I picked up this little radio, and am surprised at the performance. It's the Zhiwhis ZWS-701 from Amazon. It has digital tuning, SW 4.75-21.85mhz, WX 162.4-162.55mhz, AMBC 520-1710khz, and FMBC 64-108mhz. 1000ma lithium battery, 297 memories, Bluetooth and Thumb drive capability. The RX is pretty hot, too. This was about $43 shipped. Lots of fun! Here's a few photos...
Yay!! The cabinet build is finished for Studio A. I actually finished this some time back, but forgot to upload all of the build photos and info. Click "Cabinet" in the RH column of my blog sections called "Jump to Posts on Specific Topics" to see the whole build. This whole thing was done for less than $30!
I stumbled upon this in a batch of goodies I just got. Had not seen one in years. Even has the little antenna coupler still attached and working :-)
This neat little antenna will be handy when travelling, vacation, overnight fishing trips, etc. Stretch it out, slip the coupler over the collapsed antenna, and you're in business! Someone mentioned something similar is available from C-Crane.
Dave WB4IUY
Prepare yourself for the future. This might be considered a “prepper” sort of thing…it’s long, but please take the time to read through it. I’m NOT a writer, so this might ramble a bit, but I hope you get the gist of it.
After learning that liberal politicians literally spent more of our US tax $$ today to have a hearing on the Hill to try and get all cable networks to remove Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax from their systems, I think it’s time for conservative networks to install plan “B”. The FCC, while they made a little noise about it, they didn’t take much of a stance against it. This is the SAME FCC that recently sent a Sunday message (when they almost NEVER do anything on Sunday!) to us amateur radio operators…essentially telling us to watch what we say and do about the presidential election, as we could loose our license for negative (in their eyes) actions.
So, I’ll roll into this with a story I’ve told many times over the years… As a ham, I learned many times in conversations with hams in East Germany, before the wall came down, they had to be careful about what they said on the radio for fear of loosing their license, or worse. They could only talk about things related to radio, propagation, antennas, etc…else things could be bad for them and their families. They could only watch state run TV, and had to even have a license to LISTEN to shortwave radio. The gov’t didn’t want them to be able to hear things against the wishes of their government. Sound familiar? I remember thinking, “that could never happen, here”. Well, we’re “here”. Today, liberal politicians were trying to remove conservative voices from the cable networks and airways. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it actually happened in Washington DC today, Feb 24, 2021!!! It’s not enough that people can “spin the dial” if they don’t like what they hear, politicians are now trying to eliminate the possibility that you hear or see something "they" think is bad, or not what "they" want you to be programmed with.
OK, so those of you who don’t know what shortwave radio is, here’s a quickie course… The frequencies used by Shortwave radio stations are such that they can bounce around the world. Not just travel a short distance like the AM and FM stuff you listen to in your car, but it is WORLDWIDE! There’s some fading, and it varies from day to day, but, it CAN NOT be stopped at the borders, killed by this crazy "cancel culture", NOR blocked by the FCC. The shortwave broadcast system is very mature (running 70+ years), robust, and is very cheap to broadcast on. Lots of individuals buy air time for very little investment for private radio broadcasts. So, when the Cancel Culture or FCC says “no more Hannity, Levin, Carlson, J Seculow, Fox, OAN, Newsmax, etc"…you simply buy cheap airtime on a transmitter outside the USA, have it broadcast back into the USA (like Wolfman Jack did back in the day), and your market can still hear you. Just simulcast your network for pennies, back into the USA on shortwave, and cultivate that market. Some of you might remember or know of Alex Jones. Many say he’s a conspiracy theorist (he is entertaining, I think). No matter, when he was kicked off Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram (sound familiar?), he went to Shortwave radio, and now has a larger audience than ever..heard many nights from about 11p EST until 2am on 4.840 mHz, and daytimes from about 11AMest -3PM EST on 12.060 mHz.
We can buy a great digital shortwave radio for under $30, and there’s a WORLD of things to hear. Literally. You get to hear news from a different perspective than what you do on the mainstream media, from other parts of the world who don’t “have a dog in this fight”. It would behoove these networks to get on there, NOW. Don’t wait. We think media blackouts or media control “can't happen here in the USA”…but it can. It does. It is. And based on the crap in DC today, it stands a good chance that it will be even more biased and controlled in the near future. It has happened in many other places around the world, we’re not exempt. How about this, many countries have recognized the ability of shortwave to reach their sheeple on the inside, and have begun to make it illegal to LISTEN TO IT! Did you ever think it would be illegal to just hear something in the USA? Give it time, it could happen.
