Swinburne Electronics CR600 Airband Radio (1983)

This radio was made by Swinburne Electronics of Birmingham Airport and was bought for me by my parents in 1983. The audio quality and sensitivity of this fine-looking radio is phenomenally good. No modern scanner I have used to date, and I have used a fair view being a radio enthusiast all my life, none of them have come close to matching it. I have a Signal R535, and although it is a nice looking radio and much sought-after for fans of slightly older radios with a bit more character than the modern "breeze block" scanners that followed it, it doesn't come close in terms of audio quality. After falling into disrepair, Dad had the good sense to keep my CR600 safely stored in a barn on the farm and had wanted me to try to get it working again for years. As he got seriously ill later in life, I wanted very much to give new life to this radio. I had no idea as a young lad, but at around £130 (if I remember correctly) it was no small sum of money back then, and to Mum & Dad must have taken ages to save up for. With the help of Martin M0IME from my local amateur radio club in Watcombe I managed to solder in place a new volume POT/power switch and replace the broken aerial socket with a new BNC one. Dad did finally get to see the red LEDs scanning again, just like Michael Knight's car "Kit" in Knightrider! But it wasn't working well and has ben a labour of love for the last 5 years on and off. A fantastically helpful lady from a vintage radio forum spent 3 months giving me online instructions and guiding me through various repairs and replacements. I shall be forever indebted to her for the hours and hours of patients help and skills she taught me, including using a desoldering pump and how to re-align a radio using only an analogue and digital airband radio set. Darren at the Airband Radio website has been helpful too, looking at his own finely restored CR600 for component part numbers for me, enabling me to change my 6V rectifier, which seemed a bit low we thought, to an 8V one like his own. This, along with a change of all 6 crsytals diodes to 1N2222s for their higher capacitance, enabled me to finally tune all 6 crystals again. WONDERFUL! Another person without whom I would never have my old radio working was Duncan at Shortwave Shop in near Tiverton who did a very tricky soldering job onto a TOKO coil that was beyond my own ability.

I also had the horrible experience of sending it off to various so-called "radio repairers" I had found online, and being charged lots of money only to be told the radio didn't receive, which was utter nonsense and very disheartening as I myself have struggled financially for the last 5 years especially, due to poor health. Some of them did little more than take the back off. 

Dave at Cotswold Screen Printers along with their Painters Vale Powder Coatings put the icing on the cake for me with the incredible, professional work they did to restore the flaking front panel. The CR600 doesn't just look as good as new, it looks better than new, as the finish is simply stunning.

I use the radio daily in my radio shack, and every time I look at it it gives me so much pleasure.

 

Bodo Oceanic (Norway) 8891

 Don't hear this one very often so it was great to catch Bodo radio on 8891 this morning (20.May.2021 0544UTC)

wkg/UAL898 (Chicago-Delhi) B787 Dreamliner
position: Just off Svalbard Island southbound
ATC instructions to ctc Bodo on VHF 127.725 at next position
and thereafter Murmansk Radio HF 8950 primary 5694 secondary

I have never heard Murmansk

2 Nice "catches" on Stockholm Radio

 

Heard the pilot of this aircraft calling Stockholm Radio on 11345khz this morning (0957UTC) from Paris Le Bourget for a selcal check. He spoke to the Stockholm controller partly in Swedish.

The aircraft is an Airbus A318 Corporate Jet (Elite) operated for Hamza Al-Kholi (hence the HK on the tail), a Saudi Businessman. I read recently on the Civil Aviation forum that these pre-flight calls on HF must take place after re-fuelling for safety purposes, which I found interesting.

The second interesting flight was a Smartwings Beoing 737-800 OK-TSF calling for 2 radio checks on his way from Prague to Bacau, Romania

Listening mostly to VHF, where I get my fair share of Ryanair and British Airways, it is really cool to hear such an unusual range of aircraft and companies on Stockholm Radio.

Ethiopian Freighter on 11300 khz

 

After reminiscing about former HF activity on 11300 on the Civilian Aviation forum, I decided I'd listen in for a while last night and I caught a huge signal from this Ethiopian Airlines Cargo 737-800 as it entered Khartoum airspace on its way to Addis Ababa from Benin. All this on a little Tecsun PL660 with it's telescopic whip in the kitchen!

Interesting HF Logs February/March 2021

 After an interesting message exchange with IrishSea about HF listening, I am posting a few of my top logs over the past few weeks.

Bear in mind that due to horrendous local QRM I'm only listening on a portable (Tecsun PL660) with it's built-in whip, or homemade broadband active loop from here in Dawlish, SW England:

18FEB21 0932 8891khz Bodo Radio working United flight to QSY Iceland 8891 at 78N 00E
20FEB21 0730 8888khz Syktyvkar Weather in Russian
02MAR21 1647 8888khz Samara Weather Russian heard word "Kazan"
11MAR21 1841 11300khz Seychelles ACC wkg Reunion 9971 from St Denis to Paris
11MAR21 1842 11300khz Khartoum ACC wkg Turkish 6152 from Entebbe to Istanbul

Thanks. 73 Adam