end of the day, we attended a ser- came naturally (Fig. 8). Consequently, on the The association has a stands at various
vice conducted by Rev Colin, and our inal second Saturday in September each year, rallies, notably NARSA Blackpool and the
prayer was the WACRAL Christian Radio the York Historic Churches Trust (YHCT) National Hamfest at Newark (Fig. 2).
Amateur’s Prayer – an excellent end to the encourages all churches and chapels to
activities. be open to receive visitors on a sponsored Contacts
After the service, all enjoyed tea and culi- basis. Any sums of money raised in this way Contact information can be found on the
nary delights provided by Rev Colin, Shirley through sponsorship are divided equally main website :
Jackson, and the ladies of Easterield Court between the YHCT and the respective church www.wacral.org

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 49
Digital Radio

Pirates, GRIB Files, and

North Korean Tests
Kevin Ryan
[email protected]

In this month’s column, Kevin Ryan

covers DAB ‘pirate’ radio, DAB station
updates from the UK, DRM receiver
news, and his recent monitoring
activity in regard to special DRM
broadcasts.

DAB Pirates Ireland

Apparently, in response to the non-
availability of DAB following the closure 1
of the éirdab trial in Cork, pirate DAB
multiplexes came on the air in Cork short wave transmitters in September at
(Channel 5A) in spring 2019 and Dublin (5D) many of their sites used for international
during the late summer. broadcasting, but their DRM transmissions
The impetus behind FreeDAB (Fig. 1) remain unaffected for the moment. It looks
comes from NRG Radio’s frustration with like the oldest – and likely obsolete –
the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland transmitters are going first, and that there
(BAI). It requests that operators apply are just 14 transmitters left in operation.
for, and gain, an FM licence before being I guess that the decommissioning will
considered for DAB. continue until just the two new Nautel 2
In addition to this, charges to use the trial 100kW units remain. They are installed at
éirdab multiplex in Cork were prohibitive the Kingsway site in New Delhi. Happily, for
for small independent stations. FreeDAB is the moment, the DRM services continue,
charging a fraction of that monthly cost, for but there may be significant changes
a 64kbps DAB+ slot on their multiplexes. at the end of October 2019, when the
According to the FreeDAB website, B19 plan starts.
multiplex capacity is available in Sligo, Prabar Bharati issued a new app called
Donegal, probably in Letterkenny and NewsOnAir (Fig. 2), enabling access to
Waterford, where a DAB trial operated all domestic news bulletins as podcasts.
a few years ago. Donegal and Sligo There are two other apps; one for All India
border Northern Ireland, so perhaps Radio linear radio channels and one for
people have DAB receivers to pick up the the External Services Division (ESD) (Fig.
‘overspill’ signals from BBC and Digital 3). The latter works well for podcasts, but
One transmitters. when I’ve tried to use it on Android, it has
Reports vary of between ten and sixteen not connected to the AIR service I selected.
DAB+ stations on each multiplex in Dublin For example, the app told me that the
and Cork. I checked out the websites for next English broadcast was at 13.30 UTC
Zenith Classic Rock and Total Country; aimed at Sri Lanka on short wave. The app
neither station refers to being on DAB, only changed to ‘Live Radio’ at 13.30 but there
that they are online stations. The BAI has wasn’t any audio output. I found that you 3
no immediate plans to consider small-scale have to tap on the words ‘Live Radio’ to open
DAB, and there are confusing reports as to the audio stream. A simple mistake, but I Fig. 1: FreeDAB, based in Ireland, is not licensed
whether the (legal) trial multiplexes in Cork guess this feature may trip up a few people. to use Band III spectrum; multiplexes may be
and at RTE’s headquarters in Donnybrook short-lived if the regulator (Comreg) decides to
Dublin are still on the air. HD Radio Tests enforce the law. Fig. 2: The new AIR App offers
http://www.freedab.net I find it curious that there will be an HDRadio access to all local news bulletins, so far as I
trial on the FM band in New Delhi that can tell. Fig. 3: We might be relying on this app
AIR and DRM may now be on air. It is curious because to listen to All India Radio’s General Overseas
All India Radio started decommissioning India’s published digital radio strategy is Service.

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

50 RadioUser December 2019
 Digital Radio

4 6

Fig. 4: The TDF broadcast consisted of French and Cumbria DAB Cumbria estimates the signal will cover 75%
English weather forecasts and four multimedia Ofcom received two applications for the of roads and 82% of the adult population.
files. Fig. 5: A snapshot of the animated weather three advertised licence areas of North and The transmitter sites are at Caldbeck,
map, generated from the data in GRIB file format, West Cumbria, Lancaster and Morecambe Penrith, Broughton Moor, Whitehaven and
sent in the DRM data stream. Fig. 6: A weak signal Bay and South West Scotland. Bauer ex- Keswick. The predicted coverage map in-
from the DRM test in Budapest on a Hungarian pressed its interest in the Cumbria licence dicates some spillover across the Solway
remote receiver. and Muxco bid for Morecambe Bay, neither Firth, towards Dumfries in SW Scotland.
expressing any interest in SW Scotland. I
to deploy DRM technology on both the am not entirely sure, but both areas may be Muxco Update
AM and FM bands. HDRadio supports operating on channel 11B. Muxco and Nation Broadcasting are bidding
four channels of audio, just like DRM, but for the South Cumbria and Morecambe Bay
occupies a full 400kHz channel, whereas News from Bauer licence with a basket of nine stations. BBC
DRM fits into 100kHz. This appears to be Bauer’s application for North and West Radio Cumbria, Heart and Smooth are local
a solution looking for a problem to solve. Cumbria has just two existing local servic- FM stations; Bay Radio, Bay Trust Radio and
The test transmitter will use the standard es, BBC Radio Cumbria and CFM. The other CandoFM are local stations, while Fun Kids
configuration, which is in widespread use in 11 services are mainly Absolute Radio and Junior, Chris Country and Capital are estab-
the US. It seems that some of the vehicles Magic branded stations, currently on the lished digital stations on other multiplex-
available in India have an HDRadio capable SDL national multiplex. There are no new lo- es. CandoFM is a community station, Bay
receiver installed, but that the feature is cal stations, but there is some capacity left Trust Radio is a hospital radio service, and
disabled for the Indian market. for future use. Using five transmitters, BDR Bay Radio is a new station using the same

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

RadioUser December 2019 51
Digital Radio

Fig. 7: A powerful signal from the Komsomolsk Amur transmitter site; it must
be using more than the registered 25kW. Fig. 8: Part of the control panel
of the DReaM DRM generator. Fig. 9: North Korea is using the default text
settings in the DreaM software. Operators should be aware that the signal is
very strong in Japan and South Korea. 9

name as a station that became Heart North area forecasts in English and French, plus area down the coast of Spain in the Metarea
Lancashire and Cumbria in 2018. four multimedia files. The files were a text II region. By the 9th, the forecast included
https://candofm.co.uk file, two images (the race logo and the TDF the sea area of Madeira.
https://www.baytrustradio.org.uk logo) and a weather data map that I could
The proposed transmitters are at not open at first. DRM Tests Received
Lancaster, Morecambe Bay, Windermere TDF started using 15300kHz (instead of After many weeks of trying, I finally picked
and Kendal, using existing transmitter sites. 610kHz) on the 9th, as the flotilla moved out up two DRM tests with remote SDRs. I
Muxco estimates that their service will into the Atlantic. Sadly, I found it impossi- found a weak signal from the 26MHz test in
reach 78% of the adult population and cover ble to decode this frequency. The best sig- Hungary (RadioUser, September 2019: 65).
55% of the roads. nal was from a remote SDR on the Canary However, I didn’t decode any audio (Fig. 6).
Islands. However, there was a lot of back- I also finally logged the DRM test in
TalkRADIO Features ground interference, making decoding im- Russia operating on 12025kHz, using a re-
talkRADIO is fast becoming one of my fa- possible. Strangely, the analogue service mote receiver in Japan.
vourite stations, and I prefer the early morn- continued to use 5970kHz, in parallel with The transmission consisted of looped
ing shows to those available on Radio 4 and the higher frequency of 13730kHz. instrumental music and was on later than
Radio 5. The station has a listen-again fea- usual, at 07.30 UTC. It put in a massive sig-
ture on its website that lets you listen to the GRIB Files nal with a 24dB SNR, with this coming off
previous week’s shows. The most unusual The weather data was in a data format the back lope of the antenna (Fig. 7). There
show is The Unexplained on a Sunday even- called GRIB (labelled as a .grb file) but I was no identification at the top of the hour.
ing at 10 pm. Presenter Howard Hughes think the DReaM decoder appended a file You can find more details regarding this ser-
covers the paranormal, as well as main- type of .png, rather than .bz2 (a type of vice in last month’s RadioUser (RadioUser,
stream science. I don’t think there is anoth- zip file). After some technical help from a November 2019: 55-58).
er show like it on DAB. friend of mine, who knows a lot more about As winter deepens in this polar region, it
https://talkradio.co.uk/radio/schedule Microsoft Windows than I do, I managed to is possible that the transmitter will move
open the file with a trial version of GRIBview. to a lower frequency. There was a single
MiniTransat DRM Test This program has options for wind (Fig. 5), report of the station testing 6025kHz, and
The DRM broadcasts from TDF became a pressure, temperature, precipitation and I assumed that to be a tuning error at the
moving target during late September and waves, running forward in time. The data transmitter site.
early October. The race suffered delays to received on the 7th covered the 8th, un-
the start date because of bad weather in til 12.00 on the 12th. It was fascinating to IBC: DRM Radios
the Bay of Biscay. The race finally started watch the animation in action for each of Once again, there is the possibility of an af-
on the 5th. I picked up the DRM transmis- the options. I tuned in again on the 8th, and fordable DRM radio becoming generally
sion on the 7th at 1500 UTC on 6105 kHz the English segment of the forecast started available. Last month, I shared what little
(Fig. 4). I used a remote SDR in Cornwall at 1512 UTC. The sea areas covered had information I had on the Gospell GR-22 port-
because my PC has decided not to ‘recog- moved slightly to report on Charcot West, able receiver. According to the manufac-
nize’ my SDR as a ‘valid’ USB device. The São Vicente and Josephine East, in addition turer, the GR-22 is a pocket-size AM/FM/
transmission consisted of detailed sea to Finisterre and Porto. These are the sea DRM radio that runs on 4xAA batteries or on

