llya's Radio Shack: May 2016

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The "Squeaky Wheel"

The "Squeaky Wheel" as it sounds today.

Recorded on May 30, 2016 on 3828 kHz.

Very noisy and crackly and can be heard actually only on USB.

Visual quality is not too good either because recorded at night in virtually no lighting.

Location: 100 km north of Moscow.

Equipment: using my 2001 Grundig YB 500 receiver, PLL synthesized, LSB, USB, ROM - will do an entry on it with pictures soon; no external antenna.

Note: Ability to listen on an USB is very handy in this case and in LSB some. Without the USB function you would have heard nothing much on this frequency.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Radio Vera

Moscow's Radio Vera on FM.

Radio Vera (Радио Вера) on 100.9 FM in Moscow, an Orthodox religious station.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

My Radios: 2005 Grundig Yacht Boy 80 - WR5408 PLL

Here is another radio from my collection the 2005 Grundig Yacht Boy 80 also known as the Grundig WR 5408 PLL, and it also had a Sangean clone - the now discontinued Sangean PT-80 which I think was offered in the 'States while the Grundig version was sold in Europe.

I have had it since 2006 and it is not just a collection piece -- far from it -- it is the one that is used the most for my occasional amateur radio activities like a bit of DXing - trying to hear some shortwave radio stations maybe getting QSLs from them.

So far almost all that I have recorded on this blog was received using this very radio set.

And it winters by itself at my country villa in minus 20 or 30 Centigrade temperatures too. But now it is basking in the sun.

It has a nice soft real leather cover on magnetic fasteners which doubles up as something of a stand.

This review will be short on words (just my general impressions, nothing too technical) but long on pictures.

For some reason I like these time zones schematics. Many of my other radios also have them. See, for example, my header picture on this blog page. But in this case it's on the back so you rarely see it, especially since it is covered by the leather pouch.

And a frequency range table.

One of the complaints is that it doesn't include an AC/DC unit which you have to buy separately (as it has no mains power) as I did.

SSB On/Off is there.

Another thing that it doesn't have is a signal strength meter. But everything else seems to be there.

Reception using its telescoping antenna is pretty good. You can find proof of it on this very blog.

I haven't used an external SW antenna yet (even though a reel antenna is included) but am planning to use it this summer.

Generally, I am satisfied with shortwave reception for my purposes and as far as international broadcasters are concerned but I haven't had much success with radio ham and/or avia reception as signals often come in, like, garbled and unintelligible. And so far I also haven't been able to get much in SSB mode.