Please copy and email this to your favorite networks. Networks who ignore this will likely find themselves totally cut off from their base. Now is the time to get busy, tell your base to get a SW radio, and get busy before it’s too late. It won’t cost them much, and it’ll help us all in the future. I’m a nobody, but I think I can see in to the future on this one
Go out and buy yourself a shortwave radio and be prepared. Meanwhile, you might find a totally new hobby and lots of enjoyment from listening to real radio signals from all around the world. You’ll get exposed to other cultures, music, and learn about global happenings before it’s watered down and filtered by the crap we call news media in the USA.
UPDATE: A few folks asked about Shortwave radios, where to get them, pricing, etc. Since I have mostly old boat anchors for receivers, I polled some of the shortwave listeners' groups on Facebook, and here's what I got for modern, readily available shortwave receivers. You can find these on Amazon, eBay, etc on the web:
Shortwave receivers...
- LCJ-258 : $19
A very basic starter SW radio. Has MP3 capability, rechargable battery
- Retekess TR608 : $19.99
Shortwave and aircraft band, digital for ease of tuning, with PLL for stability and and DSP noise cancellation, also has aircraft band,
- Tecsun R-9012 : $22
SW starter analog radio. Manual duning and dial, a little more tedious to tune to an exact frequency
- Tecsun PL-310ET : $48
Digital for ease of tuning, with PLL for stability and and DSP noise cancellation, also has aircraft band, external antenna and headphone connectors.
- Tecsun PL-360 : $51
Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with PLL & DSP,
- Radiowow R108 : $51
Digital for ease of tuning, with PLL for stability and and DSP noise cancellation, 500 memory channels
- Tecsun R9700DX : $54
12-Band, Dual Conversion AM/FM Shortwave Radio. Analog dial is a little more difficult to find an exact frequency, but the dual conversion design makes the receiver much more selective, able to pick out signals when strong stations are almost on the same channel.
- TECSUN PL-660 : $129
Portable Digital PLL AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception. The SSB mode is used by Hams and lots of military traffic.
- Tecsun PL880 : $189
Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception. The SSB mode is used by Hams and lots of military traffic. Dual conversion makes the receiver much more selective, able to pick out signals when strong stations are almost on the same channel.
- Eton Elite : $400
Highly rated as a top end home SW station, lots of features, does about everything....digital, PLL, DSP, dual conversion, AM/FM/LW/SW, SSB, 1000 channel memory, etc
Here's a few Shortwave groups on facebook...
Shortwave Radio Station Listening
https://www.facebook.com/groups/shortwaveradiostationlistening/
Shortwave Listeners Club
https://www.facebook.com/groups/934648923314117/
Short Wave Listeners Around The World
https://www.facebook.com/groups/229435297187443/
Shortwave Radio Listeners Appreciation Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SWRLAG/
Dave WB4IUY
www.WB4IUY.net
We're back on the cabinet project. Wow, this thing is really coming along. Time to spackle some dings, screw holes, etc, and get the paint on. One of the photos below shows the cabinet on a table in the yard, just after sanding it a bit. This turned out very nice, and you will see a pic in the end of it in position with some of the AC power installed...
Picking back up on the cabinet build for Studio A. It's been a fun project, and CHEAP. I had a unique space size to utilize, and this pair of old shelving units just happened to be thr correct width. For $5, I couldn't help but tackle this build. Below are a few photos of the shelves after being drilled, and the shelves fitted into the locations I needed them at... Enough for today, paint tomorrow!
I had a little extra wall space in Studio A, and wanted to use it for some of my shortwave radios, QSL card files, etc. Debbie looked around on marketplace and found a local person with a couple of cheesy shelving units for $5. After getting the dimensions, I decided to get them and rebuild them to fit my needs. The shelf loading would be low, so I thought these would work out just fine. Here's a few pics and descriptions...
I began by assembling the bits from the pile of wood I bought. I used the cheesy cardboard backing just to hold it square during assembly. I used some 1" square stock as joiners to hold the two cabinet sections together.
You can see the 1" square stock pieces I used to join the sections. There was no top board for one of the shelving units, so I screwed the bottom board into the upper part, screwed the 1" joiners to the bottom of that shelf, then the sides of the lower section to the joiners.
I picked up a sheet of 1/8" thick composite cabinet backing from Lowe's for about $12, cut and nailed it to the back. It's much stronger than cardboard, and holds the cabinet square very nicely.
The bottom of the cabinet is seen in this photo. I plan to pre-drill holes in the shelving and side of the cabinet for AC power and antenna feedlines to enter.
You can see the holes in the cabinet side in the pic above. Enough for today, I'll get back on this tomorrow and continue.