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

52 RadioUser December 2019
 Digital Radio

a mains adapter. I guess that it will be the had a noticeable buzzing sound, especially Euradio, France Maghreb 2, Generations,
size of a paperback book. The target date during speech segments. At 0700 UTC, I Melody, Océane FM, Radio Bonheur, Radio
for availability is next summer. It looks like it heard the Voice of Korea interval signal, and Capsao, Radio FG, Radio La Sentinelle,
will decode all DRM modes, including mode I think the language might have changed Radio Maria, Radio Orient, Radio Pitchoun,
E used on FM. The DRM consortium recently to Japanese, but I am no expert when it Sensations Normandy, Sweet FM, West
dropped references to DRM/DRM30 and comes to Far Eastern languages. I checked Trend, and Virage Radio.
DRM120/DRM+. Now, there is simply ‘DRM’. at 0830 UTC; the transmitter was still going There is a useful website to keep up to
The big question, apart from it going into and seemed to have the same programme date with developments.
full production, is where they plan to market as 9650kHz scheduled in Japanese until https://www.dabplus.fr/par-ville
it. The biggest target market has to be India, 1250 UTC. There was silence at 0850,
followed by China; but will it reach Europe? until the interval signal at 0900, when, I More UK Changes
Gospell also announced a new DRM/AM/FM think, the language was again Korean. A In September, Ofcom announced some in-
Monitoring Receiver (GR-301) that will be an monitor in Japan reported the transmission teresting changes The Cambridge multi-
expensive radio to own. We should have an in just Japanese so perhaps my ears plex (all DAB encoding) now has permis-
idea of prices early in the new year. were deceiving me! sion for an Arabic language station called
The second possibility for a widely Dubai Now, and Gold Cambridge replaces
available DRM receiver is through a link- DReaM Transmitter Smooth Cambridge.
up between STARWAVES in Germany, who As a test, I generated a basic DRM signal The Peterborough multiplex (DAB) has
developed a DRM module, and a Dutch from the DReaM transmitter (On Windows, Gold back (replacing Smooth Cambridge),
consumer goods company called Nedis. run ‘Dream.exe –t’ to switch to the alongside Smooth Country. Radio Up replac-
Nedis produces DAB receivers, alongside transmitter mode) on my PC and patched it es Connect FM and is a music-based service
many and varied activities. You can see the to the DReaM decoder, using a virtual cable. aimed at 25-44 year-olds. Radio up also re-
Nedis catalogue here: I have experimented with the transmitter places Connect FM on the Northampton and
https://tinyurl.com/y3dydrj9 before, but when I added an audio source the Herts, Beds and Bucks multiplexes. Gold
The STARWAVES module is a tiny from an MP3 file, it did something weird to is now on the Northampton multiplex in DAB.
(40mm2) device. It covers LW, MW, SW, and the encoder. All I got was the buzzing noise Funs Kids Junior, for pre-school chil-
FM Bands I and II. similar to what I had heard on the DPRK dren, is on the North East Wales and West
The module should be in production broadcast. The DReaM transmitter has most Cheshire multiplex, joining other DAB+ v1
now, and we need to wait for of the DRM features in its control panel, stations. There are five DAB+ stations on the
further announcements. but they are not all fully implemented in the multiplex deploying the older DAB+ v1 en-
software. For example, the software only coding. A number of DAB/DAB+ radios de-
DRM Multiplexer encodes one channel of audio. It is possible tect this and add it to the station list, but they
RFMondial presented another interesting that the North Koreans are working on the won’t play the audio.
item, showing how to multiplex up to six open-source software and testing it on the The Central Scotland multiplex has per-
pure DRM signals into a single FM channel air from time to time. mission to remove Rocksport and add Pure
of 400kHz. A simulcast mode is also Radio. Ofcom describes the latter as hav-
possible, with one analogue and up to four DAB in France ing “high-energy, personality-led, shows with
DRM signals. A great idea to make full use The DAB+ network in France is rapidly ex- a focus on Scottish content and humour”.
of Band. However, I do not think we will see panding. There are some new multiplexes Kingdom FM, a local Fife and Dunfermline
it used in Europe. that might be audible in the Channel Islands station, is joining the multiplex.
https://tinyurl.com/y2s88n3t and along the south-west coast of the UK. Finally, Gold is coming to the Humberside
DAB+ radio expanded into Normandy in and Lancashire multiplexes, and Baikal
North Korea October with multiplexes opening in Le Radio, a service for the Russian communi-
The DRM test from North Korea (The Havre (9D and 10D) and Rouen (9C and ty in London is closing. There is a report that
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 10C). Eventually, each city will have 45 sta- the London-based LOVE SPORT intends to
DPRK) was heard again in Japan, now tions, including familiar names like Radio become national before the end of the year.
using the transmitter feature in DReaM (Fig. Orient, which used to be audible on MW.
8). Before this, they were using a Chinese The full list for Le Havre is Africa Radio, Summary
transmitter. I tuned in to the North Korean Espace Normandie, Euradio, France As the year draws to a close, I can only hope
test on 3560kHz, using a remote receiver Maghreb 2, Generations, Melody, West Track that digital radio developments continue
in South Korea at 0640 UTC; sure enough, Radio, Radio Albatross, Radio Capsao, Radio at the same pace as in 2019. Next year, we
it was using the DReaM transmitter (Fig. Crystal, Radio FG, Radio Turn, and Trend hope to see DRM radios becoming available,
9). The audio, consisting mainly of music West Seine-Maritime. In Rouen, people can but I don’t know if this will happen. I wish
and speech, in (what I thought was) Korean, listen to Africa Radio, Espace Normandie, you all a Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

2020 products available to pre-order today

Go to page 13 for more information
p Publications, The Maltin
G ro u gs,
ers We The Maltings, West Stree
ar n st ions, t, B
yW Str icat our
b ee ubl ne,
h ed t,
Bo pP Lin
is ou cs
bl ur Gr .P
Pu er
s E1
ne

IVE
ar 0
,L

2019 ARCH
W
inc

9P
by
s.

H
ed
PE

sh
10

oUser 2019
bli

ive of Radi
9PH

Pu

e PDF Arch
A complet
and
tographs
ings, pho
in all draw d on this CD is fully
Copyright lishe or le
RadioUser December 2019 Copyrigh
informa
t in all dra
tion
wings,
protected published on
photog
raphs
information
protected
pub
idde
ction in who
and reprodu n. All reasonable
ressly forb n by RadioUser to
53
this CD and part is exp are take given
part is exp and reprod is fully precautions the advice and data not,
uct
precaution ressly forbidd ion in whole
mmended

ensure that ble. We can not

s en. All or ers is relia
to ensure are taken by Pra reasonable to our read rantee it and we
can
that ctical gua and
to our rea the advice and Wireless however, it. Prices
ibility for 9.
howeve ders is reliable. data given l respons ent in 201
r, guaran We can accept lega tion are those curr
accept te no informa
Emerging Issues in Radio

CHRISSY BRAND

Plaudits and
Chrissy Brand
[email protected]

number of significant and var-

Opportunities A
ied radio and audio industry
conferences have taken place
in recent months. At the annual
Swiss Radio Day in August, there were two
headlines that jumped out at me.
Chrissy Brand offers some exciting First, the prediction that, by 2021, there
will be far less live radio in that country, and
highlights from conferences on both sides a large increase in the number of podcasts.
of the Atlantic, emphasising the ever- I am sure that will be the case.
evolving changes in the radio & audio fields. Second – with only 17% of the Swiss
population now listening to the radio on FM
(June 2019) – broadcasts on FM will end in
2024. The relentless drive to digital by sec-
tors of the industry will, no doubt, fully cap-
italise on those low figures, whether they
are accurate or not.

An Influential Gathering
The IBC Exhibition and Conference takes
place in Amsterdam every September, at-
tracting 60,000 people. There are 1,700
exhibitors, spread across fifteen halls.
IBC bills itself as the world’s most in-
fluential, entertainment and technolo-
gy show (Fig. 2).
https://show.ibc.org
I always like to know who is behind an
event, what angle they are coming from,
and which agenda they might be pushing
– if there is one at all. The IBC Show has
run since 1967 and is now jointly owned
by six organisations, namely IABM, the in-
ternational trade association for suppli-
ers of broadcast and media technology;
The Royal Television Society; The IEEE
Broadcast Technology Society, The Society
for Broadband Professionals (SCTE);
and The Society of Motion Picture and
Television Engineers (SMPTE).
https://www.theiabm.org
https://rts.org.uk
https://bts.ieee.org
https://www.smpte.org
One of the recipients of plaudits this year
was the Journalism for Juniors project.
This was set up by Turkish state broadcast-
er TRT in order to train young people in ref-
ugee camps, “TRT World Citizen is creating
programs to train young students in refugee
camps in the basics of journalism, giving
them a platform to voice their experiences
and share their stories.”
https://tinyurl.com/y5r8729r

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

54 RadioUser December 2019
 Emerging Issues in Radio

CHRISSY BRAND

Fig. 1: The Ace Theatre in downtown LA

hosted hundreds of female podcasters. Fig. 2:
Amsterdam, home to the annual IBC event and
much more. Fig. 3: Kathy Merritt was one of the
women to give the opening welcome address.

Other winners at the IBC Awards, which

were hosted by BBC World News presenter
Kasia Madera, included environmentally re-
sponsible documentary producer Chouette
Films and a multi-platform project to protect
coastal communities in India.

Social Impact
Radio and audio take a backseat at IBC
when compared to television, films and vid-
eo. However, one session brought togeth-
er a number of international radio broad-
casters. In the category of Global Strategy 2
Gamechangers, the question of Can public
broadcasters stay relevant? was discussed
by a panel of experts. CHRISSY BRAND

Paul Lembrechts, CEO of Flemish

broadcaster VRT (Vlaamse Radio en
Televisieomroeporganisatie), stated that
there is both a societal demand to cor-
rectly fund public service media, and also
an economic argument. Martijn van Dam,
Board Member of Dutch broadcaster NPO
(Nederlandse Publieke Omroep), added that
Dutch households pay €7 a month for the
national public service broadcaster. This is
cheaper than a Netflix subscription yet it of-
fers much more.
Martijn also shared that his organisation’s
goal is neither to maximise its income, nor
the length of time individuals spend using its
platforms. Instead, NPO’s aim is to maximise
social impact. His view of a public services 3
broadcaster is for it to give a broad view of all
opinions. To that end, NPO is, “developing al- as a, “very fickle audience, a very discern- David Field, President and CEO at
gorithms that will help broaden your view, not ing audience; they are tech-savvy and they Entercom, commented that the primary
narrow your view.” move around. The call for us is for providing use of smart speakers is to listen to broad-
Dee Forbes, Director General of RTÉ, reit- the content they want, and being there for cast radio, which is, “a great testament
erated that news now has no time boundar- them to access it.” to what we do.”
ies. By that, she meant that there is no longer Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeart-
a wait to turn the radio or television on for US Radio Show Media, highlighted that listening to music is
the 6 o’clock news. Instead, news stories are The US Radio Show took place in Dallas, often an escape for people. However, when
frequently broken on social media. She also Texas in late September. It looked fascinat- they want ‘companionship’ or to be part of
recalled that, where once €80 million of pro- ing, covering radio finance, branding, audi- the world, then they will turn to the radio. He
gramming was commissioned by RTÉ, the ence attention, on-air talent, and innovation. I also stated that, “One of radio’s big advantag-
figure is now just half of that. This puts the will try to get there one year. es is that we win the device war. But now the
whole ecosystem of Irish programming un- The session entitled 2020 and Beyond: smart speaker allows us to reclaim some of
der threat and is a real concern to her. Insights from the Top heard Mary Berner, our turf in the home too.”
Noel Curran, Director-General of the President and CEO at Cumulus Media, pre- It would not have been a true radio show
European Broadcasting Union (EBU), remind- dict that future radio will retain its resilience without live radio broadcasts. Amongst
ed the audience that in 60% of European and be as compelling as ever. She looked these was the US-wide, syndicated Bob and
markets, public service broadcasters are the upon podcast popularity as a good business Tom Show. Although the radio industry is
most trusted media service. He also agreed opportunity but acknowledged that radio or- evolving to new and ever more exciting tech-
that radio and television have a problem in ganisations need to, “really lean into the shift nologies and content, stability is also re-
engaging young audiences, describing them from radio to audio.” quired; veterans such as this duo provide a

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

RadioUser December 2019 55
Emerging Issues in Radio

CHRISSY BRAND

Fig 4. Lauren Ober is well respected in the US

podcast scene.

