Category Archives: Radio

DAB+ Digital Radio in Sydney and Review: Digital Radio Receivers

Posted on June 7, 2013 by lui_gough

Digital Radio is nothing new, after all, the Digital Radio Plus campaign has been running for a while, advocating radio that doesn’t sound like sh*t. Yeah right! The Radios I suppose if you’re in the market for a Digital Radio, … Continue reading →

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ADS-B with RTL-2832 based USB TV dongles made easy!

Posted on June 7, 2013 by lui_gough

If anything, I think Realtek and ezCap are very happy companies when hobbyists discovered they could leverage a mode inside the low-cost TV-tuner chipset to get direct access to I/Q samples at a decent rate (2-3MS/s at 8 bits). Many … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

e-QSL Cards: Radio New Zealand International, Metservice

Posted on June 6, 2013 by lui_gough

It’s been a bit too busy for me to chase broadcasts – but the QSL cards trickle in. Radio New Zealand International accepts QSL requests via their website, and offer electronic QSL cards for free – I’ll call them e-QSL … Continue reading →

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QSL Card: All India Radio

Posted on March 30, 2013 by lui_gough

Hello guys – yes I’m still here. I’ve been so busy with my studies that I haven’t had much time to blog, despite there being an endless number of topics to blog about – some of them rather exciting. But … Continue reading →

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QSL Card: Radio Romania International

Posted on March 20, 2013 by lui_gough

I must be on a roll here – today, I had a nice big smile as I opened my letterbox and saw an envelope from Radio Romania International. It’s another QSL card! It’s so lovely to see it adorned with … Continue reading →

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QSL Card: Radio Vaticana

Posted on March 13, 2013 by lui_gough

Firstly, a big thank-you to the Frequency Manager at Vatican Radio, Mr. Salvatori, for arranging to have these sent to me all the way from Italy. It is very much appreciated and treasured – and all in good time as … Continue reading →

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QSL Cards: Adventist World Radio, Bible Voice, KTWR, Overcomer Ministry

Posted on March 3, 2013 by lui_gough

While rifling through my drawer, I came across a few older QSL cards from 2010-2011 that I never got around to scanning and putting online, so here they (finally) are! Needless to say, it just goes to show how many … Continue reading →

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BMF Taiwan Radio Fax

Posted on March 2, 2013 by lui_gough

It’s been a while since I posted any Radio Fax DX action. It’s not because I haven’t been busy roaming the airwaves, it’s that I’ve been too busy with everything else to be able to post something up. There’s been … Continue reading →

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QSL Card: Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by lui_gough

It may be wet and rainy in Sydney, but I’ve got a reason to smile. This QSL card arrived for me, all the way from Hamburg, Germany. It is a QSL card acknowledging my report of receiving their weatherfax service, … Continue reading →

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DRM DXing Session: More fun than AM broadcast DXing!

Posted on February 20, 2013 by lui_gough

I’ve made a passing mention about DRM in my first post about DRM DXing when I received The Disco Palace from home early in the morning when I couldn’t sleep. But I guess I really should delve into DRM a … Continue reading →

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Deutscher Wetterdienst (Hamburg, Germany) Radio Fax – the Ultimate DX?

Posted on February 13, 2013 by lui_gough

Deutscher Wetterdienst (also known as DWD for short) is the German Meterological Service. They currently operate a weatherfax service over radio as listed here. The centre frequencies are as follows (from NWS’s documentation): 3855khz at 10kW, callsign DDH3 7880khz at … Continue reading →

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DRM Radio: The Disco Palace

Posted on February 13, 2013 by lui_gough

So, one night, I couldn’t sleep so I stayed up scanning the airwaves with my Winradio Excalibur G31DDC and my Wellbrook Communications ALA-1530 loop antenna. I stumbled across a strong DRM radio transmission (i.e. digital shortwave). Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) … Continue reading →

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JMH/JMH2/JMH4 Japan Meterological Agency Radio Fax

Posted on February 8, 2013 by lui_gough

JMH/JMH2/JMH4 are a set of radiofax stations transmitting from Tokyo, Japan. They had many more transmitters formerly – hence the “gaps” in the numbering, luckily they haven’t discontinued the service altogether. Transmissions are all made at 5kW, and all three … Continue reading →

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Cheap Data: Kogan Mobile and Telstra Modems

Posted on February 8, 2013 by lui_gough

Kogan Mobile is one of the hottest new-entrants into the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market. There are many MVNOs on the Australian market, including Virgin, Amaysim, Boost, Crazy Johns, Dodo, TPG, Pennytel, Live Connected, Red Bull Mobile, Lebara, Lycamobile, … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio, Tablet | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Design Simplicity: Twinhan VP-7045A/7046 USB DVB TV Tuner

Posted on February 2, 2013 by lui_gough

How easy can it be to build a TV Tuner? Quite, if you design it like Twinhan did. Twinhan (also known as VisionPlus) was a big company making digital TV tuners back when digital TV tuners were new. The VP-7045A/VP-7046 … Continue reading →

