Passport to World Band Radio 2009

Universal Radio’s Fred Osterman advises that in early April Sangean discontinued its ATS-818ACS (Passport 2009, p. 119). This world band radio stands out by having built-in recording facilities, but uses legacy cassette tapes.

As of today Universal has 20 left in stock. It may also be available elsewhere, as in recent months it was also being offered in Canada and Germany.

A key and exceptionally valued member of our small team, Craig Tyson of Australia, has had a major heart attack and is critical condition at the Gairdner Hospital in Perth. This is most distressing and unexpected, and our thoughts are with him and his family. As always, his spirits are upbeat, and his will to recover is indomitable.

Another key member is also suffering from a significant condition that developed in recent weeks, but asks that his name be kept private.

I’ll update this as conditions permit. —Lawrence Magne

April 17: Craig has returned home in high spirits after six-bypass surgery in Perth.

May 3: Recovering nicely and increasingly back to his usual activities!

Ah, the blessings of fast-acting cloud computing! A push of the wrong key, and—poof!—the past four weeks’ worth of your comments went into cyber heaven. There’s no way to restore them properly, but the “dead” comments page is reproduced, with apologies, if you click here… Continue reading ‘Oops, Last Four Weeks’ Comments Are Here…’

Reader Steven McArdle kindly informs us that the Grundig Satellit 800, which hadn’t been manufactured or sold new for years, was available around New Year’s for $199.95 at the National Geographic shop. It rates four and 3/8 stars in the Passport RDI White Paper on the Satellit 800.

Presumably they unearthed a batch of refurbished units. If so, these will have been gone over by the venerable service department of the R.L. Drake Company, and thus are arguably a better bet than regular new units even if they were available. Indeed, many of these refurbs originally were well-intentioned gifts returned simply because the recipients had no interest in shortwave.

Alas, unless they get in a fresh supply the offer has come and gone. But some folks got one heck of a deal!

The rest of us can try quickly contacting the shop at (800) 437-5521, (888) 225-5647 or (worldwide) +1 (703) 286-2326 to see if any units have been returned to National Geo as unwanted gifts.

What’s never been available before is a handy pocket radio-recorder to give world band listeners something akin to a TiVo experience.

Well, it’s finally here, thanks to China’s Degen Electronics. [UPDATE, Jan. 5: Now offered by Kaito, too—see end of review.] Read on…

**3/8
Degen DE1123

Price (1 GB version): via stores.ebay.com/RadiosCN and other eBay vendors, including worldwide AC adaptor: $77.99 including air shipping from China to the United States.

Pros: Built-in WAV audio recorder/MP3-WMA-WAV player for i.a. off-air recording and playback (see Cons). Several handy tuning features, including 225 nonvolatile station presets—100 for world band, 100 for FM, 25 for mediumwave AM. Auto-tuning storage (ATS) automatically loads active stations into presets; functions on all bands. Meter presets for quick access to individual world band segments. Good world band sensitivity, even with short telescopic antenna (see Cons). Relatively good selectivity on all bands, even though only one narrow bandwidth per band (see Cons). Good image rejection. Punchy audio (see Cons). Digital signal-strength Continue reading ‘Degen/Kaito’s New Pocket Radio-Recorder’

With the merger of XM and Sirius, it is hardly surprising that radios which receive only one or the other service, but not both, are fading away.

So it is that the top-rated Etón E1XM (Passport 2009, pp. 61-64) is being discontinued. The version sans XM, the E1, is being rebranded and will be sold before long under Etón’s Grundig banner. An official announcement will be forthcoming. —via Esmail Hozour, Etón CEO, with a tip o’ the hat to Lawrence Bulk

The professional-grade Japan Radio NRD-630, $8,000 in the United States and £7,000 in the U.K., is now shown as discontinued by Universal Radio. It is reviewed in Passport 2009 starting on p. 140.

The ‘630 was hardly a tempting value, so few are likely to mourn its departure. —David Zantow

Jerry Berg’s Broadcasting on the Short Waves 1945 to Today, like the final slice of Wagner’s “Ring,” completes one man’s lengthy trilogy on shortwave broadcasting and listening. At slightly under 500 pages, this new volume is packed with enough material to keep any radio buff occupied for several enjoyable evenings.

Listeners’ Perspective

International broadcasting has long suffered from inadequate documentation, especially in recent times. And some Continue reading ‘Just Released: Final Volume in Radio Trilogy’

World band radio is broadcasting—one way communication to a mass audience—unlike amateur radio, which is two-way chat. Nevertheless, all radio shares something of a common heritage, and in that regard a special non-world-band radio occasion is coming up.

Ralph Dessau, a global roamer I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for decades, reminds me that the 100th anniversary of the world’s first amateur radio voice transmission will be on March 18th, 2009. This marks when his father, Einar Dessau (1892-1988), and Johan Nyrop made radio history by initiating shortwave contact with Peter L. Jensen at a government radio facility about six miles away. They communicated using voice and gramophone music fed into a mic.

There’s precious little about this event on the Internet. However, Ralph Dessau has kindly provided a fascinating MP3 recording of an English interview with Einar Dessau on April 18, 1951, where his father relates how it all came about to Gerda Pullen of Danish State Radio (DSR). It covers not only the 1909 broadcast, but also how in 1898 his Danish mentor Valdemar Poulsen invented and patented the world’s first electromagnetic recording device, which he called the “Telegrafonen.”

Poulsen’s Telegrafonen was actually an early wire recorder. As the first magnetic recording device, it opened the door to everything from taping to hard disks, and in so doing helped turn millions of scattered communities into today’s global village.

Unfortunately for Poulsen, it was ahead of its time. It was of little practical value until it could be combined with two other components, an amplifier and a loudspeaker—neither of which yet existed. Ironically, it was Jensen who, based on his experience as Poulsen’s assistant, subsequently invented the loudspeaker.

The loudspeaker needed a name. Jensen thought of it as a “great voice,” so he christened it Magnavox. The resulting firm remains in existence to this day.

Einar Dessau was also interested in early flight (photo, above), and went on to become a movie scriptwriter and director of Tuborg, the famous Danish brewery. Years later his grandson also worked there, as did research scientist Carol Feil—then a leading light at The Danish Shortwave Club.

The bottom photo shows one of the most prized QSLs in existence: the only known card from Dessau to Jensen confirming this great event. —Lawrence Magne, with photos, recording and firsthand information from Ralph Dessau

It’s here!

The 2009 Passport to World Band Radio is off press and shipping now, as always by fast Priority Mail/Airmail worldwide.

All copies are already on their way for those who ordered by this afternoon, and newly received orders are going out same day or next. The new edition’s two-page table of contents is here.

(Oops Dept., p. 41: “Taipei International” should be “Taiwan International.”)