dose of that. Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold

started their programme in 1983 at WFBQ in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
www.radioshowweb.com

Werk It!
I was over the moon to be able to attend
Werk It! – A Women’s Podcast Festival, held
in Los Angeles, California in October. I as-
sume the title is a play on words that re-
claims the controversial Twerk it phrase.
I’ll bring you highlights from the festival,
this month and next.
The event started in 2015 and has alternat- 4
ed between Los Angeles and New York City.
It is both a festival and a conference, run by to hone their skills and enable women to get A different angle was offered by Mathilde
WNYC Studios, the podcast arm of New York started with their own podcasts. Piard, Senior Project Manager at NPR.
radio station WNYC. Kathy Merritt, Senior Vice President Her (honestly-titled) talk was You Can
The reasons why there is a need for a Journalism and Radio at the Corporation for Grow Your Audience Without Going Batshit
women’s podcast conference was outlined Public Broadcasting (Fig. 3), proclaimed that Crazy. She sensibly spoke of small, inde-
in 2016 by Laura Walker, President and CEO, over 6,000 women have attended Werk It pendent podcasters finding other, similar-
New York Public Radio, “Women’s voices are and that, today, they are shaping the world of ly-sized and -themed podcasts, and then
underrepresented in the world of podcasting, podcasting. Although podcasting is still in its cross-promoting.
as is the case on almost every other media relatively early days, she stated how 144 mil- Mathilde highlighted the toughness of the
platform. WNYC Studios launched Werk It lion Americans have listened to a podcast. radio and audio world. NPR plugs podcasts
to bring urgency and focus to the imbalance This is about half of the US population. Kathy in its Morning Edition Show, which increas-
and to seize the opportunity to correct it more believes that individuals can best mould the es audiences; however, more promotional
quickly than in other industries. At the inau- future by being the best ‘version’ of them- ideas are needed. Publishing a bonus week-
gural conference, I issued a challenge: that selves and by bringing their values to pod- end edition is one trick. In some cases, it has
podcasting reach a parity of female and male cast content. She pointed out that the pod- increased listenership by 10%. Regardless of
hosts within the next several years. We’re cast world, metaphorically, still inhabits the that, she reminded an overfull room that lis-
thrilled to see the progress so far.” ‘Wild West’, without many rules. teners are constantly finding new material to
I spoke with Adrienne White over breakfast There were also bespoke sessions for listen to, and that – once a listener has gone
in the bowels of the hostel I was staying in. one-to-one sound design advice at the Ask – they often do not return.
She was attending her first Werk It Festival An Engineer meetings. This was thanks to I discussed much of this with some dele-
(Fig. 1) in order to learn and to immerse her- AIR, a talent network founded in 1988, which gates, over craft beers and cocktails at the
self in the podcast-related environment for now has “1500 people powering public media rooftop bar. The consensus was, among the
a couple of days. She also took advantage and podcasting”. It cultivates and deploys podcasters who have another main job, that
of the Mentorship and Meet-up Space. Here, producers and independent story-makers their podcasts would, ideally, one day provide
many delegates signed up for the one-to-one who create innovative work in digital media, an income. However, with only one per cent
mentoring sessions, where “your mentor can broadcasting and podcasting. of the 700,000 podcasts actually making
download all the knowledge into your brain”. Lauren Ober is the host of the American money, that could take a while.
Adrienne, from Utah, commenced her pod- Public Media’s Spectacular Failures podcast, Next month, among other things, I will con-
cast in 2019. Called She’s So Cool, it is a “fe- a paean to business catastrophes (Fig. 4). clude my Werk It report. I will also discuss
male- empowerment podcast about women She argued convincingly that having a hobby the views of ten influential American profes-
whose life stories will inspire you to embrace is good for self-care, and if presenting and sional women from across the podcast and
who you are, love yourself fiercely, and pursue producing a podcast is your hobby, then you media industries.
your dreams.” Drawing on her life experience, should consider leaving it as that, an enjoy-
it has already been listened to in more than ably creative and beautiful thing.
100 countries. Building an audience is a big Although a professional podcaster her- Radio Events
challenge in podcast-land, so Adrienne is self, Lauren’s message was for hobbyists not November 25th
clearly doing well. to worry about trying to monetise podcasts Radio TechCon, London
to become their main income. It is difficult November 27th
Podcast Bootcamp and can sap the energy and passion that 7th WorldDAB Interoperability
In addition to the two parallel conference inspired you in the first place. She assert- Workshop, Munich
sessions over two days, one hundred pod- ed that, for instance, if you play tennis as a November 28th
casters took part in a ‘Bootcamp’ before the hobby, you play to enjoy, not to try and beat Audio Production Awards, London.
main conference. This gave them the chance Serena Williams.

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

56 RadioUser December 2019
 Aerials Now!

Doublets, Satellite Patches,

and Belling-Lee Connectors
Keith Rawlings Keith Rawlings responds to reader enquiries regard-
[email protected]
ing doublet aerials, receives Inmarsat by testing out
a small patch aerial by SDRKits for the 154MHz band,

I
thought I would start this month’s
column with a question from reader and covers Belling-Lee type connectors.
Steve Ockley from Norwich.
After reading my comment of ALL ILLUSTRATIONS BY KEITH RAWLINGS

turning a plain dipole into a doublet,

Steve asks if the doublet design that
appeared in the September edition of
Practical Wireless (p. 28) would also be
suitable for a listener.
This article was written by Tim Heir
2E0TWG; in it, he describes how a simple
but effective doublet can be made up
at little cost. Steve’s design was aimed
at the licensed amateur for use on
the amateur bands.
However, as a receive-only aerial, it
should work very well on all of the HF
bands and give adequate service lower
in frequency as well. Steve constructed
his doublet with a top length of 44ft and
conigured it as an ‘Inverted V’, with the
apex at 8m and the ends at 4m. He used 1 2
a length of 300Ω ‘ladder line’ and an auto
‘ATU’ with a short length of coaxial cable Low-Cost Inmarsat Fig.1: The SDR Kits A154 L-Band patch aerial.
running to his shack. For several years, the technology avail- Fig. 2: The A154 mounted on scrap steel sheet.
It is this last point that creates a hiccup able to enthusiasts has made it possible
for the listener, as the auto ATU used by to monitor L Band signals from satellites noise ampliier. Construction of a helical
Steve will require RF to be fed into it for it such as INMARSAT(International Maritime for L Band is quite simple, but it must be
to tune. As mentioned in the article, it is Satellite). INMARSAT provides users with remembered that polarisation of signals
better for the ladder line to run directly to “global mobile connectivity”. Services can is almost exclusively RHCP (Right Hand
a ‘proper’ balanced AMU (ATU). By this is include – but are by no means limited to Circular Polarisation).
meant one that does not rely on some form – maritime and aviation safety, telephone, Therefore, if making a helical, it has to
of BALUN but has a genuine balanced input, broadband and data, video and audio ser- be wound in the reverse (LHCP) when it is
such as a Z Match. vices, to mention but a few. pointed into a dish.
The truth is that, for listening only, we https://www.inmarsat.com/solutions Once assembled, these bits and pieces
can get away with either using a BALUN This is achieved via portable or mobile need to be properly positioned, pointing
at the end of the ladder line and running terminals, which can communicate with in an appropriate direction, and prefera-
a length of coaxial cable back to an AMU ground stations through a constellation of bly’ outside, to receive signals from one of
at the operating position, or with just 13 geostationary satellites located in orbit the satellites.
joining the ladder line directly to the coax 22,236 miles (35,766km) out in space. Which brings me to my point: For those
and running this to an AMU, as in the As part of aviation safety, ACARS who want to have a ‘dabble’ with L Band
original G5RV layout. (Aircraft Communications Addressing and reception and are unwilling or unable to
However, this latter approach may lead to Reporting System) messages are trans- construct a suitable aerial, there is now
noise pickup on the coax. mitted via Inmarsat. Some of them can be a really cheap solution readily avail-
Another method for the enterprising received on a number of L Band transpon- able from SDR Kits.
listener may be to make up a remotely- ders with simple equipment, and providing For the relatively modest sum of £12.90
tuned AMU, controlled manually from a suitable aerial is used. +P&P the irm sells, “a GPS-style active
the operating position. Perhaps this is However, this ‘suitable’ aerial can be a L-Band patch receive antenna to explore and
something to look at in a future month. stumbling block for some, as the signals experiment with the reception of satellite
So, Steve, by all means, give the design are quite weak. Usually, something like a signals on frequencies between 1535 and
a go. I am sure it will work well and don’t Helical directed into a dish that will provide 1550MHz.” (Fig. 1).
forget to let us all know how you get on! extra gain is used, along with a suitable low https://tinyurl.com/yye6bg7e

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 57
Aerials Now!

Fig. 3: Aero signals decoded using SDRUno and

MultiPSK. Fig. 4: JAERO decodes.
Fig. 5: Belling-Lee connectors: Standard
connectors top; miniature (with a standard one for
comparison) below. 6: The SDR kits aerial A 154
mounted on sweets tin lid.

Sold primarily for use with SDRPlay re-

ceivers that have a suitable Bias Tee output
built in, this aerial can be used with any re-
ceiver that can either provide the required
DC level of 3-5V or has an ‘outboard’ Bias
Tee module; many of these can be found
online. As I have an SDRPlay RSP2 radio
that covers L Band, and given that my old
lash-up of an ex-Sat TV dish and helical
went in the bin long ago, I thought I might
try out one of these modiied GPS mod-
ules for myself.

Arrival and Setup

The module came itted with 5m of RG174
cable terminated with an SMA plug on the
end of it, so it was simple to screw the
plug onto my RSP2 ANT B socket, hang the
module out of a front downstairs window,
pointing roughly where I though a satellite
might be, turn on the bias Tee output on the
RSP2, and tune to 1545MHz.
I was presented with a few very weak
transponders showing on the waterfall dis-
play. This, I thought, was promising. As my
downstairs ofice window is quite close to
3
my drive, I had enough cable to put the mod-
ule on the bonnet of my car to use it as a
ground plane. This, sadly, did not work.
Taking stock of the environment around
me, this was not surprising, as there were
numerous obstructions in the satellite
path. Therefore, I went to my workshop
and picked up a piece of sheet steel left
over from repairing the footwells of my old
Landrover (Fig. 2).
The module was placed on this, and I
stood the sheet up against the house and
pointed it into a gap between the trees
and houses at about 220 degrees. Angling
the sheet, so that the module was ‘point-
ing’ just above the horizon, I immediately
saw the transponders reappear at a more
reasonable level. 4
One of the software packages I use is
MultiPSK. It has the ability to decode AERO Improving Reception dish, so I settled for a sweets tin lid as a
(ACARS) messages. I fed the output of To see if I could improve reception further, temporary measure (Fig. 6).
VRX1 on the RSP2, via a virtual audio cable I carried out some experiments, by moving With the ‘dish’ mounted on the ground
to MultiPSK. Straight away, I was presented the positioning of the module to the back and aligned slightly upwards, I pointed to-
with the display as seen in Fig. 3. garden, with my RSP2 running from a lap- wards the gap to the south and found that
Encouraged by this, I downloaded a copy top. Here, I have a wider gap, roughly point- the band was full of signals. Finding one of
of JAERO. After a very short time spent set- ing south, between trees and houses. For the narrower transponders that has AERO
ting options, this software also started to my experiments, I have been searching in trafic on it, I noted that signals rose from
decode messages perfectly (Fig. 4). vain for a steel dustbin lid as a temporary -113 dBm without ‘relector’, to -103 dBm

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

58 RadioUser December 2019
 Aerials Now!

Belling-Lee sockets; no doubt, because

there were very cheap and readily available,
making them popular at the time.
I have seen quite a few used on home-
made transmitters. These connectors offer
good performance. Readers wishing to add
RF sockets to their projects should con-
sider these as a cheap alternative to other
types of connector. There are variations of
4 6 the standard Belling-Lee type: I have seen
threaded versions, and there is also a min-
iature version.

