cobalt pet shortwave / mediumwave weblog

01 January 2008

a place for comments and questions: 2008

Readers of the Cobalt Pet shortwave radio weblog are encouraged to post comments and questions. In case you have a comment that's not related to a specific article, you are welcome to reply here. I'll link to this post from the website's sidebar so it's always easy to find. I welcome general comments, questions, and any feedback about the website.

I'll do my best to respond, either with a comment here of my own, or an article on the front page.

* 2006 comments and questions
* 2007 comments and questions

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Weatherall,
Have you taken a look at the Grundig G6 on eton website? It is called the Aviator because it can tune into the aircraft band (like the Sony ICF-2010). I was considering to get the G5, but now I am having second thoughts. The G6 will be released in Feb 08 and is going to sell for $100, which makes me curious about the quality of this radio compared to G5 which sells for $150.
I would appreciate any input from you.

weatherall said...

Dr.Sam:
Thanks for your comment! Over the weekend, I wrote a post about the new Grundig radios that I saw on the Eton website, and I just published it.

I recommend waiting until someone publishes a comparison review of mediumwave and shortwave reception between the E5/G5 and the G6. For example, I noticed that the Kaito 1121 was considered substantially weaker reception-wise than the Kaito 1103 (which became the basis for the E5/G5). If you're particularly interested in the aviation band, you might consider the Satellit 750.

hg said...

Dear weatherall:

two contributions for your blog:

new SDR receiver from Kchibo:
http://radiolawendel.blogspot.com/2008/02/dalla-cina-il-dsp-da-tasca-35-dollari.html
http://www.kchibo.com.cn/KK/DSP-/index.htm

a spectrometer in Antarctic:
http://ewpereira.info/spectrometer/Antarctic/
http://www.appr.org.br/spectrometer.php?qth=GC07tw

Cheers!
ZZ3HAG

weatherall said...

br-swl / ZZ3HAG:
I appreciate the info and links. I will take a look soon but I'm pretty busy for the rest of this week. Best regards!

Anonymous said...

The short-lived? Kchibo KK-S500 doesn't seem to be around anymore, including Ebay and the Kchibo site.
I always thought it was over-priced with no SSB, although it had sync-detect.
They were also supposedly coming out with their version of the Sony 7600 with a remote, but it's never appeared.

Anonymous said...

Weatherall and all SWLs,

We have a big problem. Radio Taiwan Int'l has just revealed that their management is considering ENDING SHORTWAVE BROADCASTS TO THE USA on 5950 and 9680. They are seeking listener comments on this. We can't let this happen, RTI is one of the best SW broadcasters we have left. Here is the contact email for comments on this:

paula@rti.org.tw

Please ask RTI to continue SW transmissions!

Many thanks,

Chuck E.

Michael Böser said...

Hi,

I recently purchased a Dodge Grand Caravan. Wanting to exchange the factory unit with a Pioneer DEH-p77DH I found several on the net. Now though, a radio dealer tells me that a radio from north america will not be able to pick up radio signals in europe since both operate on different frequencies.

Is there any truth in this?

weatherall said...

boser:
The radio dealer is most likely referring to the AM broadcast band. In North America, AM stations are spaced 10 khz apart. In Europe, AM stations are spaced 9 khz apart. Radios targeted to those markets are configured so that stepping between the stations will be done at the correct intervals. Digital radios that receive AM have a pre-configured stepping interval.

In other parts of the world, FM radio has a slightly different issue. In Japan, for example, FM stations are between 75 - 95 mhz. In the USA, FM stations are between 88 - 108 mhz. I hope these tips give you an idea of how digitally-tuned radios must be configured for their target markets. If you have more questions or didn't understand something described here, feel free to write again. Thanks for dropping by.