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VMC/VMW Australian Bureau of Meterology Radio Fax

Posted on February 2, 2013 by lui_gough

The Australian Bureau of Meterology operates two radiofax stations – VMC and VMW. VMC broadcasts from Charleville, QLD, and VMW broadcasts from Wiluna, WA. These stations broadcast nearly around the clock with 1kW transmission power. The frequencies, technical information and … Continue reading →

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HLL2 Seoul Korea Radio Fax

Posted on January 31, 2013 by lui_gough

A new station for me – unfortunately, I can’t seem to find who is responsible for broadcasting this station, otherwise I’d try to claim a QSL from them too. This station broadcasts on centre frequencies: 3585 kHz 5857.5 kHz 7433.5 … Continue reading →

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KVM70 – 9982.5khz Great Propagation

Posted on January 30, 2013 by lui_gough

Oh my, what a difference a few days makes. So I tune in to one of my old-reliable stations – KVM70. Formerly, messy, terribly doppler spread affected station with moderate SNRs – tonight it’s coming through better than usual on … Continue reading →

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NMG NOAA New Orleans Radio Fax

Posted on January 28, 2013 by lui_gough

Now this is what you call DX – we’re receiving transmissions from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA! Sure, the quality can’t be expected to be good, but they’re “apparently” transmitting with 4kW – the same amount of power as Hawaii, but … Continue reading →

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KVM70 NOAA Honolulu, Hawaii Radio Fax

Posted on January 28, 2013 by lui_gough

Another good radiofax station for DXing is the KVM70 station at Honolulu, Hawaii run by NOAA. This station sends faxes almost continuously around the clock and at least one frequency is usually observable, although sometimes interfered with and or weak. … Continue reading →

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JJC/9VF Kyodo News Radio Fax

Posted on January 28, 2013 by lui_gough

As a case of last of the era, radio station JJC in Japan and 9VF in Singapore operated by Kyodo News in Japan is the last marine weather fax station which faxes daily news and navigational warnings. It is especially … Continue reading →

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Bureau of Meterology Marine Weather Radio Anomalies

Posted on January 28, 2013 by lui_gough

The Australian Bureau of Meterology operates a marine weather radio service from two sites – one in Charleville, Queensland, and the other in Wiluna, Western Australia. The services operate as detailed in this webpage. At scheduled times, transmissions are made … Continue reading →

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Working with the IC-R75 and IC-R20 – Handy Radio Software

Posted on January 26, 2013 by lui_gough

One of the perks of owning an IC-R75 “conventional” HF and IC-R20 handheld wide-band communications receivers is the ability for computer control. By connecting the RS-232 serial port on the rear of the IC-R75 to the computer, or the headphone/CI-V … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Verifying the Frequency Accuracy of a Radio

Posted on January 19, 2013 by lui_gough

Earlier, I described how I managed to install and align an OXCO unit for the Icom IC-R75. Today, I wanted to make sure it was as accurate as it could be. Of course, I can’t do anything about drift – … Continue reading →

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Screwdrivers – Cheap ones aren’t always good enough

Posted on January 16, 2013 by lui_gough

Anyone who does a lot of repairing, inspecting and testing of things is bound to need a good toolset. Part of this might be a few special screwdrivers – not your average Philips head or flat-head, but the likes of … Continue reading →

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Upgrading an Icom IC-R75 with the CR-282 High Stability OCXO Unit

Posted on January 16, 2013 by lui_gough

Prelude I’ve been a happy IC-R75 owner for a long while. It was a very affordable (sub $1000) HF communications receiver with coverage from LF to 60Mhz, with good sensitivity and FM “out of the box”. It had a two-level … Continue reading →

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A closer look at DGPS data

Posted on January 5, 2013 by lui_gough

After the discovery that I could indeed receive and decode DGPS correction data using Spectrum Lab and my old IC-R75, I wasted no time and got cracking on it. Data was being logged, and I was happy. When presented with … Continue reading →

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DGPS Data Reception

Posted on January 2, 2013 by lui_gough

In one of my previous posts on LF, I mentioned DGPS beacons as part of the transmissions one could hear in these bands. For those who haven’t seen the video and heard the “noises” – the video is linked here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Opinion: Freeview Digital TV in Australia

Posted on January 1, 2013 by lui_gough

To all my readers: Happy (or not) New Year Yep, it’s 2013 already. And what am I doing … well … you’ll probably see it soon enough. But for now, my opinion on the state of Digital TV in Australia. … Continue reading →

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NDB Band Spectrogram

Posted on December 30, 2012 by lui_gough

Following on my earlier post about LF, MW and AM radio – here’s a picture of what the NDB band (200-520khz) looks like at night (click for full image – super compressed JPG – 2Mb 13107 x 1013px!): Look at … Continue reading →

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