Correspondence.
I received an email from Mike Johnson
G6ONV who read my column on the
Jaybeam Cubical Quad. Mike used his
quad, mounted along with a rotator, on
a chimney stack and worked local con-
tacts, as well as some ‘DX’ into Holland,
Belgium and France from his location in
East Northants.
5 His equipment at the time (around 1984)
was an Azden PCS3000 FM transceiver
using the tin lid, as read from my RSP2. Belling-Lee Connectors running 25W. He also had an HB9CV for
This is a useful amount of ‘gain’ from such I would be remiss if I ignored the faithful vertical use. Mike was irst licensed as a
a small relector, and it improved the signal- Belling-Lee coaxial connector in my series Class B in 1982 (as was I in 1976) after tak-
to-noise ratio considerably. about connectors (Fig. 5). Anyone with past ing a season of evening classes at his lo-
SDR Kits states that the module is for use links to the Enield area will be more than cal college. He remained active until 1986.
between 1535 and 1550MHZ, and I found aware of the Belling-Lee Ltd. factory along Subsequently, his family ‘expanded’, and his
signals between 1520-1558 MHz. Also, I the Great Cambridge Road. It seemed that radio kit was consigned to the loft.
noted that, directionally, positioning was everyone in the area either worked there or Becoming active again in 2010, he found
not too critical. Yes, better signal strength knew someone that did. out that he could be a full license holder
could be achieved with a bit of ine adjust- Indeed, my own family came from that without having to take the Morse code test.
ment. However, overall, just aiming to the general area, and most of my aunts and un- Mike now runs a Yaesu FT7900 and VX6
south produced acceptable results, that is, I cles found themselves involved with the handheld for 2m and 70m, and a Yaesu
had no problems decoding, once there was company in one way or another, including FTDX 1200 for HF, but he admits that he is
a signal. Although a large dish and a good me, although indirectly. severely limited in terms of aerial space –
preampliier may well give better results, at These simple connectors must have something he has in common with quite
the price, I thought these aerials represent- been made by the millions. a lot of us. Mike has been a reader of our
ed excellent value. It seems that Belling-Lee started pro- sister magazine Practical Wireless for a
For those that want a cheap entry into L duction in the early 1920s and has contin- number of years and is a recent convert to
Band reception, with the use of a suitable ued production ever since; I believe they RU. It is nice to hear from you Mike, and I
SDR receiver, possibly one of the cheap are still trading. In my youth, I travelled to hope you manage to ind space for some
dongles, a bias Tee and one of these aeri- many radio rallies and trawled through the decent aerials.
als, I don’t think you can go too far wrong. junk sales buying, well, ‘junk’; much of this Well, that’s it again for another month.
As I write, I see SDRKits now also was ‘home-brewed’ gear. Nearly every- As always, I will reply via this column, so
stocks a module for Iridium Satellites, thing seemed to be made in an Eddystone that everyone may beneit.
watch this space. die-cast box, and all RF connectors used Good listening.

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 59
Utility Monitoring

PICTURES: NILS SCHIFFHAUER

Air Traffic Nets ard. These pose two severe challenges:

owing to the Auroral Zone, HF communica-
tion is difficult (multipath), and most satel-
lites don’t cover the pole caps.

HF Data linking These challenges were mastered by

HFDL, through with a combination of stra-
tegically-scattered ground stations, con-

the World
nected by landline/satellite. In addition
to this, ACARS (Aircraft Communications
Addressing and Reporting System) devel-
oped into a smart and adaptive waveform
derived from the military MIL-STD-188-110
Last month, Nils Schiffhauer covered voice traffic on standard. A clever system of frequen-
cies came into being, which automatically
the HF aeronautical bands. In this instalment – the changes with propagation.
last one in the current Utility Monitoring series – he
explores HFDL communications. Standards and Frequencies
This system was developed by ARINC
(Aeronautical Radio Incorporated), using
Nils Schiffhauer, DK8OK Link (HFDL) network, with 16 ground sta- ARINC 753/635 as its standard; it is now
[email protected] tions, represents the biggest and most part of Collins Aerospace. The whole sys-
active HF net worldwide (Fig. 1 and Table tem now handles nearly five million mes-

C
ommunications play a pivotal 3). It was planned more than 30 years ago sages each month via HF. All the ground
role in the safety of air traffic. when a steep rise in the demand for air stations are equipped with 1kW trans-
Communications between air transport was predicted. Predictions were mitters. Usually, they transmit simultane-
and ground can only be estab- right: The number of passengers world- ously, on up to three channels. Their pri-
lished via wireless – HF, VHF, wide more than quadrupled, from one bil- mary frequency should cover a radius of
SHF, and satellite. Most of it consists of lion in 1990/91 to 4.3 billion in 2018. 3,000-4,000 nautical miles (nm), and; the
data, but you still can monitor plenty of Those regions without VHF/UHF/SHF secondary 2,000-3,000nm. Sometimes a
voice as we saw in last month’s column coverage especially challenged the indus- third channel is used, for directional rea-
(RadioUser, November 2019: 32-35). try. And there was more: After the end of sons, and Panama is the only station us-
In this context, the High-Frequency Data the Cold War polar routes became stand- ing just one frequency.

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

60 RadioUser December 2019
 Utility Monitoring

As far as the aircraft are concerned, the

power ranges from 125 to 400W, put out,
via an HF coupler, to the HF antenna inside
the leading edge of the tail fin.
Each station is working on a different
frequency, matching propagation, by
means of a system called Frequency
Division Multiple Access (FDMA). The
Active Frequency Table (No. 51 at present)
is occasionally changed to cope with solar
activity. It offers a choice of 105 different
channels, from 2941 to 21997kHz.
I found 63 of them used during a
monitoring mission in May 2019 (Fig. 2).

Frames-Cycles-Squitters- 2
Segments
Transmission and reception are Drones and Automation Fig. 1: The 16 HFDL ground stations provide excellent
organized in Frames (of 32) consisting A full 1/3 of the data segment content is de- coverage everywhere. Fig. 2: Amongst all the active
of 13 Slots each. All participants voted to so-called Probes. These symbols HFDL frequencies throughout the day, ‘clustering’ is
transmit their information in those are known in advance by the decoder, and revealed, by zooming in to the 8MHz aero band.
dedicated time slots via Time Division they are used to ‘train’ its equalizer.
Multiple Access (TDMA). This technique is a strong tool to cope with tion and use of PC-HFDL:
This is termed the Message Protocol the ever-changing propagation landscape on (1) After you have downloaded the software
Data Unit (MPDU). HF. Forward Error Correction (FEC) further and obtained a licence, you should down-
Each of the 2700 Cycles of 32 seconds enhances robust communication. load (from the Yahoo-HFDL Group’s file sec-
in length starts with the so-called Squitter, Each aircraft logs onto HFDL before it tion) the most recent System Table (No. 51).
at slot 0. This Squitter originates from starts on its flight. From then on, all commu- Expand this .zip file and copy the resulting
the ground station and contains general nications are conducted automatically. The files into the PC-HFDL Configs folder, over-
information on the status of the station, its aircraft’s receiver scans all HFDL channels, writing any outdated files.
available slots, and the reception of other locks onto the one with the best reception (2) Start your receiver, run PC-HFDL and
ground stations of the network. and connects. The ground station, in turn, ac- connect the audio output of your receiv-
There is plenty of information on HFDL knowledges this connection and suggests er to the audio input of PC-HFDL. With an
available on the internet; search for advises a time slot in which all future data SDR, you should use a virtual audio cable
‘AMCP/5-WP/72.’ from the aircraft will be received. (VAC) for this purpose. Choose the cor-
The entire signal has a gross bit rate of If propagation conditions change, the air- rect VAC at PC-HFDL: System-Options ->
1800bps, with variable net bit rates ranging craft will automatically change the channel Soundcard Configuration.
from 300 to 1800bps. It consists of three and/or ground station to the best reception. (3) Tune your receiver to one active HFDL
general parts (Fig. 3): This is done within just one second; in the channel with strong signals, for example,
(1) The pre-key segment (249ms in background, a transceiver like the Rockwell Shannon at 8942 or 10081kHz, and decod-
length) starts the transmission and looks Collins’ HFS-900D is continuously checking ing should start.
like an ordinary pilot tone on the centre and evaluating 20 channels. This feature is
frequency of 1440Hz. It can be seen like one of the hidden powers of the whole sys- Messages and Propagation
448 2-PSK symbols with a constant phase tem, ensuring a high degree of reliability. Most of the technical details within PC-
modulation of 180°, resulting in a data HFDL are self-explanatory. However, the
rate of 1800bit/s. The Decoder – From Tone to Text technical data of transmission may need
(2) The preamble segment of 531 2-PSK There are a lot of (multimode) decoders, some additional information. Table 1 con-
symbols (295ms) informs the decoder which can also read HFDL (Fig. 5), among tains a short key to those.
about some details of the data segment, them Sorcerer and MultiPSK. In addition, Table 2 offers a short explana-
e.g. the number of phases, bit rate, length, On the other hand, PC-HFDL by Charles tion of the meaning of some acronyms in the
and the interleaver of the following part. E. Brain (G4GUO) concentrates exclusively line Ground Station.
This preamble is always sent in 2-PSK (or: on this mode and is often recommended. It HFDL’s reliability is accomplished by an ag-
BPSK) and at 300bps, independent of the also provides multiinstances decoding, if in- ile set of frequencies. This follows the differ-
data segment (Fig. 4). stalled in different folders. ent propagation conditions of day and night,
(3) The data segment contains the ‘meat’, Irrespective of the decoder you use, Mike dawn and dusk, whilst also considering the
as it were: It is usually 1.8s long but can Simpson’s free software Display-Launcher current solar activity. Active frequencies are
be extended to 4.2s, thus spreading over offers the perfect hub to cope with all the transmitted by each ground station via its
two frames. In most cases, it is 2-PSK decoded messages. squitters. A table is thus gradually built up,
modulated at 300 or 600bit/s. Under http://www.chbrain.dircon.co.uk through the combination of PC-HFDL and the
good conditions, 4-PSK (QPSK) providing https://tinyurl.com/y3hsj8es table of the ‘Frequencies in Use’ in the Display
1200bit/s can be used. What follows is an example of the installa- Launcher software:

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

RadioUser December 2019 61
Utility Monitoring

See: Database -> Show Frqs used -> Load;

from file FrqsInUse.csv, in Display Launcher’s
‘Report’ folder.
Time resolution is one hour, but stations
may change channels in between. With a
distance of 6,432km to its nearest neigh-
bour (Guam), Auckland is the most remote
ground station of the net. The distance be-
tween Reykjavik and Shannon, on the oth-
er hand, is the shortest, measuring 1,461
km. The aircraft automatically connects to
the best station.
This may result in surprising changes in
channels and ground stations (Fig. 6, made
with Gephi software).
The screenshot in Fig. 7 shows, for the
ground station at Honolulu, that the given
frequency set covers the entire Pacific with
great reliability.
https://gephi.org

3 DXing with PC-HFDL

To receive a ground station, you have to
match its schedule – which we cannot
change – to the best propagation time be-
tween its location and the receiver.
The image in Fig. 8 shows the propagation
situation between Guam and London in early
May 2019, with horizontal lines for each of
the six channels.
In the next step, look up in the schedule of
the station to pinpoint the best opportunities
for catching it.
There are cases where you don’t receive
any ground station at all, just a couple of air-
craft. This is often the case with Molokai,
4 Barrow and Auckland.
In Fig. 9, I received 8948kHz for just five
minutes in the morning, with Canarias as the
ground station. I have marked its nine squit-
ters of 32 seconds distance in red. You may
notice that there are aircraft with signals up
to 40dB stronger at my location than at the
ground station.
I concentrated on the pre-key for this dia-
gram because this exhibits the best signal-
to-noise ratio; time resolution is 100ms, and
the graph is made from 3,000 markings of
signal levels on HF.

A Multichannel Approach
For a multichannel approach, the SDR soft-
ware (V3) offers up to 24 demodulators
5 within the HF bandwidth of your SDR. If it
covers >20MHz, and you may place those
Fig. 3: HFDL signals have pre-key, preamble and data 24 channels wherever you want.
segments, and show a separation between the last two If the SDR’s bandwidth is smaller, you must
parts. Fig. 4: The preamble is transmitted in 2PSK, the concentrate on specific aeronautical bands.
data segment may be in 2PSK or QPSK (or: 4PSK, as in this The screenshot in Fig. 2 (and Table 3)
example). Fig. 5: Almost all multimode decoders read HFDL, provide assistance with choosing your
but PC-HFDL (top left) is tailored to this mode. ‘hunting grounds’.

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

62 RadioUser December 2019
 Utility Monitoring

Beyond that, Fig.10 illustrates how it is all

stitched together, through the integration of a
suite of pieces of software: The SDR is oper-
ated by V3, providing up to 24 demodulating
channels (RX1 … RX24) to the input of up to
24 Virtual Audio Channels (VAC1 … VAC 24).
The output of each of these VACs is
used as input to up to 24 ‘instances’ of the
PC-HFDL decoder.
Each of these instances is installed in a
separate folder (PC-HFDL_1 to PC-HFDL_24).
All decoded messages can be organized
by the free PC HFDL display software. The
information comes from the Logfile folder of
each decoder’s instance (set under Options).
The software not only organises the in- 6
formation in a spreadsheet; it can extract
schedules as well as resolving cryptic data
of the HFDL messages. It also forms a link to
the internet, by means of providing two out-
standing features:
First, clicking onto Plot on Google Earth
translates all entries containing geographi-
cal data into the Keyhole Mark-up Language.
A .kml file then draws positions and their rela-
tion onto the Google Earth globe.
Second, if you double-click on a specific
registration (Column: Rego) of the aircraft
or its flight number (column: Flt.-No.), this
guides you to the web service flightradar24.
If a flight number isn’t resolved by this dou-
ble-click, try the Search function of the web
service; one flight may show up under differ-
ent flight numbers (e.g. ETH703 -> ET703).
Some ‘interesting’ aircraft, of course, are de-
liberately suppressed.
https://www.flightradar24.com
To sum up, it may well take some time until
all the above components are prepared, and
up and running. However, the results can be
stunning: During a 24-hour session in late
May 2019, I received 68,333 messages from
1,751 individual aircraft – 50% of all world-
wide aircraft equipped with HFDL!
Last but not least, this is my final regular
column on Utility Monitoring for RadioUser.
My other work commitments prevent me
from contributing on a monthly basis.
However, I may well be back with some ir-
regular articles in 2020, but, for now, I would
like to thank all readers, correspondents and
friends for their support for my writing, and
for getting in touch with me.
[I would like to add my warm thanks to Nils
for an excellent series on Utility Monitoring
in this magazine. Nils, vielen herzlichen Dank
für Deine ausgezeichneten Beiträge, und viel 7
Glück im weiteren Berufsleben!
If you are interested in contributing to Fig. 6: The schedule of each station is transmitted, and can be logged with, a time
RadioUser in the future, please get in touch resolution of one hour FD. Fig. 7: Australia’s free Space Weather Service provided these
with me – Ed.]. footprints of Honolulu’s schedules (midnight to 5 am); the entire Pacific is covered.

Sign up to our FREE email newsletter at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

RadioUser December 2019 63
Utility Monitoring

8 9

10
V3 VAC PC-HFDL 1 ... 24 flightradar24

PC HFDL-Display Google Earth

Fig. 8: Propagation between Guam and

London. Monitoring is by matching
Guam’s actual schedule with propagation
conditions. Fig. 9: Here 8948kHz
(Canarias) has been monitored for five
minutes, or nearly ten cycles and the
squitters of the ground station are marked
red. However, some aircraft are 20-40dB
stronger. Fig.10: The multi-channel
monitoring at its best – six pieces of
software working together to demodulate,
decode, organize and present up to 24
HFDL channels live. FD GND: most recent Squitter received at 06:25:40 UTC from Ground Station
Shannon (Ireland).
DB = 51: Database or Table version of frequency used (Currently No. 51).
SV 0: Version (0) of Squitter’s structure.
TS(4) = message received within time slot #4. UP LIGHT: ‘heavy’ or ‘light’ – refer to the traffic via this Ground Station.
300bps 1.8 sec Interleaver: this is the data rate and length of the transmission. OFFSET 2: time difference of this ground station referred to the net synchronisa-
FREQ ERR: the measured deviation from the nominal frequency. tion at midnight.
Mag 62: the magnitude of difference between known and received preamble. https://www.sdr-radio.com/Software/%F0%9F%92%BEDownloads
Votes 0: number of incorrectly-decoded characters (preamble) (zero). https://vac.muzychenko.net/en/
Table 1: PC-HFDL: Technical Data of Transmission. Table 2: PC-HFDL: Acronyms in Use.

Table 3: HFDL Main Frequencies in Use.

Enter our competitions at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/competitions

64 RadioUser December 2019
 ❯❯ UK’s
No1
£4.50 • November
LOADS OF NEW MODELS INSIDE!
11 pages of the latest releases with
more reviews than anywhere else
2019 • Issue 265 • www.ccofgb.co.uk

AUCTION
AU

Get on board with

PRICE
GUIDE
4 PAGES
INSIDE!

BOAC buses Support vehicles of

the vintage British
airline in 1/76 scale

PLUS
Life Beyond
Lesney for
Superfast

ALSO
Fun Ho! Tractors
Leyland Atlantean and Duple Vega
Fiat’s mid-engined X1/9 in differing BOAC liveries, both by EFE.

❯❯ HISTORY OF THE STYLISH ❯❯ GIFT SETS ON PARADE

MERCEDES-BENZ SL SERIES The military
Origins and vehicle
evolution of presentation
the classic sets from
luxury car. Dinky Toys.
Display until 1 November

Pay just £3.17 an issue

saving £16 a year*
The cheapest way to get Diecast Collector, Britain’s
best-selling diecast magazine, is by subscribing for the year!

Our digital edition is available to

Every issue contains:
download to all devices! For our latest
digital offer, please go to:
a The latest news https://pktmags.com/dcc_subs20
a Valuations
a Model launches
a More new model releases Call our friendly team today on
!
reviewed than anywhere else 01778 392006 and quote
DCC/SUBS/20 or go online to
PLUS every issue will be
e! www.ccofgb.co.uk
delivered to your door for fre

Small print: Subscription price valid until 31.12.20. *£37.99 is payable by direct debit, UK only. See website for overseas offers.
Feature

Classical
Music on
the Radio
David Harris provides a brief overview of the
past, present and future of classical music,
broadcast over the airwaves and online.

David Harris the BBC reorganized its radio services

mydogisfi[email protected] into Home, Light, and a new classical
music/ cultural station, the Third

T
he UK launch, in March 2019, Programme, which was launched on 29
of the new classical music September 1946.
DAB station Scala Radio In retrospect, this seems a very
indicated that the market for brave move at a time when Britain was
classical music may be bigger struggling to rebuild itself after six years
than was previously thought. Classical of total war. Rationing was widespread,
music has been with us since the very and people faced many more years
birth of broadcasting in the early 1920s. of austerity. On the front page of the
Radio Times of 27th September 1946,
Early Schedules Sir William Haley, Director General of
Have a look at copies of the British the BBC, spoke of the need for the new
listings magazine, Radio Times (now station with no “fixed points” e.g. regular
available online): news bulletins, and which could “devote
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk time to the full and frequent performance
If you do, you will see that classical of great works in their entirety”.
music was a big part of early programme The Third Programme also featured
schedules. The entry for Monday 30 opera and serious plays.
September 1923, for example, listed a The creation of the Third Programme
Morning Concert (1130 am - 1230 pm), a did not mean the end of classical music and utility companies.
Symphony Concert (7.30 - 9.10 pm), and a on the Home Service or The Light In 1967, BBC radio re-branded, with the
violin soloist from 9.45 pm - 10.30 pm. Programme. Whilst the Third Programme creation of the new pop station, Radio
Moving through into the 1930s, there fulfilled its remit of playing classical One. The Light Programme became Radio
was more radio drama, but classical works in full, the other stations continued Two, The Third Programme was renamed
music concerts and recitals still formed to broadcast shorter pieces of classical Radio Three, and The Home Service
a big part of the programming on most music. It is only in the mid-1950s that The became Radio Four. In the course of the
days. During the Second World War, there Light Programme focused more on “light early 1970s, Radio Two played ‘light’
were two stations in the UK, the Home entertainment”, such as comedy and music and Radio Four became a spoken
Service (now Radio 4) and Forces (which soap operas. word station. Therefore, classical music
became The Light Programme and then became strongly associated with Radio
Radio 2). FM Technology Three and its small, often well-educated,
The Home Service played a lot of and New Players audience.
classical music during the war years, In 1956, classical music was given a real However, in 1992, Radio Three’s
and the Forces programme also featured boost in the UK, when FM broadcasting monopoly of classical music was broken
some classical concerts. started. It took a long time for the FM with the launch of Classic FM, the first
network to be rolled out, and for stereo commercial classical music station
After the War Was Over transmissions to begin. This was due to and one of the first national commercial
When the Second World War was over, part of the FM band being used by police stations. Classic FM was an instant

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

66 RadioUser December 2019
 Feature

success and has proved to be very popular on the Hants/Sussex border on the south
with a 10% reach (3.7% share) in 2019, coast of England, which is only 100 miles
compared with Radio Three’s modest 4% from France.
reach and 1.3% share (RAJAR). In addition to this, Radio Courtoisie is a
Classic FM plays unchallenging music, French station that broadcasts from Paris
often featuring excerpts, rather playing the and a number of sites in Normandy. The
complete works. It also features what is programming includes some classical mu-
known as crossover-music, which occupies sic.
the territory between classical and easy Radio Classique is a national, private-
listening. This includes popular singers ly-run, radio station broadcasting mainly
such as Katherine Jenkins. classical music.
Classic FM has come in for a lot of In Continental Europe, most national ra-
criticism for ‘dumbing-down’ what is seen dio networks have an FM classical music
as a ‘serious’ art form, but it has brought station. Across Ireland, RTÉ station Lyric
classical music to a much wider audience FM (98-99 MHz) plays classical music. This
than the BBC ever did. When Radio 3 tried to station is occasionally heard in the UK.
become more accessible in its format, it too In Belgium, classical music is played
has come in for censure. by Radio Klara (Flanders) and Musique 3
(Wallonia).
Successful Formats In the Netherlands, NPO 4 is the classical
and DAB Radio music network, and in Denmark Programme
One of the most notable features of 2 plays the classics, but only from 5 pm to 5
Classic FM is its annual Hall of Fame. This am. In Spain, RNE 2 is an FM only classical
programme features the top-300 pieces of music network.
classical music, as voted for by listeners. In Portugal, Antena 2 is a national classi-
Voting starts in January of each year, and cal music and culture station broadcasting
the new Hall of Fame Top 300 is broadcast on FM.
over Easter. (Source: WRTH 2019)
By the way, the Top-5 for 2019 were:
Vaughan Williams (The Lark Ascending); Encore: Other Bands
Rachmaninov (Piano Concerto No 2); and Online Classics
Elgar (Enigma Variations); Vaughan In terms of music on the short wave bands,
Williams (Fantasia), and Tchaikovsky (1812 tively poor quality sound of DAB radios, and Alan Roe’s Guide to Music Programmes is
Overture). the lack of DAB tuners that can connect to available, at the BDXC, NASWA and is also
I rather like lists and have used Classic a Hi-Fi system, do not encourage classical regularly mentioned on the SWLing Post.
FM’s Hall of Fame in my own attempt to music lovers to embrace this new station. https://tinyurl.com/y2do3ukp
build a modest collection of classical mu- The format of Scala is ‘Classic-lite’, with https://tinyurl.com/yyctctzg
sic. Classic FM is also available on all TV film soundtracks, games music and music http://bdxc.org.uk
platforms. from the shows, as well as bite-sized clas- There are still some stations broadcast-
This has to be a big selling point because sical music. ing classical music shows on medium
many people now have soundbars or sur- wave, alongside other bands and media.
round-sound speakers to make up for the The International Scene These are either syndicated or produced
poor sound quality of big-screen TVs. The situation in the USA appears to be less in-house. Prominent examples of these are
Classic FM is part of the Global media diverse; one website only lists 188 classical BBC Radio Scotland’s Classics Unwrapped,
group, who also own the Heart, Capital, music stations (out of around 15,000 radio a series of podcasts of BBC Radio Wales
Smooth and LBC brands. stations overall); most of them appear to be and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Classical
The growth of DAB broadcasting in the low-power college radio stations. Cambridgeshire.
UK from the early 2000s onwards provid- https://radio-locator.com https://tinyurl.com/y273ymzx
ed a platform for new station formats. The most-listened-to classical sta- https://tinyurl.com/y5s2ehsn
However, no one chose to compete with, un- tions in the USA are in big cities: WETA https://tinyurl.com/y47jjtw7
til 2019, when Bauer launched Scala Radio (Washington, DC); WRTI (Philadelphia, this Finding classical music programmes on
on DAB, online and Sky Channel 0216. It station also plays some jazz), and WFMT community radio stations in the UK is even
took Classic FM quite a long time to get (Chicago). rarer; there is one example at the end of this
onto Freeview and this is a route Scala In this context, RadioUser writer Chrissy article (Ribble FM).
Radio needs to follow if it is to grow its au- Brand, who is a regular visitor to the USA, Short wave broadcasters now tend to
dience. The latest RAJAR figures suggest recently also recommended WCRB, Boston concentrate on news bulletins and pro-
that Scala Radio has less than 1% reach. and KDFC, San Francisco. grammes about their own country. More
https://www.rajar.co.uk In France, state broadcaster France often than not, the challenging audio quality
This is despite a big advertising cam- Musique plays an eclectic mix of classical of SW broadcasts does not encourage the
paign in Bauer-owned magazines, such as music, jazz, chanson and other genres. This broadcasting of classical music. There are,
Mojo and Q. It would appear that the rela- station is regularly heard at my location however, some brilliant exceptions to this:

Follow us on Facebook @radioenthusiasts and Twitter @REnthusiasts

RadioUser December 2019 67
Feature

All India Radio (AIR), for instance, features www.classicalradio.com

classical music every day. Many people now listen on Internet
AIR broadcasts around 8 hours of English radios or voice-activated speakers such as
language programmes each day, including Alexa or Google Home. The 2019 edition
Indian classical music. The following web- of the Radio Listeners Guide lists over 30
site can be searched to find current sched- Internet radios that are available in the UK.
ules: Online listening in the UK now has a
www.short-wave.info 12.5% share; this has doubled in the last five
Radio Romania International (RRI) and years.
China Radio International (CRI), among man can throw at it en route to the receiver. The key strength of classical music lies
other stations, offer a wealth classical mu- The signal is sometimes barely discernible in its vast repertoire, which has developed
sic on their schedules. The RadiRo Festival above the noise. But that’s the point, isn’t it? over hundreds of years. Every single piece
of RRI, for example, and the (FM and on- Like so much in life - the obstacles that make of classical music can be performed
line) Radio România Muzical programme, something difficult or unpredictable become and reinterpreted by new generations of
have many followers in the classical music part of the reason for doing it. musicians and conductors. For too long,
world. “Luckily, classical music doesn’t have to classical music was seen as an ‘elitist’ form
https://tinyurl.com/y6pe7djy be reproduced in HiFi to be enjoyed - if that of music.
https://tinyurl.com/yyo4h2mf was the case, wax cylinders and shellac Classic FM has been a great success by
http://english.cri.cn/cri_radio discs would have failed to catch on. They presenting classical music in bite-sized
didn’t fail because when we hear a tune chunks, which makes it more accessible
Encore and Radio Tumbril whistled by someone across the street - we to the lay listener. I think it is time that all
Furthermore, the programme Encore – imagine the full orchestra. Human beings broadcasters need to start are looking at
Classical Music on Shortwave is broadcast are analogue creatures - and amplitude mod- classical music and its potential to attract a
on Sundays afternoons at 1500 UTC in ulation is our natural environment. Classical wider audience.
Europe and the USA, via Radio Channel 292 music on shortwave feels to me the most [This is an expanded version of an article
(Europe), on 6070 kHz, from 1500 to 1600 natural thing in the world. But there is hardly that first appeared in Communication, in
UTC, and on Radio Tumbril, as well as by any of it left to tune in to. August 2019.
the stations WBCQ on 7490kHz at 0000 to “So I decided to make a western classical Communication is the monthly journal of
0100 UTC, and on WWCR on 6115kHz on music programme and find some transmit- the British DX Club (BDXC) – DH].
Sundays, 0100-0200 UTC. . ter time to broadcast it. Many thanks to the [Brice Avery of Encore Radio Tumbril will
Schedules are also available on the re- folks at Channel 292 in Europe, and WBCQ - be contributing an article to RadioUser in
spective websites of these broadcasters. The Planet in the US for making it possible. 2020, in which he will share his activities and
If you do not listen on short wave, there The show is called Encore for obvious rea- successes in setting up and running Radio
are also links here to the online SDR at the sons - and Radio Tumbril because it is a do- Tumbril ].
University of Twente. main I had doing nothing. To start with, the [A recent addition to the classical music
Remember also that you can listen to a format will be very conventional - bite-sized scene is Maureen Little’s ‘A Little Classical
wealth of short wave stations via the world- chunks of classical music that seem to go Music’ programme, Sundays 4 to 6 pm, on
wide network of Kiwi SDR receivers. This well together, but things will perhaps develop Ribble FM http://www.ribblefm.com – Ed.].
allows anyone with a computer to choose a as we go along.”
place in the world to listen to any SW broad- [I wholeheartedly agree, Brian, and we
cast (check out the last URL, below) wish you all the best – Ed.].
http://www.channel292.de Resources
https://www.tumbril.co.uk New Technology • About Classic FM: Values & History:
http://www.wbcq.com The BBC World Service is now a news and https://tinyurl.com/y4osmhmx
https://www.tumbril.co.uk/playlists documentary station with very little music • BDXC: Radio Stations in the UK and Ireland
https://sdr.hu content. 2019 (BDXC, RadioUser, November 2019)
Brice Avery, of Radio Tumbril, had the fol- Last but certainly not least, for those who • BDXC: www.bdxc.org.uk
lowing to say, on the Tumbril Radio website: prefer to listen online, there are plenty of • Classic FM: https://www.classicfm.com
“Like many others, I love listening to both classical music stations. One website alone • Higgins, C. (2015): This New Noise:
shortwave and classical music. Sadly, since is listing 170 online classical stations: The Extraordinary Birth and Troubled Life
the world has gone digital - and many large www.internet-radio.com/stations/ of the BBC (Guardian Faber)
state-funded stations have gone off the air classical • History of BBC Radio 3:
or reduced their output - western classical Most terrestrial radio stations that https://www.bbc.com/timelines/zg3fxfr
music programmes have almost disap- broadcast classical music have an online • Radio 3: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
peared. Radio Romania International is - I outlet, accessible through their own • Radio Listeners Guide (2019):
think - the only station that regularly broad- website or via a portal. These portals will https://tinyurl.com/yy76chkm
casts a concert on their Romanian service - direct you to sites that play, for example, • Radio Times: https://www.radiotimes.com
very early on Sunday mornings. music by a particular composer, such as • Scala Radio: https://tinyurl.com/yxvge72v
“In many ways, of course, it makes no Chopin or Brahms, or in a specific style such • Stoller, T. (2015) Classical Music on UK
sense to send complex and nuanced sound as Baroque or choral music. Radio 1945-1995 (PhD): https://tinyurl.com/
on shortwave because of all that nature and www.accuradio.com

See our great book and magazine offers at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store

68 RadioUser December 2019
Devon
DealerGuide
For Sale For Sale
Zeacombe House, Blackerton Cross, East Anstey, LATEST VERSION 3 SUPER STABLE RTL-SDR USB VINTAGE FIREWORK COLLECTOR
Tiverton, Devon, EX16 9JU STICK with 1ppm TCXO. Now with HF mode, software Do not light the blue touch paper and burn British
Phone/Fax - 01202 490099 activated bias tee, longer SMA, clock and GPIO pads. heritage. Private collector will pay cash and collect
Specialist Suppliers of Amateur Airband Also Thumbnet N3, pigtails, connectors, adapters and from anywhere. Licensed explosive storage.
Marine PMR & Shortwave Equipment to many more useful items. Buy direct from our web shop at Call Tony on 07956 506300
technofix.uk or www.technofix.co.uk
the Business User & Hobby Enthusiast
Camping available on our 70
pitch site - quote Radio User

www.shortwave.co.uk
[email protected]
Trading
TradingPost
FOR SALE WANTED
Scotland COAX SWITCH 2 way SA-450 heavy duty with cast 50 DIN PLUGS for 444 Creed teleprinter and
body and PL259 sockets made by Toyo Meter. 3.5 connecting leads for same.
- 500 Mhz 0.02db LOSS max 2.5KW. £9 including Tel: Jim 01376 340317
postage. Email: [email protected]
Contact John M0AAO
Email: [email protected] OLD HALF INCH FERRITE RODS. Must be half
inch 12.7mm in diameter and be six inches long
X-LOCK VFO STABILISER KITS The last few kits of
or more. I will pay good money for them. Please
this classic design are available at £25 including
contact me at [email protected] or ring
UK shipping. Payment by cheque in pounds
A complete range of sterling to R Taylor. me on 0114 2316321 between 9am and 9pm
seven days a week.
Email: [email protected]
Multi purpose Masts HYGAIN AV-12AVQ. DX Engineering vertical tilt LABGEAR L6300 TRANSMITTER with matching
base, radial plate, feedline current choke and modulator. PSU, working or needing repair, must
The best of Scottish engineering! mount. PALSTAR low pass filter. All unused. £320. be in good external condition and well stored, dry,
KENWOOD R2000 RX with VHF option. £190. no rust. Tel: Mike 0151 216 2210
Tel: 01505 503824 Buyer collects. 01451-798468 Email: [email protected]
www.tennamast.com
[email protected]
Trading Post adverts cost £5.00 per advert
South Yorkshire (subscribers free) and will also be published in
BY EMAIL Firstly email your advert’s wording to Please help us to help you by preparing your
[email protected] and then call advert carefully. Any advert which contains ?? marks
01778 392096 to make your payment. BY POST Your indicates that the advertising dept. could not read/
order form can be downloaded from interpret the wording.
bit.ly/tradingpostform Advertisements from traders or for equipment that
Send your advert to: Trading Post, Radio User, it is illegal to possess, use or which cannot be licensed
Warners Group Publications plc, West Street, in the UK, will not be accepted. No responsibility will
Bourne, Lincs. PE10 9PH Please write your advert be taken for errors and no correspondence will be
clearly in BLOCK CAPITALS up to a maximum of 30 entered into on any decision taken by the Editor on
words, plus 12 words for your contact details on any of these conditions.
the form provided and send it together with your You should state clearly in your advert whether
payment of £5 (subscribers can place their advert equipment is professionally built, home-brewed or
free of charge as long as they provide their subs modified. The Publishers of Radio User also wish
number or mailing label). Cheques should be made to point out that it is the responsibility of the buyer
payable to Warners Group Publications plc, credit to ascertain the suitability of goods offered for
card payments also accepted. purchase.

Aerials Reviewed
gis
Yagis and Cross-Ya
ateur Radio Socition
Royal Navy AmRS:
Profile of the RNA
72 years of trad
iety
WIN WANORINTHRI£1CO69T320
Copyright © Warners Group Publications plc. Copyright in all drawings, logos, pho-
tographs and articles published in RadioUser is fully protected and reproduction in
whole or part is expressly forbidden. All reasonable precautions are taken by Radi-
oUser to ensure that the advice and data given to our readers are reliable. We can- siast.co.uk November 2019
not however guarantee it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it. Prices are 0 www.radioenthu £4.50 www.radioenthu
siast.co.uk
October 2019 £4.5
● Airspy HF+ Dis
ove
cov
isc ry
ery
HAMFE
FULL REPORT ST 2019
those current as we go to press. Published on the second Thursday of each month
by Warners Group Publications plc. Printed in England by Warners Midlands plc. PRODUCTS ● Bush WI-1819
5DDCe
65D
-G6 AND
REVIEW ● Winra dio WR PICTURES
Tel: 01778 395100. Distributed by Warners Distribution, West Street, Bourne, Lincs,
PE10 9PH. Tel: 01778 391000, Web: www.warnersgroup.co.uk. RadioUser is sold
subject to the following conditions, namely that it shall not, without written consent
of the publishers first having been given, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise cTo First Look!in Radio User
omadvertise
IContact r and
disposed of by way of trade at more than the recommended selling price shown on
the cover, and that it shall not be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of Kristina Green on 01778 392096
in a mutilated condition or in any unauthorised cover by way of Trade, or affixed to or email: [email protected]
or as part of any publication or advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever.

and products

HAVE YOU TRIED THE DIGITAL EDITION?

Get your favourite magazine on your mobile, tablet or PC quickly & easily

casts
Innovative Pod
VOR Beacons s Book Review
s
netic Field Flip
in English Mag
RadioUser December 2019 The Rothammel 69
Rallies & Events

Rallies & Events

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

November 9th (Saturday)

BATC ATV CONVENTION (CAT 19
SOUTH): The BATC ATV Convention
takes place at Chilton Village Hall near
Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0SH. There
will be an ‘ATV-Clinic’, show-and-tell,
bring-and-buy, and two interesting talks.
More information at
https://forum.batc.org.uk

November 16th (Saturday)

ROCHDALE & DISTRICT ARS WINTER
RALLY: The rally will be at St Vincent de
Paul’s, Caldershaw Road, off Edenield
Road (A680), Norden, Rochdale, OL12
7QR. Doors are open to the public at
10.15 am, with disabled visitors gaining
access 15 minutes earlier. Admission
is £2.50, with those under 12 years free.
Cost is £5 per pitch for traders with their
own tables, and £10 for a pitch with a
table provided. Refreshments are avail-
able, including, naturally, bacon and sau-
sage butties.
Robert M0NVQ
07778 113 333
[email protected] Happy traders at the 2019 Hamfest.

November 24th (Sunday) equipment, lea market tables, refresh- International Radio Group will be meet- rally will take place at Davis Hall, West
BISHOP AUCKLAND RADIO AMA- ments, and trade stalls. Fully accessible ing in Room 3 of the Reading Interna- Camel, Yeovil, BA22 7QX. Open 10 am
TEUR CLUB (BARAC) RALLY: The facilities. CATS bring-and-buy. Atten- tional Solidarity Centre (RISC) at 35-39 to 2 pm. Entry £3. Wheelchair- friendly.
Bishop Auckland Radio Amateurs Club dance is invited from clubs, special London Street, Reading RG1 4PS. The Light refreshments. There are more than
(BARAC) 2019 Rally will take place at interest groups and traders/dealers. meeting will take place from 2.30 pm to 25 tables. Free parking. The event is
Spennymoor Leisure Centre, on Sunday Tables cost £12.00, with each additional 5 pm and is an opportunity to get togeth- sponsored by Lindars Radios
24th November 2019. Please note this table at £6.00. er, for all those interested in listening www.amateurradiosales.co.uk.
venue is ideally suited for both traders Andy G0KZT to broadcast stations from around the 01963-440 167
and disabled visitors, as it boasts good 07729 866 600 world, on the short wave, medium wave [email protected]
parking and access to a large ground [email protected] and FM bands. Facebook: Sparkford Wireless Group
loor hall. The address and postcode www.catsradio.org [email protected]
for the leisure centre are 32 High Street, www.bdxc.org.uk/diary.html February 2nd (Sunday)
Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16 November 27th (Wednesday) SOUTH ESSEX ARS CANVEY RADIO
6DB. Doors open at 10.30 am. Disabled SUFFOLK RED: More information about December 8th (Sunday) & ELECTRONICS RALLY: The 36th
visitors doors open at 10.15 am. Admis- the Suffolk Radio and Electronics Devel- BRITISH VINTAGE WIRELESS SO- rally takes place at the Cornelius Ver-
sion is £2; under 14s go free of charge, opment events can be accessed here: CIETY SWAPMEET & AUCTION: The muyden School, Dinant Avenue, Can-
with an adult. www.suffolkred.co.uk BVWS Swapmeet and Auction ay Roy- vey Island, Essex SS8 9QS. Talk-in is on
John G4LRG al Wootton Bassett is a members-on- 145.550MHz. Free car parking, and easy
07775 696 568 December 7th (Saturday) ly event, at the Royal Wootton Bassett level ground loor access to two large
Brian G7OCK BVWTM MUSIC AFTERNOON: This Memorial Hall, Royal Wootton Bassett, halls. Doors are open at 10 am, disabled
01388 762 678 event is open to all and will take place at Swindon, Wiltshire SN4 8EN. Swapmeet: visitors can come in from 9.45 am. Ad-
the British Vintage Wireless and Televi- Doors open at 10 am. Stallholder entry mission cost is £3, children under 10
November 24th (Sunday) sion Museum (BVWTM). British Vintage IS from 9:30 am. Auction starts at ap- go free. Tea, coffee and soft drinks will
COULSDON AMATEUR TRANSMIT- Wireless and Television Museum, 23 proximately 1 pm. Auction-only: Doors be available, as well as bacon butties.
TING SOCIETY: The 42nd Coulsdon Rosendale Road, West Dulwich, London, open for viewing at 9 am. Auction starts There will be radio, computing and elec-
CATS Radio & Electronics Bazaar is at SE21 8DS at 10:30 am. tronics traders
the Oasis Academy Coulsdon, Home- 020 8670 3667 Mike Barker on 01380 860787 Tony G0JYI
ield Road, Old Coulsdon, Surrey CR5 http://www.bvwtm.org.uk [email protected] [email protected]
1ES. Time: 10.00 am to 2.00 pm. Entry
£1.50, which also includes a free tea December 7th (Saturday) December 29th (Sunday) February 9th (Sunday)
or coffee. Free parking; second-hand READING DX MEETING: The Reading YEOVIL ARC CHRISTMAS RALLY : The HARWELL RADIO AND ELECTRON-

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

70 RadioUser December 2019
 Rallies & Events

Chatham, Kent ME4 5JB (Main Hall). able on site.

There will be well-known traders, a talk- 08451 650 351
in station on 145.550MHz (Callsign [email protected]
GB4RRR), an interactive zone for kids, a www.radiofairs.co.uk
BRATS kitchen, and much more. Open 10
am to 3 pm. Adults £3, children free. May 8th (Bank Holiday Friday)
07825 838 877 DARTMOOR RADIO CLUB RALLY :
[email protected] This event is at The Butchers Hall, Pan-
www.brats-qth.org nier Market, Tavistock PL19 0AL. Doors
open at 10 am. Admission is £2.50.
March 1st (Sunday) There will be traders and a bring-and-
EXETER RADIO & ELECTRONICS buy. Refreshments will be available.
RALLY: The rally will take place in the 07854 088 882
America Hall, De la Rue Way, Pinhoe, [email protected]
Exeter EX4 8PW. Doors open at 10.30
am (10.15 am for disabled visitors). Ad- June 21st (Sunday)
mission £2 (under 16s free). There will WEST OF ENGLAND RADIO RALLY:
be trade stands, a bring-and-buy (book- The 17th West of England Rally will take
in from 10.15 am), and catering will be place at the Cheese & Grain venue, Mar-
available. ket Yard, Bridge Street, Frome, Somerset
Pete G3ZVI BA11 1BE. Doors open from 10 am to 2
07714 198 374 pm. Adult admission £3, accompanied
[email protected] children under 14 are free. There will be
inside and outside trade stalls and an
March 15th (Sunday) RSGB bookstall. A café serving hot &
WYTHALL RADIO CLUB HAMFEST: cold food will be available.
The 35th Wythall Radio Club Hamfest 01225 873 098
is at the Club HQ, Wythall House, Silver [email protected]
Street, Wythall B47 6LZ. Doors open at www.westrally.org.uk].
9.45 am (9.30 am for disabled visitors).
Free on-site parking. Admission £4. Four July 26th (Sunday)
halls of traders including a bring-and- WILTSHIRE RADIO RALLY AND CAR
buy, and a club stand. A selection of re- BOOT SALE: (formerly: Chippenham
freshments will be available all day, and & District Amateur Radio Club Rally,
The Nevada stall was busy at Newark. there will be bar facilities within Wythall CADARC). The rally takes place at King-
House from midday. ton Langley Village Hall & Fields, Church
ICS RALLY: The rally is at the Didcot active Rally will take place at Nantwich 01386 839 655 Road, Kington Langley, Chippenham,
Leisure Centre, Mereland Road, Didcot, Civic Hall, Cheshire, CW5 5DG. Free car [email protected] Wiltshire SN15 5NJ. Details to follow.
Oxon, OX11 8AY (3 miles from Milton parking; doors are open at 10:30 am. www.wythallradioclub.co.uk http://G3VRE.org.uk
Interchange on the A34). Doors are There will be a bring-and-buy, as well as
open 10 am to 3 pm – admittance £3.00 traders, and an RSGB bookstall. A single April 19th (Sunday) August 9th (Sunday)
(under 12s free). Free car parking. Dis- rafle ticket is included with the entrance WEST LONDON RADIO & ELECTRON- YORK RADIO RALLY: The York Radio
abled parking and facilities. Talk in on programme; additional tickets are avail- ICS SHOW (KEMPTON RALLY): The Club is relaunching their rally next year.
145.550MHz, using G3PIA. Local and able, and catering is provided on-site. rally takes place at Kempton Park Race- Details are as follows: The York Radio
national traders, Special Interest Groups Stuart Jackson course, Staines Road East, Sunbury on Rally is organised by the York Radio
and RSGB Bookstand. Homemade re- 07880 732 534 Thames, TW16 5AQ. A talk-in station will Club. Location: Riley Smith Hall, 28
freshments available all day. be on air. Car parking is free, and doors Westgate, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.
01235 816379 February 23rd (Sunday) open at 10 am, with disabled visitors LS24 9AB. Doors open to the public
[email protected] BREDHURST RECEIVING AND gaining access 10 minutes earlier. at 10:15 am. Free public car parking
TRANSMITTING SOCIETY (BRATS): There will be trade stands and a bring- nearby.
February 16th (Sunday) The BRATS Rainham Radio Rally is at and-buy, as well as special interest 07803 936 031
RADIOACTIVE RALLY: The 2019 Radio- the Victory Academy, Magpie Hall Road, groups and lectures. Catering is avail- 07513 752919

In next month’s
Aerials Reviewed
Yagis and Cross-Yag Royal Navy Amateu
is Profile of the RNAr Radio Society
RS: 72 years of tradition

t Airsh ow Guide g: Part Four

Past & Presen Our Summe2019
October
r Listin
£4.50 www.radioenth
Radio & TV: Column usiast.co.uk
■ The Return of CB Radio to RadioUser Enjoy Our New PRODUC
REVIEWT
● Airspy
● Bus
HF+ Dis
h WI-1819
isco
cov
ver
ery
y
S ● Win
radio WR-G6
■ New Column: Signals from Space 65D
5DD
DCe
Ce

■ New Mini-Series: Enjoying your DXpedition

Icom First Look!
ioenthusias
www.radAll
t.co.uk
S
new
IC- IRELRFES
0
TR2Y W705
2019 £4.5
September
UN portable transce
CROSS CO IC-PW amN
arTE NA iver
plifier debut at Tok and
LOOPline
AN
■ Monitoring Meteorites WIN HF ACTI VE yo Hamfair

st Test
Plus six pag es

SDS-200 Fir
of latest news
and products
Plus all your favourite regular features and columns pth review
of this hotly
-anticipated
new sca nner

A first in-de
The next issue is on sale on the 19th December 2019

RadioUser December 2019 71

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

0345 2300 599

FACEBOOK

0th No HamRadioUK
y3 SAFE ONLINE SHOPPING
Saturda

ve
Shopping online with ML&S is

mber Web: www.HamRadio.co.uk safe and secure. E&OE

ICOM IC-R8600
100kHz-3GHz Receiver with SDR Technology from IC-7300.
The IC-R8600 replaces the IC-R8500 wideband receiver and features
technology incorporated into Icom’s best selling IC-7300. The IC-R8600
receives a wide frequency range from 0.01-3000MHz frequency in
analogue and various digital modes (D-STAR, P25, NXDN and dPMR).
The IC-R8600 also features a larger 4.3 inch touch screen display which
displays a fast moving spectrum scope and waterfall display.

ML&S: £2499.95 Includes an Icom AD-55 PSU worth £49.95! www.HamRadio.co.uk/icr8600

SDRplay RSPdx ELAD FDM-DUOr A Receive-only FUNcube Dongle Pro+

Version of the famous FDM-DUO! Wideband SDR Receiver.
10kHz-54MHz Direct Conversion 150kHz-1.9GHz incl SAW Filters.
SDR Receiver. ML&S:
www.HamRadio.co.uk/funcube £149.95

Tune in to the world wherever you go.

ICOM IC-R30 SCANNER
The Icom IC-R30 has extremely wide coverage and
ML&S: £729.95 supports all of the usual analogue modes (FM, AM,
£160.00 RSPduo DUAL TUNER SSB, CW) as well a a few digital modes including
New Mid-range SDRplay Radio.
Complete redesign of the popular mid-range
14-BIT SDR NXDN, P25, DPMR and DSTAR. A worthy upgrade over
RSP2pro 1kHz–2GHz receiver. Multiple
the older IC-R20. www.HamRadio.co.uk/icr30
Burgess Hill, RH15 9RR, UK Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com

antenna selection, Improved pre-selection

bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close
and accessories! EA&O
headphones, speakers
Check out our range of level input sockets
separate line
- Speaker level and
and fused DC power lead - Headphone socket
- Supplied with user manual radios incl’ SDR
- Headphone socket - Suitable for all
- Input overload LED adjustment
- Separate volume control - “Real time” audio
- 8 ilter levels 8 to 40dB - 8 DSP ilter levels
- Simple control - Easy to use controls
cancelling speaker station speaker
10W ampliied DSP noise cancelling base
DSPKR DSP noise
10W Ampliied
- Replacement for bhi NEIM1031 In-Line
“noise-free”speech from your radio DESKTOP
and easy operation - Enjoy clear intelligble
radio incl’ SDR - Easy to use controls for quick - 3.5mm line level and speaker level inputs
Headphone socket - Suitable for all types of - Use with headphones or a loudspeaker
input/output - 7 watts mono speaker output - - Easy to use with “real time” adjustment
40dB - 3.5mm mono or stereo inputs - Line level - Rotary encoders perform all functions
noise cancelling unit - 8 Filter levels 9 to - Remove noise and interference - Hear weak signals clearly
Fully featured lexible dual channel DSP - Unique DSP noise cancelling technology - Low latency of 32mS
- Powerful high-performance audio processor

functions
of audio and
encoder control
simple rotary
unit with
noise cancelling
in-line DSP
Easy to use
Compact In-Line
Dual In-Line New lower price!
...for a great listening experience
...with irst-class DSP noise cancelling...
High-performance audio processing...

compensate for hearing loss

Precise audio adjustment to
- Four models EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20-DSP, EQ20B-DSP
- Fine-tune the audio to maximise your enjoyment
- Use with passive speakers or headphones
- Two separate mono inputs or one stereo input
- Simple control of all DSP functions
- DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions available
- Powerful high-performance audio processing system
- 20W audio and parametric equalisation on all units

ParaPro EQ20 audio DSP range with parametric equalisation

bhi

filters, Even more software, Selectable

..a bhi DSP noise cancelling product!
Hear weak signals clearly with..

attenuation steps, Special HDR (High

Dynamic Range) mode for reception at
frequencies below 2MHz. AR-DV10
Designed and made in Britain. The ULTIMATE all mode
all band scanner.
www.HamRadio.co.uk/sdrplaydx £239.95
Dual-Tuner wideband full feature 14- 100kHz-1300MHz Analogue &
SDRplay RSP1a bit SDR, 1kHz to 2GHz, 10MHz of Digital Modes.
Brand new design, the spectrum visibility. Simultaneously www.HamRadio.co.uk/ardv10
RSP1a is a major upgrade monitor 2 separate 2MHz bands of
to the popular RSP1 offering spectrum between 1kHz and 2GHz. 3 NOW IN STOCK NOW IN STOCK
a powerful wideband full software selectable antenna inputs,
featured SDR covering 1kHz
to 2GHz & up to 10MHz
& clocking features ideally suited to ML&S: £939.95 ML&S: £569.95
visible bandwidth. Better £94.95 industrial, scientific, Ham & educational
still, it’s “Built & Designed in applications. Windows 10.
Britain”!! www.HamRadio.co.uk/sdrplay www.HamRadio.co.uk/RSPDUO

AOR AR-DV1
ANTENNAS AND ACCESSORIES www.HamRadio.co.uk/
Communications
Receiver
BONITO RANGE AT ML&S bonito
The Antenna Jet AAS300 A USB powered antenna splitter designed to work between 9kHz and ML&S: £1199.95
300MHz. Now you can use your one antenna with up to 3 receivers
simultaneously. Finally, you can listen to marine band traffic, The Covers 100kHz to 1300MHz in traditional analogue modes (SSB, CW, AM, FM, S-FM,
Archers on Radio 4 and the air band at the same time (provided your W-FM) as well as various digital modes. In fact, we know of no other radio in this
antenna will cover it all!) Only £234.95 category that can decode Icom's D-STAR mode, Yaesu's new C4FM mode, Alinco's
digital mode, NXDN (note: 6.25kHz only), P25 Phase 1, etc. Plus lots of interesting
Antenna Jet ASM-300 Only £189.95 features! www.HamRadio.co.uk/ardv1
A USB controlled antenna switch and mixer. It can be used as a
simple switch, or can be used to switch in more than one antenna, to
aid receiving to an optimum performance.
DIGITAL AND ANALOGUE RECEIVERS
Megaloop ML200 The perfect antenna for small scale listening. The ML200 The Uniden UBCD3600XLT Icom IC-R6E
is an active loop antenna that packs a serious punch. Covering 9kHz to 200MHz without New digital TruckTracker V The 100 Ch/Sec Wideband
the need for any tuning! Included in the box is the antenna wire, the amplifier and the Signal “Search Machine”
Professional Scanner Receiver,
coax power inserter. It’s a simple case of just add coax! Only £229.95 Communications handheld
covers 25-1300MHz wideband
receiver. While retaining
frequencies.
GigActiv GA3005 basic features of its popular
A portable active antenna capable of covering 9kHz to 3GHz. Perfect The TruckTracker V operation allows predecessor the IC-R5, the IC-R6
if you are say on holiday and want to have a listen to the bands. You’ll this scanner to scan APCO 25 Phase contains many improvements
need to provide it with 5V via a USB cable (included) and some coax 1 and Phase 2, DMR, Motorola, including 100 channel per
but it is just ready to go. Only £386.95 EDACS, LTR Trucked Systems as second scanning speed, 1,300
well as conventional analog and P25 memory channels, 15 hours of
Boni-Whip The active antenna that is raved about. Covering 20kHz to 300MHz and digital channels.
ideal for times when you can’t erect a wire antenna. For home, for travelling and for DX
continuous receive capability,
optional drop-in charger stand
ML&S:
camps. And despite the whip being only 4 inches long, it actually works! Only £109.95 ML&S: £424.99 and voice control squelch. £199.95
VIA
EXPRESS DELIVERY NOW AVAILABLE
You can order from ML&S for delivery on a Saturday or Sunday! Order before 3.00pm as late as Friday. OUR WEBSITE

Web purchases: Just select Saturday or Sunday at the check-out ML&S can deliver your new purchase to your local “Access Point” whether it is a small corner
or call to place your order for Saturday or Sunday delivery on store, petrol station or other location suitable for you. If you are at work all day and want to collect
0345 2300 599 at a time suitable for you, just check “UPS Access Point” on check-out